Karniyarik (meat-stuffed eggplants)

Eggplants

Peel the eggplants in lengthwise stripes, rub with salt and leave for 20 minutes. Then rinse and pat completely dry with paper towels.

Chopping

While the eggplants are salting, finely chop the onion, garlic and parsley. Finely dice one pepper and 2 tomatoes; slice the remaining tomato into rounds and the second pepper into strips.

Browning

Heat the oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat and fry the whole eggplants on all sides until soft, 10–12 minutes. Transfer to paper towels.

Make sure the eggplants are dry — water makes hot oil spit. Keep a lid within reach.

Filling

Pour off the oil, leaving 2 tbsp in the pan. Cook the onion for 5 minutes, add the beef and fry, breaking up the lumps, until no pink remains. Add the garlic, diced pepper and tomatoes and 1 tbsp tomato paste, season with salt and pepper and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley.

Stuffing

Heat the oven to 180 °C. Put the eggplants in a baking dish, cut a lengthwise slit in the top of each without reaching the ends, open it into a boat with a spoon and fill with the meat. Top with a tomato slice and a strip of pepper.

Sauce

Stir the remaining tomato paste into 200 ml hot water, season with salt and pour around the eggplants.

Roasting

Bake for 30 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and the vegetables on top are lightly charred. Serve hot with rice. Done!