My eggplants were small, and I will say I think this would have been even better with larger eggplants. With these, the ratio of stuffing to eggplant was a little overwhelming. I also halved the recipe. Brushed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, my eggplants went into the oven to roast.
While the eggplant roasted, I mixed together the cumin, cinnamon and paprika, and chopped onion.
Half of the spice mix gets sautéd with the onions for eight minutes. At this point the fragrance is unbelievable.
The other half of the spice mix gets blended with water, lemon juice, tamarind paste, and cinnamon sticks. it will be used later.
I get those pine nuts ready, along with the tomato paste, a bit of salt and a bit of sugar.
The eggplant comes out of the oven and cools a bit while I finished the stuffing/meat mixture. The heat on the oven gets lowered at this point as well.
The meat (lamb or beef), pine nuts and tomato paste/salt/sugar gets mixed into the onions/spice mixture, and cook until the meat is done.
The liquid spice mixture, cinnamon sticks, and eggplant are fitted into a pan where they fit fairly tightly.
And the meat mixture is spooned on top. While I cooked all the meat, I only used half on these smaller eggplants (plus I only used two eggplants versus 4 from the recipe).
You cover this tightly with foil and roast 1-1 1/2 hours. As mine were small, mine were done in an hour. You are to check 3 times during the cooking and spoon the sauce over the top.
I really like this a lot and would do it again. Like I said, I would probably use bigger eggplants. Plus, I really think some raisins added to the mixture would be great.
Unfortunately, this is one of those foods that doesn't photograph all that well (or maybe they would if I was a better food stylist. Or a food stylist period).
