There is always one cookbook that you put at the end of the shelf and rarely use because you don't know how well you will like using it. But, you keep that book because someone from Church gave it to you, or a relative gave it to you. We have a couple of those books, and today, one of them came in handy with this dish!
We flipped through the pages of a Greek Orthodox Church Philoptochos cookbook (Women's "Friends of the Poor" Organization) from a small American city, and we looked at the titles, the names of those who submitted the recipe, and we found a few names that we know from our childhood, and we remember those women being very good cooks. So, why not use their recipes and find out if our memories are correct or if we thought they were good cooks because of our age. That's what we did -- we found a lovely recipe with the title "Mayerima". We don't know exactly where the name originates for this food (as it simply means "That which is cooked", nor do we know which part of Greece would have a dish like this, so we are going to put it in our general category of vegetable dishes.
As we read the short list of ingredients, we noticed that these are all very common ingredients in our kitchen, and there should be no problem to put this together, get it in the oven and continue with other chores. And, when we read the directions, we thought it was so straight forward that we had to try it. So, we scurried to gather our vegetables and, sure enough, 15 minutes of preparation and this dish went in the oven. We could call it quick, simple, or even easy, but we would prefer to call it classic and delicious! Thank you to Elaine A. for sharing this recipe with her Church Philoptochos.
For this recipe, you will need the following:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, sliced
3 large potatoes, sliced
1 large eggplant or zucchini, sliced (we used zucchini)
salt and pepper to taste
3 TBSP parsley (fresh or dried)
16 ounces (about 500 mL or 2 cups) tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
Slice all the vegetables in even-width slices. If you are going to cut the zucchini 1/2 inch thick slices, then the potato and the onion must be the same thickness. It is suggested, in the cookbook, that 1/2 inch thick (about 1.25 cm) is a guideline so the vegetables to not become too soft when baking. Slice all the vegetables and set them aside.
In a baking dish (11 x 13) add olive oil to coat the bottom and sides of the dish. Lay down half of the sliced onions to make a row around the bottom of the baking dish. It is your choice to separate the rings of onions or leave them whole. Obviously, we separated the rings and overlapped them a bit for presentation purposes. We also thought this would help make it easier to lift the pieces out of the pan when serving. Top the layer of onions with a layer of potatoes. Use only half the potatoes, because you will build and repeat the pattern once. Now, on the potatoes, layer half the zucchini (or eggplant).
Repeat the layering process with the remaining onions, potatoes, and zucchini (or eggplant). Sprinkle the salt, pepper, and parsley all over the top of the dish. Try to distribute this evenly. Then, add the tomato sauce and water, pouring both over all of the ingredients.
Bake at 350° F for one hour until the vegetables are tender.
When we first took this out of the oven, both of us thought it looked a bit dry. But when serving it, we poured some of the sauce that was in the bottom of the baking dish on top of each piece, and that really made the food look appealing. We also noticed that we did not do a good job evenly distributing the seasonings! And, what we may try next time is to put a little salt, pepper, and parsley in between each group (lay onion, potato, zucchini, then season, and repeat). That may distribute the flavours a little better. We also wondered if next time we make this if we should cover the baking dish before putting it in the oven. That would really keep the top layer more moist. But, the directions did not call for covering the dish. This was the first time we ever made this, so we did not want to change anything about the recipe. Now that we know we will make this again, we can look at it a little differently and "tweak" the directions to our liking. If you have not had Mayerima before and you try it, let us know what you think. We would love to hear if you would change anything about the recipe or if you tried something different in it the first time you made it!
"The bee is small among winged creatures,
But her fruit is first among sweet things."
Wisdom of Sirach, 11:3
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