Cook This: 3 Greek-Cypriot recipes from Cypriana

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Our cookbook of the week is Cypriana by chef and author Theo Michaels.

Jump to the recipes: ten cloves garlic lemon chicken (kotopoulo lemonato me skordo), slow-cooked squid (kalamari stifado), and bulgur wheat and vermicelli noodles (pourgouri).

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With nine cookbooks to his name, chef Theo Michaels has covered a host of topics, from making the most out of canned food to showcasing his strategies for feeding his three children. For his latest, Cypriana, he had the welcome opportunity to update one of his past works, drawing on the Greek Cypriot origins of his cooking.

“It was nice to go back to my roots and celebrate Greek food again,” says Michaels. “Greek cuisine is known as one of the healthiest in the world, and I thought it would be nice to revisit that, refresh it with a few new recipes, and celebrate that Mediterranean diet, specifically, the Greek Cypriot diet, which is what I’m made of.”

Cypriana is a revised edition of Orexi! (2019), featuring a more streamlined approach to cooking and a freshly illustrated cover. The more than 80 recipes include traditional dishes from Michaels’ Greek Cypriot upbringing in London and modern takes on its hallmark flavours and way of eating. The essays opening each chapter reflect on his sun-soaked travels to the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

Michaels starts Cypriana with the foundations: yogurt and pita, and meze, small shared plates ranging from salt-baked beets to his yiayia’s keftedes (grandmother’s meatballs). He then turns to the elemental nature of the cuisine, with chapters devoted to the sea, land, sun and fire. “It’s less contrived in terms of when you should eat things, and it’s more about what you want to eat.”

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After competing on MasterChef in 2014, Michaels left the corporate world to pursue a culinary career. Today, in addition to working as an executive chef, he makes guest appearances on the BBC and ITV. He also founded a meal-planning business, FiveDinners, with his wife, Anna Michaels, and opened Lazy Bear, a waffle and coffee house in Harpenden in his home county of Hertfordshire, a half-hour train ride from London.

“I’m no good just sitting around. Don’t get me wrong — I think, naturally, I’m an exceptionally lazy person. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I could quite happily sit on a beach for about six months and not move. But for some reason, I get fidgety, so I keep doing stuff.”

There’s long been a global “love affair” with Greece and Cyprus as holiday destinations, says Michaels, but that appreciation hasn’t necessarily extended to English-language cookbooks. Though visitors may enjoy it on holiday, he believes the food hasn’t been celebrated as much as other Mediterranean cuisines. This is part of why he relished the opportunity to write an updated 2024 edition — “to give it its own identity again, to show that this is Greek food.”

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Cyprus is part of the Levant, situated south of Turkey, west of Lebanon and Syria. The food culture has roots in both the Mediterranean and the Middle East, says Michaels. There’s the olive oil, fresh tomatoes and seafood you might expect from a Mediterranean cuisine with a Middle Eastern touch. “What I love about Cyprus is that it’s almost like a dual personality,” he adds. “You get this influence from the Middle East, where you get all these warming spices of cinnamon and cumin and chili that you don’t get in a lot of other Mediterranean cuisines. So, it’s unique in that respect, and I thought, ‘Let’s hone in on its identity.’”

Since Michaels wrote the first edition of Cypriana, he says he’s become more confident in his cooking. “The notion of really great, simple food is satisfying to me now.” He developed new recipes and streamlined others, all with an eye to celebrating ingredients in uncomplicated ways. “I think (being a chef) is like all art forms. You never finish. You just learn restraint,” says Michaels, laughing.

He hopes readers take away how unique Cypriot cooking is. Recipes such as ‘afelia,’ red wine marinated pork with coriander seeds, convey this distinct style. “It’s a real Middle Eastern spice, but it’s being used in this Mediterranean recipe.” Likewise, his rainbow tomato salad, featuring ripe heirloom tomatoes, pomegranate molasses and seeds, underscores the importance of pomegranates, which are at home growing in Cyprus’ arid environment.

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“It’s based on the land and what comes from it,” Michaels says of Cypriana. There’s only one beef recipe in the book, for example (braised beef short ribs with onions), simply because Cyprus isn’t conducive to raising cattle. “We’re not in the plains of Texas here, where they’re going to have a cattle ranch of around 10,000 — but it’s perfect for goats,” he says with a laugh.

Michaels adds that he hopes that when people cook from the book, they note the similarities with other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines as well as what sets Greek Cypriot food apart. “It’s that difference that makes Cyprus unique.”

TEN CLOVES GARLIC LEMON CHICKEN

Kotopoulo lemonato me skordo

Serves: 6

12 chicken thighs, skin on, bone in
10 garlic cloves, thickly sliced
3 zucchini, quartered lengthways and then cut into 2.5-cm (1-inch) slices
A generous splash of white wine
3 dried bay leaves
A handful of green and purple Kalamata olives, pitted (see tip)
A generous couple of pinches of Greek dried oregano
1/2 bouillon cube (chicken or vegetable)
A generous pinch of sugar
2 lemons
A handful of freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil, for cooking and drizzling
Bulgur Wheat & Vermicelli Noodles (recipe follows) or boiled rice, to serve

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Step 1

Preheat the oven to 200C (400F), Gas 6. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper, then fry them skin-side down in a little olive oil over a high heat in a large, ovenproof frying pan/skillet, turning once to ensure they are golden all over. (You may need to cook them in batches.)

Step 2

Remove from the pan, reduce the heat to very low and pour away most of the chicken fat, leaving a tablespoon or two. Add all the garlic and cook on a low heat, stirring occasionally, ensuring it doesn’t burn. After about 5-6 minutes, add the zucchini, cook for a few minutes and then pour in the wine. Simmer until the liquid has reduced by half then add the sugar, bay leaves, olives and oregano. Add 250 mL (1 cup) of water with the bouillon cube and stir it in to dissolve.

Step 3

Return the seared chicken thighs to the pan, skin-side up, trying not to get the skin wet. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon all over the chicken. Cut the other lemon into quarters and arrange the wedges sporadically in the pan. Drizzle a little more olive oil on top of the chicken, season again and place the whole pan in the preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes.

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Step 4

Remove the pan from the oven, scatter fresh parsley over the top, if using, and serve. Personally, I like to bring the whole pan to the table. This is good served with Bulgur Wheat & Vermicelli Noodles (Pougouri) or just a bowl of boiled rice.

Tip: Pitted olives tend to be dry and flavourless. It really pays to buy whole olives and, with the flat side of a blade, push down to remove the pits. But don’t get hung up on it, life’s too short. If you only have pitted to hand, use those.

SLOW-COOKED SQUID

Kalamari stifado

Serves: 4

250 mL (1 cup) olive oil
5 onions, sliced
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
12 black peppercorns, left whole
5-cm (2-inch) piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp fennel seeds, toasted
12 baby plum tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp tomato paste
A pinch of sugar
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) squid
1 tbsp malt vinegar
A couple of pinches of hot red pepper flakes
250 mL (1 cup) white wine
A small handful of freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
Bulgur Wheat & Vermicelli Noodles (recipe follows)
Crusty bread

Step 1

Add all the olive oil to a pan with the sliced onions and cook on a medium heat until the onions start to turn translucent, about 5-10 minutes, but don’t let them colour. Once the onions are cooked, add the garlic and stir through, letting it relax into the pan for a couple of minutes.

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Step 2

Season the onions and garlic, and then add all the other ingredients except the parsley. Be careful when adding the wine to hot oil, I usually do this last, using the rest of the ingredients to buffer it a little as it goes into the pan. Bring the pan to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low, cover and let it cook gently for about 45 minutes-1 hour.

Step 3

By now, all the ingredients will have amalgamated together, the squid will be wonderfully tender and the olive oil will be carrying lots of flavour.

Step 4

Allow it to rest for a few minutes and then serve, garnishing the top with the chopped parsley.

Step 5

Serve with a bowl of herb-infused Bulgur Wheat & Vermicelli Noodles (Pourgouri) and some decent bread to soak up the sauce.

Tip: Normally, when buying fish, it is always recommended to buy the freshest you can. Paradoxically, when buying squid or octopus in the U.K., I will choose frozen over fresh every time. The process of freezing squid and octopus tenderizes the meat, with the added bonus it is usually cheaper. Make sure you buy big frozen squid; if you use small calamari, they will shrink to nothing. Buy big and let the slow-cook tenderize the meat.

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BULGUR WHEAT & VERMICELLI NOODLES

Pourgouri

Serves: 4

1/2 small onion
25 g (1/3 cup) broken vermicelli noodles
170 g (1 cup) bulgur (cracked wheat), rinsed and drained
1/2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 chicken bouillon cube
2 generous pinches of dried chipotle flakes
2 tbsp diced red onion
A small handful of fresh cilantro
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil, for cooking

Step 1

Finely dice the onion and then fry in a little olive oil in a deep lidded pan until soft. Add the broken vermicelli noodles and continue to fry until the noodles start to brown but don’t burn.

Step 2

Add the rinsed bulgur to the pan, followed by the tomato paste, chicken bouillon cube and 350 mL (1 1/2 cups) of cold water.

Step 3

Bring it to a simmer and as soon as it starts to bubble, cover with a lid, turn down the heat to the lowest setting and let it cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave covered to sit for a further 10 minutes.

Step 4

Fluff up the grains with a fork and, while still warm, add the chipotle flakes, diced red onion, some salt and pepper and an extra glug of olive oil.

Step 5

If serving immediately, add the fresh cilantro; otherwise, let it cool before adding the herbs to stop them wilting.

Recipes and images reprinted with permission from Cypriana by Theo A. Michaels. Photography by Mowie Kay. Published May 21, 2024, by Ryland Peters & Small.

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