Greek Dishes From Off the Beaten Path

The title of “Real Greek Food” (Pavilion; $40) might appear to be a claim for authenticity. Instead, it’s a play on words. “Real Greek” is the name of a restaurant in London whose chef-owner, Theodore Kyriakou, has produced this book together with British food writer Charles Campion.

The recipes are indeed “real,” gathered by Kyriakou from various places in Greece and from his mother. One senses that some are his own creations, but there’s not much explanatory material in the book and no personal fanfare. The recipes run from mezedes (appetizers) and fagakia (which could be anything from a snack to a main course) through main dishes and salads to desserts.

Don’t expect yet another way to make moussaka or pastitsio . Those dishes are not included, making room for more unusual fare such as a roasted green pepper and peach salad, pork and quince casserole, poached rack of lamb with fennel, and for dessert, mustard ice cream. Mustard ice cream? Yes, rich ice cream flavored with Dijon mustard, brown sugar and Greek honey. “This may sound odd, but it tastes great, sweet and tangy at the same time,” the book reassures. Hmmm.

Traditional cooking is not ignored. Sometimes there’s a special twist, for example adding ground almonds to the garlic sauce skordalia , a variation practiced at the lake of Ioaninna, where the nutty mixture is served with freshwater crayfish.

Some recipes are complex or require special ingredients, but others are easy and so tempting you want to try them at once. Among these are fried okra, chicken thighs braised in walnut sauce and roast chicken with yogurt.

Published in London, the book is distributed in the United States by Vermont-based Trafalgar Square. Unlike many imports, it has not been rewritten in American terminology, so you will be working with aubergines, double cream, courgettes and caster sugar and measuring them in grams and liters. This means you’ll have to get some metric measuring equipment, or refer to the conversion table at the back of the book. The effort will be worth it, because metric cooking is becoming essential, at least for travelers who bring home cookbooks published overseas.