Best ever Moussaka - with a little bit of help!

Now, before going any further, if you've come here looking for the original version of my recipe for Moussaka and are aghast to find it has been replaced by this one - do let me know and I will reinstate it.  You see, in my opinion, this new recipe is such a totally different kettle o' lamb deliciousness, it quite outstrips the old recipe.  Although, having said that, this recipe carries an awful lot of the previous incarnation along with it - just with a few tweaks and twists that have made such a difference.  So anyway - to horse!  Or kitchen.  lol

You'll be wondering what makes the big difference.  Well, firstly, I've got a new way of preparing the aubergines that works so beautifully well.  Instead of brushing the aubergine slices with olive oil and having them absorb half a bottleful, I am now taking advantage of that wonderful thing, the low calorie cooking spray.  In my case, a 1 calorie coconut oil version.  Spray the tray, lay the aubergine slices on, spray each slice, sprinkle with salt and pepper and into the oven they go.  They come out beautifully toasty, sweet and soft without being greasy in the slightest - which of course, then cuts the amount of oil your Moussaka is dealing with.  Perfect.

Secondly, I've included some garlic.  Now don't go looking all horrified, what I'm looking for here is flavour and it's only one clove.  Some traditional Moussaka recipes ask for it, some shun it completely.  Believe me, it makes a difference so go for it.

My third big improvement is that I have been using a pre-prepared bechamel sauce, to which I add two egg yolks and a good amount of nutmeg, plus as much seasoning as is required.  Yes, I have a taste just to test how much seasoning to use.  Now if you're hale and hearty and able to make your own bechamel by all means be my guest and do so.  If, however, you're like me and a short cut to deliciousness can only result in your not feeling so trashed later on in the day, then buy some.  I heartily recommend Lidl's Italiamo Besciamella as being one that is a gorgeous texture and delicious flavour.  A great starting point for any white sauce!

Now comes the big discussion point.  To potato or not potato.  For me and for all that I love potatoes, they are not welcome in my Moussaka.  I reckon that potato was only included because the price of a) lamb and b) aubergines became prohibitive and to make the dish more of a meal, potatoes were introduced.  I can respect that - I've done things like that myself, over the years.  However, I can't help but think that a true Moussaka should be just meat (and sauce), aubergines and bechamel sauce with nutmeg & cheese.  However, if you're trying to feed a big family and sliced potatoes will help make your Moussaka go further, then use them.  (It helps to add them to the aubergines being baked in the oven to par-cook.  Makes sure they cook through in the Moussaka).

There are two ingredients that it is important you don't skip.  One is the wine - absolutely essential.  Two is the teaspoonful of mint jelly.  The sweetness of the jelly helps to round out the acidity of the wine and as we all know, mint and lamb are a combination made in heaven.

Now I've used Grana Padano cheese for my Moussaka, but that is by no means set in stone.  I would have used Kefalotyri if I could have found any, or Parmesan if my son didn't hate the stuff.  To be honest, I dare say a good mature Cheddar would do the trick as you don't use very much.  So, I shall leave the cheese up to your own taste - but don't leave it out!  It is essential for getting that beautiful golden crust on the finished article.

Yes, this recipe takes time and yes, it makes a prodigious amount of washing up, however you can easily combat both of those points by making the dish up to the point of putting it in the oven and set it aside (even overnight, if needs be!) until required.  (I make mine in the morning, ready for eating that evening).  You just pre-heat the oven and in it goes.  As for the washing up, well hopefully you'll have had time to deal with that in the meantime, making clean up after dinner itself a relatively simple matter.

Choices of things to serve alongside your Moussaka include garlic bread, chips (a.k.a. fries) and of course, the ubiquitous side salad or even better a Greek salad of tomatoes, cucumber, olives, red onion and feta cheese sprinkled with dried oregano.  Delicious.

Oh and another plus point (as if you needed another one), is that it freezes really well.  So make an enormous dish and freeze half for another day.  Can't do better than that!

MOUSSAKA (serves 4)

Ingredients : 

2 large aubergines, sliced thinly

low calorie cooking spray

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 large onions, sliced

1 clove garlic, finely chopped
500g minced lamb

1 tsp ground cinnamon

half a tsp dried thyme
2 vine ripened tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp tomato puree

1 tsp of lamb stock powder (or 1 lamb stock cube)

200ml red wine

1 tsp mint jelly
500ml carton of Lidl Italiamo Besciamella (or other equivalent)

2 egg yolks
1 tsp grated nutmeg

grated Grana Padano cheese for sprinkling.

Method :

Preheat the oven to 180degC/350degF/gas mark 4.

Line two large baking trays with silver foil and spray with cooking spray.  Place the aubergine slices onto the baking tray and spray liberally with cooking spray.  Sprinkle with sea salt & black pepper then bake for 20 minutes or until they feel cooked through when a knife is inserted. They should hopefully have some browned areas, which adds to the flavour.  Set aside to cool.

Heat the rapeseed oil in a large frying pan and add the onions & garlic. Cook gently for around 15 minutes, stirring often, until golden and soft. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the minced lamb to the pan and fry on the highest heat, stirring often, until browned and slightly caramelised. Remove some of the fat that will have accumulated (if necessary) and return the onions & garlic to the pan.

Reduce the heat to moderate and add the cinnamon, thyme, tomatoes and tomato puree.  Stir to combine and cook on for another 2-3 minutes.  Add the lamb stock powder or cube and the red wine.  Bring everything to the boil and cook briskly, stirring often, until the red wine is reduced by half. Season with the mint jelly, salt and pepper to taste.

Using a lasagne dish, layer the aubergine and mince, starting with mince.  You should have sufficient for three layers of mince and three of aubergine, finishing with an aubergine layer.

Tip the bechamel sauce into a bowl and stir in the egg yolks, nutmeg and some black pepper.  Pour the sauce evenly over the top of the aubergine & lamb mixture and level the top surface.  Sprinkle liberally with the grated Grana Padano cheese.

Now, at this stage, you can leave the Moussaka to one side until you are ready to bake it.  It will cope with being refrigerated until the next day, if you so wish.

Making sure the oven is pre-heated to 180degC/350degF/gas mark 4 and the Moussaka is at room temperature, bake the Moussaka for around 45-50 minutes, until the top surface is golden and the edges are bubbling.  Remove from the oven and allow to settle for some 5-10 minutes prior to serving.

Serve with chips (fries) or garlic bread and a side salad with olives and feta cheese.

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Ham & Apple Pie : Arthur Potts Dawson, you're a genius!

I can remember saying to a Twitter friend of mine, earlier in the week, that a good time to come round for dinner would (hopefully) be on Thursday, when we were having Arthur Potts Dawson's Ham & Apple Pie.

Well, owing to a miscalculation on the "time in which to cook it" front, it happened on Friday (so it's a good job you didn't show up, @JackKnightCooks!) - but how right was I, that it was going to be a goodie?  Ooooh yes.  A goodie and then some.

I chose to make this pie this week because it uses Bramley apples - and it is currently Bramley apple week.  However, just a quick look at the recipe will tell you that this stands the chance of being a very successful combination for use at any time.

The pie filling is a combination of ham, cheese and apple, all held together and seasoned by a béchamel sauce made with cream and a pinch of nutmeg.  Encased in a puff pastry shell, just the idea of it was making my mouth water.

The pie itself is a complete doddle to make.  The thing that I had forgotten - and what stopped me making it on the Thursday when I miscalculated my timings - was that you don't serve the pie hot.  It has to cool down and be served at either room temperature or cold.  In fact, I have since had a slice of it that I heated up in the microwave, just to see how it would be hot - and it was fine.  The reason you need to allow it time to "rest" (and thus cool down a bit) is because of the cheese and the béchamel sauce.  When the pie is fresh from the oven, these two ingredients are very fluid and - once it is cut - stand the chance of flooding out of the pie, taking the apple and ham with them.

It even looks great, unbaked!

I suspect, though, that if you allow the pie time to calm down - and if you've put a hole in the top to allow steam to escape, you can tell when it has calmed down as the filling subsides away from the pastry casing - it would be perfect to cut and eat with some light vegetables.

So basically, this is one very flexible pie.  It can be eaten hot with vegetables, or warm with potato wedges and baked beans, or cold with a salad or on a picnic.

The very best thing about it, though, is that it is completely gorgeous and moreish!

We rejected the parsnip mash & peas in favour of potato wedges!

I bought some puff pastry to make it with and because my pastry sheets were rectangular and not round, my pie wound up being rectangular instead of the "tourtiere" shape shown in the original recipe (which I found on www.lovefood.com).  It also wound up being completely enormous - and I only included one apple!  Goodness only knows how small Arthur Potts Dawson's apples must have been, as mine was the regular size for a Bramley.

I was also a little bit concerned about the pastry on the bottom of the pie cooking properly and not going all soggy, so I brushed a little egg yolk across it before I started to build the pie.  Goodness knows if that helped, but the bottom pastry cooked perfectly - so I can only think it must have done.  It is easy for pastry to be soggy when the first layer of filling is something squishy like the béchamel sauce.

Regarding the bechamel, I was glad that the recipe brought together a sauce that was quite thick and substantial, as I didn't want a river of pie filling as soon as the pie was cut.  I have had that happen in the past with meat pies that have contained apple and cheese - and it's not a good look!

So, the upshot of all this was a gloriously golden baked massive pie that was impressive to present at the table and tasted every bit as good as it looked.  You can't ask for more than that!

I have detailed below how I made the pie, but do please feel free to go to the original recipe and make it from that.  The only things that differ are the quantities of ingredients.  The method is exactly the same.

HAM & APPLE PIE   (serves 6)

Ingredients :

25g butter
25g flour
150ml milk
50ml double cream
a pinch of sea salt
a pinch of black pepper
a pinch of nutmeg
425g puff pastry sheets (frozen, but defrosted)
1 egg yolk, for brushing
180g mature Cheddar cheese, grated
1 large Bramley apple (or 2 medium), cored, peeled & sliced thinly
500g gammon ham (I used Gammon rounds, chopped into small pieces).

Method :

1.  First make the béchamel by melting the butter in a small saucepan.  Stir in the flour and cook for a minute or so, then slowly, bit by bit, whisk in the milk and then the cream until you have a lump free sauce.  Bring to the boil, stirring all the time and season with the salt, pepper and nutmeg.  The sauce should thicken.  Once that has happened, set it aside to cool.


2.  Pre-heat the oven to 190degC/375degF/Gas 5.

3.  Take your pastry pieces and unroll the first onto your baking sheet.  With a sharp knife, lightly mark (without cutting through the pastry) a line some 3cm inside of the edge to mark the boundary over which the filling must not stray.


4.  Taking your egg yolk and a brush, lightly brush this boundary with egg to provide a sealant once the top layer of pastry is in place.


5.  Begin building the pie's filling by placing a blob of béchamel in the middle of the pastry piece and spread it out until the base is covered by a light coating.


6.  The next layer is a little cheese, followed by some ham and then the apple - which I recommend you place neatly in little rows, as it can easily get out of control and start sliding everywhere or poking up out of the pastry!


7.  Press down the three layers lightly, then season with a little freshly ground black pepper.


8.  Add small blobs of béchamel as the beginning of the next batch of layers and smooth them out as best you are able.  Follow this with the cheese, ham and apple, then press, then pepper - until you run out of ingredients or the pile is getting rather too big!


9.  Take the remaining piece of pastry - which should be lightly rolled out until it is slightly larger than the base piece - and lay it over the top of the filling pile.


10.  Gently press around the edges to form a seal between top and bottom pastry which will prevent the filling from escaping.  Take care not to pierce the pastry.


11.  I then crimped the edges like you would a cornish pasty, just to ensure the filling stayed where it was and to make an attractive edging.


12.  Cut a hole (or two) in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape when cooking, and give the whole thing a good egg wash with the remains of the egg yolk.


13.  A light sprinkle of black pepper over the lot, then place into the oven for 40 minutes (remembering to turn the pie if your oven is prone to cooking one side more than the other, after 20 minutes).  Once the 40 minutes is up, reduce the oven temperature to 150degC/300degF/Gas 2 and bake for 10 minutes more.


14.  Allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving hot, or allow to cool.


Printable version.
  

Hubby extends his repertoire - Lasagne!

He's got the job!  Hubby is now the family's official Lasagne maker.

After lessons in making a white sauce went so well, followed on by his cheese sauces being so well received, hubby decided to "go for it" and made his first Lasagne.


There were no corners cut, but he did adjust the recipe so that it didn't require so long to cook the sauce.  It turned out to be such a beautiful Lasagne that he instantly got the job of Lasagne & Moussaka maker.  He says that he can see areas where the recipe can be improved to suit our palates better, but in my opinion, this Lasagne was so gorgeous, I'd be happy if he didn't tinker with it.  However, you know what us cooks are like for tinkering with recipes to "make it our own" - it's a rare thing that a recipe gets past me without my tinkering with it in some way or another.

I was particularly impressed to find that he'd even done the infusing of the milk for the bechamel.  He was really intent on doing this right - and doing his first Lasagne justice.


Well, both Son & heir and myself had seconds - and if we had of had the room, would have crammed thirds in too.  Fortunately though, neither of us could find the room - so hubby claimed the leftovers for his lunch the following day.  Now THAT is testament to how good this Lasagne is, as it's a rare occasion that he indulges in leftovers!

LASAGNE AL FORNO  (feeds 4-5)  from Tamasin Day-Lewis

Ingredients :

2-3 tbsp olive oil

25g butter

2 large onions, finely chopped

3 sticks celery

2 carrots, finely diced

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 kg fresh minced beef

2 fresh bay leaves

225 ml milk

1/3 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

225 ml white wine

400g canned chopped tomatoes, roughly chopped

9-10 sheets pre-cooked dried lasagne sheets

90g parmesan, freshly grated

black pepper.

For the béchamel sauce:

600ml milk

2 fresh bay leaves

1 onion, halved

freshly grated nutmeg

60 g butter

60 g plain flour

black pepper

Method :

Just add parmesan and it's ready for the oven

1. Warm the oil and butter in a heavy-based casserole over medium heat. Add the onion and gently fry for about 5 minutes until softened and translucent. Add the celery, carrots and garlic, and cook for another couple of minutes, stirring to coat well then remove from the pan and set aside.

2. Add the beef and cook, stirring, until the beef has lost its raw pink look.  Drain any fat that has accumulated, then add a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper.  Return the vegetables to the pan.

3. Add the bay leaves and milk, bring to the boil, then simmer gently for about 10 minutes, until the meat has absorbed the milk. Season with a pinch of nutmeg.

4. Pour in the wine and let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add the tomatoes with their juice and stir thoroughly.

5. Cook, uncovered, at a lazy simmer with just an intermittent bubble breaking through the surface, for 3 hours or more. (Hubby didn't cook ours for anything like this long - he cooked it until the sauce was at a good consistency).  The fat will have separated (Hubby cooked our mince off until the fat separated to begin with - and removed it), but the sauce will not be dry. Taste and correct the seasoning.

6. In the meantime, make the béchamel sauce. Pour the milk into a saucepan with the bay leaf, onion and a generous pinch of nutmeg. Bring to just below the boiling point, then remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 15-20 minutes.

7. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. Grease a shallow baking dish.

8. Strain the milk and set aside.  The onion, herbs & spices can now be discarded.  Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Then gradually stir the milk into the flour mixture to make a thick smooth sauce. Season to taste.

9. Pour some béchamel into the baking dish - enough to just cover the base. Place a layer of lasagne sheets on top, followed by a layer of meat sauce, another layer of béchamel and a good handful of Parmesan. Continue with two or three more layers until both sauces are used up. Add a final sprinkling of Parmesan.

10. Bake in the oven for about 30-45 minutes until bubbling all over and a knife slips easily through the layers of lasagne.

Lasagne & chips

Serve with salad for the ladies and chips for the chaps.  Well, that's what happens in our house - you do what you want to!

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