A lamb dish, Aubergine Moussaka but a lamb dish by any other name

/ celluloidrobot

There are meat dishes, then there are lamb dishes.

Just to, with little class, define the ingredients: a lamb is < 12 months old, a hogget is > 12 months old but with no permanent front incisor and mutton is older than permanent tooth. You are what you eat.

Roaming in the wasteland that is the space between the coasts, there are islands of difference that don’t seem to belong. A southern indian restaurant in wisconsin that was an oasis of genius, a greek place seemingly lost but thriving in Johannesburg, a vegan sushi restaurant in Jogjakarta indonesia. Cooking is like that, the real diplomacy of nations.

Ingredients:

  • Olive oil
  • 2-3 medium eggplants/aubergines sliced into 5mm thick rounds. Dicsard the ends.
  • 1.5 kg ground lamb
  • 1 large sliced yellow onion
  • 1 large tin of crushed tomatoes
  • Cinnamon ½ tsp
  • grated nutmeg ½- 1 tsp
  • Oregano ½ tsp
  • paprika / ras el hanout 1 – 2 tsp
  • 4 tbsp flour
  • 1-2 L milk
  • 2-3 eggs
  • Stock of choice

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 195˚C
  • lay the eggplant slices out on a non stick aluminium baking sheet
  • paint both sides of the egg plant with olive oil.
  • bake for 30-40 min until the aubergines is browned but not soft as an April afternoon. They should slide around the sheet.
  • Take the aubergines out of the tray and cool them on the bench top.
  • Fry the ground lamb in 3-4 tbsp olive oil until mostly browned
  • Add the onion and gently fry until the onion is soft
  • Add the chopped tomatoes and 1 cup stock
  • Simmer for 20 min
  • Add the nutmeg, cinnamon, paprika/ ras el hanout
  • slowly simmer and stir until reduced to a thick sauce
  • Add 1 glass red/white decent wine
  • Cool the sauce
  • Season
  • Assembly:
  • Add enough sauce to cover the bottom of a baking dish [20 x 20 cm] to a depth of 2 mm
  • layer the aubergine across the dish bottom as a loose layer [spaces are fine]
  • Add another layer of sauce
  • add a layer of aubergine. There should be 1-2 cm space above the last layer
  • repeat the assembly steps [last 5] until the sauce / eggplant/ FNW runs out.
  • Simple White bechamel sauce :
  • Melt 50 g of butter in 30 mL olive oil
  • stir in 4 tbsp flour and whisk.
  • pour in [hot] milk slowly while whisking with vigour/machismo.
  • keep doing the above to give 1 to 2 L sauce
  • break 2-3 eggs, whisk with a little of the bechamel and whsk into the sauce
  • remove it from the heat
  • Final assembly step:
  • Pour the greek white sauce over the assembled aubergines
  • leave 0.5 cm from the top
  • Bake at 190˚C for 1 hour or until nicely browned
  • let it rest for 10 min
  • Serve as a stack with a green salad and whatever takes your fancy.

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