The other day as I wondered through the Ramsgate Foodies Market, The Free Range Butcher had an awesome special on mince meat. I know that some people think that mince is a budget cut – but given a little love it can make some of your favourite meals. I picked up 2kgs and thought of all the delicious meals that I could whip up. I decided that I would cook up a kilo that very night and freeze a kilo to make sarma {traditional Croatian cabbage rolls} .

I thought that I could hopefully freeze a serving of sarma for when the baby arrives {I love a good ‘just-pull-it-out-of-the-freezer’ meal in the first 6 week haze of a newborn}.

Now, the first kilo of mince went towards a delicious bolognese sauce that was used for spaghetti bolognese and a big dish of moussaka. I thought that I would make moussaka instead of lasagna, so I could incorporate the delicious eggplants that I had picked up from the farmers market.

I also thought that I would make the moussaka gluten free incase my sister popped around to eat with us.

GLUTEN FREE MOUSSAKA

2 large eggplants, thinly sliced
Olive oil

1 onion, finely diced
2 leeks, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 kg lamb mince
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbs rosemary, chopped
600g tin crushed tomato
2 tbs tomato paste
1 jar of passata
Sea salt and cracked pepper to season

100g butter
100g gluten free plain flour
800mL full cream milk
100g kefalograviera cheese, grated
100g parmesan cheese, grated
100 grams of tasty cheese, grated
1 beaten egg
Pinch of nutmeg

Heat olive oil in a large sized pot, add onion, leeks, carrots and garlic and sauté until soft.Add mince, oregano, rosemary and brown.

Add crushed tomato, tomato paste, and passata and simmer on low heat for 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper. Reserve half of the bolognese sauce for another meal.

Salt the eggplant slices. Drizzle with a little olive oil and pop into a 180 degree oven for 40 minutes or until lightly golden.

For the béchamel melt butter over low heat in a saucepan and stir in flour until a smooth paste is formed. Slowly pouring in milk stirring simultaneously. Keep stirring until a thick consistency is achieved.

Remove from heat and whisk in both cheeses, beaten egg and pinch of nutmeg. Season to taste.

To assemble oil one rectangular casserole dish. Lay eggplant on base. Add layer of lamb bolognese on top of eggplant. Add a layer of béchamel sauce. Repeat.

Bake in preheated oven at 200C for 40 minutes or until golden.

You know what would go really nicely with the Moussaka? A little garlic bread – but seeing as we are going ‘gluten free’ the next best accompaniment to this Moussaka {besides a Greek salad} is these delicious Greek chips!

GREEK CHIPS

6 medium potatoes
1 tbsp of oregano
1 tsp of dried chilli
1 tsp of sea salt
1oo grams of fetta
olive oil

Simply peel and then cut your potatoes into chips. Toss the chips in the oregano, chilli, sea salt and olive oil. Bake for 1 hour at 180 degrees or until crispy. Crumble the fetta over the top before serving – allowing the fetta to slightly melt.

Have you ever whipped up a recipe from my blog? I would love for you to let me know…So I don’t feel as if I am just writing all this stuff down for nothing… If you choose to whip up one of my recipes , then I would love for you to share it on social media, and don’t forget to use the hashtag #goodfoodweek.