Imam Bayaldi

Total Time: 2 hrs 5 mins Preparation Time: 25 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 40 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 1 1/2 kg eggplants (at least 12-cm long, if possible, and the thin ones rather than the fat ones)
• 1 1/3 kg spanish onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• 100 ml oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 200 g plum tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped
• 2 whole nutmegs, grated
• 4 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• sea salt, to taste
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Recipe

• 1 peel half the skin away from the eggplants in long strips, so that they look stripy. with the tip of a paring knife, make a deep slash lenghtways on each eggplant. sprinkle the eggplants with salt and allow them to stand for 30 minutes, then rinse.
• 2 preheat the oven to 180°c/350°f/gas 4.
• 3 put the onions into a pan, preferably non-stick, with 50ml of the olive oil and the sugar. cook very slowly for about 1 hour until the onions are completely soft and the mixture is the consistency of a light jam.
• 4 spread one third of the mixture over the base of an oiled casserole dish (it needs to be a casserole dish with a lid, as you'll need to use the lid later), then add a layer of chopped tomatoes and set aside.
• 5 add the remaining tomatoes to the fried onions in the pan; and add the nutmeg and half of the parsley; mix well and cook for 10 minutes.
• 6 add the water to the pan contents and stir; arrange the eggplants on the onion mixture in the bottom of the casserole and with a spoon, stuff the garlic slices into the slashes in the eggplants.
• 7 add the pan contents to the casserole dish and work it into the slashes in the eggplants as well. at this point, the casserole dish should be really full!
• 8 season to taste and pour the remaining oil over the contents; cover the casserole with a sheet of foil and then the lid. this should ensure that it is thoroughly sealed.
• 9 cook in the oven for 40 minutes, or until the eggplants are really soft. if you like a thick sauce, remove the lid for the last 10 minutes to allow it to dry off a little.
• 10 allow the dish to cool off until it is lukewarm, then sprinkle with the remaining parsley and serve.