Baba ghanoush

[SomeGuy]

Came back from the supermarket with a 1/2 price butterflied leg of lamb today. Decided to BBQ it (studded with garlic, herbes de provence and olive oil). But thought it was a bit much to light a fire for 700 grams of lamb, so had a flick through the bbq book.

We had four aubergines, and in the book was a recipe for baba ghanoush.

It was delicious:

bbq/roast 1kg aubergines, with 8 chopped garlic cloves pressed in to slits in their skins, until skins black, then skin the cooked aubergines and add, with the garlic, to food processor with:

2 tsp paprika (smoked paprika probably better)
lemon juice
ground black pepper
salt
3 tbsp tahini (made this by toasting 6 tbsp sesame seeds, then cooling, and adding with 1 tbsp of olive oil to food processor and blending until smooth)
coriander leaf (was supposed to be parsley, but coriander was nice too)

It went well with the lamb, but also with the baked potatoes and pitta bread we had.

fffffffantastic

am hungry now

you even made your own tahini???

wistful

Just to say the cooked aubergine skins are best left out of the food processor, even though they look quite tasty, because they are much tougher than the flesh, and it's best to blend the aubergine mixture for only a short time, as the authentic texture is not a puree, but something rather lumpier - if you leave the skins in there will be too many chewy bits.

yum yum yum

Sounds great.
Would have done tzatziki instead of potatoes though.
(V impressed at own tahinii)

Actually the tahini was very easy, two minutes to toast the sesame seeds in a cast iron pan (it's possibly better to roast them in the oven, not sure if it really makes any difference, but the commercial stuff is roasted), and then about five minutes trying to get the tiny quantity I'd prepared to blend a full-sized food processor.

I've bought tahini before and it's the sort of thing that stays in the fridge for about 6 years before you chuck it out, a packet of sesame seeds is much more versatile.

someguy - Are you a chef?

My h wouldn't know a cast iron pan if it came and bit him on the nose!

I don't see how you can like eating without liking to cook. I like the cast iron frying pans from the Chinese supermarkets, they are v. cheap, and very good for omelettes and pancakes, they do rust as soon as you look at them, but that scrubs off easily enough, and it's probably good for you, the extra iron.

Stirling: cast iron frying pans hit you on the nose.