Perfectly Seasoned
The podcast about all things culinary.
Perfectly Seasoned
S3 E33 Moussaka
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Hello and welcome to Perfectly Seasoned, the podcast about all things culinary. I'm your personal chef, Greg Strom, and my guest co-host today is none other than my husband, Tim Luke. Hey! Today it's the national dish of this country. Can you guess what it is? Opa! Stay tuned. Hello, Tim, and welcome back.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you, husband. It's good to be back and great to be on the show. Glad to help out with Sally and Deanne now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. It's odd that they were both out of it. It just worked out that way, but you know that's the way life is. Sometimes it happens.
SPEAKER_02It's all right. I'm here. One glass in hand.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Well, it's going to be exactly the same structure as this as if they were here. So we're going to. Yeah. We're going to start out with anything on a stick. So today we're actually doing an hors d'oeuvre. It's very simple to put together. It's called Pickled Peach Skewers. Oh, this looks beautiful. What's in this? I'll have the recipe actually on my Facebook page, which is Greg Strom in parentheses the silver chef. It'll have the recipe and photos. But it's really simple to put together. What you do, you just take uh six small peach peaches, you pit it, and then you cut them into quarters, uh quarters, and then eighths. Eighths. It's a great so and then what you do is you put you you make the you m just make a very light pickling juice and you boil it.
SPEAKER_02Okay, what's a light pickling juice?
SPEAKER_01Well, it's just it has uh vinegars, you know, things like that. Oh, okay, right. Okay. And you just bring that and melt the sugar or the salt, and then there's some herbs in it, and then you just pour it, you let it cool slightly. Pour it over the yeah, it marinates the peaches. And while they're marinating, yeah, you can y put the rest of the stuff together. You uh on the skewer, there is So what's the green? The green is fresh basil. From our garden. Right.
SPEAKER_02You start with I'm gonna try one.
SPEAKER_01Okay. You start with you start with the little mozzarella pearl, and you can buy them just plain or herbed, and then you you go you put in a fresh basil leaf, and then you take a piece of prosciutto and wrap it around the pickled peach, and then you stick the skewer in it. And you could also do this with plums. Oh my. You could also do this with a plum. And it's nice because it gives you the sweetness of the peach and the sourness of the marinade, and then the the creaminess of the mozzarella, and then the fresh basil leaf.
SPEAKER_02That is flavor-packed. And you know what really sets it off is the fresh basil.
SPEAKER_01Don't chew with your mouth open.
SPEAKER_02No. Stop. It's the fresh basil really accents everything. I I think Sally would be proud of me. Sally would be very proud. And we're gonna have to, well, we're not gonna save one for her, but we will show her because it won't last. Even though it's pickled peach, this is a really great dish.
SPEAKER_01I apologize in advance if it's not up to your trying to fill your shoes, girl. Yeah. So, anyway, let's get on to the main event. And our main course today is moussaka. I'm so excited to have Andrea back on with us today. I look forward to every time she's on. And we we have a history. We go way back.
SPEAKER_02Like back to the flood.
SPEAKER_01Almost 45 years, to be honest. I think it's been close to 45 years, Andrea.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Maybe even longer. We were both maybe even longer.
SPEAKER_01We were both 10 years old.
SPEAKER_03That's true. That's true. I was a mere child.
SPEAKER_01So, but this dish, musaka, is it it's a national dish in Greece. It's not the only national dish. They have it's along with like Zuvlaki, which is another one. The and I just finally fit learned how to say this, gyro. Right. Or as we say in Ohio, Gyro, uh, and Spanikopoda, which is one also and don't forget baklava. That the the those are really kind of like the prime national dishes of Greece. And this particular dish is the ultimate great comfort food, in my opinion. So, Andrea, jump in. I want to hear everything about this.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Well, I started to make it and I'm working, and I'm working, and I'm working, and I'm working, and I'm going, oh my God, there's too many steps. This is just, oh my god, and my feet are hurting, and I'm going. And I'm saying, this better be worth it. This just better be worth the time because it took me five hours. Oh my God. What? It didn't take me that long.
SPEAKER_01But I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why in a moment, baby. Okay. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_03Well, you know, I I was trying to follow everything exactly. Right. And I was going so carefully to make sure that I did every step. And I didn't even uh fry the uh the eggplant separately. I baked it. I baked it on big cookie sheets.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_03Because if I had fried the eggplant separately, it would have taken me another hour.
SPEAKER_01Another hour. Yeah, you don't have that big of a pan. Well.
SPEAKER_03But I tell you something, I served it for dinner to new people we had just met last night. Nice, and everybody was going crazy. Going crazy. Bill said, You this has to this has to go in the repertoire. You have to keep making this. This is better than anything I've ever had in a Greek restaurant.
SPEAKER_01I thought I I just had a feeling Bill would really enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh my God, he went nuts.
SPEAKER_02The layers of flavor are amazing, but the way that it's put together, it is, it's really, I I really love it.
SPEAKER_01I'm I'm going to tell you something now that you've you've confessed that you were like it's very time consuming. Yeah. If you look at the if you take the recipe apart, the recipe itself is not complicated. It's a lot of steps. But what I exactly but what I am good at when I look at a recipe is how can I make it easier to prepare and still follow all of the instructions. And so what I ended up doing is I went through the recipe and all the steps, and I combined each step of the ingredients. The preparation. The preparation, because there each one is a separate recipe of its own.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I combined it that way so that I did, like I did the bechamel. Yeah, because that's a whole thing. Just the bechamel. I did the eggplant separately. And then that's a whole thing. And honestly, I started the day before.
SPEAKER_03Aha. Aha. You cheated.
SPEAKER_01No, no, I didn't cheat. I followed the recipe exactly.
SPEAKER_03How many ovens? How many ovens do you have? Oh no, just the one.
SPEAKER_02Just one. But but you did the eggplant. You did you did fried up and then you baked it eggplant? But then you did baked it.
SPEAKER_03I baked it. And I also baked the uh the the uh potato slices.
SPEAKER_01The potato slices I baked. Yeah. I baked. Now, can I ask you about the potato slices? Did you think the potato slices were a little too thin?
SPEAKER_03Yes, because some of them got too crispy, I thought.
SPEAKER_01They could be a little thicker. I think the next time I make the cream recipe, I'm going to make them just a tad thicker so that when you take your fork through it, you've got something to cut into. Because the potato creamy too, the potato. I was so excited to talk to you about this because I knew you were going to have something to say about it. And I knew you you guys were going to like it.
SPEAKER_03The most embarrassing thing is that I didn't know what evoo was.
SPEAKER_02Oh, darling, darling. Oh, even I've got virgin olive oil.
SPEAKER_03Even I'm reading, I'm reading the recipe. I'm going, Evo. What's an evil?
SPEAKER_02What's an evoo?
SPEAKER_03I don't know what an evil is. Wow. Obviously, you've never watched Rachel Red. I thought I would die.
SPEAKER_02Isn't that funny? Well, like, once you realize that's extra virgin olive oil, it's like a duh. Of course. Yeah. Of course. I love you. So great.
SPEAKER_03The best and the bechamel. The bechamel. I'm I'm like, I'm licking the silk. It's like silk. Oh my God. Oh my god. And I did also cheat a little, a teensy weency bit with the meat sauce.
SPEAKER_00But what do you do?
SPEAKER_03The recipe that you gave me first said instead of water, it had a combination of beef broth and red wine.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So that's what I did. Well, that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01That's that's like the meat sauce of the gods. Now, you do realize, of course, that you can switch out the beef for lamb, ground lamb.
SPEAKER_03I did. I did have a lot of sauce left over. I did not use like a third of it.
SPEAKER_01But you know what I did with it? I had enough left over that I made a small second one. And you can you can actually freeze it before you bake it.
SPEAKER_02And then you have that for later.
SPEAKER_01And then all you do is thaw it out and you can pop it in the oven and and bake it. So Okay.
SPEAKER_03Well, what I did is I froze the sauce, and uh I'm sure Bo will put it over pasta or something.
SPEAKER_01Well the thing is, you know, it calls for a nine by thirteen pan, but big it it actually You could use bigger. I I could you I think we could use a z not a ZD pan, but lasagna pan. Eleven by fourteen. Yeah. Easy. I think it would make and you wouldn't have to you would be able to use all the sauce. So that would be something that maybe you do if you're gonna have a house full.
SPEAKER_03New Year's Eve, I plan to. I'm gonna do a whole Greek night. I'm gonna do musaka. I'm gonna I made this incredible Greek salad. Oh, I started tziki and hummus and pita. It was just oh Andrea, that sounds amazing.
SPEAKER_01I'll look for my invitation.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Oh no, that that sounds lovely. That sounds lovely.
SPEAKER_03It'll be a little f frozen, but uh come on up.
SPEAKER_01Well, so far, now I for you've done a number of recipes for me on here. Where does this rank as far as this was the best? This was the best. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah, definitely. The paella, like I said, that didn't have enough uh zip. It didn't have enough flavor for me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but you now you now you know how to fix that. Now you know how you can make it your own.
SPEAKER_02You can do that. But that's the beauty of doing this, is that you just try these and then you figure this out. But boy, this this moussaka.
SPEAKER_03Oh perfection. Yeah, perfection.
SPEAKER_01I think I should get my I think I should get my Greek passport after all that. Get your Greek on. I mean, I've I I love going there because the the food is it's all it all comes from somebody's kitchen. It's like the most amazing thing ever.
SPEAKER_02We had the best opportunity when we were in Corfu. Greg did a Greek cooking class with a woman at her home to learn how to make the traditional Greek salad that does not actually have lettuce. And that's an American thing, and that was the whole difference. And boy, that this recipe when he made this, it was just like being back there in Greece.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, when you come down here, when you when you guys come down here this year, I want I want us, you and I, to have a dinner. I want us to do something together. Yeah, and and we'll we'll put all we'll do, we'll actually do a podcast about it. So wonderful video. So yeah. So but I'm so thrilled. I am so thrilled about this recipe that you enjoyed it because I well, more importantly, Bill enjoyed it. Well, listen, I knew Bill would enjoy it. I really knew Bill would enjoy it. Well, listen, Andrea, thank you so much. So great to talk to you. It's always great to talk to you. Okay, that was terrific. Here we are at the wine o'clock section of the show. And as usual, we have our resident Somalier, Cynthia Tosh.
SPEAKER_04Happy to be back.
SPEAKER_01Yep, she has some great insights for us today, I'm sure, because the recipe that we're doing today, it's moussaka. So, what are we drinking with it?
SPEAKER_04Oh, I'm so excited for this dish because Greek wines are having a renaissance, at least in my life right now. I have a dear friend who works for a Greek wine importer. So she was actually over last night, and we had some amazing Greek wine at my dinner party. So I was very excited to talk to you about what to pair with moussaka. So, moussaka, you know, is a heavier dish, right? But both red and white wines can work with this. So, my favorite, we'll start with red variety, is Sino Mavro. So maybe you've heard of this grape. It's one of the most popular out of the hundreds of indigenous grapes in Greece, and it translates to sour black. Sino being sour, and Mavro meaning black, just due to the high acidity and then the dark skin color of the grape. So that will help you remember that it's very elegant, lots of fruit and herbal characteristics, and some tomato leaf notes. Actually, I taste in the Cinemavro wines. And with this wine, so Cinnamavros, they should age a little bit to kind of calm down. So if you can find one from 2016 or 2017, they'll be drinking really well right now. But if you see a 2019 or a 2021, those are also very good. They're drinking really well. So absolutely give that a go. I really do enjoy it. And then if you want to do a white wine pairing, I say aciertico. Asiertico is one of my favorite white wines in general, has high acidity from northern Greece. They do a little bit of oak aging, so it has a little weight to it, so it can stand up to this hearty dish, kind of like an oaky Chardonnay would work if you can't find an acertico. But it just has really lovely acidity and it's just really a beautiful wine. You just don't want to go too light because you'll lose the flavor. You know, if you're drinking a Pinot Grigio with this dish, it's gonna just taste even more like water.
SPEAKER_02Right, because it's so rich with the eggplant and the beef and yeah, and the vegetables.
SPEAKER_04And then if you can't decide, do a rose. Rose in Moussaka is delicious, especially if you go with a darker rose, like like a taval, which is from like the Rhone area. So that's made. Some are made with a blend of white and red grapes, actually. So it tastes delicious, it's just a darker in color, and it's gonna have the weight that you need for the dish.
SPEAKER_01What what sort of about the soil? What sort of soil does it grow in there?
SPEAKER_04I'm not gonna get too nerdy at all.
SPEAKER_01Oh, but we love that.
SPEAKER_04It really does, it does really make a difference. It does, you know, and Greece is so exciting because there are varied microclimates and soils across the country. So you have volcanic soils like in Santorini, and then you have the influence of the sea breezes, and you have the mountains, you know, the high altitude vineyards and the sun-drenched hill, you know, like it there's just such a difference, and you can be, and this goes for anywhere, yeah, across the road, two vineyards facing each other across the road, and they can taste completely so different. So, yeah, so Greece is a really wonderful example. You can just go from region to region.
SPEAKER_02Well, you've turned me on to something new to try. Yeah, what was that grape again?
SPEAKER_04Okay, Cino Mavro and Asiurtico is the white. Nice, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, there you have it, everybody. It's straight from straight from the wine cork. Okay, Cynthia. Have a terrific week. Cheers.
SPEAKER_04Well do. You do the same. Cheers.
SPEAKER_01Okay, if you have any questions about today's recipes, or if you would like to be a guest home cook on Perfectly Seasoned, please email me at infothesilverschef.net. By the way, you can find the links to all the recipes on my Facebook page, which is Greg Strom parenthesis, the Silver Chef. And I'd like to thank Andrea for agreeing to try this recipe. I I've been waiting to talk to her about this for so long. And she was our guest cook home cook again this week. And she'll she's gonna be a regular. And I'd also like to thank Cynthia for always giving us these terrific recommendations. And of course, I have to say thank you to my wonderful husband Tim for filling in for Sally and Deanne. Thank you, Tim. Very welcome. Happy to. Okay, you can listen to Perfectly Seasoned on my website, thesilverschef.net, my Facebook page, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcast. This is Greg Strom, and I hope that this week is great for you. And remember to eat fresh, may the fork be with you, and may all your days be perfectly seasoned.