Moussaka
Ingredients :
(1 ½ lb.) shoulder of lamb. (boneless weight)
(1 ½ lb.) eggplant
(6 oz.) onions
(½ lb.) tomatoes
(1/2 pt.) olive oil
(1 teaspoon) ground allspice
(1 tablespoon) chopped parsley
(1/2 pt.) bechamel sauce
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Coating
1 large egg
Large pinch grated nutmeg
(3 oz.) Cheddar cheese
Instructions:
1) Wipe, top and tail, but do not peel the aubergines. Cut them into slices about 6 mm. (Ό in.) thick. Put into a colander with a light sprinkling of salt between the layers and leave to drain for half an hour.
2) Peel and slice the onions; peel, de-seed and chop the tomatoes.
3) When ready to cook, pat the aubergine slices dry with paper.
4) Heat 45 ml. (3 tbsp.) oil in a frying pan over a low heat and, when hot, fry the eggplant slices gently until tender, in batches, turning once. Lift out and drain on absorbent paper. Add extra oil between batches as necessary.
5) When all are fried, make the oil in the pan up to 30 ml. again. When this is hot, fry the onions gently for about 5 minutes, until soft and pale gold.
6) Add the meat and fry. Add the tomatoes, allspice, parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well, cover and cook very gently for 25 to 20 minutes.
7) Heat oven to 180-C. (350 F.), gas mark 4.
In a deep, oven proof dish, arrange alternate layers of aubergines and meat, finishing with aubergines.
9) Warm the sauce over a low heat. Separate the egg and, off the heat, stir the yolk, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste, into the sauce. Reserve the egg white for use in another dish.
10) Pour the sauce evenly over the surface of the dish. Grate the cheese over the sauce.
11) Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until the topping is golden and bubbling.
Additional Info:
Moussaka is a traditional eggplant dish that traditionally consists of layers of ground (minced) lamb or red meat, sliced eggplant and tomato, topped with a white sauce and baked. Turkish Musakka, unlike the Greek version, is not layered. Instead, it is prepared with sautéed and fried eggplants, green peppers, tomatoes, onions, and minced meat. There are also variants with zucchini, carrots and potatoes. In the Arab world, moussaka is a cooked salad made up primarily of tomatoes and eggplant, similar to Italian caponata, and is usually served cold as a mezze dish. The Macedonian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Romanian versions are made with potatoes instead of eggplant. Despite its Arabic name, moussaka is usually thought of as a Greek dish in the West.
In the standard (3-layer) Greek recipe, the bottom layer consists of eggplant slices sautéed in olive oil; the middle layer is ground lamb precooked with onion, garlic, chopped tomatoes, herbs (bay leaf, oregano, thyme), and spices (cinnamon, allspice and black pepper); and the top layer is a cheese-flavoured béchamel sauce, or egg custard (probably introduced by Tselementes in the 1920s). The three layers are laid in a lightly buttered or oiled pan and baked until the top béchamel layer turns golden brown. No more baking is required as the bottom two layers are already almost cooked beforehand.
The butter in the béchamel can be omitted, used sparingly, or substituted by cream. In the rest of the Balkans, the top layer is often a custard. Grated cheese or bread crumbs are often sprinkled on top.
There are variations on this basic recipe, sometimes with no sauce, sometimes with other vegetables. The most common variant in Greece may include zucchini (courgette), part-fried potatoes or sautéed mushrooms in addition to the eggplant. There is even a fast-day version in the Greek cookbook by Tselementes which includes neither meat nor béchamel sauce, just vegetables (ground eggplant is used instead of ground meat), tomato sauce, and bread crumbs.
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