I’m very fond of Turkish food, and whenever I try something new, it’s only natural that the next thing to do is to try and make it myself. When I first had baklava, the sheer joy of biting into the crispy, flaky pastry, which gives way to the dense, thick syrupy layers, instantly fuelled my ambition to experiment. Similarly, such was my delight at my first bite of sigara boregi, a kind of Turkish spring roll made of phyllo pastry with a cheese and spinach filling, that I made it the next day, with a respectable degree of success.
So it was only a matter of time before I dabbled in another famous Turkish dish, patlican karniyarik or eggplant ‘belly’, which is in fact eggplant halves stuffed with mince meat. Eggplant features heavily in Turkish cuisine, which is just as well because I love the thing. These purple veggies are notorious for their sponge-like ability to absorb oil, but really, there’s no better way to treat eggplant other than to deep-fry them. I’ve tried steaming, pan frying and grilling, and even though each method has its own merits, eggplants and deep frying is like a match made in heaven.
There are ways to minimize the absorption of oil into the eggplants, after all, you want an eggplant that is moist, not drowning in oil. Rubbing salt on the flesh and letting it sit in a colander for about half an hour will help prevent the eggplant from soaking oil during cooking, as is using really hot oil.
This dish is best eaten with rice, where the oily sauce mixes with the rice and you get this almost perfect and healthy combo of grains, veggies and meat, if only there wasn’t that oil to begin with.
The recipe below acts only as a rough guide, not a rigid recipe. If you feel that there’s something not quite right, i.e. the measurements seem a bit too much or too little, feel free to alter it. Recipes by nature have to be versatile because there are so many variables in play, such as the equipment, personal taste and the like.
Eggplant karniyarik (serves 3-4)
2 medium eggplant
oil for deep-frying
200 g mincemeat
oil for cooking mincemeat
1 medium onion, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, chopped or crushed
a handful of parsley (I just used a tiny bit of dried ones)
tomato paste
salt
1 tomato
1. Preheat oven to about 180 degrees Celsius. Cut the eggplants in half, and peel the skin vertically in alternate strips. Rub the flesh with salt and leave in a colander for about half an hour.
2. Wash the salt off the eggplant and pat dry. Deep-fry in oil until soft and lightly browned. Place in a plate lined with kitchen towel to absorb excess oil. I sometimes press the eggplants a little to extract more oil out of it.
3. In a pan, pour a few tablespoons of oil and cook the onion and garlic until lightly golden, then add the mincemeat. Fry until the liquid has boiled off, add the tomato paste to your liking (i.e. enough to flavour the mincemeat), and season with salt and pepper and parsley.
4. Place the eggplants in a baking tray. Cut an incision across the eggplant halves, making sure they stay in shape. Press the flesh with the back of a spoon to create an indentation, and place some mincemeat on the flesh. Top with slices of tomato.
5. Pour some water onto the tray, just enough to make a small puddle surrounding the eggplants, and bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, covered with foil.
*In the photo above, I didn’t include the tomato slices because I didn’t have any at the time. Also, there should be less mincemeat on the eggplants, unless of course you like mincemeat, as I do.
