Friday, April 13, 2007

Dining With Friends - Greek Menu is set

We finalized the menu last weekend:
  1. Marinated Meatballs
  2. Spinach Pie
  3. Eggplant Moussaka
  4. Beet Salad
  5. Tomato and Cucumber Salad with Feta Cheese
  6. Lamb with Orzo
  7. Baked Lima Beans
  8. Greek Chicken
  9. Greek Potatoes
  10. Plaki
  11. Dolmades
  12. Assorted olives
The work involved in paring it down to just this list was staggering. Starting in January Myron sifted through four cookbooks and numerous websites and collected anywhere from 2 to 8 recipes for more than 20 dishes. Once we decided on a dish we reviewed all the recipes and decided on the one recipe that sounded the most interesting that still retained an authentic feeling.

From here I take the recipes and retype them into a more friendly format, multiplying out the ingredients as I go. Then I take all the ingredients, plug them into Excel, and add it all up to get a total of quantities across all the dishes. That gives us our master shopping list. Then I figure out when the various components need to be done and work out a schedule for what gets done when. It's a lot of prep work and coordination, but it's fun.

In case you missed my original post the party is on Saturday, May 5th. If you want to visit Charleston, SC, drop me a line and I'll give you the address. :-)

4 comments:

  1. Are you planning a suace for the dolmades?

    I have a Greek aunt who makes the most wonderful dolmades with a lemony glaze/suace of some sort.

    She, by far, is my favorite cook and I love Greek cuisine.

    Good luck with your dinner, the menu sounds great; wish I could find a way to be in the Carolinas that weekend.

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  2. I just called her and found the name of the sauce: strained avgolemono soup. The soup is a combination of chicken, rice, lemon and starch. She strains out the chicken and rice and uses them for something else, which leaves the rest to be poured over the dolmades as a glaze (in case you want an even more complicated menu!)

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  3. Thanks Andy, I appreciate the tip. Someone else is making the dolmades for us, and while I've had them I'm not sure about the sauce. The egg and lemon sauce sounds pretty classic, though, it's on lots of things.

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  4. Yummy! I'm impressed just from reading, that is a lot of work. I'm sure it will be a memorable party. Have fun.

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