Title: Babaganoush By Mike Stock
Categories: Main-dish
Yield: 4 Servings
6 tb Olive oil
6 Onions; chopped
5 Celery ribs; chopped (optional)
1 1/2 lg Red sweet pepper; chopped,
- for color
3 md Eggplant; cubed about 3/4"
5 cl Garlic; chopped or mashed
1 1/4 ts Ground cumin
1/2 ts Whole cumin seeds
1 1/4 ts Ground coriander
1/2 ts Black pepper; fine ground
1/2 ts Crushed dried chili pepper
Salt; to taste
3 tb Tahini *
1 md Lemon juice **
3/4 c Parsley or cilantro; chop
35 lg Black olives; roughly chopped
Parsley sprigs; to garnish
1 sl Lemon; to garnish
* Sesame paste. I've heard of substituting peanut butter, but never
tried it.
** 2-1/2 to 3 lemons; juice of
The variable amounts of ingredients depend on your taste and on the
size of the eggplant. Try it without celery and red pepper and then
you can decide if you want to use it next time.
Saute onions, celery & red pepper until starting to brown (I do in
a wok). Add eggplant and garlic, stir well, add spices (not the
salt), stir again and on very low fire, saute. May drop some
liquid, that's all right, let it evaporate, and saute slowly until
everything is very tender. Keep checking, it's better if it browns
a little, but needs stirring so it doesn't burn. If it's too dry,
add a few tb liquid at a time (I use vegetable broth, liquid from
steaming veggies, or liquid from microwaving mushrooms, etc. but
water would do).
Mike Stock's Note:
If you double this recipe or triple it... use a wok or large saute
pan to reduce the vegetables or do them one at a time in a hot/hot
skillet, stirring the whole while.. Then combine them when each
vegetable has been reduces enough to get into one pan... I always
do this in a large Teflon 14" skillet... it sits on two fire on my
old stove but it gets the vegetable reduced and slightly browned...
This first reduction should make this vegetable melange very limp,
very well cooked but not soupy.. The pieces should be slightly
definable..
Heck you are going to blend it anyway.. but I have found that if it
has some structure at this point but is soft, then I don't make it
creamy in the Cuisinart.. I just chop it well and add the lemon and
tahini ect.. then let it stand together overnight (It is way
better)..
Add salt, tahini, and lemon juice, pulse a few seconds at a time in
food processor or mash with potato masher--this can be slightly
lumpy, too smooth is pretty awful
Add green stuff, pulse once or twice to chop coarsely and
distribute or chop coarsely and stir in.
It's an ugly color, so I try to dress it up with a lemon slice,
greens, and black olives, seems to help. Serve with quarters of
pita bread or mini pitas, it's finger food, a great appetizer with
a curry meal
Mike Stocks Note:
Again, I held out some red pepper chunks and finely chopped a whole
bunch of green onions and mixed it in this last one I made... I
added a bit of olive oil too, after it came out of the Cuisinart it
seemed too stiff, so I used olive oil to loosen it up a bit...
