Recipe – Authentic Greek Moussaka

 

 

Why do I still insist on asking my Son what he would like to eat?

 Will I never learn?

 As soon as the question is out of my mouth, I could kick myself.

 I know the answer…moussaka!

 I love moussaka, but, it’s one of the most time consuming and fiddly Greek dishes to prepare.

 The preparation also creates piles of washing up, mostly pans, oily, sticky pans.

 You need a pan to fry the aubergines (Egg plant), a pan to boil the potatoes, a pan to cook the mince and a pan to cook the béchamel sauce.

 Then it all goes into a huge oven roasting tin!

 It is definitely worth the effort though, moussaka must be the most traditional of Greek dishes, and is just delicious but believe it or not, it’s not the national dish of Greece, that accolade belongs to fasolada, a hearty butter bean soup.

 To make things easier, when preparing moussaka, it’s a good idea to have bought all ingredients the day before, that way, if it is to be eaten for lunch, you can crack on with it first thing in the morning.

 Another thing you can do is prepare the meat sauce the night before, and store in the fridge.

 So, here we go, let’s get started!

 

 Ingredients

 

 

4-5 large aubergines, cut into 1cm – ½ inch slices

 1 kilo potatoes, peeled, and, boiled whole for 10 minutes

 Vegetable oil for frying aubergines

 

Meat sauce

 

 1 Kilo beef or lamb mince

 1 Onion finely chopped

 2 Garlic cloves, crushed

 1 Bay leaf

 1 Cinnamon stick

10 cloves – whole

 1 Carton concentrated tomato juice 500gr

  Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (to your taste)

 1/4 Cup Olive oil (50 – 60 ml)

 

 Ingredients for béchamel sauce

 

 

200 gr butter

1.5 cups plain flour (400gr)

1.5 litres milk

2 beaten eggs

100 gr grated hard cheese

1 Nutmeg – whole-grated grated.

(Whole nutmeg, freshly grated, has much, much more flavour than powdered nutmeg)

 

Method

 

Thinly slice the aubergines lengthwise, sprinkle with salt, and leave for about thirty minutes, you will see them start to “Sweat”.

 

 

 This helps remove the bitterness from the aubergines.

Boil peeled potatoes, whole, for ten minutes, drain and leave to cool.

 

1. Prepare the meat sauce.

 

 

Heat the olive oil, in a large pan, saute the chopped onion and garlic for 5 minutes and add the minced beef, saute for another ten minutes.

 Add the tomato puree, along with a couple of cups of boiling water, stir well.

Pop in the bay leaf, the cinnamon stick, and throw in a few cloves, 10 or so.

(Grated cinnamon and cloves, can be used, but, you will get only half the flavour)

Season with salt & pepper.

 Simmer the sauce for twenty to thirty minutes, stirring occasionally and adding hot water if necessary.

 

2. Fry aubergines

 

 

While the meat sauce is cooking, rinse the aubergines well under running water, drain, and pat dry with kitchen roll.

In a large frying pan, fry the aubergine slices until softened and golden brown, (about five minutes or so), turn slices so they brown on both sides.

 You may have to do this in two or three batches.

 Drain fried aubergine slices on kitchen roll.

 

3. Prepare béchamel sauce

 

People are nervous about making béchamel sauce, worrying that it will become lumpy.

 Using this method, I have never had that problem.

 Melt  about 200 gr of butter, remove the pan from the heat, this is important, then, slowly add flour, stirring well, until the mixture forms a ball, and falls away from the sides of the pan, without sticking.

 

 

You may not need the whole 400 gr of flour, or, you may need more, just add enough to make the mixture form a ball, see above picture.

I Have found the easiest way to add the eggs, is to lightly whisk them into the milk, before adding the milk to flour and butter mixture, the Greek way, is to add them at the end, but this takes a lot of elbow grease to mix them in well, do it my easy way, the results are the same.

  Gradually add the milk and egg mixture, first slowly, mixing well with a spoon, then as the mixture becomes more liquid, whisk well with a balloon whisk.

 If you do spot lumps beginning to form, whisk as fast as you can for a minute!

 Add the grated nutmeg, (a whole nutmeg) and season to your taste with salt and pepper, if the cheese you have is salty, go easy on the salt.

Return the pan to the heat and bring to the boil, whisking all the time, once at boiling point, remove from heat and stir in the grated cheese.

 

4. Assemble moussaka

 

 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

Thickly slice the par boiled potatoes and cover the base of a large baking tin or, oven proof dish with all of them, we only use potatoes on the base.

 Now, pour half the meat sauce (Don’t forget to discard the cinnamon stick and bay leaf)over the potatoes

 Layer half the fried aubergines over the meat sauce.

 Pour over the rest of the meat sauce, layer over that, the rest of the fried aubergines.

 Pour the béchamel sauce over the top of everything, smoothing it out with the back of a spoon.

 Place in the oven for about thirty minutes, or until béchamel sauce is golden brown on top.

 Remove from oven, leave to cool for fifteen minutes or so, slice into squares and enjoy!

 Don’t forget to give yourself a pat on the back!

 You did it, you made moussaka, now you can have a go at making its close relative, Papoutsakia, “little shoes”, Greek-style stuffed aubergines!