Recipe: Moussaka
I’ve got lots of favourite dishes but some are really special and moussaka is one of them. Why? Because moussaka reminds me of summertime at my parents’ house and because it’s a dish that we would eat once a year, when we had loads of aubergines in the garden and didn’t know what to do with them anymore. My Mum’s moussaka is that special!
Moussaka also reminds me of the day when Nicolas emailed my Mum to get her recipe and cook this dish to show me how happy he was to see me again after I’d spent a couple of weeks in France for my exams. Unfortunately he didn’t receive the recipe on time and chose a different one. His moussaka was yet delicious and even more special!
The recipe I’m about to give you is my Mum’s recipe, which I tried for the first time two weeks ago. Mine was not as good as hers and it takes quite a while to make, but it’s definitely worth the effort.
Moussaka
Serves 4-6 - Ready in 2 hours
Ingredients
Meat:
- 600g lamb shoulder meat
- 50g bread crumbs
- 4 tomatoes
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp flat parsley
- 2 egg whites
- 1 glass of white wine
- 1 onion
- salt & pepper
Aubergines:
- 1 kg aubergines
- flour
- olive oil
Bechamel sauce:
- 1/4 l milk
- 50g butter
- 20g flour
- 100g grated Cheddar cheese
- 2 egg yolks
- salt & pepper
Method
Mince the onion, garlic, parsley and meat together. Heat up a tbsp of olive oil in a large pan and brown the meat gently, adding a bit of water if necessary. Add the chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper and white wine. Cover and cook for 45 minutes on a slow heat.
When cooked, take off the heat and add in the bread crumbs and egg whites. Stir well.
While the meat is cooking, slice the aubergines, coat them with flour and fry them in olive oil on a medium heat. Drain on kitchen towel.
Because you cannot fry all the aubergine slices at the same time, this part of the recipe is quite long. I would say you need approximately 30 to 40 minutes with one pan. And if you let them drain on kitchen towel, they won’t be too greasy.
Once the aubergines are fried and the meat is cooked, butter a gratin dish. Put in it half the aubergines, then all the meat and on top the other half of the aubergines.
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C / gas 6.
You can now make the sauce.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the flour and stir well. Then pour in the milk while whisking. Once the sauce is homogeneous, take off the heat, add in the egg yolks and half the grated cheese.
Pour the sauce over the aubergines. Top with the remaining cheese and bake for 45 minutes, covered for the first 20 minutes.
Bon Appétit!
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This looks so delicious. I would love to make it; my family really likes lamb meat but I only make it once or twice a year. This looks like it would be a great treat for them.