April's supper club at The Nook had a Greek theme this time. This was to be my last supper club at The Nook, but I will write more of that in my next post.
Sarah took the decision to decorate in white this time.
The simplicity of the table worked well with a white napkin and sprig of rosemary teamed with lace and ribbon covered hessian decorated glass jars containing tea lights.
When I first mentioned Greek food straight away someone said 'stuffed vine leaves?'
I can remember my sister and friends sitting at a kitchen table years ago carefully rolling vine leaves, but it wasn't something I had ever tried.
We ordered the leaves from an online company specialising in Greek produce. I googled the process of making the 'Dolmades', as they are called, and set to work making my own.
I had made a tomato rice for the vegetarian main so I decided to use this as the stuffing mix. It would mean I could have a totally vegetarian starter which would make life easier in the kitchen during service.
Depending on the size of the leaf I used 3 or 4 overlapped in a circle and placed some of the rice mix in the center.
I folded the sides in and rolled the rest to form a neat 'cigar' shape.
To cook the Dolmades I lined a baking sheet with greaseproof paper topped with slices of tomato, this prevents the leaves sticking to the bottom and burning. I then packed all my rolled leaves in rows in the top, sprinkling chopped garlic between them.
Sprinkle with lemon juice, add some cold water and cover with oiled foil, so the vine leaves steam cook, and place in the oven for about 45 minutes.
This leads me nicely to our first starter!
As I mentioned earlier it was totally vegetarian and I anticipated it to be ordered by the majority, which it was, leaving the kitchen with a very quick and easy task of serving up.
So our starter was a vegetarian Greek Mezze Plate which showcased a selection of Greek starters.
Dolmades, Grilled Haloumi, Spanakopita (spinach & feta filo parcels), Tzatziki (a garlic & cucumber yoghurt), Roasted Peppers and Olives. What a lovely combination of food!
Our other starter was a Greek salad full of cucumber, tomatoes, onion, olives and feta cheese, all tossed in a dressing made of olive oil, lemon juice and oregano.
Our mains began with Lamb Shank Kleftico with potatoes and vegetables.
Kleftico refers to lamb being marinated in lemon, garlic and herbs then cooked in a sealed container.
Next came Salmon Fillet and Avocado Tzatziki served with a warm potato salad containing capers, feta, onion and lemon juice.
Not the best presentation on this one now I look at the photo again but the taste was lovely.
Our vegetarian main was Feta and Mushroom Balls served with rice stuffed tomatoes and Saltsa Domatas, a Greek tomato sauce.
I loved the flavours in this, it was my favourite dish, especially the tomato rice.
And for dessert, again the photos don't do the food justice, Ekmek Kataifi, which was strands of Kataifi pastry topped with syrup, custard cream, pistachios and almonds.
I've written about the dessert in this separate post showing the different stages of making it. Lovely desserts with many different textures.
And finally Melopita, a honey pie, similar to egg custard.
I loved this too and I didn't think I would.
Again we had some many customers that we spread the event over 2 nights and did 65 covers overall.
Feedback was great and once again 2 very successful evenings.
Ideas and recipes for the above dishes and more can be found on my pinterest board Greek Night April
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