Something about eggplants, as they say, "struck" me. But what can you do - the season has already begun, and besides, it's insane. It's amazingly delicious! There are, of course, people who don't like eggplants, but I don't really understand them.
Because today there will be Turkish stuffed eggplants. Turks generally know a lot about eggplant! And here comes a very interesting combination of mint and turmeric, which is not found in our usual dishes.
We take:
- Small eggplants - such that it will be convenient to stuff
- A couple of onions
- A couple of cloves of garlic
- Half a kilo of minced meat
- A can of tomatoes in their own juice or a kilogram of fresh tomatoes (just more fuss)
- 250 grams of cheese (originally sheep's cheese, but any spicy cheese will do)
- Half a heap of parsley
- Tbsp dried mint
- A teaspoon of turmeric
- Chili peppers, dried and chopped - to taste
- Salt and black pepper - to taste
- Frying oil
How we cook:
Wash eggplants, cut into halves, partially scrape out the pulp. salt and leave for fifteen minutes. Then we rinse with water - this way we get rid of possible bitterness.
Dry them on a towel.
Cut the onion into small cubes, crush the garlic, chop the parsley, three cheese. We also cut the scraped eggplant pulp into cubes. If you have tomatoes in their own juice, just peel and puree them. If your tomatoes are fresh, then blanch or scorch over a burner, peel and mash.
Then we send the onion into a frying pan with a decent amount of oil. It's hard for me to name how much, but onions should be fried. Then add crushed garlic and chili pepper there, fry for another minute and fill everything with tomato puree. Add spices - salt, black pepper, half the dose of mint and turmeric with parsley, and simmer for about fifteen minutes
At the same time, fry the minced meat and eggplant pulp in another pan. We add to this a few tablespoons of our tomato sauce and the rest of the mint - but enough so that the filling does not become liquid.
Fill the eggplant halves with minced meat, pour the sauce (not all of it) into a baking dish, put the eggplant on it (minced meat up), fill with the rest of the sauce and sprinkle with cheese.
We send it to the oven for 30 minutes at 160-170 degrees.