Greek Cooking w/ Despina Immersion Workshop #1

In Workshop #1 (Non-Vegetarian) you’ll learn to make keftedes, light and savory beef meatballs. Then you’ll mix up a fresh batch of tzatziki, a bright cucumber yogurt sauce for dipping. When you make spanakopita, you’ll learn how lots of fresh dill, scallions, and Despina’s favorite Arachova feta cheese, add a unique fresh zing to this comforting dish, and you’ll learn how to handle phyllo dough to make the crispest golden crust. Garides me to rizi, shrimp cooked with grated tomato, garlic, scallions, and rice, is an easy, delicious one pot dish that truly highlights the flavor of the shrimp. As a side dish, depending on the season, you’ll either make horta, boiled leafy greens, like bitter chicory or dandelion greens, which get simply dressed with the best Greek olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice, or the freshest Greek salad, made only with tomato wedges, shaved red onion, Kalamata olives, and crumbled feta cheese, dressed in olive oil and red wine vinegar. At the end, you’ll learn to make kourampiedes, the famous sugar-dusted Greek almond cookies which are especially popular at Christmas.

Menu:

Spanakopita (Spinach Pie)

• Fresh spinach, sauteed with dill and scallions and mixed with tangy pieces of Arachova feta cheese, baked between sheets of phyllo dough. 

Keftedes with Tzatziki (Meatballs with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce)

• Ground beef mixed with minced onion, fresh mint, and grated Parmesan, formed into meatballs and fried, served with a cucumber yogurt sauce for dipping.

Garides Me To Rizi (Shrimp with Tomato and Rice)

• Fresh shrimp simmered with scallions, crushed tomato, and garlic, stirred into rice and topped with fresh parsley.

Horta (Boiled Leafy Greens)

• Assorted leafy greens, such as chicory and dandelion, briefly boiled and then dressed with Greek olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice.

OR Xoriatiki Salata (Greek Salad)

• Tomato wedges, shaved red onion, Kalamata olives, and crumbled Arachova feta cheese, dressed in olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Kourampiedes (Almond Cookies)

• Traditional Greek Christmas cookies made with almonds and dusted with powdered sugar.

Food Allergies: This menu includes dairy, eggs, tree nuts, shellfish, and wheat.

Cooking with Despina: With an easy, warm manner, and a boundless enthusiasm for cooking, Despina will inspire you from the moment you enter her home. The beauty of Despina’s cooking lies in its simplicity and its reliance on the freshest ingredients. You will sit down to a welcome snack of seasonal Greek appetizers, such as Despina’s tangy, succulent stuffed grape leaves, which she will encourage you to dip in yogurt, and her bright, fresh potato salad. She will serve you Greek mountain tea, a medicinal herbal tea with a mild mint flavor that grows wild in Greece. At the end of the day you’ll go home newly inspired with all the recipes and a shopping guide to Despina’s favorite food markets.

All immersion workshops include a light lunch and beverage, 3.5 hours of hands-on cooking instruction, a full dinner, and a booklet of recipes and in-depth culinary info.