Moussaka

Moussaka is essentially about eggplant. It is a Greek oven dish that combines layers of ground meat, fried or baked eggplant, and a béchamel sauce on top.

It’s rather long to prepare from scratch: some preliminary cooking, before assembling (50-55 minutes of work), then some oven cooking just before serving (40 minutes, but no work) ; or you can do the prep work and assembly around breakfast, lave the assembly in gthe fridge, and do the final cooking just before dinner.

There are many variants and options: sweat the eggplant or not, kind of meat: lamb, mutton, pork, …, potatoes or no potatoes (for a more nutritious dish), types of spices, etc.

Ingredients

For 3:

• one big eggplant (500g), or small ones
• 450 g of ground lamb, mutton, beef, even buffalo works
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tomato
• 1 Garlic clove
• 1 Egg
• 1 large tbsp flour
• 1 large tbsp butter
• 1 cup milk
• Grated cheese (parmeggiano, pecorino, …)
• Olive oil
• Pepper (maybe allspice); cinnamon; nutmeg; cumin
• (optional: white wine)
• (optional: parsley)
• (optional: breadcrumbs)

Optional:

• one potato

Preparation

The eggplant:

1. Peel the eggplants (some people don’t)
2. Make thin slices (8 mm)
   
3. (Optionally, you can make them sweat: rub them in salt, let them rest 30 minutes; rinse well; pat dry)
4. Brush the slices with olive oil on both sides
   
5. Roast them in the oven on both sides until tender
6. Alternatively, you can fry them in a large frying pan
   

The meat layer:

1. In olive oil, fry the onion and garlic,
2. add the meat, fry it well
   
3. Add pepper or allspice, maybe cumin or cinnamon too
4. Cut the tomato in small dice, incorporate and continue frying
5. add the white wine to wet
6. add the chopped parsley
7. let cook thoroughly
8. You may use some breadcrumbs to thicken a bit

The optional potato:

1. Peel it
2. Boil it for 25 minutes (still firm)
3. Slice it (4 mm thick)

The béchamel sauce:

1. Start a roux blanc, with butter and flour
2. Incorporate the milk in steps (you can use yogurt also)
3. Add salt and nutmeg
4. Add the cheese
5. Finally, incorporate the egg yolk

Assembly:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 350° (220°C)
2. Slightly oil the oven dish
3. You may sprinkle a little breadcumbs in the bottom
4. Beat the egg white until thick
5. and incorporate it in the meat sauce.
   
6. Put a layer of eggplant,
   
7. then a layer of meat sauce
8. (then the optional layer of potato slices,)
9. then a layer of eggplant,
10. then cover with the béchamel sauce.
    

Baking:

1. Bake 30 minutes at 350°F (220°C) (5 min. more if starting from cold)
2. Serve hot.