This is a truly legendary dish of Turkish cuisine, and its name can be literally translated as “the priest fainted” or “the imam was delighted.” Of course, we will talk about the dish imam bayaldi in Turkish. And we will try to cook it with you today.

A little history

The Turkish dish imam bayaldi has its own mythology. Of course, why these blue ones, stuffed and cooked in the shape of a boat along with vegetables and tomato, got such an authentic name, no one knows for certain. Legends say: the reason for this was the excellent taste and aroma, from which you will lick your fingers and lose your head.

Other stories tell how a certain imam married the daughter of an olive oil merchant (which in those years was a very expensive commodity). And the girl received as much as twelve cans of the product as a dowry. And after the wedding, she delighted her husband for twelve days, serving her favorite dish for the meal - eggplant boats with filling. He was absolutely delighted with the delicious food. And when on the 13th day he did not receive the dish he adored, he asked his wife what exactly was the matter. She admitted that all the time she cooked delicious eggplants in precious oil, which she got as a dowry and had already run out. Then the imam lost consciousness. Either because he realized how expensive this pleasure was, or because he decided that he would no longer be able to buy expensive oil and enjoy this delicious dish again.

This is how the name of the dish appeared - “Imam Bayaldy”. In Turkish, given the simple recipe, it is prepared easily and simply. Fortunately, the ingredients are always at hand - especially during the harvest season.

How to cook imam bayaldi in Turkish: recipe

But can you and I afford such pleasure - to cook a legendary dish of oriental cuisine? The Turkish dish imam bayaldi has quite a few variations in preparation.

It can be made with minced meat, or with nuts, and different cuts of the ingredients themselves are also practiced. There is also a purely vegetable recipe for this snack - simply delicious! Moreover, imam bayaldy can be eaten hot, as an independent dish, or served cold, as an appetizer. And in both cases it will be very tasty.

Ingredients

To prepare an authentic dish we will need:

• a kilo of blue ones;
• a couple of medium-sized carrots;
• a pair of onions;
• half a kilo of tomatoes.

And also: a few cloves of garlic (if you like it spicier, you can add more), 3-4 large spoons of olive oil, hot pepper, a spoon of natural tomato paste.

How to cook

Let's start cooking:

1. Wash the eggplants, remove the stems. We remove the skin lengthwise in strips (so that each vegetable turns out to be striped) and soak for some time in salted water at room temperature - this way they will give off their excess bitterness.
2. At this time, peel and grate the carrots coarsely. And peel the onion and garlic and chop finely. We cut the tomatoes into cubes (it’s up to you to decide whether or not to remove the skin, but, by the way, in the Turkish recipe it is not removed).
3. Simmer the prepared vegetables in olive oil over low heat: first, onion and garlic until transparent, then add carrots and after a couple of minutes, tomatoes. Salt and add hot pepper.
4. Stuff the eggplants with the prepared vegetable mixture. To do this, take them out of the salted water and make a longitudinal cut, removing the excess pulp and replacing it with stewed vegetables (but leave a little “minced meat” in the frying pan - literally a couple of spoons).

1. We dilute the tomato paste in half a glass of water and pour it into the frying pan where we have leftover vegetables. Simmer for about five minutes (for those who like a sweet and sour effect, add a spoonful of sugar).
2. Place the blue ones with minced meat inside on a greased baking sheet. Pour in the sauce and place in the oven, preheated to 180°C. We bake our eggplants for about one hour. Serve the eggplants in Turkish style - imam bayaldi, sprinkled with herbs.

Some subtleties of preparation

There are some differences in the execution of the dish by different chefs. For example, you can cut the eggplants in half after soaking them in salted water, then dry them on a towel (this will later be useful for removing excess oil).

You can pre-fry the blue ones in oil (when further cooked in the oven, they already have a characteristic crust and do not dry out during baking).

Some housewives also use not chili, but green capsicum, which is not so hot (the seeds need to be removed to reduce its pungency). And in the east, when preparing imam bayaldi in Turkish, they usually add a little sugar to the filling so that the sauce opens up, becomes tastier, and brighter. Blue ones can also be stuffed with walnuts.

Imam bayaldi in Turkish for the winter

This tasty and healthy dish can be prepared for the winter. There is nothing complicated about this. The ingredients are the same as in the main recipe, except, probably, parsley. You can also add a spoonful of sugar and a spoonful of vinegar to each jar of the preparation - so to speak, just to be sure, so that it does not swell. But you don’t have to add it - everything will depend on the place chosen for storage. If you store the dish at the bottom of the refrigerator, you won’t even need additional sterilization.

1. Wash and peel the eggplants. Using a knife, remove the strips along the entire vegetable: the eggplant should look like a zebra: white stripe, black stripe. The stalk does not need to be removed, but only slightly shortened. And then we cut the blue ones in half along the fruit.
2. Pour cool water into a deep container, add a pinch of salt, put the vegetable halves in there (to remove excess bitterness). Leave for 20 minutes.
3. Prepare the remaining vegetables. Cut the onion into half rings. Finely chop the garlic and green pepper.
4. Remove the skins from the tomatoes and cut them into cubes.
5. Cover the baking sheet with foil, turn on the oven and preheat it to 200°C. If there is a grill function, it will be even better.
6. We blot the eggplant halves (it’s better to take small ones so that they fit into the jars) with a paper towel and place them on the oven tray. Grease each piece with olive oil.
7. Bake in the oven until the blue ones are golden brown and soft inside.
8. Prepare the filling as in the previous recipe.
9. Place eggplants in prepared jars and top up with sauce. Further - at your choice - you can additionally sterilize along with the contents. Or you can just screw it on and put it (let it cool) in the bottom of the refrigerator.

Bon appetit everyone!

“Delighted Imam” is a traditional oriental dish consisting of eggplant boats stuffed with vegetables. The recipe for “Imam Bayaldy” was invented by representatives of the Turkic peoples. However, the eggplant snack has taken root remarkably well in Armenian folk cuisine. How to cook “Imam bayaldi” in Armenian? And is it possible to roll up eggplant boats with vegetables for the winter?

How to cook “Imam Bayaldi” in Armenian: recipes in a slow cooker and for the winter

Ingredients

Eggplant 4 pieces)

• Number of servings: 6
• Cooking time: 50 minutes

Imam bayaldi with eggplants in a slow cooker

Necessary:

1. Cut 4 eggplants into 2 parts (in the form of boats).
2. Make cross-shaped slits in the vegetable pulp. Do not touch the skin of the eggplant, otherwise the filling will leak out later.
3. Coat the cuts with salt and place them on a wire rack, flesh side down (this technique helps get rid of bitterness). Leave for 30 minutes.
4. It’s more convenient to cook “Imam Bayaldy” in a multicooker, so you should preheat the kitchen appliance in advance by setting the “Frying” mode.
5. Finely chop 3 onions and fry in olive oil.
6. Add 5 cloves of chopped garlic. Fry the mixture and place in a separate bowl.
7. Scald 3 tomatoes with boiling water and remove the skins. Finely chop and place in the slow cooker.
8. Chop 3 bell peppers and fry with tomatoes.
9. Unload the prepared vegetable mass and mix it with onions. Season with salt and pepper.
10. Fry the eggplants on both sides in a slow cooker until golden brown. Clean off the pulp. Mix the “Imam Bayaldy” vegetable mass with eggplants (fruit pulp).
11. Fill eggplant boats with vegetable filling. Place in an ovenproof dish, cover with foil and place in the oven for 20 minutes.
12. Serve the dish with fresh herbs.

“Imam bayaldy” for the winter in jars

Cut 6 kg of eggplant into rings or “tongues” and immerse in salted water for 40 minutes, then:

1. Remove the slices from the water and fry in oil until crust appears.
2. Remove eggplants from the pan. In the same oil, fry onion rings (1.5 kg) until golden brown.
3. Peel 3 kg of tomatoes and grind through a meat grinder. Add the tomatoes to the onions and sauté until their volume reduces.
4. Add 150 g of chopped garlic and chopped herbs to the tomatoes.
5. Place the cooked vegetables in sterilized jars in layers: first the “blue” ones, then the vegetable mixture, a few cloves of garlic and again the eggplants. After filling the jars, roll them up. The winter supplies of “Imam Bayaldy” are ready!

Recipes with photos of oriental dishes may be different, since there are also Turkish and Greek versions of this snack. The Armenian “Imam Bayaldy” will be more to the taste of people who watch their figure, because it contains only vegetables.

We take the eggplant, peel it so that we get stripes like a zebra and cut it into slices, sprinkle it generously with salt and leave for half an hour until the water comes out, which, by the way, removes the bitterness inherent in eggplant. After this, you can rinse the eggplants and dry them with a paper towel, or just remember that they are salted and do not add any more salt.

Heat a frying pan, add vegetable oil. There should be a lot of oil, the more, the less fatty the dish will be, oddly enough, since the eggplant is fried faster and does not absorb excess fat, then place the fried eggplants on a sieve or on a paper towel to remove excess fat. We cooked eggplants in large quantities at once, because they are incredibly tasty on their own without adding any other ingredient. For example, with thin lavash!

Following the eggplants are sweet peppers. We used green because it is important that it not only tastes good, but also looks visually joyful. Using the same technology, we fried peppers, cut into small pieces and also laid them out on a paper towel. Oh, and by the way, don’t forget to add vegetable oil if necessary.

Next comes the onion, cut into rings. In fact, we put four pans on the stove at once and cooked everything at the same time, which is still what I do. Well, firstly, the tastes don’t mix, the oil remains fresher and the most important criterion is much faster.

The latest product is tomatoes, cut into larger slices, they fry very quickly and until all the juice has disappeared from both sides, we did not remove the peel, and I do not advise you to. So it seems like I didn’t miss anything, now, as the chefs say, we finish preparing and shaping the dish.

Layer by layer: eggplants, sprinkle with a small amount of garlic, finely chopped (I don’t like using a crush, so I take the garlic and crush it with a knife, remove the inside and finely chop), then sprinkle with walnuts (I also crush them through a crush or also with a knife for the same reason: I don’t like using a meat grinder)) Sprinkle with herbs. I only add cilantro. Next are fried peppers, garlic, nuts and herbs, then come our tomatoes, then eggplants, then onions, then peppers, well, and so on ad infinitum.

Imam Bayaldi is a delicious eggplant dish in Turkish cuisine, although it is also popular in a number of other Middle Eastern countries. Translated as "the imam fainted." According to one version, the imam, having tried this dish, lost consciousness, whether because it was so tasty, or for another reason is unknown. This wonderful eggplant appetizer is a great addition to any side dish. Delicious both hot and cold.

To prepare this appetizer, take smooth eggplants, sweet peppers, garlic, tomatoes, onions, tomato paste, olive oil, sugar, salt, ground black pepper and sesame seeds.

Cut the eggplants into 5 mm thick slices, place in a bowl and sprinkle with salt to remove bitterness. Set the eggplants aside for half an hour and start filling.

Grind the sweet pepper into small cubes.

Cut the onion into half rings. Chop the garlic.

Pour olive oil into a frying pan, heat it and fry the garlic and onions in it. Next add sweet pepper. Fry everything together for 7 minutes.

Remove the skin from the tomatoes and chop into cubes, add them to the pan along with tomato paste, add sugar, pepper and salt. Fry the vegetables together for 3-5 minutes.

Place the eggplant slices on a clean baking sheet after blotting them with napkins to remove excess moisture. There is no need to grease the pan if it is non-stick.

Place 1 tablespoon of vegetable filling on top of each circle. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake the eggplants for 30-35 minutes.

Place the finished eggplants on a plate and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Sesame seeds can be pre-fried if desired.

Another photo of the delicious Turkish snack Imam Bayaldi.

Bon appetit!

Imam is prepared all over the world and with different variations. In Turkey, which is considered the birthplace of the recipe, imam bayaldi is only vegetable and vegetarian. Eggplants there are stuffed whole to create “boats” with filling. Or they prepare it as a stew: cut all the vegetables into large cubes, fry everything separately, lay it out in layers with the addition of mint, cumin, tomato sauce, and then stew or bake it.

Imam bayaldi in Turkish is prepared from a simple set of products: eggplant, onions, tomatoes, chili and garlic. The Turks do not add carrots or, say, celery. This dish is also seasonal, summer, so it is usually prepared with fresh tomatoes, and not with tomato paste. You also need to be careful with spices so as not to interrupt the natural taste of vegetables; a lot of garlic, ground black pepper and salt, herbs are used, sometimes nutmeg and a little cumin are added. Eggplant appetizers are always eaten cold, so the taste is fully revealed.

Total cooking time: 60 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

• eggplants – 5 pcs. small or 2 large
• tomatoes – 3-4 pcs.
• hot green pepper – 1 pc. or to taste
• large onion – 1 pc.
• garlic – 4-6 teeth.
• parsley - 1/2 bunch.
• salt and black pepper - to taste
• sugar – 1/2 tsp.
• olive oil - for frying
• lemon juice – 1-2 tsp.

Preparation

Choose eggplants that are as even as possible, approximately the same size. Rinse and dry. Tear off the sepals, but leave the tail - it’s convenient to grab it when eating imam, so there’s no need to trim it, just peel off the top green skin with a knife. Using a sharp knife, run along the eggplants, peeling off the skin in thin strips. This partial zebra peeling will prevent the eggplants from losing their shape during frying.



Heat 100 ml of vegetable oil in a wide-bottomed frying pan and brown the eggplants on all sides. They should become soft and almost ready, so the heat should first be high and then moderate. Place the fried eggplants on a napkin to remove excess fat.



Peel the onion and cut into thin half rings. Peel the hot pepper from the seeds and chop finely with a knife. Also chop the garlic with a knife or cut into thin slices (a garlic press is not suitable). Sauté everything together in olive oil until soft. The filling will be spicy. If you don’t like too spicy dishes, then use sweet bell pepper rather than chili, and for added spiciness, add just a little ground red pepper, adjusting the amount to your taste.



While the onions are frying, scald the tomatoes with boiling water and peel the skins. Remove the seeds along with the juice so that the filling does not turn out too watery. Cut the pulp into small cubes.



Add tomatoes, salt, pepper and sugar to the pan (it will balance the taste). Simmer for 5-7 minutes, stirring.



Add chopped parsley. Fry for another minute and remove the pan from the heat. The filling is ready.



By this time, the fried eggplants will have time to cool a little. Transfer them to a heatproof baking dish. On each eggplant, make one deep cut along the middle (preferably in the part where the skin was cut off). The cut should be deep, but not through! Open the blue ones and make a hole with a spoon. If there are seeds, carefully scrape out most of them with a teaspoon.



The result will be eggplant “boats”. Add salt so that the vegetables are not bland.



Fill with filling and sprinkle with lemon juice. Pour a couple of tablespoons of water into the bottom of the mold and place in the oven, preheated to 180-190 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes until the eggplants are fully cooked.



Imam bayaldi in Turkish is ready! Serve chilled. Bon appetit!