Mousakas is probably the most popular main dish of Greece. Although it takes a lot of preparation, as its three main ingredients, vegetables, minced meat and béchamel white sauce, have to be cooked separately before putting them in the oven, it is a typical dish of traditional Greek cuisine at family gatherings and special occasions.
Ingredients
Mousaka
- eggplants……………………………………………………. 1 kg
- potatoes…………………………………………………….. 1 kg
- beef minced meat………………………………………… 1 kg
- salt………………………………………………….. ½ teaspoon
- a pinch of pepper
- a pinch of spice/herbs
- 2 bay leaves
- wine………………………………………………………. ½ glass
- dry onion………………………………………………………… 2
- olive oil………………………………………….. 5-6 spoonfuls
- Tomato juice
- Two peeled tomatoes cut in cubes
- grated kefalotyri (hard, salty, white cheese)…… 200 gr.
Béchamel white sauce
- milk……………………………………………………………. 1 lt.
- butter…………………………………………………….. 250 gr.
- flour
Preparation
- We slice the eggplants, fry them and leave them all night to dry.
- In a big pan we put ½ a glass of olive oil and sauté slightly the onion. We add the minced meat, salt, pepper, spice, leaves of bay. We sauté the minced meat well and pour some wine. As soon as the alcohol evaporates, we add tomato juice and tomato cubes. We add some water and boil for half an hour on medium heat.
- Then we put a layer of the fried potato slices on a baking tray and over it one more layer of the eggplant slices. As soon as the minced meat is ready, we pour it over the eggplants.
- We heat the milk in a pot and put in the butter to melt. As soon as the butter has melted, we lower the heat and add flour little by little. Don’t forget to keep stirring as you add the flour. When our béchamel sauce is thick, we pour it over the minced meat.
- If you want, you can sprinkle over some kefalotyri and bake it in the oven for about an hour at 180 C until the béchamel sauce turns light golden brown.
Enjoy!
