I worked off of two different recipes - one from the book that my neighbor let me hang onto while she's away, and one that I purchased in a bookstore in Hania. There were aspects of both that sounded appealing to me, the former instructed to add bechemel sauce to the dish before baking, but I couldn't find any so I went with the instructions for making the sauce in the latter, along with a few other variations.
I began by cutting three potatoes and three eggplants into moderately thin slices. I baked them in the oven with some olive oil for about 3o minutes to soften them. Both recipies say to fry, but I hate frying (it's so messy) and one of the recipies mentioned baking as an alternative.
I then browned 1/2 kilo of ground beef and one onion in a skillet, added three pulped tomatoes, a dash of red wine, salt, pepper, cumin and cinnamon. Let cook for about 30 minutes.
Took off heat, added to the ground beef mixture about a cup of very fine bread crumbs, 1 beaten egg, and about a cup shredded kefalotyri cheese.
Buttered a large baking pan, sprinkled the bottom with some more fine breadcrumbs, put a layer of potatoes, then a layer of the ground beef mixture, then a thin layer of some more of the grated cheese, then a layer of the eggplant slices.
At this point I made the sauce: heated 4 tbsp. butter in a saucepan, added 5 tbsp. of flour once the butter was very hot, stirred until well blended. Added about 2 1/2 cups of milk (not really sure how much to be honest...I was halving the recipe which called for two liters, but even one liter seemed like so much to me, so I used about 3/4 of a liter). Stirred for a long while until that thickened up, then added another beaten egg, some salt, pepper and more cinnamon. Poured on top of the other stuff in the baking dish, stuck in the oven for a little over an hour, until the topping turned golden brown.
End result? Eh. I think it's the sauce that foiled it, for some reason it didn't solidify as much as I think it should have. Oh well, I'm eating it anyway because I'm starving!! But I don't think I'll be bringing a piece to my greek tutor tomorrow as I had planned...
4 comments:
Hi Kyrstyn, have you come across Maria Verivakis bog "organicallycooked.blogspot.com? She's a kiwi Cretan, living in Hania and a really good source of info and ideas about Cretan/Greek food.
Also meant to respond to a post ages ago about Tamam to recommend "The Well of the Turk" as a great place for food (in the old Turkish quarter of Hania behind the old harbour).
Thanks - I had not yet come across her site but checked it out last night. What a great blog! I'm subscribed now so I can keep up with it.
I have heard many good things about Well of the Turk but haven't yet made it there. I've got a friend visiting from Athens for a few weeks and have told him that Tamam and Well of the Turk are on our agenda:-)
Kyrstyn hi, that was brave of you to go into all this trouble with the moussaka. A few tips from a greek that might help next time:
a) do it in the summer when eggplants are in season otherwise they are pretty tasteless.
b) eggplant is a TRICKY vegetable and it only comes to full glory with lots of olive oil. Next time cut them lengthwise, 1 cm in thickness and soak them in heavily salted water for a couple of hours, then squeeze, drain and shallow fry them. The soaking is aupposed to draw out the bitterness but more important it stops it from soaking up olive oil during frying and becoming too greasy and it also becomes crunchier. Don't bother with grilled eggplant slices, it tastes like boiled. Other summer vegetables can be grilled, zucchini, peppers but not eggplants. Only when you grill them in their skin to make eggplpant salad dip.
c) Grilled, fried or raw potato slices are fine as long as they are seasoned.
d) Can't see any problem with your bechamel sauce. I think I add less flour to make it. When it becomes to thicken keep stirring but don't beat it too much as it becomes thinner.
Hope it helps.
Mariza - thank you for the tips! I agree, eggplant is tricky...will keep your comment in mind for next time I have a go at it!
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