HOME COOKING STEP BY STEP:

MOUSSAKAS: There aren’t any sources to establish when this dish appeared first, in old recipe books shows that is known since last decades of 19^th century. Common dish in the cities of Heraklion and Chania and much later beginning of 20^th century in bigger villages in Crete as for the hard working house ladies living in the country side was a difficult dish requiring lot of time to prepare time didn’t have and a great many cooking utensils for that period.

First version was thick friend potatoes topped with cashed meat and grated cheese.

Later on added eggplants and zucchinis and much later after the second world war the béchamel topping

You need:
For the hashed meat in tomato sauce:

Half a pound of hashed meat (better pork or pork and beef),

FOR THE VEGETARIAN OPTION WE REPLACE THE MEAT WITH MUSHROOMS
one big ripe tomato grated

(if you can’t find fresh ripe tomato use the tomatoes in tin you can get at the supermarket),

half a wine glass of white wine,

half a wine glass of olive oil or if you dot have it use sun oil or corn oil,

one middle size onion finely cut or grate it, salt and pepper

Directions:

Put in a pan the grate onions and the oil.

Live them for approximately 5/7 minutes so onion be soft.

Add the hashed meat and live it be cook for about 10 minutes turn it from time to time to be cooked all over.

Add the wine,

a big pinch of salt, oregano, and a big pinch of pepper.

Let the wine be boil away and add the grated tomato or tomato sauce and cook it for about 15 minutes more until most of the juice go away.

Take the pan off the heat. The meat is ready

(Same way you can cook any kind of meat replacing the hashed meat with meat bites or pieces of meat)
For the VEGETARIAN / VEGAN version REPLACE the meat with mushrooms

For the vegetables:
1 Aubergine cut in slices of 1 cm

2 middle size potatoes (both enough to full your pan) Pill the potatoes and cut them in slices of 1 cm (same way as Aubergines shown on the photo above), wash the Aubergines and cut them same way. Don’t forget the Aubergines rub them first with salt and leave them for half an hour so bitterness go away, then do the cuts in the flesh so oil can come through cook them and make them soft.

Put them under running water and dry them with cuisine paper.
Fry both potatoes and Aubergines.
First the potatoes

then Aubergines

then Aubergines because potatoes don’t leave any smell or left over and place them in a dish with cuisine paper to keep off the oil.

Place in a pan the potatoes first and on top of them the Aubergines in lays.

Sprinkle them with some of the grated cheese. Cover the vegetables with the cooked hashed meat.

Sprinkle again on top with some of the grated cheese

For the béchamel (the cream on top):
1 litter of milk, 1 egg, 3 table spoons of flour, 1 full table spoon of butter or margarine whatever you have, 200 grams of grated yellow cheese (gouda or similar) salt, pepper.
Directions:
In a pot put the butter or margarine and 2 full table spoons of flour.
Add slowly the 3/4 of the milk turning continuously with a beater so both mix well. Add the egg, salt and pepper beating continuously until all being one mixture.

Put a pan in low hit. Put in the pan the butter and one table spoon of flour.

Turn continuously the two ingredients with the heater to be mixed well.

Add slowly the rest of the milk to be mixed to a cream and start adding slowly the mixture you have on the pot to turn it to a hot cream. It will take you around 15 minutes to come so.