Sunday, November 7, 2010

The Imam Fainted

This weekend our program took all the students on a little trip to the Red Sea. We stayed in a beach resort and reconnected with the group of people who hadn't all been together since our orientation in the beginning of September. It was a weekend of relaxation and restoration. This coming week we all have midterms and the little break was much needed fuel for the frantic studying that must now commence. We arrived in the afternoon and spent the day on the shores of the sea, soaking up the sun on parts of our body that haven't seen its rays since we arrived. My shoulders, upper arms, legs, and chest reveled in the blazing heat of the daylight they have so long been hidden from. Our friend Jon serenaded us with his guitar and soothing voice. It was glorious. We took the little red train that transported the hotel guests to and from the beach and drank red wine and smoked peach sisha and watched a belly dancing show. Myself and a few of the other girls snuck back onto the beach at two in the morning, shedding our clothes and running naked into the warm waters of the waiting sea. Moses may have parted these waters centuries ago, but that night we were the masters of the waves. We wondered aimlessly until we found our way back to the hotel and met back up with Jon, who played lullabies while the girls cuddled and drifted off to sleep. I sang Suzanne Vega with him and we harmonized on the chorus of songs we couldn't remember the words to. It was a beautiful weekend. 
Train
Jon
Beach
Hibiscus
In continuing with this post's theme of indulgences, I want to tell you about a little eggplant dish I made the other night. It was the first real meal I cooked in the new kitchen and I think it came out well. I was a little nervous about making it, because it is a classic Turkish preparation and one of the girls I live with has spent many summers with her family in Turkey. But I have been wanting to try this dish since I tasted it over the summer and the shining black-purple skins were calling to me when I stepped into the supermarket. 


This dish is called Imam Bayildi, which translates to "The Imam Fainted." Why the imam fainted seems to be up to some debate: some say he was swooning over the luxurious flavor. Others say it was from shock at the extravagant use of expensive ingredients. I'm more inclined to go with the former, both because I like it better and because, and least these days, this is a pretty inexpensive dish to make. In essence, it is eggplant stuffed with onion, garlic and tomato, smothered in olive oil, and baked until the flavors blend together and the eggplant is softer and smoother than butter. I didn't use a recipe, so I'll just walk you through the steps with rough approximations of the amounts and timing of things. The first thing I did was sliced the eggplants in half lengthwise, covered the fleshy side in salt, and laid them out on paper towel (face down) for about half and hour (see picture above). The salt pulls out the bitter juices from the vegetable, leaving a sweeter final product. When this is done, simply rinse the salt off. The next step was to peel the eggplant. Because it will bake for so long, you don't want to take off all the skin or you will have structural integrity problems later. But taking away some of the skin allows the eggplants to soak up more flavor and, more importantly, the maximum amount of olive oil. So, I peeled the skin off in strips, giving the eggplant a striped design. On the fleshy side, you want to make slits lengthwise (not deep enough to poke through the other side) for the purposes of the impending stuffing. 


The stuffing is simple. In a large pan, fry onions and garlic (I used about 3-4 small onions and 3 large cloves of garlic) in olive oil until the onions become translucent. While the onions and garlic are frying, chop tomatoes (about 3-4 small) and parsley and place in a bowl. Add the cooked onion mixture and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add about a tablespoon of sugar and the juice of half a lemon, plus some more olive oil for good measure. 


Flash fry the eggplant halves in olive oil for about 2-3 minutes each, until just browned. Place in a large baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. To stuff, use a spoon and a fork to fill each of the slits with as much of the onion/tomato mixture as possible. Cover the top with the excess. When you are finished, the flesh of the eggplants should be completely obscured by the stuffing. To finish, drizzle with more olive oil (the olive oil is reportedly the expensive ingredient which may have caused the imam's fainting spell) and sprinkle with just a little more sugar (optional). 


Cover the dish with tinfoil and bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour, occasionally basting it with the juices at the bottom of the pan. These juices (from the stuffing and eggplants, as well as the olive oil) should be bubbling with a warm carmel color by the end. The eggplant itself will be very soft. I finished it off with one last drizzle of olive oil and served it with Turkish butter rice (prepared by my friend). 


 A few notes about this dish: although based on a classic preparation, I claim no expertise in Turkish cooking nor any loyalty to its traditions. This dish is usually prepared with long narrow eggplants and served cold, by itself, as a mezze. I made it with fat, round specimens and served it hot over steaming rice as the main course. My friend of Turkish heritage praised it (although she doesn't much like eggplant) and my other friends raved about it. I found it to be a simple-to-prepare dish with a delicious outcome. 

Although not an Egyptian (or even Arab) dish, I thought I would share it with you all. You can google the name of the dish and find many more specific recipes, for those of you who don't feel comfortable guesstimating.  I'd love to hear about your thoughts, experiences if you try to make it, or favorite eggplant preparations. I have a week of midterms coming up and then I depart for Sweden for my November break. Although I will try to update during that time, I make no guarantees. Hope those of you in more temperate climates are surviving the colder weather. I know it's going to be a hard adjustment for me!