Today I watched an episode of a cooking course. The episode focused on vegetables and shared a simple recipe for baba ghanoush.
Cooking Vegetables
Chef Bill Briwa teaches “Rediscovering the Lost Art of Cooking,” a course offered by The Great Courses. One of his lessons, “Vegetables in Glorious Variety,” focuses on cooking vegetables as their own dishes. In the lesson, he shares recipes for roasted cauliflower, glazed beets, carrot osso buco, and baba ghanoush. I’m a fan of baba, so I want to share that recipe.
Baba Ghanoush
Baba ghanoush is similar to hummus in consistency. It makes a wonderful dip for vegetables or bread and a good spread. If you’re like me, you may also eat it by the spoonful, like hummus. Here’s the simple recipe.
- Begin by roasting an eggplant until it is tender and collapsing.
- You can roast an eggplant over an open fire (Chef Briwa uses the fire of his stove).
- Alternatively, you can cut it in half, oil it, and roast it in the oven (though you lose the smoky quality).
- Once it is roasted, gently peel away most of the skin with a knife. Little bits of remaining skin is okay. This enhances the smoky and rustic quality.
- At this point, you can finish the recipe by hand with a bowl and fork or use a food processor.
- Add salt, lemon juice (approximately 1 teaspoon eggplant), tahini, and garlic.
- Emulsify by slowly mixing in olive oil. The baba ghanoush should mix together smoothly, becoming creamy. If it looks oily, slow down with the olive oil.
- Take a small taste (with a separate spoon). Add more seasoning as necessary.
- Serve with a garniture of olive oil, chopped parsley, and ground sumac (all three, or a combination thereof).
That’s baba ghanoush! It’s easy to modify dishes like baba ghanoush or hummus to your taste, but having a simple and delicious foundational recipe is a good place to start.
The featured image is by Sean Bernstein on Unsplash.
You can find my notes on other episodes of this cooking course in the Daily Learning category.
