Ingredients:

• Aubergines – 1 kg
• Vegetable oil – 160 ml
• Onion (large) – sliced finely
• Minced beef – 450 gms
• White wine – 1 glass
• Fresh tomatoes – 350 gm or tomatoes (drained of their juice and chopped) – 1400 gm
• Ground cinnamon – 1 tsp
• Ground all spice – 1 tsp
• Salt and black pepper – to taste
• Oregano – 1 tsp
• Grated parmesan or kefalotiri or gruyere choose – 25 gm
• Chopped parsley

For the Bechamel Sauce

• Butter – 80 gms
• Flour – 80 gms
• Warm milk – 600 ml
• Salt and white pepper – to taste
• Grated parmesan or gruyere cheese – 30 gm
• Egg yolks – 2

For the Topping

• Grated parmesan cheese, gruyere or kefalotiri cheese – 60 gms
• Breadcrumbs – 4 tbsp

Method:

The moussaka needs to be baked inside an oven. You need to use a roasting container, this can be either a square or an oblong and it needs to be around 25X25 cm or 39X28cm. now the best thing to do would be to spread your work over a span of two days. You can simply cook the meat a day before and your moussaka won’t suffer at all. Make sure that you don’t do this with the aubergines; they need to be friend on that day. You need to top and tail these, but make sure that you don’t peel them. You can rinse them and then cut them into lengthwise strips and them soak them in water which is salted for half an hour then rinse them and squeeze them and then drain them and pat them dry. Then fry them in vegetable oil and dry them on absorbent paper.

Then sauté the onions in the vegetable oil and add the meat to it till the lumps start to break down and the color changes. Then put the wine, tomatoes, salt, pepper and spices, cook for 20 minutes. To make the sauce melt the butter and stir the flour in then add milk and seasoning and stir continuously. Let this simmer for 10 minutes till it becomes thick and take the pan off the heat and add the cheese and egg yolk. Don’t let the sauce boil after adding this. This is a kind of thick sauce which will sit over your mixture.

Next you need to assemble everything. First the base should be covered with half of those friend aubergines and then the half of the meat mixture should be spread evenly on top of that and then it should be covered with the rest of the aubergines. Then you spread the remaining meant and cover it all up with the sauce. Then grated cheese and bread crumbs should be sprinkled over this. You need to pre heat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit and let this bake for around an hour till you see that a golden crust has formed. Let this stay for around 5 minutes before you start to serve it, this will help you cut it easily.