Stuffed Turkish Eggplant with beef

Passport & Plate - Stuffed eggplant with beef

Turkey | Sunday, February 15, 2015 | 1 photos

Ingredients
8 Lebanese Eggplants peeled in stripes lengthwise
100g minced beef
2 small diced onions
3 cloves of finely sliced garlic
4 small cubanellesweet peppers
2 large diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
pinch of dried chilli flakes
pinch black pepper
handful of fresh diced parsley

 

How to prepare this recipe
1. Heat the frypan and add the mincemeat, leave to cook on a low-med temperature for 10 minutes until brown, occassionally stirring so the meat doesn't burn or stick to the pan.

2. Add the onion, pepper, garlic and stir in with the mincemeat, leave on low heat for 5 minutes stirring occasionally (a few minutes later add the tomatoes, chilli flakes, parsley, tomato paste and salt and pepper)

3. Deep fry eggplants for 5-10 minutes until the outside is slightly browned and inside is soft (make sure they go into the deep fryer dry

4. Lay the eggplants in an oven proof dish and cut a large slit down the centre and slightly pull apart the 2 sides, leaving an opening of 1-2cm

5. Place the mince meat mixture where you cut the opening

6. Place a tablespoon of tomato paste into a saucepan with 1 cup of water and mix together on a low heat to create a diluted tomato sauce. Pour this around the eggplants

7. Place the eggplants in a preheated oven on 150 degrees and bake for 35 minutes.

Voila!

 

The story behind this recipe
Met an amazing local Turkish woman in Cappadocia who took me into her cave house and taught me how to cook this from scratch. I knew no Turkish and she knew no English but we used basic sign language to communicate and made this amazing dish! It was an incredible experience and the dish reminds me of her simple home in the mountains.