KARNIYARIK

SPLIT BELLY EGGPLANTS
Ingredients:

• 8 baby eggplants
• 1 cup of vegetable oil
  

Filling

• 1/2 pound of ground beef
• 1 medium size of onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 bunch of parsley
  
• 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
  
• 1/3 tsp of black pepper
• salt
  
• 1/2 cup of boiling water
• 1 tbsp of tomato paste
• 2 large size of tomatoes
• 8 green peppers

In a medium skillet, take ground beef with 2 tbsp of vegetable oil over medium heat. When the beef is cooked, add chopped onion and chopped garlic into the skillet and cook them together for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off, add chopped parsley, black pepper and salt. Set a side.
Wash eggplants and dry. Peel just one sides of eggplants lengthwise. Take 1 cup of vegetable oil in a pot over high heat. Fry the eggplants turning occasionally.Place a paper towel on a large serving dish and take eggplants onto the paper towel. This way paper towel absorbs excessive oil.

Take eggplants in a rectangular pyrex and open them up from the peeled parts with a knife but don't go too deep. Fill each of them with 2 tbsp of meat filling. Mix 1 tbsp of tomato paste with 1/2 cup of boiling water and pour it in from the edges of baking dish not on top of the eggplants. Slice the tomatoes and place them on top of the eggplants with green pepper. Preheat oven to 450F and bake until the tomato slices are soft. I prefer to broil it for 2-3 minutes at the end of baking time.
Tip: If you don't want to fry the eggplants, just brush them with vegetable oil and pre-bake until the eggplants are soft. The other steps are just the same. Taste is almost the same too.