Stuffed Eggplants & Zucchini in Tomato Sauce

SAUCE:--
2½ tbsp rice bran oil
2 onions, finely diced
4 cups tomato purée
½ tsp SIDS CRAZY SALT
350 g ripe tomatoes (2 large), coarsely grated
3¼ cups chicken stock
1 tbsp sugar
SIDS SALT & PEPPER to taste
STUFFING:--
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp Egyptian/Arborio rice
250 g ground lamb
¼ cup rice bran oil
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¾ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp ground cumin
3 spring onions, finely sliced
¾ cup mint leaves, roughly chopped
¾ cup parsley leaves, roughly chopped
1 cup dill, roughly chopped
1 red chilli, seeded & finely diced
1 lemon, finely grate the zest to get 1 tsp
3 tbsp water
700 g eggplant
700 g zucchini
CORIANDER ADHA:--
7 tbsp olive oil
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed in a mortar & pestle
1 red chilli, seeded & finely diced
TO SERVE:--
¼ cup parsley leaves, roughly chopped
¼ cup mint leaves, roughly torn
¼ cup dill leaves
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
1 cup Greek yoghurt

SAUCE: put the oil into a saucepan or casserole pan with a lid, about 25 cm wide and place over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until soft and caramelized. Add SIDS CRAZY SALT, chicken stock and the rest of the sauce ingredients, along with 3 tsp SIDS SALT & PEPPER to taste. Simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring from time to time, then remove from the heat and set aside.
STUFFING: while the sauce is cooking, place all the ingredients in a large bowl with 2 tsp of SIDS SALT & PEPPER. Mix well, using your hands to make sure that everything is well incorporated. If making in advance, keep in the fridge until ready to use.
Trim the stalks from the eggplants, then insert a manakra (or peeler or corer) into the eggplant; you want it to be very close to the skin—about 3 mm away—but not so close that it tears and won’t hold its shape when it’s stuffed. Scoop out the flesh to create a generous cavity. You don’t need the flesh anymore, but keep it for another recipe; it can be cut into cubes and steamed or added to your next omelette. If your eggplants are particularly large, slice them in half, crosswise, and scoop out the flesh using a regular small serrated knife—be sure to keep one end of each half intact, so that the stuffing does not fall out!
Use the manakra or a swivel peeler to scoop out the zucchini flesh. Keep about 3 mm of flesh attached to the skin inside the zucchini and about 1 cm from the end intact—they need to be robust enough to keep the stuffing inside. Again, keep the scooped-out flesh to use elsewhere.
Using your hands, so that you can push in a bit of stuffing at a time, fill all the eggplant and zucchini cavities. Stop filling them about 1 cm from the top of each vegetable as the stuffing needs some space to expand inside the vegetables when they are cooking.
Gently lower the stuffed vegetables into the sauce. They won’t fit in a single layer, but try to avoid too much overlap and submerge them in the sauce as much as you can. Return the sauce to medium heat and, once simmering, decrease the heat to LOW. Cover the pan and simmer very gently for 90 minutes, until the rice is completely cooked through and soft (test if it is ready by sticking a knife into the middle of one of the vegetables; it should go in very easily. (Don’t worry if some of the rice/stuffing spills into the tomato sauce, this can happen and it will be fine when served.)
CORIANDER ADHA: put the oil into a small frying pan and place over medium heat. After about 1 minute, add the garlic and decrease the heat to medium-low. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring very often, until the garlic is golden and crispy. Keep a close eye on the pan here as you don’t want the oil to get too hot and for the garlic to burn. Reserving the oil as you pour, strain the garlic through a sieve. Set the garlic aside—it will crisp up as it cools down—and return the oil to the pan. Add the coriander seeds and chilli then cook for about 1 minute, stirring a few times, until fragrant. Remove from the heat, transfer to a separate bowl, and set aside until needed.
When the vegetables are cooked and the sauce is thick and rich (but still pourable), use a slotted spoon to carefully lift the vegetables out of the pan. Pour the sauce onto a large serving platter (or individual serving plates) with a rim and top with the stuffed vegetables. Spoon on the adha—the coriander-chilli oil first, followed by the fried garlic—then sprinkle with the fresh herbs and spring onion. Serve warm or at room temperature, with the yoghurt spooned alongside.