Mirza Ghassemi (Persian Eggplant Tomato "Dip")

Hey guys,

Long time no recipe-ing. Been a bit busy with my thesis proposal and data collection as of late. Please keep me in your thoughts as I go through what is going to be a CRAZY summer. More updates on that as they develop. In the meantime, I have still been cooking to release the stress build up. So as promised, you'll see an Iranian dish on here every so often. The dish I have in mind for today is native to the northern part of Iran and a staple in the Gilaki cuisine. As some of my readers know, my husband's family is originally from Rasht, a province in northern Iran. Gilaki cuisine is very different from what many people consider "Persian food". It consists of very little red meat, other than the occasional vavishka (originally a Russian dish made with ground beef, onions, and tomatoes), or kabob torsh (sour pomegranate kabob). Instead they use a lot of fish and eggs as sources of protein. Also, the use of garlic in Rashti or Gilaki cooking is NOT for the faint of heart. They use garlic like it's nobody's business. (As you will see here shortly).

Mirza Ghassemi (Persian Eggplant Tomato Dip)


Ingredients

• 1 medium bulb of garlic (not clove, but the ENTIRE bulb) 
• 4 medium eggplants 
• 6-7 large tomatoes
• 7 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp turmeric
• Salt and pepper to taste (make sure you're not under-seasoning)
• 3-4 Tbs olive oil

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 F. Stab each eggplant all over with a fork. Place eggplants (uncut and unpeeled) onto a foil covered baking sheet and bake until soft. Mine took about an hour to really get soft, but check periodically after about 30 minutes. To get really authentic with this you can grill the eggplant until soft. 
• While eggplant is baking, peel tomatoes by boiling in water for 3-4 minutes (until skin splits) and then placing tomatoes immediately into ice water. You should easily be able to peel of the skin with your fingers. Dice peeled tomatoes and put them into saucepan. 
• Add a little bit of salt to the tomatoes and cook them down on medium/high heat until about most of the liquid boils off (1/3 should still remain), then lower heat and cover.
• When eggplant is cooked, remove from oven and peel them and cut off the end. Chop eggplant finely (almost smashing it as you dice, it want it to almost be pasty).
• At this point peel, finely dice, and smash the garlic. 
• Heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a deep pan and add two-thirds of the prepared garlic to the pan. When lightly browned, add 1 1/2 tsp turmeric to the garlic and stir for a minute or two.
• Add eggplant and saute for 6-7 minutes. If there's any liquid coming from the eggplants at this point, let most of it simmer off. 
• Add cooked off tomatoes to the mixture and combine thoroughly.
• Turn heat to medium-low and allow any remaining liquid to simmer off.
• While the eggplant mixture is cooking, heat a Tbs of oil in a pan.
• crack eggs into a bowl and whisk, add some salt and pepper to the eggs (to taste)
• Add remaining garlic to the pan, saute until lightly browned and add a 1/2 tsp of turmeric--stir for a couple minutes
• Add whisked eggs to the pan and stir until you essentially have what looks like scrambled eggs (you want the pieces to be relatively smaller and not in huge chunks.) 
• Add cooked eggs to the eggplant mixture and combine for a uniform look.
• Taste and add salt and pepper accordingly
• Cook for 15-20 minutes longer so that flavors combine and then serve and enjoy!

Poke! :D 

It should resemble this :) 

Enjoy!

Now in Rasht, Mirza Ghassemi is usually served as an entree with white basmati/Persian rice, ashpal (white fish eggs), baghali (fresh fava beans), walnuts, and sliced Persian cucumber. We kept it simple with white rice, and salad shirazi (salad made with diced cucumbers, diced onions, diced tomatoes, lime juice, dried mint, and salt and pepper). Oh yeah... and my husband had this with pickled garlic as well. Luckily we had no where important to be the next day. A simpler way to eat it, and the way in which restaurants usually serve it in Tehran or the US is just with warm bread. This makes a perfect appetizer or entree. I imagine it would be a great spread on crackers or toasted french bread as well.