Another dish from the Georgian mountains. This one is very rich, made with lots of butter. It's designed for big strong guys who are out working on the mountainsides all day. Substitute oil or margarine for the butter if you want. I've halved the quantity here compared to what I saw going into the original when I was being shown how to make it. The list of ingredients is fairly simple but trust me - the combination and the method of cooking results in a fantastic meal. You'll be glad you tried it and you could probably use the technique with other combinations of ingredients. If you do try that, it's worth keeping in mind that the whole tomatoes are not just for decoration. There's just enough moisture in the potatoes and aubergines to get everything steaming but when they dry up the tomatoes start to leak juice into the pan which stops the bottom layer of vegetables burning and makes more steam. Pretty sophisticated, huh?
500-700g potatoes
500-700g aubergines
5 smallish tomatoes
1 large onion
4 cloves of garlic
4 or 5 sprigs each of coriander, parsley and celery leaves
Black pepper
Salt
100g butter or margarine
First you have to make up a herb and onion mixture so chop your onion, garlic and herbs finely and mix them up with some pepper. Leave the mixture to one side while you prepare the other ingredients. Cut the potatoes into 1 cm thick slices and the aubergines into 2 cm slices. Do the potatoes first as the aubergines go brown in the air.
Smear about a third of the butter or margarine on the bottom
of a heavy, wide and deep pan (a lot of adjectives there, but they're all necessary)
then start with a layer of potatoes, followed by a layer of aubergines then
a layer of herb and onion mix. Sprinkle salt on each layer. Ideally, you should
have enough ingredients to do the same again and finish off with a final, third
layer of potatoes. Dot the rest of the butter around on the final layer then
place the whole tomatoes on top. If you have any onion and herbs left, fling
them on too. Put a lid tightly on the pan. If there is a small space it will
probably close when the ingredients soften a bit so don't worry too much. Put
the pan on a medium heat and turn it down just a little when things get steaming.
Stew slowly until the potatoes are soft - probably about 40 minutes.