Sunday, October 28, 2018

Hedary's Mediterranean Restaurant


Hedary’s Mediterranean Restaurant

 7365 W. Sahara Unit K
Las Vegas, NV. 89117
(702) 873-9041
http://www.hedaryslasvegas.com/

Monday – Thursday 11am-9pm
Friday & Saturday 11am-10pm
Sunday 12pm-8pm
Happy Hour Monday-Friday 3-6pm 

$3, $4 & $5 drinks and food

 
Hedary’s offers the casual diner a nice selection of Middle Eastern fare stemming from Lebanese influence.  You get generous portions with selections from the dinner menu that will satisfy the bigger eaters.  Luncheon selections offer a slightly lighter fare..  You can enjoy wine, beer or freshly made Sangria with your meal. They also offer a wide range of non-alcoholic beverages including Tamarind, Mango and Guava Nectars, Leban Eran (a salty yogurt drink), Acqua Panna Spring Water and San Pelligrino Sparkling Water. You also have a choice of American or Lebanese coffee.  Soft drinks come with free refill.

 The interior is roomy with table chair seating. Al fresco dining is an option.  The vegetables are displayed in a cooler with a glass front offering the diner an idea of just how fresh the ingredients are.  The service staff are very friendly and the service was fast and the food cooked to perfection.

 

We started our meal with the Happy Hour Feta Cheese and Olives ($4.00); you get two generous portions of delicious feta cheese with black olives, slices of cucumber and tomato. Included is a basket of freshly baked pita bread to accompany your meal.

 

An order of their Lamb Chops ($24.95) served with fries and lightly grilled vegetables served      with their red sauce.  You get six chops, all good sized and done to order.

 

Our next order was the Hummus Ma-Lah ( ($16.50) A hummus dip topped with your choice of    beef, lamb, chicken gyro or ground sirloin and onion dip.  This dish had the beef strips topped with slivered red onion and parsley.  The meat sits atop a ring of hummus, pickled red turnips, sliced cucumber and hot peppers.

 

Our final dish was the Falafel Plate ($14.50) You get 10 nice sized Falafels which were cooked    to a  golden crisp brown on the outside, yet remained moist on the inside.  It is served with chunks of tomato, cucumber and lettuce and a small bowl of hummus and a yogurt and garlic dipping sauce.
 

All of the food was cooked to order, extremely delicious and the portions were very generous.  My only criticism was the amount of garlic in the hummus (but then it said that if you like garlic you’ll love hummus), other than that shear perfection and worthy of a future visit to explore other menu options.


 

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Greek-Style Moussaka - Meal On A Dime















Greek-Style Moussaka 
 Meal On A Dime - by Pattie Sue Knapp

 Moussaka is an eggplant (sometimes potato-based) dish, sometimes a vegetarian dish it can often be made with lamb or ground meat. It is, in its traditional form, found in the cuisines in the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, and Balkans. Many local and regional variations can be expected. I have read where the root word for the dish, musakhan, literally means, “something that is heated.” Today the dish is most closely associated with Greek cuisine mainly due to a famous early 20th Century Greek chef, Nikolaos Tselementes. Perhaps overly fond of French cooking styles, he adapted the local moussaka by adding the French BĂ©chamel sauce. Variations of his adaptation are what we most frequently see today.

As a mother raising three children I often ran into the age old problem; how to provide a good meal and use whatever I had on hand.  While it’s fun to peruse cookbooks all too often you find yourself short of the required ingredients. Big name chefs and sponsored programs call for the finest and costliest ingredients. While it is true that to make an exact copy of a particular dish you have to follow the recipe, it is also true that you can consider a recipe simply as a starting point to be amended as needed considering the cost of the ingredients and what foods you have on hand or growing in the garden. That concept is what I call my “meals on a dime.”
To that end, I offer two recipes for moussaka; the first a generic recipe that follows so many in cookbooks and on the internet. The second is my latest endeavor using home grown vegetables and with most of the other items from my pantry shelves. Sometimes it is fun to experiment. Feel free to use whatever you have on hand, cheddar cheese or even pepper jack; you can substitute sausage for the beef or a combination.  Why not use leftover spaghetti sauce in place of the white sauce? After all, it’s your dish and you are the cook and no one should tell you otherwise. The ingredients for both versions are listed for comparison but the preparation instructions are the same.
The full recipe can be seen in the Janis Gardens Cookbook

Ingredients: Generic Recipe
     
  • 3 eggplants (peeled, cut into ½-inch lengthwise slices, 3 medium or 2 large)
      
  • Salt (for seasoning and for eggplants) and cracked pepper
      
  • 1 tablespoon butter
      
  • ¼ cup olive oil
      
  • 1 pound ground beef
      
  • 2 onions, chopped
      
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
      
  • ¼ teaspoon each nutmeg, cinnamon
        
  • 2 tablespoons parsley (fresh or dried)
      
  • 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
      
  • 1 egg beaten
      
  • 1/3 cup red wine - optional
      
  • 4 cups milk
      
  • ½ cup butter
      
  • 6 tablespoons flour
      
  • Salt to taste (for white sauce)
      
  • 1 ½ cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
      
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg for topping
      
  • ½ teaspoon herbs (I generally use basil, mint and tarragon)
  Ingredients: Meal On a Dime Version
  
  • 1 large eggplant (peeled and cut into ½-inch rounds)
      
  • Salt (for seasoning and eggplants) and cracked pepper
      
  • ¼ cup olive oil
      
  • 1 tablespoon butter
      
  • ¾ pound ground beef
      
  • 1 onion, chopped
      
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
      
  • 1/8 teaspoon each of nutmeg and cinnamon
      
  • ¼ teaspoon herbs of your choice
      
  • 1 tablespoon parsley
      
  • 4 ounces tomato sauce
      
  • ¼ cup red wine - optional
      
  • 1 egg (beaten)
      
  • 2 cups milk
      
  • ¼ cup butter
      
  • 3 tablespoon flour
      
  • Salt to taste for sauce
      
  • 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (the kind that comes in a jar)
      
  • Nutmeg for topping to your taste
    •   Salt the eggplant and put on towels to absorb the liquid for about ½ hour, then pat dry and add olive oil to skillet and bring up to heat.  Fry eggplant quickly until lightly browned on both sides, remove from heat and put on towels to catch any residual grease.



    Wipe out the skillet and add the butter, when melted add the ground beef and onions and garlic.  Stir to combine and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Stir mixture until meat is cooked through, then add the cinnamon, nutmeg, herb mixture and parsley, stir to combine.  Add the tomato sauce and wine*, stir and simmer for about ½ hour.  Remove from the heat and when cooled add the beaten egg*, stir to combine.


      Bring milk up to a hard simmer (do not boil) while melting butter in a skillet.  When melted add the flour mixing with a whisk to combine; then slowly add the milk while whisking to avoid lumps.  Continue whisking until mixture thickens to desired consistency. You can add salt to taste if desired.

    Spray a 9- x 13-inch (or use  7- x 11-inch) pan with nonstick cooking spray and place a layer of eggplant on the bottom, layer the meat on top then add 1 third of the cheese* over the meat and layer with remaining eggplant.  Cover with another 1 third of the cheese and top with the white sauce. Spread sauce evenly over the eggplant and cover with remaining cheese and top with nutmeg.

     Bake in a preheated 350° F oven for approximately 1 hour or until nicely browned on top. Remove and let sit for about 10 minutes before cutting.

  • * I also use a generous tablespoon of Greek yogurt in place of the egg.
  • * You can omit the wine.
  • * You can substitute or combine fresh or grated Parmesan along with mozzarella or jack cheese (I use whatever I have on hand) Above all, enjoy your meal on a dime.
  • The full recipe can be seen in the Janis Gardens Cookbook