Greek Feast

This weekend I decided that I wanted to cook Greek food, so I invited some friends over for Sunday dinner and started searching for recipes. I had lamb in the freezer so I decided to make souvlaki, but I wanted to try something different than the the slapdash 10-minute recipe I normally use (it's delicious by the way, I just wanted to try something different). While searching online I also ran across an interesting recipe for Dried Fig Souvlaki. It involves feta cheese, figs, sage, and prociutto. What the heck, I decided to give it a try. I was also set on making rice, but found a recipe for Greek oven roasted potatoes, and since I love those in restaurants, I wanted to see if I could make them at home.

Surprisingly, I ended up batting three for three! I decided that I don't really like the taste of fresh sage, so the fig souvlaki wasn't my favourite, but my guests seemed to really love it. The lamb was delicious and the potatoes are addictive.

I also lazy'd out and bought baba ganoush, tzatziki, and dolmades from Kamal's Middle Eastern Specialities in Reading Terminal Market. I also walked over to Cafe Fulya to pick up some of the best baklava I've had since the stuff made by the little old ladies at the Syrian Orthodox church in Sioux City, Iowa.

I'm looking forward to leftovers for dinner tonight.

I forgot to take pictures, but here are the three recipes I used:

Lamb Souvlaki (I misread the recipe while making it and used a tablespoon each of oregano and garlic instead of a teaspoon)

Dried Fig Souvlaki (I used 1/2 a sage leaf per fig because a whole leaf was far to overpowering when I tested it out first)

Oven Roasted Potatoes (I halved the recipe and it worked out just fine, with lots of leftovers(I think we were all getting pretty full))

There was also a great Greek salad courtesy of my guinea pigs...I mean dinner guests, but I don't have that recipe.

All in all, a successful evening. The only casualties were a pair of salad tongs that snapped during washing and a salad plate that I dropped in the sink and shattered.

Plus, my friends just got cable yesterday, including HBO, so I went down to their place afterward and watched the True Blood season premiere.

I think I'll try Afghani food next, or maybe Thai or Vietnamese. Guinea pigs welcome.