Troubleshooting Baba Ghanouj

[chappie]

With plentiful summer eggplants I've been making what I thought was pretty good baba ghanouj: roast them, squeeze as much liquid as I can out of the flesh with cheesecloth, and puree in food processor with lemon juice, tahini, olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika and a dash of cayenne.

I've been eating it nonstop for weeks, but I gave it to a visiting friend, and he said it doesn't taste "authentic," like the stuff he bought at a Lebanese market in Atlanta. He suggested adding yogurt, which we did; I thought it made it taste like eggplant-flavored yogurt.

Another friend, a restaurant owner, says he likes to cook his eggplants over hardwood charcoal, sliced in half to encourage browning and absorption of smoke, and also to add a little charred skin in the food processor when he blends it.

Does anyone have a different method for making baba ghanouj or any tips to improve it?

[Carolyn Tillie]

I add roasted garlic -- lots and lots of roasted garlic.

No yogurt though... that just sounds weird!

[tryska]

lebanese market in Atlanta?

we have one of those?

oh and i didn't realize garlic was missing. good call carolyn.

Edited September 1, 2004 by tryska (log)

[Sam Salmon]

As to Yogurt some Turks here in Vancouver have a vegetarian catering business and they add something dairy-either a real rich Yogurt or Cream Cheese or a bit of both.

Lose the Tahini for one batch and notice the flavour will be more eggy.

I add plain diced Garlic-roasted sounds weird IMO.

[chappie]

I forgot to mention raw garlic in my list of ingredients in the original post. But I think if I use the grill, I might as well throw some garlic on to roast. Maybe use both raw and roasted garlic?

[NancyH]

Perhaps the flavor differential is from roasting it then squeezing out the liquor. If you are using Western eggplant, try salting the pieces with Kosher Salt for 30 minutes before you roast; you can then use the liquid you get in roasting (Chinese cookbook author Barbara Tropp refers to that liquid as "liquor") in the dish and I expect it enhances the flavor. Asian types of eggplant don't need to be salted to get the bitter out, so if that is what you are using, I'm not sure it will make a difference.

Our eggplant plants have so far yielded one Thai eggplant, and that's all.

[foodietraveler]

With plentiful summer eggplants I've been making what I thought was pretty good baba ghanouj: roast them, squeeze as much liquid as I can out of the flesh with cheesecloth, and puree in food processor with lemon juice, tahini, olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika and a dash of cayenne.

I've been eating it nonstop for weeks, but I gave it to a visiting friend, and he said it doesn't taste "authentic," like the stuff he bought at a Lebanese market in Atlanta. He suggested adding yogurt, which we did; I thought it made it taste like eggplant-flavored yogurt.

Another friend, a restaurant owner, says he likes to cook his eggplants over hardwood charcoal, sliced in half to encourage browning and absorption of smoke, and also to add a little charred skin in the food processor when he blends it.

Does anyone have a different method for making baba ghanouj or any tips to improve it?

How do you roast your eggplants?

I do them over the flame. And it makes a great difference.

Your friend is right...

Very messy though.

[Susan in FL]

Tonight I just ate it for the first time! It was take-out and I really liked it, but I don't think I would ever make it. However, seeing your thread, I would like to comment and ask... it tasted like there were some olives precessed in with it, perhaps greek of some kind. Could that be?

[chappie]

If you are using Western eggplant, try salting the pieces with Kosher Salt for 30 minutes before you roast

As I've been roasting them whole so far, pierced liberally with a fork, I haven't been pre-salting. I've seen a recipe (in Nourishing Traditions, the Weston Price Foundation book) that calls for salting the flesh after it's been roasted. But I've just been taking the cooked eggplant and squeezing it as dry as I can in cheesecloth.

Would a little bitterness hurt?

[Pan]

I don't think I've ever had any olives in Baba Ghanouj. I think that adding olives would make it something else.

[scott123]

I know EXACTLY how to get that "authentic" flavor your friend is looking for.

Death by Garlic!

When you've added enough raw garlic to knock you on your ass, add a little more. And Carolyn, no offense, but roasted garlic is an abomination in babaganouj. If you want to mess with hummus by adding roasted garlic, that's fine by me, but raw garlic is such a cornerstone of babaganouj, without it, it ain't babaganouj.

And chappie, skip the black pepper/paprika and add some fresh parsley. But above all kill it will garlic.

Every single time I make babaganouj I use obscene amounts of garlic and every time my Middle Eastern friends say "needs more garlic".

P.S. An extremel high charring heat for the eggplant helps too - smokiness is an essential component as well.

Edited September 2, 2004 by scott123 (log)

[chappie]

Thanks Scott... I'll try your method tommorrow morning. Should I halve the eggplants before charring them? And what about using a little bit of the charred skin in the mix as a friend had suggested? It could add to the smokiness factor.

(By the way, on a completely unrelated topic I made a hot sauce last night I think compares to sracha, almost by accident. ... See my post under general topics, Making Hot Sauce thread if interested).

[chappie]

One more thing: what should the consistency be? Another comment my friend made was that my baba ghanouj was too thick, hence the experiments with yogurt. My only liquids usually are lemon juice and some olive oil.

[scott123]

Chappie, I usually halve them, but I've done it successfully both ways. It might be a little easier to scoop out the flesh if you've halve them first. As far as adding charred skin, for your first few times making babaganouj, I'd stick to a traditional approach. In other words, save the skin for later attempts. Just get a good charring/blistering and the flesh will be nice and smokey.

The consistency has to do with the juice you are squeezing out. Unless your eggplants are gigantic, I would bag the whole salting/squeezing thing. Incinerate the outsides of your eggplants, set them on a plate and then taste the juice that collects. I'm sure after tasting it you'll understand why you'd want to cherish every drop of that juice. Even with the eggplant juice, your babaganouj might be a little thick. Mine usually is because I'm fond of a good dose of tahini. Tahini has a lot of thickening power. Don't go to heavy on the lemon juice, though, it will throw the balance of flavors. If, after adding the juice from the charred eggplants, your chilled babaganouj is still too thick, just add a tiny bit of cold water.

Btw, not everyone is into the whole fresh parsley angle. If you feel compelled to skip it, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Check with your freind to see if he remembers it being in the lebanese stuff. If it were in it, he would definitely remember the green specs.

And, if you want to put in a little extra effort to make the best babaganouj possible, I highly recommend getting your tahini from a Middle Eastern market. It's only a subtle improvement but it is better than the stuff you find in your average supermarket.

[chefdg]

Another friend, a restaurant owner, says he likes to cook his eggplants over hardwood charcoal, sliced in half to encourage browning and absorption of smoke, and also to add a little charred skin in the food processor when he blends it.

Your friend's name doesn't happen to be Reza does it? That sound like a technique that a former boss of mine used to use. oh yeah, and his name was Reza. In case you didn't get it..........

[foodietraveler]

mom says when we lived in Syria, our neighbor had taught her how to make baba.

It was charred on the stove, and my mon charred it in toaster oven. Charring till very burnt is the key mom says.

Also, it cannot be processed in machine she says. Has to be mashed by hand. Garlic should be mashed in raw. The smallest clove you can find for one very large eggplant. Eggplant is very subtle and she says garlic can kill the baba.

She added lemon and tahini and says a teaspoon of cold water keeps the baba from turning brown. Not sure if that makes sense. But I wanted to be a good new member and help in my small way.

[Jason Perlow]

Interesting. I've always thought you can't have too much garlic in babaghanoush.

[foodietraveler]

Interesting. I've always thought you can't have too much garlic in babaghanoush.

But mind you hers is not an american recipe, she learned it when living in Syria. Some in the Middle East believe Syria has great cooks. Many of the chefs in other parts of the region come from Syria.

But mom could be wrong. Also, I find it funny she says add a little cold water. she makes me do that also with hummous. Again, not sure how real any of this is... but I share what I know with you. Sorry if I am wrong.

[Jason Perlow]

The lebanese and israeli versions I have had have always had a lot of garlic, though. As do the Greek versions.

[foodietraveler]

The lebanese and israeli versions I have had have always had a lot of garlic, though. As do the Greek versions.

See, I was wrong. My parents lived and traveled a lot in Lebanon. This shall be tomorrow's question for mom.

I know she said we use more garlic in Lebanese cooking here in US then they do back there. Also the garlic there is very different from ours. Smaller, finer cloves and very flavorful and sweet.

She cannot understand our garlic, but has now understood that it is similar and also different.

Mom and dad have traveled a lot to Israel, since India does some strategic work with Israel, will ask for her impressions of baba they had there. I have no impressions of Israeli and Lebanese food from the countries, since I have not traveled there. I have only eaten foods form there in other nations.

Do we have someone on site who knows foods from the region? someone who has traveled and lived there? My parents spent more than 14 years in Syria. And they traveled a lot from there to other neighboring countries.

[...tm...]

Tonight I just ate it for the first time! It was take-out and I really liked it, but I don't think I would ever make it. However, seeing your thread, I would like to comment and ask... it tasted like there were some olives precessed in with it, perhaps greek of some kind. Could that be?

In my experience it often comes sprinkled or doused with olive oil. Sometimes the oil is so flavorful that I just dip the pita in the wonderfully olivey oil.

Edited September 2, 2004 by ...tm... (log)

[scott123]

The lebanese and israeli versions I have had have always had a lot of garlic, though. As do the Greek versions.

The Egyptians are no lightweights either.

[petite tête de chou]

mom says when we lived in Syria, our neighbor had taught her how to make baba.

It was charred on the stove, and my mon charred it in toaster oven. Charring till very burnt is the key mom says.

Also, it cannot be processed in machine she says. Has to be mashed by hand. Garlic should be mashed in raw. The smallest clove you can find for one very large eggplant. Eggplant is very subtle and she says garlic can kill the baba.

She added lemon and tahini and says a teaspoon of cold water keeps the baba from turning brown. Not sure if that makes sense. But I wanted to be a good new member and help in my small way.

I absolutely agree with your mom. Char the heck out of the eggplant! Must be mashed by hand and add garlic, lemon juice and tahini. Perfect! Your mom's a genius!

[foodietraveler]

mom says when we lived in Syria, our neighbor had taught her how to make baba.

It was charred on the stove, and my mon charred it in toaster oven. Charring till very burnt is the key mom says.

Also, it cannot be processed in machine she says. Has to be mashed by hand. Garlic should be mashed in raw. The smallest clove you can find for one very large eggplant. Eggplant is very subtle and she says garlic can kill the baba.

She added lemon and tahini and says a teaspoon of cold water keeps the baba from turning brown. Not sure if that makes sense. But I wanted to be a good new member and help in my small way.

I absolutely agree with your mom. Char the heck out of the eggplant! Must be mashed by hand and add garlic, lemon juice and tahini. Perfect! Your mom's a genius!

you are sweet. I shall pass along your compliment. But she will say what I say now, the recipe is not hers, all our neighbors and friends prepared it almost the same way, some hands used more garlic and tahini than was necessary and others more balanced.

With eggplant, no matter what you cook, you can go two ways mom says. One is to overspice and use the eggplant to become a texture element and not the flavoring element, for too much seasoning and spices can overwhelm eggplants own subtle flavor, or you can do what mom does with many an eggplant dish and keep the seasoning and spice simple and thereby highlight the complexity that can be tasted in charred eggplant.

And for my personal taste, nothing is worse than a strongly garlicky baba... but I am biased, for I grew up eating the less garlicky baba.

And they also drizzled a generous amount of olive oil over the baba. I actually do not think it was extra virgin, even though I use extra virgin in mine.

Some garnish the baba with chopped parsley others with some aleppo pepper. But again, most do not do anything, leave it simple.

[Jason Perlow]

The lebanese and israeli versions I have had have always had a lot of garlic, though. As do the Greek versions.

The Egyptians are no lightweights either.

The Turkish stuff has a lot of garlic too.