Yet I'm so confused what to discussed in Greece, yet so many food with historical value...
Moussaka
I knooww, its so random, its like I decided it after watching a food tour video in Youtube or something, which I'm not at all... Trust me (っ´ω｀c) . But bare with, even this dish was so complicated, it tangles with other nation foods too. So here it is, Moussaka, a baked meat and eggplant casserole covered with thick layer of béchamel sauce, which is basically a white sauce consist of roux and milk, honestly now very common to me, that then turns into crispy and golden, but sometimes melted anyway. There are various versions of it, some which use variety of other vegetables such as zucchini or young cucumber or small one(?) or maybe potatoes. Nowadays, moussaka is probably the best known of all Greek foods, next to gyros and souvlaki, or is it? it is also present the Balkans and Turkey, but their version is not layered and includes minced beef. But the real question here, where does it actually originate?
As always, like any food cases, no clear answer for something like this, no one knows what is exact origins of moussaka, although it is widely believed that the Arabian introduced the dish when they brought the eggplant into the area, But I never seen the footprints of it, so no staying Muslims in Greece or what? Further research points up to a medieval Arabic cookbook, A Baghdad Cookery Book, in which a food historian found a recipe of the ancestor of moussaka, relate to the musakhkhan, a variant from the Levant. A proof of founded recipe in an article that has the same subject, by Clifford A. Wright
MAGHMUMA‘
Cut fat meat small. Slice the tail thin and chop up small. Take onions and eggplant, peel, half-boil, and also cut up small: these may, however, be peeled and cut up into the meat- pot, and not be boiled separately. Make a layer of the tail at the bottom of the pan, then put on top of it a layer of meat: drop in fine-ground seasonings, dry coriander, cumin, caraway, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. On top of the meat put a layer of eggplant and onion: repeat, until only about four or five fingers’ space remain in the pot. Sprinkle over each layer the ground seasonings as required. Mix best vinegar with a little water and a trifle of saffron, and add to the pan so as to lie to a depth of two or three fingers on top of the meat and other ingredients. Leave to settle over the fire: then remove.’
Goes forward, Turabi Efendi known have been published the Turkish Cookery Book in 1862, where the first recipe of moussaka can be found.
By 1920, under Ottoman occupation, Nikos Tselementes, a Constantinople-born and France-educated Greek chef from Sifnos who is known for modernizing Greek cuisine, decided to 'cleanse' Greek cuisine from any Turkish influence (or more like claim them ??) . with this attempt, he then added French béchamel or the white sauce in an attempt to Europeanize the dish.
So it is known a bit .. Controversy, but that time was so long back then, it is an modernized European version of a dish of Arabic origin, introduced to a Greece via turkey. Like I actually not surprised at all, but who knew?? I never tasted one my self which is pretty ironic..
So let me know on how of these dish taste like maybe? or you could stay tuned for more Food Historical series. AND big apologize for I haven't post any Original food related content, I haven't got any exact idea at all for I'm just an amateur writer, but have faith!
Where I got this article!