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Health & Fitness

Greek for a Day: Making Baklava for the Greek Festival

I joined the women of Novato's Greek Orthodox Church to bake baklava for the Marin Greek Festival, a Memorial Day weekend tradition.

It's nearly Memorial Day, the much anticipated holiday weekend paying tribute to the brave men and women who serve and protect our country. It also happens to herald another time honored tradition in Marin: the annual Greek Festival.

Each May, our county's Greek community comes together in Novato to host this popular event, which attracts 3,000 to 4,000 daily attendees from all over the Bay Area.

This year marks the 41st celebration of this local tradition at the . It's a three-day extravaganza of folk dancing, ethnic music, and of course, authentic Greek food: dolmas, spanakopita, gyros, moussaka, and my personal weakness, baklava. This classic baked sweet featuring layers of crisp, flakey phyllo dough, sprinkled with a blend of crushed walnuts and spice then ladled with honey syrup, is enough to make the gods swoon.

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There is so much to love about Greek food. It is a cuisine that blends ancient culinary tradition with proud cultural heritage. The process of making each dish is often handed down from one generation to the next; not by written word, but by repeated demonstration. Each cook may put her own spin on a classic recipe, adding a bit of this and a pinch of that to achieve the desired result. In the end, it's all scrumptious.

For the second year in a row, I am privileged to join the hard-working women of the Nativity of Christ Greek Orthodox Church in the Pointe Marin neighborhood for a marathon baking session that will produce enough baklava to satisfy festival revelers for the entire weekend celebration. Preparing food to sell at the festival is a familiar annual ritual for these ladies, who turn out authentic Greek dishes in mass quantity each year.

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I arrive at the church kitchen at 10:30AM sharp to find the baking already in full swing. I am outfitted with an apron the color of the Mediterranean sea, and take my place at a long stainless steel table that runs the length of the space. In front of me sits a large rectangular sheet pan, a bowl of melted clarified butter on a warming tray, a pastry brush, and rolls of phyllo dough brought in from an authentic Greek supplier in South San Francisco.

There are 10 of us in all, overseen by Sophia Stathis, the matriarch of making baklava. She is also the mother-in-law of my dear friend, Dina Stathis, who has provided my "in" with this group. Sophia helped organize the very first festival 41 years ago and has been involved ever since. Her recipe for the confection has been a constant since that first festival celebration, and no one has seen fit to alter the perfection of it.

The women are in various stages of assembling baklava in their pans. We stand, lining both sides of the commercial kitchen table, laughing and talking as we carefully arrange the paper thin sheets of phyllo in our trays; painting each layer with a generous coating of melted butter before placing the next on top.

There are no written instructions. My fellow bakers advise me with each step. This is a communal effort; an endeavor that invites socializing to pass the time. They converse in English, then Greek, changing back and forth between the two languages seamlessly. There is talk of family, particularly our children, along with reminisces of past baking marathons and festivals. All the while Sophia buzzes among us, offering encouragement as she checks technique and surveys our progress.

It is a labor and time intensive process to make baklava. Like a well-oiled production machine, we layer, brush, layer, brush, layer, then lightly sprinkle the surface with a mixture of chopped walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon, followed by more layering and brushing. Finished trays are taken to an adjacent table where the dough is scored in a traditional diamond shape prior to baking.

Two hours later, I have finally completed my first tray, three and a half pounds of phyllo dough with a small mountain of filling gingerly spread between the translucent layers beneath, all saturated with copious amounts of butter.

The kitchen is filling with the delicious sweet aroma of baking baklava. The hot pans of golden pastry, fresh from the oven, are being ladled with cool honey syrup which makes them sizzle. When all is said and done, our assembly line has made 1,500 pieces of baklava to sell at this year's festival!

I'd like to think I'm a little bit Greek, if not by my friendship Dina then by virtue of having watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" more times than I can remember. But this is no movie; this is real life. For the moment I am part of a tight-knit community that has welcomed me like an adopted daughter for the day. If they'll have me, I'll be back again next year. Σας ευχαριστούμε!

GREEK FESTIVAL DETAILS

Come to the Marin Greek Festival this Memorial Day Weekend open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, May 26, and Sunday, May 27, at the in Ignacio, 1110 Highland Drive. Free parking and shuttle service are available at the at the end of Ignacio Boulevard. Admission is $6/Adults, $5/Seniors (65 and over), Children 12 and under get in free.

Back by popular demand is the Friday "Let's Do Lunch" event on May 25 from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. You can place your advance order for authentic Greek take-out food to be picked up between those hours by visiting www.maringreekfestival.com. Check their website for more information on event activities.   

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