powered by SignMyGuestbook.com
powered by SignMyGuestbook.com
Recent News... Just for Pope Gregory... |
2003-06-01 - 2:14 p.m. Rattan Chef: Episode II Some time ago, Kev, Lucia, and I formed an ad hoc cooking conspiracy, with three cooking snobs joining forces to try new and weird foods � menus designed to amaze and astonish the long suffering significant others and generate plenty of dishes for our mates to wash. The first episode featured exploding gnocchi, a small problem with a squirrel in the grill, and darn good Italian food. This time, we decided to tackle Greek, since we had a Greek gal playing on the home team. Step 1 in what we pretend is a plan - Menu negotiations. L: Lamb at my house was usually served with manestra, an orzo dish. My mom would usually make horta (use the glottalstop for the "h" -- it sounds like someone upchucking, really) for my dad, which are kind of the greek equivalent of collard greens. The only problem is that I HATE horta with a passion.
We could add a side dish of either tiropita, spanakopita, kefthedes (meatballs) or dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) instead of the horta and do a nice greek salad like I used to have up at the houdyo. (Pronounced Hood-YO, the Greek word for homestead, usually referring to one's birthplace or the area in Greece your family is from.) K: I didn't know you grew up in the hood, yo. I might have a recipe still - and might still have the nerve - to cook up some galactobouriko. Jake *loves* that. Theo: I LOVE GALACTOBOURIKO!!! Roland can tell you for five years at Virginia Tech, I would walk hopefully into Soulvaki's and ask if they'd made galactobouriko that day. So, cool menu idea, except I really hate olives. We'll see if this exercise can persuade me. That's the point of trying new foods. That and forcing Kevin to make galactobouriko. And maybe making Liz laugh at my Greek spelling. L: Theo, your spelling is just fine......none of us is using the right alphabet anyway. :) T: ... well, it's all Greek to me, except Spanakopita. So, let's not do that. I know what that tastes like. The rest, I have no idea what they are. So, here�s the strategy - Theo picks pretty names off Lucia�s list, and we have Kefthedes as an appetizer and Tiropita as a side dish. I have no clue what they are, but it's gotta be good. And we could wind out the evening with board games. L: I LOVE BOARD GAMES! Jake: Funny you should mention board games,... I have a game that I got when I was a kid and was really into classical mythology. It's essentially Monopoly with a Greek mythology theme - it's called By Jove. I haven't played it in years but I'd be happy to break it out if people are interested in continuing the evening's theme. =). Step 2 we turn up at Kevin and Jake�s lovely home with more grocery than eight humans could possibly consume (three food snobs, their significant other�s, and Jake�s mom and sister � who were fabulously patient and entertaining) and I start working on appetizers. Tiropita turns out to be a filio dough triangle full of three kinds of cheese and half a pound of melted butter. Half a pound of butter? Is that seriously supposed to go in the stuffing? Or is it just for brushing the filio dough? Jake: No one�s under any illusion this is health food, are they? Working in a kitchen with Kevin is amusing, cause he�s fun and he�s tall. So mere mortals like myself spend a lot of time poking him in the butt with various food implements. Despite my not-help, Kev assembles the eagerly awaited dessert, while I assemble the tiropita. Appetizers are out of the oven just as Lucia and Miles arrive with more garlic than I can count and seven pounds of lamb. (You don�t eat meat? It�s okay. I make lamb.) Congratulate Lucia on a rite of passage. She successfully followed her mother�s handwritten directions to make her mom�s lamb. Maybe it�s only a girl thing, but family recipes are an important triumph in a woman�s life. The lamb goes pop into the oven. Testing shows that Kevin�s oven is, um, overly aggressive and it�ll be done sooner than expected, so I jump start the kefthedes preparation, which (to Miles�s infinite delight) turn out to be meatballs. He was worried about all the fresh herbs going into a bowl, until he realized it was topping three pounds of ground sirloin. Miles spends the reminder of the evening expressing deep affection for the cooks � his wife and I � who were providing burnt flesh. Probably all for the best Kev was making the dessert and salad, cause I don�t think he and Miles are ready for a deeper aspect to their relationship. Kev assembles a beautiful Greek salad (never knew it was important that the cucumber, tomato and onion slices be just so, but it did make a positive difference.) The lamb comes out perfect. Lucia stirs together the manestra (orzo pasta cooking in lamb drippings) while Jake and Miles set the table around the vase of perfect roses Jake has cut earlier in the afternoon. Miles has a narrow miss with Jake and a butter knife, but the food is finally dished up and Lucia sighs happily It looks like Easter. Kev and I sweat it until Lucia announces that is not only looks like Easter, it tastes like Easter. Whew. I spent the entire afternoon learned to pronounce what I was making. Fortunately, getting the taste close was easier. Step 3 � Food Coma The dinner survivors languish on the deck enjoying a brief, half clear sky and temperate weather until we digest enough to face the much awaited dessert. Admittedly, the top of the filio singed a big in Kevin�s overachieving oven, but he just peeled/flaked off the burnt bits I think I�ll just vacuum the crumbs off the counter and it was aaaaaahhhhh exquisite. The things I would do for good galactobouriko. Step 4 � Wrath of the Gods. Jake�s By Jove game of �Greek Monopoly� was very entertaining. You move around the board, hoping the accumulate heroes to help you face the perils, trying to win the favor of the Gods, collect the Golden Fleece, defeat the Minotaur, all the while avoiding Helen of Troy (who made you go to war with another team and risk half your goods on the dice) and trips to Hades. Vicious game too. Very easy to win and loose everything instantly. Very Greek. The trick seems to be to avoid the dread oracle cards (which make you do things like generously send half your heroes to another team to help defeat Hippolyta, Queen of The Amazons). Strangely, growling while facing a peril usually resulted in triumph for your team. Kevin-isn�t-he-so-cute-when-he�s-fierce Thornbury showed special skill in out-growling perils, while his teammate Miles excelled at recruited heroes. The boys were declared the eventual winners. Theo and Jake were talented at rolling doubles under unfortunate circumstances (landing on a god space during a double roll reserved their favor and sent you to Hades), yet could never roll doubles to get out of Hades free. Roland and Lucia? Well, the gods just didn�t like them, though they did have the easiest defeat of the Minotaur. That was my food geeky Saturday. Next episode: Indian food and parchessi. � � � 
|