Yesterday was Οχι Day in Greece, the day that commemorate's Greece's refusal to join the Axis powers in WWII (όχι means "no" in Greek). To celebrate, I made two dishes that I thought embodied the various tastes of Greece. The first is called melopita, or honey pie.
This dish originated from the island of Sifnos. The pie's two main ingredients are honey, naturally, and soft cheese known as mizithra. Since it's a specialty cheese that's probably hard to find, I used ricotta, which is what most recipes I found suggested anyway.
The honey and ricotta is mixed together with eggs and a bit of corn starch to thicken it up. Zest from a whole lemon is added to brighten up the flavors. Orange would be good too.
The mixture is then poured into a pan to cook. I used a springform pan because that's what a couple recipes suggested. Do you know how difficult it is to line a pan like that with parchment paper? Pretty hard. I didn't even need to because the amount it made would have fit better into a regular pie dish. My pan was too large so the pie ended up pretty flat.
The melopita is then drizzled with more honey and sprinkled with cinnamon. It's perfect at room temperature or cold. This recipe is very similar to Italian ricotta pie to the point of almost being the exact same thing, just with honey instead of regular sugar. However, it does not have as many eggs and therefore is less custard-y.
Of course there's more to Greek food than desserts drenched in honey. I chose moussaka as the savory dish to prepare since it's considered one of the national dishes, and gyros are just meat in a pita. Nothing creative about that.
So I started with a "Greek seasoning" mixture. You can find Greek seasoning pre-mixed (I'm pretty sure everyone's had a can of Cavender's in their pantry at some point) but it was easy enough to mix some oregano, nutmeg, cinnamon, paprika, etc together.
Next some onion and veggie ground beef (traditional recipes use either lamb or beef) get thrown into a pot with the seasoning. I used Trader Joe's "beef-less ground beef" which works perfectly for recipes like these. The best thing about it is that you don't have to drain the fat out of it once it's cooked--although you do have to add a bit more olive oil to keep everything moist enough.
Then comes a half-cup of the finest red wine $3 can buy. Actually, this 3-buck chuck is not the best for cooking. It's way too sweet, and I'm currently trying to figure out a way to use it up without having to drink it straight (mulled wine maybe?)
Once the wine reduces, a can of diced tomatoes and some veggie broth are then added in and simmered until it turns into more of a sauce than a stew.
Meanwhile, the eggplant that forms the base layer is sliced, salted, patted dry and broiled until soft.
And very thinly sliced potatoes are boiled.
Once everything's ready, the eggplant are placed in a baking dish to form the first layer.
The "meat" sauce is layered on top of that.
Then come the boiled potatoes and a layer of bread crumbs. I'm not sure of the purpose of the bread crumbs. Perhaps to keep the potatoes from becoming overly soft?
Lastly, a very appetizing-looking mixture of Greek yogurt, eggs, ricotta, and feta. Looks like beef stroganoff gone very, very wrong.
But once the moussaka is baked and briefly broiled, that cheese and yogurt layer gets somehow both crispy and chewy.
Greek comfort food at its finest. It was perfect for a rainy, damp day. The best way to describe moussaka to someone who's never had it would be like a more composed shepherd's pie.
I wanted to keep this moussaka pretty traditional, but I bet it would be fun to play around with the flavors some (sweet potatoes on top, anyone?) It's also served in the Middle East/Levant so I bet zaatar, mint, and lentils would make great additions as well.
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