Stumbled across a recipe for moussaka earlier today, and remembering how moussaka once saved my life I decided to try it on for tonight. Besides, I needed a big batch of something suitable to freeze for lunches.
Saved my life... Ok, not really, in the strictest sense, but let's just say that moussaka is what kept med and my friend KW going when we were at Roskilde a few years ago. Cheap, nutritious and filling, moussaka makes the perfect festival food.
Unfortunately I didn't follow the recipe to the letter. I say unfortunately since I after I was done and tasted the completed masterpiece realised that this particular recipe relied on the moose mince to get a really good flavor going. Since moose mince is a bit hard to find a Sunday afternoon in Elephant & Castle (no, really) I used pork mince instead which probably made the dish taste less than intended. Still good though, very good, I just felt that most of the taste actually came from the chévre in the bechamel sauce (I used what was left of the chévre from the baked beet root recipe, probably the tastiest bechamel I have ever made) and some additional spices could have been used to offset the cheese.
Part of the recipe confused me a bit, the part about seasoning the aubergine slices with salt for ten minutes and then wipe them off before using them. Once I did that I realised why though, the salt pulls the juices out of the aubergine and makes it less bitter. Slicing the aubergine length wise and not across (as I did...) makes this part somewhat easier.
Googling a little I found a recipe at BBC that sounds great to do with pork mince (or lamb, as it should) and another pretty advanced one that sounds more like a traditional way of doing it (and not so much the lasagna kind of way, like the other recipes are).
Next time I do it I will combine the three. And add some more garlic too. What definitely was really great was that bechamel though. Yum, the chévre made the whole thing. Adrian certainly loved it. Scraping the bechamel pot with a spoon...
Adrian is force fed the moussaka
Originally uploaded by Manne.
Lunch box goal went well though. Six containers of moussaka in the freezer. Fuel economy meter well in the green.
URL: Moussaka with moose mince (in Swedish)
URL: BBC moussaka recipe
URL: Traditional (?) moussaka over at About.com
