Burgers: a la Greque

It's Greek to Me



A few summers back I was playing with burger ideas and thought a marinated burger sounded like a good idea. So I bought a small chuck roast, mixed up a marinade, and marinated the roast over night. The next day I dried the roast off with a towel, cubed it, and made ground beef. It was a mixed success. The flavor was pretty much what I hoped, but the meat had absorbed too much marinade and wouldn't hold together on the grill. I put the idea aside until this past summer when I decided to try again.

This time I decided that instead of actually marinating the meat, I'd simply add a bit of the marinade ingredients to the ground beef. My thinking was this approach would give me more control over the amount of liquid. With some tweaking I got the burger I'd hoped for.

Juniper Berries are the berries from a relative of the juniper shrubs used in landscaping.

Make these up a few hours in advance to give the flavors time to meld before grilling. And I like serving them on these Black Pepper/Garlic Buns with a slice of red onion, some sliced cucumbers, and tzatziki sauce.

Marinated Greek Burgers
Makes 4 servings

Burger:
1 1/2 pounds ground chuck
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine
1 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
12 juniper berries, crushed then finely chopped*
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh oregano
1 large clove garlic, crushed
Tzatziki Sauce:
1 cup Greek-style yogurt**
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Thoroughly mix together all the burger ingredients, form into patties, wrap separately in plastic, and refrigerate for at least four hours and as long as 24 hours to allow flavors to meld.

Mix all tzatziki ingredients together and chill.

Put burgers on grill over medium heat for about 5 minutes per side. Serve on a bun with tzatziki sauce, thinly sliced cucumbers, and red onion.

*Juniper Berries are the berries from a relative of the juniper shrubs used in landscaping. They have a delicious resinous flavor and can be found at upscale markets. If you can't find them, increase the minced rosemary by 50 percent.

**Greek yogurt is thicker than most commercial yogurt. If you can’t find it, drain regular plain yogurt in a couple of folds of cheesecloth in a sieve over a bowl for 6 hours.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | burgers | greek

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National Meatloaf Day: Greek Lamb Meatloaf

Let Your Meat Loaf



I think I last heard someone say, "Don't let your meat loaf," about 150 years ago, but I may be exaggerating. It could have been longer. Nevertheless, when I was sophomoric it was usually good for a chuckle and, sophomores being sophomores (not tremendously creative) it's probably still good for at least a pained expression from the more sophisticated sophomores (is that an oxymoron?) and a guffaw from the others.

Serious Eats has declared October 18 National Meatloaf Day. And, although I've largely quit participating in such meme-ish events and know well that when Louis Carrol wrote, "And the mome raths outgrabe," he actually meant, "and the meme routes sour grapes," I was tempted to participate in this online event because I love meatloaf, and yet, unlike so many traditional American dishes, this one I feel — for some reason — more than willing to play with.

I think about recipes to put myself to sleep. Don't you?

Some sort of variation seemed called for. Perhaps because I know that meatloaf is only a coarse pâte/terrine, or perhaps because pâte is essentially a peasant dish — whatever the elite chefs have done with it. At any rate, I laid in bed last night thinking about ways to contribute to the meatloaf mome, er, meme. (Yes, I think about recipes to put myself to sleep. Don't you?)

But, I've been focused on lamb of late. I'm trying to develop a lamb sausage and so it seemed like a good time to revisit an idea for lamb loaf given to me by a friend's sister.

The mint and feta give it a Greek flavor, and the tzatziki sauce carries that through nicely. But if I'd really been thinking, I would have found a bottle of retsina to go along with it — and tossed a glug or two into the mix. But I wasn't thinking, I was drifting off to sleep.

Greek Lamb Loaf
Serves 4.
Based on an idea by Maggie Roberts.

1 lb ground lamb
1 tbsp olive oil
3 oz feta, crumbled
1 sm onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
2 garlic cloves — minced
1/4 c pignoli — toasted
1/4 c bread crumbs
1/4 c chopped fresh mint
2 tbsp minced fresh rosemary
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp coarsley ground black pepper (the feta provides salt)

Sautee onion and garlic in olive oil until fragrant and translucent.

Combine all ingredients, shape into a loaf, and bake at 350F until internal temperature is 155F. Allow to rest for 30 minutes before slicing.

Drizzle with tzatziki sauce.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | lamb | meatloaf | greek | national meatloaf day

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Gyros

Across the Sea



I think it was in 1971 that I drove, with one of my father's students, from Cairo to Alexandria. We were taking my family's VW minivan to Alexandria to load on a boat for the journey to Greece. The plan was for me to accompany the van to Greece while the rest of my family flew to Athens. I've no idea why I was going with the van, and in a recent conversation, neither do my parents. Apparently it seemed like a good thing to do at the time.

We do remember that the student was with me to handle language issues (I didn’t speak Arabic, a notoriously difficult language for Westerners) and probably also to keep me from doing anything terminally stupid. At any rate, we apparently arrived in Alexandria and got the van loaded without incident. I don't particularly recall the drive so I was either stoned (not likely), sleeping, or being a stupid mindless teenager. The latter gets my vote. But I do remember the boat journey.

The sun was already hot in June, but the breeze was cool, the smell of the sea innervating, and the water a blue so intense it made your teeth hurt.

The boat hauled freight, passengers were very much a sideline. I had a berth in steerage. It was a cabin about nine feet wide with six bunks in it, three per side. That was it. The head was down a passageway and was the sort of place one visited only when one's bowels were near the bursting point. There was no toilet, only a hole in the deck one squatted or stood over. Hitting the hole was apparently optional.

Steerage was not a pleasant place. Especially once we were out in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and some folks started getting sea-sick.

I was lucky, I had a few qualms the first day but nothing serious and was fine thereafter. And the weather was magnificent (more luck) so I stayed on the top deck. The sun was already hot in June, but the breeze was cool, the smell of the sea innervating, and the water a blue so intense it made your teeth hurt.

A half dozen or so of us quickly formed a clique and played cards, mainly Spades, for most of the trip. There was a middle-aged Greek guy with a quick smile and no teeth, a couple of young Danes traveling together who shared my berth, and a couple of others I don’t recall except as splashes of color. We'd sit in the mess playing cards, drinking beer, and smoking. When someone got tired they'd wander outside to stretch and breath and someone else would take their place.

And so we proceeded for three days from Alexandria, Egypt to Piraeus, Greece where I met my family and we offloaded the van.

We had dinner in Piraeus and to begin ordered a plate of fried calamari, the first I'd ever had and they were extraordinarily good, like eating candy. We polished off a huge platter and ordered a second one.

The next day we did the tourist thing and stopped in a taverna for lunch where I ate my first gyro — another amazing food experience and one I've tried on occasion to recreate here at home. Last week I came very close, close enough that I'm willing to publish the recipe, an honor none of my previous efforts earned. The texture isn't quite right, but that's a minor issue.

Gyros
Serves 4.

Meat mixture:
1 lb ground lamb
1/4 c minced red onion
2 cloves garlic — minced
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
Tzaztiki:
1 c Greek-style yogurt
2 cloves garlic — crushed
1 8-inch cucumber — peeled, seeded, and finely diced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
Sandwich:
4 rounds of flat bread or pita.
lettuce
tomato — seeded and diced

Tzaziki:
If you can't find Greek yogurt, use ordinary yogurt but remove excess liquid from it by dumping it in a sieve lined with cheesecloth and letting it drain over a bowl for 4 hours.

Add remaining tzatziki ingredients, mix, and chill for an hour or so.

Meat mixture:
Thoroughly combine all ingredients in a bowl. Divide into four equal portions and shape into oblong patties about 3" wide, 6" long, 1/2" thick. Refrigerate for an hour.

Sandwich:
Grill patties over a hot fire for 3 - 4 minutes per side. Spread tzatziki sauce down the center of a flat bread round, add a lettuce leaf, add some diced tomato. Add the patty, fold the bread over the lamb, and enjoy. Note: wrapping in foil helps hold things together.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin weeks | seriously good | gyros | greece | sandwich | greek

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Feta-stuffed Peppers

Making a Meze



Last week was hellishly busy and up until today, so has this week. That's a good thing because it means I'm making money, but by last Saturday I was a vegetable and that was my only break before today. All of which is by way of explaining why it's been so long since I posted something real here.

The killer last week was a meze party on Friday evening for 25. Meze is the Middle-Eastern name for what the Spanish call tapas and I spent all day Thursday and Friday making "small bites." The menu consisted of:

Keftedes –— Greek meatballs
Marinated Lamb Kabobs
Hummus with pita and vegetables
Stuffed Peppers
Dolmades

You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six. ~ Yogi Berra


Lemon-marinated Chicken Strips
Tuna-stuffed Deviled Eggs
Fried Kefalotyri (cheese)
Orange/Yogurt Cake

It was a good selection of dishes and, aside from the dolmades falling apart during cooking (which prompted a substitution of mushroom crostini) the prep went smoothly. Although there was plenty of food, no food came back on plates meaning everyone liked everything they ate and while there was a bit of food leftover, everything was tried.

Ordinarily when I do these affairs I don't have time to take photos, but I've been wanting to post the recipe for these stuffed peppers for a couple of years now. These little bites are not only delicious, but they're easy to make and as good at room temperature or cold as they are warm. Because of their ease and flexibility they’re one of my favorite picnic foods in addition to being a great amuse Bouche. You can also substitute chèvre for the feta and use other herbs.

Feta-stuffed Peppers

3 ea lg. bell peppers (assorted colors)
6 oz feta chesse –— crumbled
1/2 ea lemon –— juiced
1/4 c minced red onion
3 tbsp minced fresh dill
1 ea egg –— beaten

Heat oven to 375F.

Stem the peppers and cut into eighths, top to bottom. Remove pith and seeds. Cut eighths in half cross-wise.

Mix all remaining ingredients in a small bowl with a fork, crushing any large chunks of cheese. Spoon about a tablespoon of the cheese mixture into each pepper segment and arrange on a baking sheet. Bake on the middle rack until cheese begins to brown – about 15 minutes.

Serve hot, warm, room temperature, or cold.

Technorati: Food | recipe | meze | tapas | appetizer | hors d'ouevres | picnic | greek

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Pastitsio

Food for Working



Jeez! "Food for Working" sounds like a white-collar pretension of blue-collar roots, doesn’t it? But I don’t mean it that way. We all have jobs. We all sometimes get up earlier than we wish. We have aspects of our jobs we hate (and, hopefully, aspects we love). We all feel we're worth more than we're paid. We all get tired and irritable. We all come home from our jobs to eat things that, in a more perfect world, we'd avoid but that are quick, easy, and require no thought. Food that satisfies nothing more than our need for enough nutrition to enable us to get up too early tomorrow and do it all over again.

I've eaten my share of such meals, and I would be the last to argue there's something inherently wrong with a TV dinner or stopping by a KFC (I don't know what a KFC is, but it tastes a little bit like chicken) on your way home or even ordering a pizza from Pap John's. I eat all those things, but not often. For me, they're almost treats (and it's definitely a treat when I get a pizza delivered) and I like it that way.

If we're not willing to settle for junk living, we certainly shouldn't settle for junk food. ~ Sally Edwards

But when I come home from work (or, these days, knock off from work at home) I want something packed with flavor and goodness. Something that can make up for a bad day or celebrate a good day equally well — and in my years of eating and cooking I've found that nothing serves so well as peasant food.

What is peasant food? It's the native food of a culture. It's what the poor people, the working class, ate. In this country it's what the immigrants ate before they got hooked on Kraft Mac-n-Cheese and Burger King and frozen dinners and forgot how to cook. And I guess, to that degree, the idea of peasant food is pretentious — even condescending. But, again, that's not my intent.

Although I don’t come from a blue-collar background, I did grow up on a farm and have hauled more hay, dug more post-holes, and weeded more corn than I like to remember. I've also made a living refinishing furniture, making pizza, checking stock, playing music, and a few other things. My life as a well-paid white-collar worker was relatively brief — and even then my preference was for lamb daube from Provencal, masallah from India, Cornish pasties from England, and fried chicken from the South. It's not food well-suited to our sedentary life-styles, but it's food that makes you glad you were born with a set of functioning taste buds.

Some of these peasant foods are now regarded as haute cuisine. Fondue? Invented by Swiss herders. Bouillabaisse? Whatever the fishermen in Marseilles couldn’t sell. Cassoulet? Beans used to make a bit of leftover meat go further. Pâte? It's just meatloaf with the added advantage of making liver more palatable.

Then there are the wonderful things like stew, chile, homemade pizza, and barbeque that remain un-apologetically low-brow. And they are foods that take cheap ingredients and make them deeply satisfying. For instance two 12-inch pizzas from Papa John's cost about $25, but I can make two superior pizzas for $8.

Whatever their origins, such foods are simple to make, packed with flavor, and a satisfying end to a long day whether you were pruning grape vines, managing a shop, or debating an ordinance at city hall. They just aren't "fast." But many such foods are better the second or third day anyway — so make them when you have time and regard the leftovers as a bonus. Something to be looked forward to, not avoided. Something to make a really good dinner completely painless, at least half the time. Something for those nights when you get home tired and hungry. Something to replenish your body and your soul.

And if tonight is such a night, Pastitsio, a Greek meat and pasta pie, is a perfect example. It's best with lamb, but beef also works. Pastitsio is rich and savory — a genuine "rib-sticker" as we say in the South — and is at least as good as leftovers as it is the day you make it. Don't let the nutmeg and cinnamon scare you off — you'll never know they're there, but the dish is poorer without them. Enjoy it with a hearty Zinfandel or Malbec.

Pastitsio
Serves 8.

1/2 pound penne pasta
1/2 pound shredded mozarella

Lamb mixture:
1 pound ground lamb (or beef)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion — diced
2 large cloves garlic — minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup red wine
1 can finely diced tomatoes (15 oz)
4 ounces feta cheese — crumbled

Sauce:
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
2 egg yolks — lightly beaten
4 ounces kefalotiri (or parmegiano) cheese — grated or shredded
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cook penne according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water to eliminate sticking, and set aside.

Lamb mixture:
Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Brown lamb in two batches, seasoning with salt and pepper. Set lamb aside and pour off excess grease.

Reduce heat to medium and add onion. Cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, rosemary, oregano, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cook another minute. Add wine and deglaze pan. Reduce wine to about 1 tablespoon. Stir in tomatoes, including liquid, and lamb. Season with additional salt and pepper. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir in feta cheese and cook another 5 minutes.

Heat oven to 400F.

Sauce:
Heat milk in the microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes. Melt butter in a sauce pan over low heat. Whisk in flour and cook, stirring constantly, for four minutes. Slowly pour in hot milk, whisking steadily, and cook until thickened. Slowly whisk in egg yolks. Whisk in kefalotiri (or parmegiano) cheese, cooking until melted and thick. Stir in salt and pepper.

Assemble:
Toss pasta with shredded mozzarella. Layer 3/4 of pasta in the bottom of 9 x 13 casserole dish. Layer meat mixture on top of pasta. Distribute remaining pasta over meat. Pour sauce evenly over pasta.

Place casserole in middle of oven and cook for 25 - 30 minutes until top browns.

Technorati: Food | recipe | lamb | pasta | greece | greek | pastitsio

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