Re: Receta Gatimi Shqiptare
Patllixhane te mbushur nga nje shqipetare - artikull i botuar ne gazeten Boston Globe.
http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2006/10/25/just_like_grandmother_used_to_make/
Shume mire for Roza and her nice kids Martin and Inis -- the full picture is in Wednesday's paper, but this one only has part of the full picture.
ONE COOK'S BEST DISH | ALBANIAN STUFFED EGGPLANT
Just like grandmother used to make
Roza Hasanaj-Mija teaches her children how to make Albanian dishes so tthat hey might avoid acquiring a taste for junk food. (Rose Lincoln)
By Jane Dornbusch, Globe Correspondent | October 25, 2006
Roza Hasanaj-Mija' s Mission Hill townhouse is a long way from the Albanian farm where she spent her summers as a child. But the stuffed eggplant she prepares is much the same dish her grandmother made on that farm. Other dishes, too, reflect the lessons she learned in her grandmother' s kitchen: 85-layer baklava, a meat pie called borek, and the fresh fruits and vegetables she prefers.
There are some differences, of course. Hasanaj-Mija, 35, cooks with modern conveniences -- such as an oven. She describes the outdoor stove her grandmother used: "It was a big pot like a table, with logs around it. It gave everything a very special taste, smoky." And back home, she says, "everything came straight from the garden -- tomatoes, eggplant, spicy peppers, strawberries. "
Hasanaj-Mija, who came to the United States in 2000 with her husband, parents, and two children, has managed to find a good source here for the type of wholesome food she enjoyed at home. She and her husband, Hajri Mija, both work at Whole Foods, she as a payroll and benefits specialist in
Wellesley and he in produce at Symphony in Boston. As a result, most of the family's groceries are purchased there. And though she's a dedicated scratch cook, she'll use the store's canned tomato sauce in her stuffed eggplant when fresh tomatoes aren't in season.
The stuffed eggplant -- its Albanian name, patellxhane te mbushura, is a complicated thicket of consonants pronounced patelljaneh te embushura -- has become a special-occasion dish because it's fairly time consuming. Still, sometimes she'll prepare it for no particular reason, just because
someone in the house is in the mood. The energetic Hasanaj-Mija, who worked as a lawyer in her native Tirana, thinks nothing of spending her weekends on kitchen projects, and also finds time each Saturday to lead "cooking classes" for her kids, Martin and Inis Mija, ages 9 and 6. She began teaching them how to cook a couple of years ago, prompted by a desire to get Martin, a "particular eater," as she calls him, to try new foods. Hasanaj-Mija was also concerned that her children might acquire a taste for junk food in their adopted homeland. "There's a lot more of it
here than in Albania. The food at school is not as good."
Her dreams for the children prompted her to enter the green-card lottery. "When Martin was born, life in Albania was changing, in terms of stability. It wasn't safe," she says. She still smiles when she recalls the day she found out the family had won the opportunity to come to the States.
"Even if I could win a million dollars in the lottery, I prefer to win this."
As she talks, she prepares the eggplants. She peels the skin in three strips, then soaks them in salt water to remove the bitterness. The filling is a simple mixture of garlic, onion, ground beef, and tomato sauce, but the key, she says, is another of grandmother' s cooking lessons. "She cooked everything on a low or medium heat, never on high. Onions, garlic, vegetables, cook them very slow, cook them separate, cook everything all the way through." The long, slow cooking brings out the best flavors of the simple ingredients, rendering the eggplant rich and tender. Fresh parsley and snappy feta, sprinkled on top just before serving, provides a counterpoint to the meltingly tender vegetables and their meaty stuffing. For dinner, Hasanaj-Mija would serve this dish with cucumber and tomato salad, and whole wheat bread. Her grandmother would recognize the meal. "She was a wonderful cook," says Hasanaj-Mija.
"Even when she'd cook a vegetable dish, without meat, it would taste like the best thing ever."
Perkthimin e bej nje here tjeter.
