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Socks. Remember them?
OK, so the last charter flights have gone back and after the recent downpours we are in no doubt that the summer season is over. The duvet has been brought out of the cupboard, and we’re starting to remember what socks look like. However, there will be plenty of sunny days ahead and Rethymnon is far from being closed. We know that many people are counting the pennies right now, but autumn is actually a great time to engage in some retail therapy. The streets are quieter, town is more relaxed and there are some good bargains to be found. And this is our annual opportunity to plug some local enterprises! For example, if you’re looking for quality clothing it is worth knowing that Boris and Mary will be keeping their Blue Dolphin stores in Arabatzoglou Street open during the winter, and ‘Octopus’ in Tsouderon is a great place to start looking for those seasonal gifts (maybe we probably shouldn’t mention it but ‘Santa time’ is not that far off). And remember to keep checking out our classified pages!
Recipe: Magic Mousaka and Arabic Aubergine Dip
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And the essential ingredient for this would be - aubergines! Our reasoning behind this is that the autumn harvest sometimes brings with it an unexpected windfall in the form of mounds of aubergines, and it’s not always easy to think of what to do with them. Here are a couple of ideas. As a foreigner living on Crete, trying to provide the ultimate mousaka recipe is akin to putting your head on the chopping block. However, here in the Cookery Department our investigative journalists have no fear. And in any case, our mousaka comes from a Rethymnon recipe - the original source is the book ’Cretan Cooking’ by Maria and Nikos Psilakis (Karmanor Publications, ISBN 960-7448-07-3). We didn’t use the breadcrumbs because we didn’t have any, and we tweaked the quantities a bit, but aside from that our version is pretty much the same as in the book. Ingredients Aubergines (now there’s a surprise!), potatoes and you can also add courgettes if you like (for our American readers, in British English aubergines are eggplants, courgettes are zucchini, and potatoes are pronounced differently to tomatoes). About a kilo of minced meat (good beef works fine). A couple of onions, some tomato paste, a bit of oil, 3 eggs, some cheese, seasoning and ‘a small glass of wine’ (Cretan measure!). You’ll also need to make your own béchamel sauce at some point which should include a couple of eggs and some grated nutmeg. As Christel and Dominique pointed out last month in their Belgian Italian Tortellini recipe it is absolutely pointless trying to take shortcuts with béchamel. So if you are contemplating using the packet stuff, we suggest that you abandon the mousaka plan and go and do something that will make you feel better instead. If yoga does it for you - brilliant. As I’ve probably mentioned at some point before, I got tangled up when I tried it. |
Method
What about the Arabic aubergine dip? Well, if you’ve still got loads of aubergines that you haven’t already sliced, roast or grill them. Let them cool and scrape out the middle (you might want to use gloves when you are doing this, as aubergines can be irritating as well as tricky). Mix with heaps of garlic, yoghurt, some tahini / sesame oil, seasoning and squidge of lemon juice. Then dip in! |
Aubergines can sometimes be a bit tricky, so one way of getting around this is to slice them, salt them for a while, sizzle them in a little oil and let them drain before you start on the rest of the dish. Sizzling sliced potatoes ahead of time is also quite a good idea. For the mince filling, chop the onions and let them sweat in some oil (hey, they’ve made your eyes water, why not give them a bit of grief, too?). Brown the mince with some seasoning, then add the tomato paste (which you have obviously dissolved in a little water, sorry, possibly should have mentioned this a bit earlier) and the wine. Let the mixture cook for a bit. Then put in the eggs and grated cheese. If you haven’t got the béchamel on the go already, now would be the right time to be getting along with this. It’s also a good time to start hunting out that oven dish that is big enough to fit in a massive mound of magic mousaka and still fit in the sauce that’s going to go on top (overflowing béchamel while not exactly hell is not much fun, either). There are various theories as to the best way to proceed with the layering process. We suggest that you alternate the mince and veg in the way that makes you feel most comfortable, pour the béchamel on top, and stick the whole thing in an oven which you have pre-heated to a moderate temperature. This worked for us.
Cocktails of the Month: Blue Monday and Blue Blazer
When skies are grey these cocktails from the International Bartender’s Guide might help to brighten up your day! Blue Monday is a cool one and a Blue Blazer is a hot one. For a Blue Monday the ingredients are: some vodka, cointreau, blue curaçao, lemon peel and ice. Shake it all about and strain. ’Release the oils from the lemon peel’ (well that’s what it says here) and have a good time. Music to drink this by - Rolling Stones ‘Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday’; Beatles ‘Yellow Submarine’.
For a Blue Blazer you will need: Warm whisky or whiskey, hot water, sugar or honey, and some of that left - over lemon peel that you’ve got from making your Blue Monday. The instructions tell you to set fire to the whisky before you do anything else, but I don’t think this is a smart move for a number of reasons (dearly loved and sadly departed Whisky Granny “Water is poison and don’t even think about torching a Talisker” being one of them).
Music to drink this by: William Shatner ‘Hey Mister Tangerine Man’ (actually that probably should be ‘Tambourine Man’ but it is sometimes difficult to tell when that space cadet is singing); Velvet Underground ‘Sunday Morning’.