there are some recipes which i’ve been cooking “forever” and therefore always know where to start when i’m making them. other dishes, despite me making them regularly, just don’t seem to have that same instinctive nature to them. for me, moussaka fits into the latter category. i always link it to lamb mince, aubergine and a white sauce, but that’s it.

the good thing about this is that it means i drag out my cook books, look at recipes online and as a result, often learn something new. and i learnt quite  a lot from cooking this, using a tessa kiros recipe from the cypriot section of falling cloudberries.

first was that lamb is not the default choice of meat – she uses a mix of pork and beef. i stuck with the lamb but used her method of getting the meat sauce started by frying onion until golden and then adding garlic and chopped parsley which becomes aromatic and then you add the meat. the addition of a herb like parsley at this stage is not something i’m used to (although i do add chopped coriander stems at this stage in various dishes) and i was surprised at how the parsley flavour did not get lost and that the green fleck of the herb remained in the final sauce. the flavour was softer than if i’d added it at the end and that lack of fresh zinginess was exactly right for this dish, and is something i need to remember.

the other learning was not a new technique – it was about pre-cooking the aubergine and potato slices. tessa stipulates the need to shallow-fry both in olive oil. i stuck to my previously tried & tested healthier approach of roasting the oil-brushed slices of aubergine (c10 minutes at 180c) but did fry the potatoes, until cooked through and golden and crispy in places. as a result they were meltingly soft in the final dish which was just perfect.

in fact the whole thing was very close to perfection – the flavours melded wonderfully and the softly textured vegetables made it a wonderfully comforting dish. the one thing i will fiddle about with is the white sauce that tops everything off – a friend of mine swears by a souffléd sauce to crown her moussaka, which i really must try.

potatoes and i have never been particularly close friends. friends go into raptures at the thought of mash… baked potatoes…  skinny frites… chunky chips... creamy dauphoinoise… crispy hasselbacks… potato salad… and  so the list goes on.

for me, potatoes are very rarely my carb of choice and while i’ll pick up a bag of jersey royals when they are in season or a larger floury potato for some sort for a fishcake, it is unusual for them to be the star of the show if i’m in the cooking seat.

however, this week that had to change – my friend kirsty was staying and requested “meat, potatoes and cheese” for her supper. tartiflette was deemed to be the answer to my problem, according to friends who have more time for the humble spud than i.

i used lucy’s recipe, having bought my reblochon at john lewis food hall on oxford street (they have a cheese room – i do love it) and stocked up on charcuterie, cornichons, silver-skin pickled onions and green salad to accompany it. kirsty provided white wine and i forget the crusty white bread that was also deemed necessary.

no matter, it was declared a hit and the dish was scraped clean. it’s too rich a dish for me and a bit too potato-y but i’m really pleased to have tried it and, if you have someone making “meat, potatoes and cheese” demands this is a quick and easy way to satisfy them. delicious too apparently – if you like that sort of thing.