Musaka with minced meat

Method

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion over a medium heat until soft and just golden, about eight minutes. Add the meat, break it up with a spoon and fry until it has lost its raw colour and started to catch on the pan.
2. Take the pan off the heat before you stir in the paprika. Sweet paprika burns in seconds over direct heat and turns bitter, and there is no rescuing a musaka once that has happened.
3. Return the pan to a low heat, stir in the tomato purée, the parsley, salt and plenty of black pepper, and cook for two minutes more. Set it aside.
4. Peel the potatoes and slice them thinly, about 3 mm. Oil a deep baking dish and lay in half the slices, overlapping them and seasoning as you go.
5. Spread the meat evenly over the potatoes, then cover with the remaining slices. Season the top, pour the water down the side of the dish and trickle over a little oil.
6. Bake at 200°C for 45 minutes, until the top layer is tender to the point of a knife and colouring at the edges.
7. Beat the eggs with the yoghurt and a good pinch of salt, and pour it over the whole surface. Return to the oven for 15 minutes, until the topping is set, puffed and pale gold.
8. Let it stand for ten minutes before cutting. Straight from the oven it will not hold a square.