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Saturday, June 04, 2011

This Morning on CBC's Weekend Morning Show - Imam Baldi

This morning I had the pleasure of presenting this classic Turkish eggplant dish on CBC's Weekend Morning Show with Kerän Sanders. I used the small Indian eggplants with a lovely result.

Please enjoy this classic Turkish dish, Imam Baldi, or, the Imam fainted dead away. I've prepared it with less olive oil by grilling them on the BBQ instead of frying them, thus, hopefully, keeping the Imam quite alive and well.




4 baby globe eggplants or Japanese (peel off 3 slices of outer skin length-wise around the eggplant)
olive oil (for frying and flavour)
Rich tomato sauce (recipe follows)
cilantro (optional)

Grill the eggplants over a hot grill with three strips of peel cut off of each eggplant and drizzled with olive oil. Turn and keep cooking until the eggplant is soft. Remove from heat and split open the eggplants with a sharp knife and let them rest. Spoon the rich tomato sauce into each eggplant.

Rich Tomato Sauce

1 tin crushed tomatoes (organic fire roasted is nicest)
1 onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 tsp dried
1 tsp chopped rosemary
1 tbs olive oil
1/4 cup red wine (optional, try orange juice for a fresh Summer flavour)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp brown sugar (to reduce acid of tomatoes)

Preheat oven to 350°F. On the stove top, preheat olive oil in sauté pan. Carefully brown egplants on all sides. This takes some time. One option is to prepare the eggplant on a BBQ by drizzling olive oil over the eggplants prior to grilling. Remove eggplants from pan and place in a baking dish. Let eggplants rest. Split open the eggplants and spoon in the rich tomato sauce into each eggplant. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and drizzle with good olive oil. Bake for up to 30 minutes. Imam Baldi can be enjoyed hot, cold or room temperature. Serve with bread.

Enjoy!

5 comments:

Beate und Sven said...

I love this dish!
By the way: do you if I can buy anywhere in Winnipeg "Sucuk"? Miss it so much!
Greetings
Beate

Karen Food aka Bistro Arkadash said...

Halal Meats and Specialty Foods on Maryland carries both the mild and hot Sucuk.

Thanks!
Karen

Beate und Sven said...

Thank you so much! You saved our lifes ;-) We went there and found sooo many things we missed.

Beate

Turkish Engineer said...

Hi Karen,
Imam Bayildi is one of my fave dishes too :)
Have you tried Turkish style Tabule (called Kisir in Turkish) yet? The key ingredient is pomegranate juice extract which I cannot find in here in Winnipeg. Any suggestions who might have?

Oh, I would suggest to make dolma (stuffed grape leaves) for your guests, it is delicious. You can also try with cabbage leaf as well.
Enjoy
Selvi

Karen Food aka Bistro Arkadash said...

Pomegranate juice is available at many places. The extract is available at Halal Meats and Specialty Foods, Dino's Grocery Mart, Taste of Europe, Baraka Bakery, etc.