We like this dish because it's super tasty, very cheap and using up an abundance of home grown vegetables whilst also 'recycling' previous left over Chilli.
The Moussaka is formed of 3 (maybe 4) main components. The béchamel sauce, the 'meaty' element, and the vegetables layers. And a potato or squash base if you so wish. If you are using a squash or potato, cook these by cutting into small chunks or slices first and roasting in the oven with some herbs. They'll need about 30-40 minutes at around 190 degrees.
The sauce is a classic roux sauce, but we like to add a spoonful of french mustard and some grated cheese to make this truly indulgent. To make the béchamel, start by melting some lumps of butter in the bottom of a clean saucepan. As the butter melts, turn down the heat. Once melted and starting to spit and bubble, add in 2 or 3 tablespoons of ordinary flour and stir into the melted butter to make a thick gooey paste. The temperature on the stove should now be very low.
Gradually start pouring milk into the gooey mixture and keep stirring. If you leave for too long the whole sauce will turn powdery and lumpy. After a few pours of milk, add in the grated cheese and a spoonful of English or French mustard and keep stirring and keep adding more milk. You can start turning up the heat, just a tad at this stage but don't bring to the boil. You'll note that after a while the sauce starts to thicken and when it does, you can turn the heat right back or even entirely off for a few minutes.
The easiest part of the dish is the 'meaty' bit. Of course, as a vegetarian dish this contains no meat, but it could do if you so wanted. We tend to make up a big pot of vegetarian chilli one night and use the left overs for this part of this dish the next night. If you are using the vegetarian route, you can try adding a dollop of marmite into the mix to give it a bit of a non meat, meaty taste!
Finally, slice aubergines and courgettes quite thinly. Cut them long ways. Heat some rapeseed or olive oil in a frying pan and lightly brown each side of the aubergines and/or courgettes.
Once you have the roux sauce, the 'meaty element' and the lightly cooked courgettes and/or aubergine, start the build of the dish by taking a fairly deep (at least 2 inches) oven proof dish or terracotta spanish style tapa dishes and layering the bottom with the squash or potato. Then pour over some of the meaty mixture. Tip: less is more here.
Then add a spoonful or two of the béchamel, then aubergine/courgette, then meat, béchamel etc. Keep going until the final finishing level is béchamel. Then, light grate some parmesan cheese across the top and place on the top level in the pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes or so, or when the grated parmesan and béchamel has sufficiently browned.
Serve with padron peppers or a slice of chunky bread. If you want it spicier, add a few shakes of one of our Bumblebee Cottage Hot Chilli Sauces!