Join us for another amazing cooking demo with cookbook author and social media sensation, Eleni Saltas. Eleni explores two vegan recipes for lent that are easy to make and absolutely delicious.
Kritharaki (orzo in tomato sauce)
Ingredients:
1⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 (28-ounce) can tomato sauce
1⁄4 cup ketchup (optional)*
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 to 4 cups of water
1 ½ cups vegetable broth
2 cups orzo (In Greek, kritharaki or manestra)
*Ketchup can be added to the tomato sauce to sweeten it. You can use a pinch of sugar instead, or omit this step.
Directions:
In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté the onions until translucent. Season generously with salt, pepper and oregano. Add in the garlic and continue to sauté for 5 more minutes.
Add tomato sauce, ketchup (if using it), and vegetable broth to the pot. After pouring the can of tomato sauce, fill it up with water and pour that into the pot, too. No drop of sauce goes to waste! Season the sauce with cinnamon and a bit more oregano.
Bring to a boil, and then turn down the heat to low medium and stir in the orzo. Cover the pan with the lid (leave the lid off slightly) and allow to cook for about 20-25 minutes. Make sure to stir occasionally throughout, stirring from the bottom of the pan, as the orzo tends to stick to the pan as it thickens. Add water or vegetable broth if needed to cover the orzo.
Check for flavor—add more salt, pepper, cinnamon or oregano if needed. Remember, this is all to your taste.
When orzo is soft, remove the lid and remove the pot from heat and allow it to stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Note: Kritharaki is great warm, but I love it even more cold! If you do need to warm the dish back up though, put the leftovers on a pot on low heat and stir in more water or vegetable broth as needed.
Note: If there are any leftovers and when you need to re-heat, you may need to add more liquid such as water or vegetable broth.
Vegan Bougatsa (custard pie)
Ingredients:
4 cups coconut or almond milk (I prefer coconut because it has more fat content)
¾ cups sugar (organic cane sugar is a good vegan option)
1 cup semolina
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of one lemon
½ cup margarine or preferred plant based butter, melted
10 phyllo sheets (I use storeb ought phyllo)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Ground cinnamon, for dusting
Powdered sugar, for dusting (if preferred)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, sugar and semolina. Stir constantly with a wooden smooth until the custard is smooth and thick.
Remove from heat and mix in the vanilla, lemon zest, and half of the melted butter. Set aside to cool while you prepare your phyllo sheets.
Lightly butter a baking dish (9” x 13”) and layer 5 sheets of phyllo, lightly drizzling each sheet with melted butter. The edges of the phyllo should extend above the top of the pan. Be sure to be light with the butter in between layers, so the pastry comes out crisp.
Pour the custard mixture into the pan and smooth out the surface. Tuck or turn in the edges of the phyllo over the custard to wrap it.
Cover the custard with the additional 5 sheets of phyllo, again lightly drizzling each sheet with the melted butter.
When you get to the final layer, drizzle any remaining butter on top. Top with brown sugar.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is golden and crispy.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool 5-10 minutes. Cut into pieces, and dust with cinnamon and powdered sugar before serving.
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Douloufakis Liatiko paired with the Kritharaki recipe
Akakies Rosé paired with the Vegan Bougatsa recipe
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Hello hello thank you for joining us for another wonderful Urban Wine club and Greek wine club Lenton cooking and wine demo featuring the wonderful and fabulous elenni Salas thank you so much elenni for joining us once again this is her second appearance uh the people couldn’t get enough the first time so we
Brought her on back but before we before we get to alenny let me introduce FY Stamos my co-host hello FY how are you including yourself Ari I am great great great what’s going on been I’ve been waiting for this webinar for a while for a couple reasons
One is because we are you know in full force uh for Lent for Greek Orthodox lent and uh also because I’m really fascinated about the um you know the reasons behind this whole uh approach the eating from the faith side but also we can discuss this a little bit more in
Detail as we get going about the science behind fasting but uh yes let’s let’s you know let’s get underway Lenny thank you so much for joining us this is your second appearance as Ari has mentioned we love having you back as always uh you bring a nice uh element to our to our
Platform so welcome elen well thank you thanks for having me again and thanks for everyone that’s tuning in um appreciate everyone in so let’s let’s uh let’s FY tell us uh the in detail what what this one’s about because we call it Lenton but we also
Call it vegan and you know that’s you guys correct me if I’m wrong same it could be considered either or uh yes you know let to elaborate but um you know we are in the 40-day uh fasting period for uh for Greek Easter where you know certain things things are restricted
Actually a lot of things are restricted and and there’s a a calendar that we can discuss too with that we can find on the Greek Orthodox Arch dasis website um on what we we should be eating and beyond that towards later in the in the segment
We can just discuss about you know the benefits of eating this way outside of you know the um the Orthodox calendar all right cool okay because I’m very interested in this uh we were discussing before went live about uh fasting and and you know our meat intake
And all that so this is actually very interesting to me and and elen is going to make it actually appealing because sometimes you know I gotta say as growing up as Greek Americans you know when it came to Greek Easter and our parents would enforce fasting it was
Like oh we dreaded the fact that we couldn’t eat certain foods and how are we going to survive for 40 days without meat and all this it was always the big problem every year for me when I was little like oh no it’s individuals like elenni that make it seamless that
There’s so many dishes that you can come up with to make it enticing appealing delicious and easy so elen is going to break down two recipes for us this evening um she’s GNA bring out the classic karaki with h tomato sauce and we’re going to go into a vegan bugat
After but uh let’s start with Eleni giving us her thoughts on you know these two dishes and why Kaki with tomato sauce yeah so um karaki with tomato sauce I I love that dish my actually one of the most popular dishes on my blog is
Is the kitaki with a meat sauce like a like a ground beef um and so that’s like just the most comforting dish to me really I love it um so I like doing this one without out the meat sauce cuz I still like crave that Comfort during Lent and it’s so
Simple to make too you know and no one’s really going to kids whatever eat it parents will eat it like anyone will eat it you know it’s just a good one no Fini eaters and it’s and it’s filling and it’s filling yeah so you want some
Filling you know so um you can’t just eat yes every day and like that’s filling too but you know like you need a little bit more substance and so this could be great as a main dish or great as a side dish it works both ways and
For me like and for anyone that else wants to make this recipe later on you can easily double triple this recipe and have it for a few days like lunch and dinners yeah and so I’m just going to here to show you like how quickly again like like Greek food already is like
Really simple to make and just show you show you too like you can eat simple Lenton vegan foods very fast as well so I also have a bugat that and I love bugat you know you want a little little sweetness because kind of when you like um sustain from
Certain things you start craving certain so like for me I crave like I crave more sweets and I’m not like a big sweet person until I’m like sustaining from meats and cheeses and things like that I’m like I something kind of gives me a little bit
Of like hits that spot I guess or hits and I love bugat and it’s really simple to make with making it vegan too so it’s not it’s not too terrible um and vegan can be good too veg I I’m saying vegan because it’s a broader term for anyone that might be following along
That might not be following a Lenton term or anything like that so yeah is there any other questions beforei is also known as orzo correct yeah yeah I’ll show you the thing that I have so this get both says caki so yeah so this is like is what I use for my kodaki
So um also Oro or some people even call it manestra so it just just depends on honestly like the packaging so like sometimes like I’ve seen it and it says manestra sometimes it says orzo so it’s like whatever it’s it’s are basically it’s like little pasta that looks like
Rice thank you thank you for anyone watching yeah it’s great so right but yeah I mean that that brand that you just put up there is it misco yeah yeah M it’s like iconic like every Greek household has a a a couple bags that in the pantry yeah yeah well yesterday was
On the like we’re making it and I was apparently out because I have made it if you you know and so we on the hunt for it it’s not as easy to find in Utah we don’t have as great of a variety of shops so well gazon can help you I know
I need yeah we talk about that as well gazon getting your products as your representing yeah shamess plug you can throw a logo on here I’ll put a green screen back here throw a logo on me yeah but uh so we laid down the recipe the instructions um on the listing of
The event so you’ve got your karaki and what are the next steps elenia so actually I’m gonna just start with the bugat because um that’s be easier because I want the custard to kind of cool before so I’m just kind of like going to be bouncing back and forth
So bear with me I’ll kind of guide you so I’ll start with the bugat and um so really quick with the bugat um we’re going I’m going to kind of be like bringing your back around to my or my stove so I use to everybody so like
That’s watching whatever um you can use Al because bugata calls for a milk so I use you can use almond milk but I like to use coconut milk because it has more fat actually like a fat flavor so I like to get that fatty flavors um so I’m
Gonna use that sugar and then I have like an like a vegan butter to for the filo and I’m going to put a little bit of butter into the the um custard as well so just find like a good vegan butter I I like this one because it’s a
Little more buttery than or like not really butter like tastes more buttery so gotta yeah so the coconut milk you said it tastes fattier or is it because the consistency is fattier like the texture I think the texture yes so like almond milk depends on what you get can
Kind of little be a little more runny okay so coconut milk actually does have a little bit more like a fatty content can I ask you alenny have you ever tried oat milk I have I I could try it next time yeah that that can put I mean have
You tried it with a bugata specifically I haven’t I’d be interested in uh hold on I just I just tried it oatmeal in my cappuccino at Starbucks and it didn’t do it for me oatmeal you said or oat milk oat milk oh you didn’t like it I tasted
Like there was oatmeal in my coffee oh interesting but I think that would I think that would mesh well with the bugat I don’t know may yeah maybe it might work for bugat thought thought oh yeah okay yeah that could work all right so we got we got vegan butter we’ve got
Coconut milk yeah so I’m gonna add so really quick to this to my pot over here I’m kind of I’ll I’ll just kind of I’m gonna bring I’m gonna pour things in and I’ll bring it in as they go I’m gonna pour in my butter or my milk uh my sugar
And um let that kind of start cooking first and then I’ll and I’ll show you and my semolina really quick I can show you guys the semolina that we’re going to be using so I have this already measured out I have a cup full of semolina um this one’s a thicker version
I did find a thinner version too so yeah zolina goes in bugat for this creamy custardy texture so I’m going to get the pot going first so I’m going to pour in four cups of Al or coconut milk again you can use any alternative milk that you like I’ve
Used almond milk but I do I I have used it before but I’ve noticed I agree with you though I feel like almond milk is kind of runny watery yeah like this I don’t know if you can see like kind of little bit thicker yeah that definitely
Looks more of a yeah so I’ve been I did this the last two times I made it and I like it better so I’m going to use four cups of coconut milk into a saucepan over medium Heat and yeah look yeah that’s have you tried
Coconut milk oh yeah yeah I I actually I actually I’m not a big fan of coconut milk because um I I I don’t know I I just have an issue with the coconuty taste that’s why like I always Veer towards oat milk now say coconuty coconuty we’re making up words today
Coconut yeah so I have four cups of um coconut milk and then I’m going to do sugar so depending so like you can find like an organic cane sugar that’s a vegan option um or yeah because some people might go like way straight with like vegan like to the bone marrow so
Like so like um some brown sugar some sugars actually come from like animal products so it depends on like how strict you are for vegan um diet so just to let you know too that um good to know to remember so yeah because I don’t know
Like how strict like people are but that is like an actual thing to watch out for so all right we got my semolina and sugar we’re going to pour that into the pot as well and let that warm just a bit and with this we’re just going to
Constantly Stir It just because um the semolina will start thickening pretty quickly and so just to just to reiterate that uh the recipes are on the the event page so if if anybody missed it um you could just go to the the event page and
And find those and we’ll post it as well when we post the video and podcast yeah and I just saw that alenny from gree says hi she she’s so sweet you guys should definitely link up with her she’s very nice Hi how are you and the
Microphone’s off I I saw your message I want to say hi you’re so sweet so elen’s elenie is in Greece so that means it’s like 2:15 in the morning yeah it’ll be like 3 3:20 probably yeah oh wait yeah wow yeah oh thanks for joining you’re so sweet so
Yeah come on here so I’m just going to give a nice little stir and then once that thickens up a little bit we’re going to add a zest of a leon a lemon and then and some butter so I’m gonna um melt the butter so again I’m using this
Earth Balance vegan option for um for this and I think in these times you know if you if you were talking about vegan like 2030 years ago as opposed to today I think today we kind of have a I don’t want to call it’s not technology but
It’s it’s like the way the the the the science behind making these things like you could get really good tastes out of a lot of these vegan products um a lot of times I can’t even tell the difference which also like I try like um
I try to be care like um I try to have like more traditional stuff too because like you can easily get like fake cheese and I’ve had that and I’m like you know what like that’s not how like our ancestors would have di like some of my
Recipes like it’s great and convenient I can get like an impossible Burger it’s be whatever and I do that but like when I create recipes I really try to do something that would be more like actual prod you know like green yeah sticking to the orig using like this like fake
Butter whatever the heck is in this and C like I mean like there’s some things I want to just try and like not do like I have like made like a quesadilla with like fake cheese or whatever it is like vegan cheese and I’m like what is what
Am I eating right now I don’t you’re right you’re right scary discipline that’s what it um yeah so I don’t know so I’m just going to get this going like really the the bugata and then while that’s in the oven then we’ll make the C you’ll notice how simple that one
Comes together as well I’m going to grab my f so do FY when do you want to like kind of talk about the fasting and the the we should we should kind of squeeze it in between um as elen is doing her preparations and sure us the ropes but
Um you know elen brought up a couple points about you know we want to follow a certain lifestyle of eating but then we choose products that imitate um you know certain products that we would like fake cheeses you know fake Meats U fake you know substances to to
Take the place of what we’re but sometimes you say to yourself then what’s the point like you know you can definitely choose natural Whole Foods um to take on the nutrition that you need instead of sourcing fake products and I mean we use the word fake
Loosely but you know what is fake cheese like what’s in it um well can I can I ask you can I ask you a philosophical question this is what yeah it’s always philosophical so so I’ll speak specifically for Lent okay uh in the Greek Orthodox religion we’re we’re in
Lent right now and that’s one of the reasons why we have elen uh showcasing these wonderful recipes um but the the part of that uh spiritual Greek Orthodox religious aspect is that we give up something we love because people you know generally speaking they they eat
Meat they eat dairy they do this they do that so they give it up as like kind of like a sacrifice right so if nowadays you have the fake versions or quote unquote fake version and you get the taste you get the aspect of it are you really giving anything up
I mean it’s not like the science of like you’re not eating meat it’s it’s the faith where you’re giving something up so if you’re just replacing it with with a cheese that um you know tastes like cheese but it’s not cheese or a steak that tastes like steak but it’s not
Steak isn’t that not really yeah abiding by the Lenton uh uh yeah it’s a mindset it’s about refraining it’s about you know building the the the um the ability to you know to restrain from certain things that’s required um and in the times that we talk about distractions in
Today’s society like it’s hard for a lot of us to avoid certain things because we’re being constantly bombarded with our environment where you know whether it’s marketing whether it’s uh you know media social media uh corporations big brands are out there in your face constantly pushing product and you know you’re you’re
Distracted and um then it goes into another you know this is you know we can go on about this but you know you be you know you acquire Cravings as you know leny mentioned about cravings and when you’re used to eating a certain um Regiment of of foods it’s and you break
Away from it your body then starts to also get confused because it’s it’s it’s seeking what you used to be putting into your body like carbs and sugars and certain types of proteins so it’s an adjustment psychologically it’s an adjustment physically and it’s an adjustment emotionally when you start to
Kind of step into this new way of eating yeah I mean elen mentioned that she she tries to stick a little more to the tradition and I think if you’re going to fast especially on the spiritual end if you’re going to fast do it the old school way I mean that’s the real
Sacrifice and I think that’s good in a health aspect in in healthwise I think it’s good for you to lay off of a lot of these things once in a while if not more often than not so you know that’s my opinion yeah no it’s I kind of go both
Ways on that so like with with fasting I think um um there’s a lot of people yeah like wants to be traditional whatever want is very strict and all that um but to me with fasting it’s like what you can do and what you’re able to do and um I have
This like whole blog on this actually I wrote it I don’t know if it’s still up right now but um I just kind of talk about how um we we we tend to like with lent especially like as American like Americanized I guess like we say like
Because I have like a lot of Catholic friends too is like I’m giving up this I’m giving up that and it’s more of and it we we put this on us like I want to give this up I want to give up sweet swearing whatever and we kind of make it like
So um strict in that way too I mean as for Lent I mean it shouldn’t be like I want to give up this it’s just like it’s kind of like what you need to get like what you need to um like what what you’re kind of missing in your life like
Or you’re distracted I notic I’m a little more distracted I noticed I’m like we like like subconsciously eating all this it should be like what you want to gain back rather than what you want to give up is like how I kind of want to
Like do it too um what I’m what I’m talking about like with eating I like to follow the more traditional because mostly because like some of the products I just don’t trust you know like I’m like seeing like the cheeses and like things like that I’m like that’s where
I’m like I don’t like that like I want to go as more green as I can um more as I can but um I don’t know lent lent is like I go through those phases right so like like some years I’m like I’m going to be strict and like go like exact like
Fast like you know like not e meat cheeses whatever Dairy to the to the core like so strict and then some years one year I was like I am like so connected to my phone so connected to social media and like it was so hard
Like I it was like kind of draining me or I like gave that up because that was my distraction and I wanted to gain back that like part of my life so to me lent can be like whatever you feel like you need and like what like it doesn’t have
To always be the food sometimes like some people want to fast as Wednesdays and Fridays from me or whatever um all powered to you and so I just want to give people a way to like enjoy these foods and like and they’re not so bad you know and like what you said like
It’s a healthy way to eat year round um I was telling everyone before for anyone listening right now I have a friend that follows not Greek Orthodox follows our Lenton fast he’s a strength coach he’s he’s into nutrition and he’s like the Greek Orthodox calendar is like so
Amazing with how they follow the fast like Wednesdays Fridays like not eating meat whatever um he’s like I think that’s a great like one of the best diets in the world because you’re we put too much like meats and like animal products into our body and we need a
Little our bodies need a little bit of break so um I think that’s a I kind of went on a Tang I’m sorry but no but yeah no you’re you’re right I agree with a lot of that I’m gonna give up for hanging out with FY for Lent so well you kind of
Have we’re only hanging out virtually so does that count it’s my biggest joy and that’s what I’m giving up Hy oh so uh yeah biggest Joy yeah um so really quick as that’s theing up I’m actually am going to start the Kaki so we can kind of get a bunch of things
Going let my f fall a little bit so to my PO I’ll kind of actually go over here really quick and show you everybody what’s going on this way so really quick just showing you my pot this is my custard I’m just letting it thicken a a
Little bit good so that just needs a thicken for my custard and then um I have butter over here the vegan butter and I’m going to put half of this into the custard once it once I take it off and then half of it I will layer the
Felo and then while I’m here I’m going to be making the karaki in this pot so I’m going to get that going just get the pan warm add some olive oil and sauté some onions so we’ll start with that so the oil down first then the
Onions yeah you want to get the pot hot and then add the oil nice and then you sauté the onions and then I’ll season that with salt pepper oregano then garlic there’s something about there’s something about that unique Aroma when onions are being cooked in olive oil in
The kitchen love it I love onions and garlic are like my cooking are my is my favorite scent that hits at home yeah like throw that on yeah like put that as a perfume I’m in yeah yeah I’ll get that going here um and I have olive oil from CRE
Here yes and alenn is watching I do have olive oil um called um Olio Sophia also from gree so I don’t it’s at my it’s not with me right now but that’s a really good olive oil anyone was asking a olive oil so shout out to she gave me this a great
Recommendation so awesome we’ll save that for the next segment I know we’ll do a whole like yeah olive oil um just GNA keep checking on this really quick this custard is thickening this because the semolina will thicken and and it gets it’s just like a little bit different texture when you
Have the coconut milk so it just takes a little bit longer to work together and then f are you gonna discuss anything with the wines yeah definitely so I know there’s certain times of the month during Lent that we are allowed to drink wine but we also wanted to at least
Include a wine pairing so when you decide to make these dishes outside of the uh Lenton period um elen’s uh dish with the karaki and the tomato sauce we chose to to pair a red wine from CRE made from a grape called leatico which is not so common here with us but
It’s made its way uh into the market recently and I love this red wine leatico makes um wines that are well balanced good structure they’re light enough to drink so they’re easy to drink but there’s plenty of character so that it works well with the dish that alen is making right
Now um yes so you’re you’re cooking with Greek olive oil and we’re pairing it with Greek wine as well I mean creeton wine sorry not is Greek yes well back in the we even know that yeah we connected yeah yeah back in the days cretans were
Wanted to be called I said back in the days crans wanted to be identified as not Greeks I still want to be identifi but uh don’t group me with you fy but yeah the reason behind the red wine and karakin tomato sauce is because tomato sauce is acidic right um leatico
Has nice tannins it’s dry so the tannins in leatico Balance off the acidity in the tomato sauce with karaki and they they combine a nice marriage of flavors and textures oh right we have a can you see elen I don’t have it on this recipe but
Um because again what was that uh I was asking yeah can you hear us yeah I was asking FY if he could see the chat because I think uh elenni is uh thank you so so let me to you elen Salas let me read what the other elenie
Is writing um thank you so much for your mention elen we’re run a small family business we would love to join you another virtual event food pairings we love which is that that sounds great um and then all right I’m gonna test my Greek now hold On okay got it so I wanted I wanted to let you know of her uh comments um Google Translate what yes elenni from Greece is so right you know good olive oil and good wine I mean what’s better than that nothing Well actually a nice loaf of fresh bread and you’re good to
Go and garlic and tomato and feta and I could go on and on forget it but yeah I’m G to come back over and I’m going to take it off theat so I’m going to bring just going to um take it off the heat and I’ll come back
And bring it over because the custard has thickened up so I’ll show you so yeah so I thicken really really fat yeah it does so let me show you here was that like 10 minutes need like I need like yeah and this one sometimes you can
Even get them you see thick in here this is what we want um you guys can so it’s a nice cluster texture I’m going to take it off the heat like I said so actually off the same stove I was on because it still carries some
Heat and then I’m going to add teaspoon of um vanilla oh okay um and then I’m going to add and I’m going to add half of the melted butter so I’m here just going to add about half and my is here to hold the camera great
And then just give that a nice little yeah your cameraman was late to the show was late today what was she doing she’s fired no um is it your mom again and then you can yeah hi hello we have to give we have to give her credit a fair whenever yeah Paula Sal
This so this is that custard now that I have but and then you can also add a zest of a lemon to add a little bit of lemon if you like lemon and I’m just let that just sit for a second as we prepare I want it just to
Kind of cool a little bit before put it all in um as that’s cooling really quick um I’m going to change pots around and we will work on our karaki so our onions are going to be sautéing here and I’m going to I’m going to season that with salt pepper and
Oregano there we go mother is back I just W I just want to imagine the smell right Now the best smell ever so salt pepper and oregano taste and always I I season a lot so never be scared to season so I’m just going to let these kind of cook for a little they get translucent put it down a little bit yeah let that cook for little bit
Here add our garlic and tomato sauce and then we’ll let it kind of just cook all together so letting that cook we’re kind of cooking going along here and I’m going to get my oven preset to 350 because we’re going to pop the bugat in the oven while the finishes off
We got many many different moving Parts I like it yeah this is like how I work yeah constantly moving I don’t just I can’t just like sit and do one thing I’m like all over the place always do you ever like forget something that’s in the oven sometimes um I’ve probably done
That i’ probably done I’ve probably done a lot of things yeah I do that all I do that all the time yeah shocker footy yeah that’s because you know you get so involved with drinking wine that you forget oh I should be pouring yeah should be spping some white that going
Yes I’m going to pour glass while you pour glass which one should I drink the red one yeah I mean we’re gonna leave the sparkling for the bugat but you can have the sparkling out too if you want everyone everyone really quick that’s watching um I Was preparing before this
And I was opening up this wine and I opened it and it popped everywhere I wish you guys all saw it because very I know and the one time that we should have been recording we weren’t totally how R we’re always recording that’s the funny part our Tech guy was
Just Yas Yas yeah yeah yeah anyone that’s taking anything right now Cheers Cheers so I’m going to let the custard cool and let the tomato sauce get going and that way while that’s going we’ll prepare the bugata beautiful so I’m going to add the garlic to the karaki so
I like a lot of garlic so I use about four cloes or you can always use more totally up to you and I’m going to let that sauté with the onions really quick and I’ll come I’ll come back and forth and show you guys sure okay so we over here
So um I just put the garlic with the onions and I’m going to let that sauté for about five minutes and then um I’m GNA add the tomato sauce and let the like the the sauce start cooking together and I’ll just kind of show you as we go
Sure okay so we’re gonna bring this over here okay here okay so come on over here yeah right there okay so best smell right here onions and now garlic with salt pepper and oregano just kind of get the nice and golden translucent um lots of seasoning I I
Like to Salt and Pepper those are my standards with garlic and onions yes and then I’m going to add in um a 20 oz can of tomato sauce into the pot and I’m going to get it all over my shirt for some reason cuz that’s who I am
And um so with this I also add keep that there um I also add water so my ey would always say no see right here you want to get all that so I’m going to add water so I’m already going to add about three cups of water anyway to the pot so I’m
Going to use this to refill my water I like it and you get to clean out all the excess tomato sauce don’t waste anything nothing um my ey grew up in the depression Great Depression era so she does not waste anything good for her so that’s the best
Way to yeah so I’m just going to add that water and I’m also going to add about a cup and a half of vegetable broth just add a little bit more flavor so okay Vegetable bro you can use vegetable broth uh vegetable broth in here so do you have it on medium heat or low heat um elen and then just like a another half of this water okay oh me yeah it’s on medium heat sorry and so I’m just this
Is my tomato sauce now and I’m going to just season this now with um some cinnamon oregano I like cinnamon with a tomato sauce um and you can also my my I always adds a little bit of ketchup and now it seems weird you can leave it out if you
Don’t like that but this is a little trick she does with sauce is just like a squirt of tomato sauce it adds a little bit of sweetness you can leave that out or add yeah um you can leave that out or add um suar if you if you’d like and
Then I’m going to add some cinnamon and I’m yeah and cinnamon makes a nice flavor for sauces like whenever I use like a meat sauce or tomato sauce I really like adding cinnamon Ellen do we do we know so I’m just going to let this I’m G to put a little
What that do we know the roots of can you hear us now do we know the well um okay let me we’ve had this conversation with others about um cinnamon in in uh different mints meats and sauces um do we even know where the roots of the cinnamon is added because
Some parts of gree they don’t use it and other parts do which where I come from uh from the island of Kos and the decanes you know it’s common to have cinnamon in a lot of minced meat sauces yeah I don’t know the history of it um
Ari I I don’t know the History either but I feel like a lot of Greek cooking Ison is the Cinnamon’s part of that um let’s see if anybody if anybody out there watching elen from Greece it’s from the mainten it’s for the maintenance of the meat oh so by maintenance I think she
Means um there was no Refrigeration back then interesting preserve the uh it would preser see there we go I love it I love I been having this like group of people yeah good thank youen Bravo Lenny alenny yeah so what so basically we don’t need to put our meat
In the refrigerator we just put cinnamon we’re good so I know they used to Salt meat back in the day when there was no Refrigeration but I guess uh cinnamon could work in the same way yeah I also think it was like um the the area too I think it was more
Nor or like from Turkey maybe from yeah that sounds that sounds yeah yeah so and then obviously the influences of I gotta say I enjoy the flavor of minced meat or meat sauces with cinnamon in it oh I I love it I love I love cinnamon actually
We made um K sunia the other night me and my dad and we used cheese we we made a che whatever and we added cinnamon and mint so some people don’t like cinnamon in their Che whatever but I love I love the flavors and that also can be like a
Regional thing too so right right no awesome quick little side note um I’m just going to bring the sauce to a boil the tomato sauce just to a boil I’m GNA lower the and put a lid on it that just simmer for a little while to create that flavor
I like to with sauces take it nice and slow um don’t rush the sauce even though it’s a simple one I just like to let that de develop and just taste it as you go add more salt cinnamon oregano as you like and I’m I’m going to let that boil
Put the lid on and then we will build our bugat which we’re about to building that should be a workshop I love it I love it yeah build a bugat yeah I’m gonna put this lid on it let it just kind of simmer for a little bit and then we go build the
Bugat build buat so elenie some parts some parts of Greece call this a bugat and other parts of Greece call it something different like what um you know when I I have lots of friends that are from the Northern parts of Greece like thesaloniki uh kadini and so forth
And they were refer to anything that was wrapped in felo as a bugat and it could be filled with cheese cream meats and so forth what right and then other parts of Greece um only refer to bugata as something that’s filled with cream interesting that’s what I thought I
Thought that it was just a sweet dessert well that’s what I thought but when I went to Thessalon and I went up with a bunch of my buddies and they ordered bugat and I I said sure get me whatever you guys get you know they brought a
Variety of bugas salty and sweet or savory and sweet yeah so um in in uh in Thessaloniki yeah there’s a sweeter version like the bugat I’m making the the custard version and then in cre there’s like a Mai version it’s so good if you have like a maitra cheese all you
Need is some honey on top whatever or not even honey sometimes they just do like some sugar and cinnamon on top and it’s so good and I’ve like tried to replicate that here but you need that specific like Mai creete and that one’s really good then there’s also um bugata
With like um cassetti and pastura there’s different versions there’s actually a place in and I’m sure there’s other other restaurants but in Athens there’s a shop called um bugat or something bugat whatever and there’s variety of bugas and so yeah there’s a lot of different flavors but yeah Northern gree definitely uses more
Of that sweet and then we need to open a bugata food truck I honestly it’s so good but yeah the the sweet versions are easy to create here right I said like um the cheese like the bugat from Kore I’m like I’m not even going to touch it I
It’s like it’s I can’t mess up a perfect thing so yeah okay so we’re going to build the bugata speaking of lot of bugat um okay so I’m going to bring this down here unless you want to like do like a little halftime and like talk about
Anything yeah well so as you’re doing your thing I mean um we wanted to kind of continue elaborating on Ari the U the life the you know the the lent versus vegan and what it means and you know we been touching upon this from different aspects you know Health uh where you
Know we did segments on vegan wine you know the wine can be you know people like wine is vegan well wine does also use animal byproducts in the filtering process but and you taught me this FY but I’m gonna I’m going to reverse it in school you that’s it’s more of a white
Wine thing to remove the cloudiness right yeah so uh the majority of white wine production um is filtered with some sort of of animal protein or animal byproduct which a lot of people do not know right because when I said when I said vegan wine uh we were speaking to
Somebody and they laughed and they’re like uh isn’t all wine vegan and we were like technically so and as you mentioned too uh elenie that um sugar some sugars are processed with processed with animal byproducts so they can’t be V NE so you know there’s a big movement of natural
Wines around the world and natural wines basically mean wines are produced with nothing added to them um they’re just made with pressing the grapes and carefully watching the wine ferment with adding nothing to it basically and uh you know wines have a different result when they’re being process produced
Naturally and um we’re living in a world today that you know we’re becoming more and more intrigued on learning and understanding the benefits of eating whole drinking clean uh sourcing foods that are from uh sustainable practices it’s a big thing today right so you know am amongst the crazy world that we live
In with all these and I call them distractions you know we’re trying to find some uh some meaning to you know how we should be eating right and it’s efforts like this these cooking demos um these webinars that we’re trying to bring light that you can really enjoy great food and still be
Healthy totally agree yeah I’d like to create more recipes like that too just to have that healthy balance um okay really quick like like really quick really Qui we do something no no you it’s it’s Oro so um the Kaki so like anyone that might have popped on I’m
Using this I’m using two cups of the cre aaki I’m going to put that in the pot and then um after cuz that tomato sauce boiled I’m going to add that to the pot and then um let that cook for about 20 to 25 minutes in the pot always
Constantly stir whenever you have anything like this because the orzo will stick because it will start to thicken and I’ll kind of go back and forth and check it and then we’ll build the bugat feel like I said build the bugat a lot but we will do that after
This but yeah just want to hurry and throw that in so then you can obviously yes go so yeah I’m just going to stir that in and then just let this cook in like on a low to medium heat for about 20 to 25 minutes with the lid
Slightly off and then we can um build Len I I I need to let you know that uh F’s cutting deals here with your friend the Lenny and greas all right yeah I don’t know if you can see the chat here but they’re they’re planning the food
Truck already okay great you guys start I’ll be in the I’ll be in the kitchen just tell me what to do when where to be when to be there and I’ll be there well elenie from Greece is reassuring us that we’ll make a lot of money so I bet yeah
We don’t have like good stuff like that we don’t have so I’m just gonna grab this I do I have store bought filo um you don’t I need to learn how to make this myself oh I can it must be such a process and for me it looks painful to
Make your own f it it’s beautiful what people do absolutely when they make it themselves it’s fascinating it’s fascinating it really is um but you have to like have like a big table and you’re like stretching it out and like doing all this stuff and I’m like I don’t I
I’d like to I mean I I’m sure it’s I I’ve seen some clips on on some you know really talented individuals in Greece that you know are have been doing it for forever and like you mentioned they have these gigantic tables um that they do this paper thin
Right sheets ofo that’s wow it’s like yeah and that’s like theit stuff okay so really quick what I have here um I have a 9 by3 UM baking dish you can also um wrap them individually in little packets too or roll them in like little cylinders
Yeah or use a smaller one a smaller baking dish or put it on like a a cookie sheet and make like little squares which is but this is the easiest version to do like super easy um and I have my butter here can you see everything from where
You’re are yeah okay we see yep y okay yeah so I have kind of cooled but you guys can see like so um with my This Is My Vegan butter and get that and then going to throw on the felo it doesn’t need to be perfect as I’m like being perfect uh
This this is kind of be like a very light kind of like throwing a little bit on because the C you don’t need it to be drenched it’s not it’s not like like a ton of butter layer so I’m going to go back and forth L the filo on this folding um again
Uming this can be very rustic they get those sheets and then I’ll bring you over to this Edge now as the next sheet five this one I’m going to put Five sheets on but it depends of the filo that if you have it flesh obviously but I’m on I’m the um brown sugar where is that she elenie you’re cutting up a little bit I don’t know if uh I think it’s the location yeah because in in when you’re
When you’re doing the the regular speaking you’re perfect but uh sometimes when you move the oh okay now now she’s back it looks like she’s back to normal okay so really quick to catch up I’m just kind of going back and forth on this felo yeah um going side by side um
Bringing it up to the sides on alter altering it because I’m going to be pulling this in you don’t need a whole lot of butter on these sheets gotcha it’s like um it’s not like a g it’s not a it’s not a Bak where you want a lot of
Butter just kind of lightly I’m going to put some on the top too so I did five sheets and I it’s kind of alternating back and forth just so I can get um them up to the edges and I’m going to add the custard here oh that looks so
Good turn anyone veg in yeah you never even know unless I said it you know I I I honestly I bet you I wouldn’t be able to tell yeah it’s really not this one this one especially you can’t even tell because it’s there’s not like a big change other than like
The milk you know but guys I’m telling you I’m telling both of you I want to do this again with oat milk I feel like oat milk will be a winner I’m GNA try yeah I think that would pair really well with the semolina actually right you’re on to
Something okay let’s do it FY you’re the one who declined the oat milk so yeah it’s you know I gotta I mean Co coffee is a little bit different though yeah I feel likeing coffee that would be really weird but you know elenie said pairing with h smolina I really do
Think that’s a good match yeah it has that Odin totally yeah yeah exactly um all that on there hot still yeah the C is great just had a little bit um is it sweet yeah you can make it more with like more sugar or add a little if
People like like a little bit of lemon zest then that would be great so I’m going to fold this over right now and I’m going to add some layers of so that was I should have smooth it out a little bit um but yeah we’re just going to hold
This over can you guys still see everything y okay again this doesn’t need to be like perfect you want it to be a little bit rustic I’ve even seen AIS at the ziki he he like kind of puts his um filo in an accordion style it’s really
Cool I really like that very cool so now I’m gonna add a little bit more butter I’m gonna add more Below on top of these five more layers four to five depends will yeah I’ll put on top um okay so now with this I do kind
Of I’m not going to be layering it on top I’m kind of like cutting the filo just a little bit I’m going be putting this on top and kind of like tucking the filo around um um just depends on like how you want it to be on top and look and
Just again a nice little drizzle uh felo on top of here you don’t need as much on the bottom because that’s where all the liquid goes just a little bit more on top and then just nice and light on there stir that it really does look good yeah I’m excited
You’re excited because you get to eat it yeah I was lit sucks for you guys just kidding freeze it and one day we’ll do like do one together like in person yes please fun I want I want I want to like for once actually smell the Aromas and
Taste the the make sure yeah right this yeah you need it we’ll get it someday wines and foods and cook it all have our food truck going the bugata truck the bugat truck yeah again don’t worry about if this being perfect it looks kind of nice when it’s
A little bit more rustic just like a little bit here I’m sure some people like want to like layer it perfectly but me I’m like oh well I’m going to be eating it look so let me ask you when you layer the the f um is there like a magic number is it
Just your preference is there a reason so for me I like I do five on the bottom about five on top and now for me what I’m looking at is just like it’s kind of like break like it was kind of break some break and so like I’m
Just kind of like feeling it a little bit but I’m kind of to a level where I like the number so I I’ve done five so I’m just going to add the rest of the felo on top um of the butter sorry rest of the
Butter is just going to go on top of whatever I have left but yeah with the felo just kind of like I say five but um bottom and top it just kind of like what is looking good like right now like there’s no custard like popping up or anywhere and it’s it
Looks good so yeah and now on top I’m going to just put a light little bit of brown sugar just to give nice crunch on top of the bugat ah very nice yes yes and then you can add um cinnamon once it’s all out of the oven cooked as
Well which will do so yeah nice little layer adds a little bit of crunch and then into the oven we go for about 30 minutes and oh my gosh this is such a greatek thing like we have all of our pots and pans in the middle in the oven give me
Give me a second camera woman I need you to hold this classic oh yeah yeah have you guys seen those like funny you know like you’re opening up the pot and it’s just like everything is in the yeah want Greeks want to store everything in every empty space known to
Man so it’s like Mery Poppins like it’s like things just keep coming out of of the oven so one second and then we will put the bugat in the oven and really quick I’m just stirring my orzo it’s been on the stove for about 10 minutes with the orzo in it and making
Sure that um nothing is sticking so you always want to stir from the bottom whenever you’re dealing with like a pasta dish or especially tomatoey stuff because you don’t want that acidity to kind of come through okay yeah that looks that looks really good and then well it’ll thicken too so
Orzo will be thickening soon and then I’ll come back to it so um now that the Pata is in the there can you see that wait we and then okay now you’re back sorry back sor yeah you cut out a little bit you’re back you’re fine okay sorry I don’t know
Why it keeps cutting so yeah that will be about 25 minutes and then we will eat and then the orzo will be ready as well so that’s still thickening so yeah now would be a good time to chat have wine whatever sure and so um so you didn’t
You didn’t talk about the the sparkler uh F so do you want to do that now yeah so you know when we try to pair wines with or wines with dessert it can be a little tricky because if you think about it desserts are sweet typically
And then we also try to pair sweet wine so sweet on sweet sometimes doesn’t always work because the sweetness of the beverage or the wine takes away from the flavors of the dish so what I thought it is H not to cut you off but it is
Popular to like pair wines with lots of sweets like chocolate and and all sorts of stuff right it is but you got to be careful I mean it’s great yeah so bitter chocolates you know um very bitter dark chocolates work better with wine yes you know again think about this whenever you have
Something that’s sweet on sweet doesn’t it cancel out the flavors yes right okay so so it’s like when when you and I are on uh webinar together it’s like sweet on sweet and yeah we we cancel each other each other out yeah so you take that you take that approach
To pairing you know dessert and there’s got to be contrasts and when I think of contrast with desserts I think that the dessert itself the food side of it is usually hottier sweeter you know denser textures and then on the wine side you want you want contrast you need the opposite you
Want light effervescent something slightly slightly sweet not too sweet so I think that sparkling roses are a fantastic um addition to a pairing with dessert because it won’t take away from the flavors of for example today where where elen is making this wonderful bugat that
If we pour if we paired a sweet dessert wine you wouldn’t taste the bugat as well as if you tried it now with a light effervescent uh sparkly Ros and we chose a sparkling Rosé from the Northern parts of Greece which um you know sparkling wines are becoming popular they have
Been popular but they’re gain more popularity um you know thanks to wines like prco and champagne um and the Rosé category has really got a lot of folks into understanding and appreciating uh sparkling wines but the one that El has um has a nice balance of dryness and
Some sweetness not sweet like dessert but plenty of fruit um and that is a really good sparkling Ros I I have to say you know in every event that we’ve done it’s been the fa fan favorite it’s just inviting it’s easy to drink there’s you know freshness from the moment that
You pop the bottle right a lot of you know alen experience the popping of the bottle I don’t know why I was just like I don’t want I don’t know I was like I’m gonna open it now and then so right but um so a little bit about the wine
Real quickly it’s it’s a it’s a sparkling wine that’s made in NAA which is the northwest corner of Greece it’s made from a red grape called xinomavro and what happens basically is that that wine that elenia is going to be tasting and having with her bugata is
First it becomes still wine it becomes a rosé they they take the they take the kova grapes they press them they ferment them they leave the skin skins in for about I don’t know 12 to 14 hours they remove the Skins so that it has a little
Bit of time with skin contact which is where you get that color H and then they remove the Skins they ferment it it becomes white W uh rosé wine still and then there’s a second process it’s called secondary fermentation so after it becomes still wine they actually add additional sugar
And yeast at a certain temperature and that’s what creates the carbonation and makes it bubbly and then once they create the bubbles they recork it and it becomes a sparkling Rosé that’s a French method that was developed in Champagne France many many many years ago but the overall results is you have a
Effervescent refreshing crisp sparkling Rosé that has textures and flavors and it would be I think in my opinion and elen will tell us the ideal pairing with bugat okay can’t wait in a nutshell that’s great so you didn’t try it yet alenny well I was GNA wait for the
Bugata I don’t know why I was just like so excited to open and I didn’t I smelled it I smell a lot of it in my kitchen so the first initial I got the excitement at the beginning and then now I had the smell I just want everything
Just to kind of I would suggest that Lenny you try a little glass before asine waiting awesome absolutely it’s great to get twist her arm FY oh I guess like I twist your arm AR all the time yeah little bubbly yeah this this is a good one this
Is a really good one you know bubbles are all always thought of having it you know pre you know pre- dinner pre-event it’s like the uh the opening of any experience but you can have sparkling at the end of an event too no this is very smooth and
Yeah right you know most you know most sparkling wines tend to be tart and acidic and dry depend on what you’re you having but this sparkling Ros from kidani Estates which is one of our favorite properties in Greece um you know they do a a good job overall with
All of their production it was yeah I like I love that that’s really good and you know depending on what the finishing touches are on your bugat when it comes out I you know sometimes i’ I’ve seen people put fresh fruit over their bugat and you know powdered sugar and so on but
Definitely this would be our recommendation for bugat um yeah I’m GNA put some powdered sugar on it powdered sugar and some cinnamon there you go look nice yeah yeah so that should be another 20 minutes I’m sorry everyone’s wait yeah or is almost done though just thickening
Up a little bit um I’m just going to really quick add a little bit more oregano and some cinnamon um you can always just test it like your flavors what you want to add more of what the flavors you want to come out of so I’m
Just G to add just a little dash of both really quick and a reminder always stir stir stir yes because that is kind of easily sticking to the bottom quick question Lenny um are these in your cookbook um they are not so uh oh time for the second cookbook I know yeah this
Is yeah this is um a good leeway yeah I would like to include um a lot more vegan options in book so um just because the Greek diet I mean I do have a lot of vegetarian recipes in my book for sure I do think I although
I’m not a vegetarian I tend to cook more vegetarian style my influence is like I think I cook more creton Style from U my family most of my family not most but like that’s kind of like where I kind of associate a lot of my Greek background ISAT and so I definitely cook
More heavily towards that kind of style of cooking which is very vegetarian and so I do have a lot of that in my cookbook a lot of vegetarian but I would like to include more vegan options for because we fast year round you know there’s yeah people that really do
Follow a good um lent era fast so you know you mentioned early on pre recording that you know you read you read a recent book about the blue zones right yeah and um there’s you know there’s a you know there’s a a reason behind the folks that live in these U
Identified blue zones which one of them happens to be in Greece EA but I think all of Greece is a Blue Zone in my opinion yeah and blue Z are basically where people tend to live the longest amongst their you know amongst the the rest of the world but if you really
Break down why they live so long part of it has to do because they are basically you know plant-based eaters they eat very little meat the only time that they do consume meat is during celebration so Easter Christmas or some major yor that they all eat meat um they eat dairy from
Specific animals they eat dairy from whether it’s goats or sheeps and what have you so never really cows milk and um they also drink a lot of wine which is a plus right here we are I think we’re winning tonight really right and I I think I I mean I I think
There’s a h a very there’s there’s a lot of detail that goes into that and I think it’s also the fact of processed foods there’s there’s a lot less processed foods in these areas right they’re eating a lot more natural they’re eating a lot more you know Farm
Totable style right um and then I don’t know if this is as important but I’m sure it’s a factor there’s the whole aspect of the laidback kind of attitude like yes I remember I don’t know you guys correct me if I’m wrong but like I remember reading about a Blue Zone and
It’s like they don’t they don’t really abide by watches and clocks they kind of get to where they’re going when they get there they they they do what they have to do and then they go and do something else like it’s not it’s not a rush rush
American style like I have a meeting I have to go I have to do this I have to finish work I have to stay late I have to do that like that’s the psychological aspect basically they’re not as stressed as you are that’s what well that’s I I
Believe that’s a very major part big part no the Blue Zone groups it’s a very interesting book but I can like it kind of is repetitive in a way because you kind of get the point of like this food and whatever it’s a really interesting book though if anyone is interested yes
So there’s different so yeah eia is one of the blue zones there’s Sardinia in Italy there’s um Costa Rica there’s okanawa um and then there’s actually a place in California California there’s 7eventh day aventus and so yeah the basis the basic like factors um of these centenarians that have lived long and
Living well which are two different things right so like we have medicines that keep you on but they’re they’re active they’re walking and um obviously diet is huge so a lot of them do follow more of a plant based based diet or they limit their meat intake because back
Then like 100 years ago or 50 years ago um meat was expensive so um even my a sometimes she like oh lamb chops like you’re just gonna have one right they’re like so expensive like okay no like whatever um so yeah meat was expensive and so they ate more of a plant-based
Diet also um although it doesn’t align with what we’re talking about today but for anyone interested um they do get a lot of physical exercise they they walk to their lot of them are still working on their Farms but a huge thing too is um Social Circles so okanawa they
Actually call these like Mo circles where they like are together and they like work together and same with Greece they have like a big like group where people are stay staying together they get coffee together and things like that um so elen there’s there’s a there’s a
Reason behind the cafino is that what you’re saying yeah exactly we’re all doing doing it right but what you’re saying about the time thing um Ari is um in uh ikia they don’t have watches they don’t have there everything like is broken there is a really cool story in
The book that maybe you guys might find interesting is um one of the men one of the guys of the the writers was interviewing centenarians at this point and they were just kind of talking about their way of life and um one of the guys
From ikaria that he was he was 101 at the time whatever when he was being interviewed and um they were kind of talking about his story he was actually Living in America living in Florida and he got like a terminal time of death like I’ve heard
Of this said that yeah he was going to um he had like six months to live basically and so he’s like well I’m gonna move to EAD be with my family they can take like I want to just like finish my life there like and he was a he was
Someone that would work so hard in America like work work work work work and so he moved to Iaria and um he was weak when he got there and people would visit him so you got that social interaction people would visit him and people would feed him the like healthy
Foods like plant-based foods and um getting a little bit more he was able to get up and walk able to go into the ocean and and get exercise and physically move around and um so as person’s interviewing them like you get this like terminal um date of like
You’re gonna die so he was like what happened like how can you explain like how you live 40 years after this and the answer that the guy gave he was like I don’t know my doctor’s dead and so that was like in the book so that we didn’t
Have an answer other than that I mean that’s amazing that’s amazing and and I believe I believe so much of of everything that they talk about with these with these these lifestyle like uh you know the way people live I cuz I know for a fact like
I’m a very high stress individual I’m very high strong I I stress about everything I overthink everything and I know that’s not good and I I read about these people and I’m like how like how can I adopt this yes I can do the eating
I can do this and that but it’s the psychology that I feel like I have the trouble with and I think that’s a big part of it and it would be great I think it’s the environment that we live in that sometimes it absolutely is Right
Absolutely is I mean if we were if we were in a like a village by uh the seaside and you were working from home and you were watching the ocean um Oh you mean when I worked in downtown Boston in a a skyscraper that wasn’t a calming easy experience well you could
Have put flat screens with like the ocean yeah I mean there’s something to be said about that for sure yeah I mean I we’re all going to be moving toia whatever but think of ways that you can adopt that I mean I like I said like I after I read
The book I did try to eat more like plant-base and then like you kind of taper off a little bit but now talking about this I’m like oh yeah this is why I started doing this and um obviously creating good circles and being around people is very helpful for your cogn
Cognitive function so um keep contact with Ari and we’ll keep doing these wine clubs it’s gonna be so good for all of us there you go I I believe that I believe that very much yeah social interaction is very important I actually work with um and that’s why I was really
Interested in in in this book actually because I’m actually pH I was at the time I was working with more older adults in personal training so I was very interested in um aging populations and things like that and so um you’d see the people that come in and they need
That a lot of people are living alone or and they they need that social interaction it’s so important yeah um for us so absolutely and you know it’s funny because we talk about um so many down like like negative aspects of the pandemic but there’s there were a few
Positive aspects of the pandemic and that was um I was able to like wind myself down a little bit I was able to like sit back and like you know think about things and observe things and try to take a more calm laid-back attitude towards a lot of things and you know
Connecting with family much more because we’re all home a lot more I really feel like there there were some good aspects of it um and now that we’re kind of on the horizon of like getting through it I I hope like the the positive Parts can
Remain and we try to like avoid like the real negative parts of preco life which was always on the goal always rush rush rush always deadlines always like late always this always that like just let it go man it it you really don’t need to do
That you you just don’t right right I agree we can like take those lessons for sure it’s yeah reel it in a little bit Yeah but other any other questions to really quick um there’s about 10 more minutes on the bugat and then the Oro is
Almost done so with the or with the Kaki actually I’ll bring this over here um so the sauce is here so um this is going to thicken so um the the it’s getting it’s getting really soft it’s pretty close and then I’m going to let it stand because as it’s
Standing um the sauce will thicken a little bit some people like like a more um Saucy um caki I’m going to let it thicken up just a little bit um and as you’re going you just kind of check on the liquid you don’t want it to be you
Want the orzo to be covered like I said because it the Oro soon will be absorbing all that liquid and will thicken so in about 2 minutes I’m going to take it off cuz oro’s almost done it’s almost it’s almost soft enough and then I’m going to let it stand and just
Kind of um cool and um thicken up a little bit as it’s sitting yeah so about 10 minutes for everything and we can eat and drink wine and be merry eat drink and be merry I love that so um okay so uh FY spoke about he spoke about the two
Wines and why they pair well so let me just ask you um did you you did you taste both wines I did yeah um so what do you think I I’m gonna be honest I personally have a real issue of drinking wine with sweets just because I have it already in
My head that wine is sweet in general it has like sugars and I really try to like not sugar overdo the sugars so like it’s a little tough for me but I I feel like the taste is there what what is it f are you talking about hangovers is that
Why no that’s a whole other episode that we but I’m just I’m talking about she tasted the two wines we’re we’re gonna do it with the food and with theak and the bugat um and we’ll get elen’s opinion but I’m just saying my honest opinion like I really have a tough time
Drinking wine with sweets right yeah same here yeah so you know it’s one of those things where I I feel like the tastes can mesh well um but like I need I need more motivation to to really take a wine and a sweet together like they they they
Always talk about like wine and chocolate wine and this wine and that and I’m like I just can’t do it um I don’t know I think this I think with the bugata especially it’s not like overly sweet um true I think hair really well
Um so yeah we’ll see I mean I think it’s going to be great okay so yeah this has like thickened up pretty well here oh yeah and then I’m just it stand and thicken up um like I said some people like it a little bit more Saucy
Some people like it thick I’m like it in betweener and it’s going to seem like a lot of liquid right now but it does thicken up really quickly here um as it sits so I’m just going to let it stand I’m going to let it I’m
Going to take it off the heat and let it just stand for about and with a lid off so the steam so that it can thicken up a little bit as it sits so yeah and then about five minutes 5 10 minutes standing and then the bugat
Is gonna be already in five minutes we got a lot it’s almost there that’s it and then you get to enjoy it all and leave us I get to enjoy it yeah you guys leave us longing yeah sorry yeah the technology really has to get to a point I know you
Guys wish was EAS like ship your food you know right like no we need we need like the Star Trek uh like food replicator whatever that was like you make it and then Boop you 3D print it in everybody’s house and they could eat it
No I I feel like we’re not too far away from I feel like we’re not too far away techn yeah this world isn’t yeah definitely probably do that at some point I think I think f is working on something like that right FY uh are you on it well after I have so
Many of these I think that I’m on to it that’s F stares at his W do you have a crayon in your hand FY yeah I was just taking notes with a crayon Oh I thought I thought that was like a weird cigarette yeah so elenie
Yeah what’s going on here so so the the the how many servings can you get out of the um the the karaki with tomato sauce that you’re preparing you would say in general could it be like how many portions can you get out of that probably um you know what portions are
Always weird to me because I’m like I feel like I’m like a like a landfill and I can eat a lot so I feel like it’s like always depending on the person um I think this one like bull wise it can probably be about four to six okay um if
That’s just like a de side as a meal I’d probably be in that four range um just kind of depends now here’s another question for you Lenny yeah what if you don’t finish all of that deliciousness what would you do with it how would you store it and have it for
Later yeah so um the rare occasion that that does happen I will say that you can just store it in the fridge and then again it was it’ll thicken in the fridge even more so reheating it I like it cold like I I love cold leftovers like food like
My eye would be like warm that up I’m like no I love that cold like I actually do um but um you you can put in the fridge and then reheat it if you really want put on the pot add a little bit more like liquid like vegetable broth or
Water and then that can just reheat that way um Elena we have a quick question from Christy zervos uh does the orzo go in the oven at all to be cooked no it doesn’t not this one there are there are variations um that will do they’ll do
That and they’ll kind of cook partially and then they cook the rest in the oven so I feel like I feel like not putting it in the oven is better I feel for my own taste yeah I mean um there’s definitely different versions that have that orzo
In the oven um so just kind of trying to think yeah so you can do that I haven’t I I don’t have a version right now with baking it after but your version is not which yeah I just on the like one pot meal like simple put it together through
Again I I I feel like that’s my preferred method me personally yeah yeah yeah everyone has their preference which is like really cool about anything you know it’s just if you like it like yeah then that’s all it’s all to your personal preference and taste on everything right
Yeah um yeah cool so this is yeah I’m going to pull this bugat let’s see how that’s looking oh yeah it’s almost there it’s I don’t want to open it but I just did and then we’ll grab some cinnamon on top and we will enjoy some wine and I plate the
Orzo okay grab a bowl and we will be on our way nice cuz we’re hungry yeah can’t wait unfortunately fory we get none of the fringe benefits yeah it’s all alenny and her family I know yeah they get to eat uh Christy zervos also said that she’s heading to your
House come on over that’s my not oh okay good thank you for letting me know cuz I was going to say alenny lock your door I don’t know who this person yeah yeah who’s coming like I said whenever you’re dealing with me it’s always a family affair always supportive so um that’s it
That’s the that’s the best way that’s that’s you talk about blue zones you talk about long longevity Health family family is so important in my opinion and I don’t know if it was mentioned in the books or whatever but family I mean what else do you have in life really honestly that’s so
Ccle yeah Family Social Circles good friends around you is really important um always have and you know family depending actually I think most family can be considered the Social Circle as well right yeah um think about your family like your your mom seems really cool she’s holding cameras she’s doing
Like all this stuff your dad has like all this info and knowledge like you could ask him anything like where’s as a Social Circle right there he’s here he he actually just had a surgery last week or two weeks ago he had a well we we
Wish him a speedy recovery thank you yes but he’s always yeah he’s nearby he’s he is my historian and factoid but yeah can you give us a fact for this segment before we end it do you have a fact that you can give me today yeah 4 One what
What give me give me a topic you can probably think yeah give me a couple options or he’ll probably make something what is uh uh receding hairline how about that no we’re talking about our culture culture culture um cult history um you know well so I don’t know like what what could we
Ask him um what does he think about the blue zones what do you think about the blue zones was the first no heart attacks after World War II he said oh did you hear that no oh he said um cre was original blue zones after World War II there were no heart attacks
And they studied it there wow and they didn’t know why there wasn’t so there was a study there in cre of SM but now they took up smoking so they just ruined everything you know just they were there and they didn’t yeah so yeah we got to do a
Segment with her dad that’s it what’s fascinating Greece is that you see all these older folks in their 70s 80s that still smoke and it doesn’t like affect them yeah I don’t know I think I think that’s an anomaly I I don’t think you know a lot of people like oh my
Grandfather smoked till he was 94 I don’t think that’s a standard thing I think that’s an anomaly because some people’s bodies are just different but I think if you want to have longevity you’re not GNA smoke yeah unless you have a relaxed mindset stop trying to make smoking happen
Fuzzy not going to happen you know you know it’s you know again it goes back to that that combination like it’s a little bit of everything but I think that more importantly yes it’s what you put in your body but I also think it’s how your
Mind is too like the more relaxed you as a person I think the less pressure on your body and your mind yes that will help you along the way I I believe that 100% there how many like people who work out and they run and they’re active and
They do a lot of cardio and they end up getting sick because I think it’s all driven by I think in my opinion because of stress and mental uh stress stress is not a physical thing but it physically degrades you yeah like that that’s a proven thing stress is not good stress
Is physically not good for you and it’s mentally not good for you obviously but why do we do it why do we do it because it’s not good we know it’s not good for us so this is the life we live life yeah just like a stressful life that we live
Those are excuses listen we we have there there’s a lot to be said about this uh we won’t get into it when you have a taste of elenis garaki with tomato sauce your stress will go that’s a different story yeah that’s what it is uh we I Che the bugat out it’s just
Going to cool and then um oh my God look at that crackling when you when you yeah do you hear that little crackle let’s go let’s do another round of that that’s so good a vegan bugata bugat that’s all I need in my life yeah I’m gonna grab some poed sugar
And plate it and then add some cinnamon and so you guys can see that was some wine and then I’ll plate the orzo um beautiful no yeah we we’ll have to have my dad on the show he you want to come on the show sometime I love I he would I
Love I love I love love talking to people who bring the knowledge yeah just yes bring them on we got so the next show we’re booking him from now we’re doing a segment with alenny and our dad and we’re going to do history and food he want snails whatever it is what
Whatever it is sure okay we’re in it’s a segment of good food and good good times is your is your dad the side that you’re cre that is yeah yeah all right that’s it I’m sold my friend so we’re gonna do so we’re gonna do um
Fooda and facts okay yeah honestly like he’s yeah he’s got the facts so it would be very we’re good I be in the background like the backup dancer like cooking and he’ll we’ll take the show because he can talk yeah he’s he’s got it all he’s for our listening audience
Does does your dad know that my mom my mom is from CIT right and from Kanya I think we talked about this last time and her last name is sakis and they always used to claim that they were the the founders The Originators of sikya which
I don’t know if that’s true oh yeah it’s in the name yeah sakis right talk about this I have a friend named um suaki he’s in Denver I know him like sya if you I know him I think did he go to be I don’t
Know I’ll have to find I don’t know I’ll have to find out but um somebody in family go to be you I’ll to find out my friend married into the family so she find out because I went to school with um an Adis sakis so we got to
Talking because both our names were ADI right we’re like oh my name’s AI he’s like oh my name’s Ai and we were laughing about it and then uh we got into more detail and he’s like yeah my last name is tsakis I was like what my mom’s last name is
Tsakis so and he was from Colorado Denver yeah okay I’ll find out um I’m just going to play Everything the Oro is ready a that looks so good it’s still good to use a time to sit but um I just want to show it as I’m planting
Everything else and then I’ll get the wi Rising yeah it’s still warm so definitely get some time extra time to sit but whatever um okay let me grab a plate for the bugata and I will show you guys we’re doing here and again I want to get your take
Yes yeah no I’m excited to try it with the wine that’s the thing it’s like tell me if you comfortably can do I mean I’ve had the wine the sparkler I love it I love bugat together though I want to get your take on
It going to cut a nice big piece for me whatever nice and crunchy f um I need a oh yeah beautiful okay whatever okay so that’s I’m going to put a little powdered sugar on top and some cinnamon beautiful so just going to use my hands because I
Don’t want to use a lot right now a little bit of cinnamon can see what I’m doing here look at that Dam some Bugatti see the custard there that looks good that looks good so my wines ready for the ultimate taste test go wies and Goa I’m sorry everyone watching I would
Love to eat with you you at some point wow but for now you have to watch me inspiration yeah okay so I’m going take bubbles always are deceiving right okay so we can eat together virtually is any what’s up everyone else eating tonight okay so should I have a sip
First and then um have SI sip first bite and then sip again wow all right okay so let’s see well come down here yes she has a on my video like videos going over here like some people have like three different cameras but this works for us this works I can
Hear the flaky uh should be kind of cool but that’s okay okay oh my gosh I could only I could picture it I could picture it right now so you you you have the the the sparkler on your palette you took a bite that’s actually a very good pairing
Right I will say sorry that’s like still so hot I should let it cool but don’t very impatient I always eat hot foods I’m like throw it in that’s fine so so back to my comment about like being like really weird with with drinking any sort of wine with
Sweets um I you know we we we talked about why I’m weird about it but you give us your take like is it it’s not that bad actually no um I think if this was like how you said with wine I think if this was like a red wine I wouldn’t
Want to have like a hard wine with this yes but I think I’m like I feel like I’ve become like a very good with wine now I’m like so I’m all knowing but I’m really not but I feel like this is my personal take um but um I think with the
The sweetness and then the bubbly I think it kind of like brings them both out together I think ni little pop that I want so so imagine you’re out you you’re like in Athens you’re like in a nice beautiful area nice atmosphere there’s people around the weather is
Gorgeous you’re having a bugat you’re having this sparkler this would be a great experience yeah yeah I think so so um it’s not like the uncommon to have like sweets with like um like a sweet drink like I remember like in Spain they do like um like churros with like a hot
Sweet hot chocolate and so I think like if you PA kind of like a a nice like simple sweet where it’s not like overly sugary you know like I wouldn’t want like a brownie or something like heavy or like um something like that with it I think has
Like a little bit like that element of like that felo dough and then um like like you’re not going to do a jelly donut with uh yeah so yeah yeah so I think it just depends on what you’re eating it with um I think it’s actually very good nice so
Excellent go wait yeah way to pair those together Bravo good I’m G show you more of this and then orzo here the karaki with tomato sauce that really looks goody yummy thank you you can use vegan cheese on top instead of maitra but I’m gonna eat it plain I like it plain nice
Um so yeah those are two simple dishes they really are like a lot simpler to put together but like when I’m going back and forth and talking getting excited about Blue Zone groups I get carried away but um but you know what this is the kind of information that we
Love because you know we we do these webinars yes you’re you’re demoing food you’re demoing recipes we’re pairing wines but you know what there’s a lot of information that comes out and I think that’s a really interesting aspect of doing these things especially the social aspect because you’re bringing something
To the table he always brings some good stuff to the table I contribute nothing so don’t worry about me but the this is the type of but this this yeah but this is the type of thing that like that that we want to present to people you know the
The the people who understand and know what they’re doing to give us this kind of information and to talk about stuff that they know and your dad you know don’t forget that we’re gonna get your dad on here because I he’s going to bring some knowledge I know it
He will yeah you’re using me to get to my dad aren’t you no it was our it was our plot all along I knew no he’s no he’s got he’s excited awesome are you so EXC yeah he’ll he’ll he’ll love it we have to plan that for
Like one the next one or two whatever we do yeah yeah we’ll we’ll plan it out you’ll plan out some dishes that that has some history that he could talk about and we’ll like we’ll we’ll take it it’ll be so cool and then I’ll kind of
Chime in and cook and um he he likes to cook too so we’ll go we’ll go back and forth yeah yeah you guys will be like a team tag team yeah the two of us just back and forth are yeah so awesome so I FY take take us home FY all right
Brother so the recipes that elenni demonstrated so eloquently are going to be listed and will be live always on our app right Ari it’ll be on the event so so the event page will always have all the recipes but we will also post everything on the video on um the
Podcast and on the app we want it to be everywhere we want it to be searchable we want it to be like yes indexable by Google all that stuff all the geeky Tech stuff so so yes you’ll be able to find it very easily so I learned two words I
Learned coconuty coconuty indexable indexable indexable miss that I miss indexable when when did that listen listen if we say it enough Elena you have a huge social media following you say this two three times uh Webster’s Dictionary is gonna be calling to to put this in the dictionary trust
Me I’m G yeah you guys will be coming at me for royalty so words if you could get in the dictionary it’s all you alen yeah I like coconut I think that could take off but yeah so Ari you know uh we’re GNA have uh also all of elen’s uh social
Media handles uh listed so they can find out more about elenie and what she’s doing so they can follow her um alen thank you so much once again uh for putting together a easy to follow but interesting and fun and I’m sure very tasty uh segment with the the dishes
That you put out we’re definitely going to have you back along with your dad um from from my end thank you so much yeah thank you for having me um it’s always a pleasure to chat with you guys you guys are always so easy to talk to hang out
With and thank you everyone for watching and following along I always appreciate it definitely looking forward to creting day so yeah and the last thing you leny before I let turn over to AR is you got to tell us what you think about the kurab this popcorn that you got oh yeah
Um whenever I want to show everybody this I’m not going to do it right now because I already have like tomato sauce and powdered sugar and everything on my shirt so I’m just going to give a the Kun which is like I just think a messy person I don’t know what’s going
On with me yeah but that that that’s life that’s your living you’re living life be yeah yeah so I’m excited to try this popcorn I had The Baklava one last time so now we have so it’s really cool thank you Greek is on for sending that
So if anyone’s not on the app we should be because they have a lot of great Greek products awesome thank you so much elenie always a pleasure you are awesome you you you you I love like the whole flow I love how you do your your recipes simple straightforward but entertaining
Thank you again for being with us thank you for taking the time thank you fy uh for bringing all your wine knowledge uh again I’m kind of useless over here but I’m gonna take you guys out thanks everybody for watching and listening we will have this as a podcast
Video tomorrow it’ll be on the app you will be able to um watch stream listen however you want thank you join us next time and definitely join us for the next elenni episode because H little birdie told me her dad’s gonna be there dad will be there if your mom’s holding
The camera we’re gonna make this a family affair yeah I’ll get my family I get my nun yeah I get everyone yeah yeah yeah get it get it all get everybody we love it we love it thank you everybody have a great night thank you for watching listening elen thank you have a
Nice Easter thank you and yes yeah have a nice Easter Everybody Take Care everybody all right bye bye bye bye