The splendor of Arabic cuisine - Syrian stuffed eggplant
During the summer heat, I am more and more attracted to the preparation of vegetables from Eastern cuisines: Macedonian, Greek, Turkish… ... Arabic, so not necessarily from areas where certain types of vegetables exist, but certainly those where the preparation of certain vegetables has become a tradition. This dish originated from Syria, from an area where the heat is severe, so it is eaten cold. It is an excellent side dish to grilled meat, and can also be made on its own. The taste is fantastic.
Preparation steps
- Stuffing
- Boil the water and soak all the tomatoes you will be using, for a few minutes. Take them out and as soon as they cool down, peel them.
- Finely chop the mint or parsley leaf, cut the onion into cubes, cut or crush 2 tomatoes and remove the pitted part. Stir in the pine nuts, raw rice, salt, pepper, lemon juice and 1/3 of the eggplant pulp (meat) and pour oil over everything and mix well.
- Eggplants
- Peel an eggplant, wash it and dry it. Pierce them well with your palms on the work surface, then use a sharp and not too long knife to remove the inside in the shape of a stick. With the obtained sticks, cut a part about 3 cm long that will serve as a plug for the eggplants. Remove the rest of the eggplant pulp (meat) with a suitable spoon or knife, being careful not to widen the opening too much, because the sticks will not "sit" well in place. Try to remove as much pulp as possible so that all the stuffing in the eggplant fits.
- Procedure
- Place the stuffing in the aubergines with a small spoon, pressing it towards the bottom, and leave a little space at the top so that the rice can swell freely during cooking and so that you can push the sticks deeper into the openings. Close each eggplant with a stick.
- At the bottom of the pot in which you will prepare the dish (the best solution is an earthen pot with a lid, in the absence of which you can use a pot with a heavy bottom or like me, AMC pot, it is important that the pot retains heat and that the dish can be cooked for longer time) put half a tablespoon of oil, coarsely chopped onion, chopped or crushed tomatoes and the rest of 2/3 of the eggplant meat. Add salt and pepper and eggplant. Drizzle with oil and water, cover the pan and cook on the lowest temperature for about 4 hours (in the AMC it took 2.5 hours) for all the liquid to evaporate and the dish to remain dry. If necessary, open the pan at the end of cooking so that the liquid will evaporate sooner.
- Transfer the finished dish to a tray and leave to cool overnight. It is eaten cold.
Serving
Important: I did not include the cooking time I mentioned in the procedure at the stated preparation time. So, add another 3-4 hours of cooking, over low heat, without stirring and monitoring. In the meantime, do something else. Use only pure olive oil, and my advice is to salt the inside of the eggplant carefully before placing the stuffing.
