Sluttishly savoury: Moussaka

My first ever holiday with friends was at aged 17 and involved a two-week break to the Greek island of Zante and much, MUCH Sambuca.

I've never touched the stuff since, and the whole holiday was a combination of drunkenness, too much sun and petty arguments.

However, the one good thing to come out of it was my love of Moussaka. It rocks. True fact.

There is more than one way to skin a cat, and there are myriad ways to make moussaka. but, this is how I do it ...

You'll need:

Main:

• 2 large aubergines
• 300g lamb mince
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 small red onions
• olive oil
• 1 baking potato
• tomato puree

Sauce:

• handful of flour
• large knob of butter
• 1 cup of milk
• salt and pepper
• lamb stock

Make it!

• Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees centigrade. You can fantasies about next door's gardener whilst you so this, if you want.
• Lightly fry your sliced and spiced (pepper and maybe a little paprika?) aubergines in a little oil and a decent amount of salt. Be brave - salt is BAD, but it'll help remove excess moisture from the aubergine. Once they are lightly fried on both side blot them on kitchen roll and leave to one side.
• Cut your raw potato into very fine slices.
• Get a good splash of olive oil into your frying pan whilst you finely chop the onions and garlic
• Get your mince fried up with the onions and garlic. Cook until the mince begins to brown and produces some juice (hang onto this, it can go into your sauce)
• Lightly butter an oven-proof casserole-type dish, then sort your sauce out.

Sauce:

• Béchamel sauce is dead simple, I've told you already. So stop panicking.
• Melt a knob of butter in a hot, heavy-based pan.
• Remove from the heat when it starts to bubble, and add a handful of flour. Mix. You're looking for a thick, yellow consistency; but not lumpy. Add a bit more flour if necessary.
• Whilst still off the heat, add your cup of milk. Return to the heat and mix continually until you have a sauce.
• Don't let it boil; add some of the meat juices (just a little) and the tomato puree, and stir well.

The moussaka:

• Add a thin layer of aubergines to the bottom of your dish. Follow this by some of the mince mixture, then the finely slice potato.
• Repeat.
• One more layer of aubergine then pour your sauce over the top.
• Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.