Taste of Summer

 Recently I cooked MOUSSAKA, the traditional summer dish of Greece

 It uses the most prolific of summer vegetables, tomatoes, aubergines (eggplant) and zucchini (courgettes).  If you don't want the minced beef you can leave that out and make a fresh tomato sauce instead.  But you'll miss out on that rich taste explosion. 

It's a dish most tourists have heard of even if they haven't eaten it.  There's no offal in it, no sheep's eyes, nothing unrecognisable.  Moussaka along with kalamari, tzatziki, greek salad and stuffed tomatoes are on every traditional taverna menu

  Concocted of layers of fried zucchini and aubergine (eggplant), topped off with stewed minced beef and tomato (a sort of bolognese sauce ), grated nutmeg and a bechamel (white sauce), then baked in the oven till golden brown.

It's best warm, rich and  creamy but can be eaten straight from the fridge the next day and the day after that till it's all gone.  I make moussaka a couple of times during the summer.  It's quite a business preparing all those layers but worth it every time.

In recent years I baked the zucchini and aubergine slices instead of frying them in olive oil and filled it out with another layer of finely sliced boiled potato.

Not this time, by gosh.  Olive oil is at the top of my dietary list.  I fried those zucchini and aubergine till soft and golden and left out the potato all together.

It's traditional to fry them and I'm quite happy, now, to follow that fine original recipe.  These can be prepared the night before and the mince meat stewed with fresh grated tomatoes and grated nutmeg, or a stick of cinnamon.  Next day the layering is easy and only the bechamel (or cheese sauce) has to be cooked from scratch.

Half your dishes have been washed the night before and you don't break your back leaning over the frying pan.

You do need a deep dish so it doesn't bubble over when cooking.  If you want to cut perfect pieces then it has to be left to cool.  Why bother.  It's wonderful straight out of the oven as it flops all over your plate.

This post is Dedicated to All my Visitors 

Who over the years have enjoyed my moussaka and gone home to cook their own

My first dedication is to

(Debbie's) Mark

Who enjoyed all K's Greek food so much and ate my big baking dish of moussaka for days till every morsel was finished.  

Along with neices

Katy and

Katherine 

Who ate whatever was put in front of them, then went back to Australia and New Zealand and made their own moussaka and stuffed tomatoes and tzatziki and even  Mayeritsa, the Easter offal soup.

Special mention to Sam who K taught to spit roast the easter offal, and nephew Craig. K has great difficulty saying Craig's name so he just calls him 'Kiwi Man'.  Everyone else called him Greg.

 A huge wave to niece  Niki  and her Mum who cook superbe Greek 

Finally a special mention goes to Niki's Serbian f-in-law

Who makes his own glorious moussaka

Not that I've tried any of their back home cooking. And I probably won't . If I ever do go back I'll be eating fish n chips, meat pies and custard slices. I won't be eating Greek in NZ!!