From My Big Fat Greek Wedding · 2002 · Reconstructed
Moussaka
Serve when
Serve it with pride — the lunchbox dish young Toula got teased for ('moose-ka-ka') is the best thing on any table it lands on.
In the movie
Theatrical
- 00:03:13 Young Toula's school lunchbox: while the other girls eat sandwiches, she unpacks her mother's moussaka and gets 'moose-ka-ka' jeered at her — the film's shorthand for growing up deliciously different.
The lunchbox scene is the whole film in one lunchbox: the food Toula is embarrassed by as a girl is exactly the richness the Millers' dry-toast world is missing. By the wedding, everyone's eating the Portokalos way — and no one is making fun of the moussaka.
Ingredients
- For the béchamel:
Method
- Brown the eggplant and potato slices in olive oil (or roast at 425°F); drain well.
- Brown the lamb with the onion and garlic; add tomatoes, paste, and spices and simmer until thick, 25 minutes. Fish out the cinnamon and bay.
- Make the béchamel: cook the butter and flour, whisk in milk to a thick sauce, cool slightly, then beat in the yolks, cheese, and nutmeg.
- Layer in a deep dish: potatoes, half the eggplant, all the meat, the rest of the eggplant, then the béchamel in a deep, proud layer.
- Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes until burnished. Rest 30 minutes — moussaka is cut in clean squares, not spooned.
Substitutions
- Ground lamb: beef is the easiest swap and is common in Greek-American home versions; use half lamb and half beef if you want the lamb flavor softened rather than erased.
- Kefalotyri: parmesan or pecorino romano both give the salty, nutty finish the béchamel needs. Feta is delicious but too crumbly and tangy for the sauce itself.
- Eggplant: if eggplant is the barrier, make a potato-forward version with extra thin potato layers. It becomes less classic, but it still slices cleanly and reads as moussaka once the meat sauce and béchamel are there.
- Cinnamon stick: use 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and simmer gently; the stick is easier to remove, but the flavor goal is the same warm backnote in the meat sauce.