Materials:
For the eggplants and the trimming
4-5 medium sized eggplants (about 2 pounds)
2 cups of corn oil for frying
1 cup kefalotyri grated
10 thin slices of tomato (optional)
some freshly grated pepper (optional)
For the mincemeat
One pound mincemeat (preferably veel)
1 medium sized onion cut
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup parsley chopped up
2 fresh ripe tomatoes chopped up
4-5 table spoons olive oil
Grated Cinnamon, salt, pepper
For the beshamel
1 liter milk
2 table spoons vegetable fat
3 table spoons flour
Grated nutmeg, salt (maybe pepper)
How to cook it
We wash the eggplants carefully, and split them along the middle.
We sprinkle enough salt inside a little bowl and leave like that out
of the fridge for 1-2 hours (This is to take away the bitterness). We
rinse them and squeeze them with our hands so that all the water
will drain. Fry them in a deep pan till they get some color. Temperature
should be medium and we should wait for the oil to burn, but not
enough to start smoking. The purpose is to fry them in the inside
as well as the outside. I use corn oil cause it adds almost no smell to
fried food. If we want to we can use olive oil, but that would make them
too "heavy" on the stomach. Then we place them in a little pan.
In a pot we heat up the oil and saute the onions. We throw in the mince
meat and saute it and then the white wine. We add tomato, parsley,
cinnamon, salt and pepper. We cover it up and let it boil in an average
temperature, till the sauce tightens and drinks up it's fluids. (about 45
minutes). Then we let it cool down a bit, add the half cup of grated
kefalotyri, and stir.
For the beshamel, we poor in a small pot the milk, as much water and
start heating it. We take it off the fire, but must be careful to keep it
warm when we poor it on the flour. If the milk is fresh, you don't need
to add water. We heat up the vegetable fat, and when it's warm, throw
in the flour, and stir continuously to make the mixture uniform. A wire
stirrer is useful for that. We carefully add the milk and keep stirring at
a medium rate, so that it won't marble. The more we let it boil, the
thicker it will become. When it is as thick as we want it to be, we add the
nutmeg. Taste it and add whatever spice you think it needs.
Apoply pressure to the eggplants along the middle with a spoon so that a
bump is created. Put 3-4 tablespoons of mince meat in each eggplant.
Make the surface uniform, and with a spoon apply some beshamel on it.
If we want to, we can place the thin slice of tomato on it. Then we sprinkle
with grated kefalotyri and maybe some pepper. We put the food in a
pre-heated oven and cook it at 180 degrees (celsius) for about an hour.
When the beshamel is red, and the eggplants are dry, our food is ready
and we can serve it...
Enjoy!
