Spring Time in Greece

Tonight was the Spring Time in Greece dinner at OCC. I was a part of the kitchen staff. It was fun, but not at all like I expected.

I didn't get to cook anything! The Banquets & Buffets class prepped and cooked everything. Boo.

All everyone else got to do was some prep work and then plate the five courses for ~180 people. It was still cool, since all the food was amazing looking, and delicious. I wish I had brought a camera as other people did, so i could show you just how awesome everything looked. I might be able to get a hold of some to show you.

On to the menu:

Employee Meal:

Greek Salad with Rosemary Pita Chips - Standard fare. The dressing was quite good.

Greek Chicken Kabobs with yougart - also very good, though a lot of the chicken was under cooked and served anyway. Oops. I didn't have any part of that.

Spanikopita - delicious spinach pie.

Gyros with Tzatziki - the tzatziki was good, but I'm not a huge gryo fan. Which is strange, since I adore lamb.

Pastitsio - This was my favorite. Recipe to follow.

And for dessert, Baklava - wonderful.

That's just what we got to eat for dinner, though when the actual dinner was being served there were a lot of leftovers and extras that we devoured throughout the night.

Dinner Menu:

Hors D'oevres:

Tzatziki and Tabouli on pita chips - my favorite

Spanikopita

Stuffed Grape Leaves - my second favorite

Octopus Salad - regretfully I was not able to try this, but it was a huge hit.

Tyropitakia - It's like quiche with feta cheese and egg with a phyllo crust. Really good.

and of course, Saganaki - Flaming cheese. OPA!

Soup:

Kotosoupa Avgolemono - Chicken and lemon rice. Unfortunately I did not get to try this, but it looked so so good. It was garnished with lemon zest, capers, chive oil, and scallion.

Salad:

Greek salad with baby beets and a warm goat cheese cake. The goat cheese cake was amazing. It was sweet with a graham cracker crust and savory with the goat cheese. There was some serious umami going on there. The extras did not last long.

Fish:

Barramundi with Lemon and Garlic served over a warm orzo pasta with artichokes and tomatoes with a lemon caper butter sauce and a ramekin of pastitsio. This was also very good. It's an australian sea bass, extremely mild. The pasta and sauce were fantastic.

Main Course:

Greek Trio of grilled Lamb chops, chicken stuffed with olives and feta, a lamb sausage presented with a stuffed grape tomato (which was not a part of the original menu so I do not know what went into it other than ground beef, I can tell you it was spicy and very good) and baby green beans. There was nothing about this dish that was not super fantastic. Everything was delicious.

Dessert:

Vanilla ice cream with strawberries and a strawberry sauce toped with a rich chocolate curl and what appeared to be a white chocolate/chocolate praline "cigarette". It was also served with a chocolate ouzo sorbet. Ultra decadent and equally delicious, especially the chocolate ouzo sorbet.

The whole evening was fantastic, I just which I could have cooked something. I post the recipes for the pastitsio soon.