In May my daughter and I took our first trip to Greece. I hadn't been out of the country since I was in my twenties, some 40 years ago and my daughter had never traveled out of the country. We were there because of a destination wedding. My inclination was to one day visit the Netherlands or Scotland, countries of my ancestors, people I had something in common with. So in a sense Greece chose us. And it was a country I never gave much thought to before. We landed on the island of Santorini first where the wedding was to be held and spent 48 hours taking in as much as we could. It was like no other place I had laid eyes on before, so different from anything back home with its white washed buildings clinging to the cliffs, high above the Agean Sea. We fell in love with the people who were so gracious and friendly. But it was the food that really grabbed us, especially the white eggplant so sweet it melted in your mouth, only grown on the island because of its volcanic soil. There was this amazing honey too, especially when drizzled over creamy Greek yogurt, tasting nothing like the honey that comes from the plastic bear found in most American grocery stores. That's because the Greeks had been perfecting honey for 3,000 years and have unique flora and plants found in no other parts of the world.
We discovered by accident a shopping paradise high above the noisy streets below in Fira, the capital of Santorini where souvenir shops mingled with high end establishments. We purchased all things Greek to bring back home, olive oil soaps, herbs for cooking, coral bracelets and magnets with island pictures to name a few.
Of course in the spirit of remembering our trip and the wonderful dishes we sampled, I recently made a vegetarian moussaka for my daughter visiting from California. My mother warned me it was labor intensive when I told her what I planned to make. She almost scared me when she said she only made it the one time. But I prevailed first with crushed tomato sauce on the bottom then layering the eggplant, potatoes and zucchini, topped with feta cheese. I also used my herb package I brought home from Greece for seasoning. This gets baked in the oven first for 35 minutes. While its baking I made the béchamel sauce a simple white sauce with milk, flour, eggs, nutmeg and butter. This goes over the cooked mixture then sprinkle with parmesan cheese and back in the oven for another 30 minutes or until browned. It's a lot like lasagna with all the assembly, but just as worth it. The laborious part was spent on all the chopping and frying the vegetables. The eggplant needs to be salted first and left to stand for 30 minutes to take out the bitterness. I learned my lesson the hard way and will oven bake the vegetables next time, especially the eggplant which completely absorbed the oil. It was way too messy. It definitely brought back the delicious taste of Greece to us!
