Papoutsakia

Submitted by bluemoon downunder

"A classic Greek dish: lamb, eggplant, tomatoes, onion and garlic topped with a yoghurt and feta sauce and baked in the eggplant skins. Delicious served with a Greek salad, crusty rolls and a bottle of your favourite red wine. Adapted from a recipe on the “Australian Women’s Weekly” website."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 17
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 2 large eggplants (600g each)
• 14.79 ml olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 750 g ground lamb
• 14.79 ml tomato paste
• 118.29 ml red wine
• 2 tomatoes, medium-sized, peeled and chopped
• 6 kalamata olives, finely chopped
• 9.85 ml dried oregano
• 4.92 ml ground cinnamon
• salt & freshly ground black pepper

• White sauce

• 500 g continental yoghurt
• 2 eggs
• 118.29 ml greek feta
• 0.25 ml nutmeg
• 78.78 ml grated parmesan cheese

directions

1. Trim the stems from the eggplant. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and, taking care not to break the skins, gently scoop out the flesh.
2. Chop the flesh and set aside.
3. Parboil the skins for 3 minutes, arrange in a lightly oiled baking dish and set aside.
4. Heat 1/4 tablespoon of olive oil in a large non-stick pan, add the minced lamb and stir constantly, until all the meat is browned.
5. Remove the meat, draining off any juices, and set aside.
6. Add 3/4 tablespoon of olive oil to the same pan, add onions and garlic, and sauté until soft but not brown.
7. Add the reserved eggplant flesh, tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste and stirring occasionally cook for 4-5 minutes, until contents of the pan have softened.
8. Add the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.
9. Add the wine and cook for 1 minute.
10. Add the remaining ingredients. Check seasoning, and simmer for 45 minutes.
11. Combine the yoghurt, eggs, cheese and nutmeg. Season to taste.
12. Preheat oven to 180°C.
13. Gently scoop the meat sauce into the eggplant skins which you placed earlier in a baking dish. (The liquid should have reduced sufficiently while the meat sauce was simmering but, if your sauce looks watery, drain off some of the liquid first. You could spoon it into the baking dish around the eggplant skins, or simply discard it.).
14. Top the meat sauce-filled eggplant skins with your white sauce and sprinkle with grated Parmesan.
15. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.
16. Serve with a Greek salad, crusty rolls and the rest of the bottle of red wine.

Reviews

[Dr. Jenny]

This recipe is a little labor intensive, but the end result is well worth the effort. It was delicious! My husband, myself, and a friend we had over all loved it. We would definitely make this again. Thanks for posting!

 

[Moyni]

This is a great recipe for one of my taverna favourties. I didn't chop the onion or aubergine flesh very finely but gave a quick burst of a blender-stick in the pan to get the consistency I wanted before I added the lamb mince back in. I left out the olives (I don't recal ever having those in the dish in Greece). The hint of cinnamon was spot on, as was the nutmeg in the yoghurt/feta topping (which was really nice).

 

[echo echo]

This is quite similar to a stuffed eggplant dish I've made for years, but different in that it uses an egg-yogurt mixture with feta in place of a classic white sauce (roux plus cream). The result is more tangy and absolutely delicious. I did omit seasoning with salt, but the feta cheese adds saltiness.