Moussaka

Here is another traditional recipe that I love.  In my family this dish is cooked more or less the same way except the cream sauce.  The cream sauce seems to be more common in Greek based recipes and this one I generally use is an adapted version of the Moussaka recipe from my The Complete Middle East Cookbook.  I wanted to write about this recipe a long time ago, but I didn't like the photos I took back then.  But it seems you can't take a good looking moussaka picture (If you don't believe me just Google Moussaka for images).  There is only few decent ones.  I just took these shots for you to give you an idea what it sort of looks like.  Despite the way it looks in the photos, it's one of my favorite dishes.  I only used aubergines here but you can also add sliced potatoes.

Moussaka

(Serves 5-6)

300 g minced beef

3 Aubergines (Peeled partially and sliced 1-1.5 cm (1/4") thick)

1 medium onion (chopped)

2 cloves of garlic (chopped or crushed)

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 cup of chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

1 tablespoon of chopped parsley

salt and pepper

Cream Sauce:

1 tablespoon of butter

2 tablespoons of flour

2 cups of milk

a pinch of nutmeg 

1 tablespoon of grated parmesan

1 egg

salt and pepper

1. Start with peeling your aubergines as described in the ingredients section.  In a large bowl, put some water and about a teaspoon of salt and leave the aubergine slices in this salty water for about an hour.  Dry them with a paper towel.  This process is not necessary but it is done so that aubergines don't absorb too much oil during frying. 

2. Next, put 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick pan and fry both sides of aubergine slices until they are light brown.  Put them on a plate until you are ready with the rest of the ingredients.  (Here you can use oil spray or brush the aubergines slightly with a little bit of olive oil as an alternative).

3. To make the meat sauce, saute the onions and garlic in a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil.  Add the minced beef and continue to cook.  Finally add the tomatoes, tomato paste with some salt and pepper.  When it's all done, take it off the heat and stir in the chopped parsley.  

4.  Make your cream sauce in a small sauce pan over medium heat.  Put in all the ingredients, except the parmesan, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  With the help of a whisker, keep whisking the sauce over medium heat until you have a thick sauce.  Take it off the heat and stir in the parmesan, nutmeg, salt and pepper. 

5.  Take a medium size casserole dish to layer up the moussaka.  Put a layer of aubergines at the bottom, then a layer of minced meat sauce over the aubergines.  Repeat the same process until you run out of the meat sauce and aubergines.  Finally, spread the cream sauce on top.  If you have some left over parmesan, sprinkle it over the cream sauce.  A little bit of black pepper on top and then you are ready to put it in the preheated oven (180° C/356° F) for about 45 minutes until you have a golden brown creamy sauce on top.  Serve it with rice, potatoes or with some nice plain yogurt. 

Aubergine Rice

Aubergine is my favorite vegetable on earth.  It's very tasty and you can make a lot of different dishes with it.  In the Turkish cuisine and in the Mediterranean kitchen, the aubergine has a very distinctive place.  It can easily be combined with any other vegetable, with cheese or meat.  I buy a couple of them every week.  They are kind of like olives to me.  I have to have them in my fridge just in case I run out of everything else.  Aubergines are always there to rescue me.  It was one of days where I didn't know what to cook.  Then I remembered my purple friends in the fridge.  I generally try to cook some rice or pasta or anything with grains to complete the meal for the kids.  Because mine love rice and pasta and pizza, just like all the other children.  This rice was a good idea to cook, especially because it combined vegetables and rice in the same dish and it was a success.
This actually is a typical Turkish rice (pilav), which I have learned from my mother.  When I was looking around for alternative recipes, I have seen that in most of them tomatoes were added to the rice.  I haven't used tomatoes here as I believe they will shadow the taste of aubergines here.

Aubergine Rice

(Serves 6 as a side dish)

2 Aubergines ( peeled partially in stripes and chopped)

4 tablespoons of olive oil

1 medium onion chopped

about 250 g (1.5 cups) rice ( I used long grain white rice here)

about 600 ml (3 cups) water

about 1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons of chopped parsley to garnish

Start with stir-frying your aubergines with the olive oil in a non-stick deep pan over medium-high heat.  Don't worry if aubergines absorb all of the oil in the pan.  They will release the oil after they are cooked.  When they are done, take them out to a plate.  Put your onions in the same pan and using the oil that is left in the pan saute your onions.  After the onions are cooked, put your rice in and add the water and salt.  Put the lid on and cook it for about 20 minutes.  Check regularly in between if there is still some water left in the pan.  Right before almost all of the water is absorbed, turn off the heat, add the aubergines on top of the rice, cover the pan and leave the rice to rest for about 10-15 minutes. When it's ready, garnish it with chopped parsley leaves and serve.