Saturday, November 24, 2012

Greek Moussaka


This recipe is pretty time consuming, but really delicious and has a lot of vegetables in it, which I always miss when I'm on the trail.  

Serves 2

1-2 large eggplants, sliced in ¼ inch rounds
1 bunch kale, chewy lower stems cut off
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, pressed or chopped
1 pound ground lamb
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp allspice
¼ cup chopped fresh dill
3 eggs
1 cup Greek yogurt
1/8 tsp nutmeg
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
olive oil for sautéing
salt and pepper to taste


Salt the eggplant to draw out moisture and prevent slices from soaking up a lot of oil. Put in a colander, sprinkle liberally with salt, let sit 20-30 minutes until moisture appears on surface. Rinse thoroughly and blot dry.

Pan-fry eggplant in a skillet over medium high heat, turning until both sides are lightly browned.
(Try brushing with olive oil first, then roasting in oven…so you can do more at once)

Boil the kale for 3 minutes.
Puree kale with tomatoes and ½ cup of water.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan over medium heat and add onion and garlic.
Sauté a few minutes then add meat, cinnamon and allspice. Stir, so the meat browns evenly.
After 5 minutes, add dill and tomato mixture.
Simmer until the sauce thickens, about 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
As the meat cooks, whisk together eggs, yogurt, and nutmeg.
Preheat oven to 350.
In a lightly-oiled baking dish, place a thin layer of eggplant then cover with the meat. Layer the remaining eggplant on top, then the yogurt. Top with additional grated cheese if desired.
Bake 45 minutes, or until the top is set and golden brown. 

Let sit 20 minutes, then spread on dehydrator trays and dehydrate at 150 F for 8-12 hours. Check several times throughout the process to break up clumps and turn over.

3 comments:

  1. Hi! This sounds amazing, but how do you re-hydrate? Never done this before. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Heather!To re-hydrate you put the dry mix in a pot, and cover it with water by about a half inch or so. You can always add more water, but it's hard to take it away, so I suggest erring on the lower side. Then you heat it on your stove, stirring it to make sure it doesn't burn, and monitoring it to see if you need to add more water (you can tell it needs more water if it's getting too thick too fast). Once it is close to a good consistency for you, remove from the heat, cover with a lid and let it stand about 10 minutes.This will help it absorb more water without burning through your fuel. If you want to speed up the cooking time you can also soak the dried mix for about 10 minutes before hand, say when you're setting up your tent or something, and then leave the soaking water in there, and cook it from there. If it's too chewy, it just means you need to cook it longer, or soak it more before hand. It's kind of hard to mess up. Happy Re-hydrating!

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    2. Also, on the rehydration amounts, I haven't quite figured that one out yet. It never quite rehydrates to the same volume, so you kind of have to play around with it, according to your own hunger levels. I still get pretty full off of one serving, even if it's a smaller volume, because it's more dense, but my boyfriend seems to need more volume, despite the denseness.

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