Baked Eggplants

We got this recipe from my Saudi grandmother and improved it over the years. Now it's one of those dishes we make often because everyone likes it. Usually there are two of us cooking, so it takes us 30 minutes to prepare, as one person fries the eggplant and one makes the sauce.

• Ready In: 1 hr 15 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• Ingredients eggplants

• 3  medium eggplants (sliced 1/2 cm thick)
• 1  tablespoon table salt
• 1  teaspoon  coriander (the ground seeds)
• 200  g white flour
• 200  ml  frying oil

• Ingredients meat sauce

• 500  g  minced meat (we use beef)
• 1  large onion
• 150  g tomato paste
• 1  teaspoon oregano
• 1  chicken stock cube (enough for 500ml stock)
• 3  garlic cloves (crushed)
• 1⁄4 teaspoon white pepper

• Other ingredients

• 3  large tomatoes (thinly sliced)

Directions

1. Wash the eggplants and cut them into slices (approx. ½ cm thick) Then sprinkle them with the table salt and mix them up a little so that each slice has its share of salt from both sides. Leave them to stand for a while so the salt can draw out moisture from the eggplants. You can prepare the minced meat and tomato slices in the meantime (see step3) but it's enough if the eggplants stand a few minutes.
2. Mix the flour with the coriander, then press the eggplant slices into this, turning them in the flour so they are coated with it. Do not pat the slices dry before flowering them. The moisture will hold the flour in place, turning it into a thin layer of dough that will prevent too much oil from getting into the eggplants (this way they soak up significantly less oil). Once they are evenly coated with flour, shallow-fry them in regular cooking oil until golden brown. Tip: if you use one hand to lay the moist eggplant into the flour, and one hand to turn and pat it in the flour, it’s less messy as your fingers won’t turn into lumps of dough.
3. Fry the minced meat and add the finely chopped onion to it before it turns brown so that you can let onion and meat fry together long enough for the onions to be soft.
4. Add the garlic and stock cube (crumbled) and let it fry, then add the other ingredients and let them heat through. Turn off the heat and cover while you fry the eggplants.
5. In a deep baking trey, layer the eggplant slices with the mince sauce and finely sliced tomato, starting with a layer of eggplant and placing the tomato slices over each layer of meat, lightly seasoning them with a little salt. End with a layer of tomato.
6. Place this into the preheated oven under the hot grill for about 15mins.
7. Serve with rice or Arabic bread. An Indian chutney or pickled line go well with this.