An Easy Greek Moussaka recipe

Today we are looking at making the traditional Greek dish Moussaka, there are various ways of making this dish but we have gone with Aubergines and a lighter topping but more are available. The inspiration for this dish came after one of our Directors went on our Greek Islands Cruise and told us about how amazing the Moussaka was in Santorini, Greece.
What you will need to make this traditional Greek Moussaka :
About 500g of lean minced (ground) lamb
2 Aubergines, large in size
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 heaped tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 rounded tablespoons tomato purée
3 fl oz (75 ml) red wine
Salt and ground black pepper
For the yogurt topping you will need:
150ml Greek yogurt
1 medium egg, beaten
50g feta cheese
25g grated parmesan
How to cook it
Pre-heat your oven at 180ºC / 350ºF / Gas 4
First you need to get rid of the high water content and concentrate the flavor of the aubergines.
Dry fry the Lamb until Brown and remove the fat from the lamb before layering into the Moussaka.
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in to a frying pan and fry the onions, garlic and thyme, without colouring, for about 10 minutes.
Add the minced lamb back in and mix in the parsley, cinnamon, tomato purée and red wine and mix.
Cook for around 20 minutes
Prepare the yogurt topping –
Put the yogurt with half of the cheeses along with the beaten egg and add ground pepper.
Presentation
Line the bottom of a casserole dish with slices of aubergine, then add the meat over the top then spoon over some of the meat mixture. Build the layers of the Moussaka up until all the meat and aubergine has been used.
Cover with the topping mixture and add the remaining cheese and bake in the oven at 180ºC / 350ºF / Gas 4 for about 1 hour until golden and bubbling.
Stand the Moussaka for around for around 25 minutes before serving this will assist in retaining the shape when you serve it.
Serve the Moussaka with a green salad and crusty bread
Image courtesy of Flickr user – avlxyz