Yes Food Tuber's. My name is
Akis. This is my first video on Food Tube and I hope you enjoy it.
So I'm from warm sunny Greece, and I think the most appropriate recipe
that I could choose to introduce myself to you with is one of the more
well known Greek dishes moussaka. It's not moussaka, it's
moussaka. It's baked in the oven and consists
of layers of healthy vegetables, aromatic ground beef, and
topped with a creamy bechamel sauce. There is no question as to why
to this so famous. It's a truly delicious dish
and I've made it easier to cook, and healthier
to eat, just for you. In the original recipe the vegetables are fried
so they soak up a lot of oil. I decided to bake them instead
which make the dish healthier and less time-consuming.
So let's begin by preheating our oven to two hundred degrees Celsius.
Set to fan. Here we have a 25cm by 30cm baking pan.
That I'm going to brush with some olive oil.
Now, thinly slice two potatoes and an onion.
We put them in the bowl. Drizzle with some
olive oil. Salt, pepper,
and thyme.
We mix them and spread them
in a thin layer on the bottom of the baking pan. Now we're gonna bake them for 20
minutes until they soften slightly
and turn a little golden.
And the potatoes are ready. Now thinly slice an aubergine, or
egg plant. You need thin slices for your vegetables to
cook correctly in the oven. I added two
to our bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt, pepper
and thyme.
Spread the eggplant slices over the potato slices,
at this point if you see the egg plant
a little bit dry, you can add a little bit more olive oil. It's gonna be okay.
And bake for 20 more minutes.
The egg plant is ready, and our final
ingredient will be: kolokithia in Greek, or zucchini in American
and courgette for the UK. I will cut into thin slices
and guess what, we're going to add some
olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme.
Spread them over
the egg plant, and bake for another 20 minutes.
Our vegetables are ready. So lets
continue with the next layer. We need the pan
add some olive oil, mince some onion,
add it to the pan,
and caramelized over high heat.
Mince a clove of garlic. Add it to your pan, and
give it a mix. Now lets add the spices.
Half a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a pinch of ground
clove. Mix and saute. It makes a huge difference
when you put the spices on their own before
adding the meat. Add one tablespoon of
tomato paste, and put the ground meat
into the pan. I'm using this. Use a wooden spoon to break it up into small pieces,
salt and pepper.
Add a jar of chopped tomatoes and simmer for five to ten minutes
or until most of the liquid evaporates. Imagine how surprised your
friends will be
when they come to your house and find a nice
moussaka to eat. They gonna love you.
The mix should be quite dry,
and our ground meat is ready.
Set aside, and lets start
our bechamel sauce. Place a medium-sized sauce pan over medium heat.
Add butter. As soon as the butter starts to melt,
melt, not burn, we can add the flour.
And start to whisk.
Now this is an important thing to remember.
Always add the milk in slowly, and in batches.
If we add it all at once, the flour won't
dissolve in the meat properly and lumps will form. This is definitely something you
don't want.
Each time we add the milk you have to wait for it to get absorbed into the
flour,
and then add the next batch of milk. You also have to remember
to whisk constantly during this whole process.
You might have to do this up to ten times, but
it's worth it because in the end you will have
the best bechamel sauce in the World.
I promise. When the sauce finally start to
bubble, you will know it's ready. It should be
smooth, creamy and delicious.
Oh! It's starting
to bubble. Now lets remove this from the heat and add some
freshly ground pepper,
some ground nutmeg,
but no salt, because we will be adding some grated Parmesan.
And whisk.
For a final touch I'm adding
3 egg yolks. Give it a stir,
and
it's ready. Now one third of
this creamy bechamel sauce right into the ground meat. Mix together.
We are creating a sticky feeling. So that
the dish will hold together when serving and eating.
If we had a very juicy or saucy filling it would all fall apart.
Now spread the filling over the vegetables
and to complete the moussaka,
I'm going to use a spatula to get
all the bechamel sauce out of the pan,
and spread it over the ground meat. Smooth the
top to make
it look nice. Finally, sprinkle with some grated Parmesan
and
back into the oven
for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it
looks golden brown and bubbly.
Here it is. I wish you could smell
this. Before cutting the moussaka allow it to cool for
at least one hour because it needs time to set.
Cut into pieces.
Layers of tasty vegetables. Aromatic and delicious ground meat,
and even more delicious: bechamel sauce.
If you want to make more of my recipes visit
akispetretzikis.com and subscribe to my YouTube channel,
Akis Petretzikis Official. Try making this great dish guys,
moussaka, you will love it. Healthy,
quick, and mouth-wateringly good.
This thing guys is
amazing. I hope to see you again soon.
Yassas.