by Matt
As someone who has missed their fair share of holidays (sorry mom and dad) I have to say that the hardest thing about not being around during holiday season is missing the little things. For me it just doesn’t fully feel like Thanksgiving if there isn’t a football game on (despite the fact that no one is watching it) and my parents aren’t hustling me out the door half an hour early for dinner (despite the fact that the rest of my extended family is always at least half an hour late). Of course in reality the little things are just representative of the people, but for whatever reason thinking about them is what always sets off my homesickness.
And this Thanksgiving was no different. As the day unfolded I couldn’t help but think about the fact that the next Lions fan could be hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away and there would be no early dinners because in Argentina dinner is always served late. Plus here it is in the heart of spring.
So for much of the day I did contend with a mild bout of homesickness, but that evening we decided to make a Thanksgiving feast to chase away the holiday blues. Originally it was just going to be a nice little dinner, but like many a holiday dinner the menu quickly got out of control. In fact, because literally everyone here loves to cook (including one Italian-trained chef) it actually got more out of control than I’ve ever seen. Before we knew it there were 4 loaves of bread, rolls, 4 pies (2 apple, one pumpkin and one pecan-chocolate), banana cake, a roasting turkey, a moussaka made with the farm’s lamb, scalloped potatoes, mashed potatoes, black bean sweet potatoes, homemade stuffing, deviled eggs, cream-cheese celery sticks, two gravies, salad, and homemade elderberry champagne. And best of all, everything tasted good. Literally there was nothing that didn’t look and taste amazing and by the end we were all suffering from the type of stomach ache that only a Thanksgiving can bring.
Here are some pics and a recipe from the evening
Us making ground lamb for our moussaka
Everyone ready for a gringo style feast
Some of the bottles of elderberry champagne had more carbonation than others. I learned this the hard way
The dessert!
Recipe for Thanksgiving Moussaka (and though Moussaka, which is a greek lasagna of sorts, is an odd Thanksgiving dish, you have to remember that it is spring here. That means no gourds or cranberries, but lots of lamb)
3 Egg plants
1lb ground lamb or beef
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
3 TBS tomato paste
28 oz canned tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup red wine
1 1/2 tsps cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp oregano
4 TBS butter
4 TBS flour
4 cups warm milk
dash nutmeg
2/3 cup ricotta
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup hard cheese (pecorino, parmesan), grated
1. Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch slices. Salt the eggplant and put between paper towels to draw out the water. Let sit for 15 min.
2. Fry the eggplant in olive oil until crisp on each side.
3. Brown the meat and remove from the pan, reserving some of the grease (as much as you feel like leaving
4. Dice onions and sweat in the grease for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook one more minute. Add cinnamon, allspice, oregano, and tomato paste and stir for 30 sec. Add wine and stir for 30 sec. Add tomatoes, stir all together, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and added spices/wine to taste.
5. Melt the butter over med heat. Add flour and stir for 2 min.
6. Take the flour and butter off the heat and combine with the milk. Put this back on heat and bring to a boil, stirring regularly. Simmer for 15 minutes with occasional stirring. Finish with a few healthy dashes of nutmeg.
7. mix the ricotta and eggs in a separate bowl. Once it cools somewhat add the milk mixture to this and stir until it is all combined and fluffy.
8. Layer a glass baking pan with the ingredients in the following order: 1/2 the eggplant slices, 1/2 the meat sauce, 2/3 of the hard cheese, the other 1/2 meat sauce, the other 1/2 eggplant, the white sauce/ricotta mixture, the final 1/3 hard cheese.
9. Bake for 50 min at 350 and let cool 20 min.
10. Have a happy Thanksgiving!!
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