Create Simple, Yet Smoky Baba Ghanoush
by Marc Matsumoto on Oct 24, 2011
With just a few ingredients including eggplant, you can make this simple middle eastern dip recipe from Marc Matsumoto of NoRecipes.
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Smoky, sweet, tangy and creamy with a hint of garlic and olive oil; the complex array of flavors in a good Baba Ghanoush belies its short list of simple ingredients. Its not complicated to make, but there are a few tricks that make the difference between the nuanced eggplant dish I love and a watery, pallid excuse for a dip.
The first thing is that you need to literally burn the skin off the eggplant. Im not talking a simple char; you want the skin to turn into a buckled mess of crackling carbon. This concentrates the flavors inside the eggplant and infuses a wonderful smoky aroma. Because eggplant has a lot of moisture, its also important to drain some of it off before making your dip.
I like using Japanese eggplants for this dish because they are sweet when roasted and have almost no seeds, but if you cant find them in your area, two medium sized regular eggplants will do. When youre choosing your eggplants, be sure to look for ones with taut unblemished skin.
Serve this with some pita bread, crackers, or chips. Its also great on top of a salad with some Italian tuna, or spread in a sandwich with some sun dried tomatoes.
Marc Matsumoto is a culinary consultant and recipe repairman who shares his passion for good food through his website norecipes.com. For Marc, food is a life long journey of exploration, discovery and experimentation and he shares his escapades through his blog in the hopes that he inspires others to find their own culinary adventures. Marcs been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and has made multiple appearances on NPR and the Food Network.