122 replies to this topic

[Tepee]

I kid you not! He says it smells like puke!

[ellencho]

Some aged cheeses like romano, or parm have sort of a vomity smell. I've noticed that the smell comes out even stronger when the cheese has been heated up in some sort of sauce.

[dant]

I won't have time to make this till the weekend either. The best Moussaka I've had was round the corner from where I live in London, a Greek Cypriot place called Tziakos (pronounced Chackos) It used to be run by a couple of old ladies and had decades of nic-nacs, farm implements, tobacco smoke festooned around the walls and ceiling. The thing to have was mixed metzes for about £8 ($12) There were umpteen delicious courses. The final course was a large piece of kleftico lamb which was usually impossible to actually eat. They were very good about putting it in a take-away container for you to have the next day. Among all these courses was moussaka. It was very solid with straight sides. I don't think there was any cheese in the bechemel sauce. I don't remember potato, just thick cut aubergine that left that metalic colour that aubergine imparts on the bechemel sauce. They didn't make it with raw minced lamb they used cooked lamb chopped up. Probably from all the klefticos people didn't eat.

Once they served one that was a tiny bit mouldy, but it was so damn tasty I just cut the mould off and ate the rest!

Anyway, that's what I'm going to try and reproduce, but without the mould.

[Smithy]

Dant, now you've got me cracking open my Greek cookbook and drooling, and wondering when I can cook some of its other recipes. Your description sounds delicious, so don't disappoint us! My cookbook, by the way, is "Classic Greek Cooking", 1974, and it lists three recipes for moussaka: Eggplant Moussaka, Zucchini Moussaka (just a variation on the eggplant) and Beef and Potato Moussaka. I have to wonder why it took me so darned long to clue in that moussaka is just a layered baked dish.

I noted in an edit to a previous post, but I'll say it again here, that this book calls for Parmesan cheese in its moussaka sauces. I hadn't remembered that. I wonder why my other cookbooks call for cheddar? I still think it's pretty much up to the cook.

[dant]

Quick question??? How many of youall slice, salt, then rise and drain your eggies?

... I also only buy what I've been told were male eggplants (no indentation at the base) bc they supposedly have fewer seeds. Anecdotal evidence, always tricky, bears out the effectiveness of these two techniques, but I'd be interested to know what people think.

Shouldn't male aubergines contain NO seeds??

[mizducky]

The quest for ground lamb continues. I came close two different times today, but as they say, "close" only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. At least I'm getting to explore some interesting stores I had not checked out previously. Rather than burden this topic with the details of these slightly off-topic adventures, I think I'll start a whole other topic in the California forum or something. But suffice it to say here: one of the shops actually yielded up a packet of that seven-spice mixture featured in Rachel Perlow's recipe; and the other place, a for-reals butcher shop, said they'd have some freshly-ground lamb in tomorrow. So I am closing in on my prey ...

Yeah, I know I can make this dish with ground beef. But where's the fun in that? Besides, by this point my Quest for Lamb has taken on the aura of a Sacred Food-Geek Mission! I shall not be denied!! I shall yet succeed in making my neighborhood safe for lovers of fresh-ground lamb everywhere!!!

[Susan in FL]

The quest for ground lamb continues. I came close two different times today, but as they say, "close" only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. At least I'm getting to explore some interesting stores I had not checked out previously. Rather than burden this topic with the details of these slightly off-topic adventures, I think I'll start a whole other topic in the California forum or something. But suffice it to say here: one of the shops actually yielded up a packet of that seven-spice mixture featured in Rachel Perlow's recipe; and the other place, a for-reals butcher shop, said they'd have some freshly-ground lamb in tomorrow. So I am closing in on my prey ...

Yeah, I know I can make this dish with ground beef. But where's the fun in that? Besides, by this point my Quest for Lamb has taken on the aura of a Sacred Food-Geek Mission! I shall not be denied!! I shall yet succeed in making my neighborhood safe for lovers of fresh-ground lamb everywhere!!!

You go girl, we are behind you all the way!
(I love your attitude!)

[purplewiz]

'The Smoked Joint', a BBQ place in Philly which has been gettings lots of attention on the local eG board lately, serves up a smoked eggplant babbaganoush as one of their apps.  I'm wondering if I could do a smokey Moussaka somehow.

When I'm doing moussaka or "eggplant lasagna", I tend to lightly oil my eggplant and then cook them outside on the grill. While it doesn't have that true smoked flavor of smoked meats, it does pick up that unmistakable grilled/smoked flavor. It's my favorite way of precooking eggplant, and if I get my act together and join in this cookoff, it's how I'm going to be doing the eggplant.

Marcia.

[suzilightning]

moussaka for dinner tonight - and john enjoyed it.

a mix of the Recipezaar and rosemary barron recipes heavily modified since johnnybird will not eat lamb and i don't care for aubergines.


2 small zucchini sliced on the bias
2 russet potatoes boiled with the skins on

meat layer
olive oil
1 chopped onion
4 cloves garlic sliced
1 lb ground buffalo
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1 1/2 Tbsp oregano
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 tomato peeled and chopped
1 1/2 cups beef broth
salt and pepper

topping
2 1/3 Tbsp butter
2 1/3 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
white pepper

scrub the potatoes and then boil for 30 minutes in the jackets. drain, run under cold water then set aside.

saute the onions in the olive oil. add garlic then meat. cook till no longer red

add the spices and cook about 1 minute. add tomato paste, beef broth, tomato and salt and pepper. bring to a boil then turn down and simmer for 30-45 minutes.

turn oven to 350F.

grease a casserole dish. peel potatoes and thinly slice. place in casserole dish. sprinkle lightly with salt. top with meat layer. top with the zucchini.

make bechemel by melting butter, add flour and cook, stirring for one minute. stir milkin and cook on medium until thick. add nutmeg. remove from heat and stir in eggs then cheese. add white pepper to taste.

bake for one hour, rotating halfway through.


we served with a radish and cucumber salad

[suzilightning]

The quest for ground lamb continues. I came close two different times today, but as they say, "close" only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. At least I'm getting to explore some interesting stores I had not checked out previously. Rather than burden this topic with the details of these slightly off-topic adventures, I think I'll start a whole other topic in the California forum or something. But suffice it to say here: one of the shops actually yielded up a packet of that seven-spice mixture featured in Rachel Perlow's recipe; and the other place, a for-reals butcher shop, said they'd have some freshly-ground lamb in tomorrow. So I am closing in on my prey ...

Yeah, I know I can make this dish with ground beef. But where's the fun in that? Besides, by this point my Quest for Lamb has taken on the aura of a Sacred Food-Geek Mission! I shall not be denied!! I shall yet succeed in making my neighborhood safe for lovers of fresh-ground lamb everywhere!!!

miz- wish i could send you some(especially since the johnnybird won't eat it and he's around for a bit now ). i'm lucky to have a local butcher (open weds-sat to the public) who will freshly grind whatever lamb i need - happily and with a big smile.... guess that makes up for the freakin traffic around here - and trying to get in or out of their parking lot.

[Smithy]

Shouldn't male aubergines contain NO seeds??

The whole male/female aubergine business was debunked upthread. Still, people are flailing around to find some way to distinguish between what seems to be two different geometries of the large eggplant we find in the U.S. Innies vs. outies?

[Smithy]

The quest for ground lamb continues. I came close two different times today, but as they say, "close" only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Don't forget dancing.

[torakris]

I am going to have to put this cook-off (and future ones) on hold for quite a while.
I tripped over a toy yesterday and managed to fracture my left foot. I am completely off my feet for one week until the swelling goes down and a full cast can be put on. The 2 to 3 months I am in the last I will have limited mobility and probably not spending a lot of time in the kitchen.....

I will be reading along though!

[helenjp]

Didn't you pay attention to the Japan Times cartoon over the weekend that showed an overtime-benumbed worker treading on his son's legos like a mountain ascetic firewalker????

A pity you didn't have more fun (skiing, dancing, etc.) while fracturing your foot, but hope you enjoy your enforced reading time.

We made more than enough Moussaka the other day to count for your share too .

Possibly eGullet could arrange international shipments of Dan Tarts for you to assess while you're unable to bake your own?

[mizducky]

I am going to have to put this cook-off (and future ones) on hold for quite a while.
I tripped over a toy yesterday and managed to fracture my left foot. I am completely off my feet for one week until the swelling goes down and a full cast can be put on. The 2 to 3 months I am in the last I will have limited mobility and probably not spending a lot of time in the kitchen.....

Ow! Sounds like something I would do! And in fact, I did do something a little like it a couple weekends ago (only over an adult-musician toy rather than a children's toy), and still have the black-and-blue marks on my right knee to prove it. So I really mean it, torakris, when I say I feel your pain. Get well soon, hear?

Meanwhile, my Quest for Lamb has finally achieved its goal--courtesy of the butcher shop that yesterday promised me it would have the goods today. Cost me somthing like $6.98 for a pound. Probably won't get a chance to perpetrate moussaka until tomorrow night, but it feels good to have the ingredient-collection phase complete.

[mizducky]

Heh. Change of plans. Moussaka happened tonight after all.

My starting point was Rachel Perlow's recipe in RecipeGullet (thanks, Rachel!). Changes I made:
--halved the recipe as I'm basically just cooking for myself
--used all lamb, because I looooooove lamb so (and the darn stuff was so bleepin' hard to get! )
--because I was feeling a little lazy, I didn't do the eggplant cutlets. Instead I did the salting/weighting/purging routine with the raw eggplant slices, then greased them up with some olive oil, laid them out on oiled cookie sheets, and baked them as they were, in a 350 deg F oven for about a half-hour.
--didn't have any decent wine of any sort in the house, so omitted that.
--used a couple of big russet potatoes instead of little white potatoes, partly because that's what I had in the house, partly because I like how the starchy russets kinda weld together when casseroled in a layer.
--my bechamel tightened up a whole lot after I added the egg yolk and parmesan, so just before I was to pour it on I stirred in a couple spoonfuls of plain water to get it loose enough to pour.

Some pix:

The dish resting after just emerging from the oven.


Note the elegant plating! At this point in the evening, I was into "snarf food while at the computer" mode.

I think it came out pretty darned tasty, if I do say so myself. And I'm glad I did follow through on my lamb obsession--I can really taste it all the way through.

(An aside to Rachel: I think your recipe in RecipeGullet is missing its last step--how long to bake the moussaka and at what temp. I assumed 350 deg F for one hour. Worked for me.)

[Rachel Perlow]

--because I was feeling a little lazy, I didn't do the eggplant cutlets. Instead I did the salting/weighting/purging routine with the raw eggplant slices, then greased them up with some olive oil, laid them out on oiled cookie sheets, and baked them as they were, in a 350 deg F oven for about a half-hour.
....
(An aside to Rachel: I think your recipe in RecipeGullet is missing its last step--how long to bake the moussaka and at what temp. I assumed 350 deg F for one hour. Worked for me.)

Oops, thanks I'll edit it.

See, what you did to the eggplant seems to take just as much effort to me. The eggplant I used this week was quite sweet, so if you want to just skip the breading that's fine. Just brushing them with oil and baking sounds good to me too -- just add more cheese to the sauce and maybe sprinkle some bread crumbs into the layers.

[mizducky]

--because I was feeling a little lazy, I didn't do the eggplant cutlets. Instead I did the salting/weighting/purging routine with the raw eggplant slices, then greased them up with some olive oil, laid them out on oiled cookie sheets, and baked them as they were, in a 350 deg F oven for about a half-hour.
....
(An aside to Rachel: I think your recipe in RecipeGullet is missing its last step--how long to bake the moussaka and at what temp. I assumed 350 deg F for one hour. Worked for me.)

Oops, thanks I'll edit it.

See, what you did to the eggplant seems to take just as much effort to me. The eggplant I used this week was quite sweet, so if you want to just skip the breading that's fine. Just brushing them with oil and baking sounds good to me too -- just add more cheese to the sauce and maybe sprinkle some bread crumbs into the layers.

Yeah, I think you're right with the equal effort thang. I think it's just sorta psychological with me--I seem to have some kind of mental block that breading stuff is labor-intensive. Plus, I've done the eggplant-salting routine so many times I can practically do it in my sleep. I'll get over it one of these days, I'm sure.

[kanljung]

Yesterday evening I made the moussaka. I didn't fivert too far away from the Claudia Roden recipe that I used.

The meat filling consisted of 100% ground lamb, onions, tomato puree, a couple of chopped canned tomatoes, allspice, cinnamon and parsley.

I used both eggplants and potatoes. I didn't do the eggplant salting routine, as I never do nowadays, so I just sliced the eggplants and fried them in oil. The potato slices were also fried briefly in oil.

Between each layer I sprinkled some grated cheese. I had no luck in finding the kefalotiri cheese so I settled for a really great tasting pecorino (not romano though).

The layers were: eggplant, meat, potatoes, meat, eggplant, meat and potatoes. Then some bechamel were poured over the top layer. The recipe suggested using eggs in the bechamel but I omitted these. At last I sprinkled some more pecorino over the bechamel.

The moussaka was then put in the lower half of the oven for 40 minutes at 350 deg F.


The moussaka just after it has been reheated for lunch today. Served together with the tiny amount of non-wilted lettuce that I could find at home.

The whole family was very happy with the result and I'm sure that moussaka will make regular apperances at our dinner table in the future.

[Dana]

I made a moussaka this afternoon, and it was really good. It spent too long in the oven (a friend stopped by that we hadn't seen in a long time) and the potatoes lost some of their toothsomeness, but the overall flavor was fine. I added some Penzeys Greek seasoning - about 5 shakes - along with 2 shakes of cinnamon and parlsey and red wine to season the meat. (I used 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 ground pork. We are not lamb lovers). I didn't use any bread crumbs, but did pre-cook the eggplant in the oven. There was just a little juice in the bottom of the casserole that I'm sure the bread crumbs would have taken care of, but it wasn't really a problem. Moussaka will assume a spot in the food rotation at our house!!

[TongoRad]

I did mine on Thursday and it came off quite well. The version I was trying to copy did not utilize pre-cooked veggies (eggplant and zucchini) but has them thinly sliced on a mandoline. As my thoughts evolved on the matter I came to the conclusion that the restaurant in question probably blanches these slices so that they can assemble their moussaka to order, in individual servings, and then just pops everything under a broiler. Nevertheless, I decided I would stick with a large casserole and see what happened.

I placed about 4 layers of zucchini (tossed with olive oil and salt) on the bottom with a sprinkling of bread crumbs. The meat mixture went on top of that, then about 5 to 6 layers of eggplant. I covered that with the bechamel topping and baked for an hour.

What I didn't like was that the zucchini seemed to be a non-entity, and cooked too long to boot. What I did like was how the eggplant was cooked but still retained a bit of texture and had a 'straightforward' eggplant flavor (for lack of a better term.) Overall I liked it a lot and so did my wife- we both finished it the next day for lunch. She has already asked me to do it again soon, only this time with potatoes on the bottom (she is, of course, the 'idea man' in the family. I should listen to her more often.)

[mizducky]

What I didn't like was that the zucchini seemed to be a non-entity, and cooked too long to boot. What I did like was how the eggplant was cooked but still retained a bit of texture and had a 'straightforward' eggplant flavor (for lack of a better term.) Overall I liked it a lot and so did my wife- we both finished it the next day for lunch. She has already asked me to do it again soon, only this time with potatoes on the bottom (she is, of course, the 'idea man' in the family. I should listen to her more often.)

Yeah, I do think the potato layer on the bottom provides some stable foundation for the rest of the moussaka, especially when dishing out individual portions.

[Chris Amirault]

Time for cook-off eight: PIZZA.

[Susan in FL]

I did the deed last night. I used one of the recipes that Jason linked in the beginning of this thread as a guide, this one from Recipe Zaar. I made a few changes to give it my style, including substituting zucchini for eggplant. It was very good; however, I will kick it up a notch with herbs and/or spices if I make this again. I might have been proportionally off, too... The potatoes I used were big, and I would prefer more lamb than one pound.
With the moussaka we had a good Greek salad and very good pita bread made by Pasha Middle East Cafe in Daytona Beach.
Overall, this was a great project. Mmmm-mmm good comfort food.

Out of the oven:


Cutting/serving portions:


The table:

[Behemoth]

I've very late to the game here, but I tried a little experiment. I am not usually a huge fan of mousakka, I find it a little too heavy. So I gave it a Lebanese twist: instead of bechamel, I used a thickened yogurt sauce. It came out very well! Here is the smaller of the two pans, the other was still in the oven and we were getting very hungry:



(No real recipe: I used ground beef in the red sauce because that's what I had. I think it would be even better with lamb.) I loved chufi's idea of doing individual eggplant halves. I went the light route and baked the eggplant cut side down on an oiled pan for about 20 minutes. The white sauce was a little sauteed garlic & parsley, yogurt thickened with an egg to keep it from curdling, topped finally with some goat cheese and a little parmesan. I was really very surprised at how well it came out

Next up, pizza.

Edited by Behemoth, 30 April 2005 - 07:31 PM.

[purplewiz]

I'm only a *little* late to this party - I've had the ingredients, but not the weather, since I wanted to grill my eggplant outside! But I found a moment between the rain/snow/wintery mix, and finally got it together. This recipe is my variation on a recipe I got from a friend, who got it from another friend who got it from a newspaper, so I doubt this is even approaching "authentic", but I like it a lot.



I peeled the eggplant before slicing and grilling because my spousal unit doesn't like eggplant skin. I like its chewiness, but the grill gives a similar effect along with a very nice grilled/smoky flavor. I also like grilling because I can use less oil - I like oil, but only so much.



The finished dish. The top is a stiff bechamel (a little more flour added), a beaten egg tempered in, and 1/2 cup parmesan. The seasonings in the tomato/ground meat mixture (I used beef but I've used lamb when it was on sale) are cinnamon, nutmeg, and red wine.



As served, marinated vegetable salad on the side.

Marcia.

[Chufi]

So I gave it a Lebanese twist: instead of bechamel, I used a thickened yogurt sauce. It came out very well!

what a great idea, I can imagine the tangy joghurt working very well and making it much lighter. Will have to try that!

[M. Lucia]

Just wanted to add that my understanding was that the bechamel only appeared on top of Greek moussaka after the 1950's, before that the lighter yogurt sauce was preferred.
The old recipe I have is just yogurt, eggs, pinch of flour, seasonings.
You can also make it with just yogurt, like this recipe I found.

[Behemoth]

Just wanted to add that my understanding was that the bechamel only appeared on top of Greek moussaka after the 1950's, before that the lighter yogurt sauce was preferred.
The old recipe I have is just yogurt, eggs, pinch of flour, seasonings.
You can also make it with just yogurt, like this recipe I found.

Oh cool, that recipe is pretty similar to what I did. I guess if you live around the mediterranean long enough the food instinct is just in the air. It seemed like such a natural substitution

[Adam Balic]

More papoutsakia from Rosemary Barron's "Flavours of Greece". Recipe altered to suit taste and what was in the house. Half pork, half beef, onions, celery, carrot, ham and tomato, flavoured with honey, cinnamon, allspice and oregano.



A really good tip from this book is to mix the white sauce with an egg yolk and then fold in the whipped egg white, this gives a much lighter topping. White sauce was flavoured with bay leaf, nutmeg, aged gouda and some Irish brie style cheese.