Microwave vegetarian mousaka (non-meat)

The oven is on the blink - so I adapted my old mousaka recipe slightly - it works well in the microwave; and after cooking it's simply fabulous the next day. You may know the aubergine as eggplant.

Approx 400g of prepared green lentils
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of thyme
1 large red pepper
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 large aubergine
1 large potato
2 tbs of tomato puree
1 pint of milk
1 tsb of flour
1 tbs of olive oil
200g emmental cheese
1 egg
pepper
salt

Chop the onion roughly and start to fry in olive oil, meanwhile cut the red pepper into half-inch chunks, add this to the onions. These need to be cooked harshly, so that there's a little bit of scorching and a good colour - build that flavour! Then add a chopped clove of garlic and two tablespoons of tomato puree and a quater of a teaspoon of cinnamon powder. Then add the drained lentils with a bay leaf, sprig of thyme and salt. ( If cooking from scratch add water with a bay leaf, a clove of garlic and a sprig of thyme and cook without salt until tender; add salt at the end and remove whole spices - then continue as above). Add a level teaspoon of oregano and let this cook.

Slice the abergine into 10ml or half-inch slices, fry gently until lightly brown in olive oil; this takes time; you may want to take off some oil with kitchen paper. As these are cooking slice a potato the same size and with a cup of hot water add to the pepper onion mix, cover with a lid - this makes sure the potatoes are cooked properly.

Make the bechamel: heat the olive oil in a pan gently, seive in the flour and stir until it's nicely mixed. Add the milk and stir until it starts to thicken, remove & add cheese & pepper.

Layer the ingredients in a microwaveable pot, lastly add an egg to the bechamel, whisk in to mix and then add as a top layer to the mousaka.

Microwave on low setting for 15 minutes, stop every 5 for a pause (this will depend on the microwave, basically cook gently until the topping looks firmer, brown under the grill if you have one that doesn't blow the fuses !

Don't serve it too hot. This dish tastes amazing when it's slightly cooler or even cold.