Roasted eggplant dip - aka baba ghannouj

Prof Dan

This is a Middle Eastern dip that'll knock your socks off -- great with cut up veggies or crackers and something cold to wash it down with. Plus, it gives you something more to make on the Egg!![p]Fire up your BGE with a nice load of fresh lump. Toss on some wood chips. Get it up to about 550. Puncture the eggplant all over with a fork to let the steam out -- otherwise it will explode. [Two eggplants is plenty for four people.] Char the eggplants over the hot fire, turning them every five minutes or so. Close the Egg in between turns so the smoke soaks in.[p]After about a half-hour, they should be pretty charred and pretty soft. Close the Egg and lower the temp to about 400 and let them simmer for 15 minutes. Take them off and let them cool for a half hour.[p]Then cut them open lengthwise and scoop out the insides. Be careful not to get any of the charred skin, but do scrape the carmelized goo off the inside of the skin -- it's the best part.[p]Dump all the pulp into a food processor. Add two finely-minced cloves of garlic, two teaspoons of kosher salt, the juice of half a lemon, two tablespoons of olive oil, and one tablespoon of tahini, which is sesame seed paste. [You can get it at a Middle Eastern market.][p]Blend it all up. Add more salt and lemon, if you want. Maybe add chile oil. That's it. It freezes well -- does not change the texture much.

Banker John

Prof Dan,
Sounds like a hummus spread. I read your post to my wife and she said that the recipe generally mimics her hummus recipe except she uses chick peas (soaked overnight and smoked on the egg).[p]I got the nod to make it. Hopefully Mindy will buy an eggplant this weekend. Is it even eggplant season?[p]Banker John

Prof Dan

Banker John,[p]It is sort of like hummus, which is made with chick peas [garbanzos]. But it is a lot creamier and smokier.[p]How do you smoke chick peas? Sounds good![p]Interesting question about eggplant season. I didn't even know they had seasons until recently. Apparently, in one part of the year they have seeds, and in the other they don't. [Don't know which is when.] But supposedly, seedless is better. I have made it both ways, and I am not sure I can tell the difference.[p]I think eggplant is available all year in most places.

Banker John

Prof Dan,
To smoke chick peas, start with dried garbanzos. Soak overnight in water with tbsp baking soda. drain and refill with luke warm tap water in a dutch oven. Bake on the egg at 250 for about 2 hours using hickory (just what I use most). It's kinda like baking beans, but you are doing it in regular water. I stir about every 20 minutes or so.[p]This is not usually a planned cook. It just happens when the wife preps the beans and I have the egg fired up.

WooDoggies

Prof Dan,[p]I love this dish. Thank you for sharing your recipe.[p]Eggplant is on my list for tomorrow's groceries.[p]Beers![p]John

J Appledog

Prof Dan, Here is another recipe that I had great luck with last year. I just found it in the archives.... Julie

[ul][li]BabaBaba Ganooj[/ul]

Gloria

Prof Dan,
I read somewhere a long time ago that the eggplant with a lot of seeds is female and the one with a lot less seeds is male. Made sense to me. Also, that you can tell from the big end which is which.....I think that if the big end has an indention it is female and the one with the more smooth end is male. But I am so damn old that I can't remember for sure. But the seed thing........as I said, makes sense to me.