Anna's Mousakka

As a mini celebration of me moving house Anna and Edwin created a fantastic mousakka. It's a cross between Edwin's skiworld recipe and Anna's mother's recipe. The result was fantastic. I'm looking forward to plenty more of this!



Here's Anna's recipe courtesy of Mother Railton.

"Ingredients

Ragu Sauce

Lamb Mince (1 kg)
4 Aubergines
Onion
Garlic
Peppers
Heaped tbl spoon Oregano
1 can Chopped tomatoes
1 heaped tbl spoon tomato puree
Salt/Pepper
Red Wine

Optional
Mushrooms
Courgettes

Béchamel

Plain flour
Butter
Milk
Nutmeg
2 large eggs

Start off by frying the lamb mince in olive oil – when all the meat is browned put to one side to let the fat rise – which will later be drained off.

Slice the aubergines into 1cm wide slices- lay on a dish and salt. Leave for 15-20 mins. Wash off the salt and lay to one side to dry. They do shrink so I would suggest doing more than you might expect to need.

Next fry onions/garlic/peppers/courgettes etc add the chopped tomatoes/tomato puree/red wine and then add the lamb back in.

At the same time fry the Aubergines quite gently – this will need to be done by a batch process – when you have fried one batch I suggest you put them in the oven on grill to keep them warm and to allow them to crisp up slightly.

Once all the aubergines have been done- build up the dish like you would a lasagne – I ten dto start with aubergines on the bottom layer and finishing with aubergines on top.

Pop this in the oven on medium-high heat and start on the béchamel sauce.

Béchamel

Melt Lots of proper butter in a pan (a slab 1 ½ inces wide) gently sieve flour in and continue to stir until it has formed an almost cookie dough texture. Slowly add the milk whilst stirring until it is a suitable thickness - grate in about half a block of cheese and half a whole nutmeg.

Beat 2 large eggs in a mug and add to the sauce. This will help it rise so the more air you can add into the sauce the better – I would recommend a quick whisk at this stage,

After 20 mins remove the base dish from the oven pour over the sauce - grate some more nutmeg over the top and then pop under the grill for 10-15 mins.

DO make sure you watch it though- as my sauce burnt under the grill and it will catch very quickly. If it does burn- just brush some olive oil over the top!"