Baba Ghanoush

I rarely post two recipes in the same day. But these two, homemade Tahini paste and Baba Ghanoush, are so connected that one might inspire you to prepare the other one, whatever the order of your interest might be. Just like I did myself. The step that takes from one recipe to the other is very short indeed.
The evening I wanted to prepare the Baba Ghanoush recipe I didn't have any tahini paste so I ended up making this Eggplant Caviar, which is rather similar. But I really wanted to enjoy some Baba Ghanoush, too, so I prepared Tahini paste and that's how I ended up eating eggplant dips for days in a row. Which I didn't mind at all, to be honest.
There's plenty of recipes out there for this dish, so after reading several I just set out to making it, improvising really, because I think with this kind of recipe you have to follow your personal taste as far as quantities, respecting the ingredients, of course.
The pita bread you see in the pictures is also home made, although improvised, as I was baking some sourdough bread and just took a little piece of the dough and baked it as you would do with pita. But I'll probably elaborate that recipe specifically later on.

Baba ghanoush is a Levantine dish of cooked eggplant mixed with olive oil  and seasonings. In Syria and Lebanon, baba ghanoush is a starter or appetizer. It is made of eggplant blended with finely diced onions, tomatoes, and other vegetables. The Egyptian version, known in the Levant as mutabbal, is made of roasted, peeled, and mashed eggplant, blended with tahini, garlic, salt, and lemon juice. Cumin and chili powder can be added. It is normally served with a dressing of olive oil and pomegranate concentrate. In the traditional method, the eggplant is first roasted in an oven for approximately 30 to 90 minutes (depending on the size of the eggplant) until the skin appears almost burnt and the eggplant begins to collapse. The softened flesh is scooped out, squeezed or salted to remove excess water, and is then pureed with the tahini. There are many variants of the recipe, especially the seasoning. Seasonings include garlic, lemon juice, ground cumin, salt, mint, and parsley. When served on a plate or bowl, it is traditional to drizzle the top with olive oil.


Baba Ghanoush

* 2 eggplants
* 2 TBspoons tahini paste
* 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
* lemon juice
* olive oil
* cilantro or parsley or paprika (optional), for serving
* pomgranate (optional), for serving

Baba Ghanoush will taste better if you provide it with a little "smoke" flavour. You can do it in different ways. Grill the eggplant or roast it initially over the gas flame. If you have neither of the two possibilities you might initially cook it under a broiler in your oven.
I used the gas flame - insert a fork on one end of an eggplant and roast the eggplant over the gas flame turning it continuously. When the skin is slightly charred, it will even start exploding a little, remove and repeat with the other one.
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200°C. Place the eggplants and the unpeeled garlic clove(s) on a baking tray (you can put them whole, but I prefer cutting them in half lenghtwise, easier to cook plus extra flavour on that cut side).
Roast the eggplants until tender (it may take up to an hour, depending on the size of your eggplant), but remember to remove the garlic after 30 minutes.
Remove the eggplants from the oven, let them sit a little bit, then scoop the flesh and place it in a colander, leaving it to cool down and lose some of the liquid.
Put the eggplant flesh, peeled garlic, tahini, 1 TBspoon olive oil and 1 TBspoon lemon juice into a food processor. Puree until (almost completely) smooth. Add salt to your taste and more lemon juice if you feel so.
Transfer the dip into a deep plate, make swirls with the back of a spoon, drizzle with more olive oil, and according to your taste or mood sprinkle with some paprika (plain or smoked), or cilantro or just garnish with pomgranate kernels and serve with some toasted pita bread.

Baba Ghanoush

* 2 melanzane
* 2 cucchiai di pasta tahini
* 1 o 2 spicchi d'aglio
* succo di limone
* olio di oliva (o olio evo leggero)
* coriandolo o prezzemolo o paprika (optional), per decorare
* semi di melograno (optional), per decorare/servire

Per migliorare il sapore di Baba Ghanoush bisognerebbe prima affumicare un po' le melanzane. Si può fare in diversi modi. Grigliando la melanzana intera con la buccia o cuocendola inizialmente sopra la fiamma della cucina a gas. Se non avete nessuna delle due possibilità potete cuocerla sotto il grill del forno.
Se usate la fiamma della cucina a gas, inserite una forchetta ad un'estremità e cuocete la melanzana girandola continuamente finché la pelle diventa bruciacchiata. Ripetete con l'altra melanzana.
Nel frattempo scaldate il forno a  200°C. Sistemate le melanzane intere o tagliate a metà nel senso di lunghezza su una placca da forno con l'aglio non sbucciato accanto. Cuocete le melanzane finché diventino tenere (ci vorrà fino ad un'ora), ma ricordatevi in ogni caso di togliere l'aglio dopo i primi 30 minuti.
Togliete le melanzane dal forno e lasciatele raffreddare qualche minuto.
Poi con un cucchiaio togliete la polpa e sistematela in un colino. Lasciatela raffreddare e perdere l'acqua di vegetazione.
Mettete la polpa di melanzana, l'aglio sbucciato, tahini, 1 cucchiaio di olio e 1 di succo di limone in un robot da cucina. Frullate fino a ottenere la consistenza (quasi) liscia. Condite con un po' di sale e altro succo di limone secondo i propri gusti per bilanciare il sapore.
Trasferite la salsa di melanzana in un piatto o ciotola, condite con un filo di olio e secondo i propri gusti decorate con la paprika (dolce o affumicata), foglie di prezzemolo o coriandolo oppure con qualche chicco di melagrana.
Servite la salsa con il pane pita tostato.

Baba Ghanoush

* 2 patlidžana
* 2 žlice tahinija
* 1 ili  2 češnja češnjaka
* sok limuna
* maslinovo ulje
* korijander ili peršin ili mljevena paprika (slatka ili dimljena), po želji - za ukras/posluživanje
* sjemenke nara (po želji), za ukras/posluživanje

Okus Baba Ghanousha bit će bolji ako patlidžane prvo malo prodimimo. Možemo to napraviti na nekoliko načina, ispeći patližane cijele na grilu, ili ih ispeći iznad plinskog šporeta, ili ako nemate ni jednu od te dvije mogućnosti ispeći ih pod grilom u pećnici.
Ja ih prvo zapečem iznad vatre plinskog štednjaka pa onda ispečem do kraja u pećnici.
Zabodite vilicu s jedne strane patlidžana i pecite ga iznad vatre okrećući neprestano da se ravnomjerno peče, dok kožica lagano ne pocrni i počne pucati.
U međuvremenu zagrijte pećnicu na 200°C. Stavite patlidžane (cijele ili prerezane na pola po dužini) na pleh obložen papirom za pečenje i pored njih neočišćen bijeli luk. Pecite patlidžane dok ne postanu mekani (može vam trebati i do 1 sat ovisno o veličini patlidžana) ali ne zaboravite izvaditi bijeli luk nakon prvih 30 minuta.
Izvadite patlidžane iz pećnice i ostavite ih da se prohlade par minuta.
Žlice izdubite samo meso/pulpu i stavite u cjedilo da se potpuno ohladi i da se ocijedi voda iz njega.
Kad se pulpa ohladila stavite je u električnu sjeckalicu, zajedno s očišćenim češnjakom, tahinijem, 1 žlicom soka limuna i 1 žlicom ulja. Izbledajte da je manje ili više glatko, kako vam se već sviđa.
Posolite po ukusu i dodajte po želji još soka limuna da podesite okus.
Premjestite namaz od patlidžana u dublji tanjur ili zdjelu, pospite uljem i ukrasite (po želji) listićima korijandera ili peršinom, ili mljevenom paprikom ili jednostavno ukrasite zrnima nara.
Poslužite baba ghanoush namaz uz prepečeni pita kruh.