Turkish Meal Mondays: Sutan's Delight

Sultan's Delight (Hünkar Beğendi) is one of my absolute favourite dishes to order at restaurants that serve it. We've made it a few times at home, but it's never lived up to the name. We are still playing around with the ingredients, hoping to get it right some day. Read all the way to the end to find out about possible alterations.   For all of you who are eggplant avoiders, the eggplant doesn't have much flavor, it just adds a nice creamy texture to the dish.  If you still don't want to try it consider substituting zucchini for the eggplant. My friend Sam says it's just as good that way.

This recipe has two parts: A meat stew, and an eggplant cream. 

Start by cleaning and fork-piercing the eggplant. Broil on an oven rack for 30 minutes, or until they lose their lovely colour and get super wrinkly.

 

 Patlican

While the eggplant is roasting, start the meat stew:  Bring a few cups of water to a boil. Add cubes of meat (we used lamb, but we have also used chicken, and I imagine beef would work as well).  Reduce heat to a simmer. After about 10 minutes add an onion, a tomato, some sweet peppers, and garlic, all chopped.  Add a spoonful each of tomato and pepper paste, and salt and pepper. Simmer until the sauce has reduced to a gravy-ish consistency.   

 

Kuzu, soğan, domates, tatlı biber, saramsak, domates ve aci biber soslu, tuz, kara biber.

Eggplant Cream
Step 1: Let eggplant cool lest you burn the crap out of your tender fingers. 

Step 2: Once they are cool enough to handle, cut the tops, peel the skin off, and chop into small cubes. Submerge in water with a little salt and lemon juice, to keep them from browning.

In a pan, melt butter (we used 3 TBSP, but I don't think that was enough). Add 1 TBSP of flour. Mix until it thickens. Squeeze water out of eggplant, and add to the butter mixture. Add 1 cup of milk and puree with an egg beater, until smooth. Add the juice of one lemon. Mix in a 1/2 cup of shredded white cheese (like mozzarella) and stir until melted.

Tereyağı, un, patlican, süt, limon, peynir

 Plate the meal by making a donut shape out of the egg plant cream, and adding the stew to the center.

Result:  The stew was SUPER! I was worried that the meat would be tough, but it was perfect. Eggplant cream: Meh... The overwhelming flavor was flour. Boo. But the stew saved it. And the amount was perfect for the two of us.

Alterations we will try next time:  We'll up the amount of butter, and cheese, as well as adding a bullion cube to the butter and flour mix. Hopefully it will be more flavorful and less floury.