I have just made the best baba ghanoush I’ve ever made so far in my life. Fresh, fresh, fresh eggplant right out of the garden, grilled over the embers of a backyard bonfire is probably the main reason it turned out so well.
I grilled up two of the eggplants I found the other day, then pureed them in the blender with a tablespoon of tahini, one of olive oil, ditto lemon juice, a finely minced clove of garlic, and about six tablespoons of water. I pureed the eggplants whole, skin and all. I added maybe 1/4 tsp of salt (I think there was still a little salt on the eggplants from the pre-grilling salt treatment, although I did rinse them off before grilling).
The color is pretty “off” since I pureed them skins and all…it is a really horrible greenish-brownish-tan, but the flavor is FAB. Subtle smokiness, a little tartness, that nice toasty sesame from the tahini, and a fresh, slightly grassy eggplant flavor. Because the eggplants were small, it only made about 1 cup of baba ghanoush, but it’s a good one at least.
Next year I am definitely planting WAY more eggplants.
The other night, we had eggplant and zucchini (both home-grown) simmered in a sauce made out of fresh roma tomatoes from the tomato plant we planted in the front terrace. I served it up on rice and it was pretty darn tasty! I seasoned it with half of a yellow onion, oregano, and a spice mix we bought in California on our cross-country trip (Garlic Capital Products “South Of The Border Mix”). This stuff has a pretty good heat to it, so you have to use it sparingly, as we learned early on in our trip!
I’m about to make another batch of tomato sauce, and I will be using a bit of it in tonight’s dinner, which is going to be veggie fajitas made with some of the banana peppers from the garden, as well as a couple of bell peppers in the fridge that need to be used before they go off.
I think that next year, we’ll have a much bigger and better garden, but I’m pretty happy with what I’m getting out of what we have right now.