The kids are back in school and we’re left wondering, what happened to the summer?
While Labor Day signals the season’s end, it’s not the end of family fun. Each year I look forward to the Labor Day weekend Greek Food and Music Festival in nearby Long Beach where instantly you’re transported to a Grecian village with authentic Greek food, cooking demonstrations, shopping, live dancing and carnival rides.
Did I mention the food? Spanakopita, souvlaki, grilled octopus, dolmades – all the favorites, plus some lesser-known delicacies like galaktoboureko, a custard-filled pastry between layers of crispy filo covered in a scented syrup.
The festival runs from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, beginning at noon each day at The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Admission is $5 per person and parking is free.
Mediterranean is my favorite cuisine, so I was thrilled to meet chef and travel writer Christina Xenos, who with co-author Theo Stephan wrote “Opa! The Healthy Greek Cookbook” (Rockridge Press, $16.99), featuring 90 healthy Greek recipes, handy tips, holiday menu ideas, plus a regional overview of Greek food.
The scene was the Vernon headquarters of Melissa’s Produce, the country’s largest distributor of exotic fruits and vegetables.
Xenos, a frequent flyer to the Greek islands, wanted to write an approachable cookbook, she told us, “one that people would actually use. Times have changed. We don’t have time anymore to spend three or five hours in the kitchen making one recipe. Takeout’s great, but we wanted to use accessible ingredients and streamline the recipes so people would have time to cook, and we wanted people to cook healthy.”
Xenos’s family is from Crete and Milos in the southern Aegean, “I’ve been cooking all my life,” she reminisced. “My earliest memory is my grandmother teaching me to make dolmades, stuffed grape leaves.
“Greek people are hyper-local eaters. Many of them grow what they eat or shop at their neighborhood village market,” she said. “When my grandmother emigrated to the states, she had a huge, huge garden in her backyard, and when she taught me to make dolmades, the first thing I had to do was go out to the backyard and pick the grape leaves.”
Xenos started out as a chef with the online platform eatwith.com.
“Chefs all over the world will list whatever events they have going on, and wherever you are, you can look up and see whatever dining experiences are going on in your area and buy tickets,” she said. “When I was in cooking school, my friends told me about them, and I thought that would be a great way to dip my toe in and see if I actually liked it, and I started doing popup dinners, and after about a year, I decided I really liked it and started my personal chef business.”
“Opa!” is an exclamation that means “awesome!” Xenos told us, but the term is not confined to throwing plates.
One of my favorites on the luncheon buffet was her baked zucchini patties, which she demonstrated for us in real time. “In Greece they’re traditionally fried, but it’s easy to bake them,” she noted. “They’re common throughout Greece, mainly the islands.”
The grand finale was her zucchini lemon olive oil cake. The authors chose to go modern-style with this one: a triple layered cake with a “naked siding” approach to the frosting. Opa!
Fullerton’s Judy Bart Kancigor is the author of “Cooking Jewish” and “The Perfect Passover Cookbook.” Her website is cookingjewish.com.
Zucchini Lemon Olive Oil Cake
From “Opa! Healthy Greek Cookbook” by Theo Stephen and Christina Xenos; yields 16 servings
Ingredients:
Frosting:
- 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin lemon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
Cake:
- 2 1/2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup extra-virgin lemon olive oil
- 4 large eggs, beaten
- 2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 cups cake flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 1/2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini, excess moisture removed by blotting with paper towels
- 1 tablespoon slivered lemon zest, for garnishing
Method:
1. Frosting: In large bowl, with electric handheld mixer, beat together cream cheese, butter, olive oil, vanilla, and grated lemon zest until light and fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar and beat until well combined. You will have about 2 cups frosting.
2. Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare three (8-inch) round cake pans: trace bottom of pan’s shape on parchment paper, cut out circles and place them on bottoms of pans
3. In large bowl whisk sugar and olive oil. Add eggs, almond milk, and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix thoroughly to make a smooth batter. Stir in zucchini.
4. Pour 2 cups batter into each prepared pan. Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks 15 minutes.
5. Invert pans: Working over wire racks or your prep table, place your thumbs on the bottom of the pan and your fingers over the cake, slipping cake from pan. When completely cooled, placed 1 cake layer on serving dish; spread lightly with frosting. Repeat with 2 remaining cake layers. Frost top with 1/2-inch-thick layer of frosting. Frost sides minimally with remaining frosting, allowing cake to show through. Garnish top of cake with slivered lemon zest.
