Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Baba Ganoush

We had been itching to try our hand at Baba Ganoush for a while, we've always loved it in plates at Boston restaurants like the Red Fez and the West Street Grill... We love eggplant, we love roasting, and we love lemon and garlic - so it is a natural!

Poked holes with a fork in one large eggplant and set it in a baking dish and into a 400-degree oven for just over 30 minutes. That eggplant went through quite a transformation during that time - going from a vibrant, shiny purple veggie to a wrinkled, shriveled-up one... it was quite a fast aging process!



We tested the flesh of the eggplant with a fork and found it to be nice and soft, so we set it aside to cool and pulled out the old food processor, a can of tahini, lemons, extra virgin olive oil, and minced up a couple big cloves of garlic.

When the eggplant cooled, we removed and discarded the very top and bottom and then cut the eggplant lengthwise into quarters. From that configuration, it was pretty easy to just peel the skin off the flesh in a few big strips. After that, it's into the food processor...



Give that a good initial spin while adding the juice of two lemons (about 4 tablespoons). Then add the minced garlic and a few big dollops of the tahini paste and a big pinch of kosher salt. More spinning and then we tried it... it didn't seem to be getting to the consistency we were looking for so we added some olive oil and spun it for a good couple of minutes - that really started to even it out. Consistency where we wanted it, we checked the flavoring and maybe added a little more lemon and olive oil. One last spin and then out of the processor and into the fridge for a good sit.

After about an hour we were ready to go. Chopped up some fresh parsley and added it at the last minute... cut up some soft pita bread and we ate the baba ganoush with the pitas and some pepperoncinis along with a tomato and feta salad! Came out great - the longer in the fridge, the better!

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