Place on a large plate or tray and salt and pepper both sides of the eggplant. Ideally you’ll want to let these sit and “sweat” out their water for about 30 minutes. If you’re in a rush (like I usually am) let them sit while you prepare the meat sauce (that usually gives me about 15 – 20 minutes).

 

 

Sweating the eggplant helps them from soaking up too much of the oil when you go to saute them. No one likes an oily eggplant. Ick.

 

 

 

Once they’ve “sweated” they’ll look a little gross, but thats okay.

 

 

Rinse off the salt and pepper and dry off. Heat oil in a large saute pan and fry the eggplant on both sides until they are lightly golden browned. Go easy on the oil since the eggplants are apt to want to soak in as much as possible. A little bit of it will go a long way.

 

 

Take the done slices and drain them out on paper towels and keep to the side.

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

 

Meat Sauce directions:

 

Your cast of characters for the meat filling is pretty simple. I did want to preface this part of the recipe with a warning. When it comes to spices, like most Pakistanis I cook and measure my spices using ”andaaz”. Andaaz essentially means that we wing it based off experience. A pinch here a smidge there. So I’ve tried my best to figure out measurements but keep in mind, you may want/need a little extra cinnamon here or a little less there.

 

 

 

Start by melting your 2 tbsps of butter in the oil at a medium to low heat. You don’t want the butter to start browning. As the butter melts, drop in the bay leaf. I’ve found that I really detest the meaty/gamey smell of meat so I use a bay leaf while cooking the meat to help get rid of some of that. Let the bay leaf saute for about a minute, again on low heat. You don’t want to have the bay leaf turn brown, it starts tasting burnt and bitter.

 

 

 

 

Add in the onions and saute them around until they turn glassy and translucent.

 

 

 

And then add in your hunka hunka chunk of meat (sorry, couldn’t help myself). At this point you can turn the heat up to medium and start mixing and browning the meat. Break it up as much as you can. the small the pieces of meat, the better.

 

 

As the meat has started browning and releasing some of its fats and juices, add in the chopped garlic, salt, cinnamon powder, garlic powder and pepper . I usually add the chopped garlic in at this point rather than the beginning so as to make sure I don’t burn the garlic. Bad things happen when garlic burns. Keep sauteing and mixing it all up. This will give the spices a chance to mix in with the meat and cook a bit, adding to the depth of their flavor.

 

 

Once the meat has completely browned, add in all 6 ounces of your tomato paste. Why so much? Because I like it tomatoey and saucy – you may prefer it less so. However much you decide to put in, make sure you don’t use tomato paste that comes seasoned or has herbs in it. You want good ol’ plain tomato paste. Mix the paste in and continue to stir. DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR 6 OUNCE CAN!!! Trust me on this, its important.

 

 

After about a minute or two, your meat should look reddish brown with the tomato paste and completely browned and cooked. Add in the handful of chopped parsley. At this point you’ll want to give the meat a good sniff. Go on and sniff it, being careful that you don’t end up steaming your face off. I say sniff, because you should be able to smell a hint of cinnamon in the meat. If you can’t, go on and add in some more cinnamon till you can smell it without it being overbearing.

 

 

Remember that relatively empty 6 ounce can of tomato paste? Fill it up with water, and using a spoon get whatever bits of paste are leftover on the sides of the can, and toss it into the meat sauce. Let the sauce come to a boil after adding the water and lower the heat to a simmer (no lid!) and let it cook down.

 

 

The meat sauce will be done when you see the oil floating at the top of the meat like above. Usually while the meat is cooking, I start on the bechamel sauce and that gives me enough time to get both things cooked and ready.

 

Bechamel Sauce directions:

The bechamel sauce starts off with a basic Roux. If you aren’t familiar with making the base for a basic white sauce, this is it.

 

 

In a saucepan on low heat, melt down your 4 tbsp of butter. Again, you don’t want the butter at the point of browning but just nice and melted.

 

 

Once its melted, drop in your 4 tbsp of flour and start whisking immediately. You want to incorporate all of the flour in to the butter, without letting the flour start frying. Keep the heat on low so as to prevent the flour from cooking. And KEEP WHISKING.

 

 

As the flour comes together into the butter it should start resembling a golden paste and should start getting thicker. Don’t worry, this is exactly what you want to happen. As it starts getting thicker, you want to grab your milk.

 

 

SLOOOOOOOOOWLY drip the milk into the saucepan with one hand, as you continuously whisk with the other. This step is important because as soon as you drop the milk in, the mixture will start to clump up and you want to keep the sauce as smooth as possible. Continue this until you’ve used up all the milk. Let the sauce cook until its good and thick. You’ll know its ready when you take a spoon and the sauce VERY SLOWLY slides off the spoon. It shouldn’t be stuck to the spoon.

 

If on the off chance your sauce got too thick, add in some milk to even it out.

 

 

Once the sauce is ready, throw in all of your crumbled feta cheese and let it slowly mix in.

 

 

Look at all that cheesy ooey gooey goodness. Try to hold back from tasting it just yet… trust me, once you start, there is no stopping and next thing you know – no bechamel sauce. Womp womp.

 

 

As the feta cheese is melting, add in your salt, pepper, garlic and nutmeg powder. NOW taste it. Just a teeny tiny taste though. That goodness is gonna go straight to my thighs and its so so worth it.

 

Alright, so now you have your eggplant, meat sauce and bechamel sauce ready. Now comes the fun part. Assembly.

 

These lasagna leaves box is your friend. It totally takes out the added step of boiling the pasta first. Get them. Love them. And you’re welcome:

 

 

I used an 8×8 square glass pan to assemble my moussaka and everything fit in there perfectly.

 

 

I usually throw a bit of the meat sauce and bechamel at the bottom to make sure the pasta doesn’t burn up at the bottom and then I start assembling. Its really up to you how you layer, I’ve just put up pictures below to show how I do it.

 

 

Mix up the bechamel and meat sauce.

 

 

Lay on the pasta

 

 

Add on a layer of meat sauce

 

 

half of the eggplants

 

 

more bechamel sauce

 

 

More pasta and then continue layering.

 

 

I end with meat sauce and bechamel sauce at the very top. Toss into the oven and wait for about 40 – 45 minutes.

 

At around 40 minutes poke the moussaka with a knife to make sure the pasta is cooked through. If you feel resistance give it another 5 – 10 minutes.

 

When the moussaka is ready it should come out looking like so:

 

 

um… ignore the overly browned bits at the edge. I oopsed and set the oven a little higher than I was supposed to. But hey, it still tasted AWESOME!

 

 

Hope you guys enjoy this as much as we do!

 

 

happy nomming!