Making Eggplants Tolerable: Moussaka.

I don't like eggplants. They're mushy and have negligible amounts of beneficial nutrients. Unfortunately, they're silly easy to grow, and therefore common enough to end up in our farm-share basket.

The SU and I scratched our heads and wondered...

What will we do with you?

Then the SU thought of Greek Moussaka, where the Greeks demonstrate their culinary sense by cooking the !@#& out of eggplants so you can't taste it and it is covered by the awesomeness of onions, ground beef, and the tomato.

So we flipped open our copy of The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook, and this is our adaption of the federal convict's recipe.

Ingredients:
        • eggplant
        • 1.5 pounds of ground beef
        • 1 onion (diced)
        • 1 clove of garlic (minced)
        • 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
        • 1/4 tsp of nutmeg
        • salt
        • pepper
        • 28 oz. of diced tomatoes
        • 6 oz. of tomato paste
        • 1/8 cup of dried oregano
        • 2 eggs
        • 2 cups of Greek yogurt
        • 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese (grated)



Instructions:

1. Slice the eggplant, salt liberally to dehydrate Satan's vegetable and set it on paper towels.

2. Saute the ground beef, medium heat until brown. Remove beef from pan.

3. Add the garlic and onions, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and pepper to the empty pan, saute until the onions are translucent.

4. Return the beef to the pan, add the diced tomatoes and tomato paste, and oregano. Reduce heat and simmer for one hour.

5. Preheat your oven to 400°F, then return your attention to the eggplant slices. Rinse the salt off, dry the vegetable, and in another frying/saute pan with olive oil, fry the slices at medium heat until they're brown.

6. Now we begin layering. Grab a 9 by 13 baking pan, begin by placing a single layer of eggplant, then empty half of the meat/tomato/onion mixture on top of it. Then add another layer of eggplant, and unload the other half of the meat/tomato/onion mixture.

7. Mix the yogurt, eggs, and cheese together. Pour it on top of the material already in the pan.

8. Introduce the pan into the oven, and bake until the yogurt is bubbling and beginning to brown. Estimated cooking time is around 30~40 minutes.

9. Remove from oven, let the Moussaka rest for 10 minutes. Enjoy!