Chicken & Squid Bee Hoon Soup
For dinner, I seasoned some lamb cutlets with rosemary, thyme, chilli flakes, crushed garlic and olive oil.
Rosemary, Thyme & Chilli Lamb Cutlets
with Potato & Sweet Potato Provolone Bake
The Italian bug bit me tonight and I made several dishes. I sliced two large eggplants into 1cm thick pieces and arranged them in a large dish, sprinkling sea sat liberally over them. On top of the eggplant, I placed a sheet of baking paper and then put another baking dish on top and weighed it down with several large cans. This is to help draw out the extra moisture and bitterness from the eggplant.
Next, I made tomato sauce. It varied slightly from the tomato sauce I made the other night. I used a whole finely chopped white onion, fresh parsley, basil, olive oil and three cans of whole Italian tomatoes. I simmered it all for almost an hour until it became a deliciously rich, sweet sauce.
I've been wanting to make moussaka for years now, but have always been reluctant to try making bechamel sauce from scratch after a few failed attempts several years ago. When adding the plain flour, the sauce would burn. Perhaps it was because I was using a bad quality pot or perhaps my stirring technique wasn't sufficient to mix the flour and butter before it began to burn.
Anyhow, I thought it was time to give it another go. I googled a recipe for a basic bechamel sauce.
Basic Bechamel Sauce - Taste.com.au click on the link for the recipe
I added the plain flour, stirred it in and no sign of burning! I added the egg and nutmeg and whisked that in...so far so good! Alas! I checked the method and realised I was supposed to add the milk in before the egg, so instead of starting from scratch, I just added the milk in and hoped for the best. I managed to whisk out most of the lumps and it created a smooth bechamel paste. Yay!
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- Sautee a small diced onion in some olive oil, then add 500g lamb mince.
- Cook the mince, using a wooden spoon to separate it.
- Season with rosemary, thyme, sea salt and cracked black pepper. Set aside.
- Make bechamel sauce.
- In a deep baking dish, layer slices of eggplant and top with a layer of the lamb mince. Repeat with a layer of eggplant, mince and finish with a layer of eggplant. Cover with a layer of the bechamel sauce and bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes on 180C (fanforce) until the bechamel sauce goes golden brown.
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- In a baking dish, layer eggplant slices, the Italian tomato sauce and grated tasty cheese in that order.
- Finish with a layer of the cheese and bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes on 180C (fanforce) until the cheese has melted and started to brown.
I saved some of the lamb mince mixture from the moussaka to make some pasta for dinner. I simply added some of the Italian tomato sauce into the pot with the mince and then tossed through some al dente spaghetti. Voila!
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