Ruth-Girl's Grandma Makes Greek Traditional Trahana!
Hello there! I know I rarely make cooking posts, but today I woke up to find my grandma on the balcony making trahana and I thought it would be a good idea to share some shots of the process with you.
For those who don't know it, trahana (τραχανάς) is some some sort of pasta. It makes great soups and in my family we usually have it with milk, imagine a soup made of milk and trahana. It's also a tasty idea to add some buttered croutons in, they take the dish to a whole new level(we originate from Thrace, I don't know where else people eat it that way).
You can check an article from wikipedia for more information on trahana, if you like.
How to make it?
Well, there are various recipes, you can use either milk or yogurt and flour or cracked wheat. You can also use eggs if you like. My grandma makes it with milk, flour and semolina.
I woke up a bit late, so when I got outside she had already made the dough and split it in small pieces.
Then rest it in a long table outside to dry.
The old curtains go on top to keep annoying flies away.
I remember, years back, when she laid some tables quite a few meters long. But that was when she was younger and didn't get tired as easily as she does now...
After a while, she will take some of the dough and leave it under the sun to dry better.
When the dough is dry enough and can be easily turned to crumbs,
she takes her dermoni (δερμόνι), (I have no idea how this thing is called in English, but it is actually a big grater),
and starts grating the pieces to make small crumbs.
Like in this picture
Want a video to have a taste?
The flour absorbs humidity and makes grating easier
And tadaaa! The crumbs are ready!
The crumbs will be spread all over the same table and covered with the curtain to dry.
She leaves the fresh trahana out for hours and every once in a while gives it a good mix, because it must be dried really well. Any traces of humidity will cause it to go off sooner. This is why she chooses hot and sunny days to make it.
In the evening, she will take it all into the house and have it spread over a clean sheet on the bed, with the curtain on. It will stay in there for days, with the occasional mixing. When it's completely dry, the trahana will go into jars or food bags and into the kitchen cupboard!
Any traditional handmade food you want to share from your country?
I'll be glad to know about it!
Images (not free for re-use) by @ruth-girl - Steemit, 2018
Thank you so much for your time!
Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!
yes, balkan traditional :)
very much goes with
τυρί
Yeah, I read that lots of countries have that!
You can have it with τυρί, but it also makes awesome chicken soup! To be honest, I can eat the whole pot even when it's just trahanas in the soup!!
Yes, you probably know that the herb which this is made of boosts appetite :)
We all love it!
Sad I've no grannies anymore to make this and from market it's not the same...
Probably time to pass the tradition on... ;) and make it my own..
I agree, it isn't the same. Even those packets that claim to be hand-made.
Perhaps you should try to make yours 😉
There is no better pleasure than trying the original traditional food of different places across the world. For a moment when I read this I want to try making it, then I realized nah, probably someday on some vacation I may rather try the thing. In the meantime I gonna have some traditional food I ordered. :)
Yes! Diving into other cuisines amazing!!
I hope you enjoyed your meal @scienceblocks!! :)
τους τα γραφεις λες και θα καταλαβουν τιποτα οι ξενοι....δε νιωθουν αυτοι απο τετοια...ποιος να καταλαβει τωρα τι θα πει τραχανας...αυτοι ειναι τραχαναδες απο μονοι τους.....
...μπραβο στη γιαγια παντως...μερακλου!!!
Αχαχαχαχα! Τραχαναδες λεει! Ε, εγω τα γραφω τουλαχιστον να παιρνουν μια ιδεα. Να βλεπουν πως καποια φαγητα θελουν κοπο κ προεργασια για να καταληξουν στο τραπεζι μας... Αααααχ κι ετσι οπως παμε κ βαριομαστε να κουνησουμε το δαχτυλακι μας, σε λιγο δεν θα εχουμε τετοια πιατα. Λιγοι ειναι οσοι κρατανε παραδοσεις κ δεν το ριχνουνε στα ετοιματζιδικα.
Ειναι, ειναι η καλη μας!! Απ' ολα φτιαχνει, τραχανα, χυλοπιτες (γιουφκαδες, οπως τα λεμε εμεις οι Θρακιωτες), σαρμαδακια, πισια (πιροσκι) κι αλλα πολλα. Γερη να 'ναι να μας ταϊζει!
Very true. Αλλά μη γράφεις επικήδειο ακόμα, κάποιοι από μας προσπαθούμε! :D
Εντάξει, υπάρχουν κι αυτοί που προσπαθούν, απλώς είναι λίγοι... 🙃
Κάποιοι ξένοι δοκίμασαν και τους άρεσε κι έγινε απ' τα αγαπημένα τους, και άλλοι (πολύ σπανιότερα) νομίζουν πως τους σέρβιρες κάτι που μόλις έχεις ξεράσει :D ... Νομίζω απλά χρειάζεται να το συνηθίσουν. Είναι πιάτο που φαίνεται αρκετά περίεργο στους ξένους.
Oh boy. This is one of my favorite dishes.
It's not 😠 It's its own thing ☝
It looks like maybe the end result might be a bit different here. I basically know it as 'wheat fermented with yogurt or sour milk', which gives it a slightly acidic taste.
We take the (very dry) trahanas and (after leaving it in water to puff back up) more or less boil it with chicken (removing the bones after it's all done and cutting the meat in small pieces) and voila, we have trahanas the dish. We eat it like that or with village bread like many other soups.
It's basically like avgolemoni but with trahanas instead of eggs and lemon and rice! (Okay, the only thing similar is that they're both kinda yellow...)
Oh, yes some people make it with sour milk too, but I've never tried it. At my house we also do chicken trahana soup without avgolemono! We also cook it with chicken stock that's leftover from a chicken soup or boiled chicken for chicken pie. It's delicious even without any meat.
(like @dimitrisp says, #fatforever!!)
This is such an amazing process!
I guess a traditional food from my area might be some good seafood chowder. We usually keep our lobster heads and parts as well as the shells from our shell fish and boil them to make a stock. This we just jar and put in fridge. Then we can use that as the liquid to make the chowder which has potatoes cream and more seafood bits in (sometimes left over mussels and such that we couldn't eat).
I also like homemade brown bread, which is really a pudding you steam in a can (a leftover from our English puritan days) You can buy it locally as well, in a can, but never as good as homemade.
They both sound yummy and totally different from what we are accustomed to! I 'm just curious, how do you make steamed bread at home?
This is pretty much how I make mine, but I put cheesecloth over the top so it doesn't come out like in this video. I have also done it in an oven in a glass casserole with water and then you put the can in the water and cook in the over on 300 until it's done. It's really steamed pudding, I also use my old pudding molds, that I use at Christmas when I make my homemade plum pudding, which is also a steamed pudding, but sweeter and also made with suet (fat from the kidneys of cows/mutton).
We're kinda old school here in New England, we still have a bit of 'old England' left in us ;)
Oh, that's nice! I suddenly had a craving for some hot coffee by the window and a rainy day to go with the bread.
Everybody should keep something 'old' and pass it on to the next generations. It builds a stronger connection with your past, increases the feeling of belonging and shapes parts of your cultural ID.
I've never seen or heard about this cuisine before, but it looks so appetizing, and I want it :D
PS: I still remember my grandma's food :)
Grandmothers always make the best food!! It's hard to forget it 😇
yum yum, that sure looks good... although seems to be a lot of work too. Haha.. that thing with no English name looked like a shower head to me, when I first saw it, and I wondered why you'd go into the bathroom for cooking.. ? 🤔
Ahahahaha! A shower head?! Yes, when you don't have a grater, you can use this as an alternative.
Hi @ruth-girl ! I'm from Turkey. My grandmother makes Tarhana. I think this isn't a culture of a country. This is a common heritage of people from 72 nations who once lived on the Ottoman lands. I hope you're not mad at me.The Turkish and Greek peoples lived together for centuries. Of course they were influenced by each other's cultures. Also Tarhana is really delicious. I recommend you try it with garlic and mint. ;)
Merhaba @lastozgur! :)
Lots of countries have this food, with some changes in the ingredients or the way they cook it. Like you said, it's common heritage. Living close to each other, we are all influenced.
Garlic and mint? This sounds really interesting! Thanks!
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