My eggplant recipes don’t scale well. And this year, that’s a problem.
Eggplant parmesan requires a certain amount of eggplant. So does ratatoullie. But this year, the spousal unit planted two eggplant seedlings, pretty much on a lark.
The fruit don’t all ripen at the same time. (Yes, eggplant is a fruit, a berry, actually.) So what do I do when I have exactly one ripe eggplant?
Baba ganoush.
Truth be told, I don’t have a lot of history with the dish. I’ve had it a number of times at Pita Gourmet in Cortland, and I’ve enjoyed it. But I never made it before.
The dish is largely from the Levant, more or less the eastern Mediterranean, but variants can be found in eastern Arabia, Turkey, Armenia, even Romania.
They all have their peculiarities: different spices, different oils, maybe cheese, or perhaps finely diced vegetation instead of pureed. But they all seem to have three things in common: tahini, lemon.
And eggplant.
The best way to prepare eggplant is over an open fire. A nice, smoky charcoal grill works for me, but you can even use your natural gas cooktop in the winter. Keep it over the heat until the skin chars, perhaps four or five minutes per side for three or four turns, depending on the heat of your grill. (My grill with natural lump charcoal can hit 800 degrees, but you might want to go longer if you’re using briquets.) Once it’s properly cooked, wrap it in several layers of plastic wrap or place in a tightly covered dish for 15 or 20 minutes to let steam loosen the skin.
You can do much the same on your cooktop, or put them under the broiler in your oven. The idea is to cook them in a dry-heat environment, to both concentrate flavor and to keep the consistency a little thicker.
After that, it’s a pinch of this and a touch of that, plus a bit of tahini — which is a sesame butter similar in consistency to peanut butter. Puree until it’s of the desired consistency and serve with pita, pita chips or raw veggies.
A note: Most recipes call for a number of eggplant, without noting that they’re not all of the same size, or that the standard purple globe is much larger than Italian, Japanese or even Thai varieties. So rather than give you a number, this recipes gives you a volume to shoot for.
BABA GANOUSH
3/4 cup roasted eggplant (about 1 medium purple globe)
1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic
2 Tbs. Tahini (eyeball it; have you ever tried to measure sticky nut butter?)
1 Tbs. plain Greek yogurt
Juice of half a lemon
Zest of half a lemon
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
A pinch of cardamom
Prepare the eggplant, scooping the flesh out of the skin, or simply wiping the skin away. Place into a blender with remaining ingredients. Puree until of desired consistency. If you want it a bit thicker, add more tahini. If you want it a bit thinner, add just a touch of olive oil.
Play with it: A number of recipes call for sumac, which has a tangy, lemony taste. If you can’t find sumac, you can add more lemon zest, instead. Some recipes call for nutmeg or coriander. Some add onion. Parsley, sesame seed and pine nuts are common garnishes. and, of course, you can use more or less of any ingredient to your taste.
