As the year comes to a close, L'Orient Today offers you four traditional Lebanese recipes accompanied by the advice of an oenologist for a perfect food/wine pairing. Today, Maryool restaurant’s chef Mahmoud Remesh, and Château Ksara have a hearty and warming eggplant and beef dish called sheikh al-mehshi with a light and herby rosé to top it off.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 1h30.

INGREDIENTS

For the sauce:
600 g peeled tomato purée
300 g fresh tomatoes
300 g onions
60 g olive oil
20 g garlic
⅓ liter of water
1 Maggi cube (beef)
8 g salt
2 g black pepper powder
1.5 g sweet pepper powder.

For eggplant:
1 one kilo eggplant
500 g sunflower oil
3 g of salt

For meat:
1.2 kg of beef fillet (already minced if you don't have a mincer at home)
800 g onions
80 g butter
200 g olive oil for cooking
28 g salt
8 g black pepper powder
4 g sweet bell pepper powder
4 g cinnamon powder
4 g spice mix (7 spices).

For the vermicelli rice:
530 g long grain rice (dry)
270 g vermicelli
70 g duck fat
16 g salt
1.5 liter water
For tahini yogurt:
240 g tahini
4 g whole yogurt
20 g lemon pepper
20 g salt
65 g of a mixture of crushed ginger and garlic
40 g lemon juice.

Tomatoes, meat, eggplant, rice, spices: the ingredients for a good sheikh al-mehshi. (Credit: Jad Abou Jaoude/L'Orient Today)

PREPARATION

For the sauce:

Fry the sliced onion in oil until it becomes translucent.
Add the crushed garlic and saute for two minutes. Then add the tomato purée, the fresh peeled tomatoes, (both of which need to be blended) the water and the Maggi cube.
Bring to a boil and then reduce the flame to low. Simmer for 15 minutes.
Add salt and spices, mix well.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.

For eggplant:

Cut eggplant into two equal parts.
Score the inside (flesh) of the eggplant.
Sprinkle the cut surface with salt and place on a baking sheet. Refrigerate for one hour.
Heat oil in a skillet to 180°C (use a thermometer if necessary).
Dry the flesh side of the eggplants with a paper towel.
Place the eggplants, flesh side down, in the hot oil and let them cook.
Remove the eggplants from the oil and place them on a baking sheet.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Roast eggplants in the oven at 185°C for eight to 10 minutes, or until the inside is tender.
Take them out of the oven.

Final touches for the sheikh al-mehshi. (Credit: Jad Abou Jaoude/L'Orient Today)

For meat:

Grind meat (if it's not already ground) with a meat grinder on a 3.5-inch setting.
Sauté the chopped onion in oil over medium heat until golden brown, then add the meat.
Once the meat is cooked through, add spices and salt.

For the vermicelli rice:

Rinse the rice three times, then soak it for 10 minutes.
Heat duck fat in a saucepan. Fry the vermicelli until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
Drain the rice and add it to the vermicelli. Add salt and cook for two to three minutes.
Add water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and leave on the stove for 10 to 12 minutes, until the rice is cooked but still slightly firm.
Turn off the heat and let the rice rest, still covered, for another 10 minutes.

For tahini yogurt:

Place all ingredients in a bowl. Mix until everything is homogeneous.
Transfer to a container.

Chef Mahmoud Remesh of Maryool restaurant. (Credit: Jad Abou Jaoude/L'Orient Today)

DRESSAGE

Pour sauce into a skillet. Add the eggplants and cook over medium heat until the sauce reduces and the eggplants are heated through.
In the dish, pour 20 percent of the sauce into the center then place the eggplants over the sauce.
Then place half of the meat in the center of the eggplants. Add the rest of the sauce and meat around the eggplants. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with fried almonds and sumac powder.
Serve the dish with a side bowl of tahini yogurt and a plate of rice.

FOM CHATEAU KSARA:

“With Sheikh al-Mehshi, we offer you “Nuance,” a rosé that, with its herbaceous notes and red fruit aromas, is harmonious with black spices and the starchy character of rice.”

In partnership with:

Quand le cheikh el-mehchi rencontre un rosé aux notes herbacées