Last night, my wife (recently a guest here as Kiminy) outdid herself. She has always made wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, but last night was truly awesome.
Backstory: She’s on a two-week hiatus between terms at a local business “university”, and my duaghter is on an anti-American food, culture, language kick. My daughter wanted Mediterranian food. So, Kiminy says, how about Greek?
We had homemade:
gyros
spanakopita
dolmas
tzadziki sauce
The only things store bought were:
grape leaves
filo dough
sesame seeds
chickpeas
beef
lamb
pita bread
etc.
We feasted. And tonight, we feast again on the left-overs. There was so much spanakopita filling left over that she made a pie out of it. The only thing that didn’t work was the gyros meat, which tasted more like meatloaf than gyros meat. I guess the roasting spit really make a difference. She said that spanakopita and dolmas will be a semi-regular dish in the future as they were fairly easy to make (the filo was difficult to handle, though).
Thank you, Kiminy. You are a truly wonderful cook.
You can buy giro meat in either a rectangular ovoidish lump, or in little rectangular ovoidish slices, and the meat is a mixture of beef and lamb, or there is a combo of chicken and lamb also [or there used to be when I worked for US Foodservice]
Not sure what *dolmas *are or what *spanakopita *is but it still sounds delicious. I’ve only recently discovered the wonders of ethnic food (outside of what small town America considers it – pizza, taco bell, and chinese buffets) and have kived most of it, including my limited Greek exposure.
Aesiron - Dolmas is stuffed grape leaves (the Greek version of cabbage rolls? :)) and Spanikopieta is spinach & feta cheese in filo dough pastry and they are both delicious! You must try baklava too- that’s honey and walnuts layered in filo pastry dough–so rich!
My daughter is getting ready to fix an Enchilada Ring (chicken & crescent rolls), but now I’m wanting to join Vlad/Igor and Kiminy for Greek leftovers, cause they sound delicious!
I love Greek food. About four months ago, a small restaurant opened up about three blocks from our apartment. It’s so successful that they already need a bigger location.
I just made spanokopeta(different transliteration) yesterday myself. My boss runs a catering business, in addition to the cafe, and there was a wedding reception to do. So I made up a bunch of the little things. The cookbook is a work, I can post the recipe tomorrow if you wish. One thing, I did wrap them in filo, but the book had them in a pastry crust. I’ve done it both ways, and they are both tasty.
And baklava! No wonder the pieces are usually small, they are so rich and sweet. I have made that a number of times as well, and it’s not hard to find recipes online. There are differences between them, but that’s not surprising. Is there one recipe for apple pie, or chili? I’ve seen baklava with walnuts, pistachios. almonds. I did an American version with pecans. I’ve seen many spices, but cinnamon always seems to be in there. For the syrup I use warmed honey, with, sometimes, a touch of lemon juice, but I’ve noted versions with plain cooked sugar syrup, and one syrup flavored with rosewater.
I work with an Iraqi PhD who brings baklava in once or twice a year. It is heavenly, especially since I like pistachios. I just have to switch gears and not expect the same kind of eating experience that I have with chocolate. By tonight, all of the leftovers are gone. I’ll have to be extra nice to her to see if she will cook like that again after Christmas.
<evil giggle> they make little oil spray bottles and you can put clarified butter in them and just spray the butter onto the filo instead of brushing it [though I just lay my hand flat, dip the palm in and gently make a couple fo swooshes over the filo as I find a pastry brush tears the dough if you go too fast…] You need to thaw the filo in the fridge still sealed in its box and plasic bag, as the dough dries out very fast and gets fragile. You will always have to cut the dough to fit the baking pan, don’t be a cheap barstid and smush the sheets around to make the whole thing fit because it just wont!
I have made it with walnuts, pistachios, almonds and peanuts [for a friend allergic to tree nuts] It is quite good with a blend of the 3 nuts, and decorated with whole nut meats on top. I have even made it with splenda syrup [back when natures flavors made splenda sweetened syrup base. I added enough extra splenda to make it the sweetness equivalent to honey, and added expert foods notSugar to thicken it to the right amount, and added a bit of extra rosewater to it.] Once you have the nack of handling the dough, it is a lot of fun. If I am making it for a lot of people, I make the kind where it is a half sheet of dough buttered, and a tbsp of the sugar/nuts rolled into it and made into a small finger sized roll.
Thanks, aruvqan. I’ll pass that on. Aesiron, the spanakopita were very good. We had spinach, with parmesan, feta and ricotta cheese in ours. We have also made moussaka, wich I didn’t like as well as the souvlaki we have about once a month. Souvlaki is easy to make, but you have to marinate the meat ahead of time.
Tzatziki is yoghurt dip. It’s very simple to make. All I do is buy a 16 oz tub of plain yoghut. Dump it in cheesecloth or use a strainer on top of another bowl for at least four hours. Take the drained yoghurt and add some fresh oregano, a sliced green pepper, as much garlic as you can stand and a few teaspoons of good quality olive oil. Leave in the refrigerator for at least an hour and serve with pieces of warmed bread. Yum!
Out of monetary necessity, my wife and I ate vegetarian every other day from day one. We’ve continued that practice today, so if my daughter decides to go all the way, it won’t surprise me. I’ll draw the line at PETA, as we’re Episcopalian, and we just don’t put up with evangelism.