When I think of Greek comfort food, moussaka is the first thing that comes to mind. The melt-in-your-mouth eggplant combined with the savory ground beef and creamy bechamel… Mmm, I feel comforted just writing about it! You will notice in the preparation steps that the eggplant, ground beef, and bechamel are prepared separately and later combined for the final baking process. To save time, I have sequenced the recipe so that you can work on the bechamel while the ground beef is simmering. This can get tricky if you aren’t comfortable multi-tasking in the kitchen; in which case, I recommend that you first tackle the ground beef, then the bechamel, and lastly the layering. This will add some time to the recipe but will help make the cooking process more enjoyable.
Ingredients
For the Eggplants and Ground Beef
- Extra virgin olive oil (Amount will vary. Plan for at least two cups)
- 3 large eggplants
- 1.5 pounds ground beef
- 1 medium red onion
- 4 cups water
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1.5 teaspoons salt
For the Bechamel
- 8 tablespoons flour
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 8 cups milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 1.5 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Preparation
For the eggplants
- Wash the eggplants, remove the stem portion, and cut into 1/2 inch slices
- Fill the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil (approximately 1.5 cups)
- Heat over medium-high heat
- Once the oil is hot, place the eggplant in the oil and brown on both sides
- The eggplant will absorb some of the oil as it cooks requiring more oil to be added to the pan at various points during the cooking process
- Place the browned eggplant in a strainer and strain overnight. This will allow the eggplant to release some of the oil absorbed during the cooking process
For the ground beef
- The next day or once the eggplants have had a chance to sit in the strainer and release some of the olive oil, you can begin preparing the ground beef
- Peel and dice the onion, combine with 1/4 cup olive oil and cook over medium heat until translucent
- Add the ground beef and brown
- Once browned, add approximately two cups of water and simmer for 1.5 hours adding water if too much evaporates during the cooking process
- Add tomato paste, salt, and cinnamon to the ground beef and simmer for an additional 15 minutes evaporating most of the remaining water
For the bechamel
- While the beef is simmering, prepare your bechamel
- Whisk together the milk and egg yolks in a pot and heat over low heat. You only want to warm the milk not bring it to a boil
- While the milk is warming, melt the butter in a pot over medium heat
- Once melted, add the flour and stir constantly over medium heat until the flour turns a light sandy color
- Slowly add the warmed milk and egg yolk mixture to your flour and continue stirring
- Add the salt and nutmeg stirring continuously until the bechamel thickens
- Once the bechamel has thickened (a consistency similar to a thick potato puree soup), remove from the heat and set aside
Layering and baking the moussaka
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
- Begin assembling the layers of your moussaka by laying the eggplant on the bottom of a baking pan
- Spoon the ground beef over the eggplant
- Depending on the size of your baking pan, you may decide to prepare the moussaka with two layers of eggplant and ground beef. In this case, repeat the eggplant and ground beef layering one more time
- Cover the ground beef with the bechamel
- Bake for 1 hour or until the bechamel has developed a golden color
- Let the moussaka cool for 30-45 minutes after removing from the oven in order for the bechamel to set, making for cleaner slices when serving
- If you have leftovers, you can refrigerate the moussaka for several days or freeze in portion sized slices in a freezer safe container
