Persian Khoresht Bodemjoon – Eggplant and Lamb Stew

Ingredients

2 ggplant – peeled and sliced lengthwise approx half a cm in width
400 gs lamb
1 cans diced tomato (400g each. Or of course you can use fresh tomato, or 1 can pl
Salt to taste

Preparation

1
Salt the eggplant for half an hour. I’m not actually sure this step is really necessary. I’m told that all the bitterness of eggplants is bred out these days! I do it anyway because I have a theory that the eggplant slices soak up less oil in the frying process because I’ve rinsed them and they’re holding more water.
2
Rinse the eggplant slices and squish out some of the excess water (taking care not to break the eggplant).
3
Oil up your fry pan. Note, eggplant will soak up a lot of oil. Try not to think about it too much.
4
Fry the eggplant lightly – they just need a bit of a golden brown colour on each side. They don’t need to be cooked through. Um, do try to use a non-stick pan. It was a seriously adrenaline-driven fry up by me tonight as I attempted not to burn the eggplant slices conveniently sticking to the pan.
5
Place fried eggplant to the side (and you may want to use some paper towels to soak up excess oil).
6
In another pan fry up onion, garlic and diced lamb. Add turmeric (and cinnamon or cumin if you like). Fry on high for a few minutes to get the lamb cooking and add one can of diced tomato. Add salt to taste. Turn heat down.
7
Layer eggplant on top gently! (This is the admonition I get from my mum, so as not to break apart the lovely slices of eggplant. But frankly, I’m just not that graceful.)
8
Add remaining canned tomato.
9
Bring to boil and then leave to simmer for as long or as little as you like. I left it on the heat for about 45 minutes last night, but my mum cooks it gently for a couple of hours. Note: I seemed to have a lot of excess water in mine, so I left the lid off towards the end to let it cook down a bit.
10
Add lemon juice just a few minutes before taking off the heat.
11
Serve with rice. Persian rice is most delicious to serve it with, but we’ll have to save that recipe for another time!
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About

A classic, hearty Persian stew! http://tinyurl.com/244979z

Yield:

6 small portions

Added:

Monday, November 8, 2010 - 9:52am

Creator:

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