Makdous

Fatimah

Tickle your taste buds with Middle Eastern Makdous. These stuffed eggplants will take your meals to another level of deliciousness. Try it now!

Course Appetizer, Breakfast, brunch

Cuisine Middle Eastern

Cut off the stem from each eggplant, or you can do so after boiling them.
To a large pot, add water to more than triple the amount of eggplants and place on high heat to boil.
Once the water is boiling, add the baby eggplants and boil for 8-10 minutes then strain and let them sit to drain and cool.
Once cooled, make a deep slit in the middle of each eggplant and place ¼ teaspoon of salt in each eggplant.
Close back up and place in a large strainer once again, lined up flat.
Once lined up, sprinkle ½ tablespoon of salt on top of all the eggplants and place a large item that is heavy on top of the eggplants to extract all the liquids out. Leave it like this for 2 days.
You want to make sure there is no water left in the eggplants, as this will make them moldy.
So every few hours, rotate the eggplants in the strainer to make sure each one is getting squeezed properly.
Once two days are up, pat dry the eggplants and you can work on the filling.

Mix together the walnuts, shatta, sugar, and garlic. Adjust the taste to your liking.

Once the filling is made, stuff each eggplant generously. Place into a clean, airtight glass jar.
Now as a precaution, invert the glass jar (while the eggplants are in it) into a strainer just to make sure there is absolutely no water left. Again, we’re avoiding mold.
After a full 24 hours, place the jar right side up making sure the eggplants are tightly packed next to each other.
Add olive oil to cover, and close tightly with an airtight lid. Let it sit at a room temperature for 12-14 days.
After 12-14 days, if all the steps are followed properly, the eggplant should be softer and easier to pull apart with bread, and it’s not discolored.

Don’t overcook the eggplants as they will get mushy.
If once you boil the eggplants, cut into them, and see black, then discard them. Those eggplants are beginning to rot.
Avoid adding salt to the filling since we salted the eggplants already.
Whenever you take eggplants out of the jar, make sure there is enough olive oil to cover them. This prevents mold.
If at any point you see black or anything moldy on the eggplants after adding the olive oil, discard the affected eggplant.

Keyword Makdous, Middle Eastern Makdous, Stuffed Eggplants

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