Moussaka Macaroni and Cheese

We’re big fans of Greek food, a cuisine drawing from the influences of both the ancients and the Ottoman empire.

Mediterranean fare is generally fresh and healthful, and makes liberal use of seasonal vegetables, seafood and olives. But, when we’re in the mood for an indulgence, we always find ourselves reaching for the creamy richness of moussaka.

Perhaps the most widely recognized of all Greek dishes, moussaka is a casserole made by layering eggplant with a spiced meat filling, then topping it off with a creamy béchamel sauce that is baked to golden perfection.

This mac n’ cheese mimics the flavors of the classic dish by layering cheesy pasta with a sauce made from ground lamb, diced eggplant, and fragrant spices. A creamy béchamel unites the layers and enhances the richness of the dish.

We use Wisconsin Fontina in place of the less common Kefalograviera for its creaminess and flavor, along with Wisconsin cow’s milk Feta, which pulls in the briny, tangy notes commonly found in traditional Mediterranean fare.

Don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients. This dish comes together fairly quickly, and offers you the opportunity to enjoy a glass or two of Greek Ouzo while it’s baking. The eggplant lamb mixture can be made a day ahead to save time.

Moussaka Macaroni & Cheese
Check out this recipe, and a host of other delicious takes on macaroni and cheese over at 30 Days and 30 Ways with Macaroni & Cheese.  And don't forget to enter their Mac & Cheese Please! giveaway to win a copy of Laura Werlin's awesome mac & cheese book. -- enter before March 1st!

©BURP!

Grilled Eggplant with Buttery Herbed Breadcrumbs

  Ah! Summer bounty. There’s no thrill quite like visiting the farmer’s market at the peak of the season and filling up our bags and baskets with the best that summer has to offer.

Lately, we've been enjoying the bounty of summer greens, corn, green beans, tomatoes, and eggplant. Our refrigerator is always stocked with something fresh and delicious. And that's a pretty awesome feeling.

But sometimes -- even with all that great produce staring us in the face -- we find ourselves at a loss for what to do with them. Fortunately, there are a few techniques that bring new life to even the most ordinary produce. And they won’t require you to spend any extra time in the kitchen.

In a very similar fashion to roasting, grilling summer vegetables caramelizes their sugars and, if you use a charcoal grill, gives them a hint of fantastically smoky flavor. The best part is, it won’t heat up your kitchen on even the hottest of summer days.

Using melted butter instead of oil when grilling helps the vegetables to caramelize deeply, and imparts a wealth of deep rich flavor. Adding a topping of delicious herbed bread crumbs with a touch of lemon perks everything up at the very end and is sure to win over even your most avid vegetable haters. Best of all, even tentative anchovy eaters (like Peef), appreciate the umami that a bit of mashed anchovy adds to the mix.

These grilled eggplant slices are delicious served as part of an antipasti platter or as a delicious summer salad with a bit of sliced tomato and fresh mozzarella cheese.

Of course, eggplant is only the tip of the iceberg. Try sprinkling these buttery herb-infused crumbs over a variety of summer vegetables like summer squash, green beans, and even kale or other late summer greens.

Grilled Eggplant with Buttery Herbed Breadcrumbs

©BURP! Where Food Happens

Greek Feast: NYE 2010

My goodness, how time flies. Here we are -- three whole days into the new year already and I think I just started to get hungry again after all that New Year's Feasting...

Seriously. I'm barely kidding.

If you've been paying close attention to our habits over the years, you may have noticed that it's tradition for us to celebrate New Year's Eve at home in the company of our good friend Steph. It's customary for us to get together the week before Christmas to choose a theme for our celebration. And then we spend the days before New Year's gathering up a slew of great looking recipes to challenge us in the kitchen. Last year, we cooked up an amazing Asian feast that took us almost three whole days to consume.

This year, we were inspired by an issue of Saveur magazine that featured a number of Greek small plates.  So, we decided to pull out all the stops on an amazing Mediterranean theme.

Oddly enough, even the weather cooperated with our concept.  You probably won't believe me, but I've got to get it on record that it was 55 degrees here in Milwaukee on New Year's Eve Day.  Um... yeah.  Absolutely balmy. For those of you who aren't familiar with Wisconsin weather, it's pretty unbelievable to get above 30 degrees in late December, so fifty was a pretty nice treat.  Although it was a little bit rainy, we spent part of the morning outside sipping wine next to the grill while our eggplant and peppers blackened. 

We took the smoky vegetables, peeled away the burnt skin and then pureed them with jalapeno peppers, garlic, and plenty of fresh parsley to make Melintzanosalata, an amazingly spicy smoky eggplant dip.   We also pulled together some Tzatziki and a batch of garlicky Skordalia (which we made with walnuts, instead of the more traditional almonds).

The dips were amazing served with crudites (mostly sliced fresh fennel, in our case) and crackers, but they also made great toppings for the Laganes (Greek flatbreads) we prepared.

For our first round of small plates, we made deliciously herbal Dolmades, which were the perfect complement to the minty & garlicky tzatziki.

 And we loved the Garides Saganaki (shrimp with tomatoes & feta) -- which was not only delicious on its own, but perfect scooped up into the Laganes.

We took frequent breaks to play Trivial Pursuit, as well as this year's newest board game acquisition, Smart Ass (which turned out to be a seriously fun time, despite its awkwardly large dice & strangely small game pieces).

And when we'd get hungry again, we'd go back into the kitchen and whip up amazing little snacks like Piperies Gemistes me Feta (peppers stuffed with feta).  After oohing and aahhing over the dish, we'd go back to playing games for a while... until we got a hankering for our next dish.

It took a while, but we managed to get through almost every one of the recipes we'd chosen -- including delicious lamb meatballs with feta, oregano, & garlic...

Fried calimari... which was amazing when paired with the smoky eggplant dip...

And our perennial New Year's Eve favorite, Spanikopita -- which has become such a staple, we don't even bother using a recipe anymore.  This year's spinach pies were flaky and bursting at the seams with spinach, scallions, dill and garlic. 

We made a particularly large batch, but it wasn't a problem at all since we were delighted to have leftovers to eat for lunch on New Year's Day.

When we tired of cooking, we settled in with our flat-bread and dips, chatting animatedly as we sipped refreshing glasses of iced ouzo and nibbled on olives & pomegranate seeds.  The hours and minutes remaining in 2010 slipped away almost effortlessly -- as time tends to do when we're eating & drinking with good friends.


What did you do for NYE this year?



©BURP! Where Food Happens
Want more? Read Lo's latest ruminations at FOODCrush, her Milwaukee Magazine blog.

Chicken Caccia-touille

Eggplant and zucchini both come around during the heat of summer when long, slow cooking is pretty much out of the question. In most cases, I'm doing all I can to avoid heating up the kitchen unnecessarily. But, sometimes I've got to make an exception.

The trip to the farmer's market this week produced a bumper crop of great stuff, including a few delicious "eight ball" zucchini, and one of my very favorite summer delicacies -- fairytale eggplants.

These purple beauties are not only cute as a button (measuring an inch or two long, and about 1/2 inch at their widest point), but they cook up like butter. One of my favorite things to do is to pop their stems off and roast (or grill) them.

In this particular case, we were experiencing a bit of a break from the summer heat. And I was brainstorming how to use some of the farmer's market vegetables in conjunction with some chicken pieces I had thawing in the refrigerator. I was craving comfort food, and I happened to have a couple of sweet peppers available out of my own garden, so my first impulse was to make a cacciatore. But, a better plan seemed to be to take the zucchini and eggplant and throw them together into a summer ratatouille.

The more I thought about it, the more I wondered what it would be like if I simply combined the two recipes into something completely different.

So, I took the vegetables and roasted them up nice and tender. And I threw together a chunky tomato sauce, fortified with sweet peppers, onions, and a liberal dose of red wine. Add to that a bit of herbs de provence (central to a good ratatouille)... and put the chicken on to simmer. When the chicken was tender, I tossed the reduced sauce with the roasted vegetables and called it dinner.

The resulting dish was far better than the sum of its parts. Succulent stewed chicken, tender-crisp summer vegetables, and a sauce riddled with wine and herbs.

This caccia-touille was one of the best things we've tasted in a very long time.

And we'll share. Cuz we're nice people that way!
Chicken Caccia-touille



©BURP! Where Food Happens

Left-Mex: Grilled Vegetable Enchiladas

I never mind when there are leftover grilled vegetables in the refrigerator. To me, they always portend something wonderful in the making.

This week, the grilled veggies included zucchini, eggplant, onions, peppers, and corn.
The something wonderful, as you will soon see, is enchiladas.

Now, don't go getting on my case here. I know that these are a fairly big departure from anything truly authentic. But, I also don't care. Because they're downright delicious.

First, we chopped up the vegetables. Not too finely -- but enough that they'd behave properly when wrapped. Then, we tossed them with a bit of chipotle powder and a hint of salt. Now, I understand that this looks like a veritable mess right now. But, trust me. Eventually it turns into something wonderful.
On this particular day, we had some hand-thrown flour tortillas in the fridge. So, those served as the base for our enchiladas. We took approximately 1/2 cup of the seasoned, chopped vegetables and threw them on top of each tortilla... rolling them up into snug little packets.
Which we threw into a pan that had been generously lined with enchilada sauce.
When we're not making our own sauce, we like this particular variety from Trader Joe's. It's afforable, tasty, and (most importantly) chile-based. We are NOT big fans of tomato-based enchilada sauces at our house. So, we take great pains to avoid them.
Once we filled all the enchiladas (in this case, we had enough filling for about 10 tortillas), we poured the remaining sauce over the top. Just look at how those babies glisten in the sun (that's very important)!
You'll note that, in a rare effort to be health conscious, we didn't put any cheese inside the enchiladas. Well, dont' be deceived. We just saved it all for the top.
After popping them in a 350ºF oven for about 20-25 minutes, they were transformed into a very lovely thing (or 10 very lovely things, if you want to get technical).
After the margarita I drank while putting together the enchiladas, my photography skills (what few I have) went down the drain, so you'll excuse this humble composition. It does showcase the melted cheese nicely, though...



©BURP! Where Food Happens