Mmmm... Moussaka
This one is a delicious oven dish, adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe, and is full of flavour and plenty filling! It is quite time consuming, but well worth it, and most of the time is just oven time :-) It's a bit different from the traditional greek dish, in more than the missing meat ;-), and I like the added flavour of this version!
Serves: 4, Preparation: 30-40mins; Cooking time: 45mins
Serves: 4, Preparation: 30-40mins; Cooking time: 45mins
Ingredients
- 1 large eggplant, sliced
- 1 large zucchini, sliced
- 3 large potatoes, or 6-7 small potatoes, sliced
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tbs natural vinegar
- 1 can of chopped tomatoes
- 1 can of lentils, drained (save the juice)
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 250g feta or goat's cheese, crumbled
- 2 tbs butter
- 2 tbs flour
- 1 ¼ cup milk
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1 egg, beaten
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- Green salad to serve
Preparation
- Sprinkle the slices of eggplant with salt, and let sit for at least 20 minutes to draw out the bitterness. Rinse off the salt.
- Preheat the oven to 190C.
- In a large frying pan, brown the potatoes and zucchini. There's no need to use oil. When the eggplants are ready, brown them as well, and set all the vegetables aside.
- Saute garlic and onions in a heavy based frying pan until browned. Add vinegar, tomatoes, lentils, half of the canned lentil juice, and oregano. Cover and simmer on medium to low heat for about 10-15 minutes.
- In a square or rectangular casserole dish, place a layer the each of the cooked eggplant, zucchini, potatoes, and then feta cheese. Pour the tomato and lentil mixture over all the sliced vegetables. Add another layer of each of the vegetables, with a layer of feta as the second layer, so that two layers of vegetables are placed on top of the feta.
- Place the dish in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes.
- While it is baking, mix together butter, flour and milk in a saucepan on the stove. Bring to just boiling, while whisking (don't use a non-stick saucepan for this). When it is thick and smooth, add nutmeg. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool for about 5 minutes. Mix in the beaten egg.
- Remove the vegetable portion from the oven and pour on the sauce. Top with parmesan cheese and continue to bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Sprinkle a little oregano on the top and serve with a tart green salad.