Imam bayildi literally means ‘the imam fainted’ there are few folklore stories that go around with this. The story I grew up with was when this imam first tried this dish he fainted as it was so good! It is also known as karniyarik, I guess in Turkish tradition imam bayaldi is meatless, but Albanians add meat, I have Turkish friends who add meat as well, and still call it imam bayaldi.
It really is delicious, it’s been a favourite of mine since I was a kid, I was never a big fan of eggplant but prepared like this I was. Now a day’s I like eggplant in many ways….it’s become one of my favourite vegetables!
You can make this a layered dish or stuff baby eggplants. Both ways are delicious!
For my layered recipe follow this link—>layered-imam-bayildi-meat
For stuffing baby eggplant:
- 8-10 baby eggplants cut in half
- 2 small tomatoes
- 2 small onions
- 1 cubanelle pepper
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tomatoes sliced for the tops
- 1 cup tomato-sauce
Seasonings:
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
- 1/2 seasoning salt
- 1 tsp paprika
Cut eggplants in half, scoop out the inside of the eggplant (I use a melon scoop) , sprinkle salt on the eggplant to prevent browning.
Chop and dice the onion, tomatoes and pepper, add to a pan with some olive oil and cook until tender, add ground beef and the seasonings and tomato paste. Cook until tender, taste and adjust seasonings. Spread the tomato sauce on the bottom of pan. Lay the eggplants on baking dish and spoon the filling inside each half. Top with a slice of tomato.
Drizzle with olive oil, cover and bake at 350 for 1 hour or more until fully baked, depends on your oven, it can take longer to bake.
You can cook the scooped eggplant with the meat, just mash so that it can soften and cook along with the filling, or you can make another use for it.
[…] you want you can follow the layered or stuffed-eggplant versions, all taste the same its the preparation that makes the difference. You can also cook […]