Moussakas
In Greek cuisine, moussakas (moussaka, musakka) is a layered casserole made of vegetables (eggplant as a main ingredient) and minced meat.
It takes a bit of time and require some coordination in order to make it. But even if you spend a lot of time preparing moussakas, it totally worth it! It is great dish, and it tastes good served as hot as well as cold.
Tzatziki is good addition for Moussakas Casserole.
Ingredients:
Casserole:
2-3 potatoes- 2 eggplants
- 10 oz of ground beef
- 1 tomato or 2 tbsp of tomato paste
- 1 bell pepper
- 1 onion
- Fresh herbs mix: mint, parsley, oregano (if you have)
- Olive oil
- Salt, ground black pepper
Bechamel Sauce:
2 oz of butter- 2 tbsp of allpurpose flour
- 1 pint of milk
- 2 eggs
- 6-7 cups of shredded cheese (I usually use mozzarella)
How to make, step-by-step:
- Prepare ingredients:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 1
- Slice eggplants into circles about 1/3 of inch thick. Salt each eggplant piece from each side, put them to the plate and leave them rest for at least 20 minutes:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 2
- Skin potatoes, slice them into circles, salt and fry them over from both sides:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 3
- Put fried potatoes as a first layer to the casserole dish:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 4
- Skin and chop onion. Warm the frying pan with olive oil, add chopped onion and fry it over low heat till is soft:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 5
- Remove seeds from bell pepper, chop it and add to the pan with onion. Stir and fry both together for about 5 mins:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 6
- Increase heat under the frying pan, add ground beef and fry it over for 5 mins more:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 7
- Add chopped tomato (or 2 tbsp of tomato paste), salt and ground black pepper, mix everything:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 8
- Sautee meat with vegetables for about 15 minutes. At the end add chopped fresh herbs mix if you have them (I didn’t have herbs, so no greens on the photos). Pour meat and vegetables mix to the casserole dish above the potatoes:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 9
- Drain liquid from the eggplant pieces (you may also remove some salt with paper towel if you salted them a lot). Warm the frying pan with olive oil up and fry each piece of eggplant from both sizes until they all are ready:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 10
- Cover meat layer in you casserole dish with layer of fried eggplant pieces:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 11
- Now you need to prepare bechamel sauce, for that warm up a sauce pan and melt 2 oz of butter in it:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 12
- Add 2 tbsp of all purpose flour:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 13
- Whisk butter and flour together carefully, make sure the heat is low and flour isn’t burning:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 14
- Add all milk, cup by cup, carefully whisking it into the butter and flour mix. After all milk is added keep sauce on the burner and keep whisking till the sauce start getting thicker:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 15
- Then crack eggs and mix them in the separate bowl. Remove sauce from the burner and pour eggs into it:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 16
- Mix eggs into the sauce fast:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 17
- Add salt and whisk till eggs are mixed in:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 18
- Pour prepared sauce over the casserole:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 19
- Season with shredded cheese:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 20
- Put casserole into the oven (warm the oven up till 350F in advance) for period of time from 45 mins to an hour:
Moussakas Recipe: Step 21
- Take the casserole out of the oven and leave it for 20-30 minutes to settle, then cut it and serve as a main course ( tastes good with tzatziki sauce):
Moussakas
Bon Appetit!
(+1 rating, 1 votes)
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