My Greek dinner post continues with two dishes that anchored the meal – the Diane Kochilas Greek Vegetarian cookbook Baked Okra with Tomatoes, Potatoes and Basil and Spinach and Rice Pilaf.
This cookbook was another Brooklyn Public library check out, and unfortunately I don't think it's one that I will ultimately buy based on this test run. Both of these dishes turned out fine, but I think they could have had more flavor and more interesting consistencies.
The Baked Okra dish in particular was somewhat bland, I think a result of the recommendation to cover the dish contents with a layer of 1.5 inches of water (!) to bake the dish. Thankfully, I reduced the amount of water to just be level with the vegetables in the dish, but even then, I had to pour out a good amount of the remaining water (and probably flavor) post-baking to make the dish less soupy. The vegetables were cooked nicely though, just lacked flavor and the consistency was perhaps a little too homogeneous.
The Spinach and Rice Pilaf, by contrast, was fairly flavorful though I think the water to rice ratio was a little low because the rice was a little burnt at the bottom of the dish and not that evenly cooked throughout (so maybe it was the cooking temperature that could have been the problem?). I made a few alterations to this dish: I halved the recipe, substituted approx. 1.5 tsp. of chopped fresh oregano for the dill, and did not sprinkle feta on top. If I make this recipe again, I would probably make a full recipe and continue to use oregano because it really helped this rice seem unique. The pilaf is pictured in the middle of the spread below.
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