International Cuisine

Ingredients:

12 small size Italian Eggplants
1 pound ground beef
1 big onion, nicely chopped
2 bell peppers (a variety of them)
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato or pepper paste
1 tsp black pepper
A bunch of Italian parsley, chopped
Salt

1. Remove the skin of the eggplants in vertical stripes. Make a split in the middle in each eggplant to put the filling later, and soak them in warm water-salt for about an hour.

2. Dry eggplants nicely and deep fry them until they are well-cooked. Put them on a paper towel and keep aside.

3. For the filling: Put 2 tbsp oil in a pan and caramelize the onions until they are transparent. Add the bell peppers, garlic and sauté them for several more minutes. Add 1 tbsp tomato paste (and/or chopped tomatoes), and one pound of ground beef. (Hulya used extra lean ground beef at the club meeting). Cook them on medium heat until ground beef is cooked. Add the chopped parsley and remove the pan from the stove.

4. Put the fried eggplants, split sides up, on a pyrex container, or anything that can go to the oven. Put few table spoonful of filling inside each eggplant.

5. On a separate saucepan, bring 1 tsp of oil, 2 tsp of tomatoe paste, one cup of water and some salt to a boil. Pour this sauce mixture on eggplants. Put them in the oven (350 degrees) for about twenty minutes. Serve them while they are hot.

Afiyet olsun…

(Bonn Appetite)