Persian Khoresht Bodemjoon – Eggplant and Lamb Stew

Photo: Zomppa

Ingredients

2 ggplant – peeled and sliced lengthwise approx half a cm in width

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

400 gs lamb

1 cans diced tomato (400g each. Or of course you can use fresh tomato, or 1 can pl

Oil

1 juice of lemon

1/2 tsp a heaped teaspoon of turmeric

Salt to taste

Optional spices: cinnamon and/or cumin

Preparation

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.

Rinse the eggplant slices and squish out some of the excess water (taking care not to break the eggplant).

Oil up your fry pan. Note, eggplant will soak up a lot of oil. Try not to think about it too much.

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.

Place fried eggplant to the side (and you may want to use some paper towels to soak up excess oil).

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.

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.)

Add remaining canned tomato.

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.

Add lemon juice just a few minutes before taking off the heat.

Serve with rice. Persian rice is most delicious to serve it with, but we’ll have to save that recipe for another time!