Stuffed Eggplant with Lamb and Pine Nuts in the Style of a Sheik

An Arab sheik (properly pronounced “shake”) is a prominent chief of a community or tribe. This Lebanese meze is called shaykh al-ma  shī bādhinjān, “sheik-style stuffed eggplant,” so-called in recognition of its magnificence, of the fact that it is bigger and grander than other eggplant preparations, and that it contains lamb, meat being for special occasions or people. In fact, the word for meat and lamb is the same in Arabic, lahm.