It’s hard to imagine that too much olive oil in a dish of aubergines could create a fainting fit, but that’s how the story goes. The dish of which I speak is called Imam Bayildi which apparently means “the Immam fainted”: he fainted at the profligate use of precious olive oil to create this dish. Had the priest in question been an Irish catholic, just the use of feckin’ olive oil at all, at all, would have caused fainting and excommunication for everyone involved and necessitated several glasses of altar wine to restore spiritual equilibrium. I’ve never experienced too much olive oil, so I’m probably making this incorrectly but if I am, then I’d love to try the correct version.
Food, Photography & France 
Decadent! There’s no such thing as too much olive oil 😀
Too right, Rosemary:)
Gorgeous pictures!
Thanks for that, Kiki..:)
I’m with Rosemary – you can’t have too much of a good thing 🙂
I certainly can’t, of that I’m sure:)
what tempting photos these are!
Enjoy the temptation and give in to it:)
I’ve always thought this might be my Death Row recipe. I could have as much olive oil as I wanted at that point, I suppose…..
That would be the time when heeding the doctor’s advice would be pointless:)
😉
Sumptuous pics. I’ve always liked the name of this dish.
Excellent,isn’t it:)
Temptation. I think I’ll pick up an aubergine or two today…
Go for it…it really is a good dish…and particularly good cold.
This looks so good! It reminds me of some Persian dishes with eggplant. I love this kind of stuff that really highlights the vegetable.
I’ve only just started to look at Persian food….from what I have read so far, it sounds to be wonderful.
I love this recipe, the story you told, the photos you took, plus my olive oil addiction… Simply Merveilleux!
Cheers…glad it hit the spot and thanks:)
Maybe too much olive oil is the key to successful eggplant. It’s so bitter when we try to do it.
It needs long cooking and intense flavours for it to absorb..I use it a lot now. We make aubergine parmigiana at least once a week…very, very good.
This is so beautiful, Connor. I’ve been meaning to make this for a long time. I think I’ll do it this week now that i have this lovely recipe. Wow.
🙂
OMG sorry, I called your by the wrong name! So sorry. Your photos are stunning. And I don’t think I know your first name. Keep going with the Persian food though. You will fall in love.
It’s Roger…my first name…but I think Connor would’ve been nice…I’ve never liked the name, Roger, much:)
Nice to meet you, Roger. 🙂 I like it.
Excellent:)
I love this recipe, I think it’s in one of the Claudia Roden books too. And the priest definitely wasn’t Spanish or Italian – we all love our olive oil in vast quantities (and of course equal quantities of wine to accompany)!
I can’t imagine not having olive oil and wine in my kitchen…
Thank you so much for this, Roger, q.uite apart from the mouthwatering photos and prose. I had a Turkish student years ago who told me about this dish, which his mother made, but his description of the recipe was so airy-fairy I was never able to get a clear idea. Now I just have to try it out and see who i can make faint!
I think it’s worth following the recipe in the terms of using several small aubergines rather than my option of one large one. It is absolutely wonderful when served cold as a part of a mezze.
Wow, that looks good! Might have to cook it tonight.
Go for it:)
Great dish. Love the title of the post!
Glad you liked it:)
Too much olive oil is not a sentence.
I shall be trying this my friend
You’re right…there is no too much:)
Smiley face
I already had to laugh when opening your post, Mr. Roger, besides making me hungry all the time you also make me laugh a lot. Thank you letting the priest faint, I have made that food hundrets of times ( a bit exageratet), but never thought of eating it cold.
Try it…you’ll be surprised..
Have made the ‘fainting priest’ forever from the same source! Must go back to the original recipe, ’cause have forgotten the allspice for a long time!! With two eggplants in the fridge with nowhere to go . . . it’s about time to meet old acquaintances 🙂 !!
Excellent, Eha. I’d forgotten the book for a long time and it suddenly resurfaced at the same time as an aubergine needed cooking:)
It’s amazing the crazy things I read online. First it was the Guardian’s “23 recipes for leftover wine”… And now this “too much olive oil…” All things in moderation, including moderation.
Huh? ‘Too much olive oil’ I can kind’a understand . . . who on earth has ever had ‘leftover wine’ 😉 ?
Looking at the comments to the Guardian’s article it’s pretty much an alien concept to its readers. There was an article in similar vein for leftover sausages last week which elicted a similar response.
I must check this out…strange people these Guardian cookery writers:)
That is too weird:)
Must read the Guardian 🙂 No ‘leftover’ wine here and I do not eat sausages 😀 !!!!! Real spoilsport!!!!
Very nice line…I’ll be using that:)
Interesting back story. I don’t eat eggplant that often. Maybe I’m old enough now to enjoy them?
A lot of people have an aversion to egg plant/aubergine which I think stems from not having eaten a well prepared recipe. Once you get into Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food you find out just how amazing and versatile it really is.
it’s the aubergines there is too much of. Says she who dislikes them so much!!
Maybe one day someone will tempt you with a truly delicious version which you won’t recognise until after you recover from swooning:)
heh heh. At my age, I rule nothing out because you just never know!
I’ve always liked the name…though isn’t the eggplant exposed in this dish?
True….a bit of eggplant exposure was too much for the priest:)
It seems that you think just like my husband when it comes to the theory that there can never be too much olive oil. When he cooks, I notice the quantity of oil greatly diminishing from the olive oil bottle. I can just imagine how good this would taste spread on top of a French baguette.
What an excellent idea…
Decadent is right – I say, make it float in the gold of olive oil!
That’s what I like to hear:)
Tempting!
Love aubergines. Looks delicious!
Thanks for checking it out:)