Robbie’s Inspiration – Recipes from around the world: GreeK Moussaka

I have been planning to make traditional Greek Moussaka for some time, but the recipes were fairly varied and I wanted a proper Greek recipe. I found this one: https://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/mousakas/ and adapted it to my family’s requirements.

Fellow blogger, John Rieber, films steps in his recipes. I decided to follow in his footsteps and do the same. John has a great series where he is making an interesting dish every week. You can find the latest post here: https://johnrieber.com/2022/03/23/pulled-pork-pasta-in-almond-cream-sauce-recipe-my-52-in-22-cooking-challenge-has-me-cooking-under-fire/

Preparing the egg plant and potatoes

I followed the advice of the recipe above with preparing the egg plant and potatoes. First, I sliced the four large egg plants I had into thick slices, rinsed them in water, salted each slice and lay them in the colander for 30 minutes.

I then peeled 1 kilogram of potatoes, sliced them thickly and rinsed off the starch.

I heated the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, greased two baking pans and when the egg plant was ready, I layered the slices of egg plant and potato in the pans, sprinkled them with black pepper and drizzled olive oil over them. I then baked them for 45 minutes in my oven, turning them every 15 minutes (the original recipes baked them for a much shorter time) to part cook them. The potato and egg plant was only just cooked when I served the dish so a shorter time wouldn’t have worked well. Next time, I will parboil the potatoes to speed up the cooking process.

Making the mince sauce

While the potato and egg plant rounds were baking, I made the mince sauce. I chopped 2 medium sized onions and sauteed them in olive oil with 1 Tbspn of garlic flakes, 1 Tbspn of sweet basil, 5 ml rosemary, 5 ml of salt, and 10 ml of black pepper. I then added I kilogram of beef mince and browned it for about 15 minutes. I poured in one cup (250 ml) of red wine and allowed the sauce to simmer for 15 minutes, stirring from time-to-time. I then added two cans of chopped Italian tomatoes and left the sauce to simmer until it thickened (about 30 minutes).

Making the Greek white sauce

I made the white sauce the Greek way which reduced the flour and thickened with egg yolks instead.

I melted 120 grams of butter in a medium sized pot. I then added 150 ml of cake flour and mixed a thick paste. I slowly added one litre of cold milk, whisking continuously. I added 5 ml salt and 10 ml black pepper.

I beat three large egg yolks in a bowl and added 5 ml nutmeg. When the sauce started to thicken and the milk was heated, I added the egg mixture slowly, whisking all the time. Once the egg is added, the sauce thickens very quickly and becomes very creamy.

Assembling the dish

I greased a large baking pan and layered the bottom with the potato slices. I covered the potatoes with a layer of egg plant. Next, I poured the mince over the egg plant and patted it flat with the back of a large spoon. I then did another layer of egg plant and topped it with the white sauce.

Finally, I covered the white sauce with a layer of cheddar cheese (that’s the cheese I had on hand) and baked it in the oven for 40 minutes.

New banners for YT Channel

The lovely Bella from Thoughts ‘n Life blog has created some wonderful banners for my YT Channel. This is the first one which I will be using for April:

You can find out more about Bella’s graphics service here: https://thoughtsnlifeblog.com/services/

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