Greek Feast: NYE 2010

My goodness, how time flies. Here we are -- three whole days into the new year already and I think I just started to get hungry again after all that New Year's Feasting...

Seriously. I'm barely kidding.

If you've been paying close attention to our habits over the years, you may have noticed that it's tradition for us to celebrate New Year's Eve at home in the company of our good friend Steph. It's customary for us to get together the week before Christmas to choose a theme for our celebration. And then we spend the days before New Year's gathering up a slew of great looking recipes to challenge us in the kitchen. Last year, we cooked up an amazing Asian feast that took us almost three whole days to consume.

This year, we were inspired by an issue of Saveur magazine that featured a number of Greek small plates.  So, we decided to pull out all the stops on an amazing Mediterranean theme.

Oddly enough, even the weather cooperated with our concept.  You probably won't believe me, but I've got to get it on record that it was 55 degrees here in Milwaukee on New Year's Eve Day.  Um... yeah.  Absolutely balmy. For those of you who aren't familiar with Wisconsin weather, it's pretty unbelievable to get above 30 degrees in late December, so fifty was a pretty nice treat.  Although it was a little bit rainy, we spent part of the morning outside sipping wine next to the grill while our eggplant and peppers blackened. 

We took the smoky vegetables, peeled away the burnt skin and then pureed them with jalapeno peppers, garlic, and plenty of fresh parsley to make Melintzanosalata, an amazingly spicy smoky eggplant dip.   We also pulled together some Tzatziki and a batch of garlicky Skordalia (which we made with walnuts, instead of the more traditional almonds).

The dips were amazing served with crudites (mostly sliced fresh fennel, in our case) and crackers, but they also made great toppings for the Laganes (Greek flatbreads) we prepared.

For our first round of small plates, we made deliciously herbal Dolmades, which were the perfect complement to the minty & garlicky tzatziki.

 And we loved the Garides Saganaki (shrimp with tomatoes & feta) -- which was not only delicious on its own, but perfect scooped up into the Laganes.

We took frequent breaks to play Trivial Pursuit, as well as this year's newest board game acquisition, Smart Ass (which turned out to be a seriously fun time, despite its awkwardly large dice & strangely small game pieces).

And when we'd get hungry again, we'd go back into the kitchen and whip up amazing little snacks like Piperies Gemistes me Feta (peppers stuffed with feta).  After oohing and aahhing over the dish, we'd go back to playing games for a while... until we got a hankering for our next dish.

It took a while, but we managed to get through almost every one of the recipes we'd chosen -- including delicious lamb meatballs with feta, oregano, & garlic...

Fried calimari... which was amazing when paired with the smoky eggplant dip...

And our perennial New Year's Eve favorite, Spanikopita -- which has become such a staple, we don't even bother using a recipe anymore.  This year's spinach pies were flaky and bursting at the seams with spinach, scallions, dill and garlic. 

We made a particularly large batch, but it wasn't a problem at all since we were delighted to have leftovers to eat for lunch on New Year's Day.

When we tired of cooking, we settled in with our flat-bread and dips, chatting animatedly as we sipped refreshing glasses of iced ouzo and nibbled on olives & pomegranate seeds.  The hours and minutes remaining in 2010 slipped away almost effortlessly -- as time tends to do when we're eating & drinking with good friends.


What did you do for NYE this year?



©BURP! Where Food Happens
Want more? Read Lo's latest ruminations at FOODCrush, her Milwaukee Magazine blog.

More Winter Grilling: Lamb Pitas with Cucumber, Feta, and Mint Yogurt Sauce

You know that little hole-in-the-wall Greek place on the corner that serves the fantastic gyros?  The one with the great fried eggplant, the killer cucumber sauce, and the really long line at the counter? Yeah -- those gyros. The ones that are just a little too salty, a bit too greasy, but somehow positively perfect on one of those nights when you don't feel like cooking?

Yeah, well, these aren't those gyros.
However, I'm going to urge you to keep on reading. These lamb pitas take a little bit of fore-thought. And definitely require more effort than take-out.  But, they're well worth it.  In fact, if you're the sort who loves a good gyro (but who would prefer to avoid all the salt and nastiness that are included with the ones from the gyro stand), I'd encourage you to make these sandwiches. At least once. It's so easy you don't even need a recipe.

You do need a few basics -- a pound or two of  fresh local lamb (we usually go for the meat from the leg) sliced into strips, a few sprigs of fresh mint, some fresh oregano, a bit of lemon juice, salt, and a nice flavorful olive oil.  Mix the lemon juice, salt, and olive oil together. Then chop the herbs.

Spread the herbs over the strips of lamb, turning them to distribute the herbs evenly.  Then, pour the lemon juice mixture over the top.  Allow the meat to marinate for at least 2 hours.  The trick with marinating the strips is to go long enough that the meat is seriously imbued with flavor -- but not so long that you're going to severely alter the meat's texture (lemon juice can be harsh that way).  So, you probably don't need an all-night marinade here... but definitely give the lamb a bit of time to linger in the seasonings.
While the meat is marinating, you'll want to thinly slice a small red onion and sprinkle it with a bit of red wine vinegar.  The vinegar takes a bit of the pungency out of the onions while imparting them with a nice vibrant kick.  When you're done, these onions make a great addition to salads, sammiches, and the like (if you're me, you might even decide to eat them straight out of the bowl).

After you marinate your onions, you might also want to throw together a bit of yogurt sauce for your lamb pitas.  Take a cup of greek-style yogurt (or regular whole milk yogurt that's been drained for a couple of hours through a coffee filter), add about 2 T red wine vinegar, 3 T chopped mint, and about 1/2 tsp of salt. Stir to combine. Then, go ahead and slice some cucumber. 

You can also crumble some feta cheese.  And, if it weren't the middle of January here in Wisconsin, you can be sure I'd suggest you slice up a few garden fresh tomatoes as well.  But, honestly people, winter tomatoes scare me. So, we're not even going there.

Before you know it, it will be time to deal with the lamb again.  Take the lamb strips and weave them onto skewers. Set them aside on a baking sheet until you've got your grill nice and preheated.


Then, place them on a hot grill -- preferably on an outdoor charcoal grill. Although you can place your kebabs under the broiler, or brown them up on a grill pan inside, I really love firing up a nice hot outdoor grill on a cold winter afternoon.  The air temperature might be frigid, but the smell of that grill reminds me of warmer days -- and it tends to give my mood a bit of a boost.

Regardless of the method, direct heat is best here, since the thinly sliced lamb will cook quickly. You want the outside to sear nicely, while the inside remains tender.  Aim for medium rare on the kebabs, since they'll cook a bit more even after you take them off the grill.

If there are two of you, one of you can grill while the other throws together a delicious salad -- romaine lettuce, some of those chopped cucumbers and marinated red onions, a few kalamata olives, and a bit of red wine vinaigrette with plenty of garlic and oregano. Top everything off with a few crumbles of feta cheese, just for good measure.

When the lamb is cooked and the salad is assembled, you can start putting together your gyros.  Peef likes his loaded up with lamb, cucumbers, onions, tzatziki, and feta cheese... but you can make yours however you like.  Any way you look at it, your sandwich will rival anything you can get at that greasy little gyro joint...

.. and no matter how you load up your sammich, you're bound to be saving some serious fast-food calories at the same time.

And who can really argue with that?


©BURP! Where Food Happens