Amazing Moussaka Recipe

Hey, I'm John Kanell, and today on Preppy Kitchen, we're making a delicious moussaka. So let's get started. First off, we have to prep three large eggplants. We're gonna peel them and cut them lengthwise into half-inch thick slices. When I make moussaka, I like to use larger eggplants, like these Black Beauties. If you wanna use the smaller ones, that's fine. You'll just need more, about 1.4 kilos total. Eggplant is an amazing ingredient, but it does require some prep. You really can't use it just after slicing it. There's a lot of excess water in here, so we're gonna salt these and let them sit. But there are other things we can do in the meantime. Clear this up. Once peeled, slice your eggplants lengthwise into half-inch thick pieces. Traditionally, I think moussaka has eggplant. You could do substitutions, though. Some versions use potatoes. Yukon Gold would be nice for this. You could also sub in a summer squash if desired. The texture is, of course, gonna be different, though. I don't know what my Greek grandfather would think about that, though. My eggplant's all prepped. Grab two lined baking sheets, paper towels on the bottom, and we're going to salt these and let them sit. A nice, light salt here, just be even about it. The salt will draw the water out of your eggplant, so your moussaka will be pure flavor and not a watery mess. Flip the pieces over and salt the other side as well. Repeat your salting for the remaining pieces. Set your eggplant aside, 15 minutes, and then you're gonna flip them over for 15 minutes more. That's a total of 30. In the meantime, let's make the filling. The filling needs one large onion diced up. By the way, if you like my videos, go ahead and hit that subscribe button. There's two new delicious recipes every week. I think of moussaka as a Greek dish. I might be biased, since I'm part Greek. It's one of the most famous dishes in Greece, along with spanakopita and baklava. However, if you read a 13th century cookbook called a Baghdad Cookery Book, you would see it attributed this dish to the Levant. So, I think moussaka is popular kind of across the Mediterranean, and its origins are quite difficult to trace when you get down to it. I'll say it's very popular in Greece, and a lot of other places. All right, my onion's all diced up. About four garlic clove, you can measure with your heart. These could be minced up nice and fine, or you could pop them through a garlic press. My prep is all done. We're gonna make the filling now, so grab a large skillet, pop it over medium-high heat, along with a tablespoon of olive oil. That's a Greek tablespoon. Let your oil warm up so it's nice and shimmering in the pan, and then we can add the onion in. Onion goes in. You're gonna cook this for about five minutes, stirring somewhat frequently. You want the onion to get nice and soft, but not burnt. We're gonna cook our onions for about five minutes, stirring somewhat frequently, so they soften up and take on a little bit of color. If you stepped away for a second, or your stove is running hot and things start to singe, grab a quarter cup or so of water, pour that over, and it'll deglaze the pan and cool things down so things won't get too burnt. After five minutes, time to add your garlic in, and cook this for one minute while stirring frequently. This should smell delicious, but not get burnt. After this cooks for a minute, we're gonna add in one pound of either ground beef or ground lamb. Today I'm using beef, but you could use lamb. It's a little bit more authentic. Break this up into small pieces, and we're gonna brown it nicely. You could also use ground turkey or chicken. I would use the non-lean versions of those, and add some more olive oil in, because they just don't have that much fat. If you wanna make this vegetarian, you could use a plant-based substitute, or I could do a medley of finely chopped mushrooms. That'd be nice too. In my first cookbook, there's a recipe for a mushroom bolognese. So good, and it's the same idea. You could use mushrooms that have that nice, kind of like meaty texture, and they take on so much flavor when you cook them. At the 15 minute mark, turn those eggplants over. Water. Brown your meat for about six minutes, and depending on the cut, you might have a lot of fat in here. If you see a little pool of fat there, it's very important to drain it, because you do not want to have a greasy sauce. It should be flavorful, but have just the right mouthfeel. Not oily and greasy. Okay, my meat's browned. After six minutes of browning, it's time to add some flavor in. So, two teaspoons of oregano. Two teaspoons of sugar for a little bit of balance. One teaspoon of cinnamon, a lovely warming spice that's great in savory dishes, too. Three quarters of a teaspoon of salt. Half a teaspoon of black pepper. And one beautiful bay leaf. This pan has tons of brown bits on the bottom, so it's the perfect time to deglaze with half a cup of red wine. Half a cup. Pour that right in. This is looking much better already. It's time for 15 ounces of tomato sauce. Right in with the red wine. Stir this in and bring to a simmer. Then, once it's simmering, reduce to medium low, and we're gonna cook this for about 25 minutes, so it's nice and reduced. It's been 30 minutes, and my eggplants need a little bit of heat so they turn golden brown. If you wanted to, you could've waited 30 minutes, done something else, finished the eggplant, set that aside, and then start the filling, but I don't have time for that. Into a large skillet, one tablespoon of olive oil. While that warms up, you're gonna pat your eggplants dry, and you'll be cooking these in batches. It's just two minutes per side. They'll finish baking in the oven. You can see, salt and thyme really let that water express out of your eggplants, so they'll be flavorful but not watery. Also more floppy now, because the water's gone. Place your eggplants on. After about two minutes, give them a flip. Beautiful. After two minutes, we're gonna pop these onto our baking sheet with the paper towel removed. Add another tablespoon of olive oil, and repeat this process in batches until all of your eggplants have been cooked off. At some point, like when the eggplant's cooking, it's time to shred one cup of parm. I like doing this myself as opposed to buying the pre-shredded stuff, because it just melts more easily, and I know that there's no wood pulp in there. The last component for our moussaka is a beautiful, cheesy bechamel sauce. So grab half a cup of butter, pop that into a large pan or pot. We're gonna melt this up, and standing at the ready, I have four cups of whole milk, and I suggest that you warm it up. It's not great to make a bechamel sauce with ice-cold liquid. It should be warmed so it's nice and creamy. Once your butter's melted, it's time to add 2 1⁄3 of a cup of flour in. Sprinkle it over. You're gonna stir or whisk this constantly until it's lightly golden. Should be a minute or two. The cooking time really depends on your stove. This took less than two minutes. Now we're gonna gradually pour in our milk while whisking constantly. Work to break up any clumps of flour. Cook this for about seven minutes while whisking frequently until it's nice and smooth and thickened. Once your bechamel sauce is thickened so it can coat the back of a wooden spoon nicely, we're gonna add one cup of that shredded parm. Mix that in nicely. I've lowered the heat to. Half a teaspoon of salt. You can add more if needed. Every bechamel sauce needs a nutmeg, in my opinion, so a quarter of a teaspoon, and an eighth of a teaspoon of ground white pepper. You could use black pepper, too, though. Whisk this in until it's fully combined, and honestly, I took this off heat right now because my stove just runs hot and I didn't want anything to split. This is all folded in nice and smooth. It'll sit for five minutes, and then we'll add the egg yolks in. Does this recipe have a few steps in it? Yes, it does, but you can make all the components up to two days in advance, meaning bechamel sauce one day, the filling the other day, eggplants the day of if you want, and then just assemble and bake. Just keep these refrigerated until you're ready to use. Or, just like a lasagna, you could assemble it and chill it unbaked. Separate the yolks of three eggs. You can save the whites for something delicious, like a meringue. After five minutes, we're gonna add the egg yolks in and just give them a good whisk. Everything goes into the oven, so it'll bake off. You don't need to worry about cooking them right now. My eggplant is cooked, the filling has simmered, and this bechamel sauce is looking creamy and delicious. Let's assemble. While you're finishing your last component, and that could be the bechamel or the filling, depending on the order you did this, it's time to preheat your oven to 350, so it's nice and hot when you're ready to assemble. Your baking dish can be any shape as long as it's about three and a half quarts. I'm using a nine by 13 today. Adding a little bit of olive oil just to grease the bottom. Cover the bottom of the dish with half of the eggplant slices, and overlap slightly. And if you're watching in the UK, these are aubergines. It's time to sprinkle a quarter cup of panko breadcrumbs over the top of these delicious eggplants. Grab half of your filling, and we're going to spread that over the eggplant. So much concentrated flavor in this. We're going to add the remaining eggplant slices over our meat mixture. Another quarter cup of breadcrumbs over our eggplant. Now we can add the remaining meat mixture over that. You can see, it's like a delicious eggplant lasagna, basically. And your bay leaf is done. You do not need to put that into your moussaka. When I was little, my childhood house, I was so lucky, had a bay leaf tree, and it was amazing. Eight-year-old John did not appreciate that, but my mom did. Now you can pour or ladle your delicious bechamel sauce all over your moussaka. Just spoon that all over. We want to get some good coverage. This is a fairly classic take on the dish. There are so many variations from family to family and country to country. If you were making this in Turkey, it wouldn't really be layered, usually. It's more of a stew that you would serve with a pilaf. Also delicious, just different. Your moussaka will last five days in an airtight container in the refrigerator, or up to three months in the freezer. Once your bechamel sauce is on with nice coverage, you're gonna sprinkle a quarter cup of panko breadcrumbs all over the top. My moussaka is ready to go into the oven, 350, for about 50 minutes, or until it's golden and bubbling. You can also broil this for two to three minutes at the end to get a nice golden top. In you go. Allow your moussaka to cool for 15 minutes, then give it a slice, and just like that, it's ready to enjoy. That is creamy, full of flavor, and just plain delicious. I also love the crunch of the breadcrumbs on top. I hope you get a chance to make this amazing recipe, and if you like my videos, hit that like button and check out my Greek cuisine playlist.