PARCELED

 EGGPLANT/AUBERGINE 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

Eggplant is native to India. Turkish people met it in 1700s.Since then eggplant has been a very important place in Turkish cuisine . It has been calling king of the vegetable since Ottoman time. There were more than 200 different way to cook at the old days. Nowadays  it is possible to  find  70 recipes, hot (with meat or chicken), cold  (with olive oil) , pickled and jam ( with baby eggplant). Parceled eggplant -Islim kebabı- is one of the old recipes. Turkish cuisine has many meat and vegetable combination. This recipe is a good example. You can prepare it a day ahead. Just bake it before eat. 

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

750g -1 1/2 pound  beef, chopped into small cubes

1 large onion, chopped

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

1   can tomatoes or 2 big chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cups hot water

1 teaspoon salt

 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

4 eggplants

vegetable oil , for frying

For decorating:

1 green pepper

1 tomatoes

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

tooth sticks

1/2 teaspoon extra salt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 Peel eggplant skin lengthwise, make stripes. Soak into 1teaspoon flour, 1 teaspoon salt added water.

 

Brown meat lightly  into the oil. When it absorbed all the juice add onion, fry more. Add tomatoes , tomato paste and hot water. Season with salt and peeper. Simmer for 45 minutes or until meat is tender.

 Wash eggplants and dry with a kitchen towel, cut  lengthwise into 1 cm. Heat  vegetable oil in frying pan. Fry both sides of eggplant until  soft. Transfer onto kitchen paper.

When meat is ready cross two eggplant slice, put two tablespoon of meat at the middle. Make a parcel with eggplant. Put  a sliced tomato and green pepper top of parcel.. Secure with tooth stick. Place each parcels into a ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with extra salt. Pour juice of meat each parcel. Bake at 180C-375F for 15 minutes . Serve with plain rice pilaf.