How to Make Moussaka
Posted By Samantha Roberts On August 10, 2010 @ 6:47 pm In Cooking & Baking,Vegetables | Comments Disabled
Moussaka is a traditional Greek dish made with layers of eggplant and a tomato and lamb sauce. It’s very similar to lasagne, except that instead of sheets of pasta you use sliced eggplant.
The hearty richness of moussaka makes it a perfect dinner dish during the colder months. It’s also great for dinner parties as you can make it in advance and then just place it on the table and let people serve themselves.
Originally a peasant dish, moussaka uses cheap, readily available ingredients and is easy to prepare. Follow the recipe below for great tasting moussaka.
You can divide the making of moussaka into three distinct parts as follows:
You’ll find instructions below on how to prepare each of these components.
Ingredients:
The first thing you need to do when cooking moussaka is prepare your eggplant, that way it can be “sweating” while you work on the rest of the dish.
Eggplant (also known as aubergine) is extremely absorbent, water rich and has a natural bitterness. These three characteristics, often undesirable in cooking, can be easily remedied.
Wash your aubergines and slice them lengthways. Coat both sides liberally with salt. Place the slices in a colander with a weighted plate on top of them. The idea here is to apply pressure to help squeeze the water out of the eggplant flesh. Let the eggplant slices sit like this for at least half an hour. Meanwhile, you can get on with the rest of your moussaka preparation.
Inexperienced cooks often feel daunted at the mere mention of the word “sauce”, and indeed there are many complicated and delicate sauces in the annals of world cuisine. The white sauce used in moussaka is, happily, not one of them – so approach with confidence.
Now you are ready to put your moussaka together. Use an ovenproof dish and follow the layering scheme below (or use your own).
Cover with grated cheese and place in a pre-heated oven. Cook for 45 minutes at 180˚C.
While moussaka takes a bit of time to prepare the result is more than worth it. Serve it with fresh crusty bread, a green salad and the rest of that bottle of white wine!
For another way to make moussaka check out this video.
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