Eggplant Slippers: Melitzanes Papoutsakia

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Diane Kolchis suggests sprinkling a little of the cheese inside the eggplant shells before filling with the meat mixture.

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My family loved this recipe, it was not the normal "explode in your mouth" full of flavor type of recipe I usually gravitate towards, however they loved it.

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Well, i just watched Emeril do what is basically a take on Moussaka (--the accent on the last syllable, btw, in case you're a stickler for that sort of thing-- and i have a couple of relatively minor criticisms, as a Greek.

First, i think Emeril played it a bit safe by avoiding signature Greek spices such as cinnamon and/or nutmeg in this. Without both or either of those, this seems to me a dish trying to fit midway between Greek and Italian, or some watered-down
Americanization of European dishes. Some people also use either cloves or allspice; i recommend looking up various Moussaka recipes, and playing with the spices. Whatever you do, if you want authentic Greek, DO use some spices that are outside your comfort zone.

Other than that, my critique is that, if Emeril's band--god bless them-- don't understand Greek music, they shouldn't try to play something "sort of" Greek-- it made me cringe. I mean, c'mon, hire a bouzouki player to play with the band one night, what could it hurt? I'm sure the band is talented enough that they could catch on right away to the difference in meter.

Finally, the olives Emeril served as a side dish with the Saganaki were pitted, and appeared to be of the canned variety. PLEASE do not serve these! There are plenty of Greek olives of various types available in almost any store these days that are not pre-pitted and canned. They're worth the extra buck.

Also, I do love Emeril, but the expression is OPA, not OOOPA. In case it matters to anyone.

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We loved the recipe overall and it wasn't hard. However, I would have baked the eggplant vs. frying to keep the eggplant firmer to equal up to the ground beef mix. It was still very good and as my family puts it, "it is definately a 'keeper'".