Authentic Greek Moussaka

Submitted by BLUE ROSE

"This recipe came from a neighbor of mine. When they heard of the world challange I was doing they offered me this recipe. A greek family ofcource. This is a favorite of theirs! Time Does not include Prep work."

 

• Ready In: 2hrs
• Ingredients: 22
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• Meat Sauce

• 29.58 ml butter or 29.58 ml margarine
• 236.59 ml finely chopped onion
• 680.38 g ground chuck or 680.38 g lamb
• 1 crushed garlic clove
• 2.46 ml dried oregano leaves
• 4.92 ml dried basil leaves
• 2.46 ml cinnamon
• 4.92 ml salt
• 0.25 ml pepper
• 2 (453.59 g) can tomato sauce
• 2 medium eggplants
• 0.25 ml salt
• 118.29 ml butter or 118.29 ml margarine, melted

• Cream Sauce

• 29.58 ml butter or 29.58 ml margarine
• 29.58 ml flour
• 2.46 ml salt
• 0.25 ml pepper
• 473.18 ml milk
• 118.29 ml grated parmesan cheese
• 118.29 ml grated cheddar cheese
• 29.58 ml dry breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs

directions

1. Meat Sauce:

2. Melt butter in a 3 1/2 Quart Dutch oven, sauté onion, ground chuck or lamb and garlic, stirring until brown, 10 minutes.
3. Add herbs, spices and tomato sauce and stirring until it starts to boiling.
4. Reduce heat and simmer, uncover, 1/2 hour.
5. Halve unpaired eggplants lengthwise. Slice 1/2-inch thick.
6. Place in bottom of broiler and sprinkle lightly with salt.
7. Brush lightly with melted butter.
8. Broil 4-inches from heat, 4 minutes per side, or until golden.
9. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.
10. Make Cream Sauce.
11. In medium saucepan, melt butter.
12. Remove from heat and stir in flour, salt and pepper. Add milk gradually.
13. Bring to boiling, stirring until thickened.
14. Remove from heat.
15. In small bowl beat eggs with wire whisk.
16. Beat in some hot Cream Sauce mixture. Return mixture to saucepan and mix well. Set aside.
17. To assemble casserole, in bottom of shallow, 2 quart baking dish (12x7x2 inches).
18. Layer half of eggplants, overlapping slightly. Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp of each of grated parmesan and cheddar cheese. Stir bread crumbs into meat sauce. Spoon evenly over eggplant in casserole, then sprinkle with 2 Tbsp of each of parmesan and cheddar cheese.
19. Layer rest of eggplant spices, overlapping, as before. Pour Cream Sauce over all. Sprinkle top of remaining cheese.
20. Back 35 to 40 Minutes or until golden brown and top is set.
21. If desired, brown top of little more under broiler, 1 minute.
22. Cool slightly to serve. Cut in Squares.

Reviews

[puppitypup]

LOVED IT! Blue Rose, this Moussaka is absolutely divine! I served it for Father's Day and everyone absolutely loved it. I cut the recipe in half but still used an 8x8 pan so I had to increase the cream sauce by half again as much. The only change I made was to add some freshly grated nutmeg to the cream sauce. Edited to say that OF THE 350 RECIPES I REVIEWED IN 2008, THIS HAS GONE INTO MY TOP 20 FAVORITES COOKBOOK.

 

[Upinsmoke]

This was delicious! I made it for Greek Night at my book/dinner club, and it was a huge success. It was definitely worth the effort! Thanks!

 

[*Parsley*]

My first time making a moussaka and now I'm wondering what took me so long! This is absolutely wonderful! I used 1 lb of lamb and 1/2 lb ground beef. Despite the long directions, this is very easy to make. Don't skimp on the cinnamon; it really gives a great flavor! The only thing I changed was to omit the 1/2 cup of butter to brush the eggplant slices; I just used olive-oil cooking spray. Thanx for this great recipe. I'll make this again!

 

[David D.]

The overall impression from the people that were served this dish was that they hated it. The 'main' reason they all agreed on was the cinnamon. Considering these people have vastly different tastes I found this amazing they could agree on this particular thing regardless of what else individually they might find fault with. The recipe would probably be better off without the cinnamon.

 

[3shihmum]

OOOOhhhh this was good. Very rich but very good. I might use a light brush of olive oil on the eggplant as Parsley suggested (gotta keep my tester alive) but other than that, if it's not broken... Thanks for posting this Blue Rose. I'll be making this for company any day