Faux Venison and Aubergine Moussaka

The reason it's faux venison is because Lower Hutt is too ghetto to have venison mince in the supermarkets, so we substituted high quality lamb mince :) I do think it'd be a much better fusion of flavours with venison mince as leek and prunes definitely call for a more sharp gamey meat. 

This is Adam Newell's recipe from his book Dine In, page 115.

The finished product. Dellissimo!

This was quite an ambitious recipe to make because it is quite fiddly. I think the leek we got from the supermarket was far larger than what Adam used in his recipe because it made a tonne of moussaka and the sauce was quite thick -- I ended up adding a bit of water during cooking. The frying of aubergine took two frying pans and a George Foreman grill because I didn't read ahead and had to do it in a rush. D'oh!

Slicing tomatoes and eggplants.

Frying of the aubergine.
Cheese/mince/leek sauce is resting in the background.

Slicing of all the vegetables.

I have a mandoline for slicing of harder vegetables into equal thickness slices. I got it at the Food Show in Wellington, and, unlike many "bought on TV" gadgets, it's actually really good and of high quality. It's indispensable for potato gratins. I used it to slice the potatoes and eggplants for this dish.

My oven dish was too small, so we made two moussakas at the same time. This was actually quite opportune as for one of them we added less oil to see the difference.

The two moussakas, straight from the oven.

Recipes never tell you these things in advance, and I'm too daft to read ahead. So, in case you're like me, here's the important stuff you'll need later. Preheat oven to 150°C. Make chicken stock if using cubes. Slice the eggplants and fry all the slices.

First off, the mince was poached in the stock and thyme for 10 minutes, then strained (reserving the stock), and set aside. I've never poached mince before, and I found this method of cooking it much more enjoyable. Frying raw mince always smells like fish food to me, I usually find it quite off-putting.

Poaching mince

Using the same pan (so all leftover mince 'bits'), sauté leek and garlic in butter for two minutes. Add the flour and cook for two more minutes.

Mince is resting, leek is sauteéing. 

Slowly add the hot stock a little at a time, stirring to combine. Simmer for five minutes, then season with salt and pepper. Add the cream, bring to the boil, then add the cheese and cooked mince. Gently cook for two minutes, stirring.

Arrange a layer of eggplant in a large ovenproof dish. Add a layer of sliced tomato and season with salt and pepper. Spoon in a 5 mm layer of venison sauce, followed by a layer of sliced potato. Repeat the layers, finishing with a layer of prunes, Cheddar and Parmesan. Drizzle with the oil (I omitted the oil for the second dish and it didn't really make much of a difference, tastewise).

Bake, covered with a lid or a layer of tinfoil, for one hour, then uncovered for a further 20 minutes until a golden crust forms.

Serves 6.

Ingredients: 
500 g venison mince
200 mL chicken stock
1 tbsp chopped thyme
75 g salted butter
1 large leek, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
100 g all-purpose flour
salt and pepper
100 mL cream
150 g Cheddar cheese, grated, plus extra for topping
50 g Parmesan cheese, grated, plus extra for topping
2 aubergines (eggplants), sliced and fried
4 tomatoes, sliced
4 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
50 g prunes, pitted and chopped
75 mL extra virgin olive oil