Salt the eggplant and place in a colander to drain the juices we don't want.

In a large frying pan on high heat, add 2-3 tsp of vegetable oil. Carefully add the lamb and get a good sear on all sides. Do it in small batches if your using cubes of meat, do not add too many at once, otherwise you will be cooking the meat and not searing it. Set aside.

Add more vegetable oil to the pan and turn down the heat to medium. Fry the cauliflower florets until golden or softened through. Set aside.

Replenish the vegetable oil if needed. And fry the eggplant slices until golden and soft. *Make sure your heat gets back up to temperature if you are adding more oil, otherwise you will end up with oil soggy eggplant. Set Aside.

Mix the rice with the allspice, nutmeg, cumin, turmeric, salt, cinnamon sticks, cardamom seeds and peppercorns. Set aside.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large casserole pan, (one that makes it easy to turn upside down and retain the shape of the rounded pot and can also go in the oven!). So it should be just tall enough. Add 1/4 cup of vegetable oil and layer the ingredients as follows:
onion slices on bottom and around the sides, one onion high
cauliflower
eggplant
lamb
rice mix
I added potato slices that were also fried first after layering the cauliflower.

Add the stock until it just covers the rice. If you have leftover stock use it in another recipe. If you need more stock and don't have any more you can either mix warm water with a bullion cube or just use plain water until the liquid level is just over the rice.

Start the casserole on top of the stove on medium/high heat until boiling, then cover the pot and place in the oven for 1 hour.

To serve, remove the pots cover and place a large serving plate or platter on top and turn the pot upside down. Tap lightly on the pot bottom to make sure any sticky onions come off attached to the round casserole. Serve with plain yogurt. Greek yogurt is great with this.

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and salt it generously. Add the cubed eggplant and boil for about 10 minutes, or until the eggplant is very tender. Drain and let cool to the touch.

Squeeze the excess water out of the eggplant and place it in a large mixing bowl. Add the cheeses, eggs, garlic, parsley, plenty of black pepper, and a big pinch of salt. Add about half of the bread crumbs and begin mixing the ingredients by hand.

Continue to add more bread crumbs until the mixture is soft and moldable, but not too wet or sticky. The amount of breadcrumbs needed will vary, so trust your judgment.

Fill a deep pan with about 1 inch of vegetable oil and heat over med/high heat. Meanwhile, form the meatball mix into about 15 polpette. Form them into balls about 1½ to 2 inches in diameter. Dust the polpette in bread crumbs.

Once the oil is at 350°F., working in batches, carefully drop the eggplant polpette into the pan, like anything deep fried, don't overcrowd the pan, I fried 4-6 at a time. Turn them frequently and fry until browned on all sides, about 3 minutes in total. Remove to a paper towel to drain.

Serve the polpette warm and fresh. Buon appetito!