There are a couple things to be careful about when you're cooking with
eggplants. Buy eggplants right before you cook and pick the firmer ones;
eggplants tend to get soft in the refrigerator. And for this dish, do not use
huge American eggplants. Try to find cute little ones or Asian eggplants.
Ingredients
- 1 lb eggplant, peeled in stripes lengthwise
- 1/2 ground meat
- 2 onions, cubed
- 1/2 bunch parsley, finely choppped
- 1 tomato, petite diced (for the stuffing)
- 1 tomato, sliced in half moons (for the top)
- green banana peppers, as many as eggplants
- ground pepper
- salt
- 2 tbs olive oil
- frying oil
- 1 cup hot water
- Peel eggplants leaving lengthwise stripes and then put them in salty water for 10 minutes. Dry them well and fry them as a whole in a deep pot with canola or corn or vegetable oil, whichever you're comfortable with. (Make sure oil is really hot before you place eggplants, otherwise eggplants will soak tons of oil)
- Once they're fried, first soak the excessive oil by resting them on a paper
towel, and then place eggplants on an oven dish. - In a deep frying pan, heat olive oil. Add onions and stir for 3-4 minutes.
- Add ground meat. Cook until ground meat lets all the juice out.
- Add diced tomato. Stir until cooked. Turn it off.
- Add chopped parsley, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
- With the help of two spoons, slit eggplants into two. But leave the tops and
bottoms attached. - Stuff eggplants.
- Place a slice of half moon shaped tomato and a green pepper on top of each
split belly eggplant. - Pour 1 cup of hot water on top and bake them in preheated oven at 400F until green peppers are nicely baked.