Moussaka

I have this weird, Betty Crocker-esque obsession with casseroles.  It’s probably because -- much as I prefer my fruit wrapped in some type of crust or pastry -- I secretly prefer my vegetables covered in cheese and dripping with sauce.  Plus, there is the leftover factor.  Unless you're feeding a crowd (which is, admittedly, an excellent use for casseroles), invariably there will be lots of leftovers.  And I love leftovers!  My tendency is to stick things in the freezer and then forget about them, which might at first blush sound like a bad habit, but I actually like the element of surprise in defrosting some foil-wrapped mystery on a random Tuesday night.   

Unfortunately, many of my favorite casseroles are a gigantic pain the neck to prepare.  I'm thinking here of moussaka.  Moussaka is a fantastic Greek casserole with eggplant and potato layered with spiced lamb or beef and a cheesy bechamel.  But the preparation has been known to bring even the most intrepid cook to her knees.

Which brings me to my Big Eggplant Beef.  There are way too many recipes out there that insist that you first salt the eggplant for anywhere from twenty minutes to two hours to remove the bitterness, and then fry it.  It is fully insane to treat eggplant this way.  I’m not so much referring to the salting of the eggplant, although it has never tasted bitter to me, and I don’t see the point.  If, however, you taste a difference when you salt eggplant, that’s okay by me. 

But I have to put my foot down when it comes to frying eggplant.  First of all, and I don't want to state the obvious, but eggplant is a large vegetable, so you're forced to fry it in batches, a procedure that has been known to take hours, or possibly days.  And don't get me started on the grease spatters, which are guaranteed to make a huge mess of the kitchen.  But the real horror of frying eggplant is that the vegetable will soak up nearly unlimited amounts of oil.  Cups of oil.  Horrifying amounts of oil.  The oil soakage can be avoided by breading the eggplant, which is a fresh and entirely separate nightmare that is also to be avoided at all costs.

Fortunately, there is an easy and delicious solution to the Big Eggplant Beef.  Brush eggplant slices with olive oil and roast them in the oven.  Do the potatoes the same way.  Done and done.

The meat sauce and the bechamel must be made in separate pots, which is more dish dirtying than I ordinarily like, but both are relatively easy to prepare.  You can do that while the vegetables are roasting, and then bake everything together.  There is some effort involved, but without frying the eggplant, it's not such a slog.  And the results?  Magnificent!

MOUSSAKA

4 large eggplants

3 large baking potatoes

cinnamon

garlic powder

1/3 cup olive oil

For the meat sauce:

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 pound ground beef or lamb

3 Tbsp tomato paste

¾ cup red wine

1  tsp cinnamon

1 tsp oregano

For the cheese sauce:

3 ½  Tbsp butter

3  ½ Tbsp flour

3 ½ cups whole milk

2 eggs

½ cup kefalotyri cheese (or parmesan), plus another ½ cup  for the top

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.  Peel the eggplants and the potatoes, and slice the vegetables into roughly ½ inch slices.  Brush the eggplant and potato slices with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle cinnamon on the eggplant (trust me: it’s delicious) and garlic powder on the potatoes.  (You should have two very full sheet trays of eggplant and one very full sheet tray of potatoes, which you can fit in the oven all at once if you use all three racks.)  Bake until the vegetables soften and brown, about 30-45 minutes.  Flip them over about halfway through the cooking.  When you remove the eggplant and potatoes from the oven, reduce the heat to 350 degrees.

Meanwhile, make the meat sauce.  Add the olive oil to a hot pan, and sauté the onion with some salt until soft.  Add the meat and some more salt, along with garlic, cinnamon, nutmeg and oregano, until the meat browns.  Add the tomato paste, and cook until it darkens slightly in color.  Add the wine and cook it down until it disappears into the sauce.

For the cheese sauce:  In a pan, melt the butter and flour together until it forms a roux.  Add the milk, and whisk until it is incorporated into the butter and flour, and the sauce thickens slightly.  Season with salt and pepper.  Take if off the heat and let it cool a little, then whisk in 2 eggs and the cheese.

Assemble the moussaka:

At the bottom of a 9x13 lasagna pan, layer in the eggplant.  Sprinkle with half the meat mixture, then add the rest of the eggplant and the potatoes.  Sprinkle with the rest of the meat mixture, then pour the cheese sauce on top.  Sprinkle the remaining half-cup of cheese on top of the moussaka, and bake it in the oven at 350 until it is bubbling and the top is brown, about 45 minutes.  Let it sit for 15 minutes to settle before cutting and serving.

Serves a crowd.