Stuffed Eggplants with Mince (Karniyarik) Recipe

That is the one basic recipe of Turkish&Ottoman Kitchen and this is my favourite dish that can be cooked with Eggplant. I really like it, and i reccomend if you cook it , you should cook rice also, they are very good friends i guess:)

This dish is normally served warm , but for vegetarians we have another version ,it is filled with onion,garlic&parsley. This dish is served cold and we call it "imambayıldı"(imam:prayer leader,bayıldı:to be fainted). I know it is so funny name. There are a lot of rumours about this name; someone tell a lady cooked this dish for her imam husband and he got fainted because of the delisious taste, some others tell imam fainted because of the cost of the dish and so on :)) this kinda funny stories about foods. But i like both ways of eggplant dishes. As you can understand from the stories ,it is very well known , old and important dish for Ottoman&Turkish kitchen..

Enjoy!!

Ingredients

5 small or medium eggplants

2 onions

250 gr mince (you can choose any meat you like)

1/2 table spoon tomato paste

1/2 bunch of parsley, finely chopped

2 tomatos

Oil

Salt

Black pepper

Peel alternating strips of skin lengthwise as seen in the picture for each eggplant. Most of people fry it but i like it light so i lay some oil in a tray and i put eggplants , add little oil on the eggplants also and cook in oven for 30 min with 180 degree. While it is cooking, chopp the onions well , with some oil and meat , cook it for 20 min with low heat. Add parsley, tomato paste,salt,black pepper, and cook a few min more all together, and it s ready. after the eggplants ready,Cut a slit in each eggplant , and fill the eggplants with the mince ingredients with a tea spoon. Cut tomatos and 2 pieces put on the every eggplant, add 100 gr water(1 tea glass) in the tray , cover the tray with aluminum foil, and cook 20 min in beforeheat oven with 180 degree..

Bon appetit...

Eggplant