LENTIL AND OSSO BUCO 'MOUSSAKA'
Until the day I go to Greece and order a Moussaka, I won't be able to tell you I entirely know what a moussaka actually is, but in my world it's as if a lasagna and a Brazilian 'escondidinho' (essentially a shepherds' pie without the pie crust) had a baby.
Every time I make moussaka it comes out a little differently (like most of my food because I like to change things up so much) so here is a nice version of my moussaka that can easily become more or less meaty (hey vego friends, I hear ya!).
Vegetarian and Vegan alternatives in the CHANGE IT UP! section.
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 a cup of green French lentils
2 bay leaves
1 brown onion
8 garlic cloves
1 bottle of passata
1 can of diced tomato
1 bunch of oregano
2 cuts of osso-buco (sliced beef chins)
salt and pepper
1 tsp paprika
3 eggplants
3 potatoes
70g butter
2tbs flour
300ml milk butter
+ (extra for potatoes)
1 egg
METHOD:
In a pressure cooker, cook the onion, garlic and osso-buco until golden.
Add the bay leaves cover with water and cook for 20 minutes.
Open the pot up, add the lentils, passata, diced tomatoes, paprika and more water if needed.
Cook for another 20-30 minutes.
While the lentils are cooking, cut the eggplant into slices and bake at 200c until golden.
Put the potatoes to boil.
To make the white sauce, melt the butter, add the flour and mix until it thickens. Add the milk, salt and grated nutmeg and stir over low - medium heat until it begins to bubble.
While the sauce is cooking, drain the potatoes, mash them and pour a splash to milk to make it smoother and salt to season.
Once the lentils are done, check to see the osso-buco has fallen apart. If there are still some parts that are big, pull the meat out of the pot and using to forks pull it apart to form smaller pieces. Place the meat back in the lentils, season with salt and pepper and the fresh oregano.
Now it's time to assemble.
Make the bottom layer of your dish the mash potato.
Add a layer of the eggplant, then a layer of the lentil mix, another layer of eggplant, another layer of lentils, one last layer of eggplant.
By now, the white sauce will have cooled enough to not cook the egg.
Crack an egg into the white sauce and stir until combined.
Pour the sauce over the finished moussaka and top with cheese to finish.
Bake at 180C until the top is golden.
Enjoy!
CHANGE IT UP!
Eggplant: Instead or as well as eggplant, you can use sliced zucchini for the layers,
Add ons:
a. Spinach: Adding some leafy greens such as spinach to the lentils or even an entire layer of garlicky sautéed green after the potato would be great!
b. Capsicum: you really can't go wrong in adding some diced or long slices of capsicum into this dish for a bit more flavour!
Meat: Instead of osso- buco, you can use chuck, brisket or even mince. With the brisket, you may find that you will need to cook the meat for longer before adding the lentils to achieve that same pulling apart level of the meat.
Potato: If you want, you can omit the potato entirely or use something like parsnip, pumpkin or even sweet potato for a bit of a sweeter difference.
Lentils: Not a fan of lentils? no problem. You can change this to any bean you like or even just other vegetables such as broccoli, carrots and greens with the meat.
To do this, cook the meat in the passata and canned tomatoes already, then when the meat is falling apart, open the lid add the vegetables in and cook with the lid open until the veg are ready.
Vegetarian: Go meatless! This dish definitely does not need the meat. To still get a deep flavour in the lentils, I would recommend cooking them in the passata and diced tomato already and stock or at least 50/50 stock and water mix.
Vegan: As well as not using meat in the lentils, you can make your own cashew cream white sauce. Soak the cashews overnight then drain them and blend until smooth. Add water a little at a time to reach your desired consistency then season with salt and pepper.
