Lamb Moussaka

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 Medium-sized eggplants
  • To taste Salt flakes
  • To taste Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 Onion
  • 2 cloves Garlic
  • To taste Salt flakes
  • 500g Lamb
  • ½ inch piece Fresh cinnamon
  • ½ cup Red wine
  • 1 tbspn Tomato paste
  • 1 Lemon zest
  • ½ cup Flat leaf parsley
  • 1 tbspn Lemon thyme

Cheese sauce

  • 2 tbspn Parmesan
  • 50g Unsalted butter
  • 50g Plain flour
  • 1 ¼ cup Full cream milk
  • 1 pinch Nutmeg
  • To taste Freshly ground black pepper
  • To taste Salt flakes

Crust

  • ¼ cup Breadcrumbs
  • ¼ cup Parmesan
  • ½ tbspn Lemon thyme
Print Recipe

Preheat oven to 250C.

Cut eggplant into thin 1 centimetre slices. Brush slices with oil, season with salt and put in the oven for 8 – 10 minutes until golden – turning the pieces over halfway through cooking.

Saute onion at moderate temperature for 5 minutes – add the garlic and cook another 5 minutes. Put onion and garlic aside.

Reduce oven temperature to 200C.

Salt and brown meat in batches at a high temperature, you don’t want the mince to ‘boil’. Put all meat back into the pan and deglaze with verjuice and then wine at high temperature. Reduce to medium heat add cinnamon, onion and garlic, tomato paste, then add lemon zest, Tomato and Basil Sugo, parsley, and lemon thyme. Simmer for 20 minutes for flavours to combine.

To make the béchamel or cheese sauce, melt the butter in a pot and then sprinkle the flour over it, stirring well to combine. Continue to cook for until golden or until the flour colours slightly and it loses that raw flavour.

Remove from the heat and pour the milk in first and then the stock, slowly, at first, whisking continuously to avoid lumps. Return pan to the stove and continue to cook until thickened – stirring often until the liquid thickly coats the back of the spoon. Add the nutmeg and seasoning and lay a piece of plastic wrap or baking paper directly on top of the sauce so that it doesn’t form a skin. Set aside until needed.

To make the moussaka, spray an oven proof dish with non-stick cooking spray or a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Place a layer of eggplant on the bottom of the dish and then a layer of lamb mince over this. Continue to alternate between eggplant and lamb mince, finishing with a layer of eggplant.

Pour the cheese sauce over the eggplant.  For crust mix the breadcrumbs with the grated parmesan, Preserved Lemon and lemon thyme and generously sprinkle over the top of the béchamel. Bake in a preheated 200C oven for half an hour.

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