Traditional Greek moussaka

Paradosiakos Ellinikos moussakas

Ingredients

  • 5 large eggplants
  • 5-6 large potatoes
  • 4-5 large zucchini
  • oil for frying
  • 800gr minced meat (beef or pork)
  • 2 large onions (chopped)
  • 2-3 cloves garlic (chopped)
  • 2-3 tomatoes (chopped and drained)
  • 1/2 glass of wine, wine
  • Salt and pepper
  • paprika (as we)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (grated)
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves (grated)
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (grated)

for bechamel cream

  • 1lt milk
  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 1 stock cube or a little bit of salt
  • 1 tablespoon butter

Method

prepare the vegetables:

  1. Wash the eggplants, cut them into thick slices 1cm-1,5cm, salt them enough and leave them for 30 minutes.
  2. Then wash them with water and squeeze them (not too hard).
  3. Fry in hot olive oil without browning and put them on absorbent paper to remove the superfluous oil.
  4. Wash the zucchini, peel potatoes and slice them in thinner slices than eggplant.
  5. Add little salt and fry them without browning and put those on absorbent paper to remove the superfluous oil.

prepare the minced meat:

  1. Saute onion in their liquid and add the minced meat and stir with a fork to make small pieces.
  2. When it changes color, add the wine and stir until the alcohol is gone.
  3. Add tomatoes, spices, salt and pepper
  4. Mix well and let them cook until the juice is gone and minced meat to be dry with no sauce and oil.

prepare the bechamel cream:

  1. In 100ml cold milk dissolve well the flour (you can use a blender).
  2. Add the remaining milk in a saucepan and let it boil with the stock cube (or a little bit of salt) and butter.
  3. Then stir with whisk until boiling.
  4. Once boiling, add the milk mixture to the flour and continue stirring with the whisk slowly until clot and remove from heat.

prepare the moussaka in the pan:

  1. In a deep pan or Pyrex (about 7cm deep) spread the potatoes first, then the eggplants and at the end the zucchini.
  2. Add the minced meat on top and poured good to go everywhere.
  3. Finally add the bechamel cream to cover the mince.
  4. Cover the pan with foil and bake in moderate oven (180oC-200oC) for about 1h.
  5. After 1h, remove the foil and leave for 5′-10′ to get a little color.
  6. Serve once cool enough to be cut into pieces.
Tips:

To make lighter moussaka you can salve with a little bit oil the vegetables and bake them instead of fry.