Greek food revisited

My first encounter with authentic Greek food was four years back in Greece. There was an unusual sense of thrill and excitement in exploring the small cobbled alleyways and boutique shops of Santorini as it resonated with the excitement of starting a new chapter in my life! It was here that we found the perfect tzatziki to whet our appetite and a hearty moussaka to fill our stomach and satiate our senses.

In today's party, I tried to recreate the same recipes and finish it with, Zabaglione, a dessert that probably took most of my 'cooking' time in the kitchen! But it's definitely worth a try and considerably easy if you have a hand blender ;)


Menu Idea:
Here is the menu detail for your greek party:
1. Salad: This is my interpretation of a simple and quick greek salad that's elegant to serve.
2. Appetizer: Tzatziki and toasted pita bread - yet another super quick and delicious meal in itself.
3. Main course: Moussaka - this is a lighter version of the dish made with ground chicken instead.
4. Dessert: Zabaglione - eggs, sugar and cream - ingredients for a perfect dessert :)

Time: 2hr 30min, from opening the fridge to take out ingredients to cleaning the last inch of the countertop(utensils washing time included).

 

For serving the Greek salad, I used endive leaves as my base. I chopped tomatoes, onions, cucumber, olives and feta cheese and dressed them with little lemon juice and olive oil. The sourness in lemon works well with the bitterness of the leaves.

Table Setting:
For a cute Greek table setting I used simple white and blue place mats as everything on the Greek Islands is white and blue, including their flag!!

For the center piece I recycled an old can, dressed it up with some twine and used living thyme to spice up the entire atmosphere on the table.

I wrapped some blue tissue paper around yogurt cups and places tea lamps for a cozy effect and randomly arranged lemons next to the lamps.

Using decorations of herbs and spices that you have used in the food are a great way to start interesting conversations.

Chicken Moussaka

This is a great one pot dish - oven to table - that is also one of my favourite dishes to entertain.
I think it is a little time consuming since it involves cutting and layering and a little bit of cooking as well.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground chicken
2 garlic cloves - finely chopped
1 big eggplant - slices thinly, ~2cm in thickness
2 potatoes - slices thinly
1 medium sized onion - slices thinly
1 medium courgette - slices thinly
3 tomatoes - chopped
Dried thyme
Dried oregano
Salt
Black pepper ground
Olive oil
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
3 cup milk
1 cup Parmesean cheese - grated
Nutmeg powder
1 cup Mozzarella cheese - grated

Method:
1. Marinate: Marinate the vegetables in three separate bowls - poatoes and onions, eggplant and courgettes - with olive oil, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper.
2. Potatoes: In a deep baking dish, layer the potatoes and onions in a single layer and start baking at 375F/190C oven for 15 minutes.
3. Chicken: While that happens, in a sauce pan heat some olive oil with garlic in it and then saute it for a few seconds. Now add ground chicken and cook for 5-8 minutes.
4. Once you have broken the meat pieces into chunks, add dried thyme, oregano, pepper and chpped tomatoes. Keep cooking until the mixture is dry.
5. Eggplant: After 15 minutes, take the dish out of the oven and layer it with eggplants and cook for another 15 minutes.
6.  Bechamel sauce: While your dish is baking and chicken is cooking, take another sauce pan to prepare the bechamel sauce. In this start melting your butter with some olive oil over medium to low flame. Once the butter is melted, add the flour and cook for a few minutes. Now start adding milk slowly so that no lumps are formed. Once the sauce thickens, add parmesean cheese, pepper and nutmeg. Season with salt cautiously.
7. Courgettes: Take out the pan and layer the courgettes. Cook for another 7-10 minutes.
8. Final layer: Add some of the sauce to ground chicken to keep it moist while it bakes. Finally layer the ground chicken and top it with the Bechamel sauce. Bake this for another 15 minutes.
9. Final step: Finally layer the dish with mozzarella cheese. Increase the oven temperature to 400F/200C and bake until the crust is brown, around 10-15 minutes.

Let the Moussaka to rest for 10 minutes after it comes out of oven while you enjoy a glass of nice red wine. Enjoy the fruits of your love and labour! :)