How to cook stuffed eggplant the Greek way? A step-by-step recipe with a photo of a papuzaki at home. Calorie content and video recipe.
If you like blue ones, I recommend trying a Greek dish - paputsaki - stuffed eggplant in the oven. This is an easy recipe that has many cooking options. Eggplants are stuffed with vegetarian filling, minced meat, feta cheese, pine nuts, etc. Here is a recipe for stuffed eggplants with mushrooms and vegetables with cheese chips. But if you do not use cheese, then the dish can be offered to vegetarians and people observing the fast. Since the recipe is variable, you can experiment with the filling. Instead of mushrooms, you can take any minced meat: pork, beef, chicken, or combined. Eggplants stuffed with vegetables and meat are no less tasty and spicy.
Eggplants go very well with mushrooms. A tandem of these products can be found in different dishes. These products are especially in harmony in baked form, because eggplant pulp resembles mushrooms in taste and texture. Any stuffing mushrooms will do. It will be delicious with wild mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and champignons. Vegetables will add a brighter flavor to the eggplant. Their choice can be anything, according to the taste of the chef. The most common vegetables are onions and carrots. Sweet bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, etc. are added for a rich taste.
How to choose eggplants?
High quality eggplants, tough, with a glossy and shiny skin. Avoid buying a shriveled and soft fruit. Use a medium size eggplant for baking. The main thing is that they are about the same size, so that they cook evenly and simultaneously. Try to use dairy fruits, because young vegetables have small seeds. It should also be borne in mind that the larger and older the fruit, the higher the likelihood that it will taste bitter.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 105 kcal.
- Servings - 4
- Cooking time - 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- Eggplant - 2 pcs.
- Mushrooms of any kind - 200 g (fresh fruits)
- Onions - 1 pc.
- Tomatoes - 2 pcs.
- Cheese - 100 g
- Salt - to taste or 1 tsp
- Vegetable oil - for frying
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Parsley greens - a few sprigs
- Garlic - 1 clove
- Ground black pepper - a pinch
Step-by-step cooking of stuffed eggplant in Greek Paputsaki, recipe with photo:
1. Wash the eggplants with cold running water, dry with a clean paper towel and cut in half along with the tail, so that when baked they do not lose their shape and do not fall apart. If the stem is very long, cut off the tip with a sharp kitchen knife. Remove the pulp with a special knife and cut it into 1 cm cubes.
If you are using ripe vegetables, then remove the bitterness from them before extracting the pulp. There are many ways to do this. In this case, the most effective is the following. Sprinkle the cut of two halves of eggplant with plenty of coarse salt and leave for 15-20 minutes. Since the eggplant flesh is porous, the fine salt will quickly be absorbed, which can make the dish too salty. Another option is to soak two eggplant halves in strong salted water for 45 minutes, then squeeze well.
2. Peel the blood, wash and cut into small cubes so that the size of the pieces does not exceed 1 cm.
Wash the tomatoes, dry and chop finely. Take tomatoes for the recipe with dense pulp so that when cutting they give less juice.
Peel the garlic, wash and chop finely with a knife or pass through a press.
Rinse the parsley and chop finely. If you wish, you can add dill, cilantro, basil, etc.
3. Peel the onions, wash and cut into the same small cubes as all the previous vegetables.
I use frozen mushrooms, so I defrosted and cut them. If you have fresh fruits, rinse them under running water, dry and cut. The easiest way to make a recipe is to use champignons. They are readily available all year round and can be found in any supermarket.
4. Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan and heat well. Then send onions with mushrooms to it.
5. Next, immediately add the chopped eggplant pulp. Heat medium-high heat and saute vegetables for 5 minutes.
6. Then send carrots with tomatoes, garlic and herbs to the pan. Season with salt and black pepper.
7. Stir the food and fry for another 5-7 minutes. Do not bring them to readiness, tk. they will still be baked in the oven.
8. Put the eggplant “boats” in a baking dish. In this version, I cook stuffed eggplants using absolutely raw blue ones. But if you bring the filling almost to readiness, then it is better to pre-bake the eggplant blanks until half cooked in the oven at a temperature of 180 degrees for about 15 minutes. Moreover, vegetables can be baked whole, cut into halves or as in this recipe for "boats".
9. Fill the eggplant cavity with the filling, making a small slide so that the food does not fall out.
10. Grate the cheese on a medium grater and sprinkle with the eggplant.
11. Cover the form with foil and send to a preheated oven to 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Then remove the foil to brown the dish and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. This recipe for stuffed eggplant in Greek Paputsaki can be cooked both in the oven and in a slow cooker.
