| Ready for Greek Fest? DINING IN Last update: 08 November 2003 |
|
Less
than a week remains before that Hellenic Brigadoon, the Daytona Greek
Festival opens for another four-day stand at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox
Church. It's a highlight of the year for me.
The organizers of the 26-year-old festival have added new features
every year I've attended -- about a decade now -- but managed to maintain
all of the old favorites, too. This year, food-wise, the newcomer is a
chocolate dessert, called "pastas" or "koks."
"These cold eclair-type pastries use filo, greek custard and chocolate
to satisfy the sweet tooth in you," says Tasso Kiriakes, a festival
chairman. "Other popular sweets are: galaktobouriko, made with filo,
custard, and honey; and koulourakia, which are twisted butter cookies
topped with sesame seeds."
Although the sweets are wonderful, our personal favorites run toward
the savory: dolmathakia, grape leaves stuffed with rice and chopped beef,
for my husband and spanakopita, a spinach-filled pie, for me.
During the countdown to the event, I'm going to try to eat sensibly,
and that might mean one fish dinner. Seafood at the festival is limited to
fried calamari -- delicious but definitely not diet food.
If you're interested in trying it all out, the hours are : 11
a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Nov. 15 and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Nov.
16. The church's addresss is 129 N. Halifax Drive, Daytona Beach.
Admission is $1, with free admission Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 3
p.m. For other details, visit www.saintdemetriosdaytona.org
or call (386) 252-6012.
In the meantime, to make the recipe below, you'll need:
FROM THE STORE
· Sole filets. (This is a lean fish, and many substitutions are
possible. Try black sea bass, cod, croaker, flounder, haddock, hake,
halibut, perch, pollack, red snapper, rockfish or tilefish.)
· Red peppers (either roasted at home or purchased, jarred).
· Greek green olives.
· Brandy, if desired (I might go for something a little more authentic,
such as metaxa).
· Fresh parsley.
FROM THE KITCHEN
· Salt and pepper.
· Olive oil.
4 sole filets
1/3 cup olive oil
4 roasted red peppers
1/2 cup Greek green olives
1 Tbsp. parsley
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup brandy, optional
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place fish filets (6 oz. each) in baking
dish; drizzle with olive oil. Top with roasted peppers (peeled, seeded and
cut into strips) and pitted olives; sprinkle with chopped parsley, salt
and freshly ground pepper. Bake 10 minutes. If desired, pour brandy over
fish and ignite. When flames subside, serve
immediately |
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