İSLİM KEBABI

EGGPLANT WRAPPED MEATBALLS


Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 4 baby eggplants

• 3 tomatoes
• 2 green pepper
• 1 cup of vegetable oil
  
• 1 tbsp of tomato paste
• 1 cup of boiling water
  

Meatball:

• 1 pound ground meat
• 1 tbsp of onion powder ( or 1/2 finely chopped onion )
• 1 tsp of garlic powder ( or 4 cloves of minced garlic )
  
• 1/2 tsp of black pepper
• 1 tsp of ground red pepper
• 1/3 tsp of baking soda
  
• salt

Take ground lamb, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, red pepper, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl and knead it until well combined. Cover with stretch film and let it rest for 4-5 hours in the refrigerator. At the end of resting time, take the mixture out and knead it one more time. Divide the mixture into 18 equal parts and make small meatballs. Turn the broiler on high and lightly broil the meatballs.


Wash eggplants and dry. Peel both sides of eggplants lengthwise. Slice them lengthwise in thin strips.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.
(I prefer not to fry eggplants, just brush both sides of eggplant slices with vegetable oil and broil until the eggplants are soft and light brown. )
Wash tomatoes and peppers. Slice the tomatoes. Cut the peppers. After both meatball and eggplant slices are cool, take one slice of eggplant and place one meatball in the middle. Wrap eggplant slice around the meatballs.








Place one slice of tomato and pepper on top of wrapped meatball and secure them with a toothpick. Repeat this steps for all the meatballs. Place all of the wrapped meatballs in a baking dish. Take 1 tbsp of tomato paste and 1 cup of boiling water in a mixing bowl and whisk. Pour it in from the edges of baking dish. 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.