Mousaka with eggplants - general principles and methods of cooking
Moussaka. This favorite dish came to us from Greece, where it is traditionally prepared from eggplants, tomatoes and lamb, baked with cheese sauce. True, many southern countries where this wonderful eggplant vegetable grows can also claim to be authorship. After all, moussaka is found in Bulgarian, Moldavian, Turkish, Macedonian, as well as cuisines of the countries of the Middle East. So there are quite a lot of options for cooking baskets with eggplants: with and without meat, with potatoes, rice, colorful or white cabbage, etc.
If you cook a musaka according to the classic recipe (they consider the Greek version), then they use olive oil and mutton, but these ingredients can be replaced - olive oil with corn or sunflower oil, and mutton with beef, pork or poultry meat. Parmesan cheese sauce, you can replace the other hard cheese, for example, Russian. Therefore, if you have not found any specific product, you should not be upset, you can safely change it in the same way. The kitchen is the place where improvisation is welcome. That's how new and new recipes are born.
Eggplant Moussaka - Food Preparation
Eggplant for moussaka is pre-paned in flour and fried, cutting, as required by the recipe, into slices or longitudinal slices. Then it is allowed to drain off the excess oil, for which they are put in a colander or soaked with paper towel. Before roasting, eggplants are kept for about half an hour in salted water or sprinkled with salt. With this technique, two hares are killed: the eggplants get rid of their inherent bitterness, and during frying they will absorb less oil. If meat is added to moussaka, and not minced, each meat piece must first be repulsed.
Eggplant Moussaka - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Just a delicious eggplant moussaka
This moussaka will please everyone. Even ardent opponents of eggplants will agree to try it, because this vegetable in this dish has a special, incomparable taste. It is served both warm and cold, it will not become less tasty due to a change in temperature. Ingredients:
For the main course: 3 medium-sized eggplants, 2 medium onions (or 1 large), 1 large tomato, low-fat minced meat - 0.5 kg, 3 garlic cloves, 1 tbsp. dry white wine (here you can think of improvisation and replace wine with chicken broth, or a glass of water with squeezed juice of a small lemon), spices to taste - salt, ground nutmeg, coriander and black pepper, greens (parsley, basil), olive oil and flour (for breading).
For the sauce: 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of flour and olive oil, 1.5 cups of milk, hard cheese - 150g, greens, salt and spices to taste.
Method of preparation
Fry the circles of unpeeled eggplants until golden brown (do not forget to soak them beforehand in salt water). Finely chopped onion spasserovat on oil. Add minced meat to onions, which must be fried, stirring for about 10 minutes and make sure that the mince is not caked into lumps.
In order not to waste time, while minced meat is fried, boil the tomatoes and scald them. Then cut into small cubes and add to the minced meat along with greens and garlic, which also need to grind with a knife. After adding spices and salt, simmer for about 7 minutes, then pour in the wine and remove for about 10 minutes, remove from heat.
It's time to do the cheese sauce.
Spasseur flour in a small frying pan in olive oil, breaking up lumps. Then pour the beaten egg-milk mass and stir constantly with a whisk or fork, boil until thick. After that, remove the sauce from the heat and add finely grated cheese into it, mix well, adding salt with spices and herbs.
The final stage has come - the assembly of the musaka. Overlap half of all eggplants in a baking dish. For this amount of products, a medium-sized form will fit (approximately 20x30 cm). Eggplant spread out half the meat filling. On top again eggplants and minced meat. Mass pour sauce, which should be evenly distributed over the surface, and put in a preheated oven (180C) for baking, about 30 minutes, until a beautiful ruddy crust is formed. All is ready! You can convene at the table of households and enjoy delicious food.
Recipe 2: Vegetarian Moussaka with Eggplants
Despite the fact that, according to this recipe, moussaka is cooked without meat, it is, nevertheless, still tasty. The absence of lamb or pork does not spoil it at all, just creates a different flavor composition.
Ingredients: 2-3 medium-sized eggplants, 3-4 medium onions, 5 large tomatoes, 2 bell peppers, salt, a bunch of parsley, ground black pepper, hard cheese 100g.
Sauce: 3 yolks, 300g of natural yogurt, nutmeg, ground half a teaspoon, salt.
Method of preparation
Eggplant cut along slices, 5-7 mm thick. Soak in a salty solution for half an hour, rinse with water, squeeze, roll in flour, fry.
Onion, Bulgarian pepper cut into thin rings, tomatoes - 0.5cm thick slices. If tomatoes have coarse skin, they need to be removed, for which the fruits are placed in boiling water for about 4-5 minutes.
Fry onion and pepper in oil separately. Lay small eggplants, onions, peppers, and tomatoes in a baking dish of small size. Sprinkle each layer with a pinch of salt and chopped parsley. Layer the layers one more time. The top layer are tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Mix together the ingredients for the sauce, pour them vegetables. Put in the oven, preheated to 180C, bake for 25-30 minutes. 5 minutes before the end of baking, sprinkle with finely grated cheese and return the baking form to the oven until the cheese crust melts and turns red. Cheese is added at will, you can do without it, it will be delicious too.
Recipe 3: Moussaka with eggplants in Greek
This is not exactly a classic Greek musaka recipe, but very close to it. There is no potato in the original recipe, but in some areas of Greece potatoes are added to this dish. It is cut into thin slices, but, according to some gourmands, mashed potatoes should be added instead of slices, which will make the moussaka more tender.
Ingredients: half a pound of minced meat, 2 large eggplants, half a cup of dry red wine, potatoes 3 pcs., Tomato paste diluted with water 200 ml (4-5 large tomatoes are better in summer), garlic 4 cloves, 2 heads Onions of medium size, olive oil, salt, dill, Parmesan cheese - 100g. For bechamel sauce: milk 1.5 cups, 4 tbsp. creamy butter, flour - 3 tbsp., nutmeg, ground, where sea salt.
Method of preparation
Eggplants (you can not peel) along cut into half-centimeter thick slices and fry to crust on both sides. Pre-remove bitterness from them (salt for half an hour or put in salt water).
Fry the finely chopped onions, add the mince to it, continuing to stir and fry. After 10 minutes add wine, salt, dill, tomato paste, simmer another 15-20 minutes.
Cut the peeled potatoes into thin slices 3-5 mm thick, put them in boiling water for 6-8 minutes (conveniently in a sieve or a colander).
Prepare the sauce. Melt butter in a frying pan, add flour, fry until golden brown about two to three minutes. Remove from the heat and pour the milk in portions, stirring vigorously so that the mass is homogeneous, without lumps. Add salt, nutmeg and cook until thick, stirring constantly, over low heat for about five minutes.
In a baking dish (you can take a frying pan without a handle), put a layer of eggplants, then put the meat stuffing, sliced potatoes on it. Mix finely grated cheese in the sauce and pour it over the potatoes.
In an oven preheated to 180 ° C, put the form with the musaka and bake until golden brown for about 25-35 minutes. On the table, the moussaka can be served in the form in which it was baked, pre-cut into pieces, while it is hot.
