Moussaka - Cooking for friends and family

My friend Nonja is moving away :( Husband Jay is off to Korea for a year so Nonja and the children will move to her homestead in Texas for the year before they head off as a family to Italy in 2011. As they were emptying their house yesterday, I thought fixing them dinner would be helpful and she requested some Greek food, thinking she'd go into withdrawal in Texas ...

Happy to oblige, I fixed a traditional Greek dish, Moussaka -- meat and eggplant casserole. A few of you have asked for the recipe so I'll post it here. Be warned, this is a labor intensive dish and probably uses every pan in your house hehehe ... but it is sooooo worth it!! While the dish always contains eggplant, in different regions of Greece you may find variations that include zucchini or thinly sliced potatoes with the eggplant. My version often includes potatoes that are sliced paper thin (using a mandoline). You may include them or omit them as you wish.

Begin with making the meat sauce:

med to large onion chopped
3-4 cloves garlic chopped
olive oil
teaspoon Greek oregano (yes, you can use domestic!)
teaspoon Crushed thyme leaves
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
large can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup dry white wine (red wine is too acidic)
16 oz can diced tomatoes in sauce
2 bay leaves
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
1 1/2 - 2 lbs ground meat (lamb, veal, beef) (I use all three that I grind together)

Heat a couple of tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet. Saute the onions and garlic until soft and translucent. Add herbs (except bay leaves) and cook for a couple of minutes until you begin to smell the aromatics. Add the ground meat and cook slowly (you don't want the meat getting crispy, just cooked). Add the wine and tomatoes and simmer covered for about a half hour. This should not be a "liquidy" sauce, but should be able to spread easily. Remove cover and let sauce cool completely. Stir in egg whites and bread crumbs and set aside.

The sauce (you need three cups of sauce):

3 cups milk, warmed
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
1-2 cups grated cheese (if you have a Greek market near you, the best cheeses to use are kefalotyri and/or myzithra) I use a combination of asiago and romano (parmesan is a bit salty but ok if you cut back the salt in the sauce)
salt and pepper
couple of shakes of grated nutmeg
2 egg yolks

Make a traditional white sauce by melting butter over medium heat (don't brown the butter or your sauce won't be white!); stir in flour until it is dissolved. Cook the roux stirring constantly for a couple of minutes to cook the flour a little. Add salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook until sauce thickens. This is a "medium" white sauce so should still come off the spoon nicely, but leave a coating. Add the cheese and cook for a minute or two. Cool this completely and then mix in the egg yolks.

Ok, two parts done ... we're almost ready to put it all together.

Partially peel the eggplants -- two medium should do it. I peel strips off (one strip off, one left on) of about 1/2". Slice it thin. Layer the slices on a plate salting each layer of eggplant. We're going to release some of the moisture from the eggplant so it will cook up nicely. Let sit for about 20 minutes then rinse and drain the eggplant and pat dry. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet and saute the slices until soft and lightly browned. As they cook, place in the bottom of your baking pan (at least a 9" x 13" pan -- yesterday I made three casseroles in 8" square cake pans). Cover the bottom of the baking pan with eggplant.

Put it all together!! You need another 1/2 cup or so of grated cheese and a couple of tablespoons of bread crumbs for the top.

On top of the first layer of eggplant (and potatoes if you are using them) put your meat sauce. Put another layer of eggplant (and potaotes). Pour your white cheese sauce over the entire top. Top with grated cheese and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Pop this into the oven at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes until the top is brown and it's all bubbly. Remove from oven and let sit for a couple of minutes (or not hehehe).

Hope you enjoy this!!

Linda