Babaganoush

After our Valentine's dinner at Public, I knew I had to recreate their smoky babaganoush. Like -- now. There was no stopping me. It was that good. 

Growing up my mum served eggplant a lot. And so my obsession began. Eggplant parmesan, grilled eggplant, stuffed eggplant and, of course, babaganoush.  This was not new territory for me. But, I needed that smoky flavor from Public. Needed.  Not wanted.  Serious business here - that level of smoky is not traditional to all babaganoush recipes. 

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplants, skin scrubbed and dried

1tbsp olive oil* 

1-2tbsp tahini (sesame paste)

1 lemon, juiced 

1/2tbsp garlic, minced 

Kosher salt

*I use a misto to spray the eggplants before they hit the broiler, if you don't have a misto, put a little olive oil on a clean paper towel and give the eggplants a good rub down (it's the massaged kale of the eggplant world). 

Directions:

1. Turn your broiler on high 

2. Scrub the eggplants under cool water, dry thoroughly, pierce well with a fork 

3. Lightly spray the eggplants with olive oil, or rub with a paper towel

4. Place the eggplants in a disposable aluminum baking sheet (or use a dishwasher safe baking sheet -  I chose disposable because I didn't want to clean the broiled-on mess)

5. Broil the eggplants until shriveled and charred (about 45-55 minutes depending on your broiler), after 20 minutes, turn the eggplants, continue to do this every 10 minutes until  really (really!!) charred

6. Once the eggplants have reached your desired char and shrivel, remove from the boiler and let cool just slightly - I like to work with slightly warm eggplants because I think the tahini blends better with warm eggplant

7. Remove the stems and discard, roughly dice eggplant (skin, seeds and all)

8. Place in a food processor* and blend until just soft enough that no big pieces of flesh or skin are visible 

9. Empty eggplant into a bowl, add 1tbsp each tahini and olive oil, followed by lemon juice, garlic and salt

10. Taste your babaganoush and add more tahini and salt if you'd like (trust your judgement here, many people prefer this dish heavy on the sesame flavor, others not so much)

11. Refrigerate until serving with bread, pita chips, carrots, or anything else  

*There are a million schools of thought here.  Okay, not one million, exactly - that's an exaggeration - but there are a lot.  I prefer this method because I want all of the charred goodness in my babaganoush.  If you aren't a charred fan like I am, you may wish to remove the eggplant's flesh from the skin (do this by halving the eggplants then scraping the flesh from the skin with a spoon) then mash the flesh until soft. Both methods work just fine.  Much like most aspects of cooking, it's personal preference. 

The pioneer woman once told me to pierce my eggplants.  So, pierce I did...When she talks writes, I listen.  It's a very simple relationship. 

Really get in there, we're not dainty pierces:

After broiling 55 minutes:

Stems removed:

Chopped eggplant in the food processor:

Eggplant after processing:

Tahini, olive oil and lemon juice:

Garlic:

This dish needs salt -- no other way around it:

Babaganoush is like a cozy couch...not that pretty to look at, but so good.  The final product was a little bit too ugly for the interwebs.  But, I promise you the recipe is tasty. 

Do you like smoky flavors? I'd love to hear from you if you try this babaganoush!

xx,

The Future Mrs. Wolf