How to make
Here's an elaborate recipe that yields one hell of a dish. Shop for the ingredients on Friday, cook it on Sunday! It's called Moussaka but it's no typical, run-of-the-mill Moussaka. Be sure to give yourself about 2 hours for it. Don't stress out, this dish is definitely worth it. And now, roll up your sleeves.
Cut the eggplants into round slices, 1/4 thick. Salt them lightly and leave them on a towel to dry on both sides. Chop the zucchini into even thinner slices. Do the same for the potatoes.
Now pay close attention! Heat a pan (a Teflon one is best). Pour oil in a bowl , dip your fingers in it, smear the eggplants with it and braise them in the pan. The reason for this is because if you begin to fry them directly in heated oil, they'll absorb it and turn out heavy, fatty, non-dietary and... non-economical.
When it comes to the zucchini and potatoes, things are quite different. Braise them in oil but just enough so that they brown on one side. Salt the vegetables lightly.
Braise the onions in a little oil. Then braise the mince with them, add the paprika, salt, black pepper, savory, dill and parsley.
Now comes the easiest part.
Arrange a row of potatoes in an oven dish, sprinkle with mince, then a row of eggplants, sprinkle with mince again, a row of eggplants and so on until you run out of ingredients. Pour in about 1 1/2 - 2 cups water and put it to bake. Once it heats up, cover the top with aluminum foil so the top doesn't burn. Toward the end of baking (after about half an hour, although it depends on the oven; with the temperature at around 410°F (210 °C)) add the tomatoes.
The reason for this is to prevent the tomatoes from hardening the potatoes, as they tend to love to do.
After 10 min., it's time for the next step. It's called a TOPPING. It's so complex, it took me 20 years to learn how to make it. Beat the eggs with a whisk, add the yoghurt, whisk again, add the flour, baking soda and salt and continue whisking until you get a homogeneous mixture.
Pour this topping over the moussaka and watch how it puffs up through the oven door. Once it turns golden brown, turn the oven off but don't open it so it doesn't deflate. Only once it cools (don't let it turn ice cold of course) should you take it out and serve.
Here's the fun part about all this. You can cook this entire moussaka with raw vegetables (when not using potatoes). In other words, you don't have to fry them like you did here. Also, instead of making a topping you can garnish the ready moussaka with Bechamel sauce.
