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.