Korean Persian Eggplant Stew (“Khoresht-e Bademjan”)

This is my recipe for a Persian “khoresht” (a sauce, stew or casserole) that I make with a Korean twist. I did this after learning a bit about Korean cooking. I wanted to spice things up. And it works!

Altogether, this takes about 1 hour to make, but you have to cook it for four hours to get the lamb nice and soft.

My brother-in-law Ira asked for this so I had to write it down, despite not knowing all the quantities. I’ll test it out a few more times and may alter the exact amounts in the future!

Serve this khoresht with:

• Persian rice and tahdig (steamed basmati rice with a crunchy base). Failing this, steamed basmati rice is the minimum.
• Persian yoghurt / cucumber mix (“mast-o khiar”) or plain Greek yoghurt. (This is my recipe for home-made Greek-style yoghurt using only milk powder!)

Ingredients

• 1 kg / 2 lb boneless lamb shoulder
• 2 large yellow onions
• Three-four large eggplants, or ten-twelve thin Chinese-style eggplants
• Half a garlic bulb (6-8 segments)
• Knob of fresh ginger
• 800g of crushed tomatoes (2 large 14 oz tins or one 28 oz tin)
• 1/2 cup or 4 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/4 cup or 2 tablespoons of gochujang
• 1/2 cup mirim (Korean rice wine)
• 1 Korean pear
• 2 tablespoons turmeric
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamon
• Vegetable oil
• Olive oil
• Salt, pepper

Preparation / Mise-en-Place

This is the phase of preparing the ingredients for final cooking.

1. Preheat an oven (it can be a small toaster oven) to 200 degrees C / 400 F.
2. Coat eggplants generously with olive oil and salt. Line a roasting tray with baking paper and leave the eggplants there.
3. When oven is ready (you can do other prep below as you wait), roast eggplants whole for ~30-45 minutes. Turn them a few times so that they roasts evenly. They should be soft at the end. When they’re done, slice them into 2-3 slices, depending on thickness.
4. Dice the lamb into pieces around 1 inch or 2.5 cm size. (They will shrink when cooking.)
5. Generously rub about 2 teaspoons of salt onto the lamb pieces. Allow to rest.
6. Cut onions in half, and cut into slices.
7. Crush the garlic, or mince it finely with a knife.
8. Peel, core, and cube the Korean pear.
9. Grate the ginger.
10. Combine wet ingredients for sauce: crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, gochujang, mirim, and also add the grated ginger to this.

Note — Most recipes suggest dicing the eggplant and roasting it with oil and salt until it’s golden, or frying it. But this makes for a very oil-heavy recipe and so I prefer not to do it that way. Still, it’s delicious that way!

Method

Here’s how you put it together.

1. In a large pot, add a few tablespoons of oil and heat to medium high heat.
2. Sear the lamb on all sides. Set aside.
3. Give the pot a wipe. Add two tablespoons olive oil, and fry onions for a few minutes until they are soft and translucent.
4. Add garlic and dry spices and fry for a minute until they’re fragrant.
5. Add back in the lamb. Stir and coat the lamb with spices, and allow it to become warm and fragrant.
6. Add in the wet ingredients + ginger.
7. Add in about 3 cups of water, enough to reach the top of the lamb. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and cover.
8. Stew for around 2 hours. Check salt levels and add more salt / pepper as necessary.
9. Add in the Korean pear.
10. Layer the sliced eggplant on top.
11. Cover and continue to stew until the lamb is soft — around 1-2 hours more. If the water level is too high, leave the lid off for some of it.

Serving

Serve this with Persian-style rice (“polo”) and Greek yoghurt or mast-o-khiar.