New Year’s Eve Greekfoodlovers’ Supper Club 2013

Great food and lovely company is needed to see off the old year and welcome the new! Join us in a warm and intimate setting for Greekfoodlover’s Supper Club on NYE 31 December 2013, where I’ll be cooking all the food and you’ll be sitting down eating a feast of Greek delicacies on New Year’s Eve. If you rather want to go out instead of staying in, but don’t want the hustle and bustle of squeezing your way in a busy and crowded restaurant, or if you have no company for the night, this may be for you! We offer a place where you can eat and socialise on New Year’s Eve without being rushed off your seat, and if you book for one space only, not to worry, nobody sits alone! We share a big table and the menu is here below:

Surprise welcome snack

Mezedes for starters: Roasted winter vegetable soup with Kozani Saffron, Gigantes/Butter beans, GAEA’s roasted ramiro peppers with a spicy almond paste, GAEA’s green Greek olives, home baked spelt bread

Main:

Opt1 Vegan: Lahanodolmades/Savoy cabbage dolma stuffed with rice, bulgur, herbs, pine nuts and walnuts with lemon sauce.

or

Opt2 Meat: Bekri Meze, pork cooked in wine served with bulgur.

Salad for both options: Roasted butternut pumpkin and fennel on a bed of rocket leaves, dressed with Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil, topped with almond flakes.

Desserts:

Baklava and Melomakarona!

Greek herbal tea or filter coffee.

The cost for the supperclub is £50 per person and you get all of these delicious dishes on your plate.

Portions are Greek and generous, all dishes are home made, apart from the GAEA olives and roasted ramiro peppers. BYOB! Limited space so if you want to book for your party or just yourself, get in touch soon to arrange for your payment. (Vegan option available, let me know upon booking which of the two options you wish to have regarding your main). We start at 7:30pm and finish a few hours later, so if you want to stay for the 12 o’clock midnight and change of the year you’re welcome, but if you want to move on and party around in Shoreditch or walk to the Thames River for the fireworks that works too.

Only free range and/or organic meat is used and Extra Virgin Greek Olive Oil. Our yeast is organic and so is most of the vegetables and spices used in the meal.

Advanced payment only, £50 per person, all food included, you only bring your own drink.

First come first served, as there is limited space book early to avoid disappointment!

Book via: greekcookeryclass(AT)gmail.com

Location: We’ll be in between Old Street and Liverpool Street with good links 24/7 to all parts of London, exact address is disclosed upon payment only and closer to the date of the NYE supper 2013.

For pictures and info and to get a feel of what we’re up to visit:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=183923&id=99478232600to see our previous 50+ classes and Greekfoodlovers’ Supper Clubs

Press and testimonials: Your chef Elisavet, devoted to Greek food, has received much acclaim for her traditional home-cooking style. Elisavet’s food has been served at Riverside Studios in London for a Greek festival and she has been featured in Red Magazine (June 2010), Foodepedia and ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish where Michelin starred chef John Burton Race said her lagana bread is “absolutely first class” and the prawn dish she cooked live on ITV was “cooked to perfection!” Also Eating East has given her food and supper club 4**** stars out of 5 in their review: http://www.eatingeast.co.uk/2010/09/22/greek-foodlovers-supper-club-2/ Elle Decoration magazine (September 2011) recommends Greek Cookery Classes as the authentic Greek cuisine experience and Business Traveller US magazine lists both her Greek Supper Club and Greek Cookery Class among London’s top alternative dining places. Elisavet is also the first cook to teach Greek Cooking lessons at Divertimenti Cookery and Leith’s Cookery School in London and her piece on Greek food in Greece was published in The Guardian.

A thank you to Kenwood and Gaea for sponsoring with their products. Looking forward to seeing you soon! And if you can’t make it, Happy New Year, full of health, love and prosperity to you and those you love!

E

Greekfoodlovers’ New Year’s Eve Supperclub – December 31 Dec 2013

We’re bringing back the popular Greekfoodlover’s New Year’s Eve Supper Club on 31 December, where I’ll be cooking all the food and you’ll be sitting down eating a feast of Greek mezedes and lots of other Greek delicacies at our dinner on New Year’s Eve. We’ll start at 7:30pm and finish after midnight when you can continue celebrating somewhere else if you wish to go on partying.

So if you want to spend an evening with great Greek food and good company, this is the place where you can eat and socialise on New Year’s Eve without being rushed off your seat! The cost for the supperclub is £50 per person, menu will have an all vegan option or meat option, please advice upon booking. The finer details have not been set yet, but there will be 3 starters, a salad, a main and 2-3 desserts, including the traditional Greek Vasilopita and melomakarona! Price is £50 per person, portions are Greek and generous and all dishes are home made!

BYOB! Limited space so if you want to book for your party or just yourself, get in touch soon to arrange for your payment. (Vegan and vegetarian options available, let me know upon booking, gluten free option as well though some of the traditional desserts are not gluten free). All meat, dairy and eggs although I cook a lot without dairy and eggs are free range and organic, all flour is organic too, and the majority of the ingredients including vegetables and spices.

This is the perfect NYE dinner where you can arrive on your own, as no one sits by themselves or bring your partner and friends too! We all sit together around a big table, in an intimate and warm Greek atmosphere!

Book space via greekcookeryclass(AT)gmail.com

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

View pictures of our previous Greekfoodlovers’ NYE Supperclub here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150208094562601&set=pb.99478232600.-2207520000.1387809973.&type=3&theater

Tsourekia in London for Greek Easter 2013

It’s Greek Easter this week, so if you have Tsourekia cravings for the yummy traditional Greek Easter bread, you can order some and collect later this week!

For more details contact: greekcookeryclass(AT)gmail.com

Καλό Πάσχα!

 

Greek Cookery Class – first session of the Jan course 2012

New year and new classes!! After running cookery classes teaching Greek food for almost three years, what started as a simple cooking class, evolved into me hosting and cooking for supperclubs and private dinners and birthday parties, teaching at other cookery schools like Divertimenti and Leith’s and finally starting my own little Greek Cookery Class Course.

Gigantes

On the first class of 2012 we made Gigantes, fasolia – butter beans – from Florina! For the first time we had more boys than girls in the class, it’s pure coincidence I am sure! The cliché that boys prefer to eat rather than cook and that girls want to learn cooking might not be true after all!

Comparing the butter beans you get in most big supermarkets in London/UK with the real deal, Gigantes or giant beans from Greece, the price is the first thing that hits you, they’re more expensive, but they’re worth the price as they taste much better and also look much better.

Gigantes - Butter Beans

One place to buy the Greek butter beans that we call gigantes is in Bayswater, there’s a small little shop on Moscow Road called Athenian Grocery! So if you plan to cook this dish it’s worth using Greek beans, instead of normal butter beans. And since we’re talking about Florina, we also baked piperies Florinis, red long sweet peppers for one of our salads.

Nothing goes better with beans than some home-baked bread, but being busy with cooking all the dishes for the class, there was no time for the students to get into bread making as well. So I prepared that in advance, and baked bread using white spelt flour, wholemeal spelt flour, sea salt and of course Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Home baked spelt bread

During a long cooking session we’re all being teased and tempted by all the smells from the food slowly simmering away. So at some point we had a 5 minute break and a tasting with some bread and Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Greece but also some pieces of the vegan banana bread cake I had made the day before.

Banana bread cake - vegan

There was no plan to make this class vegan, but realising we’re so soon after Christmas and New Year’s when most people have been stuffing themselves with all sorts of goodies, meats, cheeses and chocolates, I thought it’d be a good idea to introduce an all vegan meal, where the olive oil plays a very important role.

I prefer the olive oil (extra virgin always) to any margarines or spreads containing some small amount of olive oil, not only is the pure olive oil healthier it also tastes so much better. In my opinion, most spreads (not including the real 100% butter) leave an aftertaste which is not very pleasant.

Aside from the beans, the class also made pereski, this is a pontic dish that my mother and her mother always made as a starter or light snack for meals including soups or beans. Pereski is usually made with a dough that you then use to make little pies that you stuff with a mix of potato, onions and herbs, before you deep fry them in olive oil! But we used phyllo pastry for the pereski and we baked them in the oven instead of frying them in loads of olive oil.

Preparing the filling for pereski - onions, boiled and mashed potato and spices.

As I told the class, this is hardly an item you’ll find on the menu in a restaurant. Usually, only a grandmother – the Greek giagia – will be making those and offering to her guests and mainly family. Having said that there is a small little restaurant in Thessaloniki, serving Pontic and Cretan dishes!! So they might still have it on their menu.

Pereski

Finally, we made a simple salad of winter vegetables, Politiki Salata, it’s a salad whose name refers to the big city Poli, Constantinople or Istanbul as it’s now called. The salad from the Town, Poli, consists of cabbage, carrots and celery and a dressing of olive oil and vinegar.

Chopping, slicing and grating the ingredients for the Politiki Salad

And here it is ready, garnished with some piperies florinis:

Politiki salata

Next week we’re doing Kleftiko!

A thank you goes out to Kenwood, whose blender was used to grind the nuts used in the banana bread cake.

If you are interested in booking yourself in for a course or joining a supperclub, contact me to be put on the mailing list for future events.

Or read more details on the classes for January and how to join here: https://greekcookeryclass.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/greek-cookery-class-three-sessions-in-january-for-gigantes-beans-kleftiko-and-mousaka/

 

Greek Cookery Class – three sessions in January for Gigantes beans, Kleftiko and Mousaka

Craving good authentic Greek food in London and want to learn how to make it? Join Greek Cookery Class for hands-on cooking classes and a generous meal to follow after each session! Details and bookings via greekcookeryclass(AT)gmail.com or read below for more info!

Greek Cookery Class has created a three-week course in January 2012 with three full days of cooking and eating: 

In these 3 sessions on 3 Sundays in a row you’ll learn how to cook three of the most popular dishes in Greek cuisine. Each session will last between 4-5 hours, and be held between 1-6pm. We’ll cook together and then have a dinner with the food we’ve made before each participant gets to take a portion home. The course will run on these Sundays: 8, 15 and 22 of January 2012.

Gigantes, baked butter beans

Each class will feature a main dish: gigantes (the baked giant butter beans) which almost is the national dish of Greece, Kleftiko the famous slow roasted lamb and for the finale we’ll do mousaka. The classes are hands-on and you’ll get to learn the skills for the classic Greek dishes that so many of you love and what ingredients to use to make each dish a success. Apart from the mains we’ll also be doing Greek sides/meze and salads to pair with every main to create a meal. 

Kleftiko - roast lamb

The cost for the full course is £195 per person for all three January sessions. All ingredients, 5hr tuition, tastings and meal are included plus a doggy bag to bring some food home after every class. To book contact me via email to arrange payment for your space/s. The 3 week course can be given as a present and more courses will follow with other dishes later in 2012 to expand your Greek chef’s repertoire.

If you wish to attend to two out of the three sessions or only one, the price will be £80/class, remember each class lasts for about 5 hours as the three above main dishes take longer time to cook/prepare!!

The course is held close to Liverpool Street/Old Street stations. Please advise on booking whether there are any food allergies.

Pre-payment only.

The course is informal, good fun and you get to meet people who share the love of food and cooking/eating together. To sign up, email me back with your name and anyone else you’d like to sign up, friend/colleague/partner on email:

greekcookeryclass(AT)gmail.com

First come first served, so please book early to avoid disappointment!! I also offer personalised gift vouchers if you want to give the class/course as a present to your loved ones.

For pictures and info and to get a feel of what we’re up to visit us to see our previous 50++ classes and Greek Supper Clubs on:
www.facebook.com/GreekCookery and check under photos.

Looking forward to cooking together some of the best Greek food in London.

Frying crispy courgette slices - Kolokythakia

Press and testimonials:

Your chef Elisavet, devoted to Greek food, has received much acclaim for her traditional home-cooking style. Elisavet’s food has been served at Riverside Studios in London for a Greek festival and she has been featured in Red Magazine (June 2010), Foodepedia and ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish where Michelin starred chef John Burton Race said her lagana bread is “absolutely first class” and the prawn dish she cooked live on ITV was “cooked to perfection!” Also Eating East has given her food and supper club 4**** stars out of 5 in their review: http://www.eatingeast.co.uk/2010/09/22/greek-foodlovers-supper-club-2/

Elle Decoration magazine (September 2011) recommends Greek Cookery Classes as the authentic Greek cuisine experience and Business Traveller US magazine lists both her Greek Supper Club and Greek Cookery Class among London’s top alternative dining places. Elisavet is also the first cook to teach Greek Cooking lessons at Divertimenti Cookery and Leith’s Cookery School in London and recently her piece on Greek food in Greece was published in The Guardian.

Private events can be arranged as well, for your work, family and/or friends. Get in touch for separate dates and prices for bringing the Greek Supperclub or cooking class experience to your home or bringing your party to us, or hiring the chef for your private dinner party. Catering is another service offered for your special occasions or office meetings and gatherings.

A thank you to Total Greek Yoghurt and Kenwood for sponsoring with their products.

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!

Greek Brunch Club in London

Greek Cookery Class is brunching out! We’re doing a Greek Brunch Club near Columbia Flower Market and a walk away from Brick Lane and Spitalfields markets on Sunday 22 May to celebrate that it’s a year ago since Red Magazine featured me and the famous tyropittakia (=little Greek feta cheese pies).

We’ve created a Greek Brunch menu for this one-off event where I’m cooking and you’re eating, for menu and further details please see below. I’ve included a smoked salmon salad as well, because Greeks love salmon and because I always try to sneak in a little bit of Scandinavia in the menu from time to time.

The Greek Brunch will have some of the most typical and popular “breakfast” delicacies we have in Northern Greece and will keep you going well until after lunch. Just like my Greekfoodlovers’ Supper club offers some of London’s most delicious home-cooked Greek food in a friendly and informal setting where you’re surrounded by other Greek foodlovers, the Greek Brunch club will do just the same.

Menu (yes you get all of these things):

-Tyropittakia (=Greek feta cheese pies)
-Greek Yoghurt with honey and walnuts
-Fruit salad
-Smoked salmon with avocado and salad leaves served with Greek home-baked lagana bread
-Mpougatsa (baked sweet vanilla cream in fillo pastry, with cinnamon and icing sugar on top)

Tea is included and filtered water, you only have to bring your own coffee, we’re very centrally located with several places around offering coffee on the go.

All of this at the price of £20 per person and the portions are Greek i.e. generous!

For veg option or other dietary needs, request on booking.

Advanced payment only.

First come first served, so please book early to avoid disappointment!!

Book via: greekcookeryclass(AT)gmail.com

Mpougatsa

I also offer personalised gift vouchers if you want to give the Greek Brunch Club as a present to your loved ones.

For pictures and info and to get a feel of what we’re up to visit:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=183923&id=99478232600 to see our previous 50 classes and Greekfoodlovers’ Supper Clubs

Press and testimonials:

Your chef Elisavet, devoted to Greek food, has received much acclaim for her traditional home-cooking style. Elisavet has been featured in Red Magazine (June 2010), Foodepedia and ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish where Michelin starred chef John Burton Race said her lagana bread is “absolutely first class” and the prawn dish she cooked live on ITV was “cooked to perfection!” Also Eating East has given her food and supper club 4**** stars out of 5 in their review: http://www.eatingeast.co.uk/2010/09/22/greek-foodlovers-supper-club-2/ and Business Traveller US magazine lists both her Greek Supper Club and Greek Cookery Class among London’s top alternative dining places. Finally, Elisavet is the first cook to teach Greek Cooking lessons at Divertimenti Cookery School in London and this year she’s also teaching at Leith’s Cookery School.

PS Private events can be arranged as well, for your work, colleagues or friends. Get in touch for separate dates and affordable prices! I also offer catering for your personal special occasions or office meetings and parties.

Elisavet

Hot and cold – the secret behind baklava!

Travelling from Greece each time, I’d always carry 3 kilos of baklava from Thessaloniki with me! I don’t know how I managed, but my arms were almost coming out of their place from baklava, carry on luggage and suitcase.

The syrup would stay within the package if I was lucky, otherwise I’d leave a small trail of sugar stickiness behind me.

Baklava by Greekfoodlover

In London I have tried many baklavades (the plural form for baklava in Greek) but never found one that is like the Greek ones I have had in Thessaloniki. Now there are many opinions as to which Zaharoplasteio (Ζαχαροπλαστείο) does the best one in the Greek culinary capitol, but London is starved of what I regard as the proper baklava. Either it’s too dry, or the syrup has no flavour, or not the right flavour.

Baklavadaki

The funniest thing that happened to me was years ago, in St Christopher’s place at a Turkish Restaurant there. The waiter brought me what he called to be the syrup, separately: a slice of lemon, two tea spoons of sugar and a cup of hot water. The idea was that I mix the sugar in the hot water and add the slice of lemon and then pour it over my dessert. Just like that!

Are you confused, or are you laughing?

The ingredients are more or less correct for making syrup but the ratios are totally wrong. You need a lot of sugar to make the syrup and to get it to combine well with the baklava one of them needs to be hot and the other cold! Ideally, you’ll pour the very hot runny syrup over a well cooled down baklava. Never hot syrup on hot baklava and never cold syrup on cold baklava either.

My search for the baklava has ended now that I’ve been making my own baklava, and usually we serve it in the Greek Supper Clubs or as a small treat in some of the Greek Cookery Classes.

But now with Easter week and the preparations for one of the biggest religious holidays in Greece, Easter being as big if not bigger than Christmas, we’re holding the first ever Tsoureki Greek Cookery Class! The aim is to bake Tsourekia from scratch and see the whole labour and process behind making these wonderful braided sweet breads.

Tsourekia

If you’re not able to join the Greek Cookery Class 20 April, we have home-made Tsourekia available this week to save your Easter. Place your order via greekcookeryclass(AT)gmail.com

Limited availability but place your order in time to also arrange delivery/pick up, if you’re London based.

Roast pork with apricots, prunes and quince

For years now I find it difficult to follow recipes, I can read and I understand them, but sometimes I just can’t be bothered. Especially when I cook for myself that is, I just try to remember. So when I was composing the menu and trying to find what courses I would include for my NYE Supper Club I was thinking of two things.

Which dishes are most popular and the yummiest when it comes to Greek food and secondly but more importantly, what do my Greek relatives and Greek family have for dinner on New Year’s Eve. I know in some parts of Greece, turkey is on the menu! I’m not talking politics, but food, the big bird turkey! My family, however, has not had the turkey tradition at all, it’s mostly been pork, lamb and other creations my mum would cook, always with a free mind. So no New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day lunches and dinners have ever been the same!

So I digged out this idea of roast pork with prunes and discussed the recipe with my mum and a cousin. They both liked it and my cousin added that apricots and prunes and pork are kolasi…. hell! But Hell meaning a good thing, it’s so tasty in other words we call it hell. It doesn’t make sense in English but in Greek it does.

I bought my pork, apricots and prunes and found a couple of quince fruits in my fruit basked at home so I decided to add them as well. A few years ago some friends from Thessaloniki cooked pork with quince and I thought the pork with three types of fruit appealed to me as an idea. Would it work as a complete dish?

What better way than to try it. So I put some salt and pepper on the leg of pork, just a small part of the leg. Poured some olive oil over, (Greek Extra Virgin) and oregano and scattered the dried apricots and prunes around. I cut the quince in wedges and added that too, a tiny splash of water in the tray, some mustard and lemon mixed with some olive oil to baste the pork while baking and then I kept myself busy making a karydopitta (Greek walnut cake) so I would not be staring at the oven all the time.

As the piece of meat was only just about 1 kilo, it took about 1 hour and 20 minutes to roast.

Once it came out of the oven, I left it to cool and settle for 15 minutes and cut thin thin slices of the pork and added some prunes, apricots and quince to the plate with a small dollop of mustard.

Kali orexi!

That’s the part of the cooking process, thinking about what I want to do, discussing the recipe idea from my head with those around me and then execution and as I look around what’s more in the kitchen, I add it in the dish.

We’ve got pork on the menu for the NYE Supper Club in London http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180439125306114&index=1 and now having tested my idea, this will be what I’ll be cooking for my guests on the last day of the year, together with a big selection of salads and mezedes for starters.

I hope you can join us and if not what will you be eating for New Year’s?