My Greek Dinner Party | My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas

Diane prepares a dinner party meal for a handful of her closest friends. Diane provides helpful tips to alleviate the stress that comes with planning a dinner party and provides easy recipes that are healthy and delicious. On the menu: Char-Broiled Cabbage “Steaks” with Pomegranate Seeds and Lemon Zest, Whole Baked Fish with Leeks, and Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta.

My Greek Table is a journey through the mountains, islands, villages and cities of Greece in search of the country’s most delicious, healthy recipes and raw ingredients. Diane Kochilas, the host of My Greek Table, is a native New Yorker who adopted Greece as her home more than two decades ago. With My Greek Table Diane will shed light on one of the world’s oldest and healthiest cuisines.

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♪ ♪ [Diane Kochilas] I’m enjoying
my morning coffee before heading out to the market
to do some shopping for dinner. I’ve invited some friends
over to my place later. I’m making roasted cabbage
with pomegranate and herbs. Everyday ingredients for an
extraordinary salad course. Whole baked fish with leeks. This is the beauty
of simplicity. And for dessert, a Greek yogurt
honey panna cotta. I’m impressed,
this is delicious. (chuckles) Entertaining is a
big part of my life. You’re invited too. So join me on My Greek Table for
a dinner party, Greek style. (Glasses clinking) ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ ♪ [Diane Kochilas]
I love to entertain. (Glasses clink) Gathering around a table
is a deeply rooted part of Greek culture. The table is sacred. Shared meals, no matter
how simple or festive, call forth the greatest
attribute of the whole Mediterranean diet. The social connections forged
or enhanced when people gather around a table
to share food. [Man] Salute. [Diane] Salute. Greek meals tend to be
boisterous, rambunctious affairs,
whether it’s a gathering of friends or family or both. For me, the planning is just
as much fun as the finale. I love open air markets and to
check out whatever is fresh, local and seasonal. I might plan a meal carefully,
but I always leave room for inspiration. That could be the daily catch. Or a harvest of nuts. Or something juicy, like some
fresh pomegranates. I also like to explore
Greek wines, knowing that pairing them
properly with whatever I’m cooking enhances the whole
experience of the meal for everyone. Tonight I’ve invited my closest
Greek friends over. Ilias is a chef, Mary’s an
architect, Anna is an attorney, and Lizana is jack and mistress
of many trades; seamstress, designer, and all around
creative person. They all know each other and
we’ve all shared many a table together. But no matter whether it’s
my closest friends or a more formal gathering,
I always like to surprise my guests by transforming
everyday ingredients into stellar and unusual treats. ♪ ♪ Entertaining sometimes
stresses people out, but not when you take a page
from Mama D’s Greek Dinner Party book. I’m making a really simple,
very elegant, healthy, delicious meal for
my good friends. (soft scraping) Starting with a roasted
cabbage, one of the easiest recipes to
make and also one of the most impressive. The first thing we do
is cut the cabbage. I like to cut the cabbage
into steaks. (slicing) Savoy cabbage is a
little bit fancy, you can also do this with the
regular head of white cabbage, cutting it into thick wedges. We’re just gonna place
the cabbage rings on a lined baking sheet. If you have a few loose pieces
like this, don’t worry about it. You can just strew them around. A little bit of extra virgin
Greek olive oil goes over the cabbage. I have two secret
ingredients in this dish, and this is the first one, this
smoked flaky Greek sea salt. It smells like barbecue. It’s really delicious. (rubbing) And I like to just rub it so
that the pieces are a little smaller. There’s an incredible array of
really delicious sea salt in Greece. A little bit of coarsely
ground black pepper. There’s always a salad course
at a Greek meal. This is my salad course. We eat lots of cabbage salads,
but this is really unique. This is going right into
the oven under the broiler. That’s gonna take around
15 or 20 minutes to char, I’m gonna turn it at some point. This looks awesome. ♪♪ I’m gonna let the cabbage cool
for a few minutes and get everything ready for
the garnish and the dressing. A little bit of
fresh rosemary first. (snipping) Love fresh rosemary. I’m gonna save one for garnish
and get this chopped. And a little bit of the dill. We do this for both
flavor and color. And this cabbage is- it really
is kind of a showstopper. People don’t expect the flavor
of roasted cabbage to be so unusual and so delicious. Just gonna get that
back into the bowl. The next thing is just to whisk
together the balsamic vinegar and the olive oil. A little bit of vinegar first. (glass clinking) Extra virgin Greek olive oil. I want to get a little sea salt
in here, this smoked sea salt. It’s very, very flavorful. And a little black pepper. Time to plate this. The pomegranate comes next. A beautiful Greek pomegranate. I’m just gonna tap this so that
all of the seeds come out over the cabbage. Just a little bit of the
balsamic and olive oil. We don’t want to drench this because the beauty of this dish is those charred leaves and
kind of the texture itself. So I think we’re good
on the dressing. A little bit of lemon zest. (scraping) I think we’re good on that. And a little bit of fresh
dill and rosemary. This is totally my idea of a
stress-free vegetable course. Voilà. Roasted savoy cabbage with pomegranate seeds, lemon zest, olive oil, smoked sea salt,
some herbs. Everyday ingredients for an
extraordinary salad course. ♪♪ I have a really nice
recipe coming up. Very simple, very dramatic. A beautiful whole roasted
grouper with leeks, lemon and white wine. Let’s get started. I’m gonna start just by
prepping the leeks and we want to get the leeks
into pretty thick diagonal pieces. (cutting) This is a pretty traditional
dish originally from Crete with a few of my own
tweaks to it. Roasted whole fish,
baked whole fish, that’s a totally stress-free
option for any kind of dinner party. My pan is nice and warm. I’m just gonna add a little
extra virgin Greek olive oil to that… And get the leeks
into the frying pan. We do this basically
to soften them. (sizzling) I have quite a number of
leeks here, so I’m gonna do it in batches. So while that’s happening, let
me get a little salt over that. And while the leeks are cooking,
I’m gonna season the fish. And what we have here
is this beautiful, what we call in Greek, sfyrída,
beautiful grouper. You could use any
whole fish for this. I’m just gonna get a little bit
of salt over the surface. A little bit of white pepper,
over the top as well. You always want to add
some sort of seasoning. I’m using fresh oregano
and fresh thyme. You could add celery
to this if you want. Maybe some fennel. Almost any kind of gentle herb
works really nicely inside the fish. And we just do that for flavor. A little bit of extra virgin
Greek olive oil just over the surface of the fish and also
around the pan a little bit. Let me check on those leeks. I’m going right into the pan. We’ve got some
good color on that. ♪♪ This is looking good. It’s got the color that we want. Okay, let me get
the second batch of leeks into the baking pan. Beautiful. This is the beauty of simplicity
and that is really what Greek food is all about. Very few ingredients,
really good quality, super fresh and
simple techniques. Just adding a few lemon slices
to this because in Greece, fish and lemon are a
natural combination. And it also just looks
really beautiful. A little white wine just to
lubricate the leeks and the pan This is going off to the oven. This is about a
four and a half pound fish. You need about 10 minutes
a pound, so 45 minutes at 375. ♪♪ I love to take the Greek
classics and reinvent them. And in this recipe I’m taking
a perfect Greek couple, yogurt and honey, and making
a panna cotta with that. The first thing we want to do
is soften up the gelatin with a little bit of milk. So I’m just gonna sprinkle
the gelatin over this. We want to let it bloom a
little bit, let it soften. It doesn’t need to be
stirred or anything. Get that off to the side,
that’s gonna sit there for about 10 minutes. I’m gonna heat the milk next. And next the cream goes in. And we want to heat
that very, very gently. And next in, some orange zest. I’m gonna use two pieces
of orange zest. I just love the flavor
and the aroma of orange, it goes right in. And a little bit of Greek honey
and I’m using my good Ikarian thyme honey for this. ♪ ♪ Look how thick and viscous
and golden this is. So I just want to get that
honey dissolved into this. I’m about to add the gelatin. I’m gonna do that by taking
the pot off the heat first. And we want to
whisk that together and we are gonna strain it in
a second just to get any clumps that might be in here out. We want a nice smooth and
velvety yogurt panna cotta. (tapping) Ready to strain this. You can see those clumps. The fine mesh sieve is catching
exactly what it needs to catch. This is beautiful. It’s nice and silky,
which is exactly what we want. And I’m gonna add
vanilla bean yogurt next. ♪♪ We’re adding two cups
of vanilla bean yogurt. I’m gonna whisk this together
to get it nice and smooth. You want to do that gently
to keep it from splattering. I’m pretty much ready here
to get this into the cups. I can see how beautiful
and creamy this is. And I just want to show
you the consistency. It’s really thick and creamy
and you see how it coats the back of that spoon? That’s what we’re looking for. You want to fill this about
two thirds of the way up. These take about
an hour to set. You can just as easily
do it a day before. I’m gonna move this
over to the fridge. ♪♪ While the panna cotta
is setting, I’m gonna make the topping. ♪♪ I’m just making a little
bit of a very Greek topping. Which is walnuts, raisins,
some apple, cinnamon, and a little sugar. (crunching) We just want a rough
chop on the walnuts. We want some nice texture. I’m gonna toast the walnuts. It’s the first step in
making the topping. (nuts clattering) The frying pan is
already warmed up. We want a little heat
on the walnuts. That helps bring out all their
essential oils and the nuts are much more flavorful
that way. I’m getting really nice
walnut perfume here. A little bit of olive oil
goes in next. And the apples. (sizzling) Stir that all around. It might seem more intuitive
to add butter to the apples, but we use olive oil a lot in
Greek baking and Greek sweets. The raisins go in next. These are actually
Greek currants. You can use any dark
seedless raisin. A little pinch of salt. Some brown sugar. Get that stirred. The apples will start to release
their own moisture. And this is gonna be nice and
syrupy in a few minutes. And one last thing,
another very Greek spice, especially with walnuts,
a bit of cinnamon. So this is a little bit of
apple pie meets Greek yogurt panna cotta, and the beautiful
juices in the apple with the brown sugar
are gonna caramelize and we’re gonna get a really luscious topping. The apples are looking
really good. You want to keep this moving
in here because you don’t want the sugar to totally caramelize. You don’t want apple candy,
you want it to be juicy. The apple topping is done. The panna cotta is set. And it’s time to introduce it
to our little apple pie topping here. I love to cook for my friends. Really one of life’s greatest
pleasures for me and I try to do different things
each time I have people over. I think this looks
really pretty. The next thing is
a little bit of Greek honey right over the top. I’ve got a little bit of
Ikarian thyme honey here. It’s really thick. And thyme honey is a little
bit lighter than pine honey, for example, which is also
popular on the island. And it’s very, very aromatic. And just a little bit of
garnish, just some fresh mint. A little bit of contrast. The dessert’s ready and you know
I’m gonna taste this before I serve it to
everyone else. I’m impressed.
This is delicious. (chuckles) The yogurt has just
a hint of sweetness. The contrast with
the topping, the crunch, the juiciness of the raisins,
the apples, it all works really, really well together. ♪♪ I’m just making a very quick
little appetizer or mezadakia as we say in Greek. And this is halloumi cheese. Just gonna take a few minutes. (sizzling) Some of this beautiful
Ikarian pine honey. And I’d like to add some pink
peppercorns just for color. And just some thyme. This is one of my easy
go-to mezadakia, a little appetizer that I often
serve when I’m waiting for friends. They’re here. [Diane] Hello darling. (smooching noises) (Diane laughs) (smooching noises) Help yourselves. Have some sparkling Xinomavro. (glasses clink) Mm. [Ilias] Very nice. [Diane] I made a little
halloumi. Help yourselves. [Ilias] It’s delicious, Diane. [Diane] Is it? [Ilias] Really good. I love the pink pepper. That’s a great addition. [Anna Sofia] Mm, delicious. [Diane] I cooked a nice dinner. I have some fish. And that roasted cabbage that
I’ve made for you many times. And a nice little dessert. [Anna Sofia] I’m hungry. [Diane] I know. I’m hungry too.
I’ve been working all day. Let’s sit down. [Ilias] Sounds good. ♪♪ [Diane] I got a sfyrída. Big wild sfyrída with leeks,
which is a recipe from Crete. Ilias, I’m gonna ask you to do
the honors of carving that fish. I’ll pour some wine. [Ilias] Okay. [Diane] Well this dish
is from a very traditional Cretan recipe, so I thought it
would be nice to serve a white Cretan wine,
which is the Vidiano grape. Let’s serve the cabbage too. This is a very low calorie meal. [Speaking in Greek]
[Together] Yamas! [Ilias] Thanks for having us, Diane. That’s really amazing. The leeks are wow. [Mary] Amazing. [Anna Sofia]
The fish is um, juicy. [Ilias] Delicate. [Anna Sofia] Yes. Very nice cooked. [Mary] We have always
a great time. At your house,
when you take care of us. [Diane] Well,
you take care of me too, so. (laughs) [Anna Sofia] Delicious. [Diane] I think this wine
is really nice too. [Ilias] It’s very nice. [Diane] It has a lot of um,
like floral aromas. What do you think of
the cabbage? [Lizana] Amazing. [Diane] Amazing. [Anna Sofia] Normally
I prepare it fresh, but cooked it’s first time. Very nice. [Diane] I love the charred
flavor of the cabbage. It’s really easy. [Mary] You have to give us
a recipe and try and make it. [Diane] It’s really easy. [Ilias] It’s really great. [Diane] True to form,
like all Greeks. When we’re around the table
we talk about foods. (booming laughter) [All] Yamas. (glasses clink) [Diane] Dessert. [Together] Ohh! (Diane laughs) (clapping) So I made panna cotta. [Ilias] Nice. [Diane] A vanilla bean
Greek yogurt and honey from Ikaria and walnuts and
apples and raisins and cinnamon. Okay. Dig in. Enjoy. I hope you like it. [Anna Sofia] Mm. [Anna Sofia] Excellent. [Diane] Excellent. [Ilias] That’s great. [Anna Sofia] Oh so good. (laughing) [Ilias] I think the yogurt
balances the sweetness. [Anna Sofia] But it is
very good, bravo. [Diane] Thank you.
[Speaking in Greek] [Ilias] Of course, thank you. Anytime. [Diane] Anytime. [Ilias] I’m free next week. Are you free next week? [Anna Sofia] Yes, yes, yes. [Speaking in Greek] [All] Cheers! [Mary] And how did you
make this, Diane? [Diane] By heating cream
and milk and adding some gelatin that I had dissolved. Then mixing that with
this vanilla yogurt. Putting in the refrigerator,
little bit of honey. And then the topping is-
Topping’s very easy. It’s an apple cut up. Walnuts, raisins, a little brown
sugar, a little pinch of salt. It all caramelizes and gets
juicy and you put it on top and it’s easy. And you could add any fruit. Doesn’t have to be apple. [Mary] Amazing.