Greek Food Demo & Wine Pairing with Eleni Saltas

Join us for our very first cooking demo and wine pairing with social media cooking sensation, Eleni Saltas. Salt Lake City native, Eleni Saltas has been fully immersed in Utah’s vibrant Greek community through dance, sports, and youth activities since childhood. With a degree in Exercise and Sports Science from the University of Utah, Eleni is a full time personal trainer with a specialization in training the aging body. Her passion for health and fitness led her to starting a fitness blog which eventually morphed into stories and blogs about healthy foods as well… which of course means healthy Greek foods! Her blog led her to compiling her work into her first book, All You Can Greek: Food-Life-Travel. Eleni will be demonstrating two traditional Greek recipes and our resident wine expert, Fotios Stamos, has the honor of pairing these dishes.

Below are the dishes and wines:

Makaronia with Kima recipe paired with Vaeni Xinomavro, Naoussa
Tyrokafteri recipe paired with Mylonas Rosé

Find these wines: https://www.greekazon.com/

See more on the free GreekAF app: https://www.greekradio.app/

Hello everyone thank you for joining us for a fabulous cooking and wine pairing segment brought to you by Urban Wine club and also Greek wine club and Greek Ison uh maybe we’ll talk about that a little later but this is the Urban Wine club uh Greek cooking and wine pairing

Segment I’m Ari thank you so much for joining us um we have a very very special guest today uh all the way from Utah but before we get to her let me introduce my co-host FY St hello FY y Ari thank you so much for that great introduction and I and we’re super

Excited because this actually happens to be our very first cooking demo in wine pairing and what a better way to kick it off with our special guest that’s with us as you said all the way from Utah but uh these segments for us are very dear and true to our hearts because we’re

Going to be able to uh bring back some of the classics of our Greek cuisine and understand the cuisine a little better with our wine pairing so before we talk anymore let’s welcome our guest all the way from Salt Lake City maybe not within Salt Lake City but somewhere around

There uh elenie Salas elenie thank you so much for taking the time uh welcome to the show thank you for having me I feel like a foreigner we like all the way from Utah um it’s weird for you because you know you’re there and your people are

There and everybody you know is there but for us we’re like all the way over here so it’s like a little it’s a little like treat like California’s further away but that’s true that’s true Utah is um a lot of people don’t realize a lot of Greeks

Are in Utah so yeah so you you mentioned earlier um that at some point it was like 10% of Utah was Greeks right yeah so when like the labor work was coming through in like 1900s 10% of Utah’s population were was Greek um came here to do work in coal mines and railroads

And things like that um there’s a huge population mostly centered around the mining cities of Utah now I’m in Salt Lake City Utah so I think someone just asked that so yeah Salt Lake City Utah is where I’m at now could I ask a dumb

Question of course ask him one is all I know about Salt Lake City is Mormon so is that is that real like is it mostly Mormons or is that just like that’s all it is yeah no no um yeah so that’s like what we’re obviously known for is our

Mormon our Mormon um influence um yes most the people or I don’t know the population now but heavy influence of Mormon population and which I think has created all these like subcultures and why Greeks here are very close to each other so we have like in our church we have

Like our Goya basketball um flos like everything like that everyone stays really close together dances so just because there’s nothing really else for us to cling to so it’s it’s kind of worked out for us to that’s really cool that that kind of reminds me that that

When you explain it that way it kind of reminds me of like when when the Greeks first really started immigrating to the United States they were like kind of The Outsiders so they all stuck together so you don’t you don’t have a lot around you you kind of stick together and

That’s that’s actually kind of cool I like that so we’re still like that we’re still the outside yeah we stick together for sure but now now you’re spreading out you’re spreading out virtually yes yes what makes it even more fascinating is that U we need to mention that you

Know elenni um is um a cookbook author who has a fabulous book called all you can eat or all you can all you could G you you ruined the quick the the witty title FY all you can Greek which uh for me uh looking at the book and and

Knowing that uh Eleni being a young Greek American um it’s it’s for me it’s refreshing to see someone of your generation who’s really bringing back the culture through food because we’ve mentioned in previous conversations about how as our time goes on and you know generation are going by we start to

Lose an element of our culture whether it be the language whether it be the food our you know our customs and so forth and the dishes that I’ve seen in the recipes in your book I have to commend you on you know the work and effort that you put into this and that’s

One of the biggest reasons why I I felt strong about bringing you on is because you know you have something to to show as far as you know we need to kind of bring it back and your book is definitely going to do that when we get

That out to most of our a audience into our Network and I just want to say Bravo for putting that wonderful book together and we’ll talk about the book later on and give people more details and in this segment and I’m sure on our future segments we’re going to pick recipes

From your book that you’re going to help demonstrate and show how to people like Ari how easy it is to put these dishes together um and keep that Greek element alive right it still might not be easy enough for me but I I’ll I’ll try my best right right but talking about that

Cookbook I I just have to say I’m I’m come from a design background and elenie put this book together herself she did the photography herself you will not know that she is not a a 100% professional this book is gorgeous yes I’m like I bling so before we get into

Our segment with elenie elenie uh give us a little bit about who you are your background and what led you to this journey uh for the publication and the writing of your cookbook well thank you okay so um first of all thank you so much for having me me the first cooking

Host on your show I’ve I’ve had the pleasure of hopping on a call or two of what you guys are starting and I think what you’re doing is awesome bringing Greeks together or anyone together to learn about so many different wines and foods and things like that Cocktails so

Thank you so much so a little bit about me I have I am from s City Utah as we mentioned I have a background in health and fitness I have been um working as a personal trainer for about seven years so that’s kind of what started my whole

Journey here I I started a fitness blog really like years ago and I started doing like little fitness tips like get out and walk and do um here’s like some like things you can eat that are a little healthier and then like then one day I just wrote um about

Rice pudding rogo and that took off people like were sharing it and I was like I have been vlogging and all this and but thanks to rogalo and then rogalo takes off yeah so I was like okay so people obviously care about food more than what I had to say about Fitness so

I I would kind of I still with the stick with the fitness stuff but then I started doing more heavily with the food and so I just like blog here and there it was kind of like more sporadic and then um I started adding like the story

Element to it um and then when I was in Greece a few years ago I thought of writing a book and I thought of the title before I even like had any true writing experience um and photography experience as well so I was like I want to write a cookbook I’ve always loved

Cookbooks and my dad has hundreds of them and so they’ve all been always been around her house famous chefs like Diane kilis and um silaki and things like that so um I was like I I want to write a cookbook for my generation because like you said before we’re losing touch with

That I’m losing touch with it I’m a fourth generation Greek and Living in America and I wanted to write these stories of my family and um like a concrete way to hold on to those so that’s kind of where the book kind of stemmed and grew so a lot of my

Blogging background to writing a book and I just like really wanted to have a book to hold so um I did all the photography um I was telling you guys the other night I was um I’m not a trained photographer so the photos are like not like the most like decorative artsy but

Um half most of the photos I’m just like in my kitchen counter here standing up on the counter and just like taking these overhead shots I mean that’s like all I could do at the time so yeah so um very very grateful for the people that have supported me and still continue to

Support me so thank you so much awesome good I mean fantastic I mean these are the stories that we love to seek because they have so much value Beyond just the actual book what goes behind the scenes and what goes behind the whole um mindset and it resonates with all of us

So Bravo and there is something nice about having a tangible actual physical book in your hands and yeah that’s I yeah there’s nothing like it I mean as technology goes forward it might be going away I don’t know but I there definitely is a need in my opinion for for a physical beautiful

Colorful book with nice photography and nice design so basically what we’re saying is that every household or at least Greek American household needs a copy book on their all households okay you got it everyone needs it tell everybody tell your friends so let’s get to the fun stuff as far as

You know tonight’s uh segment elenie has two recipes that she’s going to demonstrate for us which I’m a big fan of both um one is one of the classics that I grew up with as a kid especially during the winter time um let us tell us the two recipes that you’re going to

Actually demonstrate for us tonight yeah so um first we’re going to start with Kima so macaron Mima um so it’s a meat sauce of a spaghetti for anyone else or any kind of noodle that you really like um I’m using ptio noodles for mine you can use penet

Pasta regoton whatever you really want and then like you said it’s also comfort food I love it I love a meat sauce um and then I’m also making Tito CED which is a feta dip that’s spicy or I like it spicy you can also keep it kind of

Mellow um I throw in any kind of hot peppers that’s around so that’s all obviously to your taste so those two dishes to kind of kick things off kind of like a warm dish kind of cold out and warm dishes spicy dishes so yeah those what we’re going to be making today

Excellent and then um as we’re as you’re demonstrating the the recipes when they come to completion we’re going to revisit the dishes uh together with the wines that we paired and show yourself and our folks you know how much better in my opinion food is with wine yeah I’m

Excited ex I have these wines nearby we’re gonna be cooking with this wine by the way we can talk about that you’re using that one in the meat sauce you said all right so the first recipe Al anyen going to kick off is is the macarona with Kima yes and really quick

Um just for the audience sake I I don’t know who’s cooking along or or if there’s anyone can we get maybe like a little hand and or if they have any questions feel free to throw in the chat and then your party can send it my way

But I’m not sure how many people are going to be cooking along or just want a demonstration but and we’re gonna we’re gonna uh allow and and encourage everyone to send their messages through the chat and then towards the end of the segment we can open up our um the the

Videos and we can have a Q&A with you with all of our guests that might want to ask you questions directly that’s that’s when we get Rowdy oh no that’s that’s when the party starts yeah okay so like I said we’re gonna start with the Kima so on our stove sorry I I’ll

Have to be moving the camera around a little bit because everything’s GNA be over there today so wor I’m GNA kind of like bring this over here and then I’ll bring it over as we go so we’re going to start on the on the stove so I have I’m doubling the recipe

Today because I’m cooking for my family and so usually we’ll have like a pound and a half of ground beef but today I’m going to double it so don’t mind me so first we have our our our pan our soft pan here and we’re going to put the meat in

It brown it and then as it’s Browning you’re going to break it up into chunks so that’s we’re gonna start withen do you have a do you have a choice of what meat you recommend um I use beef um hamburger hamburger beef or you can some

People use turkey if you want like a leaner meat you can definitely use that okay you can use ground lamb um I I like the beef it has a more fatty flavor so totally I I wanted also to quickly ask you do do you end up cooking for your

Family all the time now they’re like you’re the one with a cookbook so you cook yeah know they should be cook no my my parents cook a lot um right I yeah I I do I I like to I enjoy it so especially as I’m testing out recipes

That’s when I cook a lot more so are they waiting right now for you to so they can eat yeah yeah they’re like come on okay the saucepan I’m G to add oil and my be beef and I’m going to um pound that out to kind of just like break up the pieces

Okay elenie do you mind if I uh throw out any questions that come in while you’re doing that here uh somebody asked if you use lamb would you you use the same spices yeah I I would um so I’ll kind of got kind of talk about those spices I would use the same

Everything is to your taste really um so salt pepper oregano are like my my go to seasonings but then with beef and things like that or anytime I make a sauce I also use cinnamon so is something that Maya do she puts a lot of cinnamon in her like

Sauces and meats and things like that so we’re going to use cinnamon um maybe with lamb you can maybe take that out if you don’t like that kind of flavor but salt pepper origano is all you really need for those kind of things yeah you know I I noticed the fact that you

Mentioned cinnamon and I noticed that a lot of recipes that come from the islands of Greece tend to cinnamon and a lot of their minced meat yeah yeah so um my family my dad’s beside the family he’s from Creek so um kind of there’s a there’s a town called gavahi close to

Haa so yeah I’ve always like that flavor I mean you like what you grew up with so I’ve always grown up with this kind of flavors so it’s it’s interesting that uh as Greeks though regionally our dishes vary so much uh depending where you come

From yeah it does yeah so and a lot of northern Greece they definitely use more like heavy spices um like like in their meat sauces and things like that so I’m G to set this down really quick so I can use two hands be I’m just going to be um

Put crowning meat out a little bit just to break it up all we’re going to be doing is breaking up to little chunks okay and then we’ll season it after after you break it up into little chunks season with salt pepper oregano and cinnamon go heavy on the seasonings

Don’t under salt don’t under season ever right also you should tell your dad that my mom’s from Kanya so maybe we’re related somewhere distantly really what um so in Kan or is right in Kanya okay have you been oh yeah beautiful beautiful beautiful so maybe you guys might be

Cousins what you might be cousins then I know like aren’t we all are we all at some at some point aren’t we all cousins yes probably um and by by the way uh elen the question about the lamb was was from Karen uhhuh what was the question the the if

You used lamb would you use the same spices yeah I would use salt pepper oregano and then if you want to add a dash of cinnamon I think that really brings out meat flavors so you you can definitely do that okay so now I’m just going to season with salt pepper and

Oregano and then I’ll kind of show you what the meat’s looking like and I’m assuming Greek or oregano right yes look of course if if it’s Jarred like this and it got smuggled in through the airport right yeah so we have oregano in our garden um I need to do better at um

Harvesting it but oh we couldn’t go usually we’ll bring back like a bunch of a bunch of spices but so salt pepper oregano go heavy on the seasonings and then as we go and taste the sauces always will taste it and I’ll kind of guide you through that and then we’ll

Also um talk about all that so do you go do you go by a specific time frame or you’re just eyeing it as it gets Brown is there a method yeah so right now I’m just Browning it so I’ll show you I’m G to bring this in a little bit y so just

Going to Brown it a little bit with the seasoning and then we’re going to add the salt I mean the onions and garlic okay just want to get all that kind of cooked in a little bit and I’m going to bring this over here and kind of show

You so kind of Chunk bring those into chunks chunk them down a little bit probably break it down just a little bit more I could almost smell it feel like I smell it yes yeah yeah yeah I know some some things you like think about and you can you can bring in

That the scense yes do you have a favorite do you guys have a favorite Greek dish oh god that’s literally the most difficult question yeah that’s true I mean what would you say FY you know um can you pick one top three I don’t know yeah that’s hard it changes by the

Season too like in the summer I just want like fresh vegetables yeah you know well in our household as kids growing up winter time it was always you on the weekends was either pastia um dolmades whether they were with cabbage or with you know grape vine leaves um you know the macaroni with

Kima was huge um you know patatas with kot tno was always a big that one’s good right lones patas lambshank was also um how did you have you ever had ktic call uh well yes not as often as I wanted to but yeah when I you know we used to go

Out Dy in New York City I often found glef too in more uh menus than I did before but yeah I enjoy that dish as well so you know you you just asked that simple question elenie and it just made me realize how important your cookbook and these types of cookbooks are because

It’s like my mom passed away and ever since she passed away like that kind of connection to that Greek food like you know has been more distant from me and it’s sad and you know you just asked gy Co and I was like oh my God I haven’t had it

Since like my mom was alive and it’s like yeah you really need these types of cookbooks and it’s really great that you did something like that to connect you know the the younger Generations that maybe don’t have that old Greek grandmother or old Greek mom from from

Greece uh making these things yeah or like push them to do that you know talk with your grandparents if they’re still around your parents write them down because once they’re gone they’re gone you know like even just like they can write it down but doing it with them is

Like a totally different thing like when I was working with like um Maya it’s like she I would just be like hey like give me your recipe and then like the recipe that she has versus what she does is so different so you to like actually

Do it with them as as everyone knows okay so all right the meat is browned um so it’s bring it’s putting bringing off some fat which is good we’re keeping that fat into the dish and so now we’re going to add the onions and garlic m so I have chopped onions diced

Them and add that in so it’s it’s important that you do that you add that after the meat has browns with this I do sometimes I’ll I’ll do the onions and garlic and all that first it depends on what I’m making but with the beef I like

To do that so the so the beef gets browned because if if I do it before um it’s it’s going to overcook the onions and then the and the meat doesn’t Brown how I want it to and then I’m adding lots of garlic I always go more than

Sometimes I say in my own recipes I’m like you know what throw another clove in you know you can’t go wrong with that honestly so now we’re just gonna stir that and sorry for the bad filming I’m not I don’t have like a great system of

Gotta ask Dad to help you right now I know I know hold this I need someone just to be like right there holding it yeah he could throw in some uh some some trivia while we’re at it yeah uh we got another question if uh I could ask you

Yes oh wait hold up let me let me find this and then we’re actually gonna be throwing the wine in in a minute okay um a quick question was what’s your most popular recipe in your recipe book or your blog my most popular on my blog okay so probably

My okay so my top one is probably some people call Oro or Kaki and that comes for my Yi that was like my most popular one and then my mom’s rice pudding that’s the one that skyrocketed everything um also yes are actually quite popular which ising but just like a standard one

That you know I’m pouring wine because I’m gonna be pouring this into the dish have a sip first before yeah for every pour you got a sip let make sure we yeah cheers everybody do you like it I’m gonna put more into it that’s called the FY method

Yeah for every uh ounce that goes into a recipe you have to drink two ounces okay I like it I like it so ier been watching so the wine is optional but I think with sauces and things like that meat sauces especially adds a nice

Flavor um I’m going to add that before I add any tomato sauce just to let that simmer in it so I’m adding the wine into the meat sauce might even add some more later you never know this is how I you know a little bit of this a little that so I’m

Going to let that cook into the meat and then I’m going To add a little bit more once the onions cook just a little bit more then I’ll add a little bit more wine and then we’ll add the tomato sauce and let that simmer okay so um are there any kind of questions I’m going to just open up the

Um tomato sauces really quick as we’re chatting sure so somebody somebody made a comment that Ari you should have flown out there to work the camera I know I’m so sorry okay I mean yeah I could have maybe uh and by the way she is adorable and this is

Excellent so you have you have a nice compliment there from that KMS oh nice yeah um yeah your fan club oh my gosh so like for for someone that doesn’t really cook um you know you think of these dishes and it seems when you like

If you want to attempt it they seem so overwhelming but just we’re in we’re into this about 10 minutes and it’s you’re you’re breaking it down so easy it’s like within 10 minutes you just prepared the the components of the meat sauce with minus the sauce that you’re

Going to put in into it right now we’re going to throw on some sauce about it like within 15 minutes or so you know you’ve got your meat sauce ready right yeah so um Greek cooking isn’t supposed to be like overly complicated you know

Um and and and then if you think of like the basics so if I use this kind of U meat sauce same thing I use that for Pito like how I make a meat sauce or like a stew there’s always the basic steps to get there so it doesn’t have to

Be over overly complicated if we just know like the basics doing it I mean think about it you know you know it takes us 45 minutes to an hour to do takeout where yeah yeah by the time you get healthier for you speaking from my nutrition background much better okay check on the

Saw on the meat so basically I want the onions to kind of cook down just a little bit before I add my tomato sauce um just so I’m not eating too much raw so recommendation on what type of tomato sauce does it matter yeah so I

Use use both um I’m going to throw in tomato sauce and diced tomatoes I don’t have I just use a standard like I don’t know tomato sauce okay we have here um you can just only use tomato sauce or I like to throw in a little diced tomatoes just because I

Like that junky element some people will just only use like tomato sauce or tomato paste but like I said I like like a little bit of chunks and sauce now that you mentioned that that reminds me I remember my mom used to use tomato paste back in the days yeah they broke

It down with a little water I don’t I didn’t understand yeah so you need to break down tomato paste with water so some of my recipes will have that um this one I just don’t this is how I’ve always done it um and it’ll bring the tomato paste will bring out the sauces

From the pan or like anything that’s kind of sticking and that water will and it’ll kind of thicken up a sauce as well so you can definitely yeah definitely throw in some tomato paste okay so I’m going to throw in like I said I’m doubling this so I’m

Adding um double of everything so some tomato sauce going right into there and I just so you say you’re doubling oh you you you should should have worn an apron but anyway yeah I should have worn an apron that’s s my life it’s all right okay so really quick I’m also gonna add

Water so what so what a little trick is I didn’t write this in my book but I should have a little tip is yeah I always think of things after you know I should have done this um I fill up some water into these just like gets the

Remains of tomato sauce it’s something that um my she was from my she was from um grew up in the Great Depression era so everything she did was to save to right save everything you know every Remnant so nothing goes to waste yeah so how much of the can do you fill I’m

Gonna Fill Up um half of this and then put it in so this will be about a cup that’s what I really want into the sauce and it’s just going to add more of the okay the sauce yeah or you can fill it up with wine if you want all just

Straight wine that’s totally up to you and how you roll thought they was cooking talk now you’re talking yeah yeah so now I’m just gonna stir this in here so got some so now that we kind of got all of our elements into this yep um I actually

Have one more thing of tomato sauce we’re going to let that simmer and I’m going to add a little bit more of the seasoning so salt pepper oregano cinnamon and we’re just going to let this all simmer together and then we’ll work on our next recipe as a

Simmers um with any kind of sauce stew soups like that you want it to to cook slow I’m not a fan of like cooking anything like super fast just because it creates better flavor and also really quick stir from the bottom get anything that might have stuck like the meat or onions um

Because the flavors will will um come together the longer they sit so I’m a fan of now I’m seasoning everything again with more seasoning of cooking things slow so you say you let it simmer elen uh is there a time frame in your mind that you’re thinking of when you say you

Let it so I’m gonna let it simmer for about 30 minutes 20 30 minutes and um I’m going to put the pot I’m going to put the lid on and it kind of um and it’s on low heat yep I’m going to put it on like medium low to medium so

On mine every every of different or every stove is different so I’m at like a three to two to three to four for right now and then I might go a little bit lower cool so yeah throwing in sorry i’m doing one hand and doing this some more oregano salt pepper looks

Good couple questions if you can can I make the meat sauce a day in advance totally it’s going to be yeah so so sometimes when I’m in the mood to really cook I’ll do like triple batches of things like this and you can freeze it too so this freezes well so like any

Kind of quick meal like at at night or whatever when you’re like I have nothing and oh I have Kima I can like just have that with some spaghetti whatever so I’m going to put this lid on it and just kind of like halfway or

Sleeve out just a little bit so you can cook it a day in advance just reheat it because the oils and the meats kind of will coagulate a little bit or Harden so just kind of reheat you can add more liquid to kind of bring it back

Together um yeah I do that often I think that’s a great way to yeah meals also um another question are you working on a new cookbook um I I’m not currently I have I have it in my head basically yeah so it’s work it’s it’s a work in progress

In my head I just need to get things onto paper I have what alen what alen’s trying to say is that she’s gonna announce it on Greek wine club when she’s ready yeah yeah basically no um I’ve always wanted to just um to be

Honest I was after my first one I I kept writing a little bit after and then I had this lofty goal I was like I can write a book next year 2020 I’m not doing anything everyone’s locked down but then I just kind of felt very overwhelmed and I just couldn’t do it

But now I’m like in the zone of like no I want to do it I will do it and we might have cookbook this year if I can get my in line yeah I know a good online platform for you to sell it on oh and what is

That uh it’s a a little app called Greek go on let’s hear let’s hear about it as we uh we’ll tell more this is this is your time to cook now don’t worry about us okay um for anyone that might be cooking let me know if you have any questions

Basically like I said we are just going to be putting um the sauce on the stove let the kind of cook and then make sure you’re stirring occasionally from the bottom so nothing sticks and we’re just going to let that sauce thicken and there’s a spetti quick

Question um is that a bii on your stove and is there a recipe in your cookbook for Greek coffee yeah um yeah so can we see yeah so I have a I have a few here actually this one is from my this one it’s the old one that’s that’s o this

One is from my dad’s puoo so that one’s nice and old this one’s kind of newer yeah few of those and we have a recipe in my book for Greek coffee and I have a few drinks just like a frappe and coffee and I have another one uzito you guys

Might like for your cocktail oh mojito I like yeah oh that save that one for another demo because we gota we got to get into that one yeah we need a we need a summer um summer meal and cocktail would be really good all right well the the

Folks here have heard it first elen is coming back for a a nice summer uzito yes really um I’m G to just set up the we’re GNA be again at the stove I need to sh thought that ahead of time but we’re gonna be at the stove a lot

Today to start with the Tito copti and then it’ll be right here so again just gonna bring this down as we cook I’m a big fan of T I mean over the years it’s become a part of so many like M platters that’s like it’s a must oh

Yeah yeah yeah yeah I love it it’s so good um and you can spice it up however you like you can go hot you can go mild you can go whatever it’s always kind of different depending on what you have so I’m just going to show you I already

Kind of cut the peppers so what I like to do is sauté the peppers a little bit to kind of get some heat oh and oil so I have I have a combination today of like um sweet peppers so I just use bell peppers and then these are red

Jalapenos I have a green jalapeno too just add a different type of color so I don’t think I’ve seen a red jalapeno before I know basically just something that set out a little bit longer I guess but I get from that um so yeah with this

You can just use depending on your spice level you can use only sweet peppers and I’ve seen that with maybe some chili flakes because Greeks really don’t eat a lot of spicy um so I like a lot of heat so I put in jalapenos and chili flakes

And all that he Lenny do we know is there is there an origin or roots of where Tio CF came from um I’m not sure I want to say it was more northern Greece like um where there’s a lot of peppers yeah I want to

I want to say that I don’t know for sure yeah we’ll have um yeah I don’t yeah I’m sorry I don’t know that whole origin yeah but but you mentioned that you’re using a variety of different peppers you’re using a combination of sweet and hot or spicy MH yes and I and

Um there’s two different types of Tito CTI that I’ve seen in grease one’s red one’s white and basically what they do is use different types of peppers so with my red one this is my red tieto copetti I’m using all red peppers plus green to add a little bit of pop because

I like just kind of pop my my dishes and then when you use the white Tito CTI they use more like in grease it’s easier to make that because they have like more like white peppers and they’ll use more feta and yogurt and things like that um so yeah there’re two different types

Nice and I never knew more mild Peppers so here we have a little more variety of spice awesome especially in Utah I was going to ask you uh randomly like what’s the what’s the growing weather like in uh Salt Lake City great you have a good Garden for for yeah so we have

Um I’ll have to show you one day a little tour in the garden or something like that we have oh that that would make a great that’ll make a great segment by the way so yeah we should definitely do that yeah right now we have garlic we planted in October going

And we’ll have tomato and I we plant tomatoes peppers cucumbers all that um yeah I think okay you’re legit you you legit are growing stuff okay absolutely yeah it’s it’s it’s really fun I’ve been doing that with my dad he started getting me into it and then last year I

Kind of went for it and I I love doing it so it’s very relaxing yeah maybe you can send us some of your uh vegetables yeah we Jarred we Jarred some salsa this year so oh yeah come on send yeah do like salsa yes so we did we did all that

But I’m asking you on camera so you can’t say no and you can’t back out okay okay it’s on paper yeah shoot that’s okay couple questions if I if I could ask real quick how many recipes are in your cookbook so I have about 70 and then also the book is um it’s

Called all you can Greek food life and travel so like I said before I I felt compelled to write this because I felt um my generation and myself was kind of getting disconnected from Greece and so there’s a whole section about travel um you can find I took a poll um a couple

Years ago from my Instagram followers where your where your favorite beaches are so there’s a whole section like top 30 beaches to visit in Salt Lake there’s a map you can kind of um see that and then I have a whole section about creit because that’s like where I’m I’m from a

Few different regions in Greece but that’s kind of where my my roots kind of pull the hardest you know so I I have a whole section there and monasteries um so yeah there’s different life and there’s travel and then this end section I have stuff about life because this again I started blogging

And so there’s a few there’s a few um entries there that were very like meaningful to me that I felt like I needed to put into the book that kind of has a Greek connection like there’s a whole section about selflove which um in Greek is called filaa so I have a whole

Like little write up about that um because that kind of drove me to actually feel confident to put out a book so I thought that it was really important to put in oh that’s awesome well another question that actually goes with that is do you catalog your recipes

By region or do most of your recipes come from a particular local no so I didn’t I didn’t have like any specific category this book specifically was just recipes that I had from like my family or myself or things that I really enjoyed and it’s not very

Much um region Regional although I do have more of a creton influence in how I cook um one of my favorite memories in Greece was from a a cooking class I took there and so I just I just love the style of cooking it’s funny um when

I was there so so I cook like more I although I’m not vegetarian whatever I cook more vegetarian style and that’s like the very Craton of uh way of cooking when we were at this cooking class you know dadas they they come here like we think everything has to have

Meet in them and yum and things like that and so we were cooking and so people that had been familiar with their Maas or kind of somewhat not everyone was Greek at the cooking class we were making the dadas and like doing the filling and someone was like when are we

Putting the meat in and the her name was lenie she was like she was she was the host and she was like meat no no no we don’t put meat in our dadas like and so I have a recipe for um dadas without meat I although I do like it but that’s

Definitely my influence is creatin style for sure nice can’t go wrong with the cretans yeah yeah they they sure know how to they sure know how to cook that’s awesome yeah all right all right so why don’t we get uh the uh so you’ve got the

Peppers going for the Tia yeah so I’m about to put them on the pan so I’m going to heat the pan and I’m going to put a little bit oil we have our we’re going to grill the pepper or sauté them with some chili flakes and that’s it let

Them cool and we just grind them up in a food procer it just comes together so quickly so let me kind of show you here bring this back over here with my Peppers my station kind of got all this stuff sorry okay so we’re going to add olive oil to our

Pan Greek olive oil always Yes actually have you heard of the this is from oio Sophia that’s a company in grease that I got mine from okay they sent me some so nice I had to use that my mom is gonna hold this great okay that’s why home

Yeah okay so got from moms yeah okay bring that down a little okay so we’re just gonna add it’s a nonstick pan so Peppers to the pan not g to try to overcrowd it so I’ll do this in batches and when you do sauté uh Peppers do they bring out a little more

Sweetness in the vegetable brings heat yeah um but it does bring out the flavor of the sweet pepper too and youed to get the sweet and the heat from it so I’m also going to add some chili flakes to it yep and we’re just going to let that

Just kind of nicely get a little bit cooked and then we’re going to let that cool and we’re GNA I’m going to bring my food processor over here to kind of show you what we’re going to do so really quick I’m going to add um just the feta

First and then I’ll add the peppers once it’s cooled so food processor or you can use whatever you have or you can use a blender anything that anything that you have really so okay so with our feta we are going to use about a cup here two

Cups and so I have the doni feta I picked from the market today nice yes yeah yeah that’s my favorite that we can get here you know I was going to say that it’s great that you can get out you know out and as if you saying yeah what are you

Saying it’s tough to get out of this mindset I don’t know I apologize yeah you have that that like uh conceited uh big city uh Boston uh not conceed out there yeah we don’t know like other things do you have running water out there yeah hardly no I

Actually fetch it from from the from the neighbor yeah you guys go old school yeah yeah but nice out housee by the way I noticed because our power our power’s gonna go off soon a question one of our our guests has that just wanted to repeat the brand

Of the feta that you’re using is theonis is that correct yes I’m using theonis though yeah always use good quality ingredients yep can feta right now is hard to find because everyone have you heard of this freaking feta Trend feta baked pasta yeah find feta just for to have feta

And I couldn’t find it it was like everywhere was like sold out I was like what the heck I I actually use this stuff regularly people so yeah so I use a doni and I you can get from market like this or um here’s I guess you can use that too I

Have another we have another box in the fridge too like this so yeah this is what I use nice awesome not a paid advertisement unless they want to sponsor me I’ll take it I’m just kidding somebody uh Joanna commented you can find it at Market Basket for the

Boston people oh okay there you go you know you guys don’t have supermarkets out in Utah so you wouldn’t understand no like yeah we have sheep yeah we just get the goats sheep and things like that um I wonder with a good trading uh routine out here I give salsa and they

Give me they didn’t they didn’t get the US dollar yet so they trade yeah yeah so okay so um what I did here is I just kind of put these in chunks just makes it easier this about two cups of feta put it in chunks and then we’re

Going to add the peppers I’m GNA get I’m just going to flip them real quick and so you can kind of see here just to kind of get a nice little I need the hand mother I need a I need a hand okay just gonna get both sides just kind of

Y a little bit what’s your mom’s name so we could credit her in the credits here Paula Paula she’s probably yeah she’s and you’s the best place to live oh very nice it is it’s very nice what do you think about that FY I think we need to

Like take a trip out there especially during their Festival yeah we have a very we have a very big Festival actually UMAS in the in the west of the Mississippi so anyone’s wel postco that’s awesome yeah definitely would love that okay so I’m just going this another

Minute and then we will get going oh my dad conveniently brought out this is a salsa that we made oh yes very chunky we use a lot of peppers again I love hot foods yes this is very spicy oh that looks so good thank you are there any other questions before I

Oh let me look let me look uh Wisconsin C Wisconsin cow Fett all the way I don’t know what that means but that was a comment and I’m not fully in agreement with that because first of all cow fetta is not feta well unfor unfortunately that comment I think it’s because um domestic

Feta made such a big um impact because of all the Greek owned pizzas in the New England area that needed feta in that volume so well I’m I I’m very I’m a stickler about this and C feta to me is not feta so uh you know well I hate to break it

To you but a l like I said constantly Ste your meat sauce you’re also making that in case anyone forgot I’m just gonna yes yes yeah disregard me fighting with the audience okay okay so I’m gonna turn off this pan yep cool just a little bit and then

We’re going to use everything from the pan every all the oil that accumulated because that’s going to have some more heat too throw that in the pan or in the in the food processor yeah and mix everything up we’re also going to add yogurt that’s going to add a little

Creaminess into to it and some vinegar as well a little splash of vinegar and that’s all you really need for this it’s very very easy and like I said you can make this however you would like you can um or spicy hot you can add bell peppers or I

Use bell peppers for sweetness you can add like those pepper chis also work oh okay those are also great options soranos if you’re feeling even spicier anything so spicy is better people if if you don’t want spicier it’s you’re missing out spicy is good listen elen

The spicier it is the more wine we’re going to drink there yeah cool you gotta cool it down yeah you convince me okay we’re gonna add everything in here and we’re gonna It’s Gonna Get Loud so we’ll just see how that yeah it can’t be any louder than AR

You’re what what can’t be any louder than you Ari so we’re putting all these pepper in here oh look good and then and then the oil as well that accumulated from the pan and the and the remnants of the oil will go in the in there as well and my shirt too yes

Nice it it’ll go anywhere you really want it yes and the oil and we’ll add more oil um to as well just to get the yep um texture going just kind of being careful I should have worn one but nice for my first show guys okay so we have our peppers and I’m

G to add yogurt this homemade Greek yogurt homemade oh very nice so feta and yogurt yes the yogurt adds a nice creamy texture to it I’m going to add more as we go and and my lid is right here okay we’re going to get loud here for a second briak Style and vinegar we need some vinegar oh okay Splash ah very nice red wine vinegar and then here you can also add more chili flakes if you feel so inclined technically should done some bches but that was a nice mixture right there yeah yeah there you go and we’re done loosen things up

Yeah and we’re going let this go really quick first let this go add more oil as you need um more yogurt as you need and we’ll taste it in a second that sounded very much like FY when he sips wine sorry okay I’m add a little bit more

Yogurt just kind of ADD a little bit more creamy make sure all the measurements are on that link that you sent everyone oh yeah yeah yes so if you want this um a bit a little bit less salty or a little more creamy then you’d add more

Yogurt it kind of tones down the saltiness from the feta so that’s where the yogurt comes in so I’m I’m gonna go go back to me loud for one second it’s uncanny FY how much that sounds like you sipping wine okay that’s how and that’s how easy it is so I’m just

Gonna kind of make sure the texture is there and the flavor at what point are you going to taste it right now oh needs more pretty there there needs a little more heat I think so I’m add a little bit more chili plakes oh and a little bit more um wine or red

Wine vinegar too and then we have it so yeah you can add more chili fakes I didn’t add a lot to the pan and then eleny when you’re Mash pieces done with the T what do you like to serve it with I like to use I’ll use

P chips or I have some um I have some bread I’m going to use vegetables also great you can honestly this will go on anything you can have it in your fridge and put it on hamburgers great option Meats it’s really good honestly anything like tetto C is

Underrated in my opinion like move over toe think we need more I’m just gonna be really really Qui really U quick on This okay so I’m Gonna Leave This as is by the way when we do the podcast so just the audio because that sound is awesome I love that sound okay good okay so this is kind of I’m GNA all the edges I need to scoop around but

This is kind of it looks like reddish orange just because the oils yeah yeah and I’ll put this into a bowl so it doesn’t look so bad but um yeah that’s how easy it comes together right into a food processor super quick so tasty tasty and that’s

It I’m gonna cut up some bread and we’ll have that with the wine and then I’m going to start on my pasta really quick so CU this is how fast things move put this into a bow so now you got you got your might simmering there almost done and now

You’re going to boil your pasta right yes I’ll show you what pasta I’m using as well and put that into a bowl yeah so maybe now we can kind of talk do you want you want to talk about the wine get things absolutely and after that everything will come together

Really really quickly right so you broke down the uh the components of each dish let’s talk about the and the fact that we actually um are going to sip uh Rosé with DTI because we’re coming up with what are we going to have with these two recipes so the ti

Has elements of saltiness from the feta and it’s got the heat from the peppers and um it’s got you know light textures with the creaminess of the yogurt so what came to mind right away was to pair a rosé from gree uh and for those of us that are either a just

Getting into roses or haven’t had roses they’re definitely something that you need to try I think I turned Arya to Rosé not too long ago because he had a difficult time getting past the color of it right no it was just it was just you

Know it’s a little light uh want to be seen drinking a pink Drink is what I’m trying no you obviously you don’t know me because my whole life my friends used to make fun of me for drinking like Malibu pineapples and Alabama slamas and stuff like that so that wasn’t an issue

For me all right fine fair enough but going back to the reason why we chose um a a dry this is a dry rosé so on often enough I’m gonna cut bread while you’re doing that so yeah absolutely Ros are mistaken often enough to be sweet

Because for the last 20 years a lot of folks have been drinking uh white zindell or sweeter wines that were uh that were in pink and color so uh we want to make sure that we reference that we’re having a dry rosé roses just real quickly they’re actually wines that are

Made from red grapes right and what happens in the process is that when they ferment uh the grapes to make rosé they leave the skins in for a very short time for about an hour or two maybe a little more during fermentation so that just enough contact for the Skins to extract

The color to the juice and then they remove the skins and that’s when you get this beautiful uh light blush color in front of you yeah right there okay so um they drink light crisp they’re slightly acidic they they’re slightly citrusy um and the one that we chose today is a

Rosé called milonas a Winer at Kei and I felt that this would be a good pairing with elen’s so Len is gonna also crack it open and she’s gonna sip on the mil R while she has her and might I say elenie you are very disciplined to hold that Ros all this

Time to sip it for the first time with us right very impressive I want to drink with you guys so I was like I don’t my family like saw this like coming in was like oh when are we going to have this it’s like not until I and yeah we’re

Cooking so again uh roses are great all all year round you know they’re they’re more summary but you know they’re very versatile so you can have roses with pretty much anything you can have them with fish salads you can have them with meat pork um it’s so they’re so

Underrated but we want to take take these opportunities during our segments to kind of showcase you know what else is out there that people don’t know of that they can try and Ros happens to be that category yeah well thank you for this one I’m excited so just keep in mind elen salty

And heat from food and then dry and citrus say that again I would never have known that honestly with the salty with the rose that’s yeah so so the so here here’s the Dynamics of pairing food with wine it’s all about the seasoning and the cooking

Methods when when you say heat do you mean like spiciness or do you mean like actual temperature no the spice okay yes yes so we’re talk when we use the word heat with food or recipes we we’re referencing the hotness of the food right the the spice okay but uh somebody

Asked 4 the what temp to serve the Rosé so Rosé should be served at the same temperature as white wine so uh typically cold right and here’s a here’s a tip real quickly about you know refrigerated wines whether they’re white cold you know often enough we keep our

Whites in the refrigerator that’s gauged at about 37 degrees which is pretty cold and in the in the US we are accustomed to drinking white wine very cold because it’s refreshing and it feels good but at that temperature though white wine um it’s too cold for wine in general and

What happens is 37 Dees or 40° suppresses a lot of the flavors and the Aromas so even though it feels good to drink white wine you’re not really getting the true flavors until it comes to temperature so when it when white wine warms up you’re getting more Aromas you’re getting more flavor so

Ideally if you you know if you when you pull your white wine or Rosé out of the refriger refrigerator wait about 30 minutes if you have the patience for it and then have a sip of your wine it’ll be more flavorful back to the question is rosé

Should be served at the same temperature as white wine but again everything’s personal preference these are just recommendations so going back you know with elen’s um point is that food pairings it’s all about the seasoning in the food and the structure of the wine so salty foods call for dry wines so

What happens is the saltiness and the dryness and wine cancel each other out and what happens then is that you are able to marry flavors where you can keep the flavor of the food while maintaining the flavor of the wine so one is not lost over the

Other good point just just a very basic quick reference on wine pairing yeah FY I concur okay I’m gonna try it really quick although the I’m not ready to eat but I just wanted to try it with the wine and the tieto C sorry anyone not eating I’m just

Gonna we’re we’re drinking so don’t yeah that’s just me elenie you getting to eat all this good food he talking about it and then the wine this is it okay I got a spicy kick yeah that’s really that actually pairs really well kind of clears that Palette too I think right yeah it’s

It’s it’s clean refreshing that’s a good that’s a good word you brought out clean so a most production in Greece wines are clean and what does that mean that they’re made as natural as possible with very limited amounts of intervention there’s no artificial add flavors chemicals unknown agents um

Which happens to a lot of wines in the commercial market so the wines are very simple that’s what makes them so clean okay that that’s awesome like that that’s a great thing and I saw from your reaction elenni unless you are Oscar nominated actress like that was a legit

Reaction yeah I’m actually here for yeah is um Nina balos on I’m just get my name there no she should be a candidate for the LA uh Greek Film Festival yeah yeah yeah this segment is gonna nominate her yeah that’s what I’m looking for no

Like what what I OT yeah it’s all on the table for me so what you see is what you get really quick I’m gonna boil the pasta and then everything’s going to come together and we can eat well I’ll eat and you guys will continue drinking

So I’m just going to put I’ll show you what I’m doing with pasta I’m using I’m using this pasta oh wait the other way flip it over oh sorry there we go um I like to use this for pky too and I really like to use this for any kind

Of sauce because the the sauce really gets into the noodle and they’re fun to eat they like slurpy noodles I don’t know yeah they’re fun this as a kids so this is what we’re going toil that’s actually F’s nickname slurpie noodle right so um MCO has been a staple in all

Of our households growing up as kids was what that brand misco has been at least for us out here has been a household brand growing up as young Greek Americans that uh the my mom used to use the um whether it’s uh manestra or the orzo from that brand and all their

Different types of pasta yeah all right we’re going to boil this and then everything will be ready to go again I wna I want to call out your mom for the excellent camera work yeah she’s following you she’s doing everything right except I just saw her thumb so THB you gotta watch

That now Lenny you boiled the water but are you seasoning the water before you put your pasta are you doing anything um salt into the pasta water yes water Sal the pasta water yes yes you do that yes but when I eat pasta at AR’s house it has no flavor because I

Think he forgets the salt in the water yeah you gotta what what does someone say like you want the you want to taste the sea in the salt it like the sea as as I heard someone say one before I do it on purpose when FY comes

Over make everything bad yeah yeah yeah but so he doesn’t come over again well I think what you do is because something right it’s not salty I won’t drink as much so I won’t drink all your wine is that why you do that there we go we figured it out all

Right so so you got the water boiling you got the salt in there yes and I’m gonna check on my sauce and do you have like a a minute uh time frame for how long you should cook your pasta um with this I would do these are

Thicker noodles this one should be about 15 17 minutes to all Dente okay yeah whatever the package says too every every package is different or pasta so like when when when you’re not sure do you like grab a noodle and like try like to yeah I’ll grab it I don’t like it

Likey um like Al Dente like a little bit Yeah Yeah gummy yeah yes perfect yeah so yeah um were there any questions about Tito C or anything um sauce is almost done it just now I took off the lid and let and let the sauce kind of thicken up a little

Bit and it kind of like hastens the thickening when you take the lid off and then we’ll be ready to go and I also have for the topping I have grated maitra oh yes did you gr it yourself um actually I had my brother do that today as I was getting ready for

Things but yes yeah we got to get we got to give credit to the whole family here I know it really is a family affair here it’s a whole production so that is that is the absolute Greek style right there it really is get everybody involved yeah my

Dad sends in the tit of the historical facts my mom’s the camera lady my brother does something here and there it uh some somebody just asked what is that cheese uh just repeat it just in case they missed it yeah so this is grated maitra cheese I put this at the end so

After you have like your plate going you can also mix it sometimes I mix in with the sauce it’s also a good little tip this is this how it comes like in this block and so I just graded that into this you can also yeah you can also use um depending

On where you are you can use Keo Titi you can usean cheese um whatever you have really um I think mther is the best with this par also works really well yeah then uh we also want to make make uh an acknowledgement that one of our guests Georgia balafas who’s actually cooking

Along with you she just made the okay how’d it turn out Georgia is it okay uh I’m I’m gonna turn her camera on real quick turn my camera on yeah it makes a lot so you have join us all the way from Boston all the way here we go C oh

Beautiful I’ve never used it I’ve never put yogurt actually really okay have you tried it a little bit yes I tried it it was really good okay yeah the yogurt just um it Smooths out the the dip and then it kind of balances that saltiness so actually a

Tip I found in Greece when I was was there I was like how was this like so smooth because I’ve had it like so chunky before you know and they said throw yogurt in it and so I started doing that and it’s wow great I’m making

Kim too okay good how’s are you almost done how’s the sauce turning out it’s good I I might have not put the cinnamon I might have just used my recipe so more like garlic onions white wine white wine there you go good red and then um yeah I’m just salt pepper

And oregano kind of girl and much like you H chunky Tomatoes yeah I like that yeah the chunkiness is just I don’t know i’ like it so George are you GNA invite FY over to have some of this have some of this um no yeah you’re better off alone no

She’s gonna drop she’s gonna drop it off tomorrow I’m gonna drop it off tomorrow okay you got it no worries there you go awesome thank you Georg that’s yeah so fun okay I’m gonna check on the Kima really quick and then um probably about

10 minutes for the p and the Kima if you want to talk about any or G anything more Greek wine club or G on yeah so this is a good um opportunity to let our guests know that uh elen’s cookbook is available on our newly released app called

Gazon yes her her cookbook is there uh the wines are there a lot of uh cool foods are there there’s all sorts of good stuff and just to inform people it’s the very beginning this is a growing growing growing app we have like the bare minimum right now but every day

Every week every month we’re going to be adding more and more so please check it out if you can it’s a free app just check it out we have a lot of good stuff her cookbook has the most beautiful photography standing up on the table you

Know you I was going to say this before Lenny you say like you know you don’t know this and that and you’re you’re just standing on the table you’re trying stuff but lighting is so important in photography and you have the lighting down pat kudos to you you nailed it

Thank you it’s just say overhead light that’s up here that’s it that’s it that’s all what whatever it is you have the lighting very well and everybody out there can if if you if you want to see a little bit of this like right now go to her Instagram uh elenni Salas on

Instagram follow her her photography for her food and her recipes is phenomenal just check it out thank you you guys for fling me really Ari it’s got to be the lighting in Utah there’s no there’s no other yeah because I I use my regular light and like everything comes out horrible so we

Use lanterns and so oil oil powered Greek olive oil yeah might my family stands up and just like holds it and then you know they got the Greek candles yeah Greek candles yes yes you’re not gonna live this one down elen every segment you do with us this

Is gonna live on okay yeah I’m from I’m from like 1800 apparently so yeah Pilgrim Utah how do you how do you find the uh the that camera contration we sent you to do this uh segment you guys figured it out okay yeah yeah we got it yeah I can handle it yeah

He awesome excited about the app I think it’s gonna be really great and it’s really cool that you’re showcasing so many uh Greek products so yeah I mean you know out there you know we we try to do very not like everything but like it’s almost like like curated

Yes just the stuff we like the stuff we think is the best and again that’s another reason why you know we we we got in touch with you because you have a great following you’re you’re very popular on social media and there’s a reason for that and you know we saw your

Cookbook we we we saw your stuff on social media and we were like yeah this is this is a great match for us and thank you so much for being with us of course yeah appreciate that all of course and I think elen as we’re getting ready

For the uh the main course is we also have a wine that’s going to go with the macaron with Kima yeah and let’s just talk about that real quickly so we don’t forget it um so in elen’s hand she’s showcasing the 2019 uho from V Vineyards and NAA so we had

This conversation earlier um you know a lot of meat dishes come from a lot of the Northern parts of Greece you know mountainous areas um and cavro is a variety that’s popular in northern Greece but it’s also been said that there’s been researched that it could be genetically identical to Pino Noir the

French isn’t there a way to scientifically prove that yeah they’re doing a St they’ve been doing studies at us USC Davis in California uh and there’s a lot of research being done and find the origins of these grapes and they’re finding a lot of similarities genetically to to

These two grapes uh they haven’t confirmed it yet for different reasons and I’m not going to go into the details but you know it’ be a GameChanger if the reality was that PIR ISRO being that it’s a Greek variety you know what I’m gonna go with the fact that French wine

Is Greek that’s there you go I was just gonna say that but you said it um so well what does that mean what does and Pino mean so basically these are grapes that grow in cooler climates so the cooler the climate is the less sugar is attained in the grapes so they make

Slightly tart red wines that are dry so kavos are light drier red wines and the D they are they better they work with heavier foods that have a lot of fat and oils so Kima which has a nice content of fat and oils in the dish is uh basically

This structure of red wine works well with meaty sauces and again we’re going to go back to you know balance we’re balancing you know the wine with the food so if the wine was too heavy it would take away from the Flavor of alen’s meat sauce soomro happens to be

Light enough but has enough flavor and structure to work and pair well which elen is going to demonstrate that sip uh pairing when her dish is ready yes my GL I’ll get my wine ready we’re almost ready pasta’s almost ready sorry for going late for anybody um

We’re on Greek time yeah yeah they just it does come together fast when you’re just like only doing that but going back and forth I conversations you know de with 4 for an hour like just SL things will say yeah doing I have this ready

And I have my Ros well before before you try your dish um elen this time I want you to have a sip of Thea itself and then have it again with the food okay I’m have a sip now I have two sips okay I yeah I a

Go chug chug chug but uh you know there’s a science right we got to see her reaction the science between that’s actually a really good one my mom’s are here like that’s like yeah some Reds I feel like I’m not like a wine I’m not

Like trying to like fake it I do like wine but some Reds are sometimes like so dry that after I’m like harded is this’s really good the fact that you said that the dry they arey that means that they need they need to be with

Food okay so let me ask real quick FY she said some red wines she’s like and very dry like what is that the tannins what is that it’s it’s uh it’s the it’s the level of alcohol in tanning so tannins again are those oily compounds that are found in the grape seeds that

That produce that that like grippy sensation on your palette the grippiness is what makes you dry correct yes and that’s contributed like you need a glass of water it’s bit it’s the bitterness that comes from the grape seed oils okay it’s bitterness so but then again you

Know we’re not used to those Sensations soen if you haven’t consumed a lot of dry wines over time your pet’s not used to it but over time your pallet will adjust so when you start drinking more dry red wines it will be a little more easygoing and more inviting right it’s

More of a shock factor to your palette when you’re when you’re having dry wines like that for the first time right it’s just chemical reaction of how our body works so yeah I mean dry red wines are not the most Pleasant in the beginning but when you give them a little bit of

Time they evolve and they soften and when they when they’re consumed with food they become elegant well correct me if I’m wrong oh sorry corre correct me if I’m wrong you’re wrong but when you when when you say when you say overtime you know it sounds like you’re

Talking about an amount of time I’m thinking the first glass to the third and fourth glass I’ll break yes you’re right let me break it down from the moment you you pop the cork or you unscrew the cap because we’re big fans of screw cap wines yes you do that right

Your wine is evolving by the second it’s changing so that very first sip that alen just had right now will be a lot different in the next 10 minutes in the next 30 minutes in the next hour if it lasts that long right but wine does evolve quickly as it’s

Opened yes so so in that sense you really recommend breathing so yeah not mouth to mouth but what we recommend is that you open your wine in advance right and what I mean by Advance if you open your bottle of wi red wine an hour

Before you could have it it should be a lot softer and smoother than it was if you first opened it just a tip it’s it no that’s very interesting because I remember a previous segment that we were talking about letting wine breathe I open wine and I drink it all

Down by like the first 10 minutes and I’m probably missing a whole lot of what that wine offers what that’s saying is that you need two bottles you got to open up your second bottle in advance so that you can have your first one right away you know what I like that thinking

Right yeah uh hopefully we have more questions from our folks that I think for me I’m like I I like wine but learning all that is very interesting so that’s what we’re here for yeah so we do have a couple questions now is that is

That like is that a new trend is that what is is um so you said you said you’re like you said your fan is scwp yeah is there yes yes and yes FY tell or why yeah okay so caps unfortunately have had a bad W for being identified as cheap wine right

Screw caps but the reality is that you know wines have been using natural corks forever as their you know as their preferred um enclosure mhm but corks are a natural byproduct of a of a tree and that natural byproduct behaves based on its environment so not to get too geeky

And and and Technical but if if wine is not stored properly um if the atmosphere is to dry then that cork will shrink and then air gets into your wine and your wine becomes vinegar it just just the reality if the environment is too humid and there’s too much moisture then what

Happens is is that a lot of moisture builds up in the in the cork then that moisture can convert into bacteria so then mold grows into your into your uh Cork and then that drips into your wine and that’s that taints your wine so all these scenarios happen often with wine

With natural that’s that’s the geeky translation and then there’s my translation which is I’m lazy and I love just unscrewing a wine and screwing the top back on and not worrying about it and everything’s good so to AR’s point is that with a scw cap it’s a it’s a

Guaranteed seal that nothing can get into the wine so your wine is always preserved you’ll never be tainted so in my opinion well-made wine deserves to be in a screw cap so that it doesn’t have to go to any possibilities of getting ruined by the natural cork um situation everybody out there watching

Listening I’m like very interested in this that’s no it no it’s real like it’s real because like I used to be like all right whatever I don’t know but then like FY would explain stuff I would get you know Screw caps and this and that

And I’m like I used to stress about my wine being properly corked and covered this I’m like do I put this on like right away like I don’t know yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly and and then the screw cap just like eased all my fears yeah screw cap

Like have like this I think like this wrap of like oh it’s not like real fancy you know fancy wines I feel like the cork for some reason so moving forward Don’t Fear the screw cap like I’m I’m all for it excellent and I think it’s better environmentally correct 100% we need

Which is 100% a a a benefit so you know the the cork tree mainly grows in Portugal and there is a shortage so at some point we’re going to run out no forget the cork people okay the pasta is ready so wait it really is a shortage of of corks yes

Well yeah because um if you think about it the process of regrowing a cork tree takes about five years so the demand of cork is definitely much higher uh but if we don’t move into other alternative um you know approaches to to sealing our wines then at some point soon there’s

Not going to be there’s there’ll be no corks at all interesting yeah okay alenny you have a lot of followers I’m you got to set the trend now cross with you alenny yeah yeah I gota I gotta save the you set the trend you tell people

That corks uh the the screw caps are perfectly good and take it from us anything happens it’s my fault I have this weight on my shoulders now I am putting the responsibility on you 100% yeah oh yeah I’m GNA drain the pasta everything’s ready you guys continue talking about corks very fascinating

Push for it a fan yeah so let me tell you about corks yes but um yeah I mean for us it’s all about like sustainability environmentability being cautious about our environment um a lot of wine makers today are making huge changes in their in their overall operations of how they Farm how they

Produce wine and how they package their wine so we’re big fans here at Urban Wine club Greek wine club gazon and Ari had made a a point about how we like to curate our products it’s not about you know the the the results of the flavors

And the taste of our products but it’s also the people that are behind it and what they’re doing to produce these products very good point it’s fascinating that you know we’re thankful and grateful that we’re connecting with likeminded individuals around the world and in Greece that are basically taking

Measures to bring to the table products that are conscious about the environment um cautious about our health because what we consume is important and I’m not just talking about the product but what does the product go through from the farming perspective like most wineries today in Greece even though they’re not

Certified organic because it’s you know it’s a lot of red tape it’s a lot of BS blah blah blah most wineries in Greece come from uh Vineyards that have been organically farmed for you know ages and decades and then the wine making process because in Greece you made with whatever

You had you had that ve you know minimal means of making products is that they bypassed all of the fertilizers all of the you know these chemicals all of these additives to manipulate wine so one thing to be said about products from Greece specifically the wine side of it

Is that you know they’re true pioneers of natural wine making that that is so good to hear because I love Greek wine but I can never in good conscience enjoy a Greek wine if it wasn’t made in a uh you know sustainable a proper way a proper way in my opinion a

Proper way in many people’s opinion sustainability needs to happen right and and we’re big you know we’re big fans of today you know we’re always you know we want to eat clean we want to purchase organic produce you know we want to we want farm raised uh not Farm ra wild

Rays or or meats or wild caught fish you know that’s always in the back of our minds when we’re trying to make purchases at the supermarket or at the Farm Stand but we NE we often don’t consider the beverages that we drink yeah and we make all this effort to eat

Clean and good and healthy and then we wash it down with synthetic Beverages and all that effort in the food goes to waste because we’re just consuming you know if you think about it I mean if you and I are out having dinner we’re going

To be good for a bottle each at the end of hours right so we just consume you know I don’t know 25 ounces of you know synthetic sugar and who knows what else is in that wine so think about that it’s very true very true but let’s take a

Look hey it’s steaming but this is goodness this is all for me yeah thank you no like I said I doubled this so I can have this for my whole family today and this is our dinner with some Tito CED and a salad so this is that looks

Amazing and parsley to add some greens if you would like that’s also that’s I put that as an option and then the cheese will come on top so I’m GNA plate this we can kind of like have some bites and then talk and have some wi yes so do

You leave the the the maithra up to the individual to put you don’t yourself I you can sometimes I actually put so like if I’m just doing just a total sometimes I I don’t even have pasta and I’ll just have the meat sauce and I’ll put the cheese inside the me

And it really makes the the sauce very gooey so okay yeah so it’s really good that way too so that’s also an option like a low carb option to just add some cheese into the sauce it’s really good that way nice for the day it looks so

Good we need to invent a technology that lets us three 3D print these recipes in our homes while you make them yeah well that’s up to you you’re the you’re the techy guy aren’t you yeah I’m just here yeah if I could do that we’d be all set

Yeah don’t forget about me when you do that I can see the steam rising from the so good I’m gonna put this over here to cool a little bit some more meat sauce uh what time is it right now over at your area uh it’s your area now you you have clocks over

There yeah well the sun’s down go by just Sun’s down and that’s about all we we can all we do what do you guys two hours two hours difference yeah that’s why I kept like screwing up is like I keep I keep saying like Mountain Standard Time E standard

Time the same time but yeah we’re two hours behind you okay so yeah you’re right about dinner time right yes it’s perfect so I’m sorry eating late um I’m gonna this is my little plate it’s not that it’s not plated like at this point on it do we

Allow our guests to uh do we open our cameras let our guests ask questions or talk to Lenny as we’re coming to the yeah we totally could um Let me let me say this um let me hold on let me uh so yeah I just put the cheese on top

Of here beautiful my tto and let me tell the peoples yeah love to hear from any’s your glass of wine and I have my wine here yes I have both my wines Bravo just kind of adjust sorry I would be normally sitting down but I don’t have a good all right

So if anybody wants to unmute and un uh and turn on their cameras please feel free so we could have like a little a little bit of a free-for-all yeah um we want to you know definitely let let you know how much we appreciate her time let her let me know how awesome

These dishes look are so nice thank you you could let FY know how boring his talk is I was like so intrigued I know what you’re talking about I was like I gonna I’m like so passionate let let let me tell you something f is m

F is my best friend I love FY but let me just tell you if you listen to this guy every day all day just forget about it if and that’s exactly what you do you guys are kumbat is that you said we are kubar we are

Yes I took plunge I took the plunge and I said a and look at you guys now I I I want to be connected with you through the Lord yeah I mean we’re getting some folks that are sending some great comments through Lenny but we we’d love

To encourage anyone to kind of unmute themselves and maybe say a few words well let’s see so AR Fen thank you for your fine program very relaxed fun and informative which thank you for saying that because that is the whole point we love to do things very relaxed

Very just have fun we’re all friend friends I mean we just met elenie but you know with Greek first of all elen might be my cousin I don’t know so like it’s very casual we’re all good friends we’re all Greek that makes us instantly connected so thank you for saying that

Um elenie your food looks delicious can’t wait to try thank you that’s from Suzanne what a great looking dish from Mikey elenie I will purchase your book that’s from km she I don’t know what her name is but km she is her username thank you so much oh B

Papadopolis ah delicious I’m hungry listen Let’s Just sh I’m with you Shelly thank you so much for joining us it’s you know it’s a pleasure to have you with us on this segment yes yes absolutely Georgia balafas who we had on camera thank you alenny Paula come to Utah everyone you’ll love it

I want to say is that your mom I want to say camera work on point Paula thank you let me just make a let me just make a point uh back in the days when we were younger we used to organize trips to go to Montreal with all of our friends and

All the Greeks from around the New England area we went to the Montreal ski trip back when we were younger right now we should do a wait wait I’m just gonna stop you right here I don’t know if youah the exact spot for Crazy Greeks to go and party no exactly my

Point wait wait let let what did you say elenie be surprised this is a very hopping place righten elen elen we’re coming to you you’re our tour guide well is that tour guide because he’s the factoid but I will be your cook there you go that’s it we should do a Greek

Weekend retreat to Utah anytime that would be awesome that would be awesome AR and I going to drive in a van and fill it up with good wine so we can bring I’m in we’ll show you the coal mines here listen we we you know what the the thing

About me and FY that you don’t understand is like you can do anything you want you could put us in a cave with no electricity because Utah just discovered electricity right yeah it was actually yeah yeah so you can put us you could put us in a cave of no electricity just

Give us a little bit of wine and we’ll we’ll make the best of it we have no problem okay I’m in so elenie thank you so much thank you so much for everything you did tonight thank you for preparing these dishes thank you for the absolutely gorgeous beautiful cookbook everybody out there

Please check out this cookbook it’s awesome elen’s Instagram elenni Salas follow her her dishes her like everything she does on on social media is on point it’s great she has 15,000 followers for a reason like we’ve been like fighting for followers and we just got to about I don’t know a thousand or

Something so like 15,000 like you know she’s doing something right oh don’t worry about the followers I yeah you should be my hype man do you want to like follow me everywhere and just like hype me up try to say anything I’ll just party out and I I’ll do it I’ll totally

Do it but follow her get the cookbook check it out on gazon check it out on her website we have everything linked up we want to thank FY for all his wine knowledge yeah everything he brings to the table he always teaches us something thank you alenny my pleasure and before

We sign off let’s tell Paula your last name oh yeah my mom want to know your last name your mine yeah on your cron side is on Ken side it’s sakis sakis do you have a do you have family in Denver yes my are you serious I told you we’re

Cousins no no no not me no my my my my friend married a suaki yes so so in Denver if you come if you if you uh come by an Ari sakis okay he went to be you where I went okay I don’t know I don’t I just

Know him I just know the family if you ever hear of an adakis he went to be you okay I was with him and that’s where I met him completely randomly oh my gosh and I’m like oh your name’s AI my name’s Ai haaa and I’m like

What’s your last name he’s like sakis I was like what oh my gosh yeah yeah yeah okay now we know so good good name Greek Greeks baby Greeks are all together we’re all related we all share the same like just Outlook the same views the same everything we love do all

Right thank you everybody for watching thank you everybody for listening thank you for having me and I look forward to more cooking shows I will have my crew with me again and yes thank you Paula what’s your dad’s name John thank you John for the trivia and uh your

Brother yes my brother is here my I have two brothers one’s not here as well I’ll get the other one next time too what’s his name the one that’s there Mikey what is it Mikey Michael Mikey what’s up Mikey yeah the whole family yeah all right thank you everybody for watching

Find me you’ll find my whole family close by yes and we will we will link up all of alen’s information on the video and the podcast thank you fy thank you alenia again we’ll see you guys next time we hope you enjoyed and thank you again byebye by everybody thank you so muchas