Day 2: Koulouma, Κούλουμα 2014, March 4, 2014

Clean Monday, Kathara Deftera was yesterday.  We had our traditional Koulouma with the family, and a few members of the extended family, too.  There were so many choices about what we should make to eat, but there was never a question that we would have a lovely evening of family time.  It gives us an opportunity, as a family, to give thanks, ask for forgiveness, and share in a communion of a sort.

Yesterday, we took you through one of the grocery stores that we frequent, partly because it offers many of our Greek specialty items, but also because of the variety of produce available there.  We showed you some of the beautiful choices of foods before preparation.  Now, we want to share with you some of the prepared items.  Although we did not get step by step pictures of how to make everything for yesterday, it is likely that you may see how to prepare these foods over the next seven weeks.  Some of our prepared items:

Our Koulouma was more or less traditional, offering a variety of dishes, some light and some more substantial.  One of the main dishes that we offered was the marinated octopus.  It had a light coating of canola oil, salt, pepper, and oregano.  The octopus was so tender from being boiled to perfection -- like eating velvet.  The subtle seasonings made it taste fresh and delightful.

The boiled potatoes were half white potatoes, and the other half were sweet potatoes.  We sprinkled some parsley on top of the cooked potatoes to add some colour.  The flavour and the creaminess really made these potatoes shine, without needing to add more than the garnish.

One of the family members brought dolmades (stuffed grape vine leaves).  Of course, they had a rice filling with no meat.  They were coated with a blend of vegetable oil and lemon, and were a nice addition to our menu.  It is nice when relatives come and contribute something yummy! We weren't sure, but the firmness of the rice led us to suspect that these dolmades may have come from a can. Normally, we prefer home-made ones but these were quite tasty.

A dish which is a nice filler for several types of meals is a plate of pickled vegetables (toursi).  Our plate had (from left to right) homemade green tomato pickles, shredded sun dried tomatoes, roasted yellow Greek bell peppers, Lebanese pickled baby wild cucumbers, and pickled Greek roasted red peppers.  This was a combination of sour pickles and sweet roasted vegetable that most members of the family enjoyed.  Once again, we regularly enjoy adding pickles of all sorts to our dinner table.

We also had a nice assortment of olives.  On the left, there are olives stuffed with garlic, ones stuffed with pimentos, salad olives, red pepper strips and pearl onions.   On the right are olives that we bought at the grocery store that are pickled and spiced with red pepper flakes (known as μπούκουβο or boukouvo in Greek). They surely added a kick to the meal!  You would have to like spicy foods in order to like these (hot and spicy) olives.

And, we cannot forget the lagana (laganes)!  This year, one family member who was out in the stores, and stopped at a meat market/butcher's shop to find lagana for the family.  It sounds a little odd, but the butcher shop has a bakery attached to it.  He said there were at least 400 people waiting in line to get loaves of lagana (we're not sure if that's an accurate number but it did sound dramatically high).  Every 20 minutes, loaves came out of the oven and they were gone!                                                                                

Fruit and nuts are always part of a traditional Greek meal.  Why would Kathara Deftenra be any different?  We had an assortment of fruit, with some dried Kalamata figs, and unsalted cashews.  The nuts seemed to complement the end of the meal with the halva as "dessert."  We ended on a sweet note from the food, and from the family.  May this Lenten season bring sweetness to your lives, too.



Source of image: (click here)

Description: "Under the Eastern Orthodox altar on Calvary (Golgotha) (now on the right after the main entrance in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem) there is the place where it is believed Jesus died on the cross."

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