Meat on a pillow of baked eggplant with bechamel sauce (Hünkar Beğendi)

[For cooking meat]

Meat on a pillow of baked eggplant with bechamel sauce (Hünkar Beğendi)

Category: Meat dishes

Kitchen: turkish

Ingredients
For meat
Braising beef	500-600 g
Tomatoes	3 pcs.
Bulb onions	2 pcs.
Olive oil (vegetable)	2 tbsp. l.
Tomato paste	1-2 tsp
Garlic (slices)	2 pcs.
Ground black pepper (optional)	taste
Salt	taste
Hot boiled water	200-300 ml
For mashed potatoes
Eggplant	3-4 pcs.
Milk	300-400 ml
Wheat flour	1.5 tbsp. l.
Butter	1-2 tbsp. l.
Grated cheddar cheese (parmesan, edam)	120 ml
Salt	taste
Ground black pepper	taste

Cooking method

For cooking meat preheat a skillet with olive oil. Add finely chopped onion, lightly sauté. Add minced garlic, stir and cook for about half a minute.

Add goulash-cut meat to the pan. Fry, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Add tomato paste, salt, pepper and peeled and chopped tomatoes, stir.

Pour one or two cups of hot boiled water into a skillet and simmer the meat, covered, for 1 hour, until the meat is tender and cooked through.

For making vegetable puree wash and dry the eggplant. Make punctures in each eggplant with a knife, place in a baking dish and place in the oven preheated to 200 C for 30 minutes. Cool the finished eggplants slightly, peel and chop with a knife in mashed potatoes.

Heat a skillet with one to two tablespoons of butter and add the flour immediately. Stir and cook until the raw flour flavor disappears, about 1-2 minutes. It is important that there are no lumps of flour.

Pour in milk in small portions, stirring the mass thoroughly. Continue to cook the sauce, stirring constantly, as soon as the mass begins to thicken - add the eggplant pulp, salt, pepper and mix thoroughly. The vegetable puree should be fairly smooth and thick. Add cheese, stir and remove from stove.

Put the mashed potatoes in a sufficiently deep plate. Put the meat with sauce on top, add greens if you wish, and serve.

Note

Recipe from yemek.com, with minor modifications. Thanks to the authors!

Even the name sounds like a fairy tale to me ... so delicious ...

[Ilona]

Ilona, a wonderful recipe! Something tells me

probably a life experience

that it is very tasty. Eggplant puree for garnish - brilliant!
This year, at the end of March, I was going to go to Turkey for a big sightseeing tour. Alas, it hasn't worked out yet. So let Turkey come to my kitchen.

[Ekaterina2]

Ekaterina2, SvetaI, thank you for your interest in the recipe!

Eggplant puree for garnish - brilliant!

Yes, that's right. Eggplant puree, especially young or just reached technical ripeness, looks very much like mashed potatoes. Eggplants that have reached biological maturity due to the color of the pulp and the presence of well-ripened seeds look less uniform and have a darker color, therefore they are not recommended for cooking this dish.

Something tells me

The name of the dish translates as "The ruler approved" or "The ruler liked it" - this dish with a historical past, appeared in the palace kitchen during the Ottoman period. There are cooking options with beef (lamb), chicken fillet and minced meat.The dish became widespread and, accordingly, ingredients were added to the base to taste. For example, there is an option for cooking meat with replacing 1 tomato with nectarine and adding hot green pepper. Basically, all additives, such as paprika in flakes, thyme, cumin or bell peppers, are added when cooking the meat, and the eggplant puree is left unchanged (the maximum is the addition of freshly ground black pepper for a brighter taste).

So let Turkey come to my kitchen.

Perfect solution! Don't be sad, your best journey is yet to come. To get closer to the authentic taste, it would be better to bake eggplants over an open fire, if possible. However, in the oven, the taste is no worse, and some still prefer this option for baking eggplants.

[Ilona]

Ilona, and I cooked this dish! A wonderful combination of bright meat with the most delicate taste and texture of eggplant puree. I'm used to eggplant dishes with a rich and sour taste, and this puree turned out to be very unusual for me. I chopped the eggplants with a blender, perhaps this is not entirely correct, but the result is a straight cream.
Thanks again for the recipe!

[Svetlana]

Svetlana, to your health! Thank you for your feedback!
I am glad that the dish was to your taste.

perhaps this is not entirely correct, but the result is a straight cream.

Yes, not really, mostly eggplant pulp is chopped with a knife, but it is more important to focus on your own taste preferences. Like with puree soup, some people like a creamy consistency, while others like a combination of a creamy consistency with a slight hint of vegetable texture.