Moussaka is a Greek dish, essentially an eggplant casserole. I’ll make a reservation right away, there are many recipes for moussaka, it can be without meat, from vegetables alone, with or without potatoes. The main and invariable ingredient is eggplant and bechamel sauce.
So, everything you need, I have already listed.

We clean the potatoes, cut into circles, and lightly fry.

Finely chop the onion

fry in a minimum amount of oil.

Then we take out the fried onion and practically without oil we set to fry the minced meat.

I had beef, you can use any, as long as it is not too fatty.

On the top of the tomatoes we make an incision crosswise,

pour boiling water over them

and immediately rinse with cold water. This is necessary in order to make it easier to remove the skin, which we do very simply.

Cut the skinless tomatoes into small cubes.

When the minced meat changes color from red to gray, add fried onions, tomatoes, salt and pepper to it. If there is greenery, feel free to add it. I added some dried dill, and of course, basil - it fits here perfectly.

warm up and simmer a little until the tomato is soft.

Now it's the turn of the eggplant. Wash and cut into thin slices.

Sprinkle with salt and fill with cold water. Previously, this was done to remove bitterness, but modern eggplant varieties are not bitter at all. But I continue to do this, since such eggplants absorb much less oil when fried.
After 10 minutes, take out, squeeze out excess water and fry in oil on both sides. If you have a grill pan, you can fry them on it.

Almost all the components of moussaka are ready. There is sauce left. To prepare it, fry a couple of tablespoons of flour in a dry frying pan until it begins to change its color.

Then add butter(50 grams), stirring vigorously so that no lumps form.

In small portions, while continuing to stir, pour in milk or cream, bring to a boil.

A classic bechamel calls for a pinch of nutmeg, but my family doesn't like it, so I did without it.

And here is a departure from the classics - we add grated cheese to the sauce.

At the same time, a little cheese should be left to sprinkle moussaka on top later.

Stir until the cheese is completely melted. The most important thing is to achieve the correct consistency of the sauce, this can only be done "by eye", no proportions will help here. The sauce should be thickened, but at the same time pour from a spoon, and not fall in pieces, like not very thick sour cream.
If you don’t have enough experience, and the sauce turned out to be lumpy, it doesn’t matter! Everything is easy to fix by rubbing through a sieve, or in a modern way, using a blender, which will turn everything into a homogeneous mass in three seconds.

Let's start assembling.
At the bottom of the form - I took a heat-resistant glass one, but it can be any - lay out a layer of potatoes.

Top with a little sauce.

Then a layer of minced meat with onions and tomatoes, and again a little sauce.

The final layer is eggplant. We lay them overlapping one on top of the other to cover the entire surface.

And now pour the rest of the sauce evenly. Now you will understand why the consistency is so important - it should spread, flow down a little, and not remain ugly bumps on the surface.

We put in the oven, heated to 200 degrees for 20-30 minutes - it all depends on your oven and the size of your form. We have all the components ready, so we bake until a delicious golden crust forms on top.

5 minutes before readiness, sprinkle the surface of the moussaka with the remnants of grated cheese, wait for it to melt - and now the delicious summer dish is ready!

This is how it looks from the side - all layers are visible. Does it look appetizing to me?

Do not think that it is very difficult and long. Yes, you will have to work hard, but given that everything can be fried at the same time in different pans, this is not so long. And the result is worth it, believe me!

Moussaka is the most tender, with an almost airy layer of sauce, juicy, fragrant, and, most importantly, satisfying. Even picky men are happy.

Like any baked dish, moussaka is easier to cut cold, but I prefer to eat it hot.

Cooking time: PT01H00M 1 hour

Traditional Greek moussaka consists of 3 parts: meat filling, fried vegetables and bechamel sauce. These 3 culinary processes can be done alternately or in parallel with each other (with the second option, you can save time).

The meat layer of moussaka is cooked longer than the rest, it is somewhat reminiscent of the famous italian sauce bolognese. To prepare this layer in Greece and the Middle East, lamb is most often used, which can be replaced with beef. Less commonly used is mixed, pork and beef, minced meat.

Peel and cut the onion into small cubes.

Fry until translucent and a light golden hue, using vegetable (preferably olive) oil.

Add minced meat to the fried onion, mix.

Cook over medium heat, stirring and breaking up lumps of minced meat with a spatula.

Simultaneously with the frying of minced meat, cook tomato puree. To do this, blanch (hold for 2 minutes in boiling water) tomatoes, cool under the tap, remove the skin. Coarsely chop the blanched tomatoes and transfer to a blender.

Beat until smooth, rub through a sieve (optional).

Instead of fresh tomatoes can be used in autumn and winter tomato paste or canned tomatoes own juice.

Pour the tomato into the pan with the meat, mix. Simmer over low heat for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Meanwhile, cut the eggplant and peeled potatoes into thin slices.

"Blue" put in a deep bowl and sprinkle with salt. For now, set them aside so that they let the juice go, with which the bitterness will go away.

Place potatoes in hot oil and fry until golden brown on medium-high heat. Put the finished potato slices on thick napkins so that the excess oil is absorbed into the paper.

While the potatoes are fried and the minced meat is simmering, grate the cheese on coarse grater. IN classic recipe moussaki uses parmesan, but it can be replaced with another variety of hard cheese.

When all the potatoes are fried, return to the eggplant. Drain the brown juice that stands out from them, rinse thoroughly from salt. Fry until golden brown vegetable oil. When ready, wipe off the oil with paper towels.

Prepare a variation of bechamel sauce. Melt the butter in a frying pan or saucepan.

Pour in the flour, after sifting.

Stir and keep the mixture on fire for a while.

Pour milk in a thin stream, while stirring the mass with a whisk.

Cook the sauce over low heat, stirring until it thickens. Add nutmeg, pepper and salt, stir and remove from heat.

Add grated cheese (about 3 tablespoons), mix. The cheese will melt from the warm sauce.

After 5-7 minutes, when the bechamel has cooled down a bit, beat an egg into it.

Mix. The finished sauce should be homogeneous, without lumps.

Add wine to the almost ready minced meat (optional). While stirring, wait until all alcohol vapors come out. Then add spices and salt. Mix.

Arrange the moussaka ingredients in an ovenproof dish in layers. The first layer is half an eggplant.

Then - half the stuffing.

Cover the potatoes with the remaining meat.

Finish the layers with eggplant slices.

Pour moussaka with white sauce.

And sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake moussaka in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

Serve cooled to room temperature, cut into portions.

Bon appetit!

Moussaka with minced meat is a hallmark of Mediterranean cuisine. Nobody knows the exact history of this dish, it is prepared in many countries, and there are as many cooking options as there are countries themselves. In Greece, eggplants are added to meat, tomatoes are offered in the Serbian version, and potatoes in Bulgaria. In Arab countries, the dish is served as cold salad with tomatoes and eggplant. By the way, the origin of the word “moussaka” (accent on the last syllable) is Arabic, and it means “chilled”.

I suggest that you familiarize yourself with the recipe for Greek moussaka, so loved by all tourists. In Greece, moussaka is served both in inexpensive cafes and in luxurious restaurants. But in order to try this delicious casserole, it is not at all necessary to go somewhere, the proposed recipe with a photo is as close as possible to the classic Greek one and can be easily used at home. For cooking, you will need eggplant, some potatoes, minced lamb and a traditional filling - Bechamel sauce. And of course, almost no Greek dish is complete without cheese and olive oil. Vegetables for casseroles can be pre-fried or baked in the oven - do as you like. In the first version, olive oil is used to lubricate the pan, in the second - vegetables.

Olive oil is a true Greek product. Extra virgin oil is the most useful, it contains a lot of fatty acids(oleic, omega 3 and 9), vitamins A, D, E, K. It is believed that such oil is not used for frying, since all the benefits disappear under the influence of high temperature. But contrary to popular belief, many Italian, Greek, French chefs fry exclusively on it. There is a way to keep the maximum benefit of olive oil: fry food over low to medium heat. If the oil starts to burn and smoke, the temperature has been exceeded. You can also bake vegetables in the oven - the oil will definitely not burn there, unless, of course, you set a timer.

Greek moussaka vaguely resembles Italian lasagna, the recipe of which is located. Only instead of dough, a vegetable layer is used. Initially, the Greek recipe involves only eggplant, but its modern modifications allow the addition of potatoes and zucchini. Greek casserole with eggplant and potatoes turns out to be very satisfying and stands out a little among the low-calorie ones. mediterranean dishes. According to tradition, it is prepared with minced lamb, but it also comes out quite tasty and juicy with pork and beef. You can even try minced turkey or chicken if you need to reduce the fat content of the dish. What else makes the casserole zest? This is red wine, which is added during the process of stewing meat. And give a special Mediterranean flavor meat dish cinnamon stick and mint. How to cook juicy and tasty moussaka step by step? Sharing the recipe!

Ingredients:

for moussaka:

• 3 eggplants (600-700 g);
• 4 large potato tubers (600-700 g);
• 3 small tomatoes (300 g);
• 1 small onion (300 g);
• 500 g lamb or minced pork and beef;
• 200 g mozzarella;
• 100 ml. red dry wine;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• salt, pepper to taste;
• cinnamon stick;
• a few mint leaves;
• extra virgin olive oil.

for the bechamel sauce:

• 1 l. milk;
• 100 g butter;
• 3 tbsp flour;
• a pinch of nutmeg;
• 0.5 tsp provencal herbs.

Greek moussaka recipe with eggplant, potatoes, minced meat and bechamel sauce

In this article, we will look at the process of making moussaka.

In the culinary world, there are a huge number of recipes for delicious casseroles, but today our choice fell on an interesting dish, which is traditionally considered Greek.

So, today we will prepare a dish called moussaka, which is the most delicate casserole with a variety of fillings.

Greek dish moussaka: a classic Greek recipe

Moussaka, as mentioned earlier, is a very popular Greek dish, which is usually prepared from vegetables, most often eggplant and minced meat under delicious sauce bechamel.

Since moussaka was originally considered an exclusively Greek dish, we will start preparing the delicacy according to the classic recipe.

So, we need the following products:

• Potato - 2.5 kg
• Eggplant - 2.5 kg
• Olive or vegetable oil - 150 ml
• Beef pulp - 1 kg
• Bulb - 1 pc.
• Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
• Spices, salt - at your discretion
• Breadcrumbs for breading - 3.5 tbsp. l.
• Cheese - 50 g

We will also prepare the sauce, it will require the following ingredients:

• Flour - 5.5 tbsp. l.
• Butter - 200 g
• Baked milk - 350 g
• Eggs - 3-4 pcs., We only need yolks
• Ground nutmeg - 1.5 tsp.

Now that all the ingredients are prepared, you can begin the process of cooking the dish itself.

• Let's start with the meat. We take the pulp of beef, rinse it thoroughly and dry it with paper towels. Now grind the pulp into pieces so that you can make minced meat out of it. Chopped pieces can be chopped with a meat grinder or blender
• Now we put our minced meat in a container in which we will fry it, pre-pour oil into the pan
• We clean the onion and chop it, add to the minced meat
• When the minced meat and onions are lightly fried, we flavor them with our spices and salt.
• Let's take tomatoes. We wash them and grind them with a grater or blender. Put the resulting puree in a pan, mix all the ingredients, simmer until tender.
• We take vegetables, wash, dry. Potatoes, after peeling, chop into slices of medium thickness. We also clean the eggplant and cut into slices, cut the vegetable along the length. In order to remove the bitterness from the vegetable, you can soak it for more than 10 minutes. in saline
• We will pre-bake the vegetables a little in the oven, for this we transfer the potatoes and eggplants to a baking sheet and cook for about 20 minutes. at 170 degrees

While the mince and vegetables are cooking, let's make the sauce.

• Take a container, put butter in it
• As soon as the butter is completely melted, add flour to it and carefully mix the contents of the pan quickly in order to avoid lumps.
• Now the turn of milk has come, it must be poured into the container very carefully, little by little. Pour milk - mix the ingredients
• We drive eggs, spices into an almost ready sauce and beat the mixture. The sauce is ready

We collect our dish:

• Spray a baking dish lightly with oil and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
• Lay the meat layer on the bottom
• Now a layer of potatoes
• eggplant layer
• Once again, repeat the sequence, lay out all the layers
• Pour our sauce into the mold
• We put the dish to bake for about half an hour at the same temperature
• For 3-5 min. before the end of the cooking process, sprinkle the moussaka with grated cheese

Recipe:

This recipe is very similar to the previous one, however, it contains other vegetables. So, let's see how easy and fast you can make Bulgarian moussaka.

We will need the following products:

• Minced meat - 550 g
• Bulb - 2 pcs.
• Bulgarian pepper - 2 pcs.
• Carrot - 1 pc.
• Eggplant - 2 pcs.
• Eggs - 3 pcs.
• Yogurt for dressing - half a liter
• Oil for frying - 3.5 tbsp. l.
• Oregano, cinnamon, turmeric, paprika, salt - at your discretion

Let's start cooking:

• Let's deal with minced meat. you can buy minced pork or beef. You can buy "assorted" or, if possible, buy the pulp, and make minced meat yourself. If you do not like fatty meat, however, you want to make moussaka, take minced chicken
• Peel and mince the onion
• Wash the pepper and remove the core, cut into rings
• Eggplants are peeled, if necessary, we remove bitterness from them, cut into slices along the length
• Wash carrots, chop into cubes or circles
• Pour oil into the pan and put the onion and carrot there, fry the vegetables a little, about 3 minutes.
• Add the minced meat to the vegetables, mix and fry for another 10 minutes.
• We flavor the contents of the pan with spices, spices, salt
• Eggplant and pepper pre-bake a little in the oven. To do this, put them on a baking sheet, greased with oil and cook for about 15 minutes.
• Now we assemble the dish:
• Put the eggplant in the mold
• now pepper
• Repeat the layout until the ingredients run out.
• Yogurt, pre-mixed with eggs and flavored with spices and salt, pour into a mold
• Bake moussaka for about 15-25 minutes.

Armenian eggplant moussaka: recipe

Moussaka in Armenian is somewhat different from traditional dish. This delicacy turns out to be unusually satisfying, high-calorie and, of course, tasty.

We buy products:

• Beef pulp - 650 g
• Eggplant - 5 pcs.
• Bulb - 1.5 pcs.
• Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
• Rice - half a cup
• Oil for frying
• Greenery,

The cooking process is very simple:

• We wash the beef pulp, dry it and cut into small pieces
• Wash the eggplants, peel them and cut them into slices, sprinkle with salt in order to “pull out” the bitterness from them. After 15 min. Rinse the vegetables with water to remove excess salt.
• Peel the onion and cut into cubes
• We wash the rice in running cold water, this must be done as efficiently as possible. We put a container with rice and bring it to half-cooked
• In a frying pan, into which we first pour oil, spread the meat and fry for 5 minutes.
• Add the onion to the beef and continue to fry for about 3-5 minutes.
• In another pan, fry the eggplant until half cooked. We put them on a plate and wait until the oil drains a little from the vegetables.
• Mix rice, beef and onion in a bowl. Season it all with salt and spices, mix
• My tomatoes and remove the core, cut into slices, finely chop the greens

Assembling the dish:

• Grease a baking sheet or dish with oil
• We spread the eggplant
• Mix of rice and meat
• eggplant
• tomatoes

We put in the oven. We expect about 15-25 minutes. Serve the dish hot, pre-garnished with herbs. The peculiarity of this recipe is that not minced meat is put in the dish, but pieces of meat. However, if you don't like it, you can grind the pulp and use minced meat.

Serbian moussaka: recipe

Now let's see how Serbs prepare moussaka. We would call this dish more “light”, because according to this recipe, you need to use a minimum of ingredients.

Products we need:

• Pulp of pork, beef - 300 g each
• Potato - 7 pcs.
• Carrot, onion - 2 pcs.
• Eggs - 2 pcs.
• Cheese - 50 g
• Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
• Spices, spices, salt - at your discretion
• Vegetable oil
• Greenery
• Milk

Cooking a dish:

• We wash the meat, dry it and grind it with a meat grinder or blender.
• Vegetables are cleaned and washed. Chop the onion into cubes, carrots into strips, potatoes into circles. It is worth slicing the potatoes as thinly as possible, because we will not pre-fry or boil it
• Fry onions and carrots in oil, like frying for soup
• We spread our minced meat to the fried vegetables and fry it for about 15 minutes.
• We flavor the contents of the pan with spices, spices and salt.
• Lubricate the form with oil, spread the potatoes, minced meat, potatoes, minced meat and tomatoes, potatoes
• We put the container in the oven and bake until the potatoes are ready, about 35-40 minutes.
• Min. 10-15 before the end of the cooking process, beat the eggs with milk and pour the moussaka with this mixture. And in 5 min. - Sprinkle with shredded cheese
• Already serving the dish, it must be flavored with chopped herbs.

Moussaka with potatoes: recipe

Moussaka with potatoes turns out to be very satisfying, so most housewives prefer this recipe. Let's see how to prepare this delicacy.

We will need:

• Lamb pulp - 500 g
• Bulb - 1.5 pcs.
• Canned tomatoes - 300 g
• Eggplant - 1 pc.
• Potato - 4 pcs.
• Sweet pepper - 1 pc.
• Garlic - 3 cloves
• Butter - 2 tbsp. l.
• Milk - 250 ml
• Cheese - 50 g
• Vegetable oil - 3.5 tbsp. l.
• Flour - 1.5-2 tbsp. l.
• Spices, spices, salt - at your discretion

Let's start cooking:

• Wash the meat, dry it and pass it through a meat grinder
• Peel the onion and chop with a knife or blender
• Put the onion in a heated frying pan with oil, after 3 minutes. add minced meat to it, fry the contents of the pan for 15-20 minutes.
• We spread the tomatoes in the pan and season everything with salt, spices, mix, let it stew for about 15 minutes.
• Wash the eggplant, peel and cut into circles, sprinkle with salt to remove bitterness. In 10 minutes. wash the eggplant and fry in a pan until half cooked
• Peel the potatoes, cut into slices and lightly weld
• Wash the pepper, remove the core and cut into slices
• In a baking dish, pre-greased with oil, put the minced meat, potatoes, peppers and eggplant

Preparing the sauce:

• Put the butter in a container, melt it, add flour, mix the ingredients thoroughly. Pour milk, let the contents of the pan boil and thicken, season with spices, add salt if necessary
• Pour our moussaka with potatoes with this sauce and sprinkle the dish with chopped cheese
• We wait about 40 minutes while the dish is cooked in the oven

Moussaka with zucchini: recipe

Moussaka with zucchini is very popular, because zucchini is an affordable vegetable, and the taste of the dish with it is simply incredible.

Ingredients for the dish:

• Minced meat - 550 g
• Bulb - 1.5 pcs.
• Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
• Zucchini - 4 pcs. (1 kg)
• Potato - 2 pcs.
• Red wine - 150 ml
• Vegetable oil - 100 ml
• Spices, spices, salt - at your discretion

We will prepare the sauce from the following products:

• Flour - 2.5 tbsp. l.
• Eggs - 3 pcs.
• Hard cheese - 100 g
• Butter - 100 g
• A mixture of nuts (peanuts, almonds) - 50 g
• Milk - half a liter

All the ingredients are collected, let's start cooking:

• Let's start with the main ingredient. Wash zucchini and cut lengthwise into slices. Fry in oil until half cooked and transfer to a plate so that oil is glassed from vegetables
• Wash the potatoes, boil in their skins until half cooked, peel and cut into slices
• The onion should be peeled, finely chopped
• In a frying pan, into which we first pour oil, spread the onion, after 3 minutes. add minced meat, mix, fry for about 7 minutes.
• At this time, wash the tomatoes, remove the core and chop
• Now we spread the tomatoes to the minced meat, flavor it all with spices, salt and pour in the wine, mix and simmer until the liquid evaporates

We prepare the sauce like this:

• Melt the butter in a bowl, add flour to it, mix. Pour milk, flavor with spices, turn off the fire under the pan. Add pre-chopped mixture of nuts and cheese, mix. Crack the eggs into the sauce, beat the mixture

Assembling the dish:

• In a pre-oiled form, put the zucchini (half), potatoes, minced meat and all other zucchini. Pour the sauce, cook in the oven for about an hour.

Moussaka with rice: recipe

It's time to tell you about delicious casserole with rice and vegetables. This recipe is perfect for those people who are watching their figure or just want to diversify the menu with some kind of dish that does not contain meat.

We buy the following products:

• Eggplant - 4 pcs.
• Bulb - 2 pcs.
• Sweet pepper - 2 pcs.
• Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
• Rice - half a cup
• Eggs - 2 pcs.
• Wheat flour - 2 tbsp. l.
• Milk - 200 ml
• Vegetable oil - half a cup
• Spices, spices, salt - at your discretion

Cooking moussaka:

• Wash eggplant, peel, remove bitterness from them in a known way. Wash and pan fry
• Wash the rice thoroughly until the water is clear.
• Peel the onion and chop as finely as possible.
• Saute onion and rice for about 10 minutes. stir the ingredients all the time.
• Add about 300 ml of water to the rice, add salt, and cook until the water evaporates
• Tomatoes cut into slices
• Wash the peppers, remove the core and cut into slices
• In a pre-oiled form, put half the eggplant, tomatoes and rice, then all the peppers, again rice, eggplant, tomatoes
• Cover the form tightly with foil and send to bake for about half an hour.
• Beat the egg, flour, spices, salt and milk and get the sauce
• Fill after 30 minutes. sauce our dish and already without foil bring to readiness for about 20 minutes.

Moussaka with cabbage: recipe

We present to your attention an unusually tasty and healthy recipe. This dish is perfect not only for a family lunch or dinner, but also for holiday table. Such moussaka always turns out very fragrant and tender.

Required products:

• Pulp of beef, pork - 550 g
• Champignons - 350 g
• Cauliflower - 550 g
• Bulb -1 pc.
• Garlic - a couple of cloves
• Milk - half a liter
• Eggs - 4 pcs.
• Cheese -70 g
• Spices, spices, salt - at your discretion
• Vegetable oil - 3 tbsp. l.

Preparing a treat:

• We clean the onion and garlic and pass it through a meat grinder together with the meat, we get minced meat
• Mushrooms are cleaned, washed and chopped into slices, or we cut each mushroom into 2-4 parts
• Fry the mushrooms in vegetable oil, and after 5 minutes. add minced meat to it and fry the contents of the pan for about 15-20 minutes.
• Flavor the minced meat with the necessary spices and salt
• Let's get to the cabbage. We thoroughly wash it, divide it into inflorescences and lower them for 5 minutes. into boiling water
• We take a baking sheet, but rather a deeper baking dish and grease with oil
• Place half of the cabbage in a bowl.
• Then put mince
• And another layer of cabbage
• Beat eggs, milk and cheese with salt and spices. Pour moussaka with this liquid
• Cook in the oven for about 1 hour.
• Serve hot, however, in this case, the dish may crumble. It is better to let the dish cool a little and then cut it into portioned pieces.

Vegetarian moussaka with vegetables: recipe

There is no meat, milk and eggs in your diet, but you really want to try this dish? For you there great recipe vegetarian moussaka, which, by the way, is no less in demand than recipes that contain meat.

So we need to take:

• Potato - 3 pcs.
• Bulb - 1.5 pcs.
• Carrot - 1 pc.
• Sweet pepper - 2 pcs.
• Eggplant - 2 pcs.
• Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
• Zucchini - 1 pc.
• Spices, spices, salt - at your discretion
• Vegetable oil
• Garlic - a couple of cloves
• Vegetable broth or water - 200 ml

Cooking a dish:

• Wash eggplant, peel and cut into circles, which we cover with salt for 7 minutes in order to remove bitterness. After the procedure, do not forget to rinse the vegetables
• We clean the potatoes, wash them and cut into circles in the same way
• We clean the onion and chop it into rings or half rings
• Wash, peel and chop carrots in any way
• Rinse the pepper and remove the core from it. Grind in circles
• Tomatoes cut into slices, pre-washed
• Finely chop the garlic

Assembling the dish is very simple:

• Grease the form with oil, put potatoes, garlic, eggplant, onions, carrots, peppers and tomatoes
• Each layer must be lightly flavored with spices, salt and oil.
• Pour the broth into the container and put in the oven for 40-50 minutes. until vegetables are ready

It is important to say that the main vegetable used in this dish is eggplant. Other vegetables you can choose at your discretion. Some add celery, broccoli, asparagus, and even pumpkin.

Moussaka: recipe from Yulia Vysotskaya

Julia Vysotskaya needs no introduction. All hostesses probably know this sorceress of their business. That is why we decided to tell the recipe for this dish, which she uses in her kitchen.

We need these products:

• Beef pulp - 550 g
• Eggplant - 2 pcs.
• Red bulb - 1.5 pcs.
• Tomato paste - 1.5 tbsp. l.
• Fresh mint and parsley - 1 bunch each
• Butter - 1.5 tsp.
• Olive oil - 3.5 tbsp. l.
• A mixture of spices and spices: cumin, hot red pepper, black pepper, paprika, salt
• Cheese - 80 g
• Milk - 450 ml
• Wheat flour - 2.5 tbsp. l.
• Ground nutmeg - 5 g

Cooking moussaka:

• Eggplant should be washed and dried. Next, cut them into slices lengthwise, flavor with oil, spices, salt and fry
• Grind the meat with a blender or in a meat grinder
• We clean the onion and chop it in half rings and fry in a pan with olive and butter
• Season the onion with spices, salt and spread the tomato paste to it
• Chopped herbs (parsley)
• We spread the minced meat and parsley in a container with onions, fry for about 15 minutes.
• We take and grind the cheese. According to the recipe, you need to take Parmesan, but the cost of this product is high and, if desired, it can be replaced with any other hard cheese

We make the sauce like this.

• All dry ingredients are fried in a pan.
• Slowly pour the milk into the pan, stir
• As soon as the contents boil, remove the pan from the heat, pour the sauce into a plate and add cheese to it, mix

We collect the dish.

• Place the eggplant in a baking dish. You need to lay them out so that the sides of the dish are obtained from the slices
• Now we put minced meat there
• Pour the sauce into the mold
• We send it to the oven for half an hour
• We decorate the already prepared dish with fresh mint leaves.

Moussaka is the most interesting and delicious dish. Preparing such a delicacy is as easy as shelling pears, and the simplest ingredients are needed for the dish. Therefore, we recommend that you definitely try this delicacy. And one more tip: do not be afraid to try something new, add your own ingredients and spices, because you are cooking first of all for yourself. Bon appetit!

Video: Moussaka in Greek

When once again I get bored with my entire repertoire of standard family dinners, I point my finger at the sky, choose a country, read about its culinary traditions, find out what they usually cook as everyday food, simplify the recipe as much as possible and adapt it to ours. realities, and then I cook. New, fresh, unconventional and not boring. This time we drew it - and it turned out so great and charming that the family asked me to repeat it the next day, and then again - a day and two later. I doubt that I am ready to cook this dish so often, but the fact that from now on it will become a frequent guest on our table is a fact.

Moussaka is a multi-layered casserole that consists of eggplant, minced meat, bechamel sauce. Sometimes other ingredients are added to the dish - mushrooms, potatoes, zucchini. In one form or another, moussaka is found in many cuisines of the world, however, Greece is considered the birthplace of the recipe.

Ingredients:

500 g minced meat (classic - lamb, I took veal);

3 eggplants;

2 potatoes;

4 tomatoes;

1 st. l. tomato paste;

1 onion;

2-3 cloves of garlic;

150 g mozzarella;

500 ml of milk;

50 g butter;

salt, black ground pepper, nutmeg to taste;

vegetable oil for frying vegetables.

We cut the eggplants into plates, salt a little, leave for 15-20 minutes, then drain the juice, dry slightly and fry in vegetable oil on both sides until golden.

Cut the peeled onion into cubes, fry in vegetable oil until golden.

Fry the minced meat until cooked in another pan, mix with onions, add chopped garlic. Without removing from heat, add tomato paste, and then - peeled and diced tomatoes (I had mashed homemade frozen tomatoes).

We clean the potatoes, boil until tender in salted water, mashed.

We cook bechamel. Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pan. Pour the flour, mix, wait for a slight change in the color of the flour. Gradually add the milk, a few at a time, stirring each time until smooth. This is the key point: you need to stir the sauce until it is perfectly even, adding milk only after the previous portion is completely combined with the flour mass. At the end, add salt and a pinch of nutmeg.

If for some reason the bechamel didn’t work out for you, don’t be discouraged - just “walk” over it with an immersion blender, it will be great!

Layer eggplant in a baking dish mashed potatoes, chopped meat, bechamel, three cheese on top.

Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 30-35 minutes.