1tspsilan date honey or tamarind paste. (You may also use bee’s honey, but increase the lemon juice by 1 more teaspoon in that case.)
1tspsugar
½tspsalt
1cinnamon stick
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425° F (220° C).
Halve the eggplants horizontally. Place them, purple side down, in a roasting pan. Brush their pale interiors with 4 tablespoons of the olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Bake 20 minutes.
In the meantime, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet, over medium heat. Add the onions.
Mix up the spice blend in a small bowl. Add half of it to the onions, stirring it in. Cook the seasoned onions until well wilted and golden, about 10 minutes, stirring.
Add the lamb, pine nuts, parsley, tomato paste, 1 teaspoon each of sugar and salt, and more pepper. Keep cooking and stirring until the meat is cooked through – about 8 more minutes.
To the rest of the spice blend in the small bowl, add the water, lemon juice, silan (or honey), the remaining 2 teaspoons sugar, the cinnamon stick and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
By this time, the eggplants should be golden and ready to remove from the oven to cool a little.
Reduce the oven temperature to 375° F (195° C).
Move the eggplants around a little to let you pour the spiced water into the bottom of the roasting pan. Cover each half of the eggplant with the lamb.
Cover the pan tightly with tin foil and roast for 45 minutes. Baste the eggplants with the sauce that forms in the pan. Cover them again with tin foil and bake for another 20 minutes. If it looks like the sauce is drying out, add a little more water (or white wine). Baste again. Cover once more and bake another 15 minutes.
Now it’s ready. My sauce was not thick, as the cookbook says it will be, but that’s probably because I cooked the dish in the bottom of a tajine, which collects much of the condensation even without the conical top.
Ottolenghi and Tamimi suggest serving this dish warm or at room temperature, not hot. We ate it warm, sprinkled with more chopped parsley. It was fine. Enjoy!
Notes
Adapted from "Jerusalem, A Cookbook" by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.