Date Night at Salud!

Last night was date night!  Ben and I went to the Salud Cooking School at Whole Foods for a Greek Mezes Party.  We had a lot of fun. 








When we arrived for class, the tables were set, the food was prepped and the appetizers were prepared.  (Too bad we don't have a crew of chefs to organize our dinners like that at home.)

Our appetizer was warm Eggplant spread with sliced pita wedges.  It might not sound appealing but it was amazing.  (Think warm hummus-like spread with roasted red peppers.)  I was so excited about tasting that I forgot to take a picture - sorry.

After our appetizer course, we divided into teams and got to work preparing dinner.  Our first task was frying the Khaloumi Cheese.  (Basically cheese fried in olive oil.)

It was soooo good.  (The green on the top is fresh oregano.)











We enjoyed our cheese appetizer with Greek wine.  I sampled the white but I preferred the red. 











After a brief second course of wine and cheese it was back to the kitchen.  Our team was assigned tomato rissoles.  (Favakeftedes Me Kapari Yakhni)







We gave Ben the job of squishing the tomatoes with his hands.

He got a little carried away and squirted tomatoes so far across the kitchen that they ended up on one of the assistant chefs.  After that he got a little assistance from the chef.











In the end our tomato risolles mixture turned out great. 

 Ben did such a great job on making the rissoli batter that we let him do the frying as well.

 

Just is case you were wondering if my wonderful husband could cook - here is your proof.  (He is a risolli maker extraordinaire.)  

While we were making rissoles, the other teams were busy preparing food in their stations as well.








One team was making mushrooms stuffed with ground lamb while another team was making keftedakia.  (Small meatballs)







While the mushrooms and meatballs cooked, we all attempted to work with filo dough to make spanakotiropota.  (spinach and cheese pita) Some of us were better at working with the delicate pastry than others. 

This was my favorite dish of the evening.  I loved the flaky dough and the cheesy spinach filling.

After a couple hours of cooking, we all sat down to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Seared tuna with capers, stuffed mushrooms, tomato rissoles, small meatballs and a spinach and lamb fritter.  Yum!

To round out our meal, we all took turns frying loukoumades.  (honey doughnuts) 

Fried balls of dough sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and served with honey syrup - what's not to like?  We ate these doughnuts hot out of the oil.  They were fantastic.

So at the end of the night, we headed home with very full bellies and a list of recipes that would inspire anyone to travel to Greece.  It was a great date.  

Ciao!