Moussaka: more aubergine

I have been to Greece, but I never ate moussaka there. I fell for other dishes that seemed at the moment to suit the heat involved in moving around a stony country under the blazing sun of July. The next time I go to Greece I plan to try it there so I’ll know more about how they think it ought to be.

A piece for you

This version is supposed to be an Arab version, although the recipe writer didn’t say which Arabs and from which area or country. I saw Turkish recipes too, but they didn’t look very different to Greek versions or from this version. One thing I know is that recipes not written by foreigners, us, say that moussaka is eaten at room temperature or just warm. That’s something westerners rarely do, but Italians like that, too. It is difficult to decide which course of an Italian meal moussaka should be, but even though it resembles lasagna it is not pasta and it is a bit of an undertaking, so I’ve decided it must be the secondo, or what other westerners would call a main course.

In all the years that I have made moussaka, I’ve never before added potatoes, and I was curious about what that would be like. I couldn’t figure out why potatoes and I still don’t know if potatoes are easily grown in the eastern Mediterranean or not. Considering the soil in the parts I saw, I would have thought they were difficult to grow, and therefore they wouldn’t have been added for economy’s sake. I really liked them in moussaka and I think I would always add them from now on. The add a texture that is very pleasant amid the soft, spiced layers of eggplant and sauce.

The first time I made moussaka during this eggplant-cooking-period, I made just a little one, and the photo of a serving is of that version. It is not very tall and the later version was much taller. I don’t have endless versions of flat open baking dishes and sometimes it isn’t that easy to pick just the right size. Not that it wasn’t good, because it was marvelous, but I felt the bechamel was spread a bit thin and as I particularly like the bechamel, I was disappointed.

So when I was invited to a supper of Le Ragazze and asked to bring a dish, I decided moussaka with hardly a thought. I made an enormous one, so big that in a 9” X 13” baking dish it overflowed, filled the bottom of the oven with juices, which burned on and smoked as if I were trying to send signals to the Croatians. The oven had to be scrubbed and scraped to a farethewell. You are forewarned. Don’t crowd moussaka.

Here’s my version as made for a crowd. Make it on a day you have some time, because although much of the prep time isn’t active prep time, there are several operations that have to be undertaken before you can assemble the actual moussaka, and it’s not together in half an hour. You could easily make the sauce ahead, you could probably fry the eggplant ahead, and you can make the whole thing and keep it in the fridge a day beforehand, allowing it to warm up before putting it in the oven. That’s assuming your refrigerator is much bigger than mine, because mine wont hold something this big. Moussaka also can be frozen as leftovers and reheated fairly nicely, although it won’t puff up and look like new when reheated – it will taste terrific.

Moussaka

Serves 6

When you are ready to bake it, preheat the oven to 165°C or 325°F

Sauce

500 g or 1 pound minced beef or lamb (I would prefer lamb, but you cannot buy it ground here)
2 onions, minced
2 cloces garlic, minced
olive oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon of oregano leaves
2 teaspoons salt
1 can of tomatoes 28 ounces

Heat oil in a quite latge pan and cook the onions and garlic until softened, then add the meat and cook it stirring until it loses its pink color. Add the spices and stir them in, then the tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and then leave it to cook for at least an hour, checking to be sure it does not dry out. Add a bit of water if necessary. Taste it to correct seasonings about halfway through the cooking.

The eggplant

2 of them, medium sized or more if they are small.

Wash and cut the leaf ends off two medium eggplants. Using a sharp knife, cut both into ½” thick round slices. Layer them on a plate or cutting board sprinkled lightly with salt. Leave them for 30 to 60 minutes, and then dry them with paper towels.

Choose your oil with care. The quality of the oil has a great deal to do with whether your moussaka is delicious or humdrum. Remember, the eggplant doesn’t have a strong taste of its own, but it picks up the flavor of the cooked oil. Heat a bit of the oil in a wide frying pan and then lightly cook the eggplant slices on both sides. Eggplant tries to be an oil sponge, but sweating it ahead of time helps with that, and I also controlled the oil amount by putting oil in a pasta bowl and dipping each raw slice in that quickly, both sides, before frying it. You otherwise have to keep adding oil to the frying pan and sometimes the amount of oil gets out of hand. This is not a problem to most middle-eastern diners, but is shocking to us. Fry them all.

Wash, peel and thinly slice 2 pounds or 1 kilo potatoes. I used my mandolin and it took no time at all.

Here are the layers of potato and aubergine

Assembly

Put a few spoonsful of sauce in the bottom of a very large or two smaller flat baling dishes. Add a layer of very thin potato slices, then a layer of fried eggplant slices, then a layer of sauce. Continue these layers until all the parts are used up, ending with all remaining meat sauce. Gently pour about 1/3 cup, or 75 ml plain water over the whole thing to help the sauce reach everything. Your moussaka can wait a bit at this point, or even stay overnight in the fridge.

And this is the last meat sauce layer

The bechamel

½ cup or 120 g butter
2/3 cup or 100 g flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups or 500 ml milk (plus more as needed)
2 eggs, beaten
½ teaspoon nutmeg
2 ounces Parmigiano, grated

Melt the butter in a largeish pan, then whisk the flour into it. Stir steadily while it simmers a few minutes, then stir in the salt. Remove from the heat. Gradually, bit by bit, whisk or stir the milk into the flour slurry. You can do this on the heat, but it is a lot more foolproof off the heat, believe me.
Return the sauce to medium heat and gradually bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer a couple of minutes. Taste it and add salt as needed. Add the nutmeg.

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Beat the eggs in a bowl, then whisk some of the hot flour mixture into them, and then return the egg mixture into the bechamel, whisking carefully. Add the grated cheese and whisk in thoroughly. Remove from the heat. If it is too solid, stir in enough milk so that it has the softness of, say, whipped cream. Just as when you make bread the flour may be moister or dryer and require different amounts of fluid in the recipe, so with this bechamel. It shouldn’t pour, but it should also not require much spreading around. Anyway, spoon it over the moussaka and make sure it covers the entire casserole.

Bake it in a low oven (325°F or 165°C) for about 45 minutes to an hour. The time will depend on whether it was hot when you started cooking it or room temperature—although this past week room temperature was impressively hot.

Allow to sit a few minutes before cutting into portions. Remove to plates with a spatula.

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