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

Greek Cookery Class Course – Daytime – Giouvetsi, Dolmades and Spanakopitta!

Greek Cookery Class runs another three-week course daytime, this time, on 23 Jan, 30 Jan and 6 Feb 2012 with three full days of cooking and eating.

In these 3 sessions on 3 Mondays in a row you’ll learn how to cook three very popular dishes in Greek cuisine plus a lot of side dishes. Each session will last between 4-4,5 hours and be held between 12 noon – 4pm. We’ll cook together and then have a meal together with the food we’ve made before each participant gets to take a portion home. The course will run on these Mondays: 23 Jan, 30 Jan and 6 February 2012. Each class will feature a main dish: Giouvetsi or kritharaki as it’s also called (the rice shaped pasta cooked in tomato sauce with meat), Dolmades the stuffed vine leaves and finally at the last session you’ll learn how to make Spanakopitta.

Spanakopita

The classes are hands-on and you’ll get to learn the skills for cooking these 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 a few different Greek sides/meze and salads in every class to pair with every main to create a meal and there will be other goodies to try out during the class as well, and dessert if you behave 🙂 The cost for the full course is £195 per person for all three sessions. All ingredients, 4hr tuition, tastings and meal are included plus a doggy bag to bring some food home after every class. You just bring your drink. To book contact me via email to arrange payment for your space/s. (Email below…)

Giouvetsi

The 3 week course can be given as a present as well. If you wish to attend one or two out of the three sessions the price will be £80/class, remember each class lasts for about 4 to 4,5 hours (eating included).

The course is held close to Liverpool Street/Old Street stations. Location details only to paying customers and closer to the date of the event. Pre-payment only. Advise me on any allergies upon booking or food intolerances. 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 on the email below. But it’s absolutely fine to just book yourself in, as many people do join the events on their own!

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/supperclub 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 or visit the https://greekcookeryclass.wordpress.com

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

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, 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 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 Schools 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.

Three Greek food clichés

Is it true that all Greeks love olives? Add feta cheese everywhere? And finally do all Greeks smash plates?

I love these cliches, because they make me laugh!

If there are two things I don’t like eating, it’s just those two mentioned above, feta and olives… I can handle them, I can cook with them and I can cook them, but to eat them raw is not something I enjoy. There’ve been moments when my Greekness has been questioned due to this inclination of mine, not to eat olives or feta. My own father ignores the fact that I don’t eat olives, especially as his mother used to make her own olive oil and olives.

My Greek food with feta pies, meatballs and melomakarona at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith London

So each time around the dinner table he’ll ask someone to pass around the olives my way, as if he doesn’t remember that I don’t eat them and acts as surprised as anyone else at me hearing that I won’t have any olives this time either! Hahahahaha

As I’m planning the menu and ingredients for the next Greek Cookery Class on 23 November, I realise that for a second Greek Cookery Class in a row the feta cheese is excluded. It’s pure coincidence, as I’ve had classes where we’ve done everything possible with feta, melted it, baked it, cubed it, added it raw to a salad, but we’re going feta free for a couple of sessions. There’s more to Greek food than feta cheese and there’s also more cheeses to try out than feta. One of my absolute favourites is the Greek hard cheese called Kefalotyri. It’s a PDO (as EU recognises a product of designated origin) meaning that no other country can produce this cheese under the same name. Just as no one else in the world can produce Cognac or Champagne. Kefalotyri is like a Greek version of the Sardinian pecorino cheese! Tastes delicious grated over pasta dishes and the Greek giouvetsi, or yiouvetsi.

But the fact is that Greece produces as many cheeses as our fellow European country France! So when you next visit Greece, make sure to try more cheeses than the obvious feta!

My next Greek Cookery Class on 23 November will be followed by one more Greek Cookery Class this year, date to be announced soon, and that class will be totally vegan. Traditionally, most of the Greek cuisine is based around vegetables and greens, and people in the old days ate very little meat and very rarely. So I’m planning an all wonderful feast of Greek vegan tasty dishes!

Also two more supper clubs before 2010 departs. One Greek Supper Club on Sun 5 Dec and one New Year’s Eve Greek Supper Club on 31 Dec.

Details for the 5 Dec are on www.facebook.com/GreekCookery and the menu for the 31 NYE dinner party will be up later this week.

Have a lovely week and looking forward to cooking with you soon or at least having the pleasure of feeding you with Greek delicacies!

PS. If you want, bring your plates for the 31 Dec and we can smash them together…. just kidding, who smashes plates anyway?

Greek food at Riverside studios – London Saturday 20 Nov

Everybody is aware of Ancient Greeks and its importance for the arts and culture! But what is going on in the Greek arts world today?

This you can find out at Ekon Festival which is its third year and continues to present us with Greek contemporary art and music. This year it’s hosted at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith London and because we Greeks love our food, yes you didn’t think I was going to blog about something without mentioning the magic word, your ticket will include Greek nibbles as well in the price.

The chef behind Greek Cookery Class and Greekfoodlovers’ Supper Clubhas prepared a menu of three things for you to nibble, the famous tyropittakia made with Greek feta cheese, extra virgin olive oil and Greek Yoghurt, melomakarona for those with a sweet tooth and Greek meatballs you simply cannot stop yourself from eating.

For details on the programme visit: www.ekon.org.uk

To buy tickets get in touch with Riverside Studios: www.riversidestudios.co.uk