I learned that the word Moussaka comes from Arabic language “Musaqqa’a”, meaning “chilled”. The Arab region is between Asia and South Africa. In Turkish it is spelled musakka but in other languages they call it eggplant casserole. In some countries they use tomato instead of eggplants.
I chose moussaka because I wanted to try to cook it on my own. My father also said ” Eco I want you to cook moussaka for dinner”. Then I asked ” why po?” he said “because it’s so delicious I want to eat Moussaka again”. So that’s why I cooked Moussaka for dinner.
When I was going to cook my Moussaka, I saw a lot of mess on the table. I can’t really prepare properly because my mother and sister were cooking leche flan cake. So I took the things that they didn’t need anymore and put it in the sink, then I prepared my Moussaka. I did not have the list of ingredients we used for Mousakka in my Mediterranean cooking class so I just did everything from memory.
First, I sliced the eggplant, mozzarella cheese, onion, garlic, oregano leaves and basil leaves. It was the first time I saw fresh oregano leaves because we always used the dried oregano from a McCormick bottle. It looked interesting with its pointy edges.
Second, I cooked the onions and garlic.
Third I put the ground beef, salt, pepper, sugar and cooked it until the meat is brown.
Fourth, I put the stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, basil and oregano leaves.
Fifth, I put the meat sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Then I arranged the eggplants on top of the meat sauce , followed by the ground beef with tomatoes. I put the mozzarella cheese on top and covered it with foil.
Then I put it in the oven and baked it for 45 min. Finally, I cooked fajita fries for 5 minutes until it was brown, in a deep frying pan on medium high heat. I served the Mousakka with fries but cooked rice too for anyone who likes that better. Mmmm….so delicious:-)
Now you know how to cook Mousakka. My father loved it so much, all he said was mmmmmmmmm…… My mother commented that the eggplants were sliced just right. They said it tasted almost the same as the one I cooked in my cooking class with Chef Ernest Gala. But mom liked it a bit more because it’s still hot and the cheese is still melted and bubbling. My siblings , specially my youngest sister really loved the mozarella cheese on top. She didn’t even notice the eggplants.
I will give my own Mousakka five stars out of five for the taste and 4 stars for level of difficulty because it took a lot of time.
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