Persia has always held my attention. As a Jesuit student in Adelaide I was taught Greek and Latin (not that much stuck) and also their histories. Darius I huge Empire was taken on by the city state of Athens and beaten at the battle of marathon and Salamis.
Persian Seared Eggplant
Persia has always held my attention. As a Jesuit student in Adelaide I was taught Greek and Latin (not that much stuck) and also their histories. Darius I huge Empire was taken on by the city state of Athens and beaten at the battle of marathon and Salamis.
The domination of Greece was celebrated about how West ‘won’ over the East. Yet a Prof John Keane in his epic, “The Life and Death of Democracy” says Persia not Greece was the origin of people’s assemblies as the earliest form of democracy some hundreds of years earlier. Our prejudices of the East are still deeply engrained.
Middle Eastern food has become established, just like Italian and Greek in earlier waves of migration. Persian food is less well known. This is a recent recipe that I have found easy and tasty to eat and a celebration of a unique culture that was part of emergence of civilisation in the Middle East.
Ingredients
I large eggplant
½ kg of lean ground beef
1 large onion diced
1 large tomato diced
3 cloves minced garlic
Small can of tomato paste
Cup Greek yoghurt
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon black pepper
Olive oil
Method
1. Rinse eggplant, cut stem off and cut into slices 0.6cm and cut into 2cm pieces
2. Place eggplant pieces in a large plan covered by water simmering. Cook for 2 minutes and then turn over the eggplant and cook for another two minutes.
3. Rinse and dry the plan and add olive oil and on a medium heat fry the eggplant and sear for 2 minutes on both sides
4. In a mixing bowl combine beef, diced onion, turmeric salt and pepper
5. Put the mixture in frying pan with olive oil breaking up into small pieces
6. Cook for 5-10 minutes until it browns and s cooking in its own juices.
7. Add the tomato paste, eggplant and dice tomato
8. Turn down heat to low and mix occasionally for 5 minutes
9. Mix minced garlic with yoghurt and place a dob on each serve
10. Service with rice
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