Saffron Lasagna With Basil Ground Beef....Excellent, Trust Me


Today even though is not Sunday is a special day for the financial future of Greece.  The parliament is going to vote for the osterity measures that it has to take to get itself out of the mess it got itself in.

We live very close to "Sintagma Square" and the Parliament where there is a battle going on between the Greek people, who are against the measures, and the Swat teams. The result is lots of tear gas and chemicals in the atmosphere causing us to be locked at home with the windows shut to keep the gases out but still.  So I said "to heck with it, I'll fix Lasagna"!

To  make saffron lasagna with basil ground beef you will need.
Serves 6
-  18 rectangles of the dry (in the box) lasagna which do not need to be precooked.
-  1 liter of milk.
-  1 cup milk extra.
-  500 gms of ground beef.
-  50 gms of butter.
-  50 gms of flour.
-  0.25 gms of Greek red saffron powder dissolved in the 1 litre of milk.

-  A handful of leaves of fresh basil chopped.
-  1 long sweet red pepper sliced.  (optional).

-  1 onion roughly chopped.
-  5 cloves of garlic finely chopped.
-  150 gms of freshly grated parmezan cheese.
-  salt, pepper, nutmeg for both the bechamel and the ground beef.
Method:
-  Make a thin bechamel sauce with the butter, flour and safron milk. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste, set aside.  The color of the bechamel will be yellow.
-  Add enough olive oil just to cover the bottom of a skillet, heat and add onion and stir fry on high heat for 3-4 minutes.
-  Add garlic, stir fry for 1 minute max.
-  Add the ground beef and brown on all sides.


-  Add salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste.
  Lower heat, simmer for about 5 minutes uncovered.
-  Turn off heat, add the chopped basil, mix and set aside.


-   Laddle some bechamel sauce to cover the bottom of the rectangular baking dish.
-  Add the first layer of six rectangular lasagna pieces.
-  Laddle some bechamel sauce to cover the first layer of lasagna.
-  Add ground beef to cover the bechamel.
-  Add a few slices of the sweet red pepper ( optional ).
-  Sprinkle 1/3 of the parmezan cheese.
-  Repeat the above for the second layer of lasagna. Add lasagna, ground beef, sweet peppers, and parmezan.
-  For the third and last layer of lasagna:
-  Ladle the rest of the béchamel, sprinkle the rest of the parmezan.
-  Add the one cup of extra milk all over the surface and sides.
-  Top with three knobs of butter.

-  Bake for 20 minutes to 30 minutes max in a preheated oven  at 220 degrees C.
-  When time is up, take out from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes till you prepare the salad.
Serve and enjoy!!
Stelio 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bamia Mafroukeh--Ladies fingers with beef or lamg -Taste of Sudan.

S udan is the largest country in Africa. Lately there was a quarrel between the North and South (Juba). The reason: Oil. Chevron and other Petroleum companies found lots of Oil reserves in the South and so the fight started. I personally visited the village of Bentu, in the South during one of my visits to Chevron Oil Company in the South. As all countries, the Sudan also has its local foods. A very popular one is Molokhia which grows only in summer. Bamia, in Arabic, lady's fingers or internationally known as Okra can be readily found all year round. Bamia Mafroukeh is a delicious food eaten with the Sudanese bread called Kisra. The term Mafroukeh is act of breaking down the bamia when it well cooked to turn it into a thick, soup. There is special wooden utensil the Sudanese use. Ingredients: - 1 kg bamia Lady's fingers or Okra. - 1 kg beef or lamb bone free. - 1/2 kg fresh tomatoes cut in quarters. - 1 big onion roughly cut. - 6 cloves of garlic finely cut. - 
Read more

Brandade de Morue - Cod / Potato Mash Gratin.

Image
T his recipe is based on Jacques Pepin's with a slight twist from myself to suit Greek taste. This recipe is for 4 persons as a starter. Ingredients : - 1 kg of salted cod fillet. - 1 kg of potatoes skinned. - 1.5 cups full fat milk. - At least 6 large cloves of garlic - 2 tsp. grated lemon zest. - 4 tsp, lemon juice. - Cayenne pepper to taste. - 1 cup of olive oil. - Freshly ground black pepper to taste - Freshly grated Parmigiano cheese. Procedure : - Preheat oven to 200 deg. C. - Skin the cod fillet and immerse into cold water and refrigerate. - Change water as many times as possible over the next 24 hours to desalinate. - Meanwhile boil the potatoes till tender (fork easily pearces potato).Peel and cut into pieces when cool. - When the cod is desalinated, cook in water by lightly simmering water until fork easily pearces the fish. Do not over cook the fish lest it becomes too hard. - Once cooled, make sure to the best of your ability to omit all the bon
Read more

Spaghetti with Portobello mushrooms, garlic, and Gorgonzola Cheese.

Image
B arilla No. 7 Spaghetti is the best type to use for this recipe because they are thick and fill your mouth very pleasantly with the ingredients. The parmesan cheese gives a general fantastic taste.   Ingredients:    Serves 5 - 500 gms Spaghetti no. 7 - 500 gms of Portobello mushrooms cubed big. - 150 gms Gorgonzola cheese room temperature. - 4 big cloves of garlic smashed and passed thru the garlic press. - 500 ml of fresh cream 35% fat. - 50 gms of fresh butter. - Salt and pepper to taste. - Ground nutmeg to taste. - Parmesan cheese. Procedure: - First make the sauce then the spaghetti. - In a small pan dissolve the Gorgonzola in the cream and keep hot. - In a big pan melt butter, add the cubed mushrooms, and saute slightly 1 minute. The mushrooms must not soften. - Add garlic and stir 1/2 minute. - At this point boil the water for the spaghetti (100 ml of water per 100 gms of spaghetti). - Add the cream/Gorgonzola mixture to the mushrooms a
Read more