Today's Cultural Inspiration: Greece - Pastitsio

In light of trying to find off beat casseroles, I came across Ina Garten's recipe for a Greek casserole - Pastitsio. I guess it's not so much "off beat", but definitely not a good ol' American casserole where the first ingredient is cream of mushroom.  Some of the not so typical ingredients were the in the Bechemal and tomato meat sauce; nutmeg and cinnamon respectively. You don't distinctively taste the nutmeg and cinnamon like one would in banana bread, but experience the spices as dish enhancers. The Pastitsio was delicious and highly recommend trying this recipe, especially if you've never tried lamb.
 

 After my hiatus, I came up with the idea to apply a theme to parts of the week. Tuesdays are "anything-can-be-a-taco-Tuesday" and the weekends are "Casserole Weekends". Doing this encourages me to explore and hopefully re-invent  typical taco or casserole dishes. Instead of preparing ordinary Mexican tacos, I keep the idea of having ingredients wrapped in a shell of some sort but change the cultural root of the dish. Maybe Hawaiian tacos could consist of this: Kalua pork tacos filled with a lightly dressed Kimchee slaw, accessorized with cilantro, toasted sliced almonds, fried wonton slices and a dab of a lime garlic sour cream sauce. They would be soft shell tacos using a poi based tortilla. That was just an idea off the top of my head and now, I have next week's taco night planned :).

Cheers to new ideas!