Moussaka, you get in my belly

Oh Michael Symon. My hunky Greek iron "the chew" chef crush. I heart him SO. MUCH. My dream is to be asked to cook on The Chew with him. this would be a hell of a lot easier if I still lived in Jersey, as it tapes in NYC, but I digress....

This man has NEVER EVER EVER created a recipe that wasn't pretty much the best thing I ever tasted. No wonder he's undefeated on Iron Chef. The man is foodie gold. And this recipe?? Uhhh, yeah. I made this recipe for my Greek uncle. Who not only absolutely loved it, but gave some to his neighbor, who's from Turkey, who said that that Moussaka was better than his mother's!!!!! WHAT!?!?! That's crazy sauce. But I'll take it!

The reason is because this recipe is so phenomenally fantastic. Seriously. I hate casseroles. I'm not a big fan of stews. And every other time I ever ate moussaka, I hated it. But the hubbs comes from that part of the world, and so as a favor I made it for him. And of course, I turned to my buddies on The Chew for a recipe and I got this gem. It's so good that Carla Hall STILL gets teased 2 years later for going into the backstage fridge and taking Michael's leftovers that he was saving for his wife. Just STRAIGHT UP TOOK THEM because that's how good it was. I follow his recipe exactly, except I use both eggplant and zucchini because I love them both and some people find too much eggplant a little bitter.

First you make the meat part of the dish. Oh yeah, I use dried cranberries instead of dried currants because cranberries in everything I say. And then you pan fry up the eggplant. I tried to put it in the oven to roast instead, to save myself some time. Epic fail. So I gave in and did it the long way. That's the only way to get that nice brown on it and not have it dry out.

Then you make the bechamel. Which for this is a goat cheese, lemon zest and honey bechamel. And you use egg yolks to get it uber creamy. I could eat this by the spoonful. But I didn't. Instead, I used some of the baguettes I made from the other day as a utensil to shovel it into my mouth. DO. NOT. JUDGE. ME.

Then you do the layering. Eggplant, meat, eggplant, meat, top with bechamel. He's pretty specific with his instructions which is really nice. Especially if you didn't happen to watch that episode. But I totally did, so there.

And that, my friends, is the beautiful, nicely crusty topped all done and baked moussaka. Stupid good. So good that I made 2 extra pans of it to freeze because it takes about 3 hours to put all this together if you're wearing a giant baby and amusing a toddler, and dammit I'm only doing it once in a while but I want to eat it always all winter long.

So yeah. There you go. I know it's been a while since my last post (my meals have been repeats and/or lame lately), but this one totally makes up for that. Promise.

And you know. It's greek. So if you hurt yourself while you're cooking, just put some windex on it.

Loves!

PS. Just a reminder, since it's been forever and a day, that all of the ingredients I use are organic, never from a can ever ever ever, and are as processed free as humanly possible. I mean, I obvs don't churn my own butter, but you get the picture.

I heart grill- Beer Braised Short Ribs & Foccacia

Seriously. HEART. THE. GRILL. Because the heat. Oh Lord the heat. PNW doesn't usually have heat like this and no one has central air. Even stores and restaurants are lacking. LAME. So we bought 2 portable air conditioners that have been keeping our house at around 70 which is glorious. Which means that me turning on the oven is asking the hubbs to divorce me. However, I'm not a BBQ lover. There are only so many hamburgers, hot dogs, and grilled chicken I can take before I go ape shit bananas.

Luckily, I have moments of sheer brilliance. Brilliance I tell you! I really wanted short ribs because YES ALWAYS YES to organic grass fed beef. And we had some in the freezer. What I did not want was to turn on my oven for 3 hours while it braised. So. I turned on the grill. Got out my dutch oven. and guess what? THE GRILL WORKS AS AN OVEN. OUTSIDE. WITH ZERO MESS (for me, anyway. Hubbs can have fun cleaning it). The dutch oven is miraculous. If you do not own one, go get one. Between that and a cast iron pan you are set to cook whatever, wherever.
Dutch Oven:

I set up the short ribs inside (although because our grill has a burner I could have done it outside but that seemed like too much carrying of ingredients outside to bother). You just have to brown them on all sides and build the braising liquid, which took about 15 minutes total. Then you move the whole thing to the grill. And deliciousness ensues.

I also made foccacia to go along with dinner because it's glorious and it has a much shorter rise time than almost any other bread I make. This recipe is the best I've ever made. Or eaten for that matter. So easy and so worth it. I'm telling you, people. Make your own bread. You will never ever ever go back. And you will not experience any awful gluten side effects as long as you are using organic flour that is not enriched and not bleached and doesn't have extra crap added to it.

I also made this in the grill. Cause if I'm gonna live dangerously, I'm gonna just do it up.

So here's Mario Batali's Beer Braised Short Ribs recipe. He does not disappoint. I followed the instructions pretty exactly, except I only had fresh rosemary, and had to use dried oregano and thyme, so I guessed a bit on those herbs.

I also made Carla Hall's radish salad, which ironically is alongside her own short ribs recipe, but I liked Mario's better. Because beer.

And here are the pretty pictures:

I know I should include more pics of me prepping the meals, but I try to make meals that I can throw together quickly, and my perfectionist self would not allow sloppy pictures, so for now, and into the foreseeable future, I will mainly just post the done pics. Unless it's absolutely necessary. It's the only way I can maintain my sanity keeping up with a blog. 

Oh, and here's a tip I learned from watching The Chew. When you are browning/ cooking meat of any kind, let it sit there. Don't flip it over right away. The meat will tell you when it's ready to be flipped. If it's sticking to the bottom of your pan, it's not ready yet. When it's browned enough, it will flip without a fight. Works like a charm everytime. You're welcome.