Greek Online Workshop #2

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. 

In this 2.5 hour interactive online experience Despina will guide you through making a few of her family recipes. You'll start by preparing fasolada (a hearty soup of Great Northern beans and veggies, flavored with crushed tomatoes, dried Greek oregano, and lots of fruity Greek olive oil). Then you'll bake a full pan of delicious spanakopita (fresh spinach sauteed with dill and scallions mixed with tangy pieces of feta cheese and layered into crispy phyllo)--plenty to share or save for the next day! Finally, you'll learn to make bouyiourdi (tomatoes and peppers layered together with feta and topped with melty kasseri cheese), a savory appetizer eaten with pita bread. It's a vegetarian Greek feast!

Shopping List for This Class:

• 1 pound dried Great Northern beans
• 3 medium carrots
• 2 large ribs celery
• 2 Cubanelle peppers
• 1 Italian long hot pepper or jalapeño chile
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 medium yellow onions or 2 large yellow onions
• 1 large bunch of flat-leaf parsley
• 10 scallions
• 1 1/2 pounds leaf spinach (not baby)
• 1 large bunch of dill
• 12 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 2 large or 3 small plum tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 3/4 teaspoons Greek dried oregano (regular oregano is also okay)
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 large eggs
• One 1-pound box #10 (extra thick) phyllo dough (not frozen if possible)
• 6 ounces kasseri cheese (or mozzarella, or any other cheese that melts)
• 1 ½ lb Greek Feta
• Pita bread or rusks (dried bread), for serving
• Greek olives, for serving

Here’s how it works:

• After registration you’ll receive an email with the Zoom link, shopping list, equipment list, and recipe packet.
• At the scheduled time of your class, you’ll click on the Zoom link and join your class live! Afterwards, you will receive a link to a video recording of your class that you can revisit at your leisure.
• All Online cooking classes include interactive cooking instruction, a virtual dinner party, a packet with the instructor's family recipes, and a video recording of the class. Since the price is per device, feel free to invite your partner, kids, or roommates to join!