Lasagne is a pasta dish which is a favourite for most families as it is enjoyed by both adults and kids.  It is a mixture of very thin pasta sheets, a meat/poultry/fish or vegetable sauce, ricotta, spinach and white sauce.  This gives a very comforting classic type of dish which can be served as a first course as well as a main course.  I tend to prefer to avoid red meat so I make my lasagne with chicken mince or salmon or mushrooms instead of the typical bologese.  All are different so here I will start off by giving the recipe using chicken mince.

Chicken Sauce

500g chicken mince made from lean chicken breast

500g tomatoes (liquidised) or if not available at a good price, then two tins of tomato pieces

1 onion

3 gloves garlic

fresh basil

1 tablespoon tomato puree (kunserva)

Make in the same way as the bolognese sauce, substituting the mince meat with the chicken mince.  Set aside.

Simple and practical White Sauce

600ml skimmed milk

50g margarine

50g flour

seasoning

1 tsp mustard

1 tablespoon grated gbejna (cheeselets)

Place the margarine in a saucepan and soon after place the milk and the flour.  Stir well with a hand whisk until all are combined. Bring to the boil and stir for another 2 minutes.  Then add the mustard, seasoning and the cheese and set aside.

Ricotta and Spinach mixture

I like mixing these although in some recipes they can be seen used in seperate layers.  Mash the ricotta mixture, add some seasoning and the boiled spinach.  Beat together with one egg.

Once all these fillings are ready, you can place the lasagne layers on a greased baking dish and place the above on layer at a time and each time covering with lasagne sheets to completely seperate the different fillings from each other.  The white sauce can be used as one of the layers too but in traditional recipes and in my recipes the white sauce is only used on the very top most layer above the last layer of the lasagne sheets.  Bake in a moderate over for around 40 minutes and if desired in the final 10 minutes sprinkle a tablespoon of parmesan cheese on top of the white sauce.

Karen Mugliett

28/03/10

Thick Fish Soup (Aljotta Maghquda)

This is another healthy and economical dish as the soup as well as the main course can be cooked in one pot.  If desired the whole dish can be taken as one course where the fish can be eaten together with the fish soup.  In the past small bony fish used to be used for the aljotta but this would be difficult to then eat as we prefer to eat without the bones.  Therefore if using the fish to make up a main meal, it is best to choose bigger fish which can easily be eaten and bones can easily be removed.  I tend to go for hake (merluzz), grouper (cerna) or dentex (denci) and this is popular with the kids too as the bones are easily removed.  Needless to say only fresh fish should be used in this lovely Mediterranean soup.   One can also make a similar soup with prawns and mussels but that's a more expensive fare and so will tackle this another day.  The other main ingredients for this thick fish soup should be garlic (where the aljotta) gets its name from and lovely fresh herbs that go well with fish eg mint and marjoram.

Ingredients

1 and a half kilos of fish (cleaned and washed)

2 litres of water

1 onion

3 medium sized potatoes

1 tablespoon wholegrain oats

head of garlic

bunch or fresh mint and bunch of marjoram

small piece of a chilli pepper or capsicum

1 tablespoon tomato puree (kunserva)

olive oil

4 whole tomatoes

lemon to garnish

Method

In a large saucepan fry the onion and garlic lightly and set aside.

Then put the potatoes in the saucepan together with the water and herbs and bring to boil and cook for around 15 minutes until the potatoes soften.  

Add all the other ingredients including the onions and garlic at this stage.  If using fish which is bony or if using a head of a fish these need to go in a muslin cloth (and then tied) so that the bones will not disperse in the soup.  I like using the above mentioned fish as all can be cooked direct in the soup and later on picked up to be eaten as a main course or else flaked.

Allow to cook for another 30 minutes, do not over cook the fish.  Once you see that the fish is about to flake and is cooked enough lift it up onto a plate.

Use a blender to blend the potatoes well with the rest of the soup and this is when you get a lovely thick consistency.  Then if serving the fish and soup as one main course, place the fish back into the soup and serve OR place portions of the fish in soup plates and serve the soup over the fish.  Dress with a touch of olive oil and serve with a nice toasted piece of Maltese bread or ftira with some olive oil.  Alternatively the fish can be kept for a second course with accompaniments such as a nice tomato and basilico salad.

Karen Mugliett

17/03/10

Stuffed Marrows with Rikotta and Tomatoes

This is a very old traditional recipe and a favourite of mine.  There are different ingredients you can stuff marrows with such as mince meat, chicken mince or 'mill-art' which basically means that the ingredients used are not cooked but mixed and used straight away to stuff the marrows.  These days we would make a bolognese type of sauce and stuff the marrows with the sauce but I rememer my dear old aunt doing this 'mil-art' recipe and it was delicious.  Today I will focus on teh rikotta and tomato filling.  This is a vegetarian dish too.

6 large round marrows (depending on size of family)

300g rikotta

2 tomatoes chopped

1 tablespoon parsley

1 egg for binding

1 tablespoon grated cheese or grated gbejna

seasoning

Method

Boil the marrows until they are partially cooked.  Don't overboil, they will carry on cooking in the oven.

Drain and allow to cool

Make the rikotto mixture by mixing all the ingredients together until you have a smooth paste. 

Scoop our the inside of the marrow and set aside for making a soup

Spoon the rikotta mixture into the hollow part of the marrows and press in so that they are nicely filled right to the top.

Place in a greased dish and bake in the oven for around 45 minutes until nicely baked and the rikotta is golden brown at the top. Towards the end you might even sprinkle a touch of cheese eg gbejna to melt but this is optional.  You could roast some potatoes with this dish and that way you would be economising on the use of the electricity as the oven will be used for two dishes and the whole meal.

I like this variation though.  I make a fresh tomato sauce with peas and boil some pasta.  I mix the pasta with some basil, olive oil and chopped sun dried tomatoes if desired.

As in photo I then serve the marrows with the red sauce, a dish of pasta and a fresh salad.  A healthy dish with lots of vegetables and not a touch of meat.

Enjoy!

Karen

 Laham Fuq il-Fwar (steamed meat)

I have posted a recipe in the Cuisine section: Traditional Revival for a childhood favourite of mine:  laham fuq-il-fwar.  When I mentioned this dish recently to my husband, parents and brother, there was an air of nostalgia as all of us remembered the smell this dish created in our houses and those simple and economical dishes.  Many of our dishes do take time to cook and it is perhaps for this reason that we have opted for other dishes in our diets today such as easy pasta dishes, roast chicken, etc.  As you can see from the photo in this blog I have made a nice hearty meal out of simple ingredients:  the laham fuq il-fwar, boiled spinach, cherry tomato salad and sauteed potatoes (please note these are NOT FRIED).

One might question - but why try to revive dishes we had in our childhood or we used to have when we went to our grandparents' houses?  Well there's a lot to say here:  there are health reasons, there's our tradition, most are economical and sensible meals and use produce which is available locally.  The alternatives we are using today in our meals which now include creams, fattier ingredients, expensive vegetables, etc might not help our pockets or our health.  The Mediterranean cuisine is recommended as a healthy alternative to more rich cuisines and therefore it is recommended that we try to remind ourselves of what we used to eat and what is really local.

I'd like to pose a question to get you to interact on this site.  It will be great fun to try to remember anything local, traditional or special that you used to have when you were young, or that your parents might mention.  Post it here and let us together try to revive these long lost dishes.  I will then discuss their health points or suggest alternatives when they are not so healthy - and together we can rebuild our memories of lost food cultures and revive them within our own families.

So post your comments here in this blog:

Karen Mugliett

From time to time I will be suggesting simple, economical and healthy dishes which are also traditional or part of the nearby Mediterranean cuisine. Most if not all of these dishes will be ones which I would have planned to cook that week too, so they have to be practical and healthy. I try and minimise on the amount of red meat in my cooking but will suggest alternatives where possible for those wanting to opt for meat.

The three dishes I will be suggesting this week are: Rice with meat, nuts and raisins served with sauteed marrows and carrots, Laham fuq il-fwar (steamed meat) and a nice thick fish soup which can be served as a main course.

Rice with meat, nuts and raisins

This recipe is adapted from an Arab recipe (I have to say I am fascinated with arab and local cuisine) Serves a family of 4 - 5

Ingredients

450g or 3 cupfuls rice (I like to use basmati or long grain)
200g minced meat (for health reasons I go for chicken mince and then add 50g chicken liver if available, for a tasty dish go for 250g lamb or beef mince)
50g pine nuts
50g almonds blanched and chopped
50g raisins
1 teaspoon ground allspice
olive oil
seasoning

Method

Prepare the meat and the nuts and set aside. Fry the meat in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until it is cooked. Mix in with the nuts,raisins, allspice and seasoning whilst the mixture is still hot.
Then heat another tablespoon of olive oil and fry the rice gently for 2 minutes until the rice becomes translucent.
Add 1 litre of water and a pinch of salt to the rice and bring to the boil.
Allow the rice to cook and add hot water if necessary.
Once the rice is ready drain if necessary and place on a serving dish and make a hole in the middle.
Place the meat mixture in the middle, sprinkle with parsely and the marrows and carrots (sauteed or stir fried) in a seperate dish and serve all.
I love using plain white light yoghurt with these types of recipes to give that little bit of a sour taste.

For those who prefer to opt for a meal without meat, this recipe can still be done and instead of the meat go for vegetables in season eg broccoli.

Next recipe will be the Laham fuq il-fwar - a forgotten dish but so low in calories and so economical.