Greek Cookery Class – Lahanodolmades and special treat with vine leaves from Drama!

There is a lot of preparation that goes into making lahanodolmades, or sarmadakia as we call them in my family. This is a dish you rarely find in a restaurant and this is a dish that I love so much that I wouldn’t want anyone else to cook it for me, in case they got it wrong.

So when my amazing students who had never done this Greek dish ever before made these cabbage leaf dolmades, I was so impressed!

We had to remove the stem carefully to free up the leaves from our six cabbages. This step is quite time consuming along with softening the leaves in simmering water, so the cabbages where prepared and only one was left for everyone to practice on. The hardest thing and most technical bit is rolling the leaves and making them just about right in terms of how tight and loose they’ve got to be. But not only do we have to prepare the cabbage leaves, we also have to make the filling with rice, mince and herbs and spices.

Chopping the herbs finely always causes students to ask how finely, but the question that most of the Greek Cookery Class participants were asking was how to chop without bruising the herbs?

Some might notice here that even though I’m talking about cabbages, you can spot some vine leaves in the cabbage crowd. You’re right! Because we had some extra filling we got out some vine dolma from the freezer. Those little vine leaves originate from Drama, where my grandma picked them last year from her garden and prepared them for me. So without any more cabbage, these came to our rescue as a special extra treat so not to waste the remaining filling.

We also made the famous augolemono sauce based on lots of lemons and eggs, augolemono is found in soups like giouvarlakia and magiritsa but also in frikasse.

And bread and a few more sides.

Sitting down around the table to eat is the most appreciated and fun bit of each Greek Cookery Class. Everyone is getting ready to taste the foods they’ve been cooking and after all the hard work – satisfaction and a full stomach! What is better than that? One thing actually, the class might be over but as everyone leaves they get to bring home a generous doggy bag of the food!

Next class is on 1 June, it will be an all vegan class! That means no animal products! But that does not mean we’re going to be making salads only and eating raw food!

Bookings are as usual via greekcookeryclass(AT)gmail.com

For those of you too lazy to cook and only interested in eating the food, then join our Mousaka special Greek Supper Club this Sunday 29 May.

Full menu and further details here: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113154532102938

Greek Cookery Class and Supper Club and Breakfast events for May and June

Below is a list of  the upcoming dates for May’s and June’s Greek food events. These include Greek Cookery Class, Greek Foodlovers’ Supper Club and Breakfast/Brunch Club with respective links next to each date, to give more details.

15 May – Greek Cookery Class 2:30pm-6:30pm:

http://on.fb.me/kmjbj5

22 May – Greek Brunch Club 11am-1pm:

http://wp.me/pwUd3-45

29 May – Greek Supper Club 5pm-9pm:

http://on.fb.me/khvbSA

1 June – Greek Cookery Class more details nearer the time, but it’s an all vegan class open to vegetarians and meaters as well!

30 June – Greek Cookery Class at Leith’s Cookery School

http://www.leiths.com/enthusiasts-courses/greek-cookery/

Book via greekcookeryclass(AT)gmail.com for all events, except the Leith’s Cookery Session, for that you go via their website and the link is provided above.

Advanced payment only.

First come first served, so please book early to avoid disappointment!!
As usual, most events and cooking classes cater for alternative diets, ask well in advance and we’ll be happy to make the food according to your needs, wether it’s vegetarian or vegan etc. Just ask and we’ll tell you what alternatives we can offer!

Looking forward to enjoying more authentic Greek food together in London!

Jamie Oliver does Athens review

I’ve was thrilled to find out via twitter about Jamie Oliver doing Greece. What dishes would he make and more importantly how would he make them, was really what made me search online and find the link showing the programme for us who have no TV sets!

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/jamie-does/4od#3070154

A shame he went to Athens though when there are so many better options to go for great Greek food, but what I found as I was tweeting along as I was watching his culinary adventures in the Greek capital was that Jamie and I share one thing, the love for Greece and Greek food.

But it’s always more interesting to see a non-Greek person’s take on Greek food and have them have a go at it, what do they do to the ingredients and the traditional recipes?

So here is what I found and commented on my twitter www.twitter.com/Greekfoodlover

Funnily enough Jamie Oliver’s programme starts with a gypsy song I’ve played many times on my DJ nights in London… maybe Jamie has been incognito and watched me DJ?! It’s by Shantel, German DJ and musician whose immense love for Eastern European and Greek music outgrew his electronic music and DJing as a young man. Here is the tune on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKT9rpcXeX4

The song’s called Mahalageasca!

But back to why I was watching Jamie, the Greek food of course.

First dish we see Jamie prepare is very similar to what we did in my Greekcookeryclass last night 18 May! Check our pix onwww.facebook.com/GreekCookery

And most dishes he prepared and cooked we have actually made in the Greek Cookery Class that I run each month in London. The roasted peppers, kebabs, souvlakia and tzatziki, check check and check again. But hang on a second, wild mint in the tzatziki? And vinegar? Oh dear, and OH NO!

Wild mint, this is what we drink at home when we say mint tea! Way to go Jamie for finding this ingredient, but we don’t use mint in tzatziki! But the killer was seeing vinegar in tzatziki. However, we have a great saying in Greek, peri orexeos, kolokythopita! It means you make your pumpkin pie in any way your appetite and feeling wants you to! So no right way, no wrong way!

I loved how he spoke a little bit about history and all this talk about the Acropolis from Jamie… will he mention the ElginMarbles? No way, too touchy a subject of course and the Queen might not let him back into the country afterwards. Nevertheless, he did mention that the barbeque used for the yummy pork souvlakia (=skewers) was more ancient than the Acropolis.

In comparison to Jamie’s dish and my Greek Cookery Class, we made our own pitta bread in the class.

Jamie moved on to making a pistachio and honey cake which he was stabbing to get the syrup through and into interesting but probably not the most aesthetic thing to do. There are ways to get the syrup into a sponge, but Jamie chose to stab his way through and served the cake with a dollop of yoghurt and strawberries. This is probably what I find as an English translation of a dish, but works probably fairly well. Adding yoghurt instead of cream is definitely a healthier option and the yoghurt will take the edge off the sweet sensation of the rich honey flavours and make it milder.

And speaking of yoghurt, Jamie Oliver did say loud and clear that the best yoghurt in the world is Greek Yoghurt!

And even if I don’t put any dill in the Greek Salad like Jamie did in his version of it, he gets some Greek Yoghurt points for using oregano and a whole block of feta cheese on there! And it was fantastic seeing him dance hasaposerviko, even though he later said the dancing of Essex is far superior, very funny moves but really! Kudos for doing it on national tv.

Fishsoup made by seawater, potatoes, fish and tomatoes was an eye-opener as I’ve never seen seawater being an ingredient in a dish. Well done Jamie Oliver for portraying a culinary trip to Greece and showcasing some of the foods you get in Greece along with talking about some of the extra fine ingredients Greece is well known for.

If you’re keen to cook more Greek food in London, follow and join my fan group on www.facebook.com/GreekCookery

and if you’re lazy and don’t feel like cooking but want to have some of the best Greek home-cooked food available in London, sign up for my Greekfoodlovers’ Supper Club on Saturday 5 June 2010, 6:30-10pm. For £35 you’ll get meze for starters with dolma, tzatziki, home-baked bread and meatballs, the yummiest moussaka you’ve ever had with a fresh and delicious Greek Salad and finally if you’ve got room, a selection of Greek desserts. All foods are prepared by me with recipes going back to my grandmothers! Book your slot via email on greekcookeryclass(at)gmail.com

Hoping to see you on the 5 June! Your chef and hostess Elisavet who’s been featured on Foodepedia, Red Magazine and has been selected amongst hundreds of applicants to take part at ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish competition and qualified with a Greek Dish, is looking forward to showcasing some of the best Greek dishes you’d ever set your taste buds in!