Greek Moussaka

My daughter, who is living with us while her husband is in basic training with the U.S. Air Force, has started following the Atkins diet.  I was once on this diet; so, I am familiar with what is and is not legal to eat.  I've been trying to be conscous of this as I prepare dinner to either make a low carb dinner, or something where the carb component can be easily eliminated or removed (such as rice, noodles, etc.).

Tonight I made a Greek Moussaka. Not all recipe's for Moussaka are low carb; but, there are some very delicious ones.  This is mine which is a combination of three different recipe's I found

Ingredients

• 2 eggplants (about 2½ pounds total)
• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 ounces parmesan cheese, grated

Meat Sauce

• 1 lb ground lamb or beef
• 1 small onion chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic minced
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• smidge allspice
• pinch ground cloves
• pinch nutmeg
• 1 bay leaf
• 14½ ounce can chopped tomatoes with juice

Custard sauce

• 3 eggs
• ¼ cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Peel eggplant and slice in to ½ inch thick slices. 
3. Brush both sides of eggplant slices with olive oil and place on a foil lined baking sheet, overlapping as necessary. 
4. Cover baking sheet with foil and then bake for 25 minutes in a 425 degree oven
5. Brown onion until starting to brown then add minced garlic.
6. Add ground meat and cook until meat is done
7. Drain meat/onion mixture and then add spices, cook for about 30 seconds to toast spices and then add tomatoes and bay leaf
8. Simmer until eggplant is done (about 15-20 minutes)
9. Assemble by placing a thin layer of meat sauce in the bottom of the baking dish.  Add 1/3 of the eggplant slices, cover with grated cheese and 1/2 of the meat sauce.  Repeat with 1/3 eggplant, 1/3 grated cheese, and remaining 1/2 meat sauce.  Top with remaining 1/3 eggplant.  Pour custard sauce over entire surface and top with remaining 1/3 grated cheese
10. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 minutes, until  top is toasted and a knife comes out clean when inserted.

Notes

• Many recipes call for leaving the skin on the eggplant.  While it may be edible, I personally find it tough and unplesant in the mouth.  So, I always peel my eggplant.
• Measurements like "small onion" or "clove garlic" are very ambiguous.  For this recipe, I used an onion that was about 7-8 ounces and ended up with 5-6 ounces of chopped onion after cutting ends off and removing skin.  I didn't measure the garlic cloves beforehand, but I used about ½ ounce minced garlic
• A smidge is about 1/8 tsp and a pinch is about 1/16 tsp