How to make Sheikh El Mahshi

How to make Sheikh El Mahshi, with a recipe, method, and illustrations (to enlarge the pictures, click on them).

Sheikh el Mahshi roughly translates to the "king of stuffed vegetables"; so clearly a respectable dish. Traditional Lebanese food has stuffed many vegetables, from peppers to courgettes, but the "king" of all these dishes is the stuffed aubergine. Served on a table, it looks pretty complicated to make, but these simple steps will prove that this is not the case. Delicious yet painless.

Ingredients:
- four large aubergines
- vermicelli rice
- onion
- sunflower oil
- canned tomatoes (400g)
- minced meat
- basmati rice
- dried mint
- salt and pepper
- garlic

Step one (preparing the aubergine): peal your aubergines half way, as shown in the picture, then cut them in half. With a knife, dig a whole in the halfs, taking out a little chunk of the aubergine from its middle. Deep fry them on high heat, until they get to a nice golden colour, then take them out of the pan and allow them to drain off the oil.

Step two (making the meat stuffing): dice the onion finely, then fry them in 2-3 table spoons of sunflower oil, on medium heat, until they are yellow in colour. Then place the minced meat on-top and allow them to brown, add salt and pepper to taste, and mix them thoroughly.

Step three (stuffing the aubergine): When your meat mixture is cooked, stuff it into the holes of your fried aubergine, as shown in the picture. Then arrange them in a pan in a way such that the meat does not fall out.

Step four (adding flavor to your pan): empty the tinned tomato on top of all the stuffed aubergine, evenly across the pan. Then pour half a cup of water into the pan, to aid the cooking. Put the pan into the oven and allow them to cook for about fifteen minutes (this will minimize the sharpness of the tomato, making them sweeter). While they cook crush three cloves of garlic, put a teaspoon of mint on top of them, then add this mint and garlic infusion on-top of the stuffed aubergines, and allow them to cook through for a further 10 minutes.

 

Step five (making the rice): while the aubergine's cook, fry the vermicelli noodles in two tablespoons of sunflower oil, or a table spoon of butter, until they go dark brown as the picture shows. Add two cups of washed basmati rice to them, and three cups of boiling water, mix them thoroughly, and leave them to simmer for 10 minutes so that the rice can cook.
Note: vermicelli rice is the traditional rice served with Lebanese meals, very delicious due to its nutty flavor, which is  derived from frying the noodles before mixing it with the rice.

Serving suggestion in the picture below. Enjoy!