Thursday, December 3, 2009

Thalassina me Manestra: Shrimp and Orzo Casserole, Inspired by a Great Day at the Greek Festival

It's a good thing that Brie of Brie le Grand Fromage did a fun post about her local Greek festival last month. If she hadn't, I would have completely forgotten about my own local festival. Pure tragedy!!

If I hadn't remembered the Greek fest, Poppa Trix and I wouldn't have been able to eat this:
That's Greek beer (hic!), spanakopita (yummy spinach pie), green beans (nice and garlicky), and  taramosalata, a pungent dip of salty carp roe. So good! We also wouldn't have had any of this:
This tray of deliciousness consists of tiropita (cheese pie), a really big glass of Greek wine, and a pile of saucy shrimp and feta over rice. This was some seriously good festival grub.
Getting full and sleepy. ... Note the empty glass of wine.

But there's nothing like a little sugar to wake you up, here in the form of galaktobourikos (on the left), which is filo dough filled with custard and drenched in honey, and kataifi, shredded filo filled with nuts and topped with syrup:
But hands-down, the very best discovery at the festival was this cookbook, Greek Home Cooking in America, a collection of recipes from the parishioners of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore:
 
This is just the sort of thing I love: local, personal versions of recipes grounded in a traditional cuisine. There are so many recipes in this book, in fact,  that when I got the book home and started looking through it I didn't know where to start.

But, as it turns out, I couldn't get that shrimp and feta dish out of my head, so I decided on the thalassina me manestra. It's actually supposed to be  a seafood, shrimp, and orzo casserole, but I only had shrimp so I adjusted accordingly.  This is a wonderful one-skillet meal - it's fragrant with fresh oregano, tangy with feta, and sweet with tomatoes.





21 comments:

  1. Love Greek anything, this feta looks great with the Shrimp I guess the only thing else I would need with this delicious dish is a huge chunk of greek style bread in your next post? I have never made a greek bread lol ....love breads of all kinds! I am going to try this, have shrimp in the fridge and leave out the onion, sounds sooooooo good! Oh by the way, that picture of you came out awesome....you have a gorgeous smile...

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  2. Yum, yum!! I'm not too familiar with Greek food, but after reading about all the delicious food in this post I might be giving it a try :)

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  3. looks like a grand time was had - you certainly look so ... great photo of you and the foods ... and great recipe too, something about Greek foods that I find to be pure, as in culture and heritage.... we have Greek fest here too, but I think your dishes beats ours....

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  4. jealous! my Greek festival does not come with a cookbook. i may have to beg for a kourambiedes recipe from you. ;) aren't those kataifi awesome! mmmmm! have fun experimenting - your casserole looks fabulous!

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  5. Now I see your tattoo, very nice one, I like tattoes on uppershoulder, I found them sexy. Not too familiar w/ Greek food, I have a huge book on Mediterranean cuisine with a big section on Greek cuisine. That shrimp/orzo combo seems really good.

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  6. This dish is so appealing to me! Shrimp, feta - you just can't beat it. It looks as though you had a great time at the Greek festival.

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  7. I did notice the wine glass empty. heehee. Wow, the flavors are just incredibly delicious. Now, you're making me hungry in the middle of the afternoon.

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  8. Looks like you had a great time. And wow! Nice tat ;) I want some of that shrimp and feta. Yum yum

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  9. I wish we had a Greek festival in my area, how fun! The orzo with shrimp looks wonderful, I love the feta here!

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  10. Sounds like a fun festival - and way to bring it all back home with that recipe! Yum!

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  11. this dish sounds divine, something about shrimp and pasta goes so well together

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  12. Trix,
    This looks just as incerdible as your post :) Lovely

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  13. Love Greek anything - and do a pasta with shrimp and feta - so this dish really appeals. Just scrumptious

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  14. Totally festive and so cool to be able to try out all those dishes. I did a double take at "Thalassina" ... at first glance, I read "Thalassemia"! Oh dear. But hey, what a good-lookin' dish. You go, girl! I would also like some of that galaktobourikos and kataifi for dessert. Heh. :)))

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  15. mmm...looks so good! My fave Greek place in NYC (Kefi: http://highlowfooddrink.blogspot.com/2009/11/kefi-wonderful-greek-gem-on-uws.html) and I love getting their shrimp orzo...Thanks for the recipe - I will definitely try this one out!

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  16. I love feta and your dish sounds fantastic! :)

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  17. Looks like you had a great time at the festival. And I love cookbooks that are collections of "real" people's recipes. They contain some of the best dishes ever! The shrimp & orzo dish sounds fantastic. Thanks for sharing! :)

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  18. Thanks all! Yes, it was a great time - food, drink, a little more drink ... what more could you want?

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  19. Cannot get enough Greek food around these parts, miss the Greek Fest too! Been years since we attended....just one more thing we miss about NOLA.

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  20. this looks awesome could I feature it on the seafood company blog I write for ? oh and we have a cool Greek festival here as well aren't they awesome

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  21. Looks like you had a great time!

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