Claudia Roden & the main course

Ready for part two?

I don’t know what took me so long but I finally got Claudia Roden’s The Book of Jewish Food. It’s such a fascinating and educational read and one of the more complete cookbooks you can hope to find – there is every backstory, every variation and every kind of recipe you’ve ever tried or wanted to try.

We made Eggplants (Aubergines) stuffed with lamb and pine nuts, which is actually a famous Arab dish called Sheikh el Manshi Betingan (this comes from the Sephardi part of the book).

While the recipe is a little time-consuming, it’s not complicated and the complex flavors are well-worth it. Here it is below, with our slight variations.

You’ll need:

• 4 small or 2 large eggplants (total weight about 1 1/4 lbs)
• salt
• 1 onion, chopped (we used a mix  of small red and white)
• sunflower of other light veg oil
• 1 lb or 500 g ground lamb
• pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice (or make your own by grinding cloves and mixing with ground cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg)
• 1/4 cup or about 50 g pine nuts (we roasted ours for about 10-15 minutes)
• 2 garlic cloves (I actually also roasted these lightly before sautéing)
• 1 lb or 500 g peeled and chopped tomatoes (ours came from a can mixed with one fresh tomato)
• 1 teaspoon sugar

1. Peel the eggplants, cut the small ones in half lengthwise and the large ones crosswise in slices of 3/4 inch (approx 2 cm). Sprinkle with salt and let stand for an hour to let the liquid come out. This is so that the eggplant doesn’t become soggy.

2. For the filling: fry the onion in 2 tablespoons oil, until golden. Add in the lamb, salt, pepper and allspice and cook, turning frequently and using a fork to crush the meat and separate. Cook for a few minutes until the meat changes color. Add the pine nuts. Set aside but keep warm.

3. For the sauce: fry the garlic in 1 tablespoon of oil, ass the tomatoes, salt, pepper and sugar and simmer on low for 15 minutes (this is delicious – adding the sugar and roasting the garlic really did the trick). We like a lot of sauce so we may have made a little bit more. Don’t worry, you’ll eat it all!

4. Preheat oven to 180 C (350F). Rinse and dry the eggplant with paper towels and fry very briefly in very hot oil, turning them over once until lightly browned. They should still be undercooked. Drain on paper towels and arrange in an oven dish with the cut side up. Spread a little filling on each and pour the tomato sauce between them (and on top too, in our case).

5. Bake for 30 minutes and serve hot.