Something really tasty from Alex Mackay's cookbook

Just wanted to say how surprisingly amazing this book is! I cooked couple of things from it and whatever I was eating I was never disappointed. Today I cooked this lentil 'moussaka'... hmm!

LENTIL MOUSSAKA

For the braised lentils

• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 350ml water
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 200ml red wine (I used white wine as red one could not be found!)
• 115g Puy lentils (used basic greens, but I am sure Puy lentils are better)
• 200 tinned chopped tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• salt, pepper, sugar (used dark brown and quite a lot by accident, but turned out really really great)
• 2 tbsp orange juice (oopst! I missed read that! I used the whole orange juice... oh never mind!)

For 'moussaka'

• 1 large aubergine
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2tsp wine vinegar (I used balsamic vinegar as I am just little addicted to that)
• 1/2 orange zest
• 2 tbsp chilly powder
• 2 tbsp ground coriander seeds
• 125 mascarpone  
• 60g grated cheddar cheese
• some parsley for deco (my own touch)

So I began with the lentils as that takes more than an hour...

I started with frying the onion and garlic, then added tomato puree after 7min or so. Then added wine and lentils.

Then I added tinned tomatoes, bay leaf and water and put it into the preheated oven (170C) covered (had to switch the pots as the one pictured above was not suitable for oven, one more reason why I should read the recipe before cooking!). After 30 min I have removed the lid as instructed and carried on cooking it in the oven for another 30min. When finished I just added sugar, salt, pepper and orange juice. This is the result...

Next, I cut the aubergine in four slices (lengthwise) and brushed it with vinegar and olive oil which then got baked for 20min in oven at 230C.

Meanwhile I prepared all the little things like 'cheese sauce' (mascarpone and cheddar cheese mix) and orange zest mixture (zest, chilly and coriander).

Oh,  and you might be asking why I still have orange juice in this picture, did't it go into the lentils? Well... I made this mixture way before everything (sorry to be so confusing).

So, once I got the aubergines out of the oven I started layering. This went like this: first two aubergine slices, than the lentils, then orange zest sprinkles, then the second aubergine slices, then the cheese mix, then the orange zest mix... got the picture? Really useful tip from Alex Mackay in regards to spreading cheese mix: heat the butter knife in the hot water as this makes the spreading much easer!

And now into the oven for 20 min. Enjoy!