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Katerina's Kouzina

Sea - bass with Poros Lemonade

As promised on my last blog, I am going to continue posting positive stories as our new reality is hard enough as it is. This recipe is energetic and full of Spring colours! The inspiration behind it a small local company called Lemonodasos in Galatas. Among other products they make a delicious handmade, organic lemonade without preservatives, made of local lemons. I love it so much I decided to cook with it! Please enjoy my recipe Sea-bass with Poros Lemonade and learn more about the Poros lemon forest and this beautiful company, by reading this blog.

Lemon forest

When you ask my friends on Poros what they think would be the most famous thing about our island, most of them would probably answer: Our Lemonodasos of course; everyone in Greece knows about it! It’s an area of Poros that until the seventies and early eighties was one of the main suppliers of lemons for our capital Athens. Lemonodasos is Greek for lemon forest or lemon groove. Due to the micro climate of the area and the special composition of natural nutrition of the earth, the lemons that were produced there had the ideal acidity and the best taste and aroma.

Local lemonade

In the 70’s and 80’s there was a small co-operative that was making a local lemonade and orangeade, which we used to sell in the restaurant of my parents. Unfortunately, the majority of our guests were brainwashed by the advertisements of big international names such as Coca cola, Fanta and Sprite, and the turnover of our small lemonade co-operative dwindled. The owners grew old and tired and lost their appetite to fight the multinationals, and stopped making our lemonade.


Of course a lot of locals said how sad it was that on Poros we did not have a local product and especially not a lemonade, having all this lemon produce just nearby. Some of us started to make our own lemonade from the lemons on our land. This was most difficult in August, when no lemons would grow on our trees. And this in the time of the year that we could sell the most.

Lemonodasos lemonade

Luckily a few years ago good friends of mine from Galatas, Dimitris Vlachos and his wife Maria, started Lemonodasos. Their lemonade is so good that most bars, restaurants and shops in Poros and Galatas are now selling this beautiful and refreshing drink. They are also selling it in a lot of other places in Greece. Even bigger quality stores are offering it in their outlets.

Dimitris Vlachos and his wife Maria

Next to lemon juice, they sell lemon juice with a cucumber twist, lemon juice with ginger & stevia, pomegranate juice with a lemon twist and sour cherry juice. Dimitris and Maria also have a shop in Galatas with sweets & delicacies, following in the steps of Dimitris’ father. In Greek we call this kind of shop a Zacharoplastio.


I admire their hard working and their pioneering way of thinking; taking an idea to the next level and trying to use local products with respect and love. I wish that the entire world gets to know their product, so they might sell it everywhere and make Poros and it’s Lemonodasos even more famous than it already is!

Dimitris Vlachos and Katerina

Cooking with lemonade

Inspired by the products of Lemonodasos I will share some recipes on Katerina’s Kouzina for which I have used their lemonade! Some recipes you could say are more traditional than others, but hey what is tradition? Is tradition only about the past, or is it us taking what we remember from our past, looking at and respecting it, loving it, then making it our own and being inspired to give tradition a twist and create something new? I always love to use my fantasy and inspiration for this process. Who knows, our invention might become our legacy to our (grand) children.

Sea-bass with Poros Lemonade

I combined the sweet lemonade with white wine and created a lovely and fresh sauce for the sea-bass. The wine I used is the dry white Armyra from Skouras winery.


Try this recipe, I think you will love it! If you can’t use the Lemonodasos lemonade, of course you can use any good quality organic lemonade. Goodluck!

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Ingredients

2 sea bass fillets (with the skin)
2 table spoons olive oil
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup good quality organic lemonade
½ cup of dry white wine
2 teaspoons mustard
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped dill
Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Wash the sea-bass fillets in fresh water. Pat the fish dry with kitchen paper. It’s important that most of the moisture is removed from the fish, so it will get a nice brown color.
2. Add the zest and the juice of the lemon, the Poros lemonade, mustard, white wine, parsley and dill all in a bowl and add salt and pepper to your preference. Mix it all very well.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan with a heavy bottom or non-stick surface. Cook the fish for 3-4 minutes with the skin-side down, until golden brown and fully cooked. You can put a lid on the top so the heat stays in the skillet and cooks the fish. Try not to move the fish too much, especially if you are using a pan that isn't non-stick, otherwise the fish might stick to the bottom and not get browned as nicely. No need to turn the fish upside down. Remove the sea-bass from the skillet to a plate.
4. Leave the skillet on the stove and turn down the heat. Add the lemonade mixture and let it cook for 1 minute. Put the fish, skin up, back into the pan with the lemon sauce and let it simmer for another minute. Serve the sea-bass from the skillet directly onto the plate.

Servings : 2 people
Ready in : 10 Minutes
Recipe Type : Fish

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