Today’s dish came from a suggestion made by my sister – a Greek dish! Before today, I had never cooked or even eaten moussaka before, so I was definitely excited to try it, but also nervous once I saw the amount of steps involved.
Moussaka is essentially layers of eggplant, potato (not all the time apparently), tomato-y meat sauce (typically made of lamb mince, but I used ground beef), and bechamel. Each component is not too difficult to make, but they do require attention and time which made this process pretty intensive for a weeknight meal. I used a recipe I found online and I’m happy to report that I was quite proud of myself for successfully making a beautiful bechamel, the component that I was most nervous about since I’ve only attempted it a few times before and was never quite that successful. Everything else was a cake walk in comparison, but as mentioned, took up time because of all the waiting around (e.g., waiting 30 minutes for the salted eggplant slices to do its thing so it won’t taste as bitter according to the recipe I used).
Watch me make this Greek dish on my TikTok!
The moussaka was sooooooo good! Of all the dishes I have cooked for this challenge, this is a close second to the beef wellington in terms of deliciousness. The meat sauce was so comforting and paired well with the slightly soft, but not mushy, potatoes with a very subtle eggplant flavor and creamy bechamel. I will say, the texture can be a little one note with mushy bechamel, crumbly ground meat, and soft veggies (although the potatoes had a nice firmness that wasn’t like eating mashed potatoes). Somehow, the more I ate, the hungrier I became – it was that yummy. Needless to say, I got seconds.
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