Briami | A Greek Roasted Vegetable Dish
George Glioumas told me about his memories of meals while growing up in Athens, Greece. Living in the United States now, he reflected fondly on memorable childhood meals and the dishes he learned to make from his mother. Now decades later treasured Greek recipes are on paper written in her own hand. One, like his mother, he cooks weekly is Briami. This is a Greek roasted vegetable dish of zucchini, potatoes, carrots, onions, peppers and garlic ( George uses small eggplants, too) with lots of olive oil, roasted in the oven in a foil covered dish and then let to stand. It is traditionally served with a slice of Feta cheese and bread.
Prepare Briami in a cast iron skillet, 9 x 13 inch Pyrex dish, or copper or ovenproof ceramic casserole. Allow an hour for Briami to bake. Calling upon ingredients in your SimplyCooking® Pantry, Briami is a simple dish, not unlike A Rustic Vegetable Terrine posted on SimplyCooking® years ago. Both require a little bit of chopping time. But this time spent cooking is valuable way to step away from a busy life. George described to me the benefit he gets from cooking daily, “ It gets you somewhere away from your problems. That’s what it does for me.”
““It gets you somewhere away from your problems. That’s what it does for me.” ”
briami
1 TBSP tomato paste
1/3 cup water
2 tomatoes
2 medium potatoes
2 carrots
1 zucchini
1 small red onion
1/2 bell pepper
salt and pepper, to taste
fresh oregano or herb of choice, or dried herb
olive oil
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl mix tomato paste with warm water. Chop the tomatoes and add to the liquid. Then, place half of the mixture in the bottom of the baking dish. (Alternatively, a Tetra box of diced tomatoes can be used. Either way, half go in the bottom of the dish.) Peel the potatoes, carrots and onion and slice them thin, but not too thin. Then slice the pepper and zucchini in the same manner. Once the vegetables are prepared, layer them in the dish. Start with the potatoes and zucchini, overlapping them a bit, circling the dish. Between the potato and zucchini rounds tuck in the red onion slices and then tuck in the pepper slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and chopped fresh oregano. Drizzle generously with olive oil and finish by placing the remaining tomatoes over the top. Cover tightly with foil and bake one hour. Remove from the oven and let stand 15 minutes. Remove the foil and serve with a slice of Feta cheese and bread for sopping up the juices.
While I suggest fresh oregano, other fresh herbs like rosemary, parsley, thyme or mint can be chopped and added to the vegetables or used a dried herb of choice like thyme or Italian seasoning, both on the SimplyCooking® Pantry list.
