Eggplant!

"Fear me! No, fear me! Quit laughing! I hate you all!"

No, this isn't a fond remembrance of the classic NES game Kid Icarus, this is a discussion on a vastly under appreciated veggie that's been pushed onto us by many overanxious cooks who had no idea how to properly cook this interesting plant. It's purple exterior taunts many nightmares of school aged children who can't understand why something that color doesn't taste more like grapes, and adults who look on eggplant with fuzzy memories from childhood of this strange plant.

In the words of many of us who played Kid Icarus and were cursed by the Eggplant Wizard right before the end of the game, "what do you mean we have to go back to the beginning of the game to get cured?!"

Honestly, we should go back to the beginning and toss away all of our preconceptions about this strange veggie. You can't go forward if haunted by the past, and this applies double for foods that our parents punished us with. 

Today I'll give you one of my favorite uses of eggplant, a middle eastern dish known as baba ghanoush. Baba ghanoush is a dip made of fire roasted eggplant, that is fantastic for the upcoming football season, and extremely easy to make, and goes very well with tortilla chips.

This dish brings back many fond memories of my mentor, Gordon Young, who passed away several months ago, of his insistence that his first meal in Egypt always included this wonderful (ugly as sin) dip. Here's to you old man, hope you are smiling at this post!

Baba ghanoush (eggplant dip)

Tools:

Charcoal Grill

Aluminum Foil

Tongs

Plastic Storage Bag

Food Processor (or a potato masher and some anger issues to get over through violence)

Bowl with Lid

Cutting Board

Knife

Spoon

Trashcan

Ingredients:

2-2.5 lbs of eggplant (the smaller the plant, the more flavor it has)

1 head of garlic or 2 tablespoons of garlic powder

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of parsley flakes

2 tablespoon of lemon juice

1 cup of tahini (this is a sesame seed paste used in a lot of middle eastern dips, if you can't find it you can use a cup of plain Greek yogurt instead)

The first thing you need to do is get the charcoal grill going with enough charcoal that it can last more than an hour. Put the eggplants onto the grill and cover, turning every so often. Much like roasting peppers in the American Southwest, what we are doing right now is charring (aka, make it look burned) the outer skin as the tender flesh inside the eggplant is cooking. Turn every so often for the next hour or so, or until the skin splits and clear juices are dripping out.

While the eggplant is cooking, take your head of garlic and cut the bottom off with a sharp knife. Place the bottomed garlic onto a piece of aluminum foil and pour a little bit of olive oil around it. Take the edges of the foil and pull them upwards, creating a little package with the garlic inside. Put this onto the grill for the final thirty minutes of cooking so you can roast your garlic. If you are too lazy to do this, you can get away with using garlic powder, but it isn't the same. 

Once the garlic and eggplant are done cooking, place the eggplant into the plastic bag, seal it, and toss it into the fridge for an hour to help cool it off. What this is also doing is letting the eggplant continue steaming for a short while and loosen up the charred skin. Take the package of roasted garlic and toss it into the fridge for about ten minutes to cool it off. 

Alright, this is the messy part of this dip, get your trashcan ready and your food processor open for the goodies. Take the garlic and pull the paper (skin) off of it by pressing on the sealed end with your finger, to smoosh the roasted garlic out. Put all the smooshed garlic into the food processor, throwing the paper away.

Take your cooled eggplants out of the fridge, and slice the top off, and then peel the skin away. This will leave you a soft mess of eggplant that you'll drop into the food processor as well. This will be messy, so don't worry, pulling the skin off of any plant is less of a science, but more of an individual art.

Once all the garlic and eggplant are in the food processor, blend it until it is a smooth paste. Pour this into your final bowl.

Mix in the cup of tahini, one tablespoon of olive oil, and the parsley to the eggplant/garlic mix. Stir together until blended. Add the two tablespoons of lemon juice to the top of the mix, and then either serve immediately or store in the fridge for upwards of two days.

And that's it for baba ghanoush, made of a misunderstood veggie with a bad reputation. Serve with tortilla chips (or flat bread if you have a fantastic local baker). Until next time!

Bien Camino!