Food - Drink
The Croatian Moussaka That Swaps Eggplant For Fried Potatoes
By LAUREN ROTHMAN
An iconic dish that exemplifies Greece's affection for eggplant is moussaka, a layered casserole of soft, fried eggplant, a meat sauce containing ground lamb, and a rich bechamel sauce. This beloved layered dish is also the inspiration for a Balkan delicacy called musaka od krumpira, which swaps in thinly-sliced potatoes for the eggplant.
This Croatian take on moussaka calls for frying thin slices of potatoes and layering them in a casserole dish with ground meat fried with garlic and onions. Unlike eggplant moussaka, the ground meat is not cooked in a sauce, but an egg-and-milk custard is poured over the potatoes and meat, then browns and puffs up in the oven.
This dish can be slimmed down a bit by using raw or parboiled potatoes, and some recipes also call for sour cream to be mixed into the custard topping. Regardless of the customization, musaka od krumpira is so widely enjoyed that it’s actually made all across the Balkan Peninsula in countries like Turkey, not just in Croatia.