Clean Monday or Kathara Deftera as we call it in Greece marks the beginning of Lent prior to Easter. Its name means exactly that: leaving behind anything “unclean”, including non-fasting foods. It’s a moveable feast, moving every year with Easter.
A public holiday in Greece, Clean Monday is the day when families gather together. The table is set with foods made especially for the day. If the weather is nice, tables are moved outside and picnics are planned. And along with delicious food, kites come out and kids and grown-ups together fly kites. It is a day of being around nature, eating fasting foods and seafood, celebrating the beginning of spring and of the pre-Easter period.
The traditional lagana bread is being prepared, and platters with salads, some shellfish, taramosalata and other fasting foods are laid on the Clean Monday table. This year, Marianna herself has prepared taramosalata for her team. Using her gran’s’ great recipe with boiled potatoes the consistency is more creamy. However there is another version using stale bread instead of potatoes. Marianna experimented using Create Dakos rusks to replace the stale bread. Dakos worked wonders and gave taramosalata a thicker consistency and deeper flavour! We are waiting for the team’s verdict to decide which one works best! Watch this space.
Ingredients:
200g cod roe
200g boiled potatoes or stale bread or Dakos rusks
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
Juice of 2-3 lemons
Lemon zest
300ml extra virgin olive oil
Kalamata olives to garnish
Soak the bread or dakos in water. Squeeze out all water. Peel and roughly chop the onion. Blend together the potatoes/moist bread/dakos, cod roe, onion, lemon juice, adding a bit of water if needed to loosen the mixture. Slowly add the olive oil. Taste and add more lemon juice if needed.
Get taramosalata as part of our Trinity of Holy Greek dips!
