The Rev Did Not Faint

 

Aubergines were cheap at CCWells last week, so I bought some for my first attempt at the Turkish dish, Imam Bayildi. Lots of recipes online - here is Yotam's.

I added a heaped tsp of pinenuts, and another of currants. It looks a bit messy on the plate, but tasted fabulous. Because we are still lo-carb/lo-sugar I didn't serve it with a bowl of soft warm pita bread. Which I will definitely do next time, as it would have made it easier to mop up every last unctuous smear of flavour.

The name Imam Bayildi means "the priest fainted". There are various tales surrounding the origin of such a title.

The main one is that the priest's wife served him such a delicious meal that he swooned from sheer pleasure. An alternative tale is that he fainted because she told him how much olive oil she had used in it.

The one that amused me most is that the Imam was newly wed, and his father in law was an olive oil merchant. So the bride came with a valuable dowry, a dozen bottles of the finest virgin oil. The first evening when the Imam came home, she served him this dish for dinner. He loved it. "I could eat this every night" he told her. So the next night she repeated this...and so on for twelve nights. But on the thirteenth night, his supper was something else [egg&chips? macaroni cheese? we do not know] When the priest questioned her about the change in menu, she explained that she had run out of oil - and the dowry had all been used up. The priest fainted in distress because of her profligacy with their resources.

I didn't use an excessive amount of oil - and Bob did not faint. But we really did enjoy this dish, a true Turkish Delight.