Serves 8-10
What can be more comforting and more delicious than marrying potatoes, tomato sauce and ground meat with the flavourful addition of lots of fresh dill and the perfect finish touch of a dollop of sour cream to go with it. Simply delicious and simply taking me back to my childhood when my mother was cooking this Moussaka for us. While there are so many variations of this dish and so many cultures adapted and made the dish their own, I couldn’t be prouder of cooking my mother’s Moussaka just the way she used to and still cooks it.
4 medium onions, finely chopped
1 kg ground pork and beef, mixed
1 kg potatoes, boiled, skin-on
5 tbsp vegetable oil
450 ml tomato sauce
1 batch of fresh dill
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
In a large saucepan, cover potatoes in water and boil until they are slightly tender. Let them cool completely before peeling them. Slice them into 0.5 cm thick rounds.
In the meantime, in a large saucepan heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 10 minutes or until onion turns slightly brown. Add meat and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add 3 tablespoons of the tomato sauce, dill, salt and pepper and stir to coat the meat with all spices for another 2 minutes. Turn off heat and set aside.
Assembling the Moussaka: cover the bottom of a large oven proof saucepan with a layer of sliced potatoes. Season them with salt, pepper, dill and 2 tablespoons of the tomato sauce. Cover with half of the meat mixture, followed by another layer of potatoes, same seasoning, another layer of the remaining meat, finishing up with another layer of potatoes. Season potatoes again and cover them with the rest of the tomato sauce.
Bake in a 350 °F/176 °C preheated oven for 1 hour.
Garnish with fresh dill and serve it with sour cream.
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