Baba Ghanoush

By lorik

When buying eggplant, select those with shiny, taut, and unbruised skins and an even shape (eggplant with a bulbous shape won’t cook evenly). We prefer to serve baba ghanoush only lightly chilled. If yours is cold, let it stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving. Baba ghanoush does not keep well, so plan to make it the day you want to serve it. Pita bread, black olives, tomato wedges, and cucumber slices are nice accompaniments.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds eggplant(about 2 large globe, 5 medium Italian, or 12 medium Japanese), each poked uniformly over surface with fork to prevent bursting
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons tahinipaste
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for serving
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Details

Servings 2
Adapted from americastestkitchen.com

Preparation

Step 1

Instead of roasting in oven, place the whole eggplant, skin and all on the stove burner and charred each side over medium-high heat until it is soft and black all over. Then, wrap it tightly in foil and placed in on the burner at low heat for about 30 min, turning once. By this time it should be very soft. Let it sit until it cools enough to handle and unwrap the foil over a bowl to collect all of the juices that leak (the juices add so much flavor) and carefully remove the blackened outer skin and discard that. Then you are left with a perfectly smoky eggplant pulp to add to the other ingredients. I keep the seeds in it and don't have any complaints of bitterness.

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil, set eggplants on baking sheet and roast, turning every 15 minutes, until eggplants are uniformly soft when pressed with tongs, about 60 minutes for large globe eggplants, 50 minutes for Italian eggplants, and 40 minutes for Japanese eggplants. Cool eggplants on baking sheet 5 minutes.

2. Set small colander over bowl or in sink. Trim top and bottom off each eggplant. Slit eggplants lengthwise and use spoon to scoop hot pulp from skins and place pulp in colander (you should have about 2 cups packed pulp); discard skins. Let pulp drain 3 minutes.

3. Transfer pulp to workbowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Add lemon juice, oil, garlic, tahini, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; process until mixture has coarse, choppy texture, about eight 1-second pulses. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper; transfer to serving bowl, cover with plastic wrap flush with surface of dip, and refrigerate 45 to 60 minutes. To serve, use spoon to make trough in center of dip and spoon olive oil into it; sprinkle with parsley and serve.