Baba ghanoush

I got some beautiful eggplants last weekend at the farmer's market. Unlike the big dark purple ones, these are a lighter shade of purple and much smaller. According to my mom, they're supposed to be more tender and flavorful than the bigger ones. But frankly I have no idea what variety I ended up getting. Also, I didn't know this, but China is by far the biggest eggplant producer in the world, growing more than twice what India, the second largest producer, grows.

Anyway, it didn't matter what the eggplants I got looked like, because they eventually ended up looking like this:



And then like this:


That's right, ladies and gents. One day a certain great culinary enthusiast came over to my house with plans to make a suite of ethnically confused but ultimately delicious foods. The menu was to include baba ghanoush, lemon risotto, and moroccan tomato soup. Jimmy worked on the baba ghanoush while I spent most of the time stirring the risotto, although I did manage to tear myself away from my oh-so-interesting job to watch Jimmy blacken the eggplants to an ashen crisp (well, not quite, but almost).

After reading some posts about roasting veggies over direct flames, I've wanted to try my hand at cooking things directly on a gas stove for a while now. This baba ghanoush recipe was the perfect opportunity. It really is just what it sounds like -- you stick some eggplants over the gas range over low heat and let the fire do the work (remember to turn the fans to HIGH).



Unfortunately, this process alone doesn't cook the eggplants all the way through, so a trip to the broiler was necessary. (Frankly, this recipe was not compatible with the extreme heat we've been experiencing. Between having the gas stove on for 20 min straight and then the broiler, the kitchen got waaaay too hot) Anyway, after taking off most of the black bits, Jimmy combined the eggplants with the other ingredients in the food processor and churned out some delicious dip. A word of warning here: garlic's strong flavor can easily overwhelm the much more delicate eggplant flavor so use the garlic sparingly. Although I don't mind having too much garlic in most of my food, I have a feeling most people around me actually do.

On a side note, that risotto recipe we tried is my favorite risotto recipe so far. The lemony flavor is the perfect way to brighten up a seriously cheesy dish. I used to think saffron risotto was the only way to go, and now... I'm not so sure.