Kaimusailing

I found the moussaka recipe I had used 45 years ago in the NY Times online. The original recipe was in the TASTE cookbook which has been reprinted as THE ETHNIC CUISINE cookbook. Unfortunately the moussaka recipe is not in the new edition. The recipe makes 8 entree sized portions, too much for our purposes. I cut it in half. What it makes is kind of like a lamb and eggplant loaf with tomato sauce and bechamel sauce.
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Here I quote the NYT Recipe Directions:
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PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prick eggplants several times with a fork. Rub a little olive oil into their skins. On a large baking sheet, roast eggplants until soft, about 30 minutes, turning frequently. Remove from oven and let cool. Cut into 1/2-inch-thick round slices.
In a saute pan, heat 4 tablespoons olive oil over high heat and brown eggplant slices lightly on each side. Do this in batches, adding more oil as necessary. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Set aside.
MAKE TOMATO SAUCE:
In a saucepan heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add 1 chopped onion and 2 chopped garlic cloves, and saute until tender. Add tomatoes and their puree, squeezing them into coarse chunks. Add parsley, oregano, cinnamon and vinegar. Stir well. Simmer, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Reserve.
PREPARE LAMB:
In a large saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add remaining onions and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes. Add lamb, in stages if necessary, and brown well, breaking up pieces with a wooden spoon. Add wine and bring to a boil. Cook until wine has nearly evaporated. 5. Season lamb with salt, black pepper and 2 pinches of nutmeg. Stir in 1 cup of reserved tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.
PREPARE BECHAMEL:
In a large saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat, and gradually whisk in flour. Cook for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Do not let this brown. Add hot milk and whisk rapidly to combine. Bring to a slow boil, whisking constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring frequently, until smooth and thickened. Season with salt, white pepper and remaining 2 pinches nutmeg. Let cool slightly.
In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and whisk in a spoonful of bechamel. Whisk in remaining bechamel in a thin stream, and adjust seasoning.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Assemble moussaka: Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs across the bottom of a large baking dish (18-by-8-by-3 inches) and cover crumbs evenly with half the eggplant slices. Drain as much oil from lamb mixture as possible, and spread the meat over the eggplant layer. Top meat with half the cheese, then with half the remaining bread crumbs. Place remaining eggplant slices on top of the bread crumbs, then add the bechamel, remaining cheese and remaining bread crumbs in even layers. Dot with remaining butter.
Bake for 45 minutes, until well browned. Remove from oven and let cool slightly, about 15 minutes. Cut into 3-inch squares to serve. Serve with the extra tomato sauce.
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Whew! I did some short cuts, made it more like a meatloaf, especially because the market had no lamb and I had to use beef. Also I made a mistake of using condensed milk in the bechamel sauce, which made it sickly sweet. I ended up throwing it out. The rest of the moussaka was fine. It is important to use lamb if possible because it is an essential part of the dish’s flavor.
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Eloisa gave Blue a puppy cut which made him look cute, although he hasn’t lost any of his bad habits, chasing the UPS truck, whose driver gave him doggie treats, reinforcing .that bad habit. It’s like training your dog to chase trucks.
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I needed to do some cleaning and reorganizing, but it’s not reorganization, it wasn’t organized in the first place. First I cleaned the dinette and then stowed some laundry bins with clean folded clothes in there. That freed up space in the pilothouse. I began stowing tool things in a 5 gallon bucket, hardware in a plastic bin of hardware, and trash, just a few other things that didn’t classify, but the space was cleared out, at least half of it, and I vacuumed the floor. Half done.
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The next day I sprayed Awesome cleaner undiluted on half the overhead and on the starboard pilothouse side above the belt line that is in line with the cabin top ahead of the pilothouse. After cleaning these areas I mounted five clothes hooks which could be used for foul weather gear, lifejackets, etc.
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Robert and Eloisa hightailed it up North to the Carolinas, so I decided not to do Pizza Night. Instead I will try to resurrect the moussaka with some tomato sauce, it will be more like a Greek meatloaf than anything else.
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The image is a shot of the marsh taken on Easter Sunday.