Summer Feasting, Greek-style

I always love an excuse to cook up a storm. Maybe it’s someone’s birthday, or we have an out-of-town visitor, or maybe I just scored a huge bunch of beets at the farmer’s market and feel compelled to create a whole meal around them. It’s funny to me that people sometimes seem overwhelmed by my efforts, almost guilty even, when they see me busy in the kitchen. I wouldn’t go to the trouble if I didn’t love doing it, I say, but still they seem rather uncomfortable. Maybe it’s just that people don’t want to expend so much energy in the kitchen anymore? Personally, I love the challenge of getting five dishes going at once, making substitutions and adaptations on the fly, rotating burner and oven rack space, orchestrating it all to be ready at the same time.

Anyway, yesterday we had a couple of our favorite people over for lunch and to celebrate, I decided to channel my inner Greek village mama. You know, the one that puts out way too much food and then exhorts you over and over again to Eat! Eat! Well, eat we all did, and somehow still managed to find space for an impromptu dessert (no, I didn’t think that far ahead in my meal planning). Below is a picture of the savories: Kale spanikopita, squash patties (kolokithokefthedes – say that 3 times fast!), fava beans in tomato sauce (gigantes), lemon-garlic-dill green beans, roasted beet/Vidalia onion salad, plus liberal helpings of feta cheese, kalamata olives, and bread. Scrounging for dessert, we came up with French vanilla ice cream with dark chocolate shavings, thawed strawberries and their juice, plus a sprinkling of Amaretto liqueur on top. Yep, we pretty much rolled away from the table after the meal.

Greek feast!

I’ve posted the kale spanikopita recipe before – I call it kalepita – but wanted to share how to make gigantes and kolokithokefthedes, as they are both super-easy and high on the yum scale. These are classic Greek bar appetizers – vegetarians visiting Greece fare best by ordering mostly appetizers, in my experience – and the fresh herbs in both dishes, plus a little squeeze of lemon juice, really shout summer.

Gigantes (Fava Beans in Tomato Sauce)

• 1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 15 oz cans fava beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
• salt and pepper to taste 

Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized pot, bring to a boil and then turn down to a low simmer for about 20 minutes. Serve at room temp alongside brown bread for mopping up the sauce, or with rice pilaf.

Kolokithokefthedes (Squash Patties)

Note: Any stage of making the batter can be done beforehand and refrigerated overnight, since it needs to be refrigerated at least an hour anyway.

• 4 medium zucchini squash, cut into 3 chunks each. Place in a medium pot with several inches of water in the bottom. Bring to a boil and then cook until tender (about 10 min). Drain, mash with a fork and set aside.
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped. Saute in 2 T butter until soft (about 5 min).
• ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 handful of fresh mint, chopped
• ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
• ½ tsp salt
• pepper
• 2 eggs, beaten lightly
• 1 cup bread crumbs (1 piece fresh bread, toasted and whirled in processor) 

Combine all ingredients to make batter. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Place ½ cup flour into a bowl. Heat ¼ cup olive oil in a wide bottomed pan until it’s hot enough that a little bit of the batter sizzles when you drop it in. 
 
Scoop up about ¼ cup batter at a time, loosely forming it into a flat circle and then dredge it in the flour before sliding into the oil. Cook until light brown on each side.

Squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the patties before serving.

And just for fun, a few of my other favorite summer things...

Adirondack chairs



Straw sunhats



Waterfall hikes

Painted toenails

Happy Summer!