Greek Lunches for the Indian Wedding

Both the American, as well as the Indian participants seemed to have enjoyed the sparsely spiced Greek-Mediterranean dishes we cooked.

Sometime last year we were approached by Anji, an enthusiastic Indian-American lady, who wanted to include Kea Artisanal in the two-day festivities preceding the traditional Indian Wedding she was planning for her daughter, Neha at a huge, secluded villa over Sykamia, on the eastern part of the island.

Preparing our signature summer stuffed vegetables as a demo

I immediately said we could do it, although the sheer number of guests –forty people—and the fact that we would have had to transport everything there and cook most dishes away from our own kitchen, should have terrified me. Costas was quite skeptical from the start, but to me, a year ago, it all seemed quite doable. As the time approached though, I started to really panic, and spent many sleepless nights thinking how on earth we could feed so many people, let alone re-creating the intimate atmosphere of our own veranda table that accommodates 12-15 people at most occasions.

But we managed it, mostly thanks to Costas’ careful planning, and the numerous trips to the villa, before Anji’s group arrived, to check the kitchen and BBQ, and carry all our props and utensils. We prepared most of our meze here, in our kitchen, as we usually do, in larger portions of course, as well as the Santorini Fava and its topping of caramelized onions and capers.

I made my smoky melitzanosalata with peppers and parsley, my green taramosalata, and the marinated fresh anchovies, among other things.

Mostly Vegetarian and Vegan

We prepared our signature summer stuffed vegetables, as a demo the first day, and the next we made oven-cooked eggplants and peppers, adding some potatoes and carrots to make the dish more substantial. As many of the guests were vegetarian and/or vegan, these traditional olive oil dishes were exactly what was needed. We also cooked green beans braised with onions and tomatoes,  my favorite summer dish.

Costas had the courage to make his signature grilled sea breams wrapped in fig leaves in the villa BBQ. He roasted over charcoal 20 large fish, in the grill that had a wall in the back, unlike our airy garden one.

I cannot really imagine how he must have suffered from the intense radiant heat. But not only did he survive, he also found the strength to circulate among the guests, pouring the special wines we had brought, discussing grape varieties and the new, natural vinification methods.

Of course, we also rolled homemade phyllo, as we do in all our classes, making the irresistible crunchy, galette-like feta and eggwash pie, inspired by the traditional ‘lazy woman’s pie’ of Zagori

Some of the guests were eager to try rolling, among them one of the bridesmaids.

Manuela, my wonderful assistant and friend is the best phyllo teacher! She learned to roll from her mother when she was 12-years old, while I am really no good, as I learned the method from her, but I never manage to make the silky, almost transparent sheets she rolls in minutes…