Moussaka is considered one of the most popular dishes in the Middle East and the Balkans. There are several options for its preparation, but each of them is based on the original recipe with eggplant.
The dish called "moussaka" came to world cuisine from Greece, where it remains popular to this day. It is a kind of two-layer cake. To prepare the bottom layer, you will need a kilogram of lamb, 2-3 large tomatoes, 2-3 ripe eggplants, 100 ml of dry white wine, 150 grams of flour, an onion, a few mint leaves, 2-3 cloves of garlic, bay leaf, 5-6 tsp olive oil, a teaspoon each of coriander and cloves, and traditional salt and pepper to taste. To prepare the layer with which you will cover the dish, you will need 400 ml of milk, 150 grams of flour and parmesan, an egg, 3-4 teaspoons of butter and a sprig of parsley.
Rinse and dry the mint ahead of time. When starting to cook the moussaka, rinse the meat thoroughly and cut it into pieces so that they can be sent to the meat grinder. Chop the onion and garlic into small pieces. Cut the washed tomatoes into small pieces. Saute the meat in hot olive oil for ten minutes, then add mint, garlic, onions, tomatoes, spices, bay leaves, and salt and pepper to taste. Leave the mixture on the stove for 15 minutes, then add the wine and bring everything in the skillet to a boil.
After you have removed the dish from the stove, you need to immediately pour out the liquid, and then leave to cool. In the meantime, you can tackle the eggplants: peel them and cut them into small mugs to be placed on a flat-bottomed plate, sprinkle with salt, and then leave for 10-15 minutes. After that, you need to rinse the eggplants and dry them with napkins.
Dip dry vegetables in flour, then place on a flat-bottomed plate and let stand for 3-4 minutes. Then fry the eggplants in preheated olive oil for 60 seconds on each side. Place the fried vegetables on paper towels to absorb the excess fat. After the fat has drained, line the bottom of the baking dish with half the eggplant, then add the chilled minced meat in a second layer. The third layer should again consist of eggplant, and the fourth one should be meat.
To prepare the top layer of moussaka, preheat the oven to 190-200 ° C. While the oven is heating, melt the butter, mix it with the flour and, stirring it, keep it on low heat for about five minutes. Heat the milk slightly, mix it with the egg using a blender, then pour into the butter pan and cook for about five minutes, stirring constantly. Next, add grated cheese and pre-cut greens, mix all the contents, pour this sauce over the eggplant with meat, and then send the moussaka to the oven for 25-30 minutes.
It is not necessary to remove this dish from the baking dish, just cut it into small squares. Dry red wine is perfect for moussaka.
