Greeks, like probably every nation inhabiting the Mediterranean, love to eat and love to feed others. This is one of those places where you are guaranteed never to go hungry. Traditional Greek cuisine mainly uses fresh, local ingredients such as seafood, eggplants, tomatoes, olive oil, lemon juice, various types of fish and meat, as well as grains.
A typical example of rich Greek cuisine is undoubtedly moussaka. One of the most delicious and popular dishes in this country consists of layers of fried eggplant, tomatoes and minced meat, sometimes a layer of sliced potatoes is also added.
Here is the recipe for this delicious Greek dish
Ingredients
- 500 g leaner minced meat: beef, veal or mutton
- 1 large common onion – about 250 g
- 400 g canned tomatoes – whole or sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic – about 15 g
- 120 ml of dry white wine, less than half a glass
- 1 tablespoon of cooking oil
spices and herbs: a flat spoonful of cinnamon and sweet paprika; a teaspoon of oregano and sugar; a flat teaspoon of pepper; half a teaspoon of salt
- 50 g real butter – 1/4 classic cube
- 2 cups of milk – 500 ml
-3 tablespoons of wheat flour – up to 50 g
Preparation
Cut the eggplant into slices, soak in slightly salted water for half an hour. Then rinse and dry with a paper towel. Fry them in the pan for 3 minutes on each side, then remove from the pan and set aside to cool. Finely chop the onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a pan and fry the onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Add the minced meat and fry until it turns brown. Pour the whole thing with canned tomatoes, salt and pepper. We reduce the fire on the burner and wait until all the water evaporates. The moussaka dish also contains potatoes – we peel them and cut them into very thin slices. Fry in olive oil for 2 minutes on both sides
We preheat the oven to 180 degrees. We can turn on the hot air circulation, but it is not necessary. Grease an ovenproof dish with olive oil and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Layer the fried eggplants on the bottom, then the potatoes and minced meat. The last layer should be potatoes.
Mix Greek yogurt with eggs, spices, salt and pepper. Put the mixture on top of the casserole, crumble the sheep’s cheese and sprinkle with it, grate the emmental and sprinkle it as well.
Bake Greek moussaka at 180 degrees for an hour and 15 minutes. The dish is served hot.