Moussaka Help???

The abundance of eggplant from the garden has motivated me to consider making some Moussaka for the very first time. Anyone have a go-to recipe or advice to offer?

We used to holiday every year on the Greek islands and back home I then used to regularly make moussaka.

But it is a lot of effort and because of that I have not done so for years. What takes ages to cook gets wolfed down in moments.....

There's basically three components that need to be made and cooked before being assembled and then baked in an oven.

1) a meat sauce. At the very least, fried ground/minced beef/lamb, or a better still a dry ragu simmered with onions, tomato and ground/minced beef/lamb

2) aubergine (aka eggplant) sliced thinly, fried in olive oil till golden (or less calorifically brushed with oil and grilled/broiled to golden)

3) béchamel sauce


In a oven proof deep dish layer meat sauce and aubergine slices for as much aubergine & meat as you have. I don't think you can have too much aubergine, but often they also used potatoes to bulk up. Which is disappointing and I never did.

Top with béchamel sauce (no cheese....!!)

Bake in oven till top is cooked, browned and firm.

Serve with a Greek salad of tomato/cucumber/olives optionally sliced onions and feta (if you insist) and fresh local retsina (which is almost impossible to get off-island)

It's a peasant dish for those time rich in time and poor in money.

Hmmm. perhaps it's time for me to make it again...

MOUSSAKA:

3 Medium eggplants peeled and sliced ½” thick
Salt
1 to 2 C Olive oil
1 C finely chopped Onion
2 lbs Lean ground lamb
1 lb can Tomatoes, drained and chopped
1 medium Tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 6 oz can Tomato paste & enough red wine to make 1 cup
1 tsp minced Garlic
1 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Allspice
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Salt
Pepper mill
2 C grated Kassari cheese

Sauce Besamel:

2 C Milk
1 tbl Butter
3 Eggs
¼ C Flour
½ tsp Salt
¼ tsp Nutmeg

Melt butter and stir in flour until a roux forms. Mix ½ cup milk with eggs, salt, and nutmeg. Add to roux, stirring constantly. Warm rest of milk and add, stirring until sauce is thickened.


Salt eggplant slice and allow to drain on paper towels for 45 minutes. Pat dry. Brown slightly in just enough oil. Use sparingly. In large, heavy saucepan or Dutch oven cook onions in ¼ cup of olive oil until soft. Add garlic and lamb, and brown meat over medium high heat breaking it up with wooden fork or spoon until all red turns brown. Add spices and herbs, tomatoes, and tomato paste mixture. Cook over moderate heat until mixture is “dry” and clings to spoon. Put about one cup of sauce in bottom of lasagna pan. Layer on half the eggplant, sprinkle on one third of the cheese, and add rest of meat sauce. Place remaining eggplant on top of sauce, sprinkled with another third of the cheese. Top with Sauce Besamel and rest of cheese. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, and then 15 additional minutes at 400 degrees until brown.

1) buy a copy of Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

2) learn to "burn" eggplants so that the exterior is collapsing and the interior is a smoky delicious jello

3) enjoy the secrets of Ottoman cooking.

Baba Ghanouj, Imam Bayaldi, Hünkar Begendi

http://almostturkish.blogspot.com/2008/ ... eendi.html

There is a whole world of delights out there…

Not all of those are in Plenty but there's plenty of good eggplant stuff in there, and the Kindle version is nearly free…

Thanks for the advice everyone and thanks Carl for the recipe. We sort of blended 3 or 4 different recipes to put our own touch on this and the result turned out quite well. I liked it.

Moussaka 004.JPG

Looks good -- did you take a pic of it when opened?

Read a recipe for moussaka in today's paper and makes me want to have one with retsina.

Looks good -- did you take a pic of it when opened?

Read a recipe for moussaka in today's paper and makes me want to have one with retsina.

Peter-
Since you asked...
A tad blurry, but you get the idea.

Moussaka 011.JPG

Thanks for posting! Looks good.