Stuffed Eggplant Sheikh al-Mahshi

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg yogurt
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon salt
• for the filling onion
• a pinch pine nuts
• 3 cups rice
• for cooking Arabic cow ghee
• about 2 cups, slightly less, for 3 cups of rice vermicelli
• 1¼ cups for each cup of rice water

Instructions

1. Peel the eggplants and hollow out their insides, leaving the top cap intact, then prepare them for stuffing.
2. Prepare the filling in a bowl or plate, and stuff the eggplants with the filling until full.
3. Place the stuffed eggplants in a frying pan or pot with hot oil, then fry until golden.
4. In a clean, dry pot, mix the yogurt with cornstarch and salt until smooth.
5. Place the yogurt pot over high heat, stirring continuously until the yogurt boils.
6. Soak the rice in a bowl of water for half an hour.
7. Heat the pot over the heat, then add the Arabic cow ghee and brown the vermicelli in it.
8. Add the soaked rice to the pot with the vermicelli, then stir it with the ghee.
9. Add salt to the pot, then add hot water at a rate of 1¼ cups for each cup of rice.
10. Raise the heat until the water boils, then cover the pot with parchment paper or a sheet of paper and leave it over very low heat for 15 minutes, until the rice is cooked.
11. After the yogurt boils, reduce the heat to low and leave the yogurt until it reaches a thick, viscous consistency.
12. Add the fried eggplants to the yogurt pot, then leave them to simmer with it over low heat for about 5 minutes.
13. Stir the yogurt pot with the eggplants, then leave it over low heat for 3 additional minutes.
14. Spoon the rice onto a serving platter, arrange the eggplants over it, then pour the hot yogurt over them.
15. Garnish the dish with pine nuts.