stuffed egg plant

 Stuffed Egg Plant
(Shiekh el Mahshie)

To Prepare the Eggplant
Use baby eggplant or regular eggplant. Choose firm fruits without blemishes or bruises.

The eggplant can be prepared a day ahead and either refrigerated or frozen.

Ingredients

8 small eggplants or 5 regular eggplants
salt
olive oil



Directions

Slice off the green caps,
wash eggplants, slice eggplants

Place the eggplant in a pyrex dish

lengthwise in half and then quarters.
If using regular sized eggplants,
cut the halves into thirds and then
each length into halves so they are
not so long. Arrange eggplants on a
platter in a single layer, sprinkle with
salt and leave for up to an hour until
the moisture is beading on the eggplant.
Pat dry with paper towels. Pour olive
oil into pan, about 2 inches deep and
saute eggplant until golden brown.

Remove and place on paper towel.
This drains off any excess oil.
Place the eggplant in a pyrex dish (spray first with Pam)At this point you can cover the dish, place in the fridge and continue the next day or freeze for another day.






To Prepare the Stuffing

Ingredients

1/2 lb ground beef 90%

Prepare stuffing in a frying pan.

1 Spanish onion
4 tablespoons pine nuts (optional)
1 tablespoon allspice
1 teasp. salt
shake of pepper                                                
small can tomato paste
beef broth (Campbells)
tablespoon olive oil









In a frying pan, heat the oil, saute the chopped onion until golden brown,
add pinenuts and continue frying for 2 minutes. Add the ground beef
and stir so everything is mixed in. Add allspice, salt and pepper,
continue stirring until beef is done.



Spread the whole meat mixture over the egg plant being careful to tip the pan so the oil stays behind.

Meanwhile, mix together the tomato paste and beef broth in a mixing bowl and pour over the egg plant and meat stuffing. You may need to add a little water so that the liquid comes close to the top but doesn’t completely cover it.

Preheat oven at 300 degrees F and cook uncovered for 35 minutes or until bubbling away. Serve with rice.

This dish freezes very well, so you can make it ahead of time.
Take dish out of freezer in the morning, leave out covered, plan on cooking it in the oven  at 275 degrees F for 1 hour, check and turn the oven up to 300 degrees F. for the last half hour. We generally eat around 6 p.m. I sometimes think it’s even better as all the ingredients have blended together. My mother in law used to say it was like a marriage of tastes.