Wednesday 26 January 2011

I Can't Eat it Fast Enough Moussaka!!

Today i made dinner for one of the biggest critic anyone can cook for, a two year old!!

My son is a good eater and eats most foods, I have always given him a wide variety of different foods, to get his taste buds use to lots of different flavours.

Tonight i made a Moussaka, its not that i haven't made one before, but i haven't given it to my son before.

What a reaction i got, he clapped his hands and done the Makaton sign for more, if i didn't feed it to him quick enough he was grabbing it off the plate. He ate a whole plate of it and then went on to help me eat mine.

So i think to say it was good would be an understatement!!




Preperation time 20 minutes
Cooking time 2 hours

Meat Sauce Ingredients

2 tbsp Olive oil
1 Onion roughly chopped
2 Garlic cloves finely chopped
1 kg Minced lamb
1 Tin of tomatoes
1 to 2 tbsp Ground cinnamon - I like to really taste the cinnamon so i use 2 tbsp.
2 tsp Ground cumin
2 tbsp Dried oregano
150ml Red wine
500ml Chicken stock

Firstly make the meat sauce.

Brown the mince in batches, don't over crowd the the pan or it will stew.
Remove from pan.
Add onions to the pan and saute for about 5 minutes till softened, add the garlic and saute for 2 minutes.
Add the lamb back to the pan, then stir in the cinnamon, cumin and oregano.
Stir in the tomatoes, turn up the heat and add the red wine and stock, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hr till the sauce is moist but not runny.

While the sauce simmers prepare the potatoes and aubergines.

3 tbsp olive oil
1 Large aubergines
4 Medium potatoes

Slice the potatoes and aubergines about 1/4 inch thick, brush with olive oil and griddle till partly cooked.

Now make the Bechemel Sauce.

50g Butter
50g Plain flour
1 pint Milk
150g Grated cheddar
1/2 tsp Grated nutmeg
2 Beaten eggs
Salt & pepper to season.

In a large saucepan make a roux with the butter, flour and milk, by melting the butter with the flour and cook out for 2 minutes, then gradually stir in the milk over a medium heat, till it thickens.
Take off the heat and stir in the cheese and nutmeg.

Quickly stir in the eggs a bit at a time, so they don't scramble. Stir until smooth.

In a large ceramic dish start to layer the potato, aubergine and meat sauce.
Start with a thin layer of meat sauce, then a layer of potato, then another layer of meat sauce, then a layer of aubergine, then more meat sauce, then a final layer of potato, finally pour over the Bechemel sauce.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, check after 30 minutes and if it starting to brown too much cover for the remaining time.


2 comments:

  1. It really IS absolutely yummy!

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  2. Yep, sure was delicious, even leftovers reheated for lunch were really good. The only downside is the little shrimp has most of the leftovers....

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