Fresh Gingerpicked eggplant as the ingredient for this week’s menu swap. I love eggplant, but my husband is much less of a fan. I really have to hide it before he’ll eat it. This dish got a surprised sounding: “hey, this is good” from him. And it’s naturally gluten free!
Moussaka is a traditional eggplant based dish that is most commonly associated with Greece, but is found throughout the Balkans and Middle East. The Greek version usually consists of layers of ground lamb or other red meat, sliced eggplant and tomato, topped with a white sauce and baked.
The recipe I used was one that I found from FoodandWine.com, and is for a traditional Greek-style Moussaka. I made mine with ground lamb, but you could just as easily use ground beef or even ground turkey.
Moussaka
SERVES: 4
Ingredients:
6 tablespoons cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground lamb
1/2 cup red wine
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 1/2 cups canned crushed tomatoes in thick puree (one 15-ounce can)
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
Fresh-ground black pepper
1 eggplant (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
4 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
Directions:
Heat the broiler.
In a large stainless-steel frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over moderate heat. Add the onion and garlic; cook until starting to soften, about 3 minutes.
Add the lamb and cook until the meat loses its pink color, about 2 minutes.
Stir in the wine, tomato paste, tomatoes, bay leaf, cinnamon, allspice, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.
Brush both sides of the eggplant slices with the remaining 5 tablespoons oil and season with 1/8 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Put the eggplant slices on a large baking sheet and broil, 6 inches from the heat, until browned, about 5 minutes. Turn and broil until browned on the other side, about 5 minutes longer.
In a small saucepan, combine the cream cheese, milk, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of pepper. Warm over low heat until just melted.
Oil an 8-by-8-inch baking dish. Layer half the eggplant in the dish, then half the meat sauce. Sprinkle with half the Parmesan. Repeat with the remaining eggplant, meat sauce, and Parmesan. Spoon the cream-cheese sauce on top;broil until just starting to brown, 1 to 2 minutes.
Serve.
Filed under: Greek, dinner, eggplant, gluten free, lamb, main course, recipe | Tagged: gluten free, recipes
[...] for two people, and almost as cheap. Ground lamb is also on sale at times, and makes a great moussaka. The shoulder chops do have a lot more fat running through them (think marbling on a steak), but [...]