Eggplant

 

Last week my neigbhor and I were talking and she mentioned she had a ton of left over turkish food. Before I knew it, she was knocking on my door with three plates full of amazing turkish dishes. The next day when I was eating some, I thought that the eggplant dish tasted very simular to this restaurant from the area that I grew up in. It turns out it was from this restarant, they serve this yummy eggplant dish. It's just eggplant with tomato sauce, pinenuts, onions and other ingredients. I tried looking up this dish, asked my turkish neigbors what for the recipe and could not find it. So, I tried to make it up! I actually think I did a good job! If anyone knows what this is called let me know. Here is what I did....
With one perfect eggplant I cut it in half, salted it and let it sit for a few minutes. I feel I should of let it sit for more than I did, but I am very impatient. This process got some of the water content out of the veggie...
In a hot pan I poured about one tablespoon of olive oil on the bottom and placed the eggplant open side down in the hot pan. I added about 1/4-1/2 cup of water and placed the lid on the pan to let the eggplant steam for a bit(4-6 minutes).
In another pan (while eggplant was steaming) I added chopped onion, orange bellpepper, garlic, pine nuts, parsley and canned tomato and let it cook for 5 minutes.
When the tomato mixture was done, place eggplant skin side up in a baking dish and pour tomato mixture ontop. Let cook for 35 minutes in 350 oven.

I served as a side dish with chicken and brown rice. John really liked it, so it must of been good! I too, thought it was a keeper for my dinner rotations!