Slow Cooker Persian Lamb and Eggplant Stew makes tender lamb in a spiced tomato sauce that is cooked all day and gets served with rice in the Persian classic.

Khoreshe Bademjan: Slow Cooker Persian Eggplant Stew

By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime

After I had  learned how to make Persian food when I was about 19, I came to love it. It also became one of my staple foods in “the lean years” when Bill and I were first together. I could make a pot of Khoreshe to serve with rice, we’d eat part of it, and I could add something else to make it seem different for the next day. So with a thing  like this, I could easily add another vegetable for round two. The vegetables helped to stretch the meat budget. We might be living better now, some 30 odd years later, but we still need to pinch pennies for various reasons. And this is always a favorite. I like mine a little tart, so I will also sprinkle my rice with sumac or a squeeze of fresh lemon to boot.

I think of Said (now goes by Steve) sometimes when I cook Persian. Those of you who know me also know who he was. If it had not been for him, I probably would not have come to know the cuisine as well as I did. Not that it was all he wanted to eat. He was game for anything with rice. He liked the Duck and Rice that Lee Lam used to make down on Route 3 in Cahokia. We were regulars. Later on Bill and I would go there but we were really fans of Tom Hsu’s Hunan Cafe over on Hampton Avenue in St. Louis by that time. He later sold it and opened out in West County, but that was the best restaurant he ever had.

Always loved rice. Oh and you can also cook this in the dutch oven on the stove top. Not a big deal. Simmers for about an hour. And you can also use beef in this- I did many times when lamb was hard to find. Much easier now, but not always so.

Khoreshe Bademjan

• Servings: 4
• Time: 10hr 15mins
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 1  pound lean boneless cubed lamb
• 1 pound peeled diced eggplant
• 2 cups diced onion
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• salt and black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes (with juice)

Method:

1. Brown lamb and onion in oil in a nonstick skillet.
2. Turn lamb and onions into a slow cooker and add remaining ingredients.
3. Cover and cook on low for ten hours or until cooked and tender.

From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com