These Mediterranean stuffed eggplants with a ground beef sauce are baked with the sauce and potatoes for an amazing casserole!! As the legend says, the Imam fainted or swooned as he tried this dish:).
I grew up in Albania and this is the way my family made stuffed eggplants. We call them Patellxhane te mbushura or Imam Bajalldi. Other variations include frying the eggplants instead of baking them. Some people make a meatless sauce etc etc. You can get very creative with the sauce.
We usually served these stuffed eggplants with a salad or tarator.
Stuffed Eggplants recipe – https://mediterraneanlatinloveaffair.com/stuffed-eggplants-aubergines/
Salad – https://mediterraneanlatinloveaffair.com/greek-salad-sallate-fshati/
Tarator – https://mediterraneanlatinloveaffair.com/tarator-albanian-cold-cucumber-soup/
If you’re interested in reading more about Albanian Cuisine, please see my article on best Albanian dishes to try when you visit the country – https://mediterraneanlatinloveaffair.com/best-albanian-food/
Please let me know in comments if you have any questions! Thank you for reading my blog and watching my videos:).
Sonila
#stuffedeggplant #imambajalldi #mediterraneanfood
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Let me know if I can help with any questions:).
Sonila
P.S. I am an Albanian food blogger based in Miami, FL. My husband is Bolivian and we have 2 kids. In my blog and my Youtube channel you’ll find lots of home cooked dishes, some Albanian dishes, some Bolivian dishes and some everyday foods with both Mediterranea and Latin inspirations. Thank you for following along:).
hi everyone this is oila from
Mediterranean Latin love affair.com
today I would love to share with you my
recipe for staff Tech plants this is my
family uh makes staff Tech plants we
call them in mambai ald or Pat Jan tush
I grew up in Albania um which is a tiny
Mediterranean country we have um in our
Cuisine a fusion of uh Turkish influence
Greek influence Italian influence it’s
all Mediterranean Cuisine I hope you
enjoy my recipe for staff Tech plants so
first of all you need uh small eggplants
here in United States we call them uh
baby eggplants because they are so tiny
the regular eggplants that they sell in
the stores here are definitely not
plants you can stuff because they are
huge so whenever I find this small
eggplants I get so happy because I can
make my stuffed eggplants dish so I
started by washing putting them dry
first and make sure I can fit a certain
amount of eggplants on the baking dish
it’s a round baking dish of of about 15
uh Ines in diameter and then um I clean
and wash the eggplants I remove the top
part and then um I remove just part of
the peel um in in stripes the way you
see it now on the video I add some salt
over the eggplants olive oil and bake
them for 20 minutes at 400° fah while
the eggplants are being
baked then I start preparing the
stuffing I use one huge Red Onion but
you can also use yellow onion or a white
onion it’s up to you it’s a preference I
try to chop the onion really fine uh
then I minc the garlic you need a lot of
garlic for this dish I start by adding
in the pot about 5 tblspoon
of olive oil then I add the onion I
saute it until it’s uh it becomes
translucent it takes few minutes for
that be patient don’t put the heat too
high because you’ll burn it otherwise
then I add about 3 tablespoons of minced
garlic you need a lot of garlic for this
dish it’s typical of the eggplant dishes
in the Mediterranean
region then I add the meat um you can
use about 1 to 1.25 lb of ground beef um
and um cook it until it’s brown then I
add lots of uh green bell pepper a whole
bunch of H fresh parsley salt black
pepper you add those to taste um then I
blend about four uh big red tomatoes
usually I’d like to use them very ripe
so they are soft um if you want the
sauce look a little bit rder you can add
one can of tomato sauce or you can add
tomato paste and you adjust there for
sauce consistency so to make sure that
the sauce the meat sauce you’re using
for stuffing is not too thin otherwise
it will uh flow out of the eggplants as
they are baking um once you get the
eggplants out of the oven um use a spoon
to remove the seeds in the opening you
created in the eggplant and then you can
add the stuffing um I try to add a lot
of stuffing to each eggplant they kind
kind of you know like they look like uh
they’re going to overflow with it but
it’s usually couple of tablespoons of
stuffing in each egg plant at the end
you might end up with extra uh stuffing
that more than you
needed but um um usually what I try to
do is I add that stuffing in the baking
dish around the eggplants um it will
taste delicious anyway and why um um
have it go to waste but um I also like
to use some potatoes I put them around
the eggplants to fill the spaces in the
dish then I add the leftover uh stuffing
over the eggplants over the potatoes
just around the whole dish fill it all
up since you are baking why why have
anything go to waste I also use some
extra garlic in each eggplant um they
will give extra taste to to the stuffed
eggplants and um you don’t have to you
can skip it the extra gar garlic I just
like it to add it in each eggplant like
one clove of garlic in each eggplant and
then you distribute the stuffing all
over over the potatoes over the
eggplants until you are done with the
whole dish then I tend to you can add
like about half a cup of water in the
dish and bake it that way but I like to
add the water first on the on the pot
where I made the stuffing swirl it
around a little bit it will pick up all
the flavors and then pour it over the
dish I finally bake the dish for 45
minutes U minimum 45 minutes at 400° fit
it can go all the way up to an hour you
want to make sure the eggplants are soft
the potatoes are soft I garnish it with
fresh parsley and I tend to serve the
stuff eggplants with a delicious
salad and um sometimes even with tarator
which is a yogurt dish that we make in
Albania I hope you enjoyed it and I’ll
leave the recipe in comments feel free
to ask me any questions in comment and I
would appreciate it if you like my video
and uh follow me in YouTube thank you so
much and have a great day