Day Two

    Today in the art of cooking J-term the Post Oak cooking class took a trip to Greece! When we first arrived we had to start by washing our hands and putting on our aprons. We went through our morning gathering and discussed what we were going to do throughout the day. We got a brief history lesson about Greece and their culture. After our history lesson we also talked about the day before and compared notes about our journal assignments. After getting caught up on everything we headed to the kitchen to get started on today’s meal.

The first thing that we actually made was our snack, our snack was called “spinacotta”, it consisted of kale, feta, olive oil, and filo sheets. The original recipe actually called for spinach but our goal today was to use kale in three different ways. The process was pretty easy, we each either were given some kale or fetta to cut up, the kale was sauteed with some olive oil and garlic. Once we had all of our ingredients mixed we continued on with the actual process itself. We each were given a bowl of oil which was used as a type of glue, were all given about two sheets of filo dough at a time because they are really thin. Since they break apart when we fold them we had to put a good amount of oil on them. Next we put the filling in and started folding them into triangles, covering them in egg wash after so they would become a nice golden color. After we all finished we finally got to bake and eat them.

For lunch we had a plethora of food, from homemade pita bread to feta cheese, honey and grapes for dessert. To be more specific, on the menu we had greek salad served with homemade pita, hummus and chicken. For dessert we had a tray of feta cheese, honey and grapes. To be able to cook all this food Chef Paola had us divide into many different groups. Three kids would take on making the pita bread, another three would take on making hummus and it took four people to make a ginormous greek salad. To make the pita bread we were shown a demonstration using flour, water, salt and yeast. It was kind of tricky because you have to activate your yeast. It kind of took longer than expected because our food processor had a hole in it so everything spilt out. Once everything was mixed together a group of three came in to roll the dough into individual pieces. The key was to make the dough thin enough to where a air pocket could be created. Once the air pocket is created it is perfect for putting vegetables or hummus inside. Next another group was created for making hummus. The ingredients of hummus are chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and tahini. This group combined and blended all the ingredients together. Lastly the group with four people make a humongous greek salad. The ingredients were bell pepper, olives, kale, tomato, cucumber, feta cheese and onion. These ingredients combined made a beautiful salad. Once everything was complete we had to plate the table. Everyone came together to plate the table and all sat down like one big happy family! I can’t wait to come back tomorrow!