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[Bentley]

A friend gave me the recipe for this dish that another friend make for his birthday! He was a flight attendant, so has eaten in various countries including Greece and says this is the best he has ever had.  To the best of my recollection, I have never had it.  The Bug has done nothing to my sense of taste, but for the last 48 hours, I have had no desire to eat anything.  Not nausea or anything like that, just simply not hungry.  And not to make light of this virus, but it would be fine with me if that side effect stuck round for many months.

The "sweating" of the eggplant!

[hughver]

Moussaka is one of the best casserole dishes that I fix often. Mine is topped with low fat béchamel sauce and I use the same meat sauce that I use for pasta along with sliced potatoes, zucchini and egg plant

[Kristin Meredith]

Hamburger, onions and garlic in first photo.  Second is diced tomatoes, tomato paste, lots of spices, bay leaves, honey and water. Now simmering.

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[hughver]

AS has happened many times before, being inspired by a post here, I've just started preparation of my version of moussaka. I'm using half and half ground beef and pork. this time I'm using 2 lbs. of each since that's the way I froze them. I'll freeze some of the meat sauce for pasta next week.

[Kristin Meredith]

Post some your prep and final photos in this thread hughver.  Would love to see your dish.

[hughver]

This is the start.

[pmillen]

I'd never heard of Moussaka and like Hugh I decided to make it.  So I went to the Internet.  There are soooo many recipe variations.  I would find it helpful if someone would post or direct me to their favorite recipe.

[hughver]

Paul,

this is where I started 15-20 years ago. https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/hearty-moussaka-with-low-fat-white-sauce-4989   Eventually I substituted my own meat sauce for the one in the recipe.

[Kristin Meredith]

Final prep -- layering -- there was a layer of the oven roasted eggplant, then meat sauce, then another layer of eggplant, then the topping which was made with eggs, full fat yogurt, sour cream and topped with shredded parm and feta.

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[Kristin Meredith]

Final result.  I was really not that impressed with this recipe, but I am going to try again and make a few tweaks. I think we cut the eggplant too thin.  Also, because Bent doesn't have much of an appetite, I cut recipe in half and I believe the dish I used to cook it in was too big for a half portion.  So will try again, just to be fair. But I don't think I like some of the flavors -- allspice and cinnamon and honey in meat sauce maybe just aren't my thing!  I think hughvers idea of just using your favorite meat sauce is a better way to go.  Also, I think something like potatoes as a layer at the bottom would give a lot more structure.

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[hughver]

Looks mighty good to me!

[hughver]

Time to eat. But the jury is still out on success.

[Kristin Meredith]

Looks good hughver.  Do you have a picture of a plated piece?

[02ebz06]

Both look great!  Will have to give it a try.

[hughver]

No plated picture but it turned out eatable but not great. I'll take a picture of the leftovers. For one thing, I inadvertently left out the cinnamon which is crucial to the final flavor.  Secondly, it needed more potatoes (bottom layer) and béchamel sauce. I cut the eggplant 1/2" thick and potatoes and zucchini 1/4" using a meat slicer. my recipe does not call for peeled eggplant, but next time I'll peel them.