keesan@bbncca.ARPA (Morris Keesan) (10/25/83)
My favorite thing to do with eggplant, when I have to do anything with eggplant,
is the following recipe, which comes from the WONDERFUL book "The Impoverished
Students' Book fo Cookery, Drinkery, & Housekeeper" by Jay F. Rosenberg. My
copy says "Copyright (c) 1965 by Jay F. Rosenberg. Ninth Impression, October,
1971." The book is published the the Reed College Alumni Association, Reed
College, Portland, Oregon, and distributed by Doubleday. If you can find a
copy, buy it! I haven't seen a copy in bookstores in years. Every so often
I try to find one as a gift, and have had no luck. If anyone out there in
Oregon (or anywhere else, for that matter) finds a source, please send me mail
about it. The recipe follows, reproduced as verbatim as possible from the book,
within the limits of typography (italics represented as ALL CAPS, the little
circle represented as the word "degrees"). The comments and Editor's Note are
Jay F. Rosenberg's, not my own.
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IMAM BAI-IL-DIH
or "THE PRIEST FAINTED"
The following recipe was provided by one Gerald Stone, a poly-lingual
Impoverished Student with a grand imagination. I quote you his presentation
verbatim, as it has a unique flavor all its own:
"A recipe of ethnic as well as culinary value.
"Take a number of people to be fed and divide by two. Buy that number of
eggplants. Buy that many pounds of hamburger. (To be ethnic, it should be
muttonburger, but what the hell.) You will also need:
Some vegetable oil
An itty bitty can of tomato sauce per pound hamburger
Spices. Lots spices.
"Take all the hamburger, and mush it together with the vegetable oil (enough
to make it juicy) and the tomato sauce (which will make it juicier). Chop up
lots of garlic and mush it in too. Season liberally with cayenne, cumin, and
lots of garlic salt. [Editor's Note: Not TOO liberally, or you'll regret it!]
If you're feeling adventurous, crumple up a bay leaf or two and mush that in.
"Cut the eggplants in half and scoop out most of them. Then put in as much
hamburger as surface tension will allow.
"Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. You gotta put about 5/8 of an inch of
water in the bottom of the dish, or you burn the ass off your eggplants.
"This looks complex. It isn't.
"STORY: This recipe comes out of Turkish folklore.
"It appears there was a priest (Imam) who had to run off to a neighboring
village to preach a sermon or somesuch. Before leaving, he said to his wife,
'Hey, Fatima honey (ALL wives of Imams are named Fatima. All.), I'm getting
terribly bored with all this damned shish kebab. Why don't you fix me something
neat for dinner?' Being a dutiful imam's wife, she blinked acquiescence -- what
else can you do with a veil covering most of your face -- and he grundled off to
the next village. When he returned, there was this Neat Dinner waiting for him.
Which he ate.
'Swings!' he said. 'What's in it?'
'Oh, eggplant, muttonburger, spices, oil, . . .'
'Oil? Didn't notice it. How much?'
'Mmmm. Guess.'
'I don't know. A cup?'
'Nooo, more than that.'
'A pint?'
'No.'
'My God, woman, how much oil DID you use?'
'A quart!'
At which point, the priest fainted. Or, as we say in Anatolia,
Imam bai-il-dih.
Turks like oily food. You don't. Take heed."
To this excellent presentation by Mr. Stone, I find I have nothing to add --
except to point out that Imam Bai-Il-Dih is the sort of dish which ought to be
scrupulously avoided by those prone to digestive upset . . . which is something
the Impoverished Student simply cannot afford. Condition yourself.
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A couple of last notes of my own. I've made this as specified above, and I've
also done it with ground lamb instead of hamburger. I prefer the version with
lamb slightly, although it's good both ways. The Joy of Cooking also has a
recipe for Imam Bai-Il-Dih, but I don't like it as much, and the presentation
isn't as entertaining.
Morris Keesan
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