Moussaka

Moussaka is a Greek “lasagna” made with eggplant and meat. There is Moussaka with potatoes, without potatoes, with other vegetables, these variations occur because the dish became popular in several different regions, but as I don’t have much patience for this historical part of the food, so let’s go straight to MY Moussaka recipe:

I would say I simplified the dish, because anyone who knows me knows that I don’t like recipes that have more than 3 steps. So I did it like this:

I started by sautéing 500g of ground beef with 1 onion and 3 chopped garlic cloves in olive oil. I added 1/4 of chopped pepper, 8 pitted olives into small pieces and 2 unpeeled eggplants, chopped into small cubes.

I seasoned it with soy sauce (shoyu), 1 packet of powdered meat broth, pepper and green scent. I added 2 chopped skinless and seedless tomatoes and a little boiling water and let it cook until the tomato melted and the eggplant cooked. I adjusted the salt at the end of cooking.

Meanwhile, I cooked 5 peeled potatoes, chopped into cubes, in boiling and salted water (don’t let them get completely cooked because they’re still in the oven). In Moussaka recipes that use potatoes, they are in slices, but I thought cubes would accommodate better.

I made the béchamel sauce by heating 1 tablespoon full of butter and 2 tablespoons of wheat flour. Stirring the mixture over low heat until it is slightly golden, then I added 1 glass (220 ml) of whole milk and incorporated everything with the wire whisk until it thickened. I grated nutmeg, salt and white pepper.

Assembly: In a baking dish greased with olive oil, follow the layers: Baked potato / Grated mozzarella / Bechamel / Meat / Bechamel / Mozzarella / Parmesan Oven 200º until browned and ready!