Lissan el Kadi - (a very very late Walima Cooking Challenge - un très très tard Walima Cooking Challenge)

Looking throu my Photobucket account, I stumbled upon this very late cooking challenge from Walima Cooking Challenge. I was completely shocked at myself that I did not complete the post. So a very big sorry for all my fellow challengers ... here I post the very late challenge of Iraq called Lissan El Kadi (eggplant wrapped meat) A literal translation: "tongue of the judge"



According to Wiki :

' Iraqi cuisine or Mesopotamian cuisine has a long history going back some 10,000 years - to the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Ancient Persians.Tablets found in ancient ruins in Iraq show recipes prepared in the temples during religious festivals - the first cookbooks in the world.Ancient Iraq, or Mesopotamia, was home to many sophisticated and highly advanced civilizations, in all fields of knowledge - including the culinary arts.However, it was in the medieval era when Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate that the Iraqi kitchen reached its zenith.Today, the cuisine of Iraq reflects this rich inheritance as well as strong influences from the culinary traditions of neighbouring Turkey, Iran and the Greater Syria area.

Meals begin with appetizers and salads - known as Mezze. Some popular dishes include Kebab (often marinated with garlic, lemon and spices, then grilled), Shawarma (grilled meat sandwich wrap, similar to Döner kebab), Bamia (lamb, okra and tomato stew), Quzi (lamb with rice, almonds, raisins and spices), Falafel (fried chickpea patties served with amba and salad in pita), Kibbeh (minced meat ground with bulghur or rice and spices), Masgouf (grilled fish with pepper and tamarind), and Maqluba (a rice, lamb, tomato and aubergine dish). Stuffed vegetable dishes such as Dolma and Mahshi are also popular.'

° I have prepared the cooking challenge dish somewhat differently then the actual recipe, using a bechamel sauce along with the tomato sauce, since well I love the flavours of bechamel in Moussaka ... I thought it would lend nice taste here cutting all the acid in the tomato sauce.

Lissan El Kadi


• 2 large aubergines (eggplants)
• 1 kg ground meat
• 1 onion finely minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced fine
• salt/black pepper to taste
• handful of fresh parsely
• 3 tomatoes, sliced thin
• grated cheese for filling and topping (I have used Edam 300g)
  
  Tomato sauce:
  
• 1 onion diced fine
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 large tomato peeled and chopped,
• 5 TBS tomato puree
• 1 beef bouillon
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 TBS AP flour
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 sugar cubes
• salt/black pepper

Bechamel sauce:

• 1 L milk
• 3 TBS Ap flour
• 1 chicken bouillon
• 1 bay leaf
• few scraps of fresh nutmeg
• 1/2 cup of butter (or oil if you like)
• salt/black pepper
  
  

1. Peel the aubergine; trim off the top and bottom. Stand eggplant up on cutting board and slice vertically to about half the width of your finger.
2. Place the cut aubergines in a colander.
3. Sprinkle generously with salt, place in a strainer for least 1 hour.
4. Prepare the tomato by sauteeing off the onion and garlic.
5. Now add in the rest of the ingredients and enough water to cover.
6. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the sauce is thickened.
7. As at the same time, prepare the bechamel by simply making a roux with the butter and flour.
8. Then add in the milk and flavourings.
9. Allow to simmer on very low heat until thickened.
10. Once the 2 sauces are ready: rinse off the salt and allow aubergine to dry.
11. Now start preparing your meat filling by sauteeing off the onion and garlic in a pan.
12. Once it has browned, add in the seasonings.
13. Continue to cook on low heat until the meat is fully cooked then set aside to cool.
14. Grill, bake or even pan fry as I have the aubergines. (No need to salt as you have already done before) Be careful to not burn the aubergine as this will make this bitter. Set aside to cool.
15. Once both the meat filling and aubergines have cooled, you are ready to work with them. Simply spoon some of the filling onto the aubergine then sprinkle some cheese on as well.
16. Then roll the aubergine to form a sausage shape.
17. Pour the tomato sauce in the bottom of a baking dish.
18. Now place the rolls into the baking dish.
19. Then place the sliced tomatoes on the rolls.
20. Pour the bechamel over the rolls.
21. Top with cheese and cover with foil.
22. Bake in the oven for about 45- 1 hour at 180 deg.

This was my preparation of this Iraqi dish ... here is some Walima challenger's preparations:

Arlette

Jouhayna

Mimi

Sabah

Chahira

And finally here is a Greek version of this dish Papoutsakia (little shoes) from Ivy at Kopaiste!

Enjoy my friends!