My Big Fat Greek Wedding
In the 2002 film, everyone in the Portokalos family worries about Toula. Still unmarried at 30 years old and living in Chicago, she works at Dancing Zorba's, the Greek restaurant owned by her parents, Gus and Maria. After taking a job at her aunt's travel agency, she falls in love with Ian Miller , a teacher who is tall, handsome and definitely not Greek. Toula isn't sure which will be more upsetting to her father, that Ian is a foreigner or that he's a vegetarian.
Food is important in My Big Fat Greek Wedding for a variety of reasons, including building character development, showing tension between the generations and cultural backgrounds, and evolving the story through meals served in the Greek community.
“I so badly wanted to be like the popular girls... all sitting together, talking... eating their Wonderbread sandwiches... -What`s that? -lt`s ``moussaka`”
“Moose-caca?”
The Scene: When Toula was a little girl, she sat alone in the school cafeteria, frizzy haired, big nosed, and unpopular. The blonde girls at the next table asked her what she was eating, and Toula quietly said "moussaka." The popular girls laughed cruelly, saying "Ewwww, ''moose caca!
Fun Fact: Similar to Tula’s “Cinderella” transformation, to this day this is still the highest grossing romantic comedy of all time
Image and Recipe Source
Today we will be making:
Greek Moussaka
Greek Moussaka is without a doubt, Greece’s most popular, traditional dish. Moussaka is a traditional Greek eggplant casserole made with baked or pan fried eggplants and potatoes, a rich, tomatoey beef or lamb mince sauce and topped off with a deliciously creamy bechamel sauce. In other words, the ultimate comfort food.
Ingredients
Base ingredients:
6 eggplants
5 potatoes
Vegetable oil (for frying the eggplants)
For the meat sauce:
26oz ground beef or lamb mince
2 red onions (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1 14oz can chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
1 glass of red wine
Pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
3–4 whole cloves
A pinch of cinnamon or one cinnamon stick
1/4 of a cup olive oil
For the bechamel sauce:
3 3/4 milk
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup flour
A pinch of nutmeg
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Salt to taste
Directions
For the base:
Begin by preparing the eggplants. Remove the stalks from the eggplants and cut them into slices, 1 cm thick. Season with salt and place in a colander for about 30 minutes
Rinse the eggplants with plenty of water and squeeze with your hands, to get rid of the excessive water. Pat them dry and fry in plenty of oil, until nicely colored. Place the fried eggplants on some paper, in order to absorb the oil. Set aside when done
Slice the potatoes 1/2 inch rounds. Fry them in the same way as the eggplants. Season with some salt and set them aside when done
For the meat sauce:
Chop the onions and garlic
Heat a large pan to medium-high heat and add the olive oil
Stir in the chopped onions and sauté, until softened and slightly colored. Stir in the ground meat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and sauté
When it starts to brown, add the the garlic and tomato paste and sauté until the garlic starts to soften
Pour in the red wine to deglaze the meat juices and wait to evaporate
Add the canned tomatoes, the sugar, a pinch of cinnamon, 1 bay leaf, the cloves and a good pinch of salt and pepper
Bring to the boil then turn the heat down and simmer with the lid on for about 30 minutes or until most of the juices have evaporated. Set aside when done
For the bechamel sauce:
Use a large pan to melt the butter over low-medium heat. Add the flour whisking continuously to make a paste
Add warmed milk in a steady stream; keep whisking in order to prevent your sauce from getting lumpy
If the sauce still needs to thicken, boil over low heat while continuing to stir. Its consistency should resemble a thick cream
Remove the béchamel pan from the stove and stir in the egg yolks, salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg and the most of the grated cheese. Reserve some cheese to sprinkle on top!
Whisk quickly, in order to prevent the eggs from turning an omelette! Season with salt to taste. Take one spoon full of béchamel and stir it in the meat sauce. Set the béchamel sauce aside
To assemble:
Preheat you oven to 350F
For this moussaka recipe you will need a large baking dish, approx. 8x12inch and 3 inch deep
Butter the bottom and sides of the pan and layer the potatoes first, then half the eggplants
Pour in all of the meat sauce and spread it out evenly. Don’t forget to remove the cloves and the bay leaf!.
Add a second layer of eggplants, top with all of the béchamel sauce and smooth out with a spatula
Sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese
Bake your musaka for about 60 minutes or until its crust turns light golden brown
Take it out of the over and wait for the moussaka to cool down and be just warm to the touch before cutting into pieces. This will prevent the béchamel sauce from pouring out when you’re cutting your pieces
Why This Recipe Works
Many people believe that making Moussaka is difficult. However, that could not be further away from the truth!
The eggplants and potatoes are the foundation of a Greek Moussaka and they serve two very different purposes. The sliced potatoes are the base for the dish, give it robustness and make it easy to cut and serve. On the other hand, the eggplants act like little sponges. They soak up the delicious tomato sauce and give the dish its incredible juiciness and creaminess
Pro Tips
Some eggplants can be bitter so it is important to prepare them correctly. Rinsing them, salting them and letting them rest removes that bitterness and they will taste deliciously sweet, creamy and with no hint of bitterness whatsoever!
When baked, sliced eggplants tend to stick to the sheet pans. To prevent that from happening, bake them in non-stick sheets or overlap the slices a little bit so they are partially lifted from the bottom of your sheet pan. They will then come right off without any of their flesh sticking to the sheets
You’ll need to be constantly whisking while you’re adding the milk. Cooking your béchamel sauce while whisking over a low heat will prevent it from burning and sticking to the bottom of your pan
“Thank you, what is it?”
“It’s a bundt.”
The Scene: Tula and Ian invite their families to meet for the first time. The Miller’s walk up to an extravagant Greek cook out and bring their offering, a bundt cake. Being the WASPs they are, they bring a classic bundt cake as a guest offering. Tula’s mom has difficulty understanding what the cake is and why it has a hole in it. Eventually Aunt Voula puts a potted plant in the middle of the pan to decorate it before serving,
Fun Fact: Despite playing a WASP, John Corbett is half Irish, half Ashkenazi Jewish.
Recipe and Image Source
Today we will be making:
Vanilla Bundt Cake
This Vanilla Bundt Cake is so easy to make and is bursting with vanilla flavor. It’s a moist, fluffy cake made with basic kitchen staples. Baked to golden perfection and topped with a simple vanilla glaze, you’ll be reaching for a second slice before you even finish your first!
Ingredients
For the cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup unsalted butter room temperature (2 sticks)
8 ounces cream cheese room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
For the glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes
Add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating until each is fully incorporated before adding another one. After adding 3 eggs, add 3 tablespoons of the flour mixture. Continue adding the other 3 eggs, one at a time. Beat in the vanilla
Add ⅓ of the flour mixture mixing at low speed until combined. Add half of the milk and mix until combined. Repeat, alternating with the rest of the flour mixture and milk
Butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan or spray with baking spray with flour
Pour the cake batter into the pan and tap gently on the counter a few times to settle the batter.
Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
Let cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Invert onto a cooling rack and cool completely
To create the glaze, In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Pour over the cooled cake
Why This Recipe Works
Like other tube or ring style pans, the central tube allows faster and more even heat distribution when baking large volumes of batter. Ring pans like Bundt molds heat faster than regular round pans and they bake deep cakes evenly even at diameters over 9 inches.
Cream cheese gives the cake a flavorful tang as well as a tender and moist crumb
If you want to pay homage to the film, after the glaze has set on the bundt cake, fill the middle with fresh fruits and edible flowers
You can make this ahead of time. You can store this vanilla Bundt cake covered at room temperature for up to two days
Pro Tips
Different brands of salted butter vary in salt content, so it’s best to use unsalted butter and then add salt to the batter to keep things consistent. Be sure to have your butter at room temperature so you can cream it easily. Room temperature means you can press into the butter, and it’ll yield to the touch
Make sure to use full-fat bricks of cream cheese and not spreadable cream cheese from a tub; spreadable cream cheese will not give you the same results
Use a a high-quality vanilla extract instead of artificial vanilla, as this is the backbone of the flavor of the cake and the glaze
Make sure to let the cake cool completely on a wire rack before adding the glaze. If the cake is still warm, your glaze will slide right off
Don’t overmix the batter, or the Bundt cake will come out dry and tough. Mix it enough until everything is just combined
“Now, you are family.”
The Scene: After Aunt Voula regales the Millers with her story of eating her twin in the womb, the drinks begin to flow at the party. Shots of ouzo are passed around and, alcohol being a communal element by both family backgrounds, the bonding begins.
Fun Fact: Alcoholic beverages with an aniseed flavor make up a special category on their own. They are made of neutral alcohol of agricultural origin to which plants and products of aromatic plants (understood as seeds, roots, flowers or fruits) or natural extracts are added before or after the distillation. The plants used for this purpose are commonly anise, fennel or other plants which contain the aromatic base of anethole.
Most Mediterranean countries produce drinks that belong to this category, but the Greek version of ouzo is not only a national drink, but an internationally recognized and exclusive brand of Greece. The name ouzo was registered in the European market, which determines the guidelines for its production. Source
Image and Recipe Source
Today we will be making:
Ouzo Drink with
Lemon and Mint
Mix a little ouzo, the Greek anise-flavored liqueur, with some lemon juice, ice, honey, and fresh mint, and you have a refreshing ouzo drink to enjoy with your favorite mezze. You’ll love this simple Greek-style cocktail!
Ingredients
2 ½ ounces ouzo
1/2 to 1 ounce fresh lemon juice, more if you prefer
1 to 2 Fresh mint leaves, more for garnish
1 teaspoon honey, agave, or simple syrup (optional)
Ice
Directions
In a mixing jar or cup, add the ouzo, lemon juice, and honey if using. Stir
Add the mint and muddle a bit (if you don’t have a muddler, you can use a small wooden spoon)
Prepare a small glass and fill it with ice. Pour the ouzo cocktail over the ice. Garnish with fresh mint. Give the ouzo a quick swirl in the ice and enjoy
Why This Recipe Works
Mint and ouzo pair well together in cocktails because mint adds freshness and the licorice flavor of ouzo complements the mint
Honey can sweeten cocktails like simple syrup, but it also adds floral notes. Raw and unfiltered honey can add a smooth, floral sweetness that rounds out the flavors of other ingredients
Ice chills this Greek-style cocktail, and also appropriately dilutes the other ingredients to balance the flavors
Pro Tips
Use more water or lemon juice if you want to dilute the ouzo even more.
Substitutes: If you can’t find ouzo, you can use another anise-forward liquor such as sambuca, arak, or aquavit. The flavor will be different, but similar
