Greek moussaka is a national dish found in various varieties in many Mediterranean cuisines. The combination of vegetables, meat and spices gives moussaka a unique taste and aroma that has no analogues in Russian cuisine.
To prepare Greek moussaka, the following ingredients are required: 2 medium-sized eggplants, 700-800 g of minced meat, 1 large onion, 2-3 ripe tomatoes, 160-180 ml of dry white wine, 50 g of hard cheese, ground black pepper, salt … You will need vegetable oil to fry the ingredients.
To prepare the Béchamel sauce: 30 g of wheat flour, 40 g of butter, 400-500 ml of milk, 2 chicken eggs, 20-30 g of hard cheese, a pinch of nutmeg and salt.
First of all, you need to prepare the Béchamel sauce. Melt the butter in a dry skillet over high heat. Sifted wheat flour is poured into it and fried for 40-45 minutes until golden brown, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula. The resulting mixture is left to cool. The milk is heated without boiling.
The butter-flour mixture is heated again and 300-400 ml of milk is poured into it in small portions, actively stirring the ingredients. Leave 100 ml to adjust the thickness of the sauce. You should get a mass with a uniform consistency.
To avoid the formation of lumps, it is recommended to mix milk and butter-flour mixture at approximately the same temperature. The ingredients should be warm, but not hot.
Pour grated cheese into the sauce and bring the dish to a boil over low heat. Cook "Béchamel", continuing to stir, 3-5 minutes until the cheese is completely dissolved. The sauce is removed from the stove, poured into a convenient container, and nutmeg and salt are added to it to taste. After 5 minutes, chicken eggs are alternately introduced into Bechamel, whipping the sauce with a whisk.
Before use, "Béchamel" must be stored tightly covered with cling film, which should touch the sauce. In this case, no film will appear on the surface.
Cut the peeled onion into 4 pieces and chop finely. Tomatoes are peeled and cut into small cubes. Eggplants are washed, and, after cutting off the stalks, cut into slices. Prepared eggplants are transferred to a colander, salted and left for half an hour. This procedure removes excess liquid and bitterness from vegetables. After 30 minutes, the eggplants are washed in running water and dried.
To remove the skin from tomatoes, you need to make a cross-shaped incision on the surface and scald the vegetable with boiling water. Then the tomato is dipped in cold water.
In a frying pan, heat the vegetable oil and fry the chopped onions. The finished onion is transferred to a plate using a special spoon with holes to glass as much oil as possible. In the remaining vegetable oil, fry the minced meat, stirring with a spatula. Dry white wine is poured into the minced meat, tomatoes and onions are added. Salt the dish, pepper and continue cooking until the liquid has completely evaporated.
Eggplants are also fried in vegetable oil. During cooking, eggplant absorbs too much vegetable oil, which makes the dish greasy. Therefore, after frying, it is recommended to transfer the vegetables to paper napkins, which will absorb the excess fat.
A baking dish is greased with vegetable oil. Part of the eggplant is laid out on the bottom of it, then minced meat and eggplant again. The dish is poured with sauce, sprinkled with grated cheese and sent to bake in an oven preheated to 180 ° C. Baking time - 40 minutes. Since hot moussaka is hard to cut, you should wait 15-20 minutes before serving it.
