Pastitsio

keep in mind this is a banquet sized recipe

Elbow macaroni - 3 pounds

Ground beef - 3 pounds

Zucchini (cut into crescents) - 5 pounds

Squash (cut into crescents) - 5 pounds

Onion (chopped) - 3 Large white

Minced Garlic - 3 tablespoons

Tomato Sauce - 50 ounces

Salt - 2 Tbsp & 3/4 tsp

Ground cinnamon - 1 Tbsp & 1/4 tsp

Ground nutmeg - 1 3/4 tsp

Eggs (lightly beaten) - 6

Grated Parmesan cheese - 2 pounds

Sauce:

Butter 3 1/3 pounds

flour 1 1/3 pounds

ground cinnamon 1 3/4 tsp

milk 10 cups

eggs (lightly beaten) 7

grated parmesan cheese 1 1/2 cups

Cook macaroni

In a large skillet, cook beef, onion and garlic over a medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in tomato sauce and seasoning.

Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a skillet, cook zucchini and squash

In a large bowl, combine macaroni, egg and parmesan cheese: set aside.

For suace, in a large sauce pan, melt butter; stir in flour and cinnamon until smooth. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for two minutes ot until slightly thickened.

Remove from heat

Stir in a small amount of hot mixture into eggs, return all to pan stirring constantly. Stir in cheese.

In a greased 3-qt (this is key for any of you home cooks, I doubt you want to use a 3 qt baking dish - the recipe I have from school features no other indication of size) spread half the macaroni mixture. Top with beef mixture, zucchini, squash and remaining macaroni mixture. Pour sauce over top.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until bubbly and heated through. let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Also, keep in mind, I did not get to be a part of the preparation of this dish. Therefore, I have no tips or tricks, and I don't know of any tweaks* that might exist, nor do I know exactly how much this recipe makes (the 3 quart baking dish is a pretty good indicator though). However, I do know that this is an amazing dish and I would think - for my vegetarian friends - easily adaptable.

*I say this because nearly every recipe I have used at work has been altered at least once, but never updated to include such tweaks. Something I have learned to be careful of.

Spring Time in Greece

Tonight was the Spring Time in Greece dinner at OCC. I was a part of the kitchen staff. It was fun, but not at all like I expected.

I didn't get to cook anything! The Banquets & Buffets class prepped and cooked everything. Boo.

All everyone else got to do was some prep work and then plate the five courses for ~180 people. It was still cool, since all the food was amazing looking, and delicious. I wish I had brought a camera as other people did, so i could show you just how awesome everything looked. I might be able to get a hold of some to show you.

On to the menu:

Employee Meal:

Greek Salad with Rosemary Pita Chips - Standard fare. The dressing was quite good.

Greek Chicken Kabobs with yougart - also very good, though a lot of the chicken was under cooked and served anyway. Oops. I didn't have any part of that.

Spanikopita - delicious spinach pie.

Gyros with Tzatziki - the tzatziki was good, but I'm not a huge gryo fan. Which is strange, since I adore lamb.

Pastitsio - This was my favorite. Recipe to follow.

And for dessert, Baklava - wonderful.

That's just what we got to eat for dinner, though when the actual dinner was being served there were a lot of leftovers and extras that we devoured throughout the night.

Dinner Menu:

Hors D'oevres:

Tzatziki and Tabouli on pita chips - my favorite

Spanikopita

Stuffed Grape Leaves - my second favorite

Octopus Salad - regretfully I was not able to try this, but it was a huge hit.

Tyropitakia - It's like quiche with feta cheese and egg with a phyllo crust. Really good.

and of course, Saganaki - Flaming cheese. OPA!

Soup:

Kotosoupa Avgolemono - Chicken and lemon rice. Unfortunately I did not get to try this, but it looked so so good. It was garnished with lemon zest, capers, chive oil, and scallion.

Salad:

Greek salad with baby beets and a warm goat cheese cake. The goat cheese cake was amazing. It was sweet with a graham cracker crust and savory with the goat cheese. There was some serious umami going on there. The extras did not last long.

Fish:

Barramundi with Lemon and Garlic served over a warm orzo pasta with artichokes and tomatoes with a lemon caper butter sauce and a ramekin of pastitsio. This was also very good. It's an australian sea bass, extremely mild. The pasta and sauce were fantastic.

Main Course:

Greek Trio of grilled Lamb chops, chicken stuffed with olives and feta, a lamb sausage presented with a stuffed grape tomato (which was not a part of the original menu so I do not know what went into it other than ground beef, I can tell you it was spicy and very good) and baby green beans. There was nothing about this dish that was not super fantastic. Everything was delicious.

Dessert:

Vanilla ice cream with strawberries and a strawberry sauce toped with a rich chocolate curl and what appeared to be a white chocolate/chocolate praline "cigarette". It was also served with a chocolate ouzo sorbet. Ultra decadent and equally delicious, especially the chocolate ouzo sorbet.

The whole evening was fantastic, I just which I could have cooked something. I post the recipes for the pastitsio soon.