Today’s photos are a few from the Wedding that Neil photographed on Friday. The wedding was organised by The Symi Visitor and took place at the town hall, and then later on the island of Again Marina. The reception was held at Mythos, where the couple had first become engaged.
Neil’s obviously now working hard on the processing of the images and the photo book – something which has replaced the usual album. There will also be a selection of prints and the CD of all images. So, you can see that Symi is still a popular destination for couples being wed, and for the instantly available honeymoon afterwards. Saturday was a gloriously sunny day, after some early haze and cloud and being out at sea for part of the day would have helped cool everyone down. Oh, and part of the party was to go on the train, so that’s twice in two weeks Neil has been on it.
Saturday we spent preparing for a small dinner party, preparations that included shopping in Yialos and stopping for lunch, and then making various kinds of meze including big beans. Joe dropped me a line and asked me for my recipe for this traditional Greek dish, but my recipe is anything but traditional. For a start, I believe you are supposed to cook the things in the oven, but when it’s 38 degrees in your kitchen you don’t really want to add heat, so I use the slow cooker. Anyway, here’s a rough guide to making ‘Gigantes.’
Buy beans (big, white ones), soak them overnight, boil them until they’re nearly done, meanwhile make tomato sauce, bung both things together, put in slow cooker until done. There, that’s my kind of recipe book guide, none of this pretentious twaddle: ‘Take 3oz of beautifully chopped Angora onions from the south-side slopes of the Daggapingo fields of Western Samoa. Mix with parboiled baby snafflegiff (Sainsbury’s have this) and two thirds of a third of a cup of Tesco’s own pligga pate, from the Darconna region of ancient Rome. Pick wild dill from the plains of Tonga-Tonga, wash and set aside for no reason. Dash down to ASDA for some authentic French Creme-a-laree mix and leave to boil for three days. Serve with grated iguana tail and a light Chablis.’
None of that jazz for me. For a start we don’t have a Sainsbury’s or a Tesco and if we had an ASDA I’d probably rather pick up a pizza for when the pretentious recipe went inevitably wrong. The Chablis I could cope with. So, basically: soak beans, make tom sauce to your taste (onion, carrot, courgette, chili, garlic, all done in a little butter, with tomatoes and tomato paste, plus stock of course, until you’ve got enough) bung it all in slow cooker until done. Add dill just before serving. I always forget the dill! And, if in doubt, leave it to the master:
