Opa!

Oh theme dinners, how I love thee! Seriously, what a great way to learn about the hard work that goes into cooking a dish in another culture… and let me tell ya, Greek food is HARD WORK. We had just two dishes lined up to make and it took us about 3 1/2 hours before we could eat! Now don't let that timing scare you, because the recipe I'm sharing is for the Orzo with Ground Turkey dish. It actually takes an hour and 15 minutes or so and only 30 minutes of it is prep/cooking time, while the rest involves leaving a baking dish in the oven (I love me some oven cooked meals!). It turned out to be extremely delish and I foresee repeating this meal in the future!

The dolmas were a different story however. We had no idea what we were in for and the end result wasn't really desirable since the rice wasn't cooked enough and the recipe called for WAY too much lemon juice. Normally that's a good thing in my books, but really this was too sour even for my taste buds. I'm sharing a pic of the attempt since a lot of hard work did go into it. I definitely plan on another attempt with some fixes to make these dolmas as edible as they look (Thanks to Suril's handy work with rolling the grape leaves!)-

I have a new found respect for canned grape leaves, that's for sure!
 

Yiouvetsi me Kimá Galopoúlas
Adapted from greekfood.about.com

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of ground Turkey
• 2 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cans of crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup of water
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 1/2 cups of orzo pasta
• 4 cups of boiling chicken broth or stock
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
• Grated salty cheese (optional, we didn't use)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 390°F.
2. Over medium heat, brown the turkey in 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet, using a spatula to separate the meat out into small pieces. (should look like minced meat with slightly larger clumps)
3. When meat is browned just to the point where it doesn't look red, transfer to a colander and drain.
4. Over medium heat, sauté chopped onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When the onion turns translucent, stir in drained turkey, tomatoes, 1/2 cup of water, celery, bay leaf, 1 rounded teaspoon of sea salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.
5. When it reaches a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer, cooking for 20 minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper to your preference.
6. In a separate saucepan, bring chicken broth or stock to a boil.
7. Remove bay leaf, and transfer the meat mixture to a greased baking or oven-safe casserole dish. Add boiling stock or broth, and stir in the pasta.
8. Cook uncovered in the oven preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes, until the pasta is done and almost the liquid has been absorbed. Stir once or twice during cooking.
9. Remove pot from the oven and cover with a cotton towel for 10 minutes (to absorb excess moisture).
10. Stir in the fresh parsley just before serving.