Fabulous Beef Moussaka
This delicious warm dish can be made with beef or lamb mince, I’ve chosen beef for this recipe as it’s easier to get hold of. Easily makes a bulk meal or feeds a large family. Perfect show stopper for hosting a dinner party!
Serves: 6 / Ready in: 1 hour 10 mins / Difficulty: 3/5 / Storing: Place into a sealed container and keep in the fridge up to 3 days. Can also be made up to the point of cooking in the oven, wrap dish with clingfilm and keep in the fridge to have another day.
Ingredients
1 kg Aubergine
3 courgettes
Salt
4 tbsp Olive oil
1 white onion
3 cloves garlic
700g organic beef mince
125ml red wine
3 tbsp tomato paste
400g tinned plum tomatoes
250ml beef broth
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 beef stock cube
4 bay leaves
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
salt and pepper
breadcrumbs
Bechamel sauce
60g butter
50g plain flour
625ml whole milk
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
50g parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1 vegetable or chicken stock cube
ground pepper
Method
Start with the aubergine and courgettes. Get two baking trays and place down a layer of kitchen roll or a clean dish cloth. Slice the aubergine and courgettes lengthways into thin strips, around 0.5cm thick. Place them down into the trays, and sprinkle over plenty of salt, it doesn’t matter if you use a lot of salt, we will get rid of it later. They can slightly overlap if you don't have much space. Leave to the side and allow the water to come out of the vegetables.
Pre-heat oven to 240°c.
Move onto the beef filling. In a large pan add 1 tbsp olive oil and get to a medium heat. Dice the onion and add to the pan, crush the garlic in the pan and gently fry until the onion and garlic softens. Add the beef, braking it up with a spatular as you move it around the pan, cook until the beef is light brown. Pour in the wine allowing it to cook off and the liquid to reduce by half. Break over the beef stock cube, add the tomato paste, cinnamon and stir together. Then pour in the plum tomatoes, the beef stock liquid and 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce. Add bay leaves, oregano and 1 tbsp sugar, stir again and bring to a light simmer and cover.
Stir and taste the beef filling from time to time, adding salt and pepper as needed. Pop the plum tomatoes with the back of the spatular. After 10 minutes remove the lid to reduce the liquid.
Meanwhile head back to the vegetables, with a paper towel or another clean dishcloth, dap down the liquid from the vegetables. Remove the kitchen paper/cloth from the trays and replace with greaseproof paper. Layer out the vegetables again and pour over 2-3 tbsp olive oil and smooth it out over the vegetables with your fingers. Put in the oven for 15 minutes, checking from time to time. The vegetables should become soft and start to brown around the edges.
While the vegetables are in the oven, start the béchamel sauce. Put a saucepan over a medium/low heat and melt the butter, add the flour and mix together to form a paste. Let the paste cook for a minute then slowly start adding the milk, pour by pour and stopping to mix together the milk into the paste. Eventually you can add the remaining milk and allow it to bubble away gently to thicken, keep stirring! While the milk reduces, add the nutmeg and veg/chicken stock cube as well as the pepper. Once the sauce starts to stick to your spatular and slowly pours off, add in the parmesan and crack in the two eggs, pop the yokes and keep stiring until you reach a smooth consistency without any uncooked egg. At this point remove from the heat and place the lid on.
Time to assemble the moussaka! Remove the vegetables and reduce the oven to 180°c.
In a baking dish (or two) pour a little olive oil in the bottom, then layer in half the aubergine and courgette, the next layer is the beef filling, then layer over the remaining courgette and aubergine and top with the béchamel sauce. Sprinkle over breadcrumbs and bake in the over for 30-40 minutes, until the top has turned golden brown. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Enjoy with a side salad or steamed vegetables!
Nutritional information, per serving
kcal: 622
Fat: 30g
Saturates: 11.6g
Carbs: 44.5g
Sugars: 21.5g
Fibre: 8.8g
Protein: 42.8g