Sautéed lamb with smoky eggplant (hünkar begendi)

‘The sovereign loved it.’ This is the translation of ‘hünkar begendi’, referring to its origin – at least according to the story that attests the dish was invented in the 17th century for Sultan Murad IV. Two hundred years later, the Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoléon III, was also supposed to have especially enjoyed this dish. So, sovereigns do love it, then. And not only sovereigns – me, too. It can be made with either cubes of meat or as meatballs.