Sunday, July 3, 2011

Stuffed Aubergines (Brungiel Mimli)




This is another traditional Maltese recipe of parboiled aubergines stuffed with meat and baked in an oven until done.



Many think that cooking aubergines is complicated since you need to put them under salt for a couple of hours before you cook them. When I'm in a hurry I don't do this and I still get finger licking results!



Ingredients ( for 2 persons)



2 medium sized aubergines (eggplants)


1 onion, sliced


1 garlic clove, crushed


300g minced meat (mix of beef and pork)


2 tbsp margarine (or butter)


2 tsp tomato purée


60g breadcrumbs



4 tablespoons grated cheese,

Worcestershire sauce


grated salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste






Method




Cut each aubergine in half lengthways. Bring a pan of lightly-salted water to a boil, add the aubergine halves and parboil for about 10 minutes. Remove from the water and scoop out the pulp. Retain the pulp.




In the meantime, melt the margarine (or butter) in a pan, add the onion and garlic and fry for 5 minutes. Now stir in the meat, reserved aubergine pulp, tomato purée, and add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. Fry, stirring frequently, until the meat is no longer pink. Take off the heat. Stir in the cheese then season to taste with salt and black pepper.




Arrange the hollowed out aubergine halves in a baking dish and stuff with the meat mixture. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the top then transfer to an oven at 200°C and bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot.




To make this meal more substantial you can add sliced potatoes and onions. Start the potatoes about 45 minutes before the aubergines.

5 comments:

Sue said...

I love them but I prefer to use the small oblong aubergines, I don't know if you have these in Malta.
They are among my favorites.
Sue.

Doreen said...

Thanks Zen for reminding me of this great recipe, I haven't made it in a long time!

Blessings,
Doreen : )

Suki said...

@Sue: oblong aubergines? never heard of these!
@Doreen: See! I gave you another idea for next Sunday's dinner.

Loree said...

The only time I made aubergines I must have done something wrong because they tasted so bitter. I do like them though.

Juniper said...

Mmm I love this dish, and actually its been a good year or so since I have made it! I am inspired by your post and by the abundance of big beautiful eggplants at hand right now, will be making this soon!