The eggplants win…

From Mary’s kitchen

Its high summer in the South!  I have been out of touch with the blog for a bit.  I’ve moved to a lovely house on the bay and have been occupied with work to get moved in, getting the old house ready for sale and my day job…  Needless to say, writing about cooking has not been high on my list lately. 

On the move in April, I was so excited to finally have gardening space, but didn’t want to wait for raised beds to arrive.  So I stuck a couple of young tomato plants in a large pot by the side of the drive with early excellent progress.  As the plants began to challenge the space, sufficient watering became an issue.  Also, I did not anticipate the impact of wind living on the bay.  Recent hard storms left the pot with its 5-foot high tomato plants, laden with green tomatoes, on its side in the drive - twice. The plants rapidly began to look much worse for the wear and bit the dust before I could polish my tomato recipes…red or green.  Alas. 

Globe and Japanese eggplants on the other hand went into the raised beds.  At present they are more than 4 feet high, with many blooms and many ripening or ripe eggplants.  So, in the light of “go with the flow” or in this case, “go with the eggplant”, I made moussaka.  The larger globe variety worked well for this purpose. My recipe is a scaled down and modified version of Marilyn Morash’s moussaka from the Victory Garden Cookbook.  I’ve made this recipe in larger quantities, with spicy Italian sausage or ground beef, with more eggs or less, in advance or just-in-time, with prepared short-cuts or no.  It always works and always gets rave reviews.

4 lb eggplant

1 large onion, chopped

2-3 Tbsp chopped garlic

1 ½ lb ground beef

1 32 oz jar Arrabiatta pasta sauce

2 eggs, for pasta sauce

6 Tbsp butter

3 ½ Tbsp flour

2 cup warmed milk

12 oz grated Romano cheese

1 egg yolk, for Bechamel sauce

½ cup bread crumbs

Olive oil

The eggplant:  Slice washed and dried eggplants into ¾’ rounds. Sprinkle on both sides with salt and let sit for 30 min to draw some of the moisture from the eggplant.  Dry off with paper towels, brush lightly on both sides with olive oil, then broil until lightly browned, turning once.  Set aside.

The tomato/ground beef sauce: Heat 2 Tbsp of the butter and 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large saute pan, add onions and garlic, cooking until soft and slightly browned. Add the ground beef – stir occasionally until just cooked through.  Add the Arrabiatta sauce, then add salt and pepper to taste.  Some moussaka recipes call for ground lamb and dill (as does Morash’s).  I think ground beef or pork work fine.  When the sauce has cooked down some, add the 2 eggs, beaten and stir to combine.

The Bechamel sauce:  Combine the flour with 4 Tbsp. of the butter, cooking while stirring for a couple of minutes.  Preheat the milk (I use the microwave), and stir into the butter/flour roux over several additions, incorporating completely each time to prevent development of lumps. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Stir in the Romano cheese and the egg yolk when the Bechamel has cooled a bit. 

Assemble the moussaka: Coat the bottom of a baking dish with olive oil and bread crumbs.  Layer eggplant to cover the bottom, add ½ of the tomato/ground beef mixture, repeat, then top with a final layer of eggplant.  Cover with the Bechamel sauce.  Bake at 350 °F for 45-60 min.  The assembled dish can be cooled, covered and refrigerated, even overnight.  Add 10-15 min to the baking time in that case.

Eat.  You may need company to help, but left-overs are just as good.

While searching on-line for a link to Morash’s recipe (no luck there), I ran into an old newsletter called Repast from the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor.  According to their research, Marilyn Morash apparently owed her cooking skills to Julia Child. Morash’s husband Russell Morash was the producer/director for Child’s early PBS show called “The French Chef”.  The story is that Julia frequently sent home partially cooked dishes, with detailed instructions for completion. So, Marilyn Morash built her cooking skills on “The French Chef” left overs, and parlayed her accomplishments into the Victory Garden cookbooks.  So, perhaps my moussaka recipe has been passed on, via Marilyn Morash, from Julia Child. The begats of cooking!

 Meg's Comment:

I can't wait to try your recipe but I will probably cut it in half and further reduce the amount of meat since the hubby and I don't eat a lot of meat.  Although I love a good lamb chop, I agree that using ground beef or pork is preferable to using ground lamb because it is probably ground mutton (older sheep and stronger in flavor)