khoresht-e bademjoon recipe (eggplant stew) - persian food

This is a traditional Persian dish called Khorest-e (stew-of) Bademjoon (Eggplant/Aubergine). This dish can be made vegan/vegetarian by omitting the meat! It tastes great still without it, we eat it without meat sometimes. I hope you enjoy it and please let us know if you have any questions or comments, or what dishes we should make next.

Setar by Alireza Farrokhzadi (merci!)

Ingredients:
Tomatoes - any kind, we used 2 Roma tomatoes
White Onion - 1
Eggplant - 4
Lamb/Beef - 1 1/2 lbs (about 680 grams)
Tomato Paste - 2 teaspoons
Sour Grape Juice - 3 teaspoons (can substitute lemon juice, or a handful of fresh sour grapes)
Persian Curry (Advieh) - 1 teaspoon
Turmeric - 1 teaspoon
Black Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Oil - to fry eggplant and a small amount for the stew (we used vegetable oil)
Water - enough to cover stew

Instructions:
Peel eggplant - cut into halves length-wise, and then halves again the other way (width-wise?). Sweat out eggplant (add salt and let sit for 20-30 minutes)
If using meat, cut meat into cubes
Cut onion and cook in a pot and add oil - do not stir onion.
Once onion is browning and softening, can begin to stir and add meat.
Saute meat until the redness is gone (about 3 minutes)
Once meat is browned, add spices
Once fragrance comes out of seasoning, add tomato paste and stir
Add enough water to cover meat (if not using meat, add as much as you want for your stew - we used about 3 cups for the amount of food). Bring to boil, then turn down heat to simmer for ~45 minutes.

While stew is simmering, dry off eggplant with a paper towel and fry eggplants on a separate pan on high heat (5-10 minutes on each side).
Cut tomato into slices - however you'd like them to be in the stew.
When eggplants are golden on both sides, add eggplant and tomatoes into stew (as long as the meat is tender). Add sour grape juice.
Simmer together on low heat for ~10-15 minutes - depends on how much of your eggplant was fried. If you didn't fry completely you can let simmer for 20 minutes.

Serve with rice. Noushe jan!
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About Noushe Jan Kitchen:
A mother and daughter work together to bring mom's recipe's to documentation and for all to share and eat. As a first-generation daughter, it's impossible to get my mom to teach ME to cook, but she can easily teach my friends or anyone else. So we've decided to just record the process and try to get her to take some measurements (instead of 'add a little of dis').

Noushe Jan is Farsi for bon appétit~

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