Παρασκευή 27 Φεβρουαρίου 2015

Eggplants stuffed with ground beef

AUBERGINES STUFFED WITH GROYND BEEF
Basis
Ingredients
8 large eggplants (250 g approx. each)
50 g. olive oil
Salt to taste

Stuffing
Ingredients
700 g. ground beef
2 large dry onions
4 cloves garlic
4 large ripe tomatoes
120 gr. olive oil
Salt and paper to taste

Bechamel Cream
Ingredients
1 liter homogenized milk
80 g. margarine
80 g. all purpose flour
Salt to taste

Instructions
Basis
Wash the eggplants and remove their stems.
Lay each eggplant horizontally and cut a slice from top surface.
Empty the eggplant with a knife or a spoon.
Each eggplant becomes an empty black cup.
Season with salt the inside of the emptied eggplants and coat them with oil.
Put the empted eggplants into a deep greased pan next to each other.
Place the pan in the oven on the first rack from the bottom.
Cover the pan with non-stick baking paper.
Bake the eggplant at 170 C degrees for 45 minutes.
Leave them covered in the oven.

Stuffing
Put olive oil in a saucepan. Place it over medium heat.
Peel the onions, dice them and put them in the saucepan.
Add the chopped garlic into the pot.
Stir them from time to time.
Let them cook until they become soft and tender.
Put the minced meat in the saucepan.
Stir the ground beef with a ladle to absorb oil.
Lower more the heat and the ground beef will produce all its fluids.
Let it cook slowly in them.
Break with a ladle the lumps that form as it boils.
Wash the tomatoes and puree them in the blender.
Add the tomato puree in the saucepan.
Add salt and pepper.
Let the meat to boil until it becomes soft and tender.

Bechamel
Put the milk in a pot and heat over medium heat.
Put the margarine in a saucepan and heat it to melt.
When the margarine is melted, pour in the flour and mix.
Stir the flour constantly and cook it for a few min.
Add the hot milk into the pot with the flour.
Beat the cream with a hand blender to homogenize it.
Continue the cooking stiring constantly.
When the cream starts to boil, remove the saucepan from the heat.

Assembling the stuffed aubergines
Take from the oven the pan with the eggplant.
Fill 3/4 of each eggplant with the stuffing.
Put béchamel sauce and cover the filling.
The sauce should rise slightly above the eggplant
Put the eggplants in the pan again.
Place the pan back in the oven on the first rack from the bottom.
Bake at 180 C degrees for 40 minutes.
When the food is ready is smells nicely and the cream has light beige color.
Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool before serving. 



Τρίτη 24 Φεβρουαρίου 2015

Traditinal apple pie


Traditional apple pie  
Sheet
Ingredients
130 g. olive oil
125 g. margarine very cold from the freezer
1 sachet of dry yeast
1/2 cup of lukewarm water
1 egg
125 g. sheep yogurt
150 g. milk or kefir
250 g. self rising flour
500 g. all-purpose flour
500 g. flour or cornmeal to open the sheet

Instructions
How to make the dough
Put the yeast in a cup of lukewarm water and dissolve it.
Put in a large bowl the oil.
Grate in the bowl the cold margarine with a tomato grater.
Mix with a fork these two ingredients.
Add into the bowl the dissolved yeast and mix with the fork again.
Beat the egg lightly and add it into the bowl.
Stir with the fork and pour in the yogurt and milk or kefir.
Add the flour.
Knead well. If the dough sticks to hands add flour. 
If the dough is hard, add a little oil or a little water or a little milk to soften it.
Cover the bowl with a clean fluffy towel and leave it in a warm place.
This dough is sufficient for a big pie in a pan with dimensions in cm 31CH41CH5 or two pies in round pan with a diameter of 28 cm.

How to make the sheet
For one circular pie you need only half of the dough.
Take half the dough and divide it in two half’s.
Take one piece and with your hands give it a round shape.
Oile and flour a nonstick pan, 28 cm in diameter.
Put the circular piece of dough into the pan and open it with your hands.
Your sheet should be big enough to cover the bottom and the sides of the pan.
The sheet must not be very thick.
If it seems to you too thick, remove some dough.
Spread the sheet over and inevitably it becomes thinner.
Place the pan in the preheated oven and cook the sheet for 15 min at 180 C degrees.
Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool.


The filling of the traditional apple pie
Ingredients
4 large apples
150 g. raisins purified from stems
200 g. chopped walnuts
10g. grated cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon of grated clove
150 g. jam of some fruit
(If you don’t have jam use100 gr. brown sugar)

Instructions
Scour apples from their skins.
Cut them in small pieces and place them in a bowl.
Wash the raisins and strain them.
Wash the nuts. Dry those with paper towel and chop them in a food processor.
Put in the bowl with the apples the raisins, the nuts, the spices and the jam.
Mix well these ingredients.

How to asseble the pie
Spread the filling evenly over the sheet on the bottom of the pan.
Open the other half of dough into a sheet the size of the pan, with a rolling pin.
Cover the pie with that sheet.
Smear the top of the pie with margarine.
Use a toothpick to make several small holes on the pie.
Garnish the pie with plants and flowers you make from dough.
If you do not want to decorate the pie, simply engrave it intermittently with a sharp knife.
Put the pie in the oven on the first rack from the bottom.
Bake at 150 C degrees for 30 min and at 180 C degrees for another 30 minutes.
When the pie is ready it has a light brown color and smells very nicely.
Remove it from the oven and let it cool a bit before serving it.




Traditional cheese pie

Sheet for traditional pies
First recipe

Ingredients for the dough
150 grams of margarine
1/2 kilo of hard flour
1/2 kilo cornmeal
80 g. olive oil
3 tablespoons vinegar
Lukewarm water as needed to make smooth dough 

How to prepare the dough
Put the flour in a bowl.
In the center of it open with your hand a small puddle.
Pour into the puddle oil and vinegar.
Mix with your hand these ingredients.
Pour warm water into the puddle and knead.
You are trying to make soft dough that does not stick to hands.
To achieve this you may need to add a little flour or a little water.
When the dough you made is soft, cover it with clean towel and leave it in a warm place to rest.
It is better to prepare the dough the night before, because the next day it opens sheet easily.

How to open the sheet
Put the margarine in a pot. Place the pot over medium heat to melt the margarine.
Divide the dough into two approximately equal parts.
Sprinkle with cornmeal the surface on which you are going to work.  
Take a piece of dough and give it a circular shape.
Sprinkle with cornmeal onto the surface of the circular piece of dough and open with your hands sheet.
Sprinkle the top surface of the sheet with cornmeal and open it more with a rolling pin.
The sheet becomes larger with moderate thickness.
With a brush coat with margarine the sheet on top.
Sprinkle with cornmeal over the buttered sheet.
Fold the sheet in half so the two buttered and floured parts coincide.
Smear with margarine the top of the folded sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal.
Fold the sheet again in half.
This way your original sheet is quartet with smaller size.
Open the sheet to the dimensions of the pan you are going to use.
Make the sheet slightly larger, to cover the bottom and the sides of the pan in their lower part.
You can use a big pan having dimensions 31CH41CH5 centimeters, or two circular pans 28 cm in diameter each.
 
In the same way open to quad sheet the other half of the dough.
You will use that sheet to cover the pie.

Sheet for traditional pies
Second recipe
Ingredients
130 g. olive oil
125 g. margarine very cold from the freezer
1 sachet of dry yeast
1/2 cup of lukewarm water
1 egg
125 g. sheep yogurt
150 g. milk or kefir
250 g. self rising flour
500 g. all-purpose flour
500 g. flour or cornmeal to open the sheet

Instructions

Put the yeast in a cup of lukewarm water and dissolve it.
Put in a large bowl the oil.
Grate in the bowl the cold margarine with a tomato grater.
Mix with a fork these two ingredients.
Add into the bowl the dissolved yeast and mix with the fork again.
Beat the egg lightly and add it into the bowl.
Stir with the fork and pour in the yogurt and milk or kefir.
Add the flour.
Knead well. If the dough sticks to hands add flour. 
If the dough is hard, add a little oil or a little water or a little milk to soften it.
This dough is sufficient for a big pie in a pan with dimensions in cm 31CH41CH5 or two pies in round pan with a diameter of 28 cm.
From this point you can continue as described in the first recipe.

Traditional cheese pie filling
Ingredients
400 g. feta cheese
400 g. various other cheeses grated
2 eggs
100 g. whipping cream 30% fat

Instructions
 

Rub the feta cheese with your hands in a bowl.
Add into it the other grated cheeses.
Beat eggs slightly and pour them in the bowl.
Add the cream.
Mollify all the ingredients together.


How to make the pie
Grease and flour the pan.
Spread the sheet on the bottom of the pan.
Over it spread evenly the filling of the pie.
Place the second sheet over the filling and cover the pie.
Garnish the pie with various designs made from dough.
Engrave intermittently the pie into pieces with a sharp knife.
Coat with margarine the surface of the pie.
Place the pie in the oven on the first rack from the bottom.
Bake at 180 C degrees for one hour.
When cooked, remove it from the oven.
Leave to cool slightly before serving it.