Good Greek Eats!!!

Hello my fellow foodies!! I apologize in the delay of my blog posts. Life has been incredibly busy and I've also been under the weather. But FINALLY I am able to post some of the creations I've been making :) For the first in this series of posts, I'll talk about the Greek dinner I made. Moussaka and traditional greek salad.

Moussaka:
3 eggplants (two if your using the large ones) cut lengthwise into 1/2" slices
salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp butter
ground black pepper
2 small onions, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp (total) of oregano, thyme, rosemary and sage
2 tbsp dried parsley
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1/2 cup red wine
1 egg, beaten

sauce:
4 cups milk
1/2 cup butter (reduced from the original recipe)
6 tbsp flour (I used amaranth flour for the gluten free part)
salt and pepper

1 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/8 tsp nutmeg (omitted)

Place eggplant slices on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt. let dry 30 minutes and then broil in oven until they are lightly browned on both sides. Set aside.

In a large skillet brown the ground beef, and then add salt, pepper, onion, garlic during the browning process. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg, herbs and parsley. Combine well. Pour in tomato sauce and wine. Simmer for 20 minutes. Allow to cool and stir in the egg. Set aside.

To make the beschamel sauce: the initial recipe says to scald the milk. I don't know what that means so I skipped that step.
Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. Reduce heat, and gradually pour in the milk whisking constantly until the sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

Arrange a layer of eggplant in a greased 9X13 baking dish. Cover eggplant with all the meat mixture and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. Cover with remaining eggplant and sprinkle with 1/2 cup parmesan. Pour the beschamel sauce over the cheese, sprinkle with nutmeg (optional) and the remaining parmesan cheese.

Bake in preheated oven at 350 for 1 hour (I baked an additional 5 minutes).

I highly recommend letting it sit for about 10 minutes before serving as it is quite runny coming out of the oven. I made the mistake of cutting into it right off the bat and ending up with a meaty-eggplanty stew instead of a well formed piece of Moussaka. That being said, it was still quite delicious.

Now onto the salad (nice and simple to make!)

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tomatoes
1/4 red onion, sliced
1/2 cucumber ( I used a whole cucumber)
1/2 green onion (I omitted)
feta cheese
kalamata olives

put olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, peppers and oregano into a jar and shake well. Combine all the other ingredients in a large bowl, pour in dressing. Toss and serve.

I LOVED the salad. It tasted so light and healthy, and I had enough for a few days. It kept very well as there was no lettuce to get soggy.
I got both of these recipes from epicurious, but altered them a little bit for my liking. I hope you enjoy them!!! I will post pictures up once I get them off my phone :) My next post will be Moroccan Chicken!!

Thanks for reading and happy cooking! :)