Posted on

Festive Feta Fillo Cigars

The best part of holiday entertaining is mingling and gathering with family and friends, not spending the entire night cooking in the kitchen. Our herbed Feta Fillo Cigars are a deliciously savoury, make-ahead Christmas appetizer, perfect for holiday parties.

To prepare this appetizer, you’ll be separating the work into two – the tapenade dip and the cigars themselves.

To make the tapenade, add 1 cup of Krinos Pitted Kalamata olives, ¼ cup of capers, 2 tbsp of chopped fresh parsley, 2 tbsp of Krinos Olive Oil and 1 clove of minced garlic to a food processor and blend. Pulse until fairly smooth and refrigerate until party-time. We dare you not to eat the entire mix with a spoon – it’s that good.

The tapenade can be made hours (and even a day) before; the longer it sits, the more the flavours will develop.

To make the Feta Fillo Cigars, you only need a few ingredients: Krinos Fillo Pastry Sheets, of course, minced garlic, Krinos Dried Oregano and Krinos Bulgarian Feta Cheese Multi-Pack. We suggest Bulgarian Feta for its creamy texture.

To start, preheat the oven to 350ºC.

In a small bowl, combine salt, melted butter and minced garlic. Slice both 100gr portions of Bulgarian Feta multi-packs into 0.5 cm sticks – you should get about 16 pieces.

Brush one sheet of fillo with the garlic butter and sprinkle with oregano. Top with a second sheet of fillo and top with garlic butter again. Cut buttered fillo sheets into four squares – half widthwise and lengthwise. Repeat with remaining fillo sheets until you have 16 rectangles. Now you’re ready to roll.

On each fillo square, lay a strip of feta along one of the short edges, fold the in the edges of the fillo on each side of the fillo stick and roll into a cigar shape. (Think: burrito making)

Place each cigar seam side down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining fillo and feta.

A few minutes before your guests arrive, brush each cigar with remaining garlic butter and bake for 15 minutes or until fillo is golden brown. Meanwhile, scoop out the tapenade from the refrigerator.

Serve fillo cigars warm alongside tapenade dip. They’re crunchy and comforting and the tapenade adds quite the zing.

Want to kick it up a notch? Add a side of warm spicy honey (warm honey with chili flakes) for even more oohs and ahhhs.

And now you can enjoy your party!

Tip: Make the cigars in advance and freeze. Simply defrost before baking.

For the full recipe, visit krinos.ca/recipes/feta-fillo-cigars.

Posted on

Revamped Thanksgiving Sides

In many families, Thanksgiving is as much about food as it is about family. Between the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the pumpkin pie, it’s all so delicious and comforting. But the star of many thanksgiving dinners has got to be the traditional turkey stuffing – hands down.

While it may seem a bit risky to change up a Thanksgiving tradition, our take on a vegetarian baked stuffing will appeal to all palettes, and we’re certain this quick and easy side dish will quickly become a new family fave around your Thanksgiving table.

In a large skillet, heat ¼ cup butter and oil over medium heat and sauté 1 large onion and 4 stalks of chopped celery until softened. Add chopped sage and 2 cloves of minced garlic and continue to sauté for two more minutes. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, combine onion mixture with 1 loaf of day old bread (cut in chunks) and mix well. Cover bread mixture with 1 cup of vegetable stock to combine. Add 200 g package of crumbled Organic Feta Cheese, ½ nuts (chestnuts or walnuts are our picks), and 2 tbsp of chopped parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350f and grease a 13×9 casserole dish with butter. Bake stuffing mix in casserole dish uncovered for 45 minutes or until stuffing is hot and top is lightly golden brown.

Whether you’re hosting or attending a thanksgiving dinner this year, this perfectly savoury vegetarian baked feta stuffing packs a lot of punch and will surely be a staple for years to come.

HOSTESS TIP: You can prepare the stuffing ahead of time and refrigerate until your guests arrive, ensuring a hot stuffing to serve alongside your dinner.

For full recipe, visit krinos.ca/recipes/vegetarian-feta-baked-stuffing/

Posted on

Feta Faceoff

How do you enjoy your feta?

That was the challenge we posed to 8 Canadian influencers on Instagram this summer: to develop and share their favourite way to incorporate the new Krinos Feta Multi-pack into a recipe of their own. The new multi-packs are available in in 2 x 100g packaging without brine, which means no more mess – use one, and store the other.

It was the ultimate #fetafaceoff challenge and the recipes that were submitted have become some of our favourites! From feta focaccia to a rustic chicken sandwich, grilled peach, arugula and feta pizza and a feta quiche, the home cooks inspired thousands of Canadians to experiment and see how easy and fun it is to cook with feta.

After 3 weeks and hundreds of comments, we are pleased to award Meri @lilsugarmag the winner of the Feta Faceoff! Meri prepared a Healthy Breakfast Feta Skillet that was both impressive in look and taste!

Meri will receive 10 Krinos Product gift packs worth $100 each to be given to 10 of her followers, so be sure to keep an eye out for that!

Congratulations Meri and thanks to all the influencers who participated in our Feta Faceoff!

To view all the recipes:

1) Hannah – GRILLED PEACH, ARUGULA & FETA PIZZA

http://bit.ly/HannahMageeRecipee

2) Cynthia – SPICY DRIED TOMATO AND FETA BITES

http://bit.ly/CynthiaMarcotteRecipe

3) Meri – HEALTHY BREAKFAST FETA SKILLET

http://bit.ly/lilsugarmagRecipe

4) Marsida – RUSTIC CHICKEN SANDWICH

http://bit.ly/raisinghowellsRecipe

5) The GG sisters – FETA FOCACCIA

http://bit.ly/theggsistersrecipe

6) Kristeena Michelle – MEDITERRANEAN SALMON BOWL

http://bit.ly/kristeenamichelleRecipe

7) Niloofar – FETA QUICHE

http://bit.ly/nilooRecipe

8) Jasmine Baker – GRILLED MEXICAN CORN WITH KRINOS FETA CREAM⠀

http://bit.ly/jasminebakerlifeRecipe

Posted on

This is Feta Culture

At Krinos Canada, we aim to make feta cheese a staple on Canadian tables.

Feta cheese is one of the world’s most popular cheeses; it can be enjoyed on its own, of course, but its versatility is what makes feta the perfect addition to any meal. It’s much more than a salad topper, that’s for sure. Use feta as an appetizer, baked, spread onto a hamburger – there are endless ways to feature feta.

Did you know Krinos makes 13 different types of feta? It’s true. From Hard Feta to Bulgarian Style, Greek Barrel Aged, Organic and Crumbled, feta cheese is as diverse as Canada. For people of Greek origin, though, feta cheese represents their tradition and culture, and today, feta is enjoyed around the world — any culture, age or lifestyle.

Fascinated by feta? We are, too. Here in the Krinos Canada Kitchen, you’ll get ideas and inspiration, as well as insights on trends and how to use feta in your life. We think feta’s so important it’s getting its own category, right here in the blog.

We invite you to join Canada’s Feta Culture, weigh in on our recipes and articles, and maybe suggest a way you incorporate feta into your world.

What’s your favourite way to feta?

Krinos is proud to offer the widest breadth of feta products in Canada in both the retail and food service markets. Aside from our unique Canadian manufactured feta, we also import the best Greek P.D.O. feta in the world.

Do You Know PDO?

Feta is to Greece as Champagne is to France. PDO stands for Protected Designation of Origin. A PDO is defined as food produced, processed and prepared a) in a specific geographical region and b) with a traditional method. As of 2002, the term “ Greek feta” is a PDO product in the European Union. Only those cheese produced in a traditional way in certain areas of Greece, which are made from sheep’s milk (or a mixture of sheep’s and up to 30% goat’s milk from the same area), can be called Greek feta.

Now You Know.