Hünkar Beğendi (a.k.a. Sultan's Delight) is by far my favorite food from the Ottoman cuisine. My beloved greatgranma Menguc used to make it for important dinner parties, but never taught me how to make it properly. All I knew is that it took hours to make it (the recipe calls for at least one grilled mid-size eggplant per person) and minutes to devour it.
I have heard two different stories about the name of this dish, Hünkar Beğendi, which literately translates as "Sultan liked it"
The first one: the dish was created for Sultan Murad IV (1612-1640) and obviously he liked it--hence the name!
The second rumor is that the same dish was served for Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, in Sultan Abdülaziz's Beylerbeyi Palace (Istanbul) in 1869, and she liked it so much that Abdülaziz promised her to ask his chef to give Eugenie's chef the recipe--but supposedly Abdülaziz's chef was reluctant to share the recipe and the ottoman empire ended up "todo mal" avec le francais! (could this be the reason?)
You may ask: what it is that a man who ruled 2/3s of Euro-asia liked so much? It may not sound too eccentric or sophisticated, it basically is a lamb stew (but I made it with meat balls, I suck at cooking lamb) served on a bed of creamy roasted eggplant puree with cheese. Sounds bland? Gotta try it before judging it, that is all I have to say.
Back to the dinner party: I arrived with the masa de meatballs (don't you love the spanglish?) and all the other ingredients (lots of eggplants) to the HQ of the club on Bolivar street. Thanks to my fellow sous-chefs, I was able to roast the eggplants and work on my story for the night and manage to serve the Begendi and turkish style rice (cooked with chicken broth and butter), with my last minute slant to the recipe (spicy tomato sauce and garlic yogurt to give it a kebap quality).
How was it you may ask: that I should not be answering, it would be conceded! Fellow comilones, please send your comments:) ---and photos?
Yo quiero eso!
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