March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Old World hospitality> Fall Greek Community Dance shares traditions and cuisine of a lively culture

Greek tradition dictates that every visitor be served a pastry and a nip of liqueur by his or her hosts. Like many Old World customs, this one could be misinterpreted if offered in today’s society.

But the 50 families that make up Bangor’s St. George Greek Orthodox Church believe it is important to share their culture and traditions with the community. For nearly 50 years, Old World hospitality has set the tone of their annual Fall Greek Community Dance. This year’s dance will be held from 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Peabody Campus Center at Husson College in Bangor.

For the past month, church members have offered Greek dance lessons at their Sanford Street church. People who have never shouted “Oopah!” before have learned the Hasaposervika, Syrtaki, Tsamikaand, Pyrghusikos and other dance steps in preparation for this weekend’s festivities.

Yet, the fiery strings of the bouzouki and the traditional dances alone do not make the Greek dance a festive celebration. Ouzo, a Greek liqueur, will, of course, be available. But so will keftethes, spanakopitta, melomacarona, kouramebiedes and baklava. All of these delicacies will be prepared by church members, many of whom have been cooking for the event for years.

Susan Kesaris, a blond-haired, blue-eyed woman of Irish descent, married into Greek cuisine. She learned to prepare traditional Greek dishes from her her husband Nicholas’ grandmother, Minnie Mourkas. Kesaris will use those same recipes to prepare food for this year’s dance.

“Most of the dishes are relatively easy,” she said. “I usually prepare the keftethes (meatballs), spanakopitta (spinach pie), and the cookies (melomacarona and kouramebiedes) as well, then freeze them until the day of the event, when I cook them. The baklava is the hardest to make, simply because it takes at least an hour to put together.”

For those who are Greek by birth or love Greek cuisine, baklava is the aristocrat of pastry desserts. It is of Byzantine, not Greek, origin and is served in all countries of the Near East. A nut and honey filling, flavored with cinnamon, is sandwiched between 20 to 40 layers of the paper-thin filo dough, then baked until it is a delicate, flaky, crunchy brown.

Al and Deborah Pappas are chairing the dance this year, which they expect will draw 300 people. Al Pappas grew up in a kitchen full of relatives in Bangor. He learned to cook from his father, grandfather and uncles. All Greek men cook, he says. However, what Americans call Greek cuisine is really a combination of influences from nations as different as Turkey, Albania, Russia, Syria and Morocco.

“Our theme this year is Tavenia Night,” explains Deborah Pappas, while her husband works in the church’s basement kitchen. “Tavenia means cafe, so we are decorating the dining hall with blue and white checkered table cloths, with flowers and vines on the tables. We have a live music, the Romias 77 Orchestra, this year.”

No one is exactly sure when the tradition of sponsoring a Greek dance for the community began. However, Maria Brountas, an elementary schoolteacher, remembers when church members spent every summer Sunday afternoon celebrating together.

“Every Sunday, a truck would come by the houses and bring the families to Greek Landing at Hermon Pond for singing and a picnic,” Brountas told the NEWS in 1990. “There was always food and wine, like a big party. It later evolved into a dance sponsored by the church, because the people probably missed their homeland and the dancing and the food.”

“Those are the things that draw people out on a chilly autumn evening still — the music, the dancing, the food. And the chance, if only for one night, to live and dance and eat as if all the world were Greek and they are Zorba.”

Lessons in Greek dancing will be given from 7 to 8:30 p.m. tonight at St. George Greek Orthodox Church. Tickets for the dance are available in Bangor at Captain Nick’s Restaurant, Libby’s Hallmark Shop, Kelley Pontiac Inc., and at the door. For more information, call 945-9588.

Kourambiedes (Cookies)

1 lb. sweet (unsalted) butter

1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar 1 egg yolk 1 teaspoon vanilla 4 or more cups flour

Have butter at room temperature; whip at high speed for 5 to 20 minutes with confectioner’s sugar. Butter will be white. Add egg yolk and vanilla and beat again. Gradually add 4 to 4 1/2 cups flour until mixture holds shape when rolled. Should not be stiff, dry batter. Roll into balls, round or crescent-shaped. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for approximately 20 minutes at 350 F, until lightly brown. Transfer to large container lined generously with confectioner’s sugar. Sift additional sugar on top.

Finikia (Cookies)

1 cup soft butter

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup orange juice 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 3 1/2 cups flour 1 cup chopped pecans

Syrup: 1 cup sugar 1 cup honey 1 cup water

Cream butter, oil and sugar. Add orange juice and mix well. Add the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, flour and nuts. Knead lightly. Shape into rounds, crescents or ovals. Place on cookie sheets. Bake at 375 F for about 25 minutes. While still warm, dip in syrup mixture. Syrup: Boil all together until syrupy. Makes about 3 dozen.

Keftethes (Fried Meatballs)

1 cup chopped onion A little butter 2 lbs. hamburg 2 cups moist bread crumbs 2 eggs 1 tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper 3 tablespoons chopped parsley Flour 1 cup oil for frying

Brown onion in a little butter. Place onions in a mixing bowl and add meat, bread crumbs, eggs, salt, pepper and parsley. Blend well and shape into size desired. Roll lightly in flour and fry in very hot oil. My family likes these served with a tomato sauce with oregano.

Baklava

1 lb. filo dough

Filling: 3 cups or more chopped nuts; walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc.

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 lemon, grated rind only

1/2 lb. melted sweet butter or clarified salted butter Whole cloves or cassia buds

Topping: 3 cups sugar 2 cups water

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup honey

Defrost filo to room temperature. Mix ingredients for filling in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter and clarify. Keep it in pan to reheat if it cools and doesn’t flow easily while you are working with filo. Use a pastry brush to oil generously the bottom and sides of a large, rectangular baking pan. Cut filo an inch larger than your pan. Use scissors. Place sheet of filo in pan and sprinkle lightly with warm butter.

Place another sheet of filo on top of the first sheet, and sprinkle lightly with butter again. Continue until you have spread six or more sheets. Spread half of the filling, including the corners. Cover with six or more sheets of filo, sprinkling with butter between.

Add remaining filling. Cover with remaining sheets, oiling between as before. Roll edges and tuck inside of pan. Do not trim. Oil the top with the remaining butter. Before baking, cut through the top layers only, into the traditional diamond shapes. Use a small sharp knife with a ruler to guide you.

To make diamond-shaped pieces:

Make vertical cuts, one inch apart. Turn pan horizontally and make cuts at an angle, one inch apart. Stick a whole clove in the center of each diamond. Besides adding flavor, it keeps the layers together while baking.

Bake for one hour at 350 F. Check it during the last 20 minutes to see if it is browning evenly. Begin boiling the syrup 20 minutes before taking baklava out of the oven. Pour hot syrup over hot baklava immediately after removing it from oven. Use a ladle or large spoon to distribute syrup evenly over all of it.

Keep in the pan overnight, or at least four hours before cutting and serving. It should hiss very violently when the syrup hits the hot pastry.

Spanakopitta (Spinach Pie)

1 lb. filo (about 12 to 15 sheets)

Filling: 2 packages (10 oz. each) frozen spinach or 1 lb. fresh 1 lb. feta or cottage cheese

1/4 teaspoon salt 6 eggs, well beaten

1/2 cup oil

1/4 lb. butter or margarine 1 teaspoon crushed dry mint

If using frozen filo dough, defrost 2 hours ahead of time.

Filling: Thaw frozen spinach. If using fresh, steam for 5 minutes until wilted. Crumble cheese, using a fork to break feta cheese up. Add more salt if using cottage cheese as substitute. Mix in eggs. Set aside.

Heat oil and butter in a small pot. Unwrap filo and smooth creases out. Plan to use half of the filo sheets for the bottom layers and the other half for the top. Keep covered while using, filo dries out quickly. Oil pan generously, bottom and sides, using a pastry brush.

Lay first sheet of filo in square or rectangle cake pan, letting excess lap over edges. Sprinkle with warm oil. Lay a second layer and sprinkle with a little more oil. Continue until half of the filo is used. Spread all the spinach mixture evenly over the filo, including the corners. Cover with the remaining filo, oiling between sheets.

Do not throw any filo away; include it in; it is all edible. Roll and tuck all the filo around the inside edges of the pan. Do not trim with scissors or knife as one would for pie crust. Brush top and edges with remaining oil. Bake at 350 F for 50 minutes. Serve hot, cut into square pieces like a cake. Reheat when necessary; never serve up cold!


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