Stuffed Eggplants

aka Karni yarik (Split-tummy)

http://portakalağacı.blogspot.com/2007/11/karniyarik.html

Ingredients

• 6 small eggplants or 3-4 large eggplants
• 2/3 lbs ground beef
• 2 mid-sized onions-diced
• 1 tomato-chopped

• Parsley-diced
• Tomato paste
• Fresh ground salt crystals and peppercorns
• Coconut oil or butter or animal fat

Topping

• 1 tomato
• 8-10 serrano peppers
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste

Directions

1. Peel half of the eggplants' skins in vertically alternating strips, then chop them vertically in half from head to bottom. Soak them in salty water. Wash them, dry them, then fry them.
2. Meanwhile fry onions, add ground beef until it browns and also add remaining ingredients. Cook mixture to prepare the stuffing for the eggplants. 
3. Place the fried eggplants in a greased baking pan skin side down, slit their meaty parts vertically in half, push eggplant meat aside with the ball of a spoon and fill with the ground beef mixture.
4. Place tomato slices and pepper halves on each stuffed eggplant.
5. Mix 1 cup hot water and 1 teaspoon tomato paste, then pour in pan around the stuffed eggplants.
6. Bake in oven at 350F until tomato slices and pepper halves are roasted (20-30 minutes).

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