Lazy Moussaka

Moussaka is one of those things I've never bothered to make before because it seems too complicated and time consuming, like lasagne. But, also like lasagne, I really enjoy eating it, so after having some delicious moussaka on holiday with friends recently, I asked for the recipe. It's easy, said the friend who'd made it, it's a Delia recipe....

Which she duly sent over to me. Alas, Delia,  the first part of the recipe involved an inordinate amount of faffing about with aubergines and salt, so at that point I lost interest and decided to find an easier recipe to follow. And here's what you do:

Get your aubergine and prick with a fork. Which always reminds me of this ;-)

But anyway, once you've had a little chuckle, stick the aubergine in the microwave for 2 or 3 minutes til it goes soft. Meanwhile, fry off some mince, lamb is nice but beef will do) bit of tomato purée (or ketchup works just as well) and a tin of chopped tomatoes (you can get them with herbs and garlic already added for extra laziness) and season (adding cinnamon is traditional). Slosh in some red wine (no idea if that's traditional but it's required in this house)...... then shove that into your ovenproof dish, slice the soggy aubergine up (use a serrated knife!) and layer on top and finally top with a mix of yoghurt or crème fraiche, an egg and some grated cheese (strong Cheddar or Parmesan), I added a pinch of nutmeg just to be exotic. And some Tabasco to the mince......

Cook in oven til brownish on top. Eat with garlic bread (Lidl do a nice pack of sliced garlic toast) and Greek salad so you can watch one of your kids refuse to touch it and the other one pick out all the olives and tomatoes.

Apologies to anyone of Greek extraction who knows how to make a proper Moussaka. This one tastes just fine to us :-)

Hearty beef stew for monster slayers.....

Last weekend I went to collect the other half after he'd been away all week LARPing (if you were wondering, the full Wikipedia explanation of this is here but it's basically grown men and women dressing up in fantasy costumes running about in the woods waving rubber weapons) and the nice lady who'd been doing the catering had 3kgs of diced beef left over from feeding the ravening hordes that needed a home. Being confirmed carnivores, we generously offered to take it off her hands. Then I wondered what the hell to do with it......

Answer? Cook it for ages. And ages. And ages.....

I did actually fry it off in batches first, bit faffy and you can probably skip that if you like, then it went into a couple of casseroles (3 kilos is a LOT, you probably won't need that much, unless you happen to be feeding a tribe of half orcs I guess) with some roughly chopped carrots and onions, a bit of dried thyme and seasoning, and a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes.

Then I just cooked it, on a fairly low heat, for hours. Checked it every now and then and added a bit of water if necessary (a slow cooker would be the best way to do it, if I actually had one) until the meat was lovely and falling-to-bits tender. Then I chopped some butternut squash to go on top, you could use sweet potato or good old spuds instead, and cooked it some more.

It was excellent :-)

Oh and if anyone is wondering what the OH looks like in his LARPing gear, he's the one on the left of this photo wearing the very fetching headband ;-)