Moussaka

Lunch time at work is always a game of guessing "who brought what to lunch?" Surprisingly, or perhaps not THAT surprisingly, my colleagues and I have a huge common interest. FOOD. (bet u thought it should be our line of work). Conversations usually go like this

Me:" client a...etc.."
J: "I'm hungry....."
C: "what should I have for lunch."
Me: "did you watch master chef last night..."
and so on and so forth..

Anyhow, one of the girls brought Moussaka to work and I was instantly intrigued. Egg plant- that is one of my favourite vegetable of all time. Most of the time though, I associate egg plant  with sambal and dried shrimps. Although I have heard of Moussaka before, for some reason I have never thought to make it.

Oh wait, there is one big barrier...

AR HATES eggplant.

For once, my line of thinking became...
"too bad, he got to give it a go. And if he doesn't like it.. he can have toast for dinner."

In the end though, AR's comment was "I like the mince mixture, so the eggplant wasn't too bad."

grrr.. Men and their fuss with food.

Moussaka (Adapted from Donna Hay Classics 1) 
1 tsp of garlic chopped
1 onion chopped
600 grams of lean lamb mince
2 cans of chopped tomato (Donna Hay had 700ml tomato puree)
1 cup of beef stock
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
seasoning

2 eggplants thinly sliced
3-4 cups of mixed grated mozzarella, parmesan and cheddar cheese.

Sprinkle eggplant with salt and set aside for 15-20 mins. Rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Spray some oil on them.

Pre heat oven at 200 C.

Meanwhile, fry garlic and onion in pan. Add mince and cook till browned. Add tomatoes, stock, cinnamon, salt and pepper and cook till it reduced (around 15-20 minutes) ]

To assemble, place 1/3 eggplant slices in base of oven proof dish. Top with 1/3 cheese them mince. Repeat. Finish with eggplant and layer of cheese. Bake for 30-35 minutes.