Classic Delights
It's the end of July, of a very tough and different year. You need a break from whatever intellectual stuff you are doing in your life, so you decide to visit Greece. Will you spend your time on one of the famous islands? One of the underrated islands? Maybe the mainland? Doesn't matter, cause you will come across these classic dishes wherever you go.
Greek Salad
aka Horiatiki
Honestly this is pretty straight forward, you just have to make sure your ingredients are top notch quality. And this can only be made with Feta cheese. None of those "white cheese" bs. F E T A.
Ingredients
Feta cheese
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Oregano
Salt
Vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Did I forget to buy olives and onions? Yes. Yes I did. Yes I should be shamed for that, thank you.
So yeah you just chop the veggies up, sprinkle with regano, salt, vinegar and olive oil and voila.
Fried Feta with Honey
Another classic. I must say, I had never made such a thing before, so I was very happy to see that it tuned out very delicious. I am not joking, I only managed to eat half of a piece cause everything was gone by the evening.
Ingredients
4 pieces of Feta cheese cut in squares 1cm in thiccness
2 sheets of filo dough (specifically horiatiko filo)
1 egg white
2 tea spoons of sesame seeds
Some good quality authentic greek honey
Some olive oil
First I cut the filo sheets in 2 so i would end up with 4 pieces (one for each feta piece). Then I wrapped each feta piece with a filo and used the egg white to make eveything stick together. It's very important they are wrapped tightly so that they don't open during the frying!
Then the secret step is to wrap each piece in plastic warp and leave them in the freezer for an hour before frying. This will ensure that the feta doesn't melt later!
While I waited I put the sesame seeds in the frying pan (without any oil) to brown a bit. Then I did the macarena for the remainder of the hour.
When the lil feta packets have had the chilly time, I heated up the olive oil in the pan on a medium fire (don't let it smoke!!) and dumped them in one by one, leaving each side to take a nice deep honey color, for about 30''.
Then I sprinkled the sesame seeds and the top notch honey.
Very good I recommend.
Moussaka
Ah yes. Probably the dish everyone thinks of when you mention Greek cuisine (Even tho it's origins are apparently Egyptian but let's ignore that). It is one of our national dishes after all (the other being bean soup aka fasolada).
This dish caused me
pain. Pain I say. Took me 3 whole hours. But it turned out so good I cried when I tasted it. Was so proud of myself
Anyway, get ready.
Ingredients
3 potatoes
1 onion
2 zucchinis
2 aubergines
Thyme
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
For the minced meat
1 onion
1 garlic clove
3 pinches of sugar
1/2 tea spoons of nutmeg
1 tea spoon cinnamon
1 table spoon tomato paste
500g of minced meat (beef? lamb? idk and idc tbh)
400g of cut canned tomato (idk if you have a specific name for this)
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
For the Béchamel sauce
100g butter
100g all purpose flour
750ml milk (room temperature!!!!)
Pepper
1 pinch of nutmeg
100g parmesan cheese (or whatever really)
3 egg yolks
*Deep breath*
I started with making the minced meat. First I cut the onion and put it in a deep pan along with the garlic and olive oil (ofc). After a few I added the sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and tomato paste. I let all the ingredients there to get some color, while stirring. Then added the minced meat, and stirred until that got a nice color as well. After that I poured in the canned tomato and some water and let it sit for about 45 mins while stirring from time to time. You know it's ready when most of the water has been absorbed.
Time to prepare the veggies. This was the most tiring process.
I cut the potatoes at about 1cm thickness, and added them in a hot pan with some olive oil until they got a nice color.
Same thing with the zucchinis, aubergines and onion (that last one was chopped normally, not 1cm thickness lol).
After all those are ready, time to assemble the first layers.
Cover the base of a deep uuuuh whatever you call the huge ass plate things that go in the oven....yeah cover the base with potatoes, sprinkle some thyme, salt and pepper. Then add the onion.
After those add a layer of zucchunis, with thyme, salt and pepper. Same with the aubergines.
Béchamel sauce time. Now here I admit I asked my mom's help cause it's so easy to mess this sauce up if you have never made it before (which I had not).
In a little pan over a small fire we added the butter, and once that melted, the flour and we whisk (with a wish duh).
After, we slowly add the milk.
Slowly. And whisk whisk whisk. Once it starts bubbling it's ready! Should be silky smooth.
We removed it from the fire and added salt, pepper, nutmeg, parmesan and and egg yolks.
Assembly time!!
We added 200g of the béchamel sauce in the minced meat, along with more salt and pepper and then poured it over our veggie layers. And finally, for the last layer we poured the béchamel sauce over everything and sprinkled with more parmesan cheese!!!
Now pop that baby in the oven for like 45 mins (maybe more), until it becomes golden!
After than, let it cool for at least an hour before cutting into it, or else it will fall apart.
Anyway, that's all. Thank you for reading my rambling, I'm not even gonna proof read this before posting it i'm too tired lol.
Have a good [insert time zone appropriate greeting] and
Καλή όρεξη!
Let sit for a few minutes then dig in. It should be really crumbly, I would recommend putting it in a small bowl or ramekin, as shown below. Enjoy with ice cream, whipped cream, or with some powdered sugar and milk like I did. The finished product should be refrigerated and is well enjoyed cold or warmed up. I would recommend eating within a week or freeze it.
