The recipe for Greek mussaka and good advices I received from my neighbor who originates from Greece. Mussaka is a main course dish that is prepared in all countries of the Balkan Peninsula and is considered as a national meal in every one of them. The difference is in the meat and some people, according to taste add two egg yolks in the bechamel sauce and change the bottom or both layers with potatoes. The word béchamel has a French origin and it came much later with many other words as names to the similar things, prepared in the Balkan Peninsula, along with the French language that became very popular during the late eighteen and early nineteen century.
Ingredients: 1 kg – eggplants 500 g - minced meat (100 % beef in Muslim countries and 60% beef, 40% pork in non-Muslim countries) 100 ml - olive oil 1 onion (middle to big) 100 ml dry white wine 600 g peeled and chopped tomatoes 1 middle stick cinnamon 2 cloves 1/2 bunch of parsley 150 g cheese kefalograviera (original Greek cheese), gruer or any yellow cheese salt and black pepper to taste
Bechamel sauce: 500 ml cool fresh milk 30 g butter 2 tbls olive oil 40 g all-purpose flour salt, white pepper, nutmeg (to taste)
Preparation:
1. Peel the eggplants and cut them into slices. Sink the slices for 30 min. in salty water, dry them out with kitchen paper). Bake them for 25 - 30 min in an oven preheated to 200C, sprinkled with olive oil until soft and changing color. Take them out of the oven and leave aside in a warm place.
2. The onion is chopped up and sauté in the rest of the olive oil for 2 - 3 min, add the minced meat and stir until changes color, then add in the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients as wine, cinnamon, salt, pepper, cloves. When the mixture starts to boil lower the temperature and leave it for about an hour until the liquid vaporizes. Then take it aside and mix with the chopped parsley.
3. To prepare the béchamel sauce mix the butter and the olive oil and heat them well, then add the flour stirring constantly. Pour in the cool milk gradually stirring constantly until the sauce becomes thicker enough.
4. Take a large baking dish with dimensions approximately 30 x 18 cm and oil the bottom and sides with olive oil and lay the half of the eggplants in an even layer and sprinkle them with 1/3 of the cheese. Over the layer of eggplants and cheese pour the meat sauce and smooth out with spatula. Add 1/2 of the rest of the cheese over it and lay out the rest of the eggplants and sprinkle with 1/2 of the rest cheese, pour the béchamel sauce in a smooth layer and add the rest of the cheese.
5. Bake the dish in a preheated 180 - 200C oven for about 60 min. until crust turns light golden brown.
Leave it for 10 - 15 min to cool before cutting into pieces and serving.
This meal cannot be qualified as festive but it is cooked and served not very often (maybe maximum once a week) since it is not considered as a light meal offering about four hundred calories per portion. As you can see from the recipe, it delivers proteins and carbohydrates almost in equal proportion. The people in the countries in the Balkan peninsula do not need to import any one of the ingredients because the agricultural sector in the countries is very well developed and they produce enough meat, milk and vegetables not only to satisfy their needs but also for export. As it can be evaluated from the ingredients and the way of preparation, the Balkan kitchen is very healthy and contents all needs of the human body. Adding the big green salads in summer and the way they preserved the fruits and vegetables in large quantities during the winter describes the abundance they produced with heavy labor. Unfortunately not all of the citizens had their own land that they had to cultivate.
The religion is the main factor that determines the different variants of the preparation of one and the same meal and particularly the meat. Muslim people use chicken, lamb, veal, and beef while the non-Muslim people, besides these meats, eat pork.
Here is the place to make a short journey to the Balkan Peninsula.
The Balkan Peninsula geographically is situated in the East-South part of Europe and occupies a territory of about 470 000 sq. km, covered with mountain ranges directed from north-west to east-south. One of the biggest mountains that gave the name of the peninsula is the Balkan Mountains that run through Bulgaria from its west border with Serbia to the Black Sea which is the east border of Bulgaria and the Balkan Peninsula. The Rhodope Mountains is located in south Bulgaria and north Greece. The Dunaric Alps run through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro, the massive of Sar is situated in Albania and Macedonia, the Albanian Alps and the Pindus range situated from southern Albania to central Greece and the Albanian Alps. The highest mountain is Rila in Bulgaria which peak Musala raises 2925 m. high.
The climate is Mediterranean on the Aegean and Adriatic coasts, humid subtropical and oceanic on the coast of the Black Sea and it is humid continental in the inland.
The idea that the name Balkan came with the Turks when they invaded the peninsula is widely spread But Maria Todorova wrote in her study that: “Of the different etymologies, Inalcik has favored Eren’s Persian-Turkish one, deriving the word from mud (balk) with the Turkish denominative suffix –an.” (Todorova, M, 1997, p. 27)
According to Richard J Crampton, Encyclopedia Britannica, a universal agreement on the parts of the region does not exist but it is a common knowledge that the Balkan Peninsula includes (in alphabetical order) Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. The North part of Greece and the European part of Turkey are also included in the region. (Crampton, R., 2016, n. p.) He writes that the region is defined by some in historical terms and some in geographical, but the name is always the Balkans or the Balkan Peninsula. He continues with the affirmation that the name Balkans emanates negative associations because of historical ethnic cleavage and political struggles. In the beginning of 21st century, another term entered the political space and it is Southeastern Europe that describes the region in wide terms and a new term came into use – Western Balkans that include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. (Ibid)
The Balkans was occupied by the Ottoman Empire in 1352 for about five hundred years, but for many reasons, mainly because of not educated Turkish armies that crossed the lands, the citizens of the countries in the Balkan Peninsula were not assimilated by the Turks and they kept their national identity, culture, customs, architecture, etc. They organized small schools where the children studied their native language and other subjects using their native language.
During this period of five hundred years the Balkans acted as a frontier between the Ottoman Empire and the European Rulers that were in constant war. For example the long conflict in Venice (from 1644 till 1669) and the long war with the Habsburg dynasty (from 1683 till 1699) caused many Christians to leave their lands. The high unbearable taxes that were imposed by the Ottoman governors made the situation in the Balkans unbearable. At that time the first nationalism was born in the Balkan Peninsula, demanding comprehensive reforms. (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2016, n. p.)
The predominant Religion in the Balkans was Christian Orthodox but after the Ottoman occupation certain groups of the population in Bosnia, Albania, Crete and the Rhodope massif were Islamized forcefully. (Ibid)
Nevertheless the Ottoman Empire’s rulers wanted to represent that act as a peaceful choice of the local people it was an act of constraint. The population of the Balkans was always faced towards Europe where the children of the well-off and not so well-off citizens of the Balkans went to finish their education. There were some representatives of the local population that converted by their ill but they were only a few, isolated cases. The purpose of the Ottomans was to suppress the Venetian army to re-conquest regions of Greece and Albania and to make a shield against the Habsburgs in the seventeenth century. (Ibid)
The history of the Balkan Peninsula is full of wars and conflicts. Barbara Jelavich wrote: “To the outside observer the Balkans often appear to be a puzzle of confusing complexity. A geographic region inhabited by seven major nationalities, speaking different languages, it has usually impinged on the Western consciousness only when it has become the scene of wars or acts of violence.” (Jelavich, B. 1983, p. IX)
One of the most characteristic political and social features of the Balkans is the ethnic variety. The largest group is the South Slavs who form the majority of the population in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bulgarians, Macedonians and Slovenes speak their languages determined as Slavic languages, while the population of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro speak Slavic dialects called Serbo-Croatian. (Allcock, J., 2015, n. p.) During the last ten years a study was performed by Bulgarian scientists on the basis of DNA which is not widely popularized and which is expected to overturn the existing concepts about the population in the Balkan Peninsula and especially the Bulgarian nation.
Nevertheless that the Balkans is a place of constant internecine conflicts and wars, the nature is beautiful and the climate is very mild, the people are friendly and helpful. The death-rate is between seventy four and eighty years age, but there are lots of individuals that reach the age of one hundred years. (The World Fact Book, 2016, n. p.) Death-rate or life expectancy at birth compares the average length of life in groups of people who are born in one and the same year. It is conditionally accepted that the mortality will remain constant in the years to come. Life expectancy at birth shows the overall quality of life in a given country and draws a general conclusion about the mortality at all ages. (Ibid)
The geo-political emplacement of the countries, accepted as the Balkans or Southeast Europe, is very important as it has strategic significance for the political powers that are located in West Europe and Asia. For every normally thinking individual who takes a sober view of things is clear that every one of these political and economic powers would like to have strong influence in the region in order to use these countries for its own purposes. They have no interest these countries to be strong and independent. Their interest dictates that these countries have to be weak, poor and torn into pieces by conflicts, no matter what the reason is.
Reference
Allcock, J., 2015, Formation of Nation-States, Encyclopedia Britannica, Web Retrieved on Apr. 9, 2016 from www.britannica.com/place/Balkans
Balkan Peninsula, 2016The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., Web Retrieved on April 10, 2016 from www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-BalkanPe.html
Crampton, R., 2016, Balkans, Encyclopedia Britannica, Web Retrieved on Apr. 9, 2016 from www.britannica.com/place/Balkans
Jelavich, B., 1983, History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Cambridge University Press, Inc., ISBN 978-0-521-27458-6, Print
Todorova, M., 1997, Imagining the Balkans, Oxford University Press, Inc., ISBN 978-0195387864, Print
World Fact Book, 2016, Central Intelligence Agency, Web Retrieved on Apr. 9, 2016 from www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
