the METRONOME Menu #3

MNM#3

This suggestion should keep you occupied for more than an hour. Main course will be baked pasta with minced meat and bechamel sauce, a.k.a. "pastitsio", accompanied by a winter cabbage salad. Pastitsio is a full meal by itself, combining filling pasta, with salty meat flavors, creamy sauce and a crusty surface. Serve with beers of your choice, to complete the crime. For dessert we shall make fried apples. The menu could serve up to four people. Enjoy !

Gather, wash and prepare your ingredients. Set up your work surfaces, and your chopping board. Preheat your oven to 180°C. Knives sharpened and ready. Hand towel close by. Use extra virgin olive oil for all the recipes (unless stated otherwise). Start with the main course, it’s the most complicated. While the pastitsio is being baked, prepare the dessert and leave the salad for last. At the end of the bake, you should be ready to serve.

The main course may seem complicated, but it's actually fairly straightforward, and believe me very rewarding in the end. Try it out, it's fun (a pain though for the washing up afterwards).

Fried apples

4 apples, sliced (but not peeled)

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp cinnamon

a pinch of salt

a pinch of ground nutmeg

What to do :

1.      In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium to low heat. Pour apples evenly over skillet bottom. Sprinkle lemon juice over them, then brown sugar, then salt. Cover and cook over low heat for 15 minutes until apples are tender and juicy. Turn once or twice.

2.      Sprinkle with the cinnamon and nutmeg prior to serving.

You can keep the remainder, to eat with your next day breakfast.

Cabbage & carrot salad

1 small to medium cabbage (1/2 kg or more)

2-3 carrots

1 fresh onion

Olive oil to taste (1/3-1/2 of a cup)

1 lemon, the juice

1/2 lemon, the zest

1 tbsp lime juice (optional)

Pinch of freshly ground pepper (green preferably)

Salt to taste

What to do :

1.      (1^st stage) Cut the cabbage, core and shred it. In a mixing bowl use your hands and gring roughly the cabbage with the zest and juice from ½ a lemon and the salt.

[Tip] We do this to break the cabbage, to release its fluids and for the salt and lemon to penetrate it. You will realise the difference when you taste it.

2.      (2^nd stage) Peel and grate the carrots coarsely. Add them to the cabbage. Cut the onion and add it too. Prior to serving, season with the pepper, and add more salt if you wish. Pour the olive oil and the rest of the juices over the mix, and toss all together.

 For a twist, you can add 1-2 tsp of soy sauce.

The "pastitsio"

 

The bechamel sauce :

11/2 lt fresh, full fat milk

7-8 tbsp corn flour

3 tbsp butter (not margarine)

2 eggs

1 pinch of ground nutmeg

Salt (to taste) and ground pepper

The minced meat :

400 gr minced meat (beef)

300 gr minced meat (pork)

2 tomatoes (medium to large) grated, discard the skins

1 onion (medium to large), cut in small cubes

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/3 cup of olive oil

1 clove of garlic (or more, if you feel like it)

1 tsp sugar

1 pinch of powdered allspice

1 pinch of ground cinnamon

2 bay leaves

Red wine (to put out the heat)

Ground pepper

Salt (to taste)

The rest of the ingredients :

500 gr pasta (macaroni, or penne, or to put it in general terms pasta with a hole in the center either long or short, so that the filling can get in)

Grated cheese (to your liking)

3-4 tbsp butter (not margarine), or olive oil, for the pasta

3-4 tbsp butter (not margarine), for the baking

What to do :

1.      Put the kettle on. You will need the hot water for the pasta.

2.      (1^st stage - A) For the minced meat preparation. Mix the two varieties of minced meat. In a skillet, you heat up the oil, and cook the onions until golden. Don't overcook, they will become bitter. Add the minced meat mix, and cook while stirring, over medium to high temperature, until the meat breaks up to small pieces (not chunks) and has light color. Approx 5mins. Put the heat out with the wine, and lower the temperature. Add the garlic through a press, the grated tomatoes, the spices and the seasoning and let the ingredients cook until the fluid evaporate (that could take more than 30 mins.) Add the paste and a bit of olive oil more, if its seems very dry. When ready remove from the heat and take oput the bay leaves.

3.      (1^st stage - B) While the minced meat is being cooked, boil the pasta into lightly salted water (use the hot water from the kettle to speed up your cooking), until "sticky". Drain them and add the butter (or olive oil if you do not like the taste or smell of butter. Stir well and let aside.

4.      (1^st stage - C) For the bechamel sauce preparation. Heat the milk in a pan over medium heat, but do not let it boil. Add the butter and the seasoning, and let it rest a while. Disolve the corn flour in a glass with some of the heated milk, then pour the solution in the pan, and beat the mixture with a whisk for the ingredients to mix and become firmer. Take off the heat and let rest. Beat the eggs lightly by themselves, and then pour them slowly in the milk & flour mix, while whisking again (lightly this time). Add the nutmeg, and whisk some more.

[Tip] There is another way of making the sauce. Both my grandmother and my mother-in-law, I have seen using this technique, and somehow their pastitsios were legendary. This is what you have to do, but it takes care and some pretty neat kitchen trickery (you only have one set of hands), since it can easily go wrong. Heat olive oil in a large pot, over medium heat (and maintain medium heat throughout), enough to well cover its bottom. Do not let it boil. When heated, put in 12 tbsp (mounds actually) of flour (general purpose) in quick successive spoonfuls, while whisking with your other hand the mixture. The purpose is to wet thoroughly the flour, and give it a dough-like consistency, without it being clotted. When finished with the flour, pour gradually the milk in (keep the milk in room temperature before), while whisking. Whisk and stir the mix continuously, until the flour mixes with the milk, and you feel the mixture easy and creamy. This whisking could take some time, and you should remove the pan from the heat every now and then, so that it doesn't boil over. Stir in a clockwise fashion (it is important !). When you feel the mix homogenized, remove from the heat and whisk in the beaten eggs (beat them slightly beforehand and pour them slowly !) When finished, sprinkle with grated cheese and whisk. Whisk again before pouring over the pasta and minced meat. After that you may give your hands a rest. J

5.      (2^nd stage) Coat a baking pan with some butter. Put half of the cooked pasta in, sprinkle with the grated cheese (not too much), then add a layer of the cooked minced meat. Repeat with the rest of the pasta, a bit of cheese and the remaining minced meat.

[Tip] You can use some beaten egg to pour over the pasta layer. In that way the whole mixture becomes more firm, more robust, when you need to cut it in slices to serve afterwards.

6.      Pour the bechamel sauce over the layered ingredients, to cover them all. Add small nibs of butter here and there (you can omit those if you wish), and sprinkle a thin layer of cheese (to your liking - don't overdo it).

7.      (3^rd stage) The bake. Put the pan in the oven, 170-180°C, for about 30-40 minutes, or until the surface is golden and crusty. Serve after 10-15 mins.

For a twist, you can add some chilli peppers, or tabasco sauce, while the minced meat is being cooked, if you like things spicy. If you do, bare in mind that you may spoil the smell and taste of the rest of the ingredients.

Photo credits :

Ref.1  http://opistachio.blogspot.gr/2009/02/cabbage-carrot-salad.html

Ref.2  http://www.copykat.com/2009/05/03/cracker-barrel-old-country-store-fried-apples/