Gluten Free Imam Bayaldi (Yummy Aubergine Dish!)

The other day my brother in law brought a vegetarian friend over for dinner, so I did a big greek/turkish mezze type thing. We had falafel, breaded fried feta, salad, humus, tatziki, bread and couscous (not for me!), and a big dish of Imam Bayladi. Apparently this translates as priest (imam) fainted. Why he fainted is another matter, maybe cos its so yummy, possibly as it uses loads of olive oil, an expensive commodity at one time. It's a nice gutsy tomato sauce that the aubergines are cooked in whole or in halves, with so much oil it all goes meltingly soft, but the dish still holds its overall shape. Here is how I make mine, it serves 4 as the main part of the meal.

red onion 1, roughly chopped
black olives 10, pitted and sliced
garlic cloves 4, thinly sliced
aubergines 4
chopped tomatoes 2 tins
nutmeg
flat leaf parsley chopped (1 tbsp)
fresh mint chopped (1tsp)
salt and pepper
garam masala 1/2 tsp
lime 1, juiced
greek virgin olive oil 150ml

To make this you will need a deep oven proof dish that the aubergines fit in side by side whole, or in half. I used the whopping le cruset I got for my birthday, but as its round had to chop the aubergines in half to get them in.

First prep your aubergines, Pull back the green leaf stuff at the stalk till they snap off, then cut off each stalk as close to the purple as possible. Now with a potato peeler or knife peel strips off longways till they are stripy purple and white. Cut a wedge length ways out of the aubergine, about a third of it cut out, as you will be stuffing the sauce in the aubergines. So now you will have 4 aubergine boats, and 4 wedges of aubergine. Sprinkle the lot with the lime juice and pop to one side.

In a big pan fry your onions in some of the olive oil till soft with the garam masala, then chop the spare aubergine flesh up and add this with the garlic, fry till its starting to go mushy. Add the tomatoes, herbs, salt and pepper, olives, a grating of nutmeg and simmer for 20 mins till thickened. I sometimes add a dash of cayenne pepper, chilli oil or a teaspoon of harissa too.

Put half the sauce in your oven proof dish, bung in the aubergine boats, and stuff the other half of the sauce in the aubergines. Now gloop over all that olive oil, cover with foil or a lid and cook in the oven for 1 and a half to two hours at 170 degrees C. Check after an hour and take the lid off to brown for the last half hour of cooking so it thickens some more and the aubergines go a nice colour.

This bit is important, take it out of the oven 30 mins before you want to eat it and loosely cover with foil, then leave to go room temp. It's much nicer at room temperature, and very good cold too.

It's a lovely main dish for veggies, or you can serve as a side, with my Moroccan chicken, or with a spiced leg of roast lamb, which is what I fancy cooking next!

Tonights dinner is smoked haddock fishcakes, that I have just knocked together with some line caught smoked haddock, some pre-made mash from M&S, spring onions and chopped chillis. I'm going to gf breadcrumb and fry them later, so the breadcrumbs stay crispy, and serve with some nice green veggies.

Oh and a word on salting aubergines, there is no need these days to cover the raw aubergines in salt and leave for the water to drip out, modern varieties are not bitter like the old days, though if you are buying at market ask them to cut one open so you can check they are not very pippy, as these ones can be bitter and the pips are small and annoying.