{"id":1277,"date":"2012-04-15T14:27:32","date_gmt":"2012-04-15T14:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/?p=1277"},"modified":"2021-03-08T15:40:48","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T22:40:48","slug":"mousaka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/mousaka\/","title":{"rendered":"Moussaka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/mousaka.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium aiif12112\" src=\"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/mousaka.jpg\" alt=\"mousaka\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\"><\/a>Moussaka is kind of a lasagna casserole very popular in the Egyptian, Arabic, Greek and Turkish cultures.<\/p>\n<p><strong>INGREDIENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For the Meat layer<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 LB ground lamb<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 LB ground beef<\/li>\n<li>1 tsp EVOO<\/li>\n<li>1 TBL butter<\/li>\n<li>1 medium sweet onion &#8211; chopped fine or minced<\/li>\n<li>2 cloves garlic &#8211; finely chopped or grated<\/li>\n<li>1 carrot &#8211; grated<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 tsp ground cinnamon<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 tsp ground allspice<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 tsp thyme<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 tsp coriander<\/li>\n<li>red pepper flakes<\/li>\n<li>1 TBL tomato paste<\/li>\n<li>1 bay leaf<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 C TBL red wine<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 C beef stock<\/li>\n<li>1 TBL crushed oregano<\/li>\n<li>1 (16 oz) can whole San Marzano tomatoes &#8211; crushed<\/li>\n<li>Kosher salt and ground black or white pepper to taste<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Other Elements<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 large eggplant &#8211; peeled and sliced into 1\/2 inch thick slabs<\/li>\n<li>2 TBL grated Parmesan cheese &#8211; for bottom of pan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>For the Bechamel Cheese Sauce<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>4 TBL butter<\/li>\n<li>4 TBL (1\/4 C) flour<\/li>\n<li>1 1\/2&nbsp; C milk<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 C plain yogurt<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 C grated Parmesan or Gruyere cheese<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 C grated Provolone cheese or 2 oz goat cheese<\/li>\n<li>2 egg yolks, beaten\n<ul>\n<li>Stir just to dissolve\/melt<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>STEP BY STEP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This has a lot of steps, but is very straight-forward.&nbsp; Don&#8217;t be put off by the complexity.&nbsp; It is not.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Preheat oven to 375\u00ba<\/li>\n<li>Brush your eggplant with EVOO, then put into your oven for 15 minutes to soften &#8211; DO NOT UNDERCOOK<br \/>\nYou can let this cook as your oven comes up to heat.&nbsp; No need to preheat.<\/li>\n<li>Butter your baking dish and sprinkle 2 TBL of your Parmesan cheese on the bottom<\/li>\n<li>Add half your chopped onion on top of that.<\/li>\n<li>Brown your ground lamb and beef while the eggplant is cooking<\/li>\n<li>When browned, add the rest of your onion and carrot in with the meat<\/li>\n<li>In about 4 minutes, add your garlic in with the onion and cook another two minutes<\/li>\n<li>Add the rest of your spices, and then deglaze with red wine and beef stock<\/li>\n<li>Let it reduce for a few minutes, then add your crushed tomatoes and simmer uncovered for 15-20 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>While this is simmering, layer your eggplant over top of the onion in your baking dish<\/li>\n<li>Start your Bechamel in a small sauce pan by melting the butter over medium heat<\/li>\n<li>Add flour and cook till the flour starts to clump and brown<\/li>\n<li>Add milk slowly, whisking constantly until most of the clumps have been absorbed.<\/li>\n<li>Add the remainder of your cheese to the sauce and cook until it starts to bubble, then remove from heat<\/li>\n<li>Whisk together your yogurt and egg yolks, then temper your milk into your yogurt.<\/li>\n<li>Spread your cooked meat over the eggplant<\/li>\n<li>Pour the cheese sauce over the meat.<\/li>\n<li>You can even do this in two layers if you wish<\/li>\n<li>Bake at 375\u00ba until the cheese sauce begins to bubble and brown a little bit ( 40-45&nbsp; minutes )<\/li>\n<li>Remove and let cool 10 minutes before cutting and serving.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>NOTE:&nbsp; Using Gruyere cheese gives this a very nice depth of flavor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moussaka is kind of a lasagna casserole very popular in the Egyptian, Arabic, Greek and Turkish cultures. INGREDIENTS For the Meat layer 1 LB ground lamb 1\/2 LB ground beef 1 tsp EVOO 1 TBL butter 1 medium sweet onion &#8211; chopped fine or minced 2 cloves garlic &#8211; finely chopped or grated 1 carrot &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/mousaka\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Moussaka&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[158,171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-casseroles","category-world-cuisine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1277"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21378,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277\/revisions\/21378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grandpacooks.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}