TableConversation.com

Papa Cristo's--Great for Greek Food

Restaurants come and go, but not Papa Cristo's Greek Grill.

For 35 years, It's been the place to go in Los Angeles for home style Greek cooking. Before that, it was a market, C & K Importing, where Greek food lovers came to buy cheeses, sausages, olive oil, wines, spices and other ingredients.   

Now it's both a market and a restaurant. And a bakery too. Above is one of the countless trays of baklava turned out there, along with other Greek pastries and bread.

The baklava comes in a variety of styles. Here, Chrys Sam Chrys shows one style. He's the son of the founder, Sam Chrys, and owns Papa Cristo's now. 

Sugar syrup, not honey, is traditional for Greek baklava, he said. A vat of it simmers slowly for hours to concentrate the flavor. Only enough syrup is added to moisten the baklava but not drown out the components. "If you can taste all these items, then we've done a good job," he said. 

It was fun to hear his peppery comments while touring the market and restaurant with a small group of food writers.

One shocker was, "I refuse to cook like they do in Athens." Land is so expensive there that most restaurants can't afford space for a full kitchen, Chrys explained. Instead, they bring in food from catering firms. At Papa Cristo's, the food is village style, meaning traditional. Here is the menu for a quick meal or takeout.

And, "California wines aren't made to go with food." They're too high in tannins and alcohol, Chrys said. The Greek wine he is holding, Skouras Saint George, is more moderate. Its alcohol content is 13.5%. A red wine from Nemea, it is made from Aghiorghitiko, a grape widely planted in Greece.

Saint George is on the left of this shelf of Greek wines in the market.

Olive oil? "Extra virgin" does not necessarily guarantee top quality, Chrys said. Factors to consider are, is the oil from olives picked in the morning and crushed that day? Or were the olives held for several days? Were they picked off the ground? Were they bounced around in a hot truck?

The best Greek oils, he said, are from Kalamata and Crete. With us on the tour was George Menzelos, whose Arianna Trading Company imports organic oil from a family estate in the region of Sitia, Crete. That is "an extraordinary area," Chrys said. It's one of the olive oils he stocks. 

Now it was time for lunch, and the table was quickly covered with a feast. "We cook the way our grandmothers did, but we use larger pots," Chrys said.

Sautéed calamari was perfectly done, emphasizing the natural flavor rather than spicing.

Grilled beef patties called kefta are seasoned with parsley, onion and Papa Cristo's Greek seasoning, which is on sale in the market.

Chicken gyros are the poultry version of kefta.

Shrimp Santorini combines grilled shrimp and a house-made tomato sauce with a touch of wine. Still more flavor comes from sheep's milk feta and olives.

Baby lamb chops are like filet mignon to Greeks, Chrys said.  

This is chicken souvlaki--chicken on skewers with green pepper and onion.

Saganaki is the name of the pan in which these cheese slices were melted, not the name of the dish. The cheese is kefalograviera, which is like Romano cheese with a buttery finish, Chrys said.

Sizzling Greek feta with tomatoes and Kalamata olives (above) was a great combination. True Greek feta is made from sheep's milk, which has smaller fat molecules than cow's milk and so is more digestible, Chrys said. 


The breads and savory pastries that came with lunch included crisp, golden spanakopita (above), stuffed with spinach, onions and feta.

Here are Papa Cristo's famous potatoes, which take two days to make. "Everything we do takes a lot of time," Chrys said. 

Green beans with tomatoes had a surprising seasoning--cinnamon. 


Authentic Greek salad does not include lettuce, Chrys said. This one is made with cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, feta and Greek oregano. 


Then came Greek coffee and dessert--the cookies melomakarona and kourambiedes as well as rolled baklava called saragli and walnut-filled kataifi rolls.  

This was a huge repast, special for the tour. But anyone can eat sumptuously at Papa Cristo's on Thursday nights, when the restaurant holds a Big Fat Greek Family-Style Dinner. Click here to learn about the feast and to see the restaurant's full menu. For information on cooking classes, send a request to papacristoscooking@gmail.com.

Papa Cristo's Greek Grill, 2771 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90006. Tel: (323) 737-2970.

Exploring a World of Jewish Food

Did King Solomon really exist?

Some say no. But Joan Nathan is sure he existed, which is a good thing. Without this extravagant monarch, known for his 700 wives and 300 concubines, his wisdom (you would have to be wise to manage such a household) and his love of good food, her latest cookbook might not have happened. Or would have had a different premise. 

The book is "King Solomon's Table" (Knopf, $35), subtitled "A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking From Around the World." 

It's scholarly, drawing on Nathan's research in 30 countries, and full of exciting recipes. These show how Jews adapted to the foods of the regions where they settled as they were forced from one place to another, and as they traded.

King Solomon himself ate sumptuously from what merchants brought to him from their travels and from the contributions of his foreign wives.

The recipes may not be from his table literally--he died in 931 BC, long before they were composed. But they do tell how Jewish food evolved from early on.

Jewish food is "rooted all over the world." Nathan said. "What keeps it together is the dietary laws."  The dishes chosen for sampling when she appeared for a book signing at Melissa's Produce represented six countries. 


The Moroccan soup harira (above), with which Muslims end the daily fast during Ramadan, became the way Moroccan Jews ended the Yom Kippur fast. "This is by far my favorite comfort soup," Nathan writes in the book. In her vegetarian version, it's a spiced vegetable soup with chickpeas, cilantro and lemon.

This quinoa salad has Peruvian roots, although the recipe is based on a dish from Mizlala, a restaurant in Tel Aviv.

Another restaurant in Tel Aviv, Herbet Samuel, inspired this tomato salad.

The country Georgia contributed a beef stew (above) that is slowly simmered to develop rich flavor and tenderness.

I literally could not stop eating pizza ebraica (above), which Nathan describes as "biscotti-like cookies with dried fruit and wine." I snagged one from a friend when mine ran out. Paola Fano of Rome provided the recipe. 

The one New World dish at the tasting was shtritzlach, or Toronto blueberry buns (above). These stuffed pastries originated at The Health Bread Bakery, founded in Toronto by a woman who immigrated from southwestern Poland in the 1920s. They quickly became the iconic Jewish bakery treat in that city.  

Nathan ended her presentation by showing how to make preserved lemons, filling the lemons with salt and stuffing them into a jar. She uses these with "everything," she said, including salmon with preserved lemon and za'atar, which she prepared for a 90th birthday party for Julia Child.

Nathan, who holds James Beard Awards and other honors, has woven history, geography and food into a fascinating account of a great eclectic cuisine. "King Solomon's Table" is her 11th book.

PIZZA EBRAICA
From King Solomon's Table by Joan Nathan

1/2 cup Marsala wine or another sweet wine
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup raisins
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter or coconut oil, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup peeled hazelnuts or blanched almonds

Pour the wine over the cherries and raisins in a small bowl. Cover and allow to soak for at least an hour but ideally overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream the butter or coconut oil, sugar and salt in a standing mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the vegetable oil, vanilla and 1/4 cup of the wine from the cherries and raisins. 

Gradually add the flour, mixing until a soft dough forms. You might not need all the flour. Remove the paddle attachment and stir in the cherries, raisins, pine nuts and hazelnuts or almonds with a spoon or your hands. 

Using your hands, shape about 4-tablespoon portions of the dough into egg shapes about 3 inches long. Put the cookies on the baking sheets about 1/2 inch apart. They will not spread very much when baking. Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown and burning slightly around the edges.

Makes about 20 cookies.

Note: "These pizzas are supposed to be a little burnt," Nathan explains in the book. "Think of it as 'caramelizing.'"  

 

How to Make Strawberry-Loquat Jam

 When life hands you a loaded loquat tree--make jam.

This is what I do each spring, when the tree is filled with glorious bunches of orange fruit.

There's more than I can use, so I share with squirrels and friends. A man used to sneak onto my lawn with a ladder and help himself to the fruit.  I haven't seen him lately, perhaps because i scared him off too fiercely.

Once a man from Israel came up to my window and asked if he could take a few, from a bunch like this, to his pregnant wife because she liked them so.  We had a delightful conversation, and I told him to take all he wanted.

This wasn't unselfish, because loquats have to be used once they ripen. Otherwise, they drop all over the place, and it's sad to see them going to waste.

But back to jam. At first, I made pure loquat jam. Then I started adding strawberries and liked that better.  Then I started adding cinnamon and orange peel and liked that even more.

Here are the steps:

First, assemble  the fruit.

Wash and trim the fruit and place it in a deep saucepan. 

Add the sugar, orange peel and cinnamon.

Cook until very thick, then puree the fruit with a hand blender.

I don't follow the canning method. Instead, I put the jam into hot, sterilized jars and place the lids on top upside down and loose. If you screwed them on right away, the jars might shatter. When the jam is thoroughly cooled, I screw the lids on tightly and place the jars in the refrigerator.  

So give the recipe a try, if you have loquats. You might wind up making two batches, like I do, because it's so delicious, it will be gone before you know it.  

BARBARA'S STRAWBERRY-LOQUAT JAM

3 cups peeled, seeded loquats
2 1/2 cups washed, trimmed strawberries
2 3/4 cups sugar
1 small stick cinnamon
A few strips orange peel

First, fill two pint jars with boiling water. Let stand while preparing the jam. Just before using, pour out the water and wipe until dry with a clean cloth or paper towels. 

Combine the loquats, strawberries, sugar, cinnamon stick and orange peel in a deep 3-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and stir so the sugar sinks to the bottom. 

Boil until the fruit is cooked through and soft, stirring almost constantly. Remove the cinnamon stick. Puree with an immersion blender. Then continue to boil, stirring constantly. Stand back from the pan in case of splatters.

When the mixture is very thick, spoon it into the prepared jars, which should be hot and set on a cloth. For further insurance against shattering, I place a metal spoon in each jar and pour the jam over the spoon.

Let cool thoroughly, then cover tightly and store in the refrigerator.

Makes 2 pints.