Moussaka

- Elspeth 2 Comments

The last couple of days I’ve been on a real eggplant kick. Don’t ask me why, it just spoke to me and I am rolling with it like a champ. Last night was garlic eggplant with rice, and tonight we have….

Moussaka! A tasty, hearty, totally awesome Greek/Middle Eastern casserole dish that will warm you right to the very core. My friend Leah described it as “lasagna made with eggplant instead of noodles”, which is a very apt description. Of course, that makes it sound a tad healthy, which is a bit of a stretch. It starts out with good intentions, and then goes all rogue with a solid helping of bechamel sauce.

But there ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.

The end result is a melting pile of goodness that marries soft eggplant, spiced meat, and salty cheesiness. It’s perfect with a hunk of bread to sop up the goodness, but if you’re anything like me you might just feel like picking up your plate and licking it clean.

I found the recipe (I’m not super familiar with moussaka and therefore didn’t feel terribly comfortable messing around with the ingredients) from Allrecipes.com, which is one of my favorite recipe sites.

You will need:
3 eggplants (medium)
olive oil (preferably spray)
1 T butter
1 lb lean ground beef or lamb
S & P to taste
2 onions, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 t mixed herbs (herbs de provence, a mixture of the basics, your fav blend)
1/2 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
1/2 c red wine (I may have added a bit more…)
1 egg, beaten
1 c grated parm

For the bechamel sauce:
4 cups milk
1 stick butter
6 T flour
S & P to taste

Peel the eggplant:

And slice it into 1/2 in moons.

Lay them out on paper towels with a sprinkling of salt to draw out the moisture. This step is very important!! If you don’t get some of that water out, it will drown your casserole while it’s baking.

In a dutch oven heat up the butter and add the meat, onion, garlic, and S&P.

When the meat has browned, add the spices, tomato sauce, and wine.

Bring to a simmer and let cook for 20 minutes, or until reduced and delicious.

Meanwhile, heat the milk over low heat.

Put your broiler on high and lay the eggplant slices on a baking sheet. You will probably have to do this in two batches!

Spray the eggplant with the olive oil and place under the broiler, turning once they’re brown. Set aside.

The original recipe calls for pan-frying in oil, but that just sounded like way too much work. Broiling was easier and used less oil, which is always a plus!

Heat the butter for the bechamel in a large pan. When melted, sprinkle on the flour and whisk in until smooth.

Add the milk slowly, whisking after about every cup in order to smooth out lumps gradually.

Once it’s thickened, turn off the heat.

Your meat sauce should be thick and smelling magical at this point.

Turn off the heat and stir in the beaten egg. Preheat your oven to 350.

Now you are ready to rumble!

Spray a 13″x9″ pan with olive oil and layer half of the eggplant on the bottom. Pour all of the meat sauce over the eggplant:

Sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese.
Layer the rest of the eggplant on top…
Sprinkle with more cheese. Then, completely douse it with the bechamel sauce!
Don’t be shy! Really drown that sucker.
That’s a very happy piece of eggplant.
Sprinkle more cheese on top and pop the pan into the oven for 45min-1hr. Since all of my components were piping hot (I was very hungry and patience is not one of my strong points when my blood sugar has nose-dived to diabetic coma leves) it only took 45 minutes to get nice and brown:
Leah and I carved into that sucker and ate it with some lovely whole-wheat sourdough.
On my grandmother’s china, of course.
It was so, so nommy. I would definitely recommend chopping the onions very fine, unless you like chunks of them in the sauce. And definitely eat with bread! Lots of bread! Bread all the time! Yay bread!
Nommmmmm

December Desserts

- Elspeth 1 Comment

I told myself that December would be full of posts about holiday foodstuffs, and just look at how I’ve failed! Since I wasn’t able to deliver on that front, I’ll just give summary of some of the golden moments of the last month of 2011:

1. Maple Bacon Cupcakes


Some of you may scoff, but let’s be honest: elephant toes would be on menus today if they were served with bacon, because salty pig fat is heaven on earth. The combination of maple and bacon causes my salivary glands to dance a jig of joy, and these cupcakes were a splendid marriage of the two flavors. The key was a bit of bacon fat and crumbles inside the cupcakes, with maple frosting to top them off. You can find the recipe here!

2. The next adventure was English Toffee, which began with good intentions….

and plenty of sugar, fat, and chocolate. The end result was tasty, but so sticky and chewy that my poor mother ripped a crown right off of her tooth! Not a treat I am very proud of….

3. So I made up for it with a birthday cake for my sister:

White cake (Cook’s Illustrated) with a hint of almond and a vanilla buttercream frosting. I piped a buttercream chrysanthemum on top for some festive flair. The cake recipe is one of the best I’ve found, but it’s not surprising considering the source. I hate to sound like a broken record, but Cook’s Illustrated is the best.

4. I repeated that recipe for my friend Lauren’sbirthday, but this time in cupcake form:

We were so stuffed with homemade sushi that the cupcakes felt like more of a burden than a blessing, but hopefully the leftovers will be enjoyed sans-overly full stomachs.

Noms!!

Butternut Squash Lasagna

- Elspeth 1 Comment

This lasagna is a real crowd pleaser: creamy without being oily with a good punch of squashiness. It lacks the often painfully long lasagna prep and is very easy to throw together. I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on this pan o’ noodles, and we all know how much I love to be flattered.

You will need:
1 medium-sized Kabocha squash (or a medium Butternut)
*Kabocha squash is commonly used in Asian cooking; you often see it in tempura and think it’s sweet potato. It has a very distinctive green rind and is often referred to as pumpkin on the menus.
2 large shallots
2 leeks
2 T olive oil
2 T white wine
1/4 c butter
1/4 c flour
S & P
pinch nutmeg
1 quart milk
2 c shredded mozzerella
1 lb cottage cheese
3/4 c grated parmesan cheese
1 package ready-bake lasagna noodles

Heat your oven to 400 degrees and bake the squash, cut in half with cut side up, until a fork goes through easily.

Dice the shallots and leek, making sure to rinse the leek thoroughly! Saute over medium-high heat with the olive oil until soft.

Meanwhile, warm the milk over low heat, stirring occasionally. There’s nothing quite like a pan of burnt, disgusting milk, so make sure you remember to give it a shimmy and a shake every now and then. Otherwise, you’ll be making all the mama cows out there cry!

When the leeks and shallots are soft, reduce with a shot of white wine:

add the butter:

(mmm fat) with salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. When the butter has melted, add the flour and mix until incorporated.

Cook for a minute or two. When the roux is nice and thick, slowly add one cup of the warm milk.

And stir until smooth. It’s important not to add all of the milk at once; if you do, it will be a lot harder to have a smooth mixture and your hand will get tired from whisking so much. Slowly add the rest of the milk and cook until thickened, stirring constantly.

Turn off the heat.

Mash up the squash in a separate bowl

and add it to the milk mixture:

Stir it until somewhat homogenous and then go at it with an immersion blender:

And, voila! You will have a beautiful, smooth, bright orange mixture to behold:

Mix together the shredded mozzarella and cottage cheese

And you’re ready to assemble! BOOM!

Grease a 13″x9″ pan thoroughly. Spread a thin layer of squash-sauce on the bottom:

Layer noodles, more squash-sauce, the cottage-mozz mixture, and a generous sprinkling of parm until you run out of ingredients. It should be about 3 chunky layers:

The top of the lasagna should be parm and cheese-mixture, but not a lot of it. Just a dabble.

Let this sit for about 20 minutes to let the noodles absorb some liquid before they go into the oven.

Preheat your oven to 375 and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.

Personally, I think this is best served the next day; however, I have much higher standards than the average minion and don’t expect all of you to live up to my superior taste buds.

Now go get your nom on!