lebanese-style stuffed eggplant

INGREDIENTS

• Some of those eggplants ended up in this dish, which if I had been the kind of person who froze trays of meals before the baby came, this would have been a perfect candidate. Instead, we ate it at once, and greedily. I hadn’t stuffed eggplants before — ju
• ,
• and
• — but I’m officially converted. I loved the way as the walls softened, the eggplant flesh became part of the dish. This is no hard and fast recipe; you can tweak it any way you see fit, swapping the ground meat, changing the spices, adding more vegetab
• 6 (5- to 6-inch long) bambino (also called Baby Bell) eggplants (about 6 ounces each)
• 1/2 cup long-grain or jasmine rice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (14 1/2-oz) can diced tomatoes in juice
• 3/4 lb ground lamb or beef chuck (not lean)
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 lemon
• 3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley