We are fans of Master Chef Australia. We find it a very entertaining show and think it is the best Master Chef program that has ever done the rounds. I think I have said this before?. But we also like the food, of course we don't try the really expensive fancy dishes, my daughter does though, we get treated every so often when the mood strikes her. But this one DH had a bash at last night, he does not cook often, but he succeeded last night it turned out really well. I was sous chef last I think I would rather be Chef after that experience (jokes) . George Calombaris had his mother come in to Master Class and she made a traditional Moussaka. She said it should be pronounced Mous- sa -ka. DH's turned out really well.

Here are a few pics

I never got images of the whole process, e.g. Bechamel sauce etc as I was fetching and peeling but you can see the end result. It was very nice and not as oily as the one I usually make and the flavours were very even. LOL I hope that's how you explain that it tasted like a real traditional dish. We wrote the recipe out from the program as we watched it. If anyone can't find it on~line or wants it inbox me. I will email it to you ?

It does look good, Dawn & DH has done a great job cooking it. Can't have been easy.

There is nothing quite like the traditional ways of cooking such dishes, is there, although we do know there can be subtle regional differences.

Thank you for going to the trouble of giving us a pictorial tour through DH's cooking endeavours. Guess he will be the moussaka king from now on.

Thanks Joy!

It wasn't hard but sort of long as there is a lot of prep, peeling brinjal/eggplant salting it, cleaning it, frying it then the potoatos and frying them. Once the bechamel sauce is done , after that it is all plain sailing.
Doing it Mrs Calombaris' way is really showing one how to assemble it and what to do with the ingredients that we all know go into it. A few examples are, don't fry your eggplant too long and don't wash it after salting just dab it dry. Frying the potatoes before layering makes a huge difference, fry your minced meat (a combination of lamb veal and pork as opposed to just beef)just so as it can change colour a little, and only add your onions to the meat after that raw, don't fry them before. This one had no bitterness in it or oilness. Also I never put an egg in my bechamel sauce normally, but this too made a difference to the flavour. The latter is common sense to some but I never knew that the egg is what changes it to bechamel. All of the above gave it a true traditional flavour. She told George that he must not "bast***ise this recipe She was a gem. Nice to watch a mum in the Kitchen

That is a good tip, Dawn, re just wiping the salt from the eggplant slices & not rinsing in water to remove the salt. In the past eggplants were degorged (salted) to remove the bitter juices but now it's, apparently, not necessary to do that for this reason as the bitterness has been bred from them. Which is great to hear as they could probably be used raw, that is if anyone likes raw food that much. Now, they are only salted to draw out excess water to help the slices stay in shape & not break up during cooking, so rinsing the slices under water would be counter-productive wouldn't it?

It is a good tip about adding an egg to the bechamel sauce. Wonder if it is a Greek addition to the sauce as the French don't do it. Guess it would give it that much more flavour, I would think. Frying the potato slices would not only add flavour but help them, also, retain their shape instead of turning into mush.

We have never watched Master Chef as it was shown on a TV channel here which we rarely watched.

Yes it goes that way sometimes Joy . We started watching it one day when there was not much going on and discovered it is a very entertaining show, we love it. We then watched some other Masterchef programs and they just did not hold the entertainment value for us as the Aus one has. Gary and George are the best of the hosts, we think, others may not agree, all to ones taste really?. George's mum had him peeling potatoes in this M/Class Should have seen the look on his face hahaha! when she said "George go peel the potatoes" . He's great. . He said at some point during the Master class, we are going to have a *serious chat* after this show mum .

Hmmm, didn't like being told to peel some potatoes, eh?? This IS his mother & a Greek one at that.

Googled the show & season 5 will be at a changed venue down in Melbourne instead of in Sydney. Should be starting soon, I'd imagine, Dawn.