Pastitsio (macaroni pie)

GREEK PASTITSIO (Macaroni pie)

This recipe is for 16 people.

To make this dish use a large and deep pan with dimensions 31CH41CH6 cm.

Ingredients for the ground beef

1500 grams of lean ground beef

80 grams of olive oil

4 large, ripe tomatoes

Pepper and salt

1 medium dry onion

Ingredients for the white sauce (Bechamel)

2.5 liters of milk 3.5% fat

180 grams margarine

200 grams all purpose-flour

Ingredients for the basis of pastitsio

400 g spaghetti no 2

8 g. margarine

300 grams of grated cheese for pasta
Suitable cheeses are kefalotiri, the gruyere, the parmesan and generally all slireses.

Instructions

Pastitsio Base

Put water in a pot and place it over high heat.

When the water boils, put the pasta in the pot and stir.

Boil the pasta until tender but not over boiled.

Drain the pasta in a colander and drain it well.

Empty the pasta in the pan and put in it 8 g margarine and most of the grated cheese.

Stir well so the cheese goes all over the pasta.

Leave aside some cheese to spread it over the Bechamel sauce.

Spread the pasta evenly in the bottom of the pan.

The pasta forms the basis of pastitsio.

Heating the milk

Pour 2.5 liters of milk in a pot and put it over medium heat.

Heat the milk you are going to use for the sauce.

Wait until the milk warms up, do not let it boil.

Remove it from the heat before boiling and let it aside.

If it boils, it swells and it spills out.

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Cooking the meat
Clean the onion and chop it.

Place a saucepan over medium heat and put the olive oil in it.

Put the onion in the saucepan.

Stir occasionally, until the onion becomes soft and tender.

Add the ground beef in the onion and stir well. Add salt and pepper.

Reduce heat and let the meat to warm up and produce its fluids.

Stir often and break the lumps that are formed as the meat boils.

Press them with a fork and break them.

The meat begins to soften after 45 min.

Wash the tomatoes. Cut them in small pieces and put them in the blender.

Mince them and put them in the ground beef.

Stir occasionally the meat and let it to boil until its fluids are absorbed for their most part.

Empty the minced meat in the pan and spread it evenly over the base of pasta.

How to make the Bechamel sauce

Place a saucepan over low heat and pour in the margarine.

Stir until it melts.

Put in the melted margarine little by little the flour while stirring.

Cooke the flour until its color becomes light brown.

The flour burns easily so stand over the saucepan and stir continuously.

When the flour is ready, pour in the saucepan cup by cup all the hot milk.

Beat the cream with a hand blender and homogenize it.

Stop the blender and continue to stir the cream with spoon ladle.

The cream sticks to the saucepan very easily, so mix constantly.

If you understand that the crème is going to stick, reduce more the heat..

When it stars to boil, remove it from the heat.

When it is warm, empty it into the pan over the meat.

With a spatula spread the cream evenly throughout the pan.

Sprinkle grated cheese over the Bechamel sauce.

Put the pan in the oven on the middle rack.

Bake it at 200 C degrees for 45-50 minutes.

When the pastitsio is ready, it smells nicely and its surface takes beige color.

Take the pan out of the oven and leave it to cool.

If you try to cut the pastitsio while it's hot, it brakes.

It should stay out of the oven for at least two hours, before cutting it into pieces.

This is a large dose so make it only when you expect a big company.

Make half the dose if you are going to serve a small group of people.

You can make the entire dose, but divide it in two smaller pans.

Bake one immediately and the other one wrap it with foil and put it uncooked in the freezer.

When you want to bake it, remove it from the refrigerator 4 hours earlier to unfreeze.

 

Lamb with lettuce, spinach and egg and lemon sauce (fricasse in Greek)

LAMB WITH LETTUCE, SPINACH AND EGG AND LEMON SAUCE

(Lamb with lettuce and spinach, fricassee, in Greek)

I describe two different ways of making the fricassee.

The two methods differ only in the way that the meat is cooked. All the other steps are the same on both recipes.

 (Recipe for 6 people)

Ingredients

2kg lamb or baby goat (The most suitable part of the animal is the neck and the front leg cut into medium size pieces. The lamb must be very fresh, because the stale lamb has an unpleasant odor).

180 grams of olive oil

2 large onions

1 medium potato

1.5 kg purified spinach or 2 pounds gross

4 large lettuces

1 bunch dill

2 large eggs

2 lemons,

Some olives for the decoration,

Salt to taste

Very little red hot pepper

1 teaspoon coriander motes

Instructions

The meat for fricassee should be cut into small pieces.

It is good to have each piece approximately the size of a medium mandarin.

Some Super Market sell mutton purified from bones.

If you buy boneless meat, 1.5kg is enough.

Put 4 glasses of water in a pot.

Put the pot on high heat.

Wait for the water to boil.

Chop the onions and put them in the pot.

Let the onions cook 2-3 minutes.

Thoroughly wash the lamb with water.

Look carefully to see if there are any small broken bones on the meat. If you find any take them off.

Put the meat in the pot with the onions and wait until it begins to boil.

Once it starts to boil, reduce the heat and simmer.

If the meat is cooked in medium heat, it becomes tastier.

Cooking for 1-1.5 hour is sufficient to soften the meat.

Stir occasionally and check if there are enough liquids in the pot.

If the broth is very little, add some boiling water in the pot.

The fricassee isn’t a soup. It does not need too much of broth.

When you think that the meat is ready, is time to check if it is soft.

Nail a fork into the meat.

If the fork goes easily into the meat and the meat unsticks from the bones, it is time to add the vegetables.

If the fork finds resistance to get into the meat and the meat does not unstick from the bones, it needs more cooking. .

Let the meat simmer until it becomes soft and tender.  

Add salt if necessary and put very little red chili pepper.

While you boil the meat, prepare lettuce, spinach and dill.

From dill usually use the leaves.

The stalks are sometimes soft, sometimes dry.

Single dried stalks and discard them.

Chop finely the tender stalks and put the pieces in the food, because they add flavor.

Wash the dill in plenty of water, two or three times, and leave it aside.

If you buy washed and purified spinach, then just rinse it once, to refresh it.

If you buy gross fresh spinach, then scour it.

There is soil hidden between the stems of the leaves and the roots. 
Cut the roots of each spinach and discard it.

Spinach needs good washing in plenty of water.

To be sure that all the dirt is gone, wash the spinach at least four times changing the water each time.

Cut each leaf of the spinach in 2-3 pieces and let them aside.

Remove the yellow dried leaves from the lettuce.

Fill a big bowl with water. Put in it some salt and vinegar and submerge the leaves of lettuce.

Let the leaves briefly dipped into the water, to loosen all the small bugs on them.

Wash them at least three times, each time changing the water.

Cut each leaf in four pieces.

Clean the potato washed it and cut it into dices.

When the meat is tender, take a slotted spoon and remove it from the pot. Place the meat on a platter,
cover it and leave it aside.  

Taste a small piece of meat. If it needs more salt, add some.

Chop finely the dill in the pot with the boiling broth of the meat.

Add in the pot the pieces of spinach and lettuce and stir.
Let those vegetables to boil for 3 minutes.

Add the pieces of the potato and stir well.

Let the vegetables cook until they become soft.

Add some salt.

When the vegetables are ready, put the meat back into the pot and boil them all together for 5 minutes.

 Squeeze 1.5 lemons.

Put two eggs in a bowl and beat them with a whisk.

Pour the lemon juice little by little in the bowl with the eggs and at the same time continue beating the eggs.

With a soup ladle take hot broth from the pot and pour it in the bowl with the eggs little by little while beating.

Repeat this step 3-4 times.

So add enough hot broth into the eggs to get them cooked and yet remain a velvet sauce.

Take the pot from the heat and leave it aside.

Uncover the pot and pour in slowly the eggs and lemon sauce while stirring.

Give the eggs the time they need to mix with the lemon and become a tasteful sauce.

Tilt the pan to the side so the sauce goes everywhere.

Second way of cooking the meat

Put in a saucepan the oil and add chopped onions.

Put the pot over medium heat and let the onions sauté.

Put the meat into the pot and mix it with the onions.

Stir well so all the meat gets olive oil.

Lower the heat and let the meat simmer.

If the maximum of your appliance is 6, turn the indicator to 2.

Add salt, ground black pepper or a very small piece of red chili pepper.

Stir frequently.

The meat releases its fluids and cooks in them.

Let the meat simmer until soft.

Remove meat to a platter and continue as before.

Whichever way you choose  to make your fricassee it will come out delicious.

You can make the fricassee with lettuce only or with spinach only or solely with artichokes.

                                                                                                                                                                                             

Lamb in the oven with red pilaf

LAMB IN THE OVEN WITH RED PILAF

Ingredients

1 leg of lamb about 1200 g or more

2 cups rice for pilaf

5 large ripe tomatoes

Salt, pepper, oregano, savory

120 g olive oil

Instructions

Preparation and cooking the meat

Buy the meat from the day before.

Wash it well. If you find any small broken bones on the meat, take them off.

Sprinkle the meat with salt, pepper, oregano, savory and grease it all around with oil.

Place the meat in a deep baking pan and put it in the fridge overnight.

The next day put the tomatoes in the blender and make them pulp.

Take off the pan, with meat, from the refrigerator.

Spread the tomato pulp on the lamb as a thick red layer that covers it.

Pour water in the pan until it covers the 2/3 of the meat.

Put a non stick baking paper over the meat to protect it from burning.

Bake at 250 C degrees longer than 40 minutes.

The meat eventually begins to smell crisp.

Take off the non-stick baking paper.

Nail a sharp fork ladle into the meat and turn it around.

The part of the meat that was in the water goes out of it.

The upper part of the meat descends down and plunges into the water.

Cover the pan again with the non stick baking paper and put it in the oven.

Let the meat boil for another 40 minutes.

Nail a sharp fork ladle into the meat to see if it is soft.

When the meat is cooked, the fork goes easily in it.

If the meat is hard and the fork finds resistance, bake it longer.

Reduce the heat to 180 degrees.

Let the meat simmer until it becomes soft and unsticks from the bones

Take the pan from the oven.

Take the meat from the pan and put in a serving platter.

Cover the meat with aluminum foil and put over it a fluffy towel to keep it warm.

Pilaf

Measure the broth of the the pan.

For the pilaf you need 2.5 cups broth for each cup of rice.

If the broth is less than 5 cups, you must put less rice in the pan.

Put the pan in the oven again.

Put the rice in a colander and rinse it. Leave it for some time to drain.

Put the rice into the pan.

Stir it with a long spoon ladle and add salt.

Let the rice in the oven, to bake for 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Taste some rice, to see if it is done and if its flavor is correct.

Put again the lamb in the pan over the rice.

Cover the food with greaseproof paper so it won’t dry.

Leave the food in the oven to remain warm.

The lamb is delicious when it's warm, so served it so.