African Moussaka Recipe

Origin: African Fusion      Period: Modern

We all know that moussaka is a classic Greek dish and I have a recipe for the Classic Moussaka on this site. However, one of my personal challenges is to make classic European foods acceptable to my wife's Liberian friends when I'm in Senegal. Sometimes this means substituting ingredients and in almost all cases it means adding chillies, lots of hot chillies. Feel free to dial back (or eliminate) the chillies from the current recipe, the dish works without them.

One major change is in the white sauce as I needed a version that was suitable for West African, most of whom cannot metabolize the milk sugar, lactose. So the white sauce is made with coconut milk and a hard goat's cheese.

Ingredients

500g minced beef
large onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes
250g aubergines (eggplant)
250g courgettes (zucchini)
500g large plantains, sliced at an angle
1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
1 heaped tsp ground cloves
1 heaped tsp freshly-grated ginger
3 Scotch bonnet chillies, minced
100g grated hard goat's cheese
200g breadcrumbs salt and pepper to taste

For the Sauce:
500ml coconut milk
60g margarine (or butter)
2 tbsp flour
150g grated hard goat's cheese
salt and black pepper, to taste

African Moussaka Preparation:

Method:

First make the cheese sauce. In a large pan add the margarine and melt. As soon as it has melted add the flour and stir in to form a classic roux. Once you have a smooth paste, allow it to cook for a little while, but do not allow to burn. Add the coconut milk a little at a time and whisk into the roux mixture. Once you have added all the milk, bring almost to the boil and using the whisk stir-in the cheese. Season and allow to simmer and thicken. Once done pour into a measuring jar and set aside.

Meanwhile, fry the mince with the onion, garlic and chillies and set aside. Next cut the onions, tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes and plantains into fairly thick slices and fry until soft. (Fry separately, in batches, and set aside as they cook).

In a ceramic oven-proof add a layer of fried plantains and some breadcrumbs. Add layers of aubergine, then courgette and then the cooked meat. Sprinkle pepepper, salt, cloves and cinnamon on top then add another layer of aubergine and a finish with a layer of plantain. Cover with the cheese sauce then the tomatoes and finally add grated cheese and some freshly-ground black pepper on top.

Bake in a medium oven (170°C) bake for half an hour until the cheese topping has browned nicely.

Read: Recipe Articles and Reviews

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As a guide 1 US cup of flour = 4 1/2 oz = 140g (this applies to breadcrumbs, ground almonds etc
1 US cup of butter/margarine or sugar = 7 oz = 200g

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