Glorious greek traditions

While mezés, a collective name for a variety of small dishes, are the norm at dining tables across the Hellenic nation, Effie Tsakiris thinks that moussaka is the Greek comfort food par excellence: an intricately layered casserole of eggplants, potatoes and minced meat. “There are many steps to follow in this recipe but each helps coax extraordinary flavours from the simplest ingredients,” she says. Though the traditional method of slow-simmering the meat and reducing the tomato base is slightly more time consuming, she is aided in the execution of this recipe by the Gaggenau steam oven which delivers soft brinjals with perfectly blistered skins in a flash, and a pressure cooker that helps to reduce the meat-based sauce into a thick, ragu-like mixture.

Excerpt from the June issue of epicure.