Why I made Mushroom Moussaka

Yesterday I made an infamous recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook, one I had never tried since my beloved housemate Camille (known then as Jennifer) made it for us in 1981 or 1982, our last year of college.

It's easy to see from looking at the page in the cookbook why this recipe lived in infamy and why I had to make it yesterday. Right at the top of the page it says: preparation time - 2 hours. Right away, you know something is wrong here. I don't ever have two hours to make one item of food. And actually, no one really has two hours to make dinner.

Then you read the recipe itself - it has three parts, each of which needs to be cooked, and then they have to be assembled and recooked. That's too many parts. That's too much cooking.

Then here's the kicker - the recipe calls for 1/4 cup of red wine. Yup, just 1/4 cup. So if you are anything like me you are thinking - what happened to the rest of the bottle?

And there in a nutshell is why I haven't made the recipe for nearly 30 years. I had too many bad memories of how cranky I got as my dear friend worked hard to assemble this for dinner while she or we took care of the rest of the wine. I think we ate around 10 pm that night.

My life now is not anything like it was then.

But 30 years later, and minus the wine, I gave it a try yesterday. I did it for the same reason I've been writing about recipes since the kids were little- I used to say it was to act like I had a life, but I realize I can focus that more. It's to act like I have independence. Like I do one thing for myself only and not for anyone else. I mean, when you see the ingredients below, you KNOW my kids aren't eating it, and Alen's been sick in bed for 3 days, although she emerged tonight and said it was pretty good. Thanks for this go to Michal Shusman, who watched Sasha yesterday afternoon, and to Rachel and Ofer Shabbat Beit Halachmi, who hosted Gabi.

So here's my adaptation of Mollie Katzen's mushroom moussaka. The measurements are Israeli.

1 eggplant (Mollie said three, but we don't like it that much)
2 boxes of mushrooms
1 large chopped onion
2 minced garlic cloves
1 container tomato paste (Israeli containers are smaller, so I added 2 tablespoons prepared spaghetti sauce)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
oregano (Mollie said basil too, but I didn't have any)
cinamon - a dash
salt & pepper
1/4 cup grape juice
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated cheddar plus more for the top
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
about 1.5 cups milk
2 eggs and one egg yolk (Mollie said 4 eggs plus 4 egg yolks - I thought that was extreme)

Slice the eggplant and bake about 15 minutes on an oiled tray in the oven
Fry the mushrooms, onions and garlic in butter in a big pot
Add the tomato paste, parsley, grape juice (or wine), oregano, basil, cinamon, salt and pepper. Cook until liquid is mostly gone, then add bread crumbs and cheese and 2 beaten eggs and remove from heat.
Melt the butter, make a roux with the flour, and add the milk. Thicken to a white sauce, then beat in the egg yolk.
Make the Moussaka with a layer of eggplant, a layer of mushroom sauce, more eggplant, more mushroom sauce, and then the white sauce on top, with a little grated cheese on top of that. Cook at 350 for 35 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered.

There was a lot to love about our home at 34 Haverford Road. Thanks to my friends from those years. I'm glad I tried again with the Mushroom Moussaka.