I'd like to start with a popular Greek Dish I've had a lot of people ask me about. Moussaka. Lots of people confuse the spelling of the word. I've seen mousaka, mousakka and even mousekaka a few times. Now that we've got the spelling down, let's move on to the dish itself.
The name comes from the Arabic musaqqa (Chilled). This name is used in Greek cuisine(μουσακάς), Turkish (musakka), and the South Slavic languages (musaka/мусака). Other languages call it simply "eggplant casserole" (e.g. Hungarian rakott padlizsán).
Let's get started! Now remember there are many variations to making Moussaka but we're going to stick with a simple recipe that is very popular and delicious! If you've got any questions as to what kind of variations, feel free to ask!
What I'm going to be doing in my blog is actually cooking along with you. I'll be taking detailed pictures of everything I'm doing to make it as simple as possible for you to cook along with me. And since I love cooking, this should be lots of fun for all of us!
Here's what we're going to need to make our Moussaka.
- 3 Potatoes
- 2 Eggplants
- 5 Zucchinis
- 2 Onions
- 2 Tomatoes
- Tomato Paste
- 1 Clove of Garlic
- Salt
- Pepper
- Nutmeg
- Nutmeg
- Olive Oil
- 700gr Minced Meat
- 1 Liter Milk
- 2 Cups of Flour
- 200 Grams of Butter
- 4 Eggs
- Parsley
I'm going to be making enough to serve 6 people. We're going to be using.
Baking Pan - Round - 28cm in Circumference
Frying Pan
2 Pots (Casserole)
I'm going to post very detailed instructions here to make sure everyone gets our Moussaka recipe right. It's not as hard as it may seem. And with experience, you'll be able to do more than one thing at a time. But for now, try following every step until you get the hang of it. Okay, here we go.
Moussaka Step 1
Peel your potatoes. Wash your vegetables.
Moussaka Step 2
Slice your potatoes, eggplants and zucchini
Moussaka Step 3
In our frying pan, we're going to fry all our sliced vegetables with olive oil until they're golden brown.
When done frying, place them on a paper towel to drain excess oil. If not, our Moussaka is going to be very heavy and oily. Change paper towel when needed.
Moussaka Step 4
Line your potatoes in your baking pan.
Add a pinch of salt.
Moussaka Step 5
Now we're going to do the same with our eggplant and zucchini slices. Remember, traditionally we would only use eggplant here but this is a variation that uses both. You can only use one of the 2 if you'd like.
As you can see, I'm making half with eggplant and the other half with zucchini, add a pinch of salt again.
Now you can set it aside. The first part of our Moussaka is done.
Moussaka Step 6
Take your 2 onions and cut them up very fine.
Moussaka Step 7
Brown your onions in your pot with olive oil.
Moussaka Step 8
When our onions are ready, add 700gr of minced meat into your pot.
Moussaka Step 9
Crush one clove of garlic and add it to the pot.
Keep stirring. You don't want to stop stirring.
Moussaka Step 10
Grate 2 tomatoes and add them to our pot. Keep stirring! Add 3 Tbls of tomato paste as well now.
Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to your pot.
Moussaka Step 11
Chop up some parsley and add it to your pot. Also add 2 daphne leaves but remember to take them out when the the meat is ready.
Moussaka Step 12
Keep stirring until meat is ready. If you think your meat looks dry, you can add a little bit of water. Keep stirring. Once your meat is cooked (Aprx 15 min) remove it from the burner.
Your meat is now ready and should look something like this
Set it aside and move on to the next step. We're now going to make our bechamel sauce for our Moussaka.
Moussaka Step 13
Get another pot. Add 2 cups of flour. Add 1/2 liter milk. And start stirring. Stir it well in order to make sure there are no knots in our sauce. Once your sauce looks smooth, add another 1/2 liter of milk and keep stirring.
Now we can place our pot on a burner at low temperature. Keep in mind that once you place it on the stove it is very important that you DO NOT stop stirring.
Moussaka Step 14
Add 200grams of butter.
Keep Stirring!!
Moussaka Step 15
Stir for 3-4 minutes and add 4 scrambled eggs
Keep stirring. Add salt and pepper. Now it should take about 15 minutes to get it to the texture we want.
We want a nice thick creamy texture to place on top of our Moussaka.
It will look something like this.
Now our sauce is ready. Moving on to the next step.
You now have something that look like this.
You have your sauce, your meat and your baking pan lined with vegetables.
Moussaka Step 16
Take your meat and spread it in our baking pan evenly on top of our veggies.
Moussaka Step 17
And now we top it all off with our bechamel sauce.
So now you've got something that should look like this.
Moussaka Step 18
Preheat your over at 180 celcius for about 5 minutes
Place it in the oven
Moussaka Step 19
Bake for 30 minutes at 180 celcius
Moussaka Step 20
The final step! Serve and enjoy!
I hope you enjoy your Moussaka as much as you hoped you would. This was my first post and enjoyed it very much! If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to post them!
Enjoy!
