EGGPLANT TURNOVERS – Bourekas de berengena or Borekitas de meredjena

Before we get on with the recipe, why not enjoy a special treat? Keep reading my darlings ...
Today is March 15. Which means that ...

We are celebrating the IDES OF MARCH!!! 

Let's take a few minutes to commemorate this very important day! First, we'll read a few lines from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar:" 

"Caesar:
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.
Soothsayer:
Beware the ides of March.
Caesar:
What man is that?
Brutus:
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March."


And now, a lovely song! Why not spend some of this day brushing up on the bard's beautiful poetry?

Okay, let's cook: 

Eggplant turnovers or bourekas are a speciality of the Sephardic community of Thessaloniki. 

This recipe is found in the cookbook “Tastes from Sephardic Thessaloniki, Recipes of the Jews of Thessaloniki,” by Nina Benroubi (2002). The bourekas contain eggplant, and the author states that eggplant is the “star” of Sephardic cooking. 

Here are some interesting characteristics of Sephardic cuisine: 

• A limited amount of spices are used.
• There is a total absence of garlic 
• Ingredients are coated with egg (not breadcrumbs) right before frying 
• Dough is prepared by adding flour into a mixture of warm water and oil. 

Sephardic cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine, with Spanish, Arabic, Greek, and Italian influences. All combine to provide a most interesting chapter in gastronomic history.

I made the dough as per instructions, by adding the flour to warm water and oil. The final result was fantastic. The dough was supple, and smooth, and soft. Lovely! It didn't disappoint after it was cooked. A great tasting dough, that can be used with many different fillings. In Ladino, which is the language of the Sephardic Jews, the name of this recipe is Borekitas de meredjéna.  

For the dough:

½ cup olive oil

4 tablespoons butter

½ cup water

3 to 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 ounces Greek yoghurt

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 egg yolk beaten with a small quantity of water, to use as egg wash

Sesame seeds for topping

• Place a medium pot over low heat and add the oil, water and butter.  Leave on the heat, mixing occasionally until the ingredients are warm and the butter has melted.  
• Mix in the sugar and salt.
• Turn off the heat and gradually stir in one cup of the flour.  
• Mix in the yoghurt. 
• Gradually add the rest of the flour to make a soft, slightly greasy dough. Mix only until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl. Do not over-mix.
•  Gather the dough into a ball and cover it with plastic wrap. Initially, I used a fork for mixing, and then, as more flour was added, I let my hands take over.
• Let the dough rest while preparing the filling.

Make the filling:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 eggplants

1 small onion, diced

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

¾ cups feta cheese, crumbled

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper to taste

about a tablespoon of breadcrumbs(optional)

• Place the eggplants on a sheet pan and roast them at 400°F for 30-40 minutes, or until their flesh is soft.  Cut them open and scrape out the flesh, then place it in a colander.  Squeeze the eggplant flesh with your hands to press out as much excess liquid as possible.
• Chop the eggplant into small pieces and place into a bowl. 
• Sauté the onions in the olive oil until they are very soft.  Add them to the eggplant, leaving behind any oil that has not cooked off.  
• Add the parsley, the salt and pepper, and mix.
• Add the cheese and the egg.  Mix everything really well.
• If the filling is too moist, mix in a small quantity of breadcrumbs so that they can absorb the moisture.

 To assemble:

• Tear small pieces from the dough and roll them into balls, each the size of a walnut. Roll each ball into a circular shape 3 inches in diameter. No need to use flour when rolling out the dough. 

   

• Place a tablespoon of filling at one end of each circle. 
• Then fold the other end over.  Press down the edges and decorate them with a fork.

• Place the bourekas one inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Prick them with a fork to allow steam to escape while baking. 
• Brush them with egg wash and sprinkle some sesame seeds over them.  Bake at 375° F for 30–35 minutes until golden brown and crisp. 
• Serve hot or at room temperature. Alternately, you can make the bourekas ahead of time.  Once they have gone on the baking sheets you can cover them with plastic wrap and freeze them, taking them out and baking them a day or two later. 

EGGPLANT SALAD GREEK STYLE (MELITZANOSALATA)

Every summer our love affair with eggplant is renewed.  Grown in backyard gardens and sold at vegetable stands all over the world, eggplants come in various sizes, shapes and colours.  Bake them, stuff them, fry them, grill them, or even make sweet preserves out of them (yes, very small eggplants can be turned into a spoon sweet, a type of Greek dessert).  One of the most popular ways for Greeks to cook eggplants is to turn them into this luscious salad.  It's served as an accompaniment for drinks or as a starter to a meal. You can spread it on a piece of bread or eat it plain.  Either way, it is a heavenly summer treat.  Its texture is that of a spread or a dip, but Greeks simply refer to it as a salad. 

There are two types of eggplant salad:  One is really smooth and is made with grilled or roasted eggplant which is pureed with just some olive oil, lemon juice or vinegar, and a touch of garlic.  The other type, the one I prefer, is country-style rustic and chunky.  Its ingredients depend on regional interpretations.  For example, southern Greece produces a tremendous amount of tomatoes, therefore tomatoes tend to be added to just about anything, including eggplant salad. In Macedonia, where peppers are really plentiful, roasted peppers are added, and in Thrace, folks like to add walnuts. You could say that just about every Greek cook has his or her own version of this  salad. Being descended from Macedonian and Thracian stock, I add peppers and walnuts. That's how my grandmother made eggplant salad, and I follow suit.
  

The key to making a great tasting eggplant salad is to get fresh off the farm eggplants. Not long ago I bought some from the supermarket; they wound up tasting like cardboard. This time around I drove the two extra miles to a wonderful farm stand and there I found some really cute, and as it turned out great tasting minuature  eggplants. They were turned into a delicious salad. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

 black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon white balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 shallot or the half of a small onion

1 small clove of garlic 

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

2 Italian frying peppers or 1 large sweet pepper
2 tablespoons walnuts to make walnut butter

1 tablespoon well crumbled feta cheese 

5 or six baby eggplants

Directions:

• Prick the eggplants with a fork, set them on a baking sheet and roast them in a 400°F /200°C oven until the skins are wrinkled and the eggplants have collapsed. This should take about 40 minutes. 
• During the last half hour place the peppers in the oven and let them roast. 
• Remove the eggplants and peppers from the oven and allow them to cool until they are safe to handle. Peel the skin from the peppers and remove the seeds.
• Slice the eggplants down the middle and remove their flesh. Chop it up, chop up the peppers too, and place everything in a large bowl. 
• Chop the onion and garlic and throw that in the bowl as well.  
• Add the parsley, oregano and crumbled feta.
• Place the walnuts in a food processor and grind them until they are smooth and begin to release their oils. That's the walnut butter. Add it to the rest of the ingredients. If you don't want to go to all the trouble of making walnut butter, just chop the walnuts really well and use them that way. I alternate between the two methods, depending on my mood. If I feel that I'll enjoy washing the food processor, I'll make walnut butter.  If I want to stay away from suds, I just chop up the walnuts, and that's that!
• Now add the olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, and salt and pepper. Mix all the ingredients well.  You may need to play around with the amount of oil you're going to use.  Sometimes eggplants want just a bit more oil, sometimes they don't.
• I hope you love this recipe. The salad will keep covered in the refrigerator for about three or four days. But the longer it hangs around, the more potent the taste of garlic becomes (keep that in mind when you are adding garlic to it). If you're having company, the eggplant salad will be polished off, no worries! 

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.