Foodie Interlude #2

Most people who know me or follow me will know that I am an inveterate Italophile when it comes to food. What most people will not know is that Italian was not the first ethnic cuisine to capture my imagination. The first one was Greek. It happened this way. As an undergraduate Classics major at Catholic University, our department organized a yearly outing to the Akropolis restaurant in D.C. ( I think it was on M Street) The Ancient Greek instructor, Mr. Theodore Papaloizos, a native of Cyprus, would help us with the menu and make recommendations. If my memory serves me correctly, it was the moussaka that won me over. Following graduation and the summer break, I took a 5 week trip to Europe. About 5 days in Rome, the rest I spent wandering all over Greece. I took the ferry from Brindisi, Italy to Corfu and traveled on from there, eventually making my way to Crete by way of Santorini. It’s interesting to think back on that trip. I spoke no Modern Greek (though I could read the signs!) and back in 1975, Greece as not the tourist destination that it has become. Somehow, though, I managed and had an amazing experience. Sadly, I have never been back. I tried to work it into my sabbatical travels, but it just never happened. I still love Greek food and always seek out Greek restaurants when traveling.

In March, I registered for a three-hour daytime cooking class at the Natirar Cooking School. The class featured a Greek menu with five different dishes. I was very much looking forward to it when I received an email a few weeks later saying that class had been cancelled due to low enrollment. I was very disappointed. The school allowed me to transfer my registration to another class, but there wasn’t much that appealed to me. Eventually, the woman who handles the registrations encouraged me to sign up for an evening session called “A Greek Easter”. Up to this point, I hadn’t considered an evening class, but the menu looked interesting, so I signed up.

Wrangling an octopus

When the evening came, I was a little anxious. I wasn’t sure what to expect at Natirar. The other cooking classes I have taken at the Farm Cooking School were rather informal and egalitarian affairs. Natirar, on the other hand, is a very high-end restaurant and event space on the former estate of the king of Morocco. I arrived, parked and went inside. The hostess informed me that they were still preparing the classroom, but I was welcome to wait in the bar and someone would come get me. Not sure how long the wait would be, I ordered a glass of wine. Of course, the minute it arrived, they came to say we could go in. Fortunately, I could bring my wine. There appeared to be about a dozen of us. We sat at a counter surrounding the cooking area while the instructor explained how the class would unfold. We would work on six dishes: smoky eggplant dip; grilled octopus salad, marinated butterflied leg of lamb, lemon potatoes, moussaka stacks and kolourakia – Greek Easter cookies. A quick inventory of the participants revealed that a majority were of Greek descent, as was the instructor. Before we broke up into “teams” to prepare different parts of the menu, Joanne, the instructor showed us how to boil the octopus.Then we set to work.

John grills the octopus

The instructor must have deduced that I was Irish, so I was assigned the task of preparing the lemon potatoes. That was fine. I had to cut the potatoes into wedges and then season them. I was working alongside the team that was making the marinade for the lamb and across from a couple who were preparing the moussaka stacks. It was a convivial group and there was a lot of banter as we finished up our tasks. Then it was back to the counter to watch how to prepare the lamb. Once that was in the oven, we shared some marinated feta, olives and the eggplant dip, while she was demonstrating how to prepare the octopus for grilling. The grilled octopus was dressed and plated for us to sample.

I made these at home

Then it was back to the worktable to make cookies. She prepared the dough in the stand mixer and then gave each of us to turn into cookies. Kolourakia are typically braided is some shape. A piece of dough has to be rolled out by hand into about an 8” ‘rope’ that is then braided, brushed with an egg wash and then baked. I’m not sure how many dozens of cookies we shaped and baked that night, but I know I did almost two full cookie sheets.

First step - Browning the lamb

By now the lamb was done, so we returned to the counter to eat our main course. The lamb was delicious and I must say, the lemon potatoes were outstanding! The moussaka stacks were also yummy. The cookies didn’t take long and emerged from the oven while we were eating our meal. Soon we were all finished and, after sampling our cookies, people got ready to leave. Goodie bags were offered, especially for the mounds of cookies. I took about six, but I already knew that I would be making my own! It turned out to be a very fun evening.


Happy Easter!    Καλή Ανάσταση!