Includes a recipe for Cheat’s Moussaka
I freely admit that I love food (I don’t know many people who don’t…) And a few years ago, I was lucky enough to work with a Home Economist who specialised in recipe creation as well as working with celebrity chefs. She liked to test her new recipes out on me from time to time, as well as inviting me to a cookery demonstration which included a fabulous lunch of Whiskied Pheasant amongst other things, so I ate well during that time!
It was all great fun and inspired me to continue creating, or adapting, recipes of my own – something I started doing after leaving university in the late 90s. I now have a scrapbook featuring my own handwritten recipes, as well as countless pages cut out of magazines or printed off the Internet, which I usually adapt to suit my own tastes.
Another source of inspiration from a few years ago, which you may remember from the TV, was a series where Mary Berry demonstrated recipes featuring time-saving hacks that made them fast and easy to make. This prompted me to think about some of my own recipes (and other people’s) and how some of the processes could be simplified and speeded up.
I’m going to share one of these with you now, which I call Cheat’s Moussaka. As you’ll see from the ingredients list, I suggest alternatives for most of the items which will reduce preparation times, such as using frozen onions and mushrooms which come pre-prepared. Whether you use any or all of these is of course up to you, but either way, the results should be delicious!
Cheat’s Moussaka
Serves 4
Preparation time: 10 to 20 minutes depending on choice of ingredients
Cooking time: 35-40 minutes in total, plus time to cook the potatoes in advance if not shop-bought.
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive or vegetable oil, or use cooking spray
1 medium onion, chopped, or the equivalent amount of frozen onions
500g beef, lamb or Quorn mince, either fresh or frozen
100g mushrooms, sliced, either fresh or frozen
1tbsp mixed herbs, or 3 x 1tsp of individual herbs to suit the type of mince used
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed, or 1-2 tsp garlic granules
1 tin ratatouille, available from most larger supermarkets *
Salt and pepper to taste
500g peeled, sliced and cooked potatoes, either homecooked or bought fresh or frozen
250ml cheese sauce, either homemade, from a packet or made using granules
1 medium egg
50-100g mature Cheddar, can be bought pre-grated
1 tbsp paprika, smoked or unsmoked (optional)
Method
- Heat the oil or cooking spray to a medium heat in a large sauté pan or saucepan.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (or use a Halogen oven, which doesn’t need preheating).
- Fry the onion gently until soft.
- Increase the heat slightly, add the mince and cook through.
- Add the mushrooms and fry for a few minutes until just cooked.
- Stir in the herbs, garlic and ratatouille and season to taste. Simmer gently for 20 minutes.
- In the meantime, cook or reheat the sliced potatoes and keep warm, and make up the cheese sauce.
- Transfer the mince mixture to an ovenproof dish.
- Place the sliced potatoes on top of the mixture, layering as necessary.
- Mix the egg into the hot cheese sauce and pour over the mixture, so it coats the potatoes evenly.
- Sprinkle the cheese on top, followed by the paprika if using.
- Bake in the oven or Halogen (set to 180 degrees C) for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and everything is piping hot.
- Serve with a green salad and garlic bread, or your choice of accompaniments.
* If you can’t get hold of tinned ratatouille, look for pre-prepared ‘ready to roast’ vegetables in the fresh or frozen section of the supermarket. Roast these as shown on the instructions, combine with a tin of chopped tomatoes and add at step 6 above.
I appreciate that recipes like Cheat’s Moussaka aren’t massively original, but I’d like to think this is my own spin on a time-honoured and much-loved Greek dish that many of us have enjoyed at home and abroad. When creating or adapting recipes, I do tend to stick to this kind of approach rather than taking the Mad Professor stance à la Heston Blumenthal, as I like to keep things accessible with a focus on store cupboard and frozen ingredients.
So, I’d love to hear what you think about this recipe, especially if you decide to cook it! I’d also be interested to know if you’d like to see any more of my recipes appearing on this blog or on social media for you to try out at home. Please let me know in the comments on social or contact me directly – and happy cooking (and writing if you also create your own!).
And of course, if you’re an aspiring cookery writer looking for help with structuring or editing your recipes, or better still, taste testing them, I’m more than ready to lend a hand! Just drop me a line at [email protected] and let’s talk about food 😊