Khoresh Bademjan

The aubergines are salted, fried and added at the end so they keep their shape.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

• 4 large aubergines, peeled and quartered lengthways
• 2 tablespoons salt, for drawing the aubergines
• 700 g lamb shoulder, in 3 cm cubes
• 2 onions, sliced
• 4 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 150 g unripe grapes, or juice of 2 limes
• 1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
• 2 teaspoons advieh
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, ground and steeped in 3 tablespoons hot water
• 200 ml sunflower oil, for frying the aubergines
• 8 small tomatoes, to fry whole as garnish

Method

1. THE AUBERGINES ARE SALTED, FRIED AND ADDED AT THE END SO THEY KEEP THEIR SHAPE. Its article sets out all three steps and the reason for the third. Peel them, quarter them lengthways, salt them heavily and leave them an hour -- the salt draws out water and bitterness and, just as usefully, collapses the sponge so they absorb far less oil. Pat them dry, fry them in a shallow centimetre of oil until deep gold on each cut face, and then lay them on the stew only for the final fifteen minutes. Put in at the start they dissolve and the aubergine becomes a texture in the sauce rather than pieces you can see.
2. THEY ARE RINSED AND DRIED PROPERLY OR THEY SPIT. After an hour under salt there will be a pool of brown liquid. Rinse it off, then press the pieces between towels until the surfaces are dry. Wet aubergine in hot oil spits hard and steams rather than browning.
3. THEY ARE LAID ON TOP, NOT STIRRED IN. Arranged over the surface of the stew in a single layer so they warm through in the steam. One stir breaks them up.
4. THE SOURING AGENT IS UNRIPE GRAPES IF YOU CAN GET THEM. Its article names unripe grapes, verjuice, lime juice or dried lime, and distinguishes a whole variant by it -- ghooreh bademjan is the one made with sour grapes. Whole unripe grapes go in for the last twenty minutes and stay as little sour bursts; lime juice is stirred in off the heat.
5. THE LAMB IS BROWNED WITH ONION AND TURMERIC. Onions sliced and softened, turmeric for thirty seconds, then the meat browned hard, then the chopped tomato and the purée fried out for two minutes before water goes in.
6. AN HOUR AND A HALF, AND THE SAUCE IS REDUCED NOT SOUPY. Water barely to cover, lid on, until the lamb gives. Then the lid off, the saffron water in, and reduced until a spoon drawn through leaves a channel.
7. ADVIEH AND SAFFRON ARE THE PERFUME AND THEY GO IN LATE. Its article credits both for the dish's aroma. Advieh stirred in for the last twenty minutes, saffron water at the very end -- boiled hard for an hour both are wasted.
8. SMALL WHOLE TOMATOES FRIED AND SET ON TOP. Its article gives the garnish as small whole fried tomatoes and fried onion. Fry them whole until the skins split, and put them on with the aubergines.
9. THE SPLIT-PEA VERSION IS A DIFFERENT DISH. Its article names gheymeh bademjan, which adds yellow split peas and belongs to the split-pea family -- that stew is Gheimeh, as on its own page.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Iran · All recipes