Piece by Kate Antoni, FG Central Correspondent
As I sit at my breakfast bar, on this very cold very wet grumpy, almost apocalyptic Tuesday. I’m thinking back to the wonderful influencer event I attended on Saturday, whilst eating a bowl of tzatziki with chicken souvlaki to get me in the mood! Jet2 teamed up with Jenius cookery school to showcase their new destinations in Greece, with an immersive cooking class. Seriously, how fun! It’s always nice meeting and eating with new people, especially when the hashtag #jetme2thegreek is involved. Doubly so, when there’s a chance to win a four-star holiday at one of the new Jet2 destinations, which fly into Preveza airport. These being Parga and Lefkas. The former a picturesque Venetian port with multi coloured house and hilly roads. It looks like postcard perfect, so much so that you can’t quite fathom it’s a real place. The latter being Lefkas with its stunningly beautiful secluded beaches, olives groves, luscious vineyards waterfalls and windsurfing, this place is a little-known paradise.
We arrived eager and hungry, happily chatting and drinking wine and then got started. Firstly, we made the Greek salad. This comprised of red onions sliced into half-moons, chopped juicy tomatoes, quarter chunks of cucumber and black kalamata olives. Tossed in copious amounts of olive oil, dried herbs like oregano and thyme and a drizzled with red wine vinegar. This was left to marinate, and we wrapped out own tiro pita – a cheese pie, best eaten hot out of the oven in my experience. The filing was a combination of feta and ricotta with mint and dill, wrapped up in filo pastry and brushed with an egg wash. I forgot how tasty this is and it really inspired me to whip some up at home.
Once these were done, we grated garlic and chopped cucumber and mint to make the yogurt dip or tzatziki as it’s called in Greece. Lastly, to make the chicken souvlaki! Chef Fran explained that thigh meat is much better than breast meat, in this instance, as it holds moisture and will stay juicy and succulent. After the last kebab was made, we walked into the beautifully decorated room and were transported into a Greek village. Cheque table cloths and big bright sunflowers adorned the table scape.
Here we got our quiz on! Where we were asked different questions, some pretty easy and others that I had definitely no idea about – do YOU know where Prince Phillip was born? Or what the Ancient Greeks thought of as aphrodisiacs. Well, it was Corfu and onions, garlic and leeks…just in case you wondered. I was so close! So very close but, sadly went home without the holiday. Despite this, all was not lost. I had a wonderful evening and went home with a lovely goody bag which included, souvlaki spices that enabled me to recreate the dishes at home! So, whilst I sit here bemoaning the weather, at least I can enjoy some glorious Greek food.
