Stuffed Eggplant with Lamb

This lamb dish celebrates the best of lamb with an abundance of spice that plays with the lamb flavor without overpowering it. Experience a medley of textures with the creamy eggplant, tender lamb, and bite of seeds. It’s an adaptation of Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s Stuffed Eggplant with Lamb and Pine Nuts from their book Jerusalem. I didn’t change much. I made a few minor process and ingredient switches. 

My first memories of lamb were those infamous Sunday night dinners my mom made. She would grill lamb on a Weber charcoal pit and I’d slather it with mint jelly. It was deliciously rich and fresh, savory and sweet.

While I was in college, I took a meat science class that included a section on lamb. The professor said many people don’t like the taste of lamb due to its strong flavor. Wait … what?!?! Lamb was special, it was a treat, it was celebrated. How could people not like it?

As part of our homework assignment, we had to eat lamb. You bet I was excited and several of my classmates lived in the same dorm as me. I was giddy as can be and designated myself as the lamb cook for the entire dorm floor. 

That class taught me things about meat and lamb specifically that I’m passing onto you in the hopes that if you think you don’t like lamb, you’ll give it another shot. Most of the differentiating flavor of meat is in the fat. If you remove all remnants of fat including the intramuscular fat, most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between pork, beef, lamb, or any other meat.

Lamb fat is extra strong tasting and lamb is a fatty meat so we taste plenty of that lambiness. The older the lamb, the stronger the flavor. Grass-finished lamb is stronger tasting than grain-fed lamb. When selecting lamb, make sure it’s young and grain-fed. As you store meat, the fat will get an off-flavor first so make sure it’s fresh.  

Lastly, I think lamb might be a slightly acquired taste. So start easy and be happy. I put this recipe in the “starter lamb” category. It’s ground lamb so you can cut it with beef and it has plenty of spices to wow your tastes.

Stuffed Eggplant with Lamb Ingredients
2 ½ lbs eggplant (about 2 large eggplants)
2 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp black pepper
Olive oil
1 Tbl cumin
2 ½ Tbl paprika
1 1/2 Tbl cinnamon
1 lb onions, chopped
1 ½ lb ground lamb
¾ c sunflower seeds, toasted
1 oz curly parsley, finely minced
1 Tbl lemon zest
1 ½ Tbl lemon juice
2 Tbl water

Stuffed Eggplant with Lamb Directions
Preheat the oven to 425.

Cut your eggplants into ¾” thick planks. Take the point of a knife and make shallow cuts (don’t cut all the way through the flesh) on a diagonal about ¾” inch between each line. Repeat the cuts in the opposite directions to create diamonds. 

Sprinkle the eggplant with 1 ½ tsp of salt and allow to sit for 1 hour. Rinse the eggplant and pat dry. Put the eggplant in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle 1 tsp black pepper on the eggplant. Put it in the over for 20 minutes uncovered. Remove from the oven when cooked. Reduce the oven to 375 degrees.

Add just enough oil to coat a frying pan and heat it until the oil shimmers.. Add 1 Tbl cumin, 2 ½ Tbl paprika, and 1 ½ Tbl cinnamon to the oil. Stir. If the spices are dry, add a little more oil. Let the spices cook until they’re fragrant.

Increase the heat to high and add 1 lb of chopped onions. You should hear a loud sizzle that continues to sizzle. If you don’t hear it, increase the heat. Cook for about 10 minutes until the onions soften.

Add 1 ½ lbs of ground lamb to the pan. You should hear a loud sizzle then reduce the heat to medium. Break up the lamb with a spatula. Add ½ tsp of salt to the lamb. When the lamb is fully brown with some of it dark brown, stir in 1 Tbl of tomato sauce.

Use a spoon and remove the fat from the pan. Stir in ¾ c sunflower seeds, ¾ oz of parsley, 1 Tbl lemon zest, 1 Tbl lemon juice, and 2 Tbl water.

Spoon the meat mixture over the eggplant. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 1 ½ hours.

Serve warm and garnish it with the remaining parsley. 

Notes
Most New Zealand and Australian lambs are grass-finished so you have a greater chance domestic lamb will be milder.