The ultimate Moussaka

The famous Greek dish has arrived at “When a Greek Cooks”! People in the Netherlands are very familiar with this dish, they even call it “Greek Lasagna” even if it is quite different from that. The sure thing is that they are crazy about it 😀 I have cooked it for birthdays and Sunday family visits and people keep asking me for the recipe. Well, here it is! A traditional Greek recipe, right from my mother’s kitchen, slightly developed by me! If the White Giant Beans recipe requires patience and devotion, this one asks for much more! But this doesn’t mean it is super difficult. You just need to get used to the mess it creates – with all those pans everywhere – and the fact that it is quite time consuming. With practice you do become better! For further questions or advice, please leave a comment below! I am curious over your results 🙂

Equipment: oven dish, medium saucepan, 2 large baking pans, parchment paper, frying pan
Prep time: 20 min, Cooking Time: 2 hours, Total Time: approximately 2,5 hours. Serves up to 8-10 people

Ingredients
2 eggplants cut in slices
4-5 potatoes cut in slices
400gr minced meat (beef)
1 big onion, in cubes
2 medium tomatoes, in cubes
½ cup white wine
3 cloves minced garlic
1 cup tomato juice
salt, pepper, a little bit of cinnamon
olive oil, as much as it takes
feta cheese for serving, optional

for the béchamel
6 tbsp. butter
6 tbsp. flour
2, 5 cups of room temperature milk
2 eggs
nutmeg
Parmesan or Pecorino cheese for extra taste
black pepper & sea salt

Method

Wash the eggplants and peel their skin, but in stripes, so that there is some skin left for extra taste. Cut them in slices of 1 cm and put them in a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with some olive oil, salt and pepper and cook them in a preheated over till soft. Approximately 30 min on 200° C. At around half the time turn the slices so that they are evenly cooked.

Peel the potatoes and cut them also in 1cm slices. Follow the same procedure with the eggplants. If you can put them to cook the same time in the oven, in different pans, you will save considerable time.

Heat some olive oil over medium heat in a medium frying pan. Sauté the onions and stir well till they become soft for about 4-5 min. Add the minced meat to the pan and try to open its chunks, so it will be evenly cooked. Pour in the white wine and stir well till the alcohol is vaporized. Add the tomatoes, the garlic, your spices (cinnamon, salt and pepper) and the tomato sauce. Let it boil for 10-15 min. Check if it needs more salt or pepper.

Take your oven dish and as soon as the vegetables are evenly cooked, start layering. First put the eggplants and then the potatoes on top. Add the cooked minced meat and let it rest.

Time for the béchamel! Take a medium sauce pan and melt the butter over low heat. Put in the flour and stir. Add the milk (on room temperature) and stir fast and steady till smooth and medium thick. If you let it boil by itself, the béchamel will stick to your pan and the flour will not be properly dissolved. If it is too thick, add some more milk. Add some nutmeg, some cheese of your own choice (optional) and some black pepper. Add some more salt if needed. Be careful though, not to add too much, since the rest of the layers also have a considerable amount of salt.

Take the béchamel out of the heat and let it cool down for a bit. Add one by one the eggs, stirring really good after every addition. When the béchamel is smooth pour it on top of the moussaka. Add some grated parmesan or pecorino (kefalotyri cheese is the best option here). Bake for 40 minutes, till the béchamel has turned to a light brown color.

Let it cool and cut in square pieces. Serve with feta cheese.

Enjoy!

Orzo with eggplant and caramelized garlic

I saw the caramelized garlic recipe in the movie Chef (2014) or I think I saw it there or even got inspired from it, and I was craving to actually get my sleeves up and make this happen. Amazingly easy and soooooo suitable with the eggplant, I decided to combine it with some classic cooked orzo (recipe from my dear mother) and voila! You can also keep the garlic in the pan and cook along the eggplant. Either way you will love the result.

Total cooking time: 50 minutes. Serves up to 6 people

Ingredients
for the orzo:
200gr orzo
2 white onions thinly cut
2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup red wine
½ cup tomato juice
water as much as it takes
sea salt
fresh ground pepper

for the eggplant and caramelized garlic:
8 garlic cloves sliced
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 large eggplant
2 tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tbsp olive oil
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
1 tbsp Greek yogurt for garnish

         

Method
cooking the orzo:
On a medium saucepan heat up the olive oil on medium heat and fry the onions for about 5 minutes. Add the orzo and let it shimmer for about 3 minutes. Add the wine and let the alcohol vaporize until you add the tomato juice. Stir good, season freely with salt and pepper and add the water. The trick is to cover the orzo at least one finger high. Let it boil for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly so it will not stick on the pan.

If more water is needed don’t be afraid to add. It will always absorb it. When the orzo is cooked let it stay in the pan with the lid on top. Let is rest until you have finished with the eggplant.

cooking the eggplant + garlic:
On a big frying pan heat up 1 tbsp of the olive oil on medium heat. When it is ready add the sliced garlic and let it be fragrant for about 7-8 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the mustard seeds and let their wonderful taste dissolve with the garlic. Take the garlic out of the pan and let it rest.

Clean the skin of the eggplant and cut it in 1cm cubes. Add the rest of the oil in the pan. Add the eggplant in the pan and stir good. Follow the same procedure with the tomatoes. Add the dried spices (thyme, oregano, basil) and season with salt and pepper. Add some water so the eggplants will not be completely dry. Let it fry for about 10-15 minutes.

Remove from fire and stir in the caramelized garlic. Add the orzo and stir good till all ingredients combine. Add some Greek yogurt on top and serve with some extra thyme.

Enjoy!

Orzo with veal (Greek Traditional)

A favorite traditional Greek dish. This recipe comes partially from my mother’s personal cookbook and her precious advice. So prepare yourselves for a genuine Greek dish! You can find many variations of it, you can cook it on the stove in a big cooking pan and divide it in clay dishes to finish it in the oven. Or you can just follow my oven version. If you can’t find veal, use any kind of meat suitable for stew. You can finish it with Parmesan cheese, feta or goat cheese like me. Whatever you do don’t forget to enjoy this delicious and classic combination of fresh veal meat and orzo pasta. You will love it.

When it comes to the proportions, be careful not to let the meat be dry on the pan but also not to put too much water. When you will combine the orzo and the meat in the clay oven dish you will have to add some water so the orzo can cook. If your meat has some juice left this is always good. The extra juice of the meat always gives some extra moisture that the orzo needs. Don’t forget to always add for every cup of orzo 2 cups of water (so 1 to 2) and then it will always work out.

Time Needed: 1, 30 hour, Serves up to 4 people

Ingredients
200gr orzo pasta
400gr veal meat cut in square pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
½ cup of olive oil
½ cup or red wine
80gr tomato paste or 1 cup of tomato juice
some fresh cherry tomatoes sliced
ground black pepper
1 pinch of sea salt
2 cups plus 400 ml water (approximately)
some soft goat cheese for garnish and extra taste

Method
On a medium saucepan on low heat add half of the olive oil and let it shimmer. Add the onion and let it saute for about 3 minutes. Add in the veal and stir it till all the redness of the meat disappears. Give the meat taste with a pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper and throw in the red wine. Let the alcohol of the wine vaporise and pour in the tomatoes and tomato paste/juice. Add approximately 2 cups of water and leave the meat to cook for about 1 hour, stirring frequently (add more water if needed).

While the meat becomes tender, on a medium fry-pan add the rest of the olive oil and saute the orzo for about 3 minutes till it gets shiny. Take the meat out of the heat and add it along with the orzo in a rectangular clay oven dish. To be sure about how much water you need to add, just always remember to use with every cup of orzo, two cups of water. So I used 400 ml water.

Put it in the oven and let it cook for about 20-25 minutes. Don’t worry if there is some water left when you take it out, the orzo will absorb the rest and become fluffy. If you leave the dish more time than suggested it can be sticky. So always check it during cooking time! If you want add some cheese on top and let it melt. I used some soft goat cheese.

Enjoy!

Stewed Beef with Leeks in the Oven

Traditional Greek food you can eat all year round! Juicy meat combined with leeks, a very underestimated vegetable. I remember when I was young, my brother and sister hated this food, but I never understood why. It is so tasteful and cozy!! Remember to check often the water in the pan, so the meat will not be dry. But still do not add too much. At the end you will need it to be left with a bit of water. 😀

---

Prep. Time: 1 hour and 40 – 50 min. Serves up to 5 people. 

Ingredients
2 leeks
500gr beef
1 onion cut in small pieces
3 scallion in pieces
1 cup red wine
salt
black pepper
paprika
1 cup tomato juice
½ cup of water
fresh oregano also for garnish

Method
Take a large pot and put some olive oil, just to cover its base. Cut the beef in small square even pieces and put it in the pot. Let it sauté completely and throw in the onions. Sauté them too and add the spices along with the tomato juice.

Add the water and let the meat be cooked and softened about 30 – 40 minutes. Check often if it needs more water but also if it starts being tender.

Cut the leeks in half and wash them good. Cut them in 1 cm slices. Add them in the pan and let them soften with the meat for about 30 minutes. Check if the food needs more salt.

Put the food in an oven dish and cook for 30 minutes more till completely tender and soft.

Garnish with fresh oregano end enjoy!

         

White Giant Beans in the Oven (Gigades)

This recipe belongs to the original traditional Greek category. In taverns you mostly get beans as a small meze with tsipouro or ouzo, but you can also cook them at home as a main dish, put them in salads or soups. I used white “gigades” beans (gigades means giants in Greek) from Prespes, a famous for its natural beauty mountain lake region in northwest Greece’s borders with Albania and FYROM. It has been named a “Landscape of Outstanding Natural Beauty” and it is considered a wetland of international importance.

They are famous there, not only for the natural environmental beauty, but also for their quality beans, which means they are not at all gassy as someone would expect and they are full of unique savory flavor. This recipe takes quite a time and needs a lot of attention and devotion, but be sure that it’s worth it! When boiling them use only wooden spoon and never add salt before they are completely boiled, otherwise it can stop the boiling process. Read carefully and enjoy!

---

Prep time: at least 1hour and 40 min. Serves up to 6 people.

        

Ingredients
600gr white giant beans of Prespes
1 big carrot cut in slices
1 cup tomato juice
1 white onion
2 garlic cloves smashed
1/3 cup olive oil
pepper
salt
paprika
1 teaspoon dried mint
1 teaspoon parsley
some feta/yogurt

     

Method
The evening before you cook the beans put them in a bowl and cover them with water. Let them rest. You will see the next day that they have absorbed all the water and they have doubled in size. Add some more before you go to work.

Take a big soup pan and put the beans in. Use only wooden spoon. Add water just to cover them. Add the onion full or cut in half – not smaller. Boil in medium heat till the beans are soft, 30-40 min. Do not add any salt, it will stop the boiling process and you will end up having hard beans. Try one bean and see if you can chew it. If it is not soft enough keep on boiling the rest. Add only boiled water when needed.

After they are boiled, transfer them in a big glass oven dish. If there is too much water, take some out. You need to have at least 1cm water in. They will need it for in the oven. Take the boiled onion and mash it in a blender.

Add the carrot, mashed onion, tomato sauce and garlic in. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper and paprika. Add the mint and parsley and finish with the olive oil. At this point you can also add some sun-dried tomatoes for extra taste. Mix everything together. If you think more olive oil is needed, add some.

Bake it in the oven for 30-40 minutes in 200°C . Check it often because you don’t want it to be dry. If more water is needed, don’t be afraid to add. When it is cooked and all flavors are combined – always try it before turning off the oven – take it out, leaving some water in. This water will be still absorbed and give an extra moisture to the food.

Serve with some feta or Greek yogurt.

Enjoy!

     

Greek Chicken Soup Avgolemono

This traditional Greek soup is one of my favorite comfort foods. It contains the necessary fat and nutrition you need for the long cold winter nights. I was brought up with this soup. Half of what I am is literally this soup. The other half is made from feta of course.

This soup’s main ingredient is the avgolemono, the strong combo of avgo=egg and lemoni=lemon. It is what makes this soup amazing. When your soup is ready, and cool enough, you whisk separately an egg with lemon juice firmly, adding slowly spoonfuls of soup into the mixture. When it is warm enough you pour it into the soup pan. And it is quite a procedure, because you need to be careful when whisking the egg with the soup. If the soup is too warm then the egg will be cooked unevenly and you will have white pieces inside your soup. Well, nobody wants that in a Greek recipe. Let firstly the soup cool down, but again not completely. You don’t want to have the opposite, raw egg inside. Avgolemono gives a unique taste and texture in the soup and it is one of the many characteristics of Greek cuisine you can’t find anywhere else. The more you do it, the more you will learn it. Of course you will have some unsuccessful attempts in the beginning, but this way you learn better. Trust me.

When it comes to the chicken, many people don’t like to eat the skin, they think it is unhealthy and fat. Well, it is. But we love it, and the chicken we use here in the North is not really bred up in a village in Greece, where its skin would be full of fat (and with extra extra intenseA taste). So, we tend to leave the skin on. Sometimes we do take out the meat from the breasts or the legs, so that no bones are in the soup, but mostly we get dirty and eat everything (well, I do – proud heritage of my father – my mother hates it).

So, read carefully and act accordingly to your needs when it comes to the chicken, but don’t forget to cook this soup as soon as you can! Your friends and family will be grateful to you.

---

Serves 4 people, Time needed: 60min

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts or 8 chicken legs
1 cup waxy rice (glasse)
1 farmer’s egg
juice from 1 biological lemon
fresh ground pepper
salt
1 cube chicken broth
olive oil
1 lt boiled water

 

Method
Take a medium soup pan and cover the bottom of the pan with olive oil. Not too much though. Enough to fry the chicken breasts. Clean your chicken very good and take out the skin if you think it is too fat (we obviously didn’t!). Let the oil burn a bit in medium heat and before you add the chicken, sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Add the breasts and fry them for 5-6 min. Add boiled water till chicken is covered. Approximately 1 lt. Let chicken boil for 30 min.

Take out the boiled chicken and let it rest on a plate. Now it is a good moment to take the meat out of the chicken for the soup. We mostly like to get dirty and eat everything (!), so we keep the breasts or the legs whole. Bring the soup into a boil and add the chicken stock for extra flavor (rice absorbs a lot of salt) and add the rice. Let it cook for 20-25 min till soft. Add the chicken back in the pan.

Now it is time for the avgolemono. In a small bowl whisk 1 egg and the lemon juice till fluffy. Let the soup cool down first a bit and then add a spoonful of soup, whisking quickly. Add one more spoonful and repeat. When the egg is dissolved with the soup and warm enough, pour it back in the pan, stirring slightly.

Add some more salt and pepper if needed. Serve with fresh bread and some feta.

Enjoy!

Greek Lentil Soup

This dish is an all-time-classic since every Greek in the world have eaten it all his/her life. Consisting of many vitamins and mainly iron, the traditional Lentil Soup continues our summer tribute – even if I know that summer is gradually fading away – for light and easy recipes. The trick in this dish is to have the lentils cleaned and drained, but also to put them in the pot with the water immediately without waiting for the water to boil. Basic ingredients you shouldn’t forget are the onion and garlic cloves but also the laurel leaves which you will have to remove at the end. You can also add some tomato sauce in the soup for extra taste, but I avoid it because tomato sauce tends to dominate with its taste. Don’t forget the sardines, maybe some nice tzatziki, the feta (!) and whatever small meze (Greek tapas) you want to serve it with. We will talk about meze to another post!
Enjoy!

---

 

Ingredients
1 glass of brown lentil, washed and drained
1/3 cup olive oil
2-3 laurel leaves
red pepper
salt
fresh grounded black pepper
oregano
1 whole white onion pilled
3-4 garlic cloves pilled

Procedure
In a medium pot fill half of it with water and start boiling it. Pour in the washed and drained lentil and let it boil for about 20 – 30 minutes in low heat along with the pilled whole onion and the garlic cloves. The trick here is not to put any spices yet, not until it is soft enough.

Try the lentil and when you see it is soft put in the spices (laurel, salt, peppers and oregano) and the olive oil. Boil it for 5 more minutes. Take out the onion and smash it in a food processor. Pour it back in the pot and let the soup rest.

You can serve it with some canned sardines, Greek Kalamata olives, some beet root salad and garlic bread!

Eggplant with feta (oven dish)

Summerish and easy, this recipe can also be served as a “meze” (greek tapas) accompanying the Ouzo and the Tsipouro (Greek traditional drinks), along with some smoked mackerel and extra feta on the side. Eggplants are widely used in the Greek cuisine and are known for the long time they need to be cooked, but do not worry! Once it is in the oven, let it do its magic! You do have to check it once in a while, but nothing more than that. So don’t be afraid of it!

---

 

Ingredients

2 big eggplants
1 big onion and/or 2 scallions
3-4 garlic cloves
1 tomato
1 can tomato juice (or as much as it takes)
200 gr feta
olive oil
pepper
salt
fresh parsley

Procedure

Wash and cut the eggplants in cubes, sprinkle them with olive oil and salt, so that they will not turn black. Put them in a baking pan for 20 minutes in the oven to be soft. As soon as the eggplants are softer, cut the onion and the garlic and toss them inside the pan.

Cut the tomato and toss it in along with the olive oil and the spices. Thrown in the tomato juice but do not overflow it. Just enough to give it some liquids and not letting it be completely dry. Add some water and put it in the over for 40-50 minutes until all the ingredients are mingled in and soft.

It is good to check it often so that you see how the eggplants are. Are they too soft, take it out if you don’t like it. Are they a bit crunchy, give them some extra time.

The last 10 minutes of the cooking, add the feta on top so that it will have time to be warm and a bit soft. Don’t leave it more than 10 minutes, because it can burn. Feta is not like other cheeses, it doesn’t really melt, it gets softer and after that black!

Enjoy!

Chicken with rice in the oven

Since we are in the middle of the summer, it is better to feed ourselves with light food, so that we don’t have heavy stomach during hot temperatures. Α heavy stomach doesn’t feel good at all, trust me! So this month I introduce to you a series of easy and light recipes with Greek origin, so that you can all brag you can actually cook like a Greek! Here is our first, a very easy and light recipe that in Greece is very common and it doesn’t have the attention and recognition it deserves. The rest of the world luckily thinks it is something really really special and above all tasty!

---

Ingredients

2-3 chicken thighs (or legs if you prefer)
2 cups of yellow rice
olive oil
salt
black pepper
paprika
curry
boiled water

Procedure

Clean the chicken very good and season it with salt, pepper, paprika and some curry. Put in a medium glass pan and pour in a glass of water so that it will not be completely dry. Sprinkle with some olive oil and bake it for 35-45 minutes according to your oven in 180 C.

Take out the chicken from the pan and pour in the rice. The juice of the chicken that is left will give an extra, gorgeous taste to the rice, so do not throw it or clean it! Cover with 4 cups of boiled water (same size as the cups you use to measure the rice!) and season it with the same spices and some olive oil. Be careful though not to put too much salt because the juice of the chicken is already salty. Put it in the oven for 20 minutes. Always check on it and stir it, otherwise the rice on the top can be dry and crunchy.

The last five minutes put in the chicken and let it warm up and cook with the rice. Serve it with some feta (of course!) or some cottage cheese (as I have on the pic). Iced homemade tea is the best friend for a recipe like this one. Some salad on the side and you are ready!

Bon appétit!

Stuffed peppers (gemista)

This food many Greeks will recognize it as a typical traditional one. Every one of us has tasted it countless times in his life, is part of our everyday cuisine. Once a month it would be on our table, no matter what. The typical version is with big tomatoes too, except the peppers, but I preferred to show you the pepper one. Easy and simple! You can also put more rice and some tomato juice if you are a vegetarian.

Ingredients

8 – 10 green & red round peppers

1 onion trimmed

500 gr. smashed meat beef

½ cup white rice

Salt & pepper

Some parsley

Olive oil

 

Procedure

Put the meat, the rice, the spices and the onion in a bowl, mixing them all together until they become a firm mixture.

Cut the head out of the peppers (the upper part, the “hat”), take their seeds out and place them into a glass oven pan. *Put some salt into each pepper, they will become tastier! CAREFUL! Don’t throw the cups of the peppers, you need them!

Fill each pepper with the mixture, only the 2/3 of the pepper because the rice will absorb water and moist and if you put more, the mixture will overflow.

Pour ½ cup of water into the pan, some olive oil and some extra salt on top.

Let it cook for 2 hours slowly.

You should always take a look if the food needs more water, otherwise it will burn. And if you have a fast oven, then 1 and 30 minutes is enough!

Serve it with feta cheese, you will love the combination!

Bon appétit!