Itinerary:

One day traditional Cretan cooking at the hotel with mother Katerina

One day traditional Cretan cooking at the west with Eleni

A day walking and meeting a shepherd accompanied with traditional mountain meal at an organic farm

One wine tasting and night out dining in Hania town followed by live music

A day trip orange picking, bird watching with lunch at the historic village of Therissos

History walk of Hania Venetian old town and lunch at a Taverna on the water front

Trip arrangements can be changed  according to weather.

Group size:
Group of 8 to 15

The cookery sessions :
These are tailored not for profesional chefs but for individuals that want to learn more about Cretan diet and practice some different cooking at home.

Some of the recipes include:
The famous Kakavia fish soup of the Lybian Sea.
This wonderful fish dish seems to be the evolution of an ancient Greek dish which was prepared in a special pot called "Kakavi" and hense it's name Kakavia.  
The most famous dish of the fishermen on the Greek Islands and traditionally extremely famous amongst the Cretans of the coast.
It is cooked traditionally on Saint Nicolas (protector of the seamen) day on 6th December. 
Kakavia is known to be prepared on the boat or on little rocky islands where the fishermen rested before dragging their nets out of the sea.
They used a mixture of little fish, shellfish and eil and utilised all the fish that was too small and had too many bones to be eaten or sold. They would only eat the soup and not the fish that was too small and just melted in the soup.

It can be also prepared with large fish like sea bass, cod, scorpion fish. This is the version we will try in Crete.

Ingedients:
1 kilo of fresh big fish (sea bass, scorpion fish)
1/2 kilo of potatoes
2 onions cut in large slices
a bit of cellery
1 tomato grated
1 glass of Cretan olive oil
salt , peper
the juice of 2 large lemons

Method:
Scraped wash and gut the fish. Then cut into large thick slices.
Place the potatoes onnions and celery in the pot and on top the fish. Build the ingredients in a way allowing as little as possible gaps so that little water will be needed to cover the whole ingredients.
Add salt and peper the olive oil and cover with water (it should take about 5 glasses of water to cover), put the lid on and place it on hot fire 
or heat for 20 minutes. Half way through to the process add the grated tomato.
When the fish is very soft it is ready. Just before taking off the heat you add the lemon juice and turn it off.
serve the soup omediately and the fish and vegetables seperatelly.
This dish is traditionally served with cretan rusk not with bread because traditionally boats were out at sea for long and they used rusk instead of bread that would not last fresh on a boat trip.

 

Eleni ready to cook the catch

Lobster and Scampi with pasta (Astakomakaronada in Greek):
This is the most expensive dish you can possible have in Crete as the lobster and scampi are scarse and can
only be found fresh in certain places and mainly between January and September.
Many times they are kept live in a cage in the sea and you can go and choose the one you like to have.
It is a very rich dish with strong taste and requires skill to eat all the meat out of the shell.
Ingredients:
One or two Lobster or scampi (kolochtypa in Greek) aproximatelly one kilo. Make sure no legs are missing
or shell is broken and they are handled with care.
Half a kilo of Spaggetti pasta
2 onnions (finely chopped)
One peper (finely chopped)
A couple of Fresh large beef tomatoes grated
Method: 
On a large pot we first simmer the chopped onions and peper in olive oil then add the lobster to simmer a bit until goes red and we add a good dash of white wine. Then add the grated tomatoes and about 1 litre of water and let it boil and cook for about 20 minutes. If the lobster is large we leave a bit longer. On the process skim  regularly any foam on surface. Then we remove the lobster out of it and add the pasta to boil. we have to measure
the amount of juice now so when the pasta cooks (after 5 to 10 minutes) . Allow it to cool a bit to absorbs most of the juices and sauce.
We cut lengthwise and open the whole lobster using a large knife and take carefully all the meat out of the tail, chop it finely and add it back to the pasta.
When ready we remove from the fire and serve immediately placing the shell on the pasta. Kali Oreksi!
This can be a main course or a starter.




                                         Lobster and Scampi with pasta


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