Stuffed Baby Eggplants

Stuffed Baby Eggplants w/Tomato-Eggplant Sauce

Ingredients:

2 lbs small or baby eggplants

1/2 lb ground beef

1 cup chopped parsley

2 cups beef broth 

1 can tomato sauce (29 oz)

1 can diced tomatoes (15 oz)

1 T tomato paste

1 cup uncooked white rice

1 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 tea allspice

1 tea dill weed

1 medium onion, diced small 

1 clove of garlic, pressed or minced

2 T olive oil

4 tea salt

2 tea black pepper

In a medium bowl, combine rice, ground beef, diced tomatoes, parsley, 3 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, allspice, dillweed, and 1/2 of the onion.

Mix well using a spoon or your fingers and set aside.

Wash and dry the eggplants. Cut the tops of the eggplants off and set aside.

Using a small spoon or apple corer, scoop out the flesh from the insides of the eggplants. Reserve one cup of the flesh. Make sure not to break the skin otherwise the filling will leak out during cooking.

The eggplants should look like this:

Using your fingers or a spoon, carefully fill each eggplant 3/4 of the way full with the stuffing.

They should not be overstuffed as the rice needs to expand during cooking.

Place the tops back on to the eggplants and place in a medium pot. Try to pack them in so they don't fall over. If needed, can use a toothpick to help keep the tops on. Pour the beef broth into the pot until it reaches halfway up the sides of the eggplant; do not submerge them completely!

Turn heat up to high until broth starts boiling, then decrease to medium; cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

While the eggplants are cooking, heat olive oil in a small sauce pan until shimmering. Add the other half of the  diced onion and the reserved eggplant flesh (if it is too chunky, chop it up) as well as 1 tea salt. Turn heat down to medium, stir and cover. Cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring often to make sure it is not burning, until the onions are translucent and the eggplant is soft.  Add the tomato paste and garlic.

Cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until the garlic is fragrant.

Add the tomato sauce and 1 tea pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Plate the eggplants and serve with rice; drizzle the sauce over the rice and the eggplants.

Laban Omo

Egyptian-style beef, sour cream, yogurt & mint dish

Ingredients:

1 lb top-sirloin or London broil (lamb is traditional)

3 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 bay leaf

2 T vegetable oil

2 cups sour cream

2 cups whole yogurt

4 T all purpose flour

2 T butter

1 T fresh mint leaves, chopped (or 1 tea dry mint leaves)

Basmati rice or wide egg noodles, cooked to package directions

Slice meat into 1/4" wafers

In a cast-iron skillet, heat up 1 T vegetable oil; over medium-high heat, cook half of the sliced beef until well-browned.

Put first batch of beef into a bowl; add next T vegetable oil, brown the other half of the beef.

Once the second batch is done, add the first batch back into the skillet.  Turn heat down to low and add the flour.

Using a wooden spoon, coat all the beef slices in the flour and scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the skillet.  Add the chicken broth a half-cup at a time, constantly scraping the bottom with the spoon. Mix the flour and broth well with the spoon, turning up the heat to medium-high after the last half-cup of broth is added.

Add the yogurt, sour cream, bay leaf and mix well.  Bring the mixture to a boil, then cover and simmer on medium-low for 2 hours or until the beef is fork-tender. Stir every 20 minutes to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the skillet. After about an hour and a half, if you have not already done so I would start making the rice or pasta.

After beef is finished cooking, melt the butter in a small sauce-pan over medium heat.

Once the butter has finished foaming, take it off the heat and add the chopped mint leaves.

Stir the mint-butter mixture until fragrant, and then add to the skillet (looks and tastes almost like honey)

Stir until well combined, serve immediately over the rice or pasta.