Moussaka

Aubergine, a dry spiced mince and a thick béchamel in layers, where every layer is cooked dry before it is built.

Lamb, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains lamb, pecorino whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

For the aubergines

• 1.5 kg aubergines, in 1 cm slices
• 2 teaspoons salt
• olive oil, for brushing

For the mince

• 800 g lamb mince
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 400 g tinned tomatoes
• 150 ml red wine
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

For the béchamel

• 100 g butter
• 100 g plain flour
• 1 litre whole milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 100 g kefalotyri or pecorino, grated
• a grating of nutmeg

Method

1. EVERY LAYER IS COOKED DRY BEFORE IT IS BUILT, and that is the whole difficulty. Aubergine holds water, mince in a pan holds water, and a béchamel will not thicken what is underneath it. Assemble any layer wet and the dish comes out of the oven sitting in a pool that cannot be poured off, with the slices sliding apart on the spoon.
2. THE AUBERGINES ARE ROASTED, NOT FRIED, and not because frying is wrong. Aubergine fried in oil takes up a startling amount of it and the finished dish is heavy before the béchamel is even on. Roasted on racks they dry and collapse rather than soak.
3. Aubergine slices salted on both sides and left in a colander 30 minutes, then patted dry.
4. Brushed lightly with oil, laid on racks over trays, and roasted at 200C for 25 minutes until soft, browned at the edges and visibly shrunken. Set aside.
5. Mince: oil in a wide pan, onion 8 minutes until soft, garlic 1 minute.
6. Lamb in, heat high, and pressed flat and left to catch before being broken up. Fried hard 10 minutes until it is browned and the pan is dry again.
7. Wine in, bubbled away to nothing. Then tomatoes, purée, cinnamon, oregano and bay.
8. Simmered UNCOVERED 40 minutes until it is thick enough to hold a channel when the spoon is drawn through it. This is the step most often cut short and the commonest cause of a wet moussaka.
9. Béchamel: butter melted, flour in, cooked 2 minutes stirring. Milk added a little at a time, whisking, then simmered 10 minutes until it is very thick -- thicker than a sauce, closer to a batter.
10. Off the heat, cheese and nutmeg in, then the yolks beaten in one at a time. The yolks set it in the oven and are what make the top sliceable rather than sloppy.
11. Build: half the aubergine in a deep dish, all the mince, the rest of the aubergine, then the béchamel spread to the edges and sealed against the sides.
12. Baked at 180C for 50 minutes until deep gold and set.
13. RESTED 30 MINUTES AT LEAST before cutting, and an hour is better. Cut hot it slumps; cooled it holds a square edge and reheats perfectly.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes