Ishq In A Backpack| A Travel Mad Mum and Dad

  • Home
  • Team Ishq
    • Meet The Team
    • Contact
  • Where We’ve Been
  • Eat This Page
  • Travelogue
  • Musings
  • Gear
  • NYC

Eat This Page: Horiatiki, a Classic Greek Salad

October 27, 2014 by Navdeep Leave a Comment

This Horiatiki, a classic Greek salad is crisp, zesty, and absolutely delicious with a very quick and easy olive oil based vinaigrette. We adapted this recipe from one we were shown during our Greek cooking class at Ethos restaurant in New York City. It was adapted to incorporate some of our flavors (we love onion and garlic and desi spices!), but most importantly, it was adapted to serve a small family and not a room full of hungry New Yorkers! This goes perfectly with  Kotopoulo Greek Roasted Chicken and Lemon Potatoes, Stuffed with Cous Cous, which we also learned to make at the cooking class.

Print
Horiatiki: Classic Greek Salad

Horiatiki: Classic Greek Salad

Ingredients

    For the Vinaigrette:
  • 5 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • Juice from 1 lemon
  • Handful of fresh oregano leaves, minced
  • salt, pepper,
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • Wollop of Olive Oil (it’s an official cooking term: ¼ cup or so)
  • For the Greek Salad
  • ½ red onion
  • 3 cloves of garlic (we're garlic maniacs)
  • 1 medium cucumber, halved, cut into bite sized pieces
  • Handful of tomatoes, halved
  • 1 green bell pepper
  • Handful of black olives, whole
  • Feta Cheese
  • For the Seasoning
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Dhania-Jeera (coriander and cumin powder)
  • Oregano
  • Olive Oil
  • Fresh lemon juice

Instructions

  1. Mix ingredients for vinaigrette.
  2. In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients: onion, cucumber, tomatoes, bell pepper, olives, feta cheese. Mix. Add vinaigrette to coat.
  3. EAT IT ALL.
3.1
http://www.ishqinabackpack.com/eat-this-page-horiatiki-a-classic-greek-salad/
Recipe Courtesy ©IshqInABackpack. All Rights Reserved.

Filed Under: Destinations, Eat This Page, New York, New York City, North America, United States of America Tagged With: cooking schools, date night, Destinations, Eat This Page, Eat This Page Recipes, Ethos, greek, Greek cooking, Greek food, Greek restaurant, greek salad, groupon, horiatiki, kotopoulo chicken, New York, New York City, North America, NYC, recipe, recipes, travel, Travelogue

Eat This Page Recipe: Kotopoulo Greek Roasted Chicken and Lemon Potatoes, Stuffed with Cous Cous

October 20, 2014 by Navdeep Leave a Comment

Chicken is amongst my favorite dishes, in almost any cuisine around the world. This Kotopoulo Greek Roasted Chicken is juicy, aromatic, and the lemon flavor and Greek aromas make this a lovely dish to try. It looks fancy and complex, but it’s pretty simple. We adapted this recipe from one we were shown during our Greek cooking class at Ethos restaurant in New York City. This main course complements a Horiatiki classic Greek salad as appetizer. Or desert if you want to really shake things up. The original recipe was designed to feed everyone in the class, so it’s been adapted mainly towards feeding a small family, consisting of, oh I dunno, a handsome Papa, a beautiful Mama, and two little humans who like to eat everything.

Print
Kotopoulo Greek Roasted Chicken and Lemon Potatoes, Stuffed with Cous Cous (from Ethos Restaurant, NYC)

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Kotopoulo Greek Roasted Chicken and Lemon Potatoes, Stuffed with Cous Cous (from Ethos Restaurant, NYC)

Ingredients

    For the Roasted Chicken
  • a small chicken (2-3lbs)
  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • Fresh lemon juice
  • Red pepper
  • Scallions
  • 1-2 tablespoons dry oregano
  • Cous Cous Stuffing
  • Cous Cous made with standard directions
  • Parmesan cheese, diced
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • Warm Chicken broth
  • Potatoes
  • 1 pound of finger potatoes (small and slender. Or use what you like)
  • Dhania-jeera powder
  • Peppers
  • Garlic
  • Sliced onions
  • Rosemary
  • Olive Oil
  • Lemon

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven at 375 Fahrenheit (190 Celsius)
  2. Place chicken and finger potatoes in a baking dish
  3. Stuff chicken with cous cous made using standard directions. Add red pepper, scallions, salt, oregano, diced parmesan cheese. Drizzle with olive oil.
  4. Season chicken and potatoes: pepper, oregano, salt. Brush with olive oil and drizzle lemon juice over it. Add warm chicken broth. Mix well so that potatoes and chicken are coated.
  5. Place the chicken on top. Add 2 garlic cloves, whole, sliced onions.
  6. Roast for 1 hour at 375 Fahrenheit (190 Celsius). Flip the bird (drumroll, please). Roast for another half hour.
3.1
http://www.ishqinabackpack.com/eat-this-page-recipe-kotopoulo-greek-roasted-chicken-and-lemon-potatoes-stuffed-with-cous-cous/
Recipe Courtesy ©IshqInABackpack. All Rights Reserved.

Filed Under: Destinations, Eat This Page, New York City, North America, United States of America Tagged With: cooking schools, date night, Destinations, Eat This Page, Eat This Page Recipes, Ethos, greek, Greek cooking, Greek food, Greek restaurant, greek salad, groupon, horiatiki, kotopoulo chicken, New York, New York City, North America, NYC, recipe, recipes, travel, Travelogue

Greek Cooking Class at Ethos in New York City!

October 15, 2014 by Navdeep 3 Comments

What a family NOT flying to Santorini looks like.
What a family NOT flying to Santorini looks like.

One of these days we’ll make a bucket list. And when we do, you can be sure Greece is on it. Sona is infatuated with the lush blue domes and stark white architecture of Santorini, contrasted with the light blue of the sky and sea. In 2010, we were less than 24 hours away from clicking the buy button on flights to Athens, when we definitively found out Sona was pregnant. A happy moment. But also a moment that changed everything, especially how we travel. Having kids made everything better. Even a cardboard box has now taken on magical properties.

We had planned the Greece trip as a child-free couple: cobblestone paved towns with olive oil tastings, treacherous hikes to see lush greenery and history intersect, beautiful Santorini destroyed several times by volcano eruptions, rebuilt just as many times, and still in the path of an active volcano, with its steep cliff-like steps, excursions to tiny Greek islands, like Corfu, where motorbikes are essential to getting around. Our down time would be spent on long haul buses. We would sustain ourselves with Olive oil ice cream. Lamb gyros. Fried Kefalograviera cheese. Instead of that trip, we went on a different trip. A babymoon in the Dominican Republic. But Greece is always on our mind, as we stare longingly at our Olive Oil next to the stovetop, and wonder what might have been. Okay, we don’t do that. But we still have plans to go to Greece!

We live a $2.50 train ride away from New York City, but aside from the ubiquitous gyro, Greek food in the City has never really been something we actively seek out. Mostly, it’s because Greek restaurants are pretty expensive. Fresh seafood and lamb dishes will do that to a price list. And no way are either of us getting a salad, Greek or not, on a date. Not that money is an object when an adjunct instructor and a novelist/freelance journalist go out on a night on the town.

On a random Saturday, Sona surprised me with an afternoon date for a Greek cooking class at Ethos, a fancy pant Greek restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. We are lucky that Sona’s sister lives in New York City, often clearing out her whole schedule to spend time with the kids. Needless to say, the pajama party went into expert level madness mode, starting on Friday night and overflowing into Saturday.

Going Greek at Ethos in NYC!
Going Greek at Ethos in NYC!

We arrive at the restaurant after a nice, leisurely breezy walk past Rockefeller Center, Sona’s old stomping grounds, then legging it all the way down to First Avenue, right by the crystal clear, blue waters of the East River. No, wait, I’m confusing it for Tahiti again. We enter Ethos, named after the Greek word for character or spirit, a guiding principle. The aesthetics reminds us of Santorini. White walls, white tables, with dark ocean blue tablecloths.

It is bustling with diners, sitting in large cushioned booths, and small tables, dressed in their best Saturday afternoon fineries. I feel like I’m under-dressed in my checkered button-down and black trousers.

Sona immediately lets the head waiter know we belong in this room full of high class eaters, dresser-uppers, and payers:
“We’re here for the cooking class,” she says. “We have a groupon.”

IMG_5267
Red Wine. White Wine.

He leads us around the bar and seats us. “The groupon includes wine,” Sona says. I immediately order two glasses of wine. The room quickly fills up. Tables are arranged in clusters, where two other couples sidle next to us. Within a few minutes, we’re chatting away like we’re old friends. About living in tiny studio apartments, trains, weekend schedule, restaurants we’ve been to, restaurants we want to go to. Usual New Yorker conversation.

It was a bit strange not bringing up the kids and having an adult conversation the whole time. The couple sitting at the far end, Dmitry and Stephanie, were here on a first date (polite golf clap) and very recent transplants to the City, so they were bursting with energy that warranted more wine outside of the Groupon allotted budget.

The chef is funny, Greek, and has some great lines, like, “A dirty chef is not a good chef,” as he sets up the station. He gives us basics of Greek cuisine – it all comes down to Olive Oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice, along with some basic lessons in knife skills, and some insightful tips, while starting the Greek Salad:

1) Marinate the onion and cucumber slices helps to tone down the raw onion in the salad (although me and Sona were like, why the hell would anyone want to tone down the delicious flavor of raw onion?)

2) Don’t cut the peppers too finely. This will keep the salad fresh.

3) A Greek salad varies from region to region, but never uses lettuce.

4) The secret to a good Greek salad is the lemon juice and olive oil flavor, which gets more aromatic, vibrant and delicious over time. You can use the leftover juices to marinate other things, like chicken, lamb, or seafood dishes. Or just pack it up in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer to use at another time.

Sona and Stephanie volunteer for chopping up the vegetables for the Greek Salad. The chef gives them a tasting of the aged olive oil he’s using. I tried a bit too and it was delicious. A little spicy and full of flavor, as opposed to the massive tins of olive oil we buy from C-town.

IMG_5276
Sona and Stephanie with knives.
Cucumbers!
Cucumbers!
Delicious olive oii
Delicious olive oil!
Now it's a Greek party.
Now it’s a Greek party.

While this wasn’t as intense or hands on as cooking classes we’ve taken elsewhere, like our cooking honeymoon in Puebla, Bengali food in Kolkatta, or Tibetan Momos in Mcleod Ganj, it was a wonderful introduction to Greek food, a cuisine we know very little about.

In the next two weeks, watch out for some mouthwatering recipes for these two delicious dishes we learned to make: 1) Kotopoulo chicken that lists at $24 on their menu, a free-range organic half roasted chicken with lemon potatoes, oregano, and served with a side of cous-cous. 2) Horiatiki, classic greek salad, about $12 on their menu. It’s freshly cut, made with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, olives and feta with extra virgin olive oil. (I’ll include hyperlinks above once they’re posted).

Still got it
Still got it
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Filed Under: Destinations, Eat This Page, New York, New York City, North America, Travelogue, United States of America Tagged With: cooking classes, cooking schools, date night, Eat This Page, Eat This Page Recipes, Ethos, greek, Greek cooking, Greek food, Greek restaurant, greek salad, groupon, horiatiki, kotopoulo chicken, New York City, NYC, recipe, recipes, travel

Why, Allo There.

ishqphotoIn 2006, we started IshqInABackpack to document our lives as newly weds, starting with a cooking honeymoon in Mexico, followed by a six month adventure through India. Since then, we have gone from intrepid travelers, home owners, and now Mama and Papa to two little humans.

Now, we only go on all-inclusive tours to places that have McDonalds. Only kidding! Join our little family as we continue to slowly travel around the world one honeymoon at a time. And eat like maniacs.  Read our kahani

Connect With Ishq

  • FaceBook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • Connect With Us On Youtube
  • RSS

To Get The Party Started

  • India Travelogue: Our Kahani 2007
  • Travelogue India: Deciding to Go 
  • India Travelogue: Ruminating on India’s Local and “Deluxe” Buses
  • India Travelogue: Busting Knees at Vaishno Devi
  • Sona’s Birthday Adventure in India!
  • Musings: Maybe Baby? In Response to That Ticking Clock
  • Instead of Traveling Around Greece, We Went On A Babymoon to an All Inclusive in the Dominican Republic. Same Thing, Really.
  • Kiboshing Greece: How Having Kids Changes Travel
  • Jet Lag is Stupid And Other Helpful Advice When Traveling With A Little Human
  • Hygiene Be Damned: Everybody Should Eat Street Food
  • Travelogue Hawaii: Deciding to Go

Subscribe to the Ishq Newsletter

Find Us On FaceBook

What We’re Talking About

Destinations family Family Travel Food Hawaii honeymoon india ishqinabackpack kids Navdeep and Sona Navdeep Singh Dhillon New York City NYC parenting Photo Friday Photography Sona Charaipotra travel Travelogue Videos

Ishq Topics

Ishq Archives

Copyright © 2018 · eleven40 Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in