Cooking in Greek: moussaka with eggplant

Moussaka Came to us from Greece. True, the authorship of this dish is contested by a number of Mediterranean countries: Turkey, Macedonia, Bulgaria and even Moldova, which is close to us. But the classic moussaka - with eggplants, lamb, tomatoes, cheese sauce - is still considered a traditional Greek food. In other countries, this dish is prepared with potatoes or rice, with white cabbage or cauliflower. There is even a vegetarian recipe for moussaka - without meat. But today we will talk about a classic Greek dish.

So, the ingredients ... And already at this preparatory stage we face certain difficulties. Greek moussaka with eggplants is cooked with mutton, parmesan and olive oil, but we do not get these products, or they are very expensive. Therefore, let's go on a compromise, although gourmets and contemptuously wrinkle their nose. We replace mutton with any meat that can be bought, olive oil for sunflower, and Parmesan for hard cheese "Rossiisky".

We take three medium eggplants, we cut them with washers thickness of a centimeter and abundantly salt. Leave it for half an hour. During this time, a close relative of the poisonous nightshade will give all his bitterness. If your moussaka with eggplant will be with whole meat, but not minced meat, its pieces should be slightly repulsed. After that, we wash the "blue" under running water. In a frying pan, we warm up the vegetable oil, eggplant bread in flour and fry from both sides until a ruddy crust appears. Ready-made washers are piled on a kitchen towel or in a colander to stack excess fat.

Two bulbs finely shinkem and also passeruem in oil. If you have a plan of moussaka with eggplant and minced meat, it's time to use this last ingredient (half a kilo). It needs to be fried quite a bit, about ten minutes. But it should be actively interfered with, so that he does not gather in lumps.

If you have whole meat, cut it into small pieces (as for beef Stroganoff) and also grill until half cooked.

One large or two medium tomatoes are scalded with boiling water and peeled. Cut tomatoes into small cubes and add them to meat or minced meat. Sprinkle the contents of the frying pan with chopped three cloves of garlic and fresh herbs of basil and parsley, salt and spices. We extinguish seven minutes. Pour a glass of white wine and continue to cook under the lid for another 10 minutes.

Musaka with eggplant is impossible without cheese sauce. We will now deal with them. First three small, "on gunpowder, 150 grams of hard cheese. Then, in a half glass of milk, beat the egg. On the frying pan in two tablespoons of oil, lightly ruminate the same amount of flour. We pour in the milk-egg mixture and, without interruption, stirring, boil until thickened. Finally, pour the cheese, stir until homogeneous and remove from heat. Season the sauce with salt, greens and spices.

The final step is to mix the ingredients in the baking dish. First lay out a half of the pieces of "blue". We place on them a smooth layer of minced meat, fried with vegetables. Next - again the eggplant and again the meat mass. Now fill in the sauce. The oven is heated to 180 ° C. Musaka with eggplant is baked for about half an hour until the top is covered with a beautiful crust.