If y'all had a chance to check out the latest WINO episode then you know we had some pretty tasty eats. Mostly it was the moussaka. oh. and the zombie cheese. If y'all want to get into what we had I have adapted the recipe from Saveur.
I am not gonna lie. This. This recipe took days. I re-read and re-read the recipe about 3 times. Trying to find a way to make it simpler. Simple, simple was to make it in pieces and parts over a couple of days.
I made a traditional bechamel sauce and then the day of bringing it all together I slowly reheated the sauce and added in the yogurt. I also didn’t fry the potatoes or eggplant in oil like the original recipe. I dry roasted em under the broiler.
This will feed a family of four. twice. Or one skinny veggie bitch for a day. What can I say? Once I tasted the final result I was hooked. It’s worth the effort. Phone it in, dial up a friend, share this deliciousness if you can will yourself to.
Moussaka
Bechamel sauce: 6TBSP unsalted butter, ½ cup flour, 2 ¼ cup milk, freshly grated nutmeg (just a pinch), ½ cup plain greek yogurt, 1 cup grated parmesan (I am fairly certain I used more than that. Oh, and try to use the real deal people. no Kraft. seriously)
- METHOD: melt the butter in a large skillet until it foams and subsides. Gradually add flour creating a roux. Do NOT allow the mixture to brown or take on any color. In another saucepan slowly heat milk and yogurt till it just starts to simmer. Slowly whisk just warmed mixture in saucepan with your roux. Continue whisking until smooth. Season with salt and white pepper. Set sauce aside.
Roast the Vegetables: 1.5 lbs eggplant (one medium large eggplant) and 1 large Russet potato, about a pound.
- METHOD: slice both the eggplant and potato crosswise, ¼" thick. Toss the eggplant and potato in olive oil until evenly coated. On a 9x13 baking sheet roast dry roast eggplant under the broiler about 3 minutes, each side. Dry roast the potatoes the same way, takes a little bit longer, 4 to 5 minutes. Set roasted veg aside.
Meat Sauce: 1-28oz can whole peeled tomatoes undrained, ¼ cup dried currants. 4 tbsp sherry. 1 lb ground goat. 1 tsp cayenne. ½ tsp ground cinnamon. ¼ tsp allspice. 6 cloves garlic, minced. 2 yellow onion, chopped. 1 bell pepper, finely chopped. 1 poblano pepper, finely chopped. 1 cup red wine. And at this point, go ahead and preheat your oven to 400.
- METHOD: melt a tbsp of bacon grease in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add cayenne, allspice, garlic, cinnamon to the ground goat. Soak currants in sherry for at least 20 mins. Add seasoned meat to skillet and stir constantly until just browned. Remove meat from pan and drain. Wipe pan of any excess oil. Over medium high heat add onion and peppers, stirring occasionally until just soft. Add wine, reduce by half. Add tomatoes, sherry soaked currants, and seasoned meat to the pan. Simmer meat sauce until it is thickened, about 20 mins. Remove from heat and set aside.
Now it’s time to pull it all together. Pull it together! We are so close to heavenly deliciousness!
In a 9x13 baking dish or a 3 quart casserole dish layer potatoes first, followed by eggplant. Seasoning each layer with a little salt and pepper. Slowly pour meat sauce over the layers. Spread meat sauce out evenly. Next, slowly pour bechamel sauce over the meat sauce and you’ll definitely need to spread this out evenly with a rubber spatula. Grate parmesan over the top. Bake until brown and bubbly, about an hour.
That’s it folks. That’s the entire process. I broke this recipe down into chunks without listing ingredients first because well… I didn’t want to scare y'all. It’s a long ingredient list.
The good news is that you probably have 95% of these ingredients in your kitchen already. A random can of tomatoes. Those spices are probably hanging out in the cabinet somewheres. I know y'all got butter and flour. The real effort comes in finding ground goat. If you can’t find goat then use lamb and if you can’t find lamb then use beef, most folks do. Anyway you slice it, there won’t be any of this here, moussaka, left.