In my elliptical way, I'm going to start with a memory from the last city I lived in I can consider 'International.' That would be Cleveland. I never before lived in a place with an identifiable Ukranian neighborhood, among many others. Cincinnati, much though I love it, does not rank extremely high on that scale: East and West mean something very different around here.
When my daughters were young and we lived in Lakewood, Ohio, just west of Cleveland, the Y was just around the corner. It seemed a Good and Proper Thing to join the Father and Daughter Y Indian Princesses. As a kid I belonged to the Y Indian Guides. This expansion of the tradition looked to be a first rate way to relive my past while passing on the experience to my daughters. The activities were great stuff. I remember vividly A Two-Day Trail Ride at a horse camp in Tuscawaras County, and My First Trip to Canada - on which occasion I discovered just how much ID a stepfather needs to take his older daughter out of the country.
When not on an out-of-town jaunt we met in the neighborhood. The other dads had great projects for the girls when we met at their houses.
Eventually it was my turn to host the gang. No fear. There was a project to create: I invented a cool way to make drums out of rawhide and PVC pipe fittings. And snacks to provide: Hmm. What did Indians eat? Pemmican and roots? Not at My Local Grocery. I searched the shelves, and opted for dried fruit and smoked fish.
The Indians never had it so good. I asked MLG for smoked fish and got some gourmet smoked trout. Dried fruit? A small bag or two of elegant dried blueberries. The other dads told me I could be their Indian Guide any time. Fortunately I had cocoa and cookies on hand as a backup, because the Princesses wouldn't touch the stuff. It was way too close to Nature.
My recent experience with Retsina of Attica Kourtaki Dry White Wine reminded me of this evening feeding the princesses' dads. I learned, once again, that some of the worst things in life can be yuppified and made palatable.
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| Kourtaki vineyards. Can you taste the marble? |
Serious wine lovers joke about retsina, the traditional Greek country wine that's flavored with pine resin, a tradition that allegedly goes back to Homer's time when the clay amphorae used to transport wine were sealed with resin, a practice that puportedly kept out air and gave the wine a characteristic flavor that covered any signs of spoilage. The bottom line? It's hard for a palate accustomed to Cabernet and Chardonnay to get accustomed to a wine that tastes like, well, turpentine.
That precisely describes my early experience with Retsina. Or should I say "Ρετσίνα?" My prior concept went out the window as the Kourtaki came from the bottle. The vintner's web site goes on a bit about its "clear, pale to golden-yellow colour .. delicate aroma of pine on the nose .. fresh and rich on the palate .. develops the characteristics of the Savatiano grape with the development of a piney flavour at the back of the throat." They end by calling it "A nicely balanced, delicately flavoured retsina with a clean crisp finish."
It's all true. Not more than a hint of turpentine in sight. The Metro version, if you ask me, but in a good and distinctly non-Pine-sol way.
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| The good stuff |
ΜΕΖΕΔΕΣ
(that's Mezes - or starters). Another branch of My Local Grocer features an olive bar with dolmades (γεμιστά αμπελόφυλλα, stuffed grape leaves), assorted olives, and gigantes (Γίγαντες giant marinated beans). I mixed up a batch of pita with Μελιτζανοσαλάτα (I really shouldn't call it melitzanosalata, the Greek eggplant salad, because what I made included tahini and no vinegar .. but I've got a great recipe for baba ghanouj and none at all for melitzanosalata and they are related.** By the eggplant ;^).
Μελιτζανοσαλάτα
Ingredients:
1 large eggplant
1/4C tahini
3 garlic cloves
1/2 lime, juiced
1 pinch ground cumin
salt to taste
garnish with olive oil, chopped parsley/cilantro and kalamata olives (optional)
Method:
1. Halve and broil the eggplant (cut side down, spray both sides with PAM and broil for half an hour. For real!)
2. Remove from the oven, let cool, and scoop the pulp into a food processor
3. Add the tahini, the garlic, the lime juice and the cumin then blend until smooth
4. Taste, and season with salt
5. Transfer the mixture to a serving bowl and spread with the back of a spoon to form a shallow well.
Optional Garnishes: Drizzle the olive oil over the top, sprinkle with parsley and place the olives around the sides
Serve at room temperature with pita bread sliced in wedges.
This recipe contains
625 calories
44 carbs
Don't eat it all by yourself!
So we nibbled on mezes and drank retsina while we waited for the main event to come out of the oven twenty minutes later, a perfectly marvellous pastitsio that went very well with the retsina as well. I would have to describe this dish as a macaroni lasagna with bechamel sauce, but this description scarcely does it justice. I've also seen the name defined as "a big mess in the kitchen." I must say that part is also true.
FULL DISCLOSURE WARNING
Keep in mind that the following recipe makes an entire lasagne pan, and plan your individual servings accordingly;*** the recipe is wonderful and you will be tempted to go back for more Until it's gone.
Παστίτσιο
Ingredients:
for the meat sauce-1T olive oil
2 lbs. ground beef or lamb (I used a pound of each)
2 onions, chopped
1C dry white wine
1 14 oz. can crushed tomato
3T chopped fresh parsley
1/2t ground allspice
1t ground cinnamon
1-1/2C grated Parmesan cheese (use Kefalotyri if available)
salt and pepper to taste
3T breadcrumbs
for the pasta-500g ziti/penne/#2 Macaroni for Pastitsio
5 egg whites (reserve the yolks for the bechamel sauce)
1/2C butter (1 stick)
for the bechamel-1/2C butter (1 sticks)
1/2C all purpose flour
3C milk, warmed
8 egg yolks, beaten lightly
a pinch of ground nutmeg
Method:
1. Boil the water for the noodles and preheat the oven to 350 (or, if you made the baba ghanouj, reset the oven to bake and 350 if you made the baba ghanouj and broiled the eggplant)
2. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan then brown the ground meat
3. Add onions and cook until they are translucent
4. Add wine, tomato sauce, parsley, allspice, cinnamon, salt, and pepper and simmer until the noodles are done
5. Cook pasta noodles according to package directions and drain; rinse to cool
6. Stir the breadcrumbs into the meat sauce (to soak up the liquid) then remove from heat.
7. Melt the first stick of butter in the pasta pot and put the cooked noodles back in
8. Stir in the beaten egg whites and a cup of the cheese Be gentle!
9. Spray the bottom and sides of the lasagna pan with olive PAM
10. Put half the pasta in the pan in an even layer
11. Add all the meat filling
12. Layer the rest of the noodles on top, then make the bechamel (this will require your full attention for several minutes)
13. Melt the second stick of butter in a clean then whisk in the flour to make a roux and let it bubble for a minute or two
14. Add the milk in three pours: the first wets the roux, the second makes the sauce and the third thins it out
15. Whisk continually as it thickens, then remove from the heat
16. Whisk in the egg yolks and add the nutmeg
17. Pour the sauce over the noodles and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top
18. Bake for half an hour or longer.
This recipe makes 24 portions, each with
330 calories
22 carbs
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| An appropriate portion of pastitsio |
A week later, due to a picture uploading problem and other irons in the fire, the Retsina is gone (good to the last drop) and there are only a couple of pieces of the pastitsio left. We each ate one last night, with a salad. It is still incredibly good. This morning I found another incredible Greek recipe for feta and eggs scrambled with chopped onion and diced tomato and served in pita halves: strapatsatha (στραπατσάδα). No further recipe required...
A couple of notes:
For a tremendous blog of Greek recipes and food culture (though from my point of view entirely unregulated) Sam Sotiropoulos is the guy. http://greekgourmand.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html
* Robin Garr at http://www.wineloverspage.com/wines/wt030398.shtml
** this is a lame excuse
*** It turned out to be one of those dinners that Nancy and I both had a hard time finding a place to stop eating, our bad luck. I looked at the pan later, and a third of it was gone. My numbers today are awful - hers too, but we track different things. The whole pan racks in at just under 8000 calories and 517 carbs. I'll just have to freeze the rest in sensible portions. While we'll have leftovers for days this is in no sense a bad thing. A complex recipe with a prodigous cleanup task, you want it to last a while. The right thing to do would be to have a single serving and with a salad alongside. Oh, and go light on the Μελιτζανοσαλάτα. I haven't made a mistake this bad since the night I had three Taco Bell beef and cheese burritos. It will be OK tomorrow...
pastitsio photo © Lynn Livanos Athan
