The BEST Moussaka

Serves 4-6












3 medium eggplants
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
500g minced lamb
1/2 cup red wine
1 Tb tomato paste
1 cup tomato sugo
4 Tb freshly chopped flat leaf parsley
2 Tb lemon thyme
zest of one lemon, grated
1/2 inch piece of cinnamon, pounded
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Cheese Sauce
50g unsalted butter
50g plain flour
1 and 1/4 cup full cream milk
1 cup chicken stock
Pinch grated nutmeg
2 Tb grated parmesan
sea salt and freshly ground white pepper

Crust
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 Tb chopped lemon thyme
1 Tb preserved lemon, skin only, finely chopped (use zest of one lemon as substitute)

Method
Cut eggplants into thin 1cm slices. Brush slices with oil, season with salt and into the oven at 250 C, or as hot as you can go, for 6-10 minutes or until golden.

Saute onion at moderate heat for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes. Put onion and garlic aside.

Salt and brown meat in batches at a high heat. Make sure it is hot and you don't overload the pan - you don't want to "boil" the meat.

Put all the meat back into the pan, add cinnamon, then the onion and garlic, tomato paste, deglaze with wine at a high temperature.

Turn temperature down and add lemon zest, tomato sugo, parsley, lemon thyme, and simmer for 20 minutes for flavour to combine. It should be quite a dry sauce.

To make the bechamel sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan and sprinkle the flour over it, stirring well to combine. Continue to cook for a little while until the flour colours slightly and loses the raw flavour. Remove from the heat and slowly add the milk, then the stock, whisking continuously to avoid lumps. Return the pot to the heat and continue to cook until thickened - stirring hard until the sauce thickly coats the back of the spoon. Add the nutmeg and seasoning and lay some glad wrap over the sauce so it doesn't form a skin.

Layer the moussaka by first spraying a deep oven proof dish with non-stick cooking spray or evoo. Place a layer of eggplant on the bottom, then a layer of mince. Continue to layer eggplant and mix, finishing with a layer of eggplant. Pour the cheese sauce over the eggplant, then mix the crumb ingredients together and generously sprinkle this over the bechamel.

Bake in a pre-heated 200 degree C oven for half an hour.

Grublover comment
This recipe is from the Cook and the Chef. It is like a Greek lasagne and is absolutely delicious. The cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon flavours are very important so don't skip these ingredients. Delicious.