Betingan Makdous Recipes

BETINGAN MAKDOUS (STUFFED AUBERGINE PICKLE IN OLIVE OIL)

Steps:

• Wipe clean the aubergines.
• Poach aubergines in salted water for about 15 minutes until soft and then set aside to cool.
• Once cool, squeeze very gently to get rid of the water.
• To make the stuffing, mix the chopped walnuts, chopped garlic and dry chilli flakes together and season with salt and pepper.
• Cut a slit lengthwise down the middle of each aubergine but not right through, leaving the ends so as to form a pocket.
• Stuff with the walnut mixture.
• Pack the aubergines stem ends up in a completely sterile glass jar with a firm seal and cover with olive oil from time to time as you pack in the layers of aubergines.
• Make sure the aubergines are submerged in oil.
• Keep refrigerated until rich flavour develops, for about a week before serving.
• This will keep for a month in a refrigerator.

BETINGAN MAKDOUS

Steps:

• Trim the stem end of the eggplants and pierce the skin in a few places with a pointed knife. Poach in salted water for 10-15 minutes, or until soft, weighing the eggplants down with a small, heavy lid. Drain, and when they are cool, very gently squeeze to get rid of the water.
• Mix the walnuts with the chili and garlic and add a little salt. Cut a slit lengthwise down the middle of each eggplant but not right through, leaving the ends so as to form a pocket. Stuff with the walnut mixture.
• Put the eggplants in a colander over a bowl, with a plate and weight on top, and leave overnight for water to drain. Transfer carefully to a jar, and cover with oil. They should be ready in a few days, and they keep for a month in the refrigerator.

BRINJAL EGGPLANT (AUBERGINE) PICKLE (GOA, INDIA)

Steps:

• Julianne or dice small brinjal-eggplant.
• Layer brinjal with salt alternately. Let stand 4-5 hours till water separates from vegetable.
• Squeeze in handfuls brinjal till water is removed. Keep in separate bowl.
• Grind ginger and garlic in some of the vinegar to paste.
• Heat oil till smoke starts rising. Fry brinjals two hand fulls at a time. Drain with slotted spoon and set aside. Wait for water to evaporate from oil, till the bubbles stop before frying another lot of brinjal.
• Add and fry garlic and ginger paste for 5 minutes.
• Add dry spices, fry 2 minutes.
• Add vinegar and tamarind, mix well for 1 minute.
• Add curry leaves and sugar, mix well.
• Add brinjal mix well and cook 1-2 minutes.
• Cool and bottle.

FATTET AL BETINGAN MAHSHI

Steps:

• For the eggplant stuffing, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a skillet. Put in the meat and cook for about 10 minutes, adding salt, pepper, cinnamon, and allspice, and crushing the meat with a fork and turning it over until it is cooked and the liquid has evaporated.
• In a small skillet, fry the pine nuts in a drop of oil, shaking the pan to brown them lightly all over. Stir half the pine nuts into the meat.
• Wash and dry the eggplants and hollow them out with a corer (see page 315). Fill them with the meat-and-pine-nut mixture. (Use the eggplant flesh for another dish.)
• Make the tomato sauce in a wide pan or baking pan. Put in the tomatoes with the sugar, a little salt and pepper, and, if you like, the pomegranate concentrate. Stir well and simmer for 5 minutes. Put in the eggplants, and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes, or until the eggplants are very soft, turning them over once.
• Open out the pita breads, cutting around them with scissors or a serrated knife, and separating them into halves. Toast them under the broiler until they are crisp and lightly browned.
• Mix the yogurt with the garlic, if using.
• Just before serving, assemble the different components in a wide and deep serving dish. Break the toast into small pieces with your hands into the bottom of the dish. Take the eggplants out of the tomato sauce, and pour the tomato sauce over the toast, which will become soft and bloated. Pour the yogurt all over, and arrange the stuffed eggplants on top. Then sprinkle with the remaining pine nuts.
• Instead of cooking the eggplants in the tomato sauce, fry them in enough medium-hot oil to half-cover them, turning to cook them all over. The skins (there is no bare flesh) stop them from absorbing the oil. Lift them out and drain on paper towels.
• Mix 2 tablespoons tahina paste with the yogurt.