Food: A bubbly, oozy moussaka family recipe

BBC good food

I have been making moussaka for years and it has become a regular family meal when we have aubergines on the shopping list but I've made a few additions and its gone to another level of scrumptious.

I cook it in a huge baking dish so that it feeds our family of four and then provides some left overs. 

I do add a white sauce and cheese later on, but before this I remove a portion for my little man who has dairy and egg allergies.

Grab a note pad, jot this down and make it a firm favourite on your family meal plan:

I start by setting the oven to 180 degrees and then cutting the aubergines into 1cm slices and popping them in a roasting tin.

I then slice sweet potatoes very thinly, dauphinoise style but because I a) have nay time and 2) am a bit rubbish with a knife, I use the food processor setting.

I poured the sweet potatoes into the bottom of my baking dish. Followed by preparing some courgette in thin slices and throwing them in too.

Then I fried off some red onion, garlic and when caramelised added a tin of chopped tomatoes and a good dollop of tomato puree. I also like to add a glug of balsamic vinegar as it gives depth to tomato sauces. Plus a good amount of seasoning of salt and pepper. I added a small pinch of sage, basil and thyme to taste.

I then added a tin of butterbeans to the sauce and removed the aubergine from the oven to add to the baking dish. I then poured the sauce on top of the moussaka and cooked it off for 25 minutes. 

I then started making a roux in another saucepan by placing a dollop of butter and melting it down, then a tablespoon of plain flour and mixing into a paste. Then I add small amounts of milk stirring it to remove the lumps until it looks like a nice thick white sauce. I then decided to melt some cheese into it by grating it first and adding in small amounts.

After removing a portion for my little man, I then poured over the white sauce and a really big fat pile of grated cheddar cheese. 

Then its back into the oven for another 20 minutes until hot, bubbling and the cheese and molten and slightly golden. Whilst its hot, grab a good slice, add a green salad and tuck in. 

It really is so delicious and the few extra steps of pre roasting the aubergine, adding dauphinoise sweet potato and adding a white sauce and a bit of extra seasoning really makes it extra scrummy.