Recipe of the Week - Moussaka

The Parthenon was built in 13 years.....this wonderful recipe doesn't take that long, but all great things take time, effort, patience and a lot of love!  And if my 7 and 9 year old eat it saying “this is the best thing in the world”…..well, it is worth the effort!!! (yes I am extremely blessed to have children that eat everything!!!)

Our family is so blessed to be friends with the Alexoudi Family. The are the kindest people and have wonderful hearts. Giagia Koula is the absolute BEST cook. Being invited to her house to eat is like being invited by the Greek Queen of the Kitchen. It is a magical meal experience EVERY time. And her husband Dimitri....well he's the King of the Greek Garden. His vegetable garden is spectacular and his fruit trees bursting with the freshest farm to table food I have every had in my life. They eat from the earth and it is wonderful. I constantly joke with them that I want them to adopt me (they said they would anytime) for a year where I will come and live with them, learn to cook and garden like a true Greek!!! But since I can't leave my children and husband, this year I asked Koula to teach me a few recipes. I came with my list and one by one we'll tackle them. Koula also knows Anastasia is a budding new chef in the Makrogiannis Family. Anastasia is absolutely thrilled to be with Koula, learning and doing!!! I say kids are never too young to be invited into the kitchen. And Anastaisa Loved every minute!!! And I loved watching Anastasia listen to Koula talking to her in Greek 

and doing everything she asked her to do!! Such a wonderful experience for all of us!!! 

We tackled the most difficult recipe at the beginning!!! And it was so worth the effort. The experience was so fun and was such a family experience with Koula, her daughter Sotiria, Anastasia and myself all cooking together in the outdoor and indoor kitchen at their house and their other daughter Dora serving as taster, translator and fun companion for the experience. And then we all sat down and ate our creation together - you don't get much more family oriented than that.....and by the way, Papou Dimitri watched over the boys Dimitri and Nikolaos who played outside, made the Horiatiki (Greek) Salad with his ingredient from his garden....so everyone was involved!! Great day, great food, great experience! So blessed!!!

Much Hugs, Love and Many Thanks

Valeria

Moussaka

By: Koula Alexoudi

Ingredients List

Eggplant: 2-3 medium size

Potatoes: 4-5 medium size

Tomato: 1 large size

Onions: 1 large yellow, 2 small red

Ground Meat: can be all beef or 

mixture of lamb/beef or all lamb - a little over 2 pounds

Fresh Nutmeg

Salt & Pepper

Milk

Kefalotiri or Parmesan grated cheese

Bread crumbs

Tomato paste

Flour

Butter

Egg yolk

Six Step Process

1. Brown Eggplant

2. Cook Potatoes

3. Make Meat Sauce

4. Make Bechamel Sauce

5. Assemble

6. Cook

Brown Eggplant

1. Wash and peel stripes into eggplant skin (look at Anastasia's right hand holding piece of sliced eggplant, you'll see what I mean by peeled stripes)
2. Cut eggplant in 1/2” thick slices
3. Put eggplant in a bath of cold salted water for at least 30 minutes
4. Remove eggplant pieces and squeeze excess water and put on a dish
5. Medium Heat a shallow pan with Olive Oil…olive oil should only be deep enough to cover half the depth of the eggplant in the pan (eggplant should NOT be submerged in oil)
6. Brown eggplant until dark brown (but not burnt) on each side (see picture below)
7. Set aside on paper towels

Cook Potatoes

1. Slice potatoes thin….using a mandolin would probably work best. Pieces should be uniform in thickness and thick enough that there is enough of a bite when you eat it…..too thin and they will just disintegrate when you cook them.
2. Toss sliced potatoes in olive oil and salt
3. Bake 400 degrees until golden brown and at least cooked half way but not mushy
4. Take out of oven and leave to cool.

At this point you will have cooked eggplant and potatoes. You can work it out that you pre-slice everything, get potatoes in the oven and while they cook, you can be working on the eggplant. Both eggplant and potatoes should be done around the same time and sit to cool.

Make Meat Sauce

1. Hand Grate 1 large tomato and put all pulp in a small bowl and set aside. (try not to include majority of the skin, a little is ok)
2. Finely chop (use a small food processor) and chop till just before it gets too liquidy: 1 yellow onion and 2 small red onions. It should be very fine and watery. Set aside
3. Gather spices
1. Nutmeg – you will grate fresh all over when it is time to use
2. Grated Kefalotiri or Parmesan Cheese
3. Tomato Paste (1-2 tablespoons)
4. Salt and Pepper to taste
4. In a large pot heat olive to medium high heat and add finely chopped onions and cook for 5-7 minutes, till translucent
5. Add all your ground meat and begin to brown and cook all meat
6. Once meat is about 90% done, add tomato paste and the grated tomato. If you like sauce to have a deeper red color, add more tomato paste
7. Meat consistency at this point will have a good amount of liquid in the pan
8. Cook the liquid down over medium high heat until mostly evaporated but meat mixture still wet
9. Take off heat and set aside

              

At this point, all your ingredients are coming to room temperature which is great. You have one more ingredient to make before assembly. Turn on your oven now to 400 degrees and place rack in center.

Make the Bechamel Sauce

1. Measure approximately 5 cups of milk (the higher the fat content the better, non fat milk doesn’t really work well) and warm on the stove, NOT boil. Once warm, turn off……then start next step. Do not start next step until you have warmed the milk.
2. In a separate pot measure out approximately 5 tablespoons of flour and approximately 3 heaping tablespoons of room temperature butter, then turn on medium heat mixing and cooking flour/butter mixture for about 5-10 minutes until all creamy yellow.
3. Take a cup and take some of warm milk and slowly add to the butter flour pot and whisk together constantly. Once you add the first cup, then you can slowly add the rest of the warm milk….whisking constantly. Low/Medium heat, you do not want this mixture to boil…if you see boiling bubbles begin, turn heat down. You will continue to whisk till mixture starts to thicken. It should be thick enough that when you put a wooden spoon in the mixture and pull it out, it completely coats the spoon and doesn’t run off, and if you run your finger along back of spoon it creates a line and doesn’t run together quickly. But not too thick that is is starting to be like paste. It should feel like thick creamy milk consistency.
4. Now if you have been whisking forever and it is not thickening, get some cornstarch and milk, in a cup, put a heaping spoon of cornstarch and cold milk, mix together till all combined and add to warm milk pot. It should help thicken after a few more minutes.
5. Remove from heat, take a few second break from whisking and crack one egg, keep egg yolk, whip egg yolk with fork, then slowly add to warm milk mixture as you continue to whisk.
6. Set aside to cool while you start assembly of pan.

Assembly Time

1. Take Large Pan, if you have a pan that has high sides that would be best, but a standard rectangle lasagna type dish will work ok
2. Olive Oil bottom of pan or spray with Pam, whatever you like
3. Make a layer with potatoes. Try and layer it so that you have very little holes showing to bottom of pan. You want to overlap if you can. You are trying to make a solid layer
4. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top of the potatoes. I would use about ½ a cup and lightly sprinkle over the top. (not cover completely)
5. Lay down your meat mixture, covering over all potatoes, making a solid layer of meat. Lightly sprinkle your Kefalotiri or Parmesan cheese over the top of the meat. Also grate your fresh nutmeg over the top of your meat. If you don’t have fresh nutmeg, lightly sprinkle nutmeg powder, but careful, the powder-very little goes a long way in taste
6. Layer Eggplant over the meat making sure to overlap slightly on the edges to create a solid layer over the meat
7. Once you are completely happy with your assembly, check your Béchamel sauce. You want it warm but not hot and you want it smooth and not clumpy. Give it a few last whisks before you pour.
8. Very gently pour the Bechamel sauce all over the top of the eggplant. It should almost cover the eggplant completely. If you see a little bit of eggplant coming through, it is ok. But it should be a substantial layer.

         

    

  

Cooking

1. Put in 400 degree oven for 45-60 minutes, uncovered. Start checking it at 45 minutes. You want it bubbling and oozing, but NOT burning. 60 minutes it totally sufficient. If for some reason your béchamel sauce doesn’t brown, you can very carefully and watching it through your oven window, broil it for maybe 2 minutes.

Let it cool for at least one hour – super super important. If you cut right away, it will be runny and messy. Let it cool…..go make your salad or side dish and it will be ready.

And actually most Greeks make this the day before because the longer the dish sits, the better it tastes. Make it the night before, then put in oven to warm and it will be even better.

Total Time: From Prep to Eat: approximately 3-4 hours (depending on how organized you are, or if you are drinking wine while cooking)

Popular side dishes for this meal in Greece: BREAD (a hearty crusty soft bread so soak up all the yumminess), plate of sliced feta cheese, plate of olives, Greek Salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, Greek green peppers, fresh parsley, olive oil and red white vinegar) or a Green Salad.