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Greek seafood dishes, especially the fish ones, are often simple, straightforward affairs. Grill the fish, finish with lemon and olive oil, kali orexi! While there's nothing wrong with that approach, there ARE more composed fish dishes, and AEGEAN-STYLE BAKED FISH is one of them. This is technically Psari Plaki, and it's more of a style than a dedicated dish. If you've got a crowd coming over for dinner, instead of cooking pieces of fish one by one, you bake those pieces of fish with a whole mess of onions, tomatoes, and olive oil. The fish cooks gently on account of the olive oil, and the onions and tomatoes break down to make a luxurious sauce. That's how the style works, and we get to embellish from there. I'll be adding some briny elements, capers and olives to be precise, marinating the fish just-so for better heating in your oven at home, and using excellent olive oil to make things even nicer. This dish is fresh and light, but has enough gravity to consider it our "anchor" menu item this week.

Meatballs (or keftedes) are a thing in Greece, small beef meatballs that are fried and often served kind of plain, many times with a side of french fries. While that's cool, we can do even better. My LEMON & MINT KEFTEDES step things up just a bit, with petite beef meatballs sauteed in a lemon and mint sauce, and served with a garlicky red pepper sauce. The lemon and mint keeps these meatballs from being boring, and the red pepper sauce gives us some contrast to the rich meatballs. This has just enough "elevation" to keep things from being boring, and in my opinion is much more interesting than the plain version.

I think we probably all know about spanakopita. In case you don't, it's a Greek spinach pie, often served as little 2-bite triangular pies here in the USA. You know the ones, and they're usually just OK. The reason they're usually just OK is that very mediocre frozen versions are readily available and cheap. Even though you don't see it often, excellent spanakopita does exist and it's magical. The magic of an excellent spanakopita is in its soul, and the soul of the spanakopita is the filling. This week's SPANAKOPITA DIP takes the soul of an excellent spanakopita and turns it into a shareable dip, served with thick fluffy Greek pita bread. Sauteed spinach, lemon, dill, and garlic, mixed with just enough greek yogurt to make things delicious and dippable. If you like the idea of the classic spanakopita, but just wish it was more flavorful and straight-up better, this is your thing.

Tzatziki, you know the stuff, it's the cucumber-yogurt dip/sauce that you can't stop dragging your pita through. Please don't tell any of your Greek friends, but we can turn this magical, mainstay dip into a satisfying salad without changing much. CUCUMBER & DILL "TZATZIKI" SALAD certainly isn't purely traditional, but its soul has everything that the traditional dish does. Way more cucumber, plenty of dill, a few red onions for bite, and a light yogurt vinaigrette. I'll be salting the cucumbers to wilt them a little and concentrate their flavor and then keeping all of the other ingredients simple and fresh, with the end result being a little like a really good cucumber "slaw" of sorts. This dish brings bright freshness to the meal, and truly is greater than the sum of its parts.

There are a few humble ingredients out there that can become magical with the right treatment. Potatoes are probably number one, but second place is a contested ranking. For my money the silver medal goes to carrots, and MARINATED ROASTED CARROTS is my submission to the contest. I don't know that you would get this EXACT dish at a taverna in Greece, but if you did, you'd be thrilled. Blanched-then-roasted carrots, plunged into a sweet-tart marinade while still hot, spiked with garlic and a few simple seasonings, cooled down then served cold. We would be in a good spot if we stopped here, but we can make things even better with a little orange zest and some crumbled feta on top, so let's do that too. You have to eat your vegetables if you want dessert, and this is a pretty easy way to do that.

Ever had halva? It's a thing in many parts of the world, Greece included. I won't go on about it, but it's what should be the dessert for this menu. It's super popular and all that, but I don't want to make it, and... (shhhh, don't tell anyone this next part)... I've never had fantastic halva. Maybe fantastic halva exists, but one dessert that is fantastic is SURPRISINGLY GREAT TAHINI BROWNIES. Excellent dark Belgian chocolate makes the base for these brownies, and then in a big nod to halva I'll be swirling in some sweet tahini and sprinkling some coarse sea salt on top. Some brownie variations are weird, and I do admit that this one sounds weird, but let me tell you: dark chocolate and sesame are a wonderful flavor pairing, especially in desserts like this. These brownies keep the theme alive all the way through dessert, and are... surprisingly great.