Moussaka - Cooking for friends and family

My friend Nonja is moving away :( Husband Jay is off to Korea for a year so Nonja and the children will move to her homestead in Texas for the year before they head off as a family to Italy in 2011. As they were emptying their house yesterday, I thought fixing them dinner would be helpful and she requested some Greek food, thinking she'd go into withdrawal in Texas ...

Happy to oblige, I fixed a traditional Greek dish, Moussaka -- meat and eggplant casserole. A few of you have asked for the recipe so I'll post it here. Be warned, this is a labor intensive dish and probably uses every pan in your house hehehe ... but it is sooooo worth it!! While the dish always contains eggplant, in different regions of Greece you may find variations that include zucchini or thinly sliced potatoes with the eggplant. My version often includes potatoes that are sliced paper thin (using a mandoline). You may include them or omit them as you wish.

Begin with making the meat sauce:

med to large onion chopped
3-4 cloves garlic chopped
olive oil
teaspoon Greek oregano (yes, you can use domestic!)
teaspoon Crushed thyme leaves
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
large can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup dry white wine (red wine is too acidic)
16 oz can diced tomatoes in sauce
2 bay leaves
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
1 1/2 - 2 lbs ground meat (lamb, veal, beef) (I use all three that I grind together)

Heat a couple of tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet. Saute the onions and garlic until soft and translucent. Add herbs (except bay leaves) and cook for a couple of minutes until you begin to smell the aromatics. Add the ground meat and cook slowly (you don't want the meat getting crispy, just cooked). Add the wine and tomatoes and simmer covered for about a half hour. This should not be a "liquidy" sauce, but should be able to spread easily. Remove cover and let sauce cool completely. Stir in egg whites and bread crumbs and set aside.

The sauce (you need three cups of sauce):

3 cups milk, warmed
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
1-2 cups grated cheese (if you have a Greek market near you, the best cheeses to use are kefalotyri and/or myzithra) I use a combination of asiago and romano (parmesan is a bit salty but ok if you cut back the salt in the sauce)
salt and pepper
couple of shakes of grated nutmeg
2 egg yolks

Make a traditional white sauce by melting butter over medium heat (don't brown the butter or your sauce won't be white!); stir in flour until it is dissolved. Cook the roux stirring constantly for a couple of minutes to cook the flour a little. Add salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook until sauce thickens. This is a "medium" white sauce so should still come off the spoon nicely, but leave a coating. Add the cheese and cook for a minute or two. Cool this completely and then mix in the egg yolks.

Ok, two parts done ... we're almost ready to put it all together.

Partially peel the eggplants -- two medium should do it. I peel strips off (one strip off, one left on) of about 1/2". Slice it thin. Layer the slices on a plate salting each layer of eggplant. We're going to release some of the moisture from the eggplant so it will cook up nicely. Let sit for about 20 minutes then rinse and drain the eggplant and pat dry. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet and saute the slices until soft and lightly browned. As they cook, place in the bottom of your baking pan (at least a 9" x 13" pan -- yesterday I made three casseroles in 8" square cake pans). Cover the bottom of the baking pan with eggplant.

Put it all together!! You need another 1/2 cup or so of grated cheese and a couple of tablespoons of bread crumbs for the top.

On top of the first layer of eggplant (and potatoes if you are using them) put your meat sauce. Put another layer of eggplant (and potaotes). Pour your white cheese sauce over the entire top. Top with grated cheese and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Pop this into the oven at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes until the top is brown and it's all bubbly. Remove from oven and let sit for a couple of minutes (or not hehehe).

Hope you enjoy this!!

Linda

February 2 snack ...

I'm having a protein drink for a snack this morning. Ahhh but not just any protein! I got this great whey protein flavored cappuccino and have mixed it into a cup of great coffee. Yumm! Add a dash of sugar free caramel syrup and I have a delightful taste treat that's good for me! Did you know that sugar free syrups come in a gazillion flavors? I ordered an assorted case of Torani sugar free syrups from Kaldi Coffee Roasters ... great for everything!

Catching up the past few weeks ...

Good morning ... and Happy February -- heart month :)

It's three weeks past my gastric bypass surgery and I'm feeling great. Each day I have a little more "ooompf" though I wouldn't quite call it energy. Losing about a pound a day and focused really hard on getting plenty of water and my 90g of protein (haven't yet reached that magic number but each day I try!). I'm off pure liquids and on "mushy" foods now -- getting really inventive with things that can be "mushed" up and still be visually and texturally appealing as well as taste good!

Celebrated my 60th birthday a week ago and totally amazed at that number! How on earth did I get that old? Not that it's old, but gosh, I remember when my Mom turned 60! lol!! She was a humdinger, so I'm going to try to emulate her aging :)

Have read a lot but even got into my sewing room a couple of times. Hopefully I'll spend more time in there this month as I'm itchy to finish (and start) some cool projects.

February is Snack Food Month and I'm going to try and come up with some good (for me) snacks, and would love to have your suggestions! My friend Anne started off yesterday with baby cucumbers and cottage cheese -- yummm!! I'm not up to the cucumbers yet, but I can sure have cottage cheese! Great source of protein, too!

Soup - French Onion Soup

This is a really easy soup and so wonderful on these cold winter days. A good loaf of crunchy, crusty bread is great for dipping!

I use red onions, but you can use Spanish or any other that you prefer.

Peel and thinly slice a quart or more of onions. I toss them with a couple of tablespoons of all purpose flour as it thickens the stock a little bit. Heat 5 or 6 tablespoons butter in a heavy pan until bubble then put in the onions, stirring them to get them covered with the butter. If the flour dries it too much, add some extra butter. On medium heat, cook the onions until they are nice and browned and carmelized -- not burned! If you cook them slowly they will brown ever so nicely! Now add beef stock, vegetable stock, or beef consomme -- I use the reusable containers of stock or cans of consomme ... you might need two of the containers (add enough water so that you have plenty to cover the onions by about 2") and if using consomme 2 cans plus some water will work. Add some parsley -- a tablespoon is good -- and salt and freshly ground pepper. Simmer your soup for about a half hour.

Slice french bread thickly and toast lightly. This helps keep it from getting too soggy on top of the soup. Spoon onions and broth into soup bowls or little ramekins if you have them. Add a slice of the toast and pile on some shredded mozzarella cheese.

Place under the broiler for a minute or two until the cheese is melted and browned.

Serve to rave reviews!

Enjoy!

Life Changes

I chose the quote for the day, "The one way to get thin is to re-establish a purpose in life," very deliberately as this is a big month of change for me. My new purpose in life is to live it to the fullest! In order to do that, I've decided to get a major grip on my weight issues and I'm scheduled for gastric bypass surgery next week. This has not been a quick or easy decision, but it is a good one in my mind and with the various doctors whom I've consulted. So, before my 60th birthday I'll be on a healthier road. I don't mind the getting older part of living -- I'd just like to enjoy it more and be as active with my body as with my mind. And I wouldn't be adverse to wearing smaller clothes again!! ... Tomorrow I go for all day education classes and Wednesday is for physical fitness assessments. The rest of the week I'll probably get some projects ready to do while sitting as the first week or so is rather sedentary. I'll keep you posted!!

Soup - Baked Potato Soup

It's National Soup Month! Have a recipe to share? Add it to the comments! I love winter and winter soups are so tummy warming! Practice making some great breads to go with your soups and you'll be the hit of the neighborhood!

Today's soup has many variations ... here's just one version. Lots of folks make this in a crock pot.

Start out by baking 2 large potatoes. Peel and cube them to have about 2 cups potatoes.
3 (or more) strips bacon diced and sauteed until crisp. Drain bacon and reserve 1 T of the drippings.
1 small onion and 1 clove garlic, chopped. Saute in the same pan with remaining drippings until translucent and tender.
3 T flour, 1 t salt, 1 t dried basil, 1/2 t pepper added to cooked onion and garlic.
Add 3 c chicken or vegetable broth and boil for 2 minutes
Add potatoes.
Stir in 1 cup half and half or table cream.
Grate 1 cup cheddar cheese and add to soup.
Heat through but do not bring to another boil.
Garnish with additional 1/2 cup grated cheddar and some fresh parsley.

Let's defat this a little bit!!

1. Use turkey bacon.
2. Saute onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil instead of drippings.
3. Use low sodium chicken or vegetable broth.
4. Use fat free half and half or fat free canned evaporated milk instead of cream.
5. Reduced fat cheddar cheese will work really well here!
Enjoy!

Happy New Year

Once I slip away from doing something, I really do lose track of how long it's been that I've been missing, so I was, of course, surprised to find that it's really been quite a bit longer since I posted here. For that I apologize .... to you as well as to myself because this is something that I really do enjoy doing! I can use an excuse that we travel a lot and there isn't always a computer available, but that got taken care of at Christmas when Santa brought me a shiny new wireless laptop :) Now I have no excuse but laziness left and I hope that won't be used!

Wishing you and yours a wonderful year ahead. I'm always so excited by the end of one year and the start of another ... not because the year was so bad (well, sometimes it has been), but more because one never knows what adventures are coming in the weeks and months ahead! It's sort of like opening a brand new journal (and it's time to do that, too!!) with all those lovely blank pages just waiting to be filled! I hope that you look forward to what this year holds in store for you, and that everything is sparkly and wonderful!