Today we wanted to make something special for dinner. We usually prefer raki if we want to have some alcohol at dinner. But today we decided to have red wine instead and that’s why we thought that it would be better to try something new, something not eaten with raki before. We love red wine either with some high quality cheese or red meat. As it’s been a long time since we ate meat last (it was four big days ago!), we prefer meat. The red wine we had was Terra/Shiraz from Kayra wines. And it accompanied our dish of eggplant and meat very well. The name of this dish is given by me because or its shape. The original name of it is “Bostan Kebabi”.
Bostan Kebabi
Ingredients
• 4 medium size eggplant
• 1 onion, diced
• 200gr veal steak, diced
• 2 green peppers, diced
• 1 tomato
• 6 cloves garlic, diced
• ½ tbsp tomato paste
• 1 cup vegetable oil (for frying)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Cumin
• ½ cup water
As it will last longer to cook the meat, start with it. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a pan and add the diced meat. Saute it until all the water evaporates. Then add diced onion, garlic and pepper. Saute them until they change color. Then add tomato paste and spices and cook for a few minutes more. Then add water and salt in it. Cook it over the lowest heat until tender.
While the meat is cooking, you can start preparing the eggplants. Peel the eggplants striped. Cut a lengthways piece of it. It shouldn’t be deep cut. That piece will be like the lid of the eggplant. Then scoop out the middle of the eggplant, leave a little bit on the sides and bottom. Give it a shape of a boat.
Wait the eggplants in salty water for half an hour. Strain and dry them.
Preheat the oven to 220 C (428F).
Heat 1 cup vegetable oil in frying pan. Fry the eggplants a little. Don’t fry them much as they’ll also be cooked in oven. Place the fried eggplants in oven tray. Stuff these eggplants with meat with its sauce. You can pour some watery part of its sauce over them. Cut the tomato in finger shapes and place them on each eggplant. Cook it in oven for about half an hour.
A bowl of home made yogurt will be perfect companion for this tasty dish. I use some grains of pomegranate to make it more colorful.
And we continued the night by watching a striking film by Michael Moore, Sicko. So it becomes impossible to end this post with some nice words. No, the problem is not the movie, it was great. But the things we learnt in the film made us feel so sorry.
10 Comments on "Meat on Boat"
Oh my goodness this looks good, and a great reason to break out a new bottle of red wine – I cannot wait to try! I love the addition of pomagranites to the picture
The boats look so yummy! And I love the touch with a few pomegranates!
yum!
I really want to see that movie, but my husband keeps vetoing it.
This looks delicious! I am an eggplant lover. About the acorn squash you were asking me about. They do taste a little like zucchini but they have the texture of a potato.
Great dish. The pomegranate seeds are so pretty with it!
It looks and sounds delicious! I’ve only had grilled eggplant (as a side) or as baba ghannoush so I should expand my repertoire a bit.
An update on my search for grape molasses and simit – no luck at the Eastern European market so I will try a Greek/Mediterranean market in Minneapolis. Wish me luck!
Oops – I meant salep! I want to try this orchid drink.
Okay this is going to be long. First, I also saw y our simit recipe and decided I must find the grape molasses, so here is the link
http://turkishtaste.stores.yahoo.net/koskapekmez.html
I have bough from this site before (spices, meat, cheese) and have always been very happy. Now this gives me a reason to order some more things!
Second Joel (my husband) and I joined a dinner club. One member of the three couples is from Anakra. He was saying that Turkey is producing a ton of wonderful wine right now. Too bad we can’ get it here (at least not in Virginia, possibly NYC?) So was the wine you had Turkish?
Hi Vanessa,
Thank you for the link to grape molasses. I’ve never bought any food product online as we have the chance of buying them from markets. Among other companies, Koska is the best one for grape molasses and tahini. You can buy it without hesitation.
That guy from Ankara is right. Turkey has been producing high quality wines for years. The lands of Turkey are suitable for growing grapes, so there are lots of vineyards all over the country. Turkey also exports wine to other countries. I’m planning to write a post on Turkish wine in the near future.
If you have a chance of visiting Turkey, you should definitely try “Köy Şarabı” (Village Wine), a unique one! So yes, the one we had that night was a Turkish wine.
This is another recipe that I will try Zerrin! I love eggplant, and the way you added some pomegranate nibs for contrast is very tempting. That film Sicko was quite depressing, but often the truth can be like that.