Join Chef Petros Markopoulos in the Ithaki kitchen as he prepares one of Greece’s most beloved meze: Kolokithokeftedes—crispy zucchini fritters packed with fresh herbs and feta cheese. This authentic recipe brings the spirit of the Mediterranean straight to your table.
Watch as Chef Petros shares his personal techniques passed down through generations, then plates these golden delights with a vibrant twist: a creamy Beet Tzatziki that adds both color and depth.
Whether you’re a food lover, a home cook, or a fan of Greek cuisine, this video will transport your taste buds to the Aegean.
In This Video:
• How to prep and drain zucchini perfectly
• Chef’s secret herb blend for extra flavor
• A modern twist on traditional tzatziki with beets
• Plating tips to impress your guests
Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more Mediterranean-inspired recipes straight from Chef Petros’ kitchen.
#GreekCooking #Kolokithokeftedes #Tzatziki #ChefPetros #LunaMare #MediterraneanFood #AuthenticGreekCuisine #SmallPlatesWithSoul
[Music] [Music] Good morning. Welcome to our first but not the last uh lesson about cooking. And today we’re going to do zucchini fritters col the most uh popular spring summer um dish. Uh we choose beautiful uh fresh zucchinis and we’re going to use uh some excellent olive oil. Going to use white onions, sweet onions, scallions, dill, mint. We need eggs. We need feta. We need a good yellow cheese. At this moment we use kefogera from crit. We have a panco. We have uh gluten-free bread crumbs and flour and also garlic. We’re missing at this moment up here. Where is the garlic? First step we need to have again a nice zucchinis. And the secret up here it’s uh to use as less white part. We need we need the green the chlorophyll the green part with a little bit of touch of white. That’s the secret to use to have more tasty [Music] And after we need to chop them a little bit, we’re waiting for the rest of Mr. Hector. It’s going to finish cuz I’m a northern ugly man and yelling a lot. And now we do the [Music] onions. We’re going to start cut our rest of the vegetables. They are scallions. Just now soon uh we are lucky to have a beautiful farm next to us, Marin Farms. And uh soon we’re going to use all his beautiful uh fresh vegetables. [Music] Probably we need approximately for the eight zucchinis we have, we need about approximately a cup of beautiful fresh scallions. We take out the roots and we chop them nice and [Music] I’m oldfashioned chef, but I’m not cutting figures. I promise to you. We need every single part of the [Music] science. Just know for many Greek recipes, there is two secrets. uh two two base ingredients uh oregano everywhere or uh meat and the most beautiful herb in the world. Um we’re using approximately again another approximately half a cup of nice fresh mint. The whole kitchen smells right now the beauty of the mint. The next time I’m going to show you my pots where I have the herbs for the summer. We use our home. We grow our own herbs. [Music] My grandma used to say, “Don’t cut the herbs with a knife, but with the heads, because gives more flavor.” But I never listen to her. [Music] And of course, we we forgot one very important ingredient, the parsley. It’s a good thing to to take the stems out too off too. But this is nice and fresh and baby doesn’t need to. And we took we took only the most soft part. [Music] You see how many and missing a touch of another beautiful well known for the Greek cuisine um uh be and if we take on it’s going to give us that uh spicy uzzy uh flavor again summer dish. You never seen that years ago in Greece under winter time because it’s not like today we have all the seasons same ingredients and that was very popular at the summer time spring summer time. And we have our garlic approximately a spoon uh soup spoon two of them approximately. And of course my beautiful uh people they forgot the most important thing and to have a good smell. It’s a zip for but remember don’t drink it use it. No. And um yes we give it to them one good zip but with a spoon plating. We add a good possibly half cup of a good olive oil. are two beautiful egg and happy eggs. Come on, don’t be serious. And uh going to play later on with the breadcrumbs and the flour. That’s going to give us enough thickness and the starch is going to make it going to bring it together. I need to check the zucchini before I yelling again. Give me a minute. I’ll be right back. Okay. As we’re waiting for the zucchinis, we’re going to take our beautiful kretton. Beautiful. Beautiful. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. [Music] amazing cheese. Try it. Okay. Approximately you we need about uh um say another good cup of any yellow spice cheese again. [Music] Mama mia how they had the Italians because I know Italy is famous for her cheeses but believe me Greece doesn’t go behind. Okay, if we need at the end we’re going to check if we’re going to need more. How do you say mamame mia in Greek? Manula. And now approximately another cup of good Greek feta. I don’t have nothing with domestic feta, but there’s not flavor. Use a good Greek feta. Not white cheese [Music] feta. That one. It’s a beautiful buttery. A little bit spicy. It’s going to make the difference. [Music] Okay. The secret up here is to to do that prep night before. Anyway, you salt your zucchinis and the onions together. Why? while here because it’s going to take a lot of or out. Need the skin to be dried almost like using ground beef in a cheesecloth. There’s many things to push it. Now, if we start pushing, you see we don’t need all this water. Or you can live gently. This is Spencer. Do you want to say hi? To say good morning. This is the emergency [Music] way. Okay, I think we took the 90% of the water out. You see how much water from a zucchinis? Let’s [Music] see. Let’s try. Nice and beautiful. I think we did a good job. Again in Greece at the summer time they use so many vegetables to make fritters. Famous tomatoes kept going to do the next time. Tomato ke they call in Sorini. One of the best things in the world. Of course, maybe you never hear about, but they do amazing octopus fritters, too. But see, all this beautifully vegetable stuff are in. I’m going to add nice fresh ground black pepper. I’m not going to do any more salt because the cheeses, they’re going to give us more saltiness. See, looking very bad. There’s not a lot of water each side. And of course, we have the bread, the punk of the breadcrumbs. And a click of flour to make. If you like to be gluten-free, you don’t have to use flour. Use just your pancake. Your gluten-free pancake. It’s almost even if I don’t put anything, it’s almost I can I can make [Music] fritters. I’m adding approximately a half to 3/4 a cup of the bread crumbs. And of course, I can see missing fat. I’m going to add a little bit olive oil. It’s a good to leave your uh zucchini fritter dough to stay for half an hour to all the flavors comes together. And now I’m going to add break a little flour. I Everything very good dough. It’s ready. We rest the flat half an hour. Hear the noise. Beautiful. And now we are ready. It’s resting. And we start making our zucchini fritters to build. It’s a little bit a very elegant dough. You need to be gently with that to make the foam. And there we are. When I do for the restaurant, it’s with the phone. When I do for myself, I like to be free form free. But even then again I don’t make my yaya sides because also I forgot we’re going to serve the beautiful zucchini fritters with jatziki. We’re going to do that lesson another time how make a beautiful beautiful jajiki or I thought years now I made that recipe myself. Um, I do jajiki, not just plain jajiki, but I call bit jajiki. I ground bits there. Okay. And you continue do that. In that moment, if you make extra of what you need, it’s a good and uh a good product to be freezed up here. A small bowl or in a plastic bag, you can keep it for a month. And the last step, we make our zucchini fritters. We take white flour. It’s a beautiful thing. Even for breakfast, fry one of this. Put the pik on top and the jajiki on top. Oh my god. Beautiful, beautiful health. And it’s time to see how the oil is. Yaya secret. She take a little bit of flour. She throw me in. Once the bubble starts, our oil it’s ready to go. And it is. You don’t need too hot, but you don’t need to We put here you can use less oil even olive oil and but you need to to them here. You don’t need to make any turns. The the pies they’re going to be ready approximately in five four to 5 minutes. You see them? They take a nice color. We are ready. Almost ready. But again there is one more secret here. your fritters out out of the oil. It’s good to have a good uh uh paper or a nice clean towel or kitchen paper. We’re checking for one more time. We are almost there. You see them nice and beautiful colorful. We need that color. We are almost there. Plus the oil is not really extra hot. It gives the opportunity to be cooked inside perfect but to stay nice and juicy. My last secrets. I have a question for you. Do you think I put all the secret ingredients of the zucchini fritters? thinking aloud. I did. I did. I gave you all the secrets. Look them. Beautiful babies. Nice and crispy outside and very juicy and moist inside. A little shortness from the feta, sweet from the scallions and the onions, the spices from the mint and the teal. That’s the regular our beautiful zatiki with Greek yogurt strained overnight, cucumbers, garlic, good olive oil, and of course a good white vinegar. And that tastes delicious. I just puree nice roasted red beets. And because I don’t want to lose the flavor of the ziki, I add olive oil and more vinegar inside. That’s mean the main ingredients. They stay the same. What the difference going to be the sweetness of the bits and believe me makes difference. because the colors change. We like that or we can do from the scratch pizza. But when you need just a little bit and Delicious. And it’s time to make a plate. Okay. My beautiful jatiki. And this these amazing beautiful babies. You can put them separately up here. I like to put them on top. And of course, I like to take a little bit of not just for garnish, but it really gives a lot of good flavor. And even you can chop some scallions if you’re done. And I think we are ready for tasting. That’s the best part I think at the end. I’m going to cut it down to see the beauty inside. It’s nice and crispy and juicy. As you take that beautiful thing and I’m going to give the first bite to that stupid photographer who kills me when it’s ready. When they are ready. When they are ready. He knows he’s happy. He wants to burn to burn his tongue. And anyway, it’s um summer in one bite. At this moment, if you have glass around, you can put this small sort of delicious suzo. I hope you enjoyed the small, fast, and a little bit ugly first cooking class with us. Have a beautiful and crazy day. Run.
1 Comment
Beautiful recipe! Can they be baked instead of fried?