Lebanese Baked Eggplant Recipes

LEBANESE STYLE STUFFED EGGPLANT

Steps:

• Hollow out each eggplant with a melon-ball cutter, working from bottom end and leaving about 1/3 inch eggplant flesh along interior walls.
• Rinse rice in a sieve under cold water until water runs clear. Drain well.
• Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Fry pine nuts, stirring frequently, until golden, about 3 minutes, then transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Sauté onion and garlic, stirring occasionally, until golden, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer 1/2 cup onion mixture to bowl with pine nuts. Add stock, tomatoes, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to skillet and simmer, uncovered, while stuffing eggplant.
• Add rice, meat, allspice, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper to bowl with onion mixture and mix well with your hands.
• Stuff eggplant with meat mixture, being careful not to pack tightly (rice will expand during cooking). Transfer stuffed eggplants to skillet with tomato sauce and simmer, covered, carefully turning once, until rice is cooked through, 50 minutes to 1 hour (cut 1 in half to test).
• If sauce is watery, transfer eggplant to a plate and boil sauce, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, 3 to 5 minutes, then adjust seasoning if necessary. Return stuffed eggplant to sauce. Squeeze lemon over dish and sprinkle with parsley before serving.

LEBANESE EGGPLANT SALAD - (SALATIT EL BATINJAN)

Steps:

• Put the whole eggplant as is, (only cut and remove the stem from the top), on a baking sheet and bake it. You'll notice when it's done that the juice came out on the baking sheet and the skin is almost toasted and it becomes soft when you punch it with a knife.
• Let it cool for a bit then cut it in half and remove the skin; just cut it roughly into small/medium diced pieces and put it in the salad bowl, (it's ok if it has some juice still). Then add the rest of the ingredients and mix the salad and serve. This is good with pita bread on the side.

AUBERGINE LEBANON (LEBANESE EGGPLANT)

Steps:

• Cook the eggplant in boiling salted water for about 10 minutes. Drain well.
• Saute the onion, garlic, and mushrooms in the olive oil. Add flour and stir until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat.
• Pour into a lightly greased casserole dish and bake at 375 F for 25 minutes. Serve hot.

MAUREEN ABOOD'S EGGPLANT WITH LAMB, TOMATO AND PINE NUTS

Steps:

• Heat broiler and line a baking sheet with foil or parchment.
• Brush both sides of eggplant slices with 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Arrange slices on prepared baking sheet and broil in batches until they are deep mahogany brown, turning once halfway through, 5 to 7 minutes per side.
• Adjust the oven to 375 degrees with rack positioned in the center.
• In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the remaining olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, but not browned, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add ground lamb or beef, stirring frequently and breaking up meat into very small pieces with the side of a metal spoon. Season with remaining teaspoon salt, cinnamon and pepper. Sauté until meat is just cooked through. Taste and add more salt or pepper, or both, as needed.
• In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add pine nuts and reduce heat to medium-low. Stir nuts to coat them with butter and continue stirring constantly until nuts are golden brown, 2 to 4 minutes. Keep a close watch over the nuts; they can burn quickly once they begin to brown. Transfer nuts to a bowl while still warm and salt them lightly.
• Coat a 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking dish with remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Spread 1/2 cup of tomato sauce in the bottom of the dish. Lay 1/3 of the eggplant slices in a single layer over the sauce, covering as much surface area of the bottom of the dish as possible. Spoon half the meat evenly over eggplant. Pour 1/3 of the remaining tomato sauce evenly over meat. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the pine nuts. Layer again with eggplant, meat, tomato sauce and pine nuts. Finish with a layer of eggplant and cover with more tomato sauce, sprinkling top with pine nuts.
• Pour 1 cup warm water around the perimeter of the baking dish. (Sauce will thicken as it bakes.) Cover pan with foil and bake for 90 minutes. Remove foil and top eggplant evenly with mozzarella. Bake for 15 minutes longer, uncovered, or until the cheese is bubbling and golden. Serve eggplant warm, over rice.

LEBANESE BAKED EGGPLANT

Steps:

• Cut eggplants into half-inch slices; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and let stand for 20 minutes; blot up the liquid with a paper towel.
• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat; brown the onion and stew meat in the hot oil. Stir in the walnuts and cook another 2 minutes; remove from heat.
• Arrange half of the eggplant slices in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish; spoon the beef mixture over the layer of eggplant. Top the beef mixture with the remaining eggplant slices, potatoes, and tomatoes; season with salt and pepper.
• Bake uncovered in preheated oven until the eggplant is soft; about 1 hour.

LEBANESE BAKED EGGPLANT

Steps:

• Cut eggplants into half-inch slices; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and let stand for 20 minutes; blot up the liquid with a paper towel.
• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat; brown the onion and stew meat in the hot oil. Stir in the walnuts and cook another 2 minutes; remove from heat.
• Arrange half of the eggplant slices in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish; spoon the beef mixture over the layer of eggplant. Top the beef mixture with the remaining eggplant slices, potatoes, and tomatoes; season with salt and pepper.
• Bake uncovered in preheated oven until the eggplant is soft; about 1 hour.