A Twofer!

A Quick Recipe and A Grand Idea ;)

I made babaganoush yesterday and let me tell you if you've never made it before- it is so easy! I texted the recipe to my mother. That's how simple it is. It fits in a text message. I sorta melded an Aarti Sequeira recipe to an Ina Garten recipe. One having far too many ingredients, and one seeming like it could use a little kick in the flavor. Very easy, very delicious, hard to mess up (always a plus!)

Ingredients:

1 Eggplant

1/2 Lemon, juiced

1/3 cup Tahini

3 Cloves Garlic minced

1/4 Fresh Parsley

S&P to taste

Directions:

1. Wash and dry eggplant. Turn one burner of stove on high. Place eggplant on burner and rotate about every 3-5 min, so that each side gets roasted in the flames. (10-15 min.) *

2. Let eggplant cool and sauté garlic with a little water and coconut oil on low. It should mellow in flavor and deepen in color a bit. We want a cooked garlic flavor rather than raw. If you prefer to roast a whole head, go for it, or if you always have some around use that,  just 3 cloves of it.

3. Once eggplant is fully cool, carefully remove skin, being sure to keep the darker smokey outer flesh. Put garlic and eggplant in a food processor until smooth.

4. In a bowl place eggplant mixture, tahini, and lemon juice. Whisk. S&P to taste. Garnish with parsley.

Done! 

* If you don't have a gas stove you can do 1 of 3 things. 1. If you've got your grill outdoors, use that. Try to get your flame high enough to reach the eggplant directly, this is how we get that deep smokey flavor. 2. Try a George Foreman/sandwich press. You won't get the smoke flavor but it will grill. It may also take longer as you won't be able to close the press, thus reducing the heat by 50%.... 3. You can roast it in the oven. This last option will taste the least like baba, sadly. but if you love bottled smoke you could add a drop and see where that takes you. 450 for 20 min on a baking sheet. Be sure to make fork holes all over or your eggplant may explode...

The original recipes were each about double everything. Party sized amount, if you know what I mean. My recipe fits comfortably in a cottage cheese sized container. So perfect to just have in the fridge for dip. 

I was gifted with the curry flavor of the Mary's Gone Crackers "pretzel rods" and they are AMAZING and sooooo good with the baba. oh. my. word. 

I also want to give a quick round of applause to Trader Joe's for taking a really great step in the right direction. I noticed about a week ago that they have begun phasing out styrofoam vegetable containers in favor of recyclable paper ones. Not only is this much better for the environment but SO much better for your body. It's also better for your food. It seems silly to think about, but some of those guys, in particular mushrooms start breaking down due to contact with those plastics. Gooey fridge mushrooms are a direct result of it. Mushrooms in paper will dry out after a while, but never get gooey. That's a gross chemical reaction that is happening between the plastic's chemicals and the mushroom's cellular structure, resulting in the fungi breaking down sludge style. Gross huh? They're still covered in plastic wrap, so it's not perfect yet, but it IS a really great start that deserves recognition. Thanks TJ's <3

BKBTY