Imam Bayaldi

In honour of last week’s course, Mysterious Middle East, a recipe featuring one of our other favourite ‘a’ vegetables.  The aubergine can be an awkward customer both to cut and cook gracefully. Frankly any aubergine slice is only going to be as good as your knife and I save my Global for this special occasion. The other piece of advice is to pace the amount of oil you need…there does come a point when aubergine will start to release a little of what is has thirstily glugged, so if you don’t want to end up with something slimy have a little patience (not something I used to have much of until I started cooking!).

There are many ways of cooking and presenting Imam Bayaldi, including the one below, but I find my method easier and possibly tastier.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

½ tsp coriander, ground

½ tsp dried dill

½ tsp paprika

¼ tsp cinnamon, ground

1 tbsp tomato purée

½ can tomatoes, chopped

1 tsp caster sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp coarse ground black pepper

 salt to taste

4 tbsp olive oil

2 medium sized aubergines

4 tbsp flat leaved parsley and mint, finely chopped

Makes enough for 4 servings

Method

First of all heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a medium sized frying pan and sauté the onions for 5 minutes. Add the spices, garlic and tomato puree and sauté for a further minute or two before adding the tomatoes, sugar and seasoning. Cook gently for another 10 minutes until the mixtures starts to get a bit sticky.

Then trim the aubergines and peel the skin lengthwise in 2 cm strips (this isn’t strictly necessary but it helps with the flavour). Cut the aubergines in half or thirds length ways and make diagonal slashes on one of the flat sides.

Heat the rest of the oil in a large frying pan and fry the aubergines until golden on both sides. Spoon the onion mixture into the slashes and place the aubergines into an oiled baking dish and cover with foil

Bake in a preheated oven 190ºC/ Gas 5 for about 30 minutes until cooked (the aubergine flesh should be really soft by now) and then finish off by drizzling over some extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with parsley and mint. Much nicer served at room temperature than piping hot.