Imam Bayildi, an inspiration to a recipe..

A friend asked me where it is that my love of food comes from. What do I remember that has made such an impact so that food is so important. I've been thinking about this. Foods that even now, after years, make me go mmm at the thought.

One of my favourite is aubergines, cooked aubergines. I have a distinct memory from my childhood in Cyprus. Sometimes when my mother picked me up from school, she would take me somewhere for take-away. This was no ordinary place. This was home-cooked food to perfection. The Greek lady who cooked and owned the place made this most amazing aubergine dish: Imam Bayildi. A dear friend of mine recently explained what this means. A Turkish dish, the name of which translates to the imam (priest) fainted. I'm not surprised. All these years later, I think about the Greek lady's imam bayildi and I still swoon.

There are many variations, the typical of which the aubergine is cut in half and stuffed with tomatoes and onions and cooked in olive oil and water for around an hour until soft.

My interpretation is different and much simpler but I did recently have a similar version at a restaurant as a starter

Serves 2 as a starter, 1 as a main
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 small tomato
1 small onion
1 aubergine
4-5 tablespoons olive oil
Salt 
Water
Feta

Method
Cut the tomato in about roughly 6 cubes
Cut the onions in quarter
Put the olive oil in a pot and heat. Add the tomato and onion.
Peel the aubergine and slice, about 1 1/2 cm thick, 5cm length

Add the aubergine to the tomato and onion together with salt and add about 100ml water. Bring to the boil and the reduce the heat to simmer. 

Check occasionally and stir. Add more water if necessary. You will see the aubergines soften and disintegrate. This is exactly what you are after. They should be done after about 30 minutes.

Serve warm in a deep plate with feta cubes on top and pitta bread.

Delicious. Every time..