Food, Cooking and the Satisfied Kenpo Belly

Stemming off Skip's cooking lesson I thought I would start a topic on cooking and recipes. I always found that good food was a critical part of Kenpo study such as the Bread Pudding at Mimi's in Phoenix or Thai in Spokane.

Loving Greek Food I would like to introduce people to Kopanisti.

What you will need is...

You will need a small blender for this recipe, two bowls and a good knife for this recipe.

If you do not like Feta or Red Peppers, this is not the recipe for you.

You will also need...

8 to 10 ounces of Feta
2 red peppers per 8 to 10 ounces
olive oil
garlic
red pepper flakes (optional)
Tabasco (optional)

Take your feta blocks and crumble it into a bowl. Once it is all crumbled put it into a blender/mixer device to make it like mush. You want to get it more like a cream-cheese consistency. The tiny hand blenders often have a problem because it cannot properly grind/mix/mush the feta. Once mushy, put to the side.

Now the red peppers. You have two options.

A) Use the peppers un-cooked. Cut the peppers into chunks and put into a blender by itself and blend into a pulp. It will be very watery. Using a strainer or cheese cloth, strain the water out so you just have red pepper pulp.

B) Cut the red pepper into large strips and roast them. Roasting time varies. Once this is done, put into a blender by itself and blend into a pulp. It still can be watery depending on how well roasted they are. Using a strainer or cheese cloth, strain the water out so you just have red pepper pulp.

In the bowl containing the feta, drop some olive oil in. For measurement specifics, it's about 3 tablespoons.

Mix the feta and the olive oil together. This is a key moment. THEN, add the red pepper mush and mix with a spoon. Once mixed, put back into the blender to get it to a whipped texture.

Now the seasoning part. You have the base goo for Kopanisti. Have a taste!

Garlic is the next step. I use three to five cloves of garlic per 8 to 10 ounces. I like garlic. If it's your first time, add one clove at a time and mix with a spoon.

Now, Kopanisti is slightly hot. You can leave it as is or you can add the final ingredient pair which is red pepper flakes (very fine) and pepper sauce. I put about 1 tsp of Tabasco and 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes into my mixture and mix away. I put the pepper flakes first since I get them fresh often and the heat-level can vary. The heat/spice should enhance and not over-power the other flavours.

That's it.