Show the Working

İmam Bayıldı

No meat at all, an extravagant amount of olive oil, and it is cooled completely before it is eaten.

Vegan.

Ingredients

Method

  1. NO MEAT AT ALL, AN EXTRAVAGANT AMOUNT OF OLIVE OIL, AND IT IS COOLED COMPLETELY BEFORE IT IS EATEN. All three together make the dish, and the cooling is the one most often skipped. Two hundred millilitres of oil for six aubergines, and the dish is then left for three or four hours until it is properly at room temperature or below. Olive oil tastes quite different cold: the fruitiness comes forward and the oil thickens slightly and clings, and the aubergine, which has absorbed it, eats like something dressed rather than something fried. Served hot from the oven it is oily and flat -- the same ingredients doing none of the same work. This belongs to the family of dishes cooked in olive oil specifically to be eaten cold, and the temperature is not a serving note but a step.
  2. THE ONION IS FOUR ONIONS AND IS SLICED PAPER-THIN. As much onion by volume as aubergine. Sliced thin and cooked slowly for twenty-five minutes until it is sweet and entirely collapsed -- it is the filling, and it has to become a soft sweet mass rather than remain recognisable slices. Thickly cut, it stays as onion and the dish is sharp.
  3. THE AUBERGINES ARE FRIED WHOLE AND UNPEELED FIRST. In the oil, turned, until the skin is blistered and dark and the flesh has given way. That frying collapses the flesh so it can be opened out into a pocket, and the skin, left on, is what holds the whole thing together through the long cook. Peeled or baked dry, they fall apart.
  4. THEY ARE SPLIT ALONG ONE SIDE ONLY AND OPENED OUT. A slit from stem to tip through one side, not cut in half, so each aubergine stays a container. The flesh is pressed open with a spoon to make room and the filling is pushed in generously.
  5. IT IS COOKED SLOWLY WITH A LID AND BARELY ANY LIQUID. Two hundred millilitres of water and the lid on, over the lowest heat for forty-five minutes. The oil and the aubergines' own liquid do most of it. Too much water and the oil separates into a slick instead of emulsifying with the tomato.
  6. THE SUGAR IS NOT OPTIONAL. Two teaspoons against four tomatoes. Cold, the dish needs more sweetness than it would hot to taste balanced -- and the onions and tomato are the only sweet things in it.
  7. The onions sliced VERY THIN and softened in half the olive oil over a low heat 25 MINUTES, until sweet and collapsed.
  8. The garlic in for 2 MINUTES, then the tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper, and cooked 10 MINUTES to a thick mass.
  9. Half the parsley stirred through and the filling set aside.
  10. The aubergines FRIED WHOLE AND UNPEELED in the remaining oil, turned, 12 to 15 MINUTES, until blistered dark and soft.
  11. Each SPLIT ALONG ONE SIDE ONLY, from stem to tip, and the flesh pressed open with a spoon.
  12. Stuffed generously with the onion filling and laid side by side in a wide pan.
  13. The water poured around them and the lemon juice added.
  14. Lid ON, cooked over the LOWEST heat 45 MINUTES.
  15. TAKEN OFF AND LEFT TO COOL COMPLETELY, 3 to 4 HOURS, to room temperature or below.
  16. The remaining parsley scattered over at the table.
  17. TESTED cold: the oil should cling rather than pool, and the aubergine should be silky throughout. Warm, it will taste merely oily.

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 Turkey · All recipes