Being a Greek of Asia Minor Greek heritage spices play a huge part in my cooking. Some may even mistake my food for Turkish... but that is another story! When I started my cooking classes over a decad...
Read moreEggplant wrapped Soutzoukakia
The Story
Politiki Kouzina
Eggplant wrapped Soutzoukakia
Spicy soutzoukakia wrapped in eggplant and baked in a cinnamon tomato sauce.
Ingredients
- 2 eggplants
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 300 g beef or lamb mince
- 300 g pork mince
- 1 small onion finely diced
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tbs salt
- 2 tsp ground black pepper
Tomato Sauce
- 400 g diced canned tomato
- 1 tsp tomato paste
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tbs olive oil
Instructions
- Remove the stem and slice the eggplant long ways in thin strips.
- Baste eggplant with olive oil on both sides and sprinkle with sea salt.
- Place on baking sheet lined tray and bake until just soft... approx 15 minutes.
- In a mixing bowl, add both pork and beef mince, minced onion, parsley, egg, spices, breadcrumbs and water.
- Knead the mince well. Squish through fingers for at least a couple of minutes ensuring that ALL ingredients are incorporated. Take a bit of the mixture and cook, then taste. Add more spices etc if needed.
- Lay one of the eggplant slices on a chopping board, grab an amount of the meat mixture (small mandarin sized) and shape into sausage. Just long enough for the largest part of eggplant to cover. Then roll.
- Repeat this and place neatly in your cooking tray.
- For the sauce, dilute tomato paste with water, add the can of tomato, salt, sugar, chilli flakes and olive oil in a bowl and stir until all combined.
- Pour sauce carefully over the eggplant souttzoukakia and bake for approximately 50 minutes in a 190˚ Celsius fan forced oven or until soutzoukakia are cooked through and some of the eggplant and tomato mixture is slightly charred. Allow to sit for about 20 minutes.
- Sprinkle with feta....and eat when warm to room temperature on a balmy summer night along with a Greek salad and a chunk of bread for dipping into the sauce and salad.
