BEEF AND BARLEY SOUP WITH BEANS

It's been close to 2 months since my last post.  I hadn't given up on this little blog of mine, that wasn't the reason for not posting. It's just that here at home we were in the middle of a renovation project. One that took way too long to complete - actually, there are still some odds and ends that need finishing. Consequently, there has been very little cooking going on in our kitchen. Along the way, we made do with lots of canned soup, sandwiches, salads, some takeout (Chinese, of course), lots of eating standing up, and lots of paper plates. Yes, I'll admit it: a few times I ate soup straight out of a can. At other times I poured my soup into a paper bowl. Then I'd remember that the microwave was packed away in the garage and I would have to eat my soup cold. Appetizing? You bet! I sampled a few cans of beef and barley. I asked myself: can I create a beef and barley version that's better than what I am eating out of this can? The answer was quick to come: You bet! So I waited. For the new floor. For the new counter. For the dust to go away. For the spackling paste to dry. Then I went shopping:  brisket, barley, vegetables. And then, I COOKED! For the first time in two months. Yes, I still remembered how to slice onions. I even remembered which box my chopping knife was packed in. I took it out and got started. I made a huge pot of beef and barley soup. Never mind that it was 85 degrees outside. There never was a more satisfying and enjoyable soup. Savoury, steamy broth, beef so perfectly cooked it melted in one's mouth, and beans and barley, warm and filling.  This is the kind of soup you ladle into your best china if you can remember which box it's packed in. 

Ingredients:
Use these first 10 ingredients to make a nice broth:

3 pounds beef chuck or brisket, fat removed, the beef cut into 1-inch cubes
about 3 tablespoons olive oil
beef bones for soup
1 onion cut into large pieces
3 bay leaves
3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
3 cloves of garlic cut in half
salt and pepper
10-12 cups of liquid

 Now use the following ingredients to finish the soup:

1 (8-ounce) can of tomato sauce

2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small onion chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1¼ cups pearl barley, rinsed
2 cups soaked cranberry beans
4 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

one sprig of rosemary
salt and pepper

Directions:

Making this beef and barley soup is a little time-consuming, but the end result is truly worth it! Unless you are feeding a large crowd, there will be leftovers- but don't worry. The soup will taste just as good if not better the next day. I made a large batch on purpose so we could have leftovers.

• Rinse the cranberry beans and soak them overnight.  About  1¼ cups should yield 2 cups of soaked beans.
• In a large heavy Dutch oven heat the olive oil and sauté the beef in two or three batches, removing each batch to a plate as it finishes sautéing.  
• When all the beef is done, place it back into the Dutch oven and add the liquid, the bones, the onion, celery, carrots, bay leaves, garlic and salt and pepper.
• Bring to a boil and then lower the heat. Cover and cook on low for about 1½ hours. Let cool and carefully remove the meat from the broth. Strain the broth and discard the cooked vegetables and bones.
• Pour the strained broth back into the Dutch oven and add the tomato sauce and tomato paste; if you'd like, sauté the tomato paste before adding the broth and tomato sauce to the pot.  
• Add the meat, the barley, the beans, the fresh onion, celery, carrot and garlic. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer on low for an hour, stirring occasionally.
• Add the thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper to taste and then simmer for about another half hour. Add the parsley.

That should do it.  Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.  The long cooking time will have made the meat very soft. Enjoy your beef and barley soup!!! 

QUICK AND EASY PEASY BOLOGNESE SAUCE with fetuccine

Bolognese sauce (or ragu alla Bolognese), is a classic Italian meat sauce that originated in the city of Bologna, the capital of the Emilia–Romagna region in Northern Italy.  Bologna is a beautiful university town with a long and impressive cultural history. 

A classic Bolognese contains milk or cream and some type of cured meat such as pancetta. I have chosen to omit the cured meat from my sauce recipe. However, adding a little milk or cream makes the sauce velvety.

An interesting fact is that the city of Bologna has created a standardised recipe for "ragu alla Bolognese." That recipe has been deposited for safekeeping with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce. My recipe for Bolognese sauce is deposited in a drawer in my kitchen. Which of the two recipes is more important?  

This easy to make recipe will yield a dense, silky, multi-dimensional sauce. If there are any leftovers, they can be refrigerated for up to 3 days and frozen for up to 1 month.

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 large red onion, grated 
• 3 stalks celery, chopped fine
• 2 carrots, grated
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 3 ripe tomatoes, skins removed, chopped
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• red wine, amount according to taste

• For the pasta:

• 1 pound pasta; fettuccine is a good option because this is a hearty sauce that needs a hearty pasta
• chopped parsley and basil
• grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• black pepper

Directions:

• Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven and add the onions, carrots and celery.
• Sauté until the vegetables are soft. Keep stirring and add the garlic. Cook for about a minute.
• Add the ground beef and cook, stirring to mix with the vegetables. Keep stirring and cook until all the meat is no longer pink. 
• Season with salt and pepper and mix. 
• Add the oregano, mix, and cook for about a minute
• Add the tomato paste and mix well.
• Add the wine, lower the heat and cook until the sauce is reduced 
• Add the tomatoes and bay leaf.
• Mix, keep the heat to a low simmer, cover and cook for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally so that the sauce does not stick to the bottom of the pan.
• Turn off the heat and add the whole milk
• Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed. 
• Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package directions. 
• Drain and place on a serving platter. 
• Season with Pecorino Romano cheese, chopped parsley, black pepper and basil.
• Spoon some of the sauce on top and mix. 
• Serve the sauce alongside the pasta.  

STUFFED GRAPE LEAVES (with ground lamb and ground beef)

Ouch!  I hurt my back doing yard work. That made it hard to get ready for Easter. By the time our guests arrived on Easter Sunday, I was thoroughly exhausted. I had been cooking for two days, plus planting flowers, plus setting tables, plus washing pots and pans, plus praying the Tylenol I was taking for my backache would work a little faster. Even though I was tired, all the preparations were so worth it! Once the company arrived, I felt brand new. Well, almost brand new. 

One of our visitors was an adorable two-year-old named Gracie, who (almost) possesses the vocabulary of a high school graduate. Actually, Gracie is something of a scholar, because, at the tender age of two she attends preschool. She saw a band-aid I had on my finger and asked me if I had a boo-boo. "Yes, I have a bad boo-boo," I replied. "Bad boo-boo?" She kissed my band-aid. How can one not fall in love with Gracie?  

Among the dishes we served were these grape leaves stuffed with ground beef and rice. Gracie, of course, wanted nothing to do with them. She stuck to lamb, potatoes and salad. Everyone else enjoyed them. Usually, but not always, grape leaves stuffed with meat have avgolemono sauce poured over them (avgolemono is a Greek egg and lemon sauce). I chose not to make it, but instead to add extra lemon juice to the cooking liquid. Why no avgolemono? Mostly for dietary reasons - some of our guests do not eat eggs. Even without the avgolemono, the ground lamb-stuffed grape leaves were very good!

Ingredients:

1 jar (16 ounces)  grapevine leaves
about 3/4 of a cup of olive oil

 2 onions, chopped

 4 cloves garlic, chopped

 1 bunch scallions, chopped, use as much of the green part as you can        

 3  tbsp fresh chopped parsley

 2 tablespoons fresh chopped dill
 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves

 1 teaspoon fresh chopped mint

 1 lb. lean ground beef 
 1 lb. ground lamb (if not available, use pork)

 1 cup raw long-grain rice

 optional: 1 cup fresh diced tomatoes (not canned)                      

 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese 

  the juice of two lemons

  salt and pepper to taste 

  2 tablespoons butter

  3 14-ounce cans low sodium chicken broth, plus water as needed

 

Directions:

• Remove the grape leaves from the jar and discard the briny liquid they are packed in. Soak them in water for at least four to five hours,  changing the water a few times in order to remove the saltiness of the brine. When you have desalinated the grape leaves, boil them in water for no more than 15 to 20 minutes. Drain the water and set the leaves aside until they have cooled. Keep them covered so they don't dry out as they are cooling.    
• Save all the stems and leaves from the herbs and scallions that you would otherwise discard. Make sure they are rinsed well.
• Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Sauté the onions, until they begin to soften. Add the scallions and garlic and cook for one minute while stirring. Turn off the heat, add the herbs and set the mixture aside until it cools.
• When the mixture has cooled, add the ground meat, rice, tomatoes if using, Pecorino Romano cheese, pepper, a touch of salt, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. 
• Line the bottom of a medium-sized heavy Dutch oven with the leaves and stems of the herbs you have saved. If there are any really tough grape leaves, instead of discarding them, arrange them in the Dutch oven. 
• Cut off the stems from the grape leaves and discard them; they'll be too tough to eat. Now comes the time to start filling them: set the shiny side of the leaf down, and place the filling on the duller-looking side where the veins are thicker. 
• Fill each grape leaf with about 1 tablespoon of the mixture. 
• Roll up the grape leaf once, fold in the sides of the leaf and continue rolling. As you are rolling, don't make the grape leaf bundle too loose, however, keep in mind that there is rice in the filling and it will expand during cooking. Therefore, don't roll the grape leaf bundle too tightly, either. 

I had lots of grape leaves to stuff, so I moved the show to our breakfast area, where we have a television set. I spread a few kitchen towels on the breakfast table. On top of the towels, I placed the Dutch oven, a bowl full of filling, and a plate of grape leaves. I sat at the table and turned on the TV. I watched some TV, I stuffed some grape leaves, and that was the easy way to go about it because stuffing those leaves is a tedious undertaking! On with the rest of the recipe:

• Fit the stuffed grape leaves, seam side down, on top of the herb stems in the Dutch oven. Pack them in tightly. Place a second layer on top, keeping the same pattern of layering. Keep the same pattern so that the cooking liquid can penetrate all layers.

Champagne and Geritol! Oh Yeah!!! I placed my trusty Dutch oven on the breakfast table. I sat down, turned on the TV and started stuffing the grape leaves. One by one, in they went into the pot. My mother was sitting next to me just so I could have a supervisor. She insisted the TV be set to PBS, and there was nothing wrong with her request ... or so I thought. But as it turned out, Lawrence Welk, her favourite musician, was on.  I'm referring to Mr Lawrence Welk, bandleader, the heartthrob of every octogenarian female!  I'd like to report that I survived the experience. Anyway, on with the cooking. ...  

• Sprinkle the rest of the olive oil over the grape leaves, then add the lemon juice, the butter, and enough chicken broth to cover. If during cooking you run out of chicken broth due to evaporation, just add water. 
• Take a plate that will fit into the cooking pot and wrap it in parchment paper.  Place it on top of the grape leaves. This will weigh them down to prevent them from floating around in the pot. Cover the Dutch oven with the lid.
• Cook in a preheated 350° F oven for two hours. Once in a while during cooking, check to make sure there is enough liquid in the pot. If the liquid level is too low, just add some more. The cooking time is long, but that's because the grape leaves have to soften and become as tender as the filling.
• Remove the stuffed grape leaves from the pot and place them on a serving dish. Don't let them sit in the cooking liquid. Any cooking liquid left can be discarded or used to make avgolemono sauce if needed. The recipe for the avgolemono sauce follows.
• The grape leaves can be served warm or at room temperature. I hope you make these and enjoy them in good health!

If you choose to serve them with avgolemono sauce (in which case they should be served warm), here's a recipe for avgolemono: 

1 egg

2 egg yolks

3 tablespoons cornflour

juice of one lemon

about 2 cups of the cooking liquid, cold or at room temperature; if less than two cups remain, substitute the missing amount with chicken broth.

2 tablespoons heavy cream
Black pepper to taste

In a saucepan, beat the eggs with the lemon juice. Very slowly so that the eggs won't curdle, add the cooking liquid. Over low heat and while mixing, slowly add the cornflour. Allow the mixture to thicken a little. Turn off the heat. Add the cream and mix. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Pour on top of the grape leaves and serve.   

HACHIS PARMENTIER

Hachis Parmentier is a meat and potatoes meal, popular in France, reminiscent of shepherd's pie but much better. It's made with layers of leftover beef and mashed potatoes, it's covered with cheese, and then it's baked, coming out of the oven looking rather decadent, and tasting delicious. I made some at the beginning of this month, and we enjoyed having it for dinner. At the time I didn't have any leftover beef to work with, but I had a small quantity of frozen chuck meat which I defrosted,  cooked low and slow, then turned into hachis Parmentier. 

A few words about the name for this dish:  hachis means chopped up, and it derives from the word hatchet. I find the etymological history of the word fascinating. The online dictionary, one of my favourite sites on the Internet has this to say: "Middle English hachet, from Old French hachete, diminutive of hache, ax, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German happa, sickle."  Yes, I do get excited over words and their history, but look: our word axe derives from the French hache, and it came to exist by dropping the letter "h," which the French almost always drop when speaking, and which some English speakers also drop, although they shouldn't. So axe up some cooked meat, season it, and you'll be one step closer to creating hachis Parmentier.

As for "Parmentier," the word is applied to dishes cooked with or accompanied by potatoes. The name "Parmentier" refers to Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, an 18th-century French pharmacist who promoted the potato as a food source, and who was responsible for having the French government declare potatoes an edible crop. He used all sorts of methods to do this, including serving potatoes to such luminaries as the visiting Benjamin Franklin. My favourite of Parmentier's stunts was this: he surrounded his potato fields with armed guards to suggest that valuable goods were being guarded there. His guards were instructed to accept bribes from the passing crowds and to withdraw during the night so that the crowds could gain access to the fields and steal the "valuable" potatoes. That's what I call a promoter; the man was way ahead of his time! I love potatoes, and so I thank Monsieur Parmentier for his efforts, yes, I thank him wholeheartedly.

Now let me put the dictionary aside so I can describe how I cooked the hachis Parmentier.

Method:

Beef:  Use leftover cooked beef if you have it. If not, use about a pound of chuck beef cut into small pieces. You will need to boil the beef so that you can have the bouillon needed for the recipe.

For the bouillon: 

• 1  to 1 ½ pounds of chuck beef cut into pieces (you'll be cutting it up even further once it's cooked).
• About 4 cups of water
• 1 onion, quartered
• 2 carrots peeled and chopped in half
• 3 celery stalks, cut in half, leaves included
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf, a teaspoon of peppercorns, some salt, a few sprigs of thyme, and some spigs of parsley.

1. Place all the ingredients into a soup pot. Bring to a boil and skim off the foam that comes to the surface. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 2 hours until the meat is soft. 
2. Strain the broth and reserve it. 
3. Shred the meat into small pieces and reserve it.

For the filling:

• 3 or 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 carrot, chopped into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tomato peeled seeded and chopped3 mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 leek, thinly sliced, white and light green parts only
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon of thyme leaves  

1. Add the oil to the pan and heat. Sauté the onions, tomato, carrot, mushrooms, and leeks until they are soft. Mix in the reserved meat then sprinkle the flour over and combine it well.
2. Add enough of the reserved bouillon to moisten the filling. You want to have a filling that is nice and juicy, but not one that is swimming in broth.
3. Add the thyme and parsley
4. Place the filling in a greased oven-safe casserole.

For the topping:

• Use 2 pounds of Yukon gold potatoes to make mashed potatoes just the way you like them. I cook them in boiling water, peel them, chop them, then mash them. While mashing, I add 1/2 cup milk, 3 tablespoons butter, and a seasoning of salt and pepper.
• Layer the mashed potatoes over the filling.  
• Sprinkle 1/2 cup grated Gruyère and one tablespoon grated Pecorino Romano cheese over the potatoes. Using a fork or a spoon, create an interesting pattern on the surface of the potatoes.
• Bake the dish in a preheated 400° F oven for about 20 minutes.  It's done when you are able to see the filling bubbling and when the potato topping is a nice, light golden brown. If you like, decorate the top with chopped chives.

Bring to the table and serve.  This will make a really delicious and warming meal, especially when it's cold outside. I hope you enjoy it!

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE WITH BEETS

Novel Food hosted by Simona from Briciole is an online book club with the following concept: Cook something that has been inspired by a published literary work you've read, then create a post about it. I love to read and I love to cook so there was no doubt that I would join Novel Food as soon as I found out about it! 

I had a month until the posting deadline, plenty of time to prepare, or so I thought. Here I am, rushing to finish. Anyway, I've been reading "Cleopatra, A Life," by Stacy Schiff. Although I am charmed by this book, thinking about it does not give me any culinary inspiration. But which book and which author should I tackle for Novel Food? James Joyce came to mind, and in particular Joyce's "Dubliners," which holds a special place in my heart. Published in 1914, "Dubliners," is a collection of 15 short stories written in realistic detail and filled with everyday scenes of middle-class Dublin, Ireland. The characters live ordinary lives, but as their stories unfold the reader becomes aware of intensely personal and often tragic revelations about them. It’s the glimpse into their emotional lives courtesy of Joyce and his poignant narrative that has always had a profound effect on me. One of the short stories, in particular, moves me to tears every time I read it. The title of that story is “A Painful Case.”

James Joyce as photographed by Berenice Abbott in 1926 (National Portrait Gallery, London). The author had problems with his eyesight throughout his life.

“A Painful Case,” is a story about isolation. It concerns the brief intermingling of the lives of Mrs Sinico, a married woman who feels unfulfilled, and Mr Duffy, a bank cashier who leads a solitary and meticulously orderly life. The two are acquaintances who eventually grow close and develop a deep friendship. One day Mrs Sinico impulsively takes Mr Duffy’s hand and places it on her cheek. He is taken aback by her action and ends their relationship. At a farewell meeting, Mrs Sinico seems distraught and unwilling to say goodbye. Four years go by, during which Mr Duffy resumes his previous orderly routine. One evening, while eating a dinner of corned beef and cabbage at his usual restaurant, he reads a newspaper article entitled “A Painful Case.” The article details the death of Mrs Sinico, who was hit by a train at a Dublin station. A coroner’s inquest revealed that Mrs Sinico had taken to drinking during her last years, and it is inferred from the narrative that her death may have been a suicide. Slowly, Mr Duffy begins to feel remorse. He believes that by having rejected her he condemned her to loneliness and eventual death. He reflects on his own solitary life which has been devoid of her companionship and realises that he has lost his only chance for happiness. He will remain isolated from "life’s feast" because he lacks the courage to pursue happiness. 

Corned beef and cabbage—plain food, not something served at a feast—is briefly mentioned in "A Painful Case," but it's mentioned at the moment when Mr Duffy is about to undergo a significant psychological change. It's the moment when his epiphany begins, that moment when he begins to realise how emotionally paralysed he has become. Joyce's epiphanies are rare and momentous occasions during which an awareness floods a character's conscience and he or she gains a profound understanding of a particular situation. Epiphanies are recurrent themes in the "Dubliners." In part, Joyce uses them to symbolise the colonisation of Ireland: A defeated and powerless nation as Ireland was at the time, is juxtaposed with defeated and powerless individuals. Not much ever changes in Joyce's Dublin, something which has a devastating effect on the human spirit.

Well, we've covered food, literature, politics, emotional isolation ... What should we tackle next? How about if we read some of Joyce's astonishingly beautiful and incisive language in the form of quotes from "A Painful Case?" Here are Mr Duffy and Mrs Sinico together:

"Her companionship was like a warm soil about an exotic. Many times she allowed the dark to fall upon them, refraining from lighting the lamp. The dark discreet room, their isolation, the music that still vibrated in their ears united them. This union exalted him, wore away the rough edges of his character, emotionalised his mental life."

Mr Duffy reads of Mrs Sinico's Death:

"One evening as he was about to put a morsel of corned beef and cabbage into his mouth his hand stopped. His eyes fixed themselves on a paragraph in the evening paper which he had propped against the water-carafe. He replaced the morsel of food on his plate and read the paragraph attentively. Then he drank a glass of water, pushed his plate to one side, doubled the paper down before him between his elbows and read the paragraph over and over again. The cabbage began to deposit a cold white grease on his plate. The girl came over to him to ask was his dinner not properly cooked. He said it was very good and ate a few mouthfuls of it with difficulty. Then he paid his bill and went out."

The phrase "the cabbage began to deposit a cold grease on his plate." is rather startling. It prepares one for the upcoming chilling events. Here is the quote where Mr Duffy realizes what Mrs Sinico's death means for him:

"Why had he withheld life from her? Why had he sentenced her to death? He felt his moral nature falling to pieces... He gnawed the rectitude of his life; he felt that he had been outcast from life's feast. One human being had seemed to love him and he had denied her life and happiness: he had sentenced her to ignominy, a death of shame... No one wanted him; he was outcast from life's feast. He turned his eyes to the grey gleaming river, winding along towards Dublin ... He waited for some minutes listening. He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone."

Chilling. Insightful. Powerful. Masterful. James Joyce!

Besides the connection with Joyce, why did I decide on corned beef and cabbage? Well, St. Patrick's Day is around the corner, and I have lots of Irish neighbours. Corned beef and cabbage will be on many dinner tables around here. I've never made it, but I have always wanted to. This way I can brag about it to my Irish friends, and especially to Leslie, who lives across the street. No doubt about it, corned beef and cabbage is comfort food and like all such food, it's delicious!  

I made corned beef and cabbage with a recipe based on one I found on the Food Network website. It includes beets served alongside the corned beef, and because I am Greek, and considering that beets are kind of popular in Greek cooking, I thought the beets would introduce a Greek twist to an Irish dish! 

Ingredients:

• A 3-pound piece of corned beef
• 4 bay leaves
• 25 black peppercorns
• 9 garlic cloves peeled
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1-quart chicken broth
• 5 carrots, peeled and cut into 3" pieces
• 2 small turnips peeled and quartered
• 4 shallots peeled and left whole. Ouch! We are having such a bad winter here that shallots cost one shallot for $1.99!
• 4 potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1/2 head cabbage, cut into wedges
• 3 beets, peeled and sliced
• chopped parsley for garnish
• a little salt and pepper, a little lemon juice, a little olive oil and a negligible amount of oregano and garlic powder

Directions:

• Corned beef is made by brining beef brisket in a mixture of spices. It comes with a thick fat layer that should be trimmed and discarded. Once that job is done, the corned beef should be washed really well so as to remove some of the brine. For this recipe, discard the spice packet that comes with the corned beef.
• In a large heavy pot, combine the corned beef, 2 bay leaves, 15 peppercorns, 6 garlic cloves cut in half, and a pinch of ground cloves.
• Add water to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3 hours, low and slow as they say. Remove the meat from the pot and reserve it on a plate, keeping it warm. 
• While the meat is cooking, prepare the beets: Line an ovenproof pot with aluminium foil and place the beets inside. Season them with salt and pepper, a slight amount of olive oil, some lemon juice and just a bit of garlic powder and oregano. Close the aluminium foil around the beets and bake them in a 350° F oven for about 45 minutes, until they are soft.
• You can also boil the beets, but remember not to add them in with the corned beef or vegetables, because they will turn everything red.
• Let's get back to the pot where the meat was cooked: I tasted the liquid and I found that it was very salty. Extremely salty. Now, most recipes call for boiling the vegetables in that liquid, but I couldn't in good conscience submerge my vegetables in what was essentially a brine. So I discarded the liquid, washed the pot and started over. I added a quart of low sodium chicken broth. I added seasonings: 3 garlic cloves cut in half, about 10 peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, and a pinch of ground cloves.
• When the broth came to a boil I added the turnips and carrots, lowered the heat and simmered for 20 minutes.
• Then I added the onions and potatoes. By now I had a layer of vegetables covering the whole surface of the pot. I placed the cabbage on top of the vegetables, covered the pot and cooked for an additional 30 minutes.
• The cabbage was steamed by the aromatic broth, and the turnips absorbed so much flavour that they were the best turnips I had ever tasted. That's saying a lot, because I am not the world's greatest turnip fan!
• If the meat is cold, put it back in the pot next to the cabbage and give it a steam bath until it warms up.
• And that's it. Mission accomplished. Slice the meat and serve warm, accompanied by the broth which is really tasty, and the vegetables.
• You can serve the beets alongside the other vegetables, or better yet, you can present them separately as a salad.

This post is my contribution to the 12th edition of Novel Food.

SEPHARDIC LEEK FRITTERS WITH MEAT (KUFTE de PRASSA KEFTES de PRASSA)

Keftes in Greek means meat patty, and prasso-keftes is a meat patty into which leeks have been incorporated. The recipe I am using here makes a crunchy and juicy leek fritter, let me tell you! DELECTABLE!!! It's found in the book Sephardic Flavors - Jewish Cooking of the Mediterranean.

The book is an exploration of Jewish culinary history in the Mediterranean region. Joyce Goldstein, the author, discusses how Sephardic Jews, who left Spain in the fifteenth century CE, adapted to the cuisines of their new homelands. the book includes Jewish recipes from Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy, and Greece. Myself being Greek, I focused mostly on the Greek recipes, and particularly on the one for leek fritters. These delectable meatballs are a favourite of the Sephardim, who make them in both vegetarian and meat versions.

The Jews of Greece are Sephardim, descendants of those who in 1942 were forced out of Spain as a result of the Spanish Inquisition. The word “Sephardim” is derived from "Sepharad," the Hebrew word for Spain. After 1492, a large number of Sephardim found refuge in the Greek city of Thessaloniki (colloquially known as Salonika), where they established a thriving community. Its immediate pre-World War II population numbered approximately 56,000, making Thessaloniki the largest Sephardic centre in the world. Unfortunately, the Thessaloniki Sephardim suffered greatly during the Holocaust. From fifty-six thousand souls, only an approximate two thousand survived Auschwitz-Birkenau to return home. How were they able to rebuild their lives after so much suffering? It was an immense and continual struggle for each of them to pick up one by one the pieces of their lives and attempt to become whole.

My family, who are Thessaloniki natives, had developed friendships in the Sephardic community. One gentleman who was a close friend gave us one of his favourite recipes, leek fritters with meat, and we made it for him often. We too also loved those leek fritters! I remember them sitting on the kitchen counter, freshly cooked and aromatic. "Don't touch," my mother would say to me.  I had to wait my turn. Adults got served first, then children. I kept counting them as they were being plated, wondering how many would be left for me. 

How to make leek fritters with meat:

Ingredients:

3 pounds leeks

3/4 pound ground beef

3 slices rustic bread, crusts removed, soaked in water, and squeezed dry. (The recipe allows substituting 2 mashed potatoes for the bread. I tried this, but to me, the fritters taste better with the bread)
2 eggs separated

3 tablespoons walnuts, ground up well in a food processor

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 clove garlic, chopped well

2 shallots, chopped well

salt and pepper to taste

all-purpose flour for dredging

vegetable oil for frying

lemon wedges

Directions:

• Clean the leeks well! Cut off the root end and most of the green part. Slice them lengthwise and then crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces. Soak them in water to remove any leftover dirt, then drain them. 
• Place them in a pot with salted water to cover, and simmer until the leeks are soft, about 25 minutes. Drain well.
• In a bowl combine the leeks, ground beef, bread, egg yolks, walnuts, parsley, garlic and shallots. Season with salt and pepper and knead until the mixture holds together well.
• Form them into balls about 2 inches in diameter, and then flatten them a bit.
• Pour canola oil to a depth of 1 inch into a medium saucepan and heat the oil.
• Meanwhile spread some flour on a plate, and in a bowl beat the egg whites until they get frothy (but not stiff).
• When the oil is hot, dip the meatballs in the flour and then in the egg whites. Add them to the oil in batches and fry them until golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon transfer the fritters to paper towels and allow to drain.
• Arrange on a platter and serve with lemon wedges.
• Leftover fritters can be reheated in tomato sauce. Also, the bread crumbs and flour listed in the recipe can be substituted with matzoh meal.

W

 

I believe that every tourist who visits Greece gets the chance to taste a dish of moussaka. It's a popular Greek summer fare made with layers of eggplant and ground meat which are topped with a fabulous bechamel sauce. 

To the best of my knowledge, in the old days, moussaka was exclusively layered with eggplants and ground beef, and then it was topped with bechamel. Sometime in the mid-twentieth century, chefs started adding potatoes to the layers of moussaka. A bit later, the addition of zucchini started comprising yet another layer. To be honest, I have yet not tried the zucchini addition but it's unavoidable that I will do so sometime in the future, and who knows, I may start adding it to my recipe. 

There are two methods of preparing eggplants for moussaka: One, is the old-fashioned method of frying them. I definitely say no to that. Two, is the wiser method of baking them in the oven: healthier, less messy, and even the flavour is better because the end product doesn't consist of oily eggplant. It's apparent there are variations to cooking moussaka. Here, I include my favourite version.

Moussaka can be prepared in advance and served lukewarm or at room temperature, making it ideal to serve for buffets. 

Ingredients:

3 or 4 medium eggplants

4 medium Yukon gold potatoes

extra-virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

2 pounds lean ground beef, use a variety of 90% to 10% 

2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon tomato paste

3 bay leaves

a sprig of thyme

a sprig of rosemary

1/2 cup white wine
1 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes plus the juice included in the can.

1 cup of chopped parsley, divided

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese

For the bechamel:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-quart whole milk, heated
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup ricotta cheese

Directions:

• Wash the eggplant and cut off both ends. With a vegetable peeler remove 1/2-inch strips of skin from the eggplant. The end result will be that your eggplant will have a striped appearance, showing stripes of purple skin and white flesh.
• Slice the eggplants into 3/4-inch rounds. Season with salt and pepper on both sides.
• Bake the eggplants: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Brush both sides of the eggplant slices with some olive oil and place them on parchment-covered baking sheets. Season lightly with salt and bake until the eggplants are soft. Keep an eye on the eggplant while it's baking. You don't want to overcook it. Baking time depends on the variety of eggplant used. Right away, place the cooked eggplants into a covered container and reserve. The cover will trap any steam they release and make them much softer and better tasting.
• Peel and slice the potatoes. Slice them into 3/4-inch rounds. Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Flavour them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and just a touch of oregano. Bake until the potatoes are soft and just beginning to brown. Reserve. 
• Heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a Dutch oven and add the ground beef. Stir occasionally, breaking the ground beef into small pieces. Cook until the ground beef is browned.  
• Add the chopped onions. You may need to add a little more olive oil along with the onions. Cook until the onions are soft.
• Add the garlic along with the bay leaves, thyme, rosemary and tomato paste. Cook for one minute and a half as you keep stirring. 
• Add the wine and deglaze the pot. Keep stirring gently. Let the alcohol in the wine cook off and the wine itself become incorporated into the ground beef. 
• Combine the tomatoes with the parsley. 
• Add the tomato mixture to the pot, season with salt and pepper, and simmer over low heat, stirring often, until all the liquid has evaporated, about 45 minutes to an hour. Alternatively, you can place the pot into the oven and cook at 300 F for about 45 minutes to an hour, until the liquid has evaporated. 
• Remove from the oven and add the tablespoon of oregano. Taste and correct the seasonings if needed. Cook on the stovetop for an additional five minutes.
• While the ground beef is cooking, make the bechamel: In a saucepan, over low heat, melt the butter, add the flour and whisk for about two minutes. Turn up the heat to moderate and add the warm milk in a slow stream, whisking all the while.
• Keep stirring as the sauce simmers. Within about five minutes the mixture should be thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste and remove from the heat.  
• Let cool slightly and stir in the two beaten eggs and the ricotta cheese.  

Begin layering:

• Grease an 11 by 16-inch pan and sprinkle the bottom with breadcrumbs. Arrange all the potatoes over the bread crumbs and top with half the eggplants. Sprinkle with grated Pecorino Romano cheese, breadcrumbs, and parsley. 
• Add half the meat sauce on top of the eggplant layer. Sprinkle with grated Pecorino Romano cheese, breadcrumbs, and parsley. 
• Add the rest of the eggplants. Sprinkle with grated Pecorino Romano cheese, breadcrumbs, and parsley. 
• Add the rest of the meat sauce and sprinkle the top with, well, I guess you've guessed it: grated Pecorino Romano cheese, breadcrumbs, and parsley. 
• Pour the bechamel over the top, sprinkle the top of the bechamel with Pecorino Romano cheese and bake in a preheated 350°F/180°C oven for about 30 minutes to 45 minutes, until the top is golden.
• Let cool for half an hour before slicing. The moussaka will taste even better the following day.