The Imam Faints
Photo © Rob Jones
Scouring Corfu for interesting recipes, I was confused by one I found on a number of menus, called Imam Faints or μελιτζανα.
μελιτζανα (Melitsana) just means Aubergine. It’s actually a fruit and comes from the Deadly Nightshade family. Which ought to put you off. Badly cooked Aubergine just makes me weep because I feel they are fabulous.
The dish’s name is testament to the fact that Corfu has been influenced by so many cultures. It’s a place suffused in Greek legend, and over time became ruled by the Romans (it is after all only 100 miles away from the stiletto of Italy), Ostrogoths, Bulgarians, Byzantines, Venetians, French, British and then back to Greece.
But why is the Imam Fainting?
One story simply says that a prominent Imam found the dish so wonderful, he fainted.
Another tells of an Imam who married the daughter of an olive oil merchant, who served the dish, and loved so much he requested it time and time again. She did this for 12 nights … and then on the 13th … nothing. He then discovered that the wife had been using a whole jar of olive oil every night to make the meal, and that she had used up all her dowry. At which point he fainted.
Warning - don’t use all the olive oil in your dowry.
I made this is two parts …
I sliced the aubergines in two, and carved out some of the interior to make a well, and then browned both sides in a pan. I am told the whole salting thing is needless. Especially if you then add salt later.
Then, I doused it severely with olive oil and roasted them.
In the second part, for a sauce, I used the aubergine interiors, diced, and fried in a pan with … more olive oil … an onion, garlic, chopped fresh tomatoes, a little sugar, some smoked paprika, chopped coriander.
All the quantities are to taste.
Then - I spread the sauce over the aubergine shells, and sprinkled with some feta cheese, back into the oven for a bit.
Sprinkled with coriander before serving.
Probably need a little rice or … go for it, chips .. to soak up the juices.
(Faint)
R
