Moussaka in Greek

Musaka is called an eggplant and meat sauce vegetable casserole, most often bechamel sauce. This dish is considered by many nations as its own, but it is most known and popular in Greece. Here it is cooked in every home, offered to visitors in every catering establishment. Moussaka in Greek is always a nourishing, tender and fragrant dish, which can be cooked according to different recipes. The main thing is to include eggplants, meat or ground meat, sauce and spicy herbs, spices.

Cooking Features

Vegetable casseroles can be found in the national cuisines of different nations, but moussaka, despite the many existing recipes for its preparation, is unique. Vegetable casserole will be delicious Greek musaka only if you know and follow a few rules.

The ingredients that make up the musaka are laid out in a baking dish in layers. If you just mix them, it will not be a moussaka, but some other dish.
Eggplants are the main and essential component of moussacks. They are always laid on the bottom of the container for baking. The most delicious is the moussaka made from young vegetables. You can cut them along or across plates with a thickness of about half a centimeter. It is only important to cover the bottom of the baking container with eggplant completely.
Eggplants must be processed before they are put into the baking container. It consists of two stages. At the first stage, it is required to remove from the “blue” corned beef - a harmful substance that gives them bitterness. This can be done in different ways. You can simply salt the vegetables, wait 20 minutes and rinse. Another option, the most common, is to soak the eggplants in salted water (to do this, prepare a solution using 10 g of salt per 1 l of water). Steep eggplants, too, for 20-30 minutes, then washed. The second stage of preparation of eggplants is their roasting. It is recommended to use as little oil as possible, and remove its excess by putting eggplants on a napkin.
The second layer is usually laid out meat. It can be finely chopped with a knife or chopped using a meat grinder. Pork is rarely used in traditional recipes. Mutton or beef are preferred. Poultry meat can also be used. Minced meat is also most often fried before frying in a baking dish, adding onions, spices and spices, and sometimes other ingredients.
The next layer is laid out with other vegetables. It can be tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes. In some recipes of the third vegetable layer there is no, instead eggplant and mince layers are repeated.
When baking the musaka and serving it to the table, be sure to use the sauce. Most often it is creamy bechamel, although other options are acceptable. The simplest of these is olive oil mixed with crushed garlic.

Moussaka in Greek is prepared only from fresh and high-quality vegetables. If for her to use products of the second grade, her taste and aroma will not be the same. If you want to try a real Greek moussaka, you shouldn’t save on ingredients.

Classical Greek moussaka with eggplants

Composition:

eggplants - 0.5 kg;
lamb - 1 kg;
onions - 0, 2 kg;
dry white wine - 100 ml;
garlic - 2 cloves;
tomatoes - 0, 3 kg;
chicken egg - 1 pc .;
butter - 40 g;
flour - 80 g;
milk - 0, 35 l;
hard cheese (preferably Parmesan) - 150 g;
olive oil - how much will leave;
fresh greens (parsley, basil) - 50 g;
salt, spices - to taste.

Method of preparation:

Wash the meat, pat dry with a towel. Finely chop with a culinary hatchet or heavy knife. Meat should be chopped, although larger than regular minced meat. If you do not have the opportunity to chop the lamb by hand, you can use a meat grinder, but installing a grate with the largest holes on it.
Peel the onion and cut it into small pieces.
Boil the tomatoes and peel. Rub the tomato pulp through a sieve or whisk in a blender.
Finely rub the cheese.
Chop fresh greens.
Skip garlic through a special press.
Peel the eggplants and cut them into circles or long plates about half a centimeter wide. Sprinkle with salt and leave for a quarter of an hour. Rinse thoroughly in running water and pat dry with paper towels.
Heat the olive oil in a pan, fry the eggplants in it on both sides so that they become softer and have a pleasant shade. Put the fried eggplants on a napkin so that it absorbs the excess oil.
Heat a second batch of butter in a clean pan, put the onion in it and fry it until golden brown.
Add minced meat to onions, fry them together, stirring for 10 minutes.
Add spices, garlic, salt and fill all with tomato paste. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.
When excess liquid from the pan is evaporated, add wine to it and simmer the minced meat in it for 5 minutes.
Heat the milk so it is warm, but not hot. Add the yolk to it, continuing to heat the milk on a very slow fire or even better - in a water bath. Beat the milk with a whisk and add flour. When the flour is completely dissolved and you get a sauce that has a homogeneous consistency, add cheese and herbs, spices, mix and remove from heat.
Place half the eggplants on the bottom of the baking dish, half the mince on them, then put the remaining eggplants and the remaining mince. Top everything up with sauce.
Put the mold in the oven and cook the moussaka for 25 minutes at a temperature of 200 degrees.

In some countries, moussaka is served cold instead of salad, but the Greek moussaka is eaten hot. This is a very satisfying dish that can completely replace lunch or dinner.