Greek Moussaka

I learnt the word "moussaka" (mu-sa-ka) while watching Masterchef Australia last year. It was served to 2 contestants in a "Taste Test". They were asked to taste the dish and say what ingredients were used in this dish. Moussaka is like a lasagne without the pasta sheets. Eggplant is the most important ingredient in moussaka (it replaces the pasta sheets in lasagne) and the best thing is that it is in season right now.

I had 'M' and 'L' over for dinner last night to catch up with them. They requested something non-Asian. In fact, L requested Spanish cuisine but I couldn't find any good Spanish main courses (I made a Spanish dessert - Cherry Flan). I saw this moussaka recipe on the 'Better Homes and Gardens' TV show. It didn't seem as difficult as I thought it would be, hence I gave it a try :) I must add that this recipe requires intermediate cooking skills. It has a few processes but if you are a multi-tasker, you should be able to prep everything and pop it into the oven within ~30minutes.

Suggestion:
1. Salt the eggplants earlier (if you have time). I reckon you could even do this the night before, cook them and use it the following day assembling it into the baking dish.
2. Cook meat sauce and bechamel sauce at the same time if you can handle multi-tasking. Otherwise while waiting for the sauce to cook in those 5minutes, get started with the bechamel sauce in another saucepan.

2kg eggplant, sliced into 1cm thick slices

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
600g beef mince (for vegetarians: replace with crushed chickpeas)
400g can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp ground all spice
1 bunch of chopped oregano, finely chopped
150g grated tasty or cheddar cheese
1 cup breadcrumbs

Bechamel sauce:
3 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp plain flour
400ml hot milk (heated it in microwave)
300ml cream
4 egg yolks
120g grated parmesan cheese
pinch of salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg

Sprinkle a generous amount of salt over eggplant slices in a dish. Set aside for 30minutes and rinse with water. Pat dry and pan fry with olive oil until they are soft and golden brown.

In a large saucepan, heat some olive oil. Add onions, garlic and beef mince. When the meat is nice and brown, chuck in diced tomatoes, sugar, allspice and chopped oregano. Cook for about 5minutes. Remove from heat.

Whisk butter and flour in saucepan until it resembles wet sand and then whisk in hot milk until it is silky smooth. Once it is thick and gooey, stir in cream (to cool it down) and season with salt and nutmeg. Fold in egg yolks and grated parmesan cheese.

To assemble, spread 1/2 cup breadcrumbs on bottom of baking dish. Line dish with 1/3 of eggplant. Top it with 1/2 amount of meat sauce, then top with 1/2 amount of grated tasty cheese. Repeat the process and finish off with eggplant on top. Pour bechamel sauce on top and bake in the oven for 45minutes at 190C or until golden brown on top.


I used lamb mince instead of beef, mixed spice instead of allspice, dried oregano instead of fresh oregano and low fat versions of some dairy ingredients. My oven took 30minutes (instead of 45 minutes) to achieve the golden brown you see in the photo.

Overall, I was very pleased to be able to make a Greek dish :p It turned out very tasty and delicious. For those who may not like eggplant (our guests were not big fans), fear not because you could hardly taste the eggplant because it was so soft and blended in with the rest of the dish.

This dish looks healthy (meat with 2 serves of veggies - tomatoes and eggplant). However I am not sure how the bechamel sauce rates since there is quite a large amount of cheese, cream, butter and milk (all dairy!). I used light cream, low fat milk and low fat grated tasty cheese but normal parmesan cheese, butter and the 4 egg yolks! You know what? I reckon it is partly the sauce that makes the dish tasty and gives it the wow factor :p

Now, you will feel very proud of yourself when your friends and your parents know that you are able to cook a Greek dish. It is a dish to impress ;)

Postscript: For an even less fatty version, omit the egg yolks. Also, half the amount of ingredients of the bechamel sauce is sufficient for this portion of recipe.