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MOUSSAKA

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Serves: 4

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What does this mean?

Probably not at all authentic, but this is a family favourite, and there's tons of leftovers for lunches or an easy reheat meal during the week. This recipe has a layer of potato which is the way I usually make it, but it would of course be lovely with just the meat and eggplant layers. I would probably use an extra eggplant or two in that instance.

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Ingredients

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For the meat sauce

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 large onion (finely chopped)
  • 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
  • 1 kilogram minced beef (or minced lamb)
  • 500 grams Roma tomatoes (ripe)
  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 125 ml white wine
  • 3 teaspoons fresh parsley (chopped)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • salt
  • pepper

For the layers

  • 4 medium aubergines
  • 4 medium potatoes (about 600g)
  • olive oil
  • 63 ml Kefalograviera cheese

For the bechamel sauce

  • 90 grams butter
  • 75 grams plain flour
  • 800 ml milk
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 63 ml Kefalograviera cheese (or parmesan)
  • 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
  • salt
  • pepper

Method

To make béchamel sauce,

  1. melt butter in a heavy saucepan, stir in flour and cook gently for 2 minutes.
  2. Warm milk a little while flour and butter are cooking off. Add milk gradually, stirring constantly with a whisk or a flat bottomed wooden spoon until all the milk is added. Continue to stir until boiling. Boil gently for 2 minutes, remove from heat,
  3. stir in nutmeg, cheese and seasonings to taste. Cover surface of sauce with plastic film and get on with the following steps.
  4. To grate tomatoes, halve (lengthways if using Roma tomatoes) and squeeze out some of the seeds. With grater in a bowl, and using shredder side, grate cut side of tomatoes down to the skin. Discard skins.

To make meat sauce,

  1. put oil and onion in a large saucepan and cook on medium heat until softened. Add garlic, cook a few seconds, and then add minced meat. Increase heat and cook, stirring often, until colour changes.
  2. Add the tomato paste and cook off for another minute or so before adding remaining meat sauce ingredients. Season to taste and simmer gently, stirring regularly, on low heat for 40 minutes.
  3. Peel and slice potatoes into 5mm slices. Cook in boiling water until just cooked (about 5 minutes). Set aside.
  4. Meanwhile, wash aubergines, remove stems and cut into 5mm slices. I don't use the first and last slice which is mainly skin as I feel these are too tough.
  5. Place a layer of aubergine slices on a baking tray, brush each side with oil and cook under a pre-heated grill until lightly browned on each side. Remove to a plate and continue with remaining aubergine. Do this while meat sauce is cooking. If any slices seem to have a lot of skin on them, I like to snip into the skin with scissors, but this could be quite unnecessary.

To assemble Moussaka:

  1. Brush a 24 x 30 cm x 6cm oven dish with oil.
  2. Place a layer of aubergine in the base, top with half of the meat sauce, add all the slices of potato then the rest of the meat sauce and finish with the rest of the aubergine.
  3. Remove plastic film from béchamel sauce and whisk in the eggs. Pour sauce over aubergine, spreading evenly.
  4. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake in pre-heated moderate oven, 180ºC (fan-forced) for 45-50 minutes until top is golden brown. Stand Moussaka for at least 5 minutes before cutting into squares to serve.

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