Recipe - Moussaka

We've made this recipe once before and really liked it.  Last week we made it again to use up a pile of fresh tomatoes that were no longer quite so fresh.  The meat sauce got a bit more cooking and I added a bit more tomato paste and omitted the two tins (crushed & puree).  With our square lasagne dish, it fitted in well but we only used about 2/3 of the white sauce.  We had dinner 3 nights in a row from this dish and... it was delicious!

From Symply Too Good to be True

INGREDIENTS

2 medium eggplants, cut lengthways into 1cm slices

½ cup grated cheese

MEAT SAUCE

500g lean lamb mince

1 cup onion, diced

1 tsp crushed garlic (in jar)

2 tsp beef stock powder

2 tbsp tomato paste

410g can tomato puree

425g can crushed tomatoes

WHITE SAUCE

1 tbsp margarine

3 tbsp plain flour

2 cups skim milk

1 x 30g sachet Continental 4 cheese sauce

METHOD

Preheat oven 200 degrees

Generously spray frypan with cooking spray and cook eggplant slices until lightly browned.  Spray pan between each batch of eggplant.

MEAT SAUCE

Spray same frypan with cooking spray and sauté mince.  Drain off any liquid.  Add onion and garlic and cook 3 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients, bring to boil and simmer until beginning to reduce.  Set aside.

WHITE SAUCE

In a medium saucepan melt margarine, add flour and stir well.  Slowly add milk, whisk to avoid lumps. Stir continuously and once boiled add cheese sauce sachet using a whisk.  Set aside.

TO ASSEMBLE

Divide eggplant slices into 3 portions. Coat lasagna dish with cooking spray, place layer of eggplant slices on base. Cover with ½ the meat sauce then add another layer of eggplant. Top with remaining meat sauce, then last layer of eggplant. Spread white sauce over the top then sprinkle with grated cheese.

Bake 30-35 minutes.