IMAMBAYILDI

Here is another one of my mother’s recipes. It’s easy to fix, and absolutely delicious. Especially if you have the pirinç pilavı (rice pilaf) to go with it!

Ingredients:

3 medium sized eggplants

3-5 medium sized tomatoes- very thinly sliced or diced.

1-2 large onions

2 cloves of garlic

green peppers (Large ones are best.)

pepper paste (You cannot find this here, so go with a little tomato paste, unless, of course, you make some out of your red peppers.)

sunflower (or plain vegetable oil) –enough to cover at least half of your cut eggplants in a pan.

salt

Preparation:

You don’t need to peel your eggplants for this. I sometimes “zebra-peel” them. Cut each eggplant into 4-8 (long) pieces. (The thicker they are the more the cooking time, obviously.) Rub salt on eggplants. Fry them in oil. (Heat oil before you throw in the eggplants.) Set them aside once they are really soft. Drain on paper towels.

Fry the green peppers (whole, slightly cut in the middle) with stems in the same oil. Once they are soft, remove and drain. Set them on top of your cooked eggplants.

Add onions to the same oil. (You might need to add some more oil at this point; make sure you heat it again before you throw in the onions.)

Once onions are soft, remove and drain with the others. Cook tomatoes in the same oil (not much oil needed for this). Make sure tomatoes are softened. Add pepper (or tomato) paste and mix well. Add garlic and salt.

Add everything together and stir a few times. Now, I hope your table is set, ‘cause your feast is ready!