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Shaun aRe
 
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Default Supper last night and lunch today - Moussaka:


This one, more or less:


http://www.greek-recipe.com/static/content/Moussaka_(2).html

Moussaka (2) (Mousakas)
Category:meat
INGREDIENTS
1 kg aubergines (large or/and elongated variety)
160 ml vegetable oil (about 1 teacup)
1 large onion, finely sliced
450 gr. minced beef
1 glass white wine (not retsina, but aretsinoto)
350 gr. fresh tomatoes, 1400 gr. tomatoes, drained of some of their juice
and chopped
teaspoon ground cinnamon
teaspoon ground allspice
salt and black pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
25 gr. grated parmesan, kefalotiri, or Gruyere cheese
some chopped parsley
Béchamel Sauce
80 gr. butter
80 gr. flour
600 ml warm milk
salt and white pepper
30 gr. grated Parmesan or Gruyere cheese
2 egg yolks
Topping
z 60 gr. grated Parmesan,Gruyere or kefalotiri cheese
4 tablespoons toasted breadcrumbs
Serves 6 persons as a main course!

METHOD
Moussaka should be baked in the oven. Use a roasting container, eitber
square or oblong, approximately 25x25 cm or 39x28 cm. It is recommended that
you spread the work involved over two days for your convinience; one can
easily cook the meat the day before, witbout the Moussaka suffering at all.
Do not do the same with the aubergines; they should be fried on the day.
Aubergines
Top and tail the aubergines, without peeling them. Rinse them, cut them
lengthways in 75-mm thick slices and immerse them in salted water, for 30
minutes.Take them out, squeeze gently, rinse, then squeeze them again. Drain
them in a colander and pat dry. Fry them in hot vegetable oil until they
become pale golden on both sides; you can either deep-fry them, which is
easier but they absorb a lot of oil, or shallow-fry them. In either case,
drain them on absorbent paper on a flat platter before serving, so that most
of their oil will dribble away.
Meat
Sautee the sliced onion in 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, until it looks
glistening. Add the meat and sautee together, stirring, until all the lumps
are broken down and the meat starts to change colour. Pour in the wine, add
tomatoes, sliced finely, the spices, salt and pepper and the oregano. Cover
and cook for 20 minutes, stirring from time to time in case it sticks. Then
mix in the grated cheese and parsley.
Bechamel Sauce
Melt the butter and, away from the heat, gradually add the flour and stir to
amalgamate. Return to the heat and gradually add the milk and seasoning,
stirring continuously. Simmer for 9-10 minutes, stirring, until it has
thickened considerably. Withdraw the pan from the heat, let it stand
briefly, then add the cheese and the egg yolks. Stir to amalgamate them. Do
not let the sauce boil after this. It should by now be a thick bechamel, to
enable it to sit on top of the meat mixture and form a kind of crust.
To assemble, cover the base of the roasting dish with half of the fried
aubergines, then spread half of the meat mixture evenly on top of them and
cover neatly with the remaining aubergines. Spread the remaining meat and
sauce evenly over the top and cover neatly with the bechamel sauce. Sprinkle
the grated cheese all over the top, and the breadcrumbs. Moussaka from
Macedonia may contain a layer of thinly sliced roun potatoes which have been
fried first. Bake in a pre-heated oven, gas no.4/ 350 grades F/ 180 grades
C, for 1 hour, untit a golden crust is formed all over the top. Let it stand
for 5 minutes before serving, in order to be able to cut it more easily. To
serve, cut into square or oblong-shaped pieces, about 8 cm thick. It should
be quite dry by then and the pieces should ideally stay intact.

_____________________________


Was just a recipe I googled, and Kath made it (since 'I don't do recipes'
LOL!)

We used ground lamb instead of beef, had no allspice left so improvised. For
breadcrumbs, a loaf of whole meal seeded bread that MIL had made some time
ago but was too dense - we let it dry and it makes excellent bread crumbs,
but it takes forever to break up in the machine - it's like rock LOL!

Looking at the recipe, I wasn't impressed, but it was absolutely gorgeous
and I would recommend it to anyone - I ate more food in one sitting last
night than I normally would in a day! A pitty the microwave at work spoiled
the crunchy crumb topping by making it soggy, but that's microwaves for ya,
heh...

Cheers!


Shaun aRe