DIANE KOCHILAS: The concept of hospitality philoxenia, literally friendship towards strangers, is a deeply held cultural mores in Greece, and one that is almost inextricable from the custom of sharing food.

Indeed, this most human of experiences is good for our health.

In this episode, I'll speak with Dr.

Esther Sternberg, a pioneer in mind-body medicine.

DR.

ESTHER STERNBERG: Food, it is a huge trigger of emotions.

DIANE: I'll create a meze-feast.

This is food meant to be shared with others, and that's part of the whole experience of eating in Greece and the Mediterranean.

I'll prepare baked chickpea pumpkin patties.

This is a great meze.

It's one of many different vegetable patties or vegetable fritters that are part of a whole meze tradition.

Melitzanosalata with miso.

This is party food at its delicious best.

And phyllo triangles with fennel, olives, and orange.

The flavors in here are exploding.

Food isn't just about eating, it's about the whole human experience.

And on that note, join us and yamas.

♪♪ ANNOUNCER: My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by... The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

The National Hellenic Society.

And by the following... DIANE: In Greece, the table is where life unfolds, where strangers become friends and families reaffirm their bonds.

The ancient philosopher Plutarch once said, "we do not sit at the table to eat, but to eat together."

That spirit of togetherness shaped Greek culture from the symposia of antiquity to today's convivial meze gatherings.

Sharing food, tasting, talking, laughing, creates more than good memories.

It creates measurable well-being.

Science now confirms what our ancestors intuited, that the act of breaking bread with others can lower stress hormones, strengthen the immune system, and foster a sense of belonging that is vital to longevity.

The Mediterranean diet, recognized by UNESCO, is not only a pattern of eating, it's a philosophy of nourishment for both body and spirit, a lifestyle rooted in mindful eating, gratitude, and community.

DIANE: I'm very happy to be introducing uh Dr.

Esther Sternberg, Director of Research at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, uh author of many books, among which are Well at Work and Healing Spaces .

And Dr.

Sternberg is a pioneer in the science of the mind-body connection and the role of place in well-being.

I'm looking forward to a conversation um about well-being and about the idea of hospitality and cooking and your experiences in Greece, which I know uh in some way have influenced you a little bit.

DR.

STERNBERG: Thank you.

I'm looking forward to it too because it's influenced me hugely.

Being in Greece was really a turning point in my life, literally.

I was going through a period of extreme stress, and then about seven or eight years later, I developed inflammatory arthritis.

I had just moved into a new house, and uh the doorbell rang, and my new neighbors, uh who were Greek, came in and they welcomed me to the neighborhood.

The couple looked at me and said, "Oh, are you a writer?

We've always wanted a writer to stay at our cottage in Crete."

And so I went with them to Crete.

I was there for 10 days or so, and I came back feeling so well that my doctor said, "you don't have to go into hospital.

What were you doing?"

What was I doing?

I was swimming in the ocean every day.

I was eating wonderful Greek food.

The relationships that came about from sharing these meals.

I was um, climbing to the hill atop the village.

I'd sit there for hours, and that's what helped me get better.

DIANE: I'm making a great meze, chickpea pumpkin patties that are part of a whole meze tradition.

I'm going to start with my chickpeas.

We want to get them ground to a nice, coarsey, mealy texture.

[Whirring of food processor] I used cooked canned chickpeas just to make it simple.

There are a lot of different chickpea fritter recipes all over Greece.

A lot of them come from the southern Dodecanese.

Oftentimes mixed with other vegetables.

In this case, I'm using fresh pumpkin.

You can also use any yellow or red squash.

It would be nice in here butternut or kalabasa.

Anything that you like.

You want to be sure that the pumpkin is very well drained and get this mixed in uh really nicely.

I'm going to add my garlic and onions next.

The onions go in first.

And then the garlic.

And get this mixed.

Let me get everything else in here next.

A little bit of salt and pepper.

Some plain bread crumb.

The bread crumb will make the fritter nice and light, fluffy.

And I have two different cheeses for this recipe.

I have a Greek sheep's milk cheese called kefalotiri.

It's a very nice, sharp yellow cheese.

Any cheese that's pungent, preferably sheep's milk, would be nice in here.

And then a little bit of Greek feta, which is also a sheep's milk cheese or sheep and goat's milk.

It's the you know, national cheese of Greece, very, very versatile.

And it always adds really nice tang and creaminess.

I want to mix it gently right now.

I don't want to overwork it.

The more we work it, the more water the squash will let out.

So the next thing to go in here is an egg and we just want to lightly, [taps] beat it.

[Whisk continuously tapping glass] The egg goes in next.

[Bowls clank] And get that mixed in.

And a little bit of fresh chopped mint.

You can also use dried mint in this.

In Greece, most vegetables tend to contain a little bit less water than they do in the United States because it's a dry country.

So if you make this at home, you might need to compensate maybe with a little bit more flour or a little bit more bread crumb.

We really just want the leaves.

Herbs are often interchangeable.

You know, not having perhaps one ingredient, you know, this is not going to make the dish that much different.

And we just want uh a nice chop on the mint.

Such a Greek flavor.

It's the herb that we probably use more mint and dill than anything else.

Oregano too.

So this is going into the mixture.

I'm just going to mix this together.

The best way to do it is by hand.

I'm going to get a little bit of flour in here.

And I know it needs flour because I can tell that this isn't quite sticking together as much as I would like it to.

So I do that in kind of eyeballed increments.

And again, you want to work fast.

This is already feeling much better.

Okay, let me just go wash my hands for a second.

Now we want to shape them.

So we want kind of, I'd say a golf ball size.

And we know that this is ready when it holds its shape really well.

It's not very sticky and it's pretty firm.

You can shape that into a nice patty.

This will expand a little bit as we bake it and get them straight on to the parchment paper.

You don't want to flatten them out too much.

This will also cook down as it loses moisture in the oven.

So this is just a little trick for making them a bit crispier.

Just a little bit of olive oil.

Not too much.

These have to bake for about 15 or 20 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit.

And I'm going to get them to the oven right now.

[Sliding of metal tray] Ok, these are looking good.

And they're smelling even better.

Let's get these off and served so that they cool down.

They have cooked up perfectly.

They're nice and plump and they have that nice, brown crusty finish from the olive oil.

Then I saved the last one for myself.

Let me show you what this looks like on the inside.

You can see all that beautiful pumpkin and chickpea.

And the mint in there and the feta has melted into perfect creaminess.

Wow.

The chickpeas are really nutty.

The pumpkin is sweet the way yellow squash is.

The mint is really lively.

But it's the cheeses that give it the you know pièce de résistance.

The little feta cheese is really tangy.

The kefalotiri has a nice sharpness to it and everything works beautifully.

It's got this great texture.

It's fun.

It's healthy... And it's delicious.

DIANE: You know, in Greece we have this great culture called the mezethes.

The idea of sharing food, but also the quality of that food.

I'm assuming you cook a little bit in the vein of the Mediterranean diet.

So, correct me if that's a wrong assumption but- DR.

STERNBERG: No, it's the absolute correct assumption.

And there are so many elements to that... diet, to that Greek diet.

For me, it's very personal.

My parents were Romanian.

But my mother cooked moussaka, tarmasulata.

So, so I grew up eating that food.

I grew up with that rhythm of eating.

And you know, when I was at NIH, you know, I would run down to the cafeteria and have a cheeseburger and french fries for lunch every day.

I lost my, my upbringing of this healthy diet and also the healthy way of eating, not scarfing it down.

One of the things that happened when I was in Greece is I reconnected with my roots.

And when I- I had this "aha" moment one day when I was sitting at one of the little cafes by the seaside and I realized that if I continued back home, to... eat the way I was eating, to live the way I was living, uh not exercising, not, you know, not really connecting with with friends, uh as much as I I could have, I realized I would continue to get sicker.

And when I came home, I made a conscious effort of, doing what I was doing in Greece.

DIANE: One of the most important aspects of the meze experience are all the incredible dips that are part of the Greek kitchen.

You might know a few of them, things like tzatziki, taramasalata and of course, melitzanosalata, the roasted eggplant dip.

[Upbeat music] There are a lot of regional variations of this.

The one today has a little bit of a global twist, and I like to call it my new Athenian version because it's got a little bit of miso paste in it, inspired by one of the great modern Greek chefs, Christoforos Peskias.

I am going to get these on my burner.

I love to do this over the stovetop on a live flame, and the secret is to do this over fairly low heat.

Of course you can also do this on the barbecue, on the grill.

You can do it under the broiler.

You can also do it in the oven.

But to do it on top of the stove over a live flame, you get this really nice smoky flavor, and the eggplant skin will be really charred.

That's what we're going to be looking for at the end.

This is going to take probably around 15 or 20 minutes.

While these are roasting or charring, I'm going to get my miso prepped.

Miso is the fermented soybean paste that is very, very popular in Japanese cuisine.

We just want to get this softened up a little bit.

So I like to add just a little bit of olive oil to it while I do that.

[Spoon tapping bowl] I can smell my eggplant charring.

You see how that skin is getting all kind of crinkled?

The skin will start to burst.

This is why my family doesn't let me cook for them in the States, because I'm a messy cook.

[Upbeat music continues] So I think this one is pretty much ready.

It's nice and soft.

I can see that.

This is definitely ready.

So the trick now is you want to get the pulp out of the eggplant so we can cut the stem off.

And you see how it is like very tender in there.

The stem part of it is the densest.

It's a little bit hot, so be careful when you do this.

You want to score the flesh, which just makes it easy to get it out.

You can also let these cool down in a bowl, uh covered a little bit so that they steam up and the flesh comes out even more easily.

You also want to puree the eggplant while it's still hot because then it will absorb all the flavors much better.

This is going into the bowl of the food processor.

And the other two eggplants are also ready and can come off.

You can also just cut it that way.

You can keep the stem on if you want.

It smells really good.

And you just want to basically get this out.

It's really easy.

Want to get as much of this out as I can.

A little charred skin is actually tasty.

[Tapping of spoon] Everything else goes in here now.

The miso paste, a new ingredient in Greek cooking.

The tahini goes in next.

Tahini is a sesame paste and I'm using a dark, unhulled sesame paste.

It's a little bit nuttier.

I love it.

[Softly scraping] A little bit of lemon juice goes in next and a little bit of my- one of my favorite ingredients which is grape molasses or petimezi.

And of course a little bit of extra virgin Greek olive oil goes in here and some salt and pepper.

And I'm just going to, puree this now.

I'm going to pulse it so I can keep a little bit of control over the texture.

[Whir of food processor] Oh, that looks great.

I want to taste this a little bit.

Mmmm.

This is exactly what this melitzanosalata recipe should look like.

It's a very dense puree.

I'm going to get this into my little bowl here.

I want to get the blade out of here first, of course.

This can be used in all sorts of different ways.

Obviously, as a spread, as a dip, in phyllo cups, or with toasted pita bread.

It's also great as a bed or as an accompaniment uh, for some grilled protein, something like a nice grilled chicken breast.

Time to fill these little phyllo cups.

Uh they're pre-baked.

I warmed them up in the oven a little bit.

This is party food at its delicious best.

Now just for a little color, uh almost anything would be nice on here.

I have a little chopped parsley right now.

Should I try one?

[Crunch of phyllo cup] Mmm.

There's a lot of delicious contrast here.

The phyllo cups are very crunchy.

The eggplant is very velvety.

It absorbed all that delicious extra virgin Greek olive oil, so it has a really nice texture.

But it also absorbed all the flavors, most prominently that miso paste.

So this is a really really nice balance between some Asian ingredients and some traditional Greek ingredients to create a recipe that is both very Greek and traditional, but also very Greek and global.

It's good.

DIANE: Beyond the diet itself, is there a way to quantify, the communal aspect?

DR.

STERNBERG: Eating with others certainly is nourishing from uh many points of view.

When you're lonely, your stress response is higher, your relaxation response is lower.

And there are other studies in [clears throat] which linking, for example, digestion with uh connection, eating slowly together with friends and loved ones that will reduce your stress response, will enhance digestion, and will also um, uh release those feel-good uh nerve chemicals in the brain, dopamine and endorphins.

DIANE: What are some of the things that we can just do on a daily basis?

Just to maybe put ourselves on the path to having a more vital, um, and hopefully longer life.

DR.

STERNBERG: Well I, you know, it is exactly what I did when I came back from Greece.

I intentionally did things to remind me of, Greece.

And and that's another element that we didn't really go into that much about food.

It is a huge trigger of emotions.

So you can intentionally use food.

You can create an environment for yourself where you can, for just a moment, immerse yourself in these, sensual experiences that take you back to a place of comfort.

[Bright music] DIANE: I'm making phyllo triangles that are a vegetarian's dream because there's really meaty texture in them.

A lot of great flavor, but nothing but vegetables.

Fennel, onions, dill, olives, and a little orange.

And I just want to get finished with chopping my fennel.

[Chopping] We want the pieces to be on the large side because the whole idea is to create texture inside the phyllo triangles that is nice and substantial.

[Chopping] All right.

This is a recipe that's packed with flavor.

The phyllo triangles are really easy to work with, there easy- phyllo is easy to fold.

It's very user-friendly recipe.

These are also something that are easy to assemble, freeze, and then bake them off from the freezer to the ovens.

This needs to be sauteed a little bit.

So you wanna get olive oil into a pretty big frying pan.

Get the fennel in here.

I wanna just get this softened up a little bit, then I'll add the onion.

Let me add a little uh salt to this.

[Sizzling] I'm using red onion here because that's pretty much the most common onion that we find in Greece.

The filling should be pretty much cooked by the time it goes into the phyllo triangles because these aren't going to bake for very long.

This will take probably around 10 minutes or so, 10 to 12 minutes.

This is nice and tender and this is exactly what we're looking for.

The finished filling, the fennel and the onion are both really soft.

They're a little bit golden brown.

I'm going to turn the heat off on this, so it has a little time to cool before I add it to the filling and I'll get everything else in there in the meantime.

First in my chopped, pitted kalamata olives.

A little bit of that orange flavor that I was talking about a second ago.

Gives a nice refreshing uplift to them and that's keeping the flavor of food balance.

The next thing to go in here will be a little fresh dill.

[Tapping] If dill isn't your thing you could easily add something else.

Mint would be very nice in here, parsley.

Even cilantro would be nice.

Basil would work so a lot of these herbs are interchangeable.

This is going right into my pan.

A little salt and pepper and by the time I get my phyllo unpacked and cut into strips to make the triangles, this will have cooled down enough so that I can start assembling them.

You don't want the filling to be too hot because then the phyllo will get soggy.

Now it's time for the last part of this recipe which is basically to assemble the triangles and in order to do that we want to cut the phyllo into strips.

You can make these as thin or as wide as you want but remember this is a meze so you want it to be kind of an individual piece so I think I'll get three rows out of this phyllo.

And just make sure they separate really well.

I find it easy to just stack them and what we want to do here is get it lubricated.

Now I'm not slathering every last inch of the phyllo with olive oil.

It's most important that the ends and the edges are well lubricated.

I'm going to get my second sheet on here.

Phyllo is very forgiving and remember what we want, we want mostly are the edges.

That's not to say you don't want the middle.

We want a heaping teaspoon of the filling and you're basically folding this up into right triangles.

You don't want to get more than two sheets on this because you don't want the ratio of phyllo to filling to be too overwhelming.

You want to be able to bite into this when they're baked.

You want the phyllo basically to be an encasing.

I'll get going on the next ones here.

You just want to keep them covered because they dry out quickly especially if you're in a kitchen like mine right now where the oven's going and it's a little bit warm.

And get the second piece on here.

Edges first.

Another nice heaping teaspoon of the filling.

All those kalamata olives are like bits of meat in here.

They're so fleshy.

You don't want to over stuff the triangles.

That's also something to keep in mind because you don't want them to burst while they're baking.

Just getting the tops brushed with a little olive oil.

This is what makes them nice and crispy.

These are going into the oven which is preheated at 350 Fahrenheit for around 15 or 20 minutes until they're golden, crisped and puffed.

[Clank of metal tray] Okay, I promised you golden, crispy and puffed, and that's exactly what we have here.

They slip a little bit, not to worry.

You can overlap them, but try not to overlap them too much 'cause they're still quite hot, so you don't want to have them collapse.

You wanna keep that beautiful, puffy texture.

They look so good.

This last one has my name on it.

[Crunching] Mmm, the flavors in here are exploding.

They're so delicious.

The orange is just like popping out.

The fennel is really subtle, but has an almost sweetness to it, a finesse to it.

The olives are tangy, but also meaty.

The phyllo gives it the ultimate crunch, that crispiness that makes this so attractive.

It's no wonder that this combination of flavors is so beloved all over the Mediterranean.

But when wrapped in phyllo triangles and baked to this crunchy perfection, they make the absolute perfect meze for vegetarians, vegans, meat lovers, for everyone.

I could serve this anywhere in the Mediterranean and people would gobble it up.

The word nostalgia, which is a Greek word, nostalgia, and the word for, tasty or delicious, nostimo, are the same, have the same root.

DR.

STERNBERG: That is wonderful.

I love that.

I will use that in my next book.

[Laughs] DIANE: This was, I'm so glad we got to do this.

DR.

STERNBERG: This was wonderful.

Thank you so much.

DIANE: For recipe links and information about My Greek Table , visit my website, DianeKochilas.com.

ANNOUNCER: Diane's cookbooks, "The Ikaria Way" and "Athens: Food, Stories, Love" are available to purchase online at DianeKochilas.com or call the phone number on the screen.

My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by... The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

The National Hellenic Society.

And by the following... YIORGOS STENOS: Ella, what are we going to eat?

DIANE: You want tsipouro?

YIORGOS: Ah, yeah.

DIANE: Courgettes?

[Both laugh] YIORGOS: Tzatziki?

DIANE: Tzatziki?

Mezedakia with my son.

[Diane laughs] YIORGOS: This is nice.

DIANE: No, I love doing this.

I love hanging out with you.

So... YIORGOS: Yeah me too mom.

DIANE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

YIORGOS: I do, I do.

I just... DIANE: Yeah.

YIORGOS: Every now and then.

DIANE: Every now and then.

That's all I need.

Every now and then.

[Speaking in Greek]