Greek Cooking w/ Despina Immersion Workshop #2

In Workshop #2 (Vegetarian), you will learn to make tourlou, a savory baked vegetable dish where large cuts of zucchini, potato, and eggplant, sprinkled with lots of fresh thyme and olive oil, slowly cook in their own juices. When you make faki, lentil soup, you will see how a just a few concentrated ingredients like tomato, fresh thyme, and red wine vinegar give it memorable flavor. 

You will also appreciate why Despina loves to cook with hearty gigante beans, and how the proper method of cooking them gives them their perfectly smooth texture. Tiropita, a cheese pie filled with feta, ricotta, and eggs, and topped with golden phyllo, is a delicious hearty accompaniment to the vegetable dishes.  

For a sweet you will make Despina’s special halva, a beautiful semolina cake made with cinnamon and clove spiced milk and golden raisins, topped with ground walnuts and cinnamon.

Menu for Immersion Workshop #2 (Vegetarian)

Tourlou (Baked Vegetables)
Large pieces of zucchini, eggplant, and potato mixed with grated tomato, Greek olive oil and fresh parsley, baked in their own juices.

Faki (Greek Lentil Soup)
Brown lentils simmered with carrots, grated tomato, fresh thyme, garlic, and red wine vinegar.

Gigantes Beans
Giant beans baked until tender with carrots, celery, grated tomato, and fresh thyme.

Tiropita (Cheese Pie)
Arachova feta cheese, ricotta cheese, and eggs, baked between sheets of phyllo dough.

Greek Halva (Semolina Cake)
A moist, crumbly cake made from toasted semolina mixed with golden raisins, walnuts, and cinnamon and clove spiced milk, topped with ground walnuts and sprinkled with cinnamon.

Food Allergies: This menu includes dairy, eggs, tree nuts, 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 hours of hands-on cooking instruction, a full dinner, a recipe packet, and a shopping guide.