Imam Baildi ? Imam Bayildi ? ???? ????????

A classic Turkish dish that the Greeks also love to eat. Imam Bayildi or Imam Baildi as it is often written can be prepared as a vegetarian dish as well as with meat. I have prepared a version with minced meat. You can also leave the meat out and serve it with a nice tomato and onion sauce as you can see here at my friend Peter’s blog.

For the meat sauce dice the onion and the tomatoes. Fry the onion in a pan with some oil for a couple of minutes, then add the meat. Now add the tomatoes, a sip of wine the thyme, salt and pepper. Let the sauce simmer for a bit.

Wash then dry off the eggplant. Use a vegetable peeler or knife to stripe the eggplants length wise.

Fry the eggplant in some olive oil form all asides, so they take some color. Remove them form the pan and place them on some kitchen paper to set aside.

Then cut them open along one of the stripes. Be careful to just slice them open but not to cut them through. Use a spoon to remove a little bit of the meat of the eggplant, so you create some space for the sauce.

Fill the eggplant with the meat sauce and place in the oven for 40 minutes at 360 degrees Fahrenheit.