This truly delicious dish comes from the city of Gaziantep, Turkey
which is very famous with its cuisine. After Hatay (my Province), I
like Gaziantep’s food next and then Adana which is about two
hours away from my hometown. I have only passed by Gaziantep
and have not been there to taste all the delicious food, but when I was very
young we had a family acquaints who were from Gaziantep and would come to enjoy the
Mediterranean beach for the summer months. As our families spent a lot of time
together during their summer vacation, I have tasted some of their food. One thing I still remember from those days was
when we stopped by one day the lady was making stuffed eggplants. She insisted
on us to try it before we left and we did. To this day, the taste of that
stuffed eggplants is still in my mouth and have never forgotten it. It was hot,
but extremely delicious and I must say I have not eaten any better stuffed
eggplant than that. I have tried to recreate it in my adult life by asking my
mom about the ingredients, but I have not been fully successful. Now that we’ve
gone back to childhood memories, let’s get back to the eggplant kebab.
Gaziantep
is known with its eggplant kebab which is normally made on a grill which tastes
even better. But this one is also extremely good and probably easier cooking as
you put it in the oven and forget about it. I made this twice so far; in the
initial trial it is juicier than I would have liked and also I used the fat
eggplants that I had in hand. In Gaziantep
the long eggplants are know as “kebaplık patlıcan” meaning “eggplants
specifically for kebap”. This version turned out better than the first one. The
amount was perfect for two adults and two small children and we had leftovers.
You can easily double the recipe for a larger amount.
1 lb ground beef
4-5 eggplants (long eggplants)
1 tomato (cut in half)
8 pearl onions
2 green peppers (any kind of long and thin peppers will
work)
1 clove garlic (chopped fine)
1 small onion (grated)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1 ¼ tsp salt
For the Sauce:
2 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 cup cold water
For Soaking Eggplant:
5 cups cold water
2 tsp salt
Mix ground beef, garlic, grated onions, red pepper flakes,
black pepper and salt well.
Pull a walnut sized piece and slightly flatten. 1
lb ground beef made 17 small patties.
Cut the eggplants 1-1.5 inches wide.
Cut
as many pieces as the number of ground beef (in this case 17). Soak the eggplants in the salted cold water
for about 30 minutes to get out any bitterness that may exist. In a round pan, arrange
the beef and eggplants by alternating with one piece of eggplant and one piece
of meat starting from the edge of the pan until all the meat and eggplants are
used up. In the middle of the pan, place the tomato halves and the pearl
onions.
Mix the salt, olive oil and tomato sauce with 1 cup of water. Pour it
all over the pan.
Add the green peppers and cover with aluminum foil.
Bake at 400º F for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove
aluminum foil and continue to bake for another 15 minutes until the vegetables
show signs of roasting. Five minutes of broiling also will work.
Enjoy with rice pilaf or just flat bread.
Note: If your pan is
bigger and have a lot of room left in the middle, you may add more tomatoes,
onions and green peppers inside.
Labels: Beef Dishes, Kebabs, Vegetable Dishes
