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I am planning a quasi-Middle Eastern spread tomorrow (hummus, tabouleh salad, kebabs, etc) and would like to make Baba Ganoush but I don't have a decent recipe. Can anyone one in LTH land "hook me up" with a great recipe?

Also, does anyone know where I can get lavosh in the Northwestern burbs? I have tried Caputos, Vali, etc but cannot find it. I live in the culinary wasteland known as Hampshire but I work in Northbrook and would like to find a source for lavosh that I can pick-up on the way home from work.

Thanks in advance for your help

This my recipe for baba ganouj; I forget where I got if from.

BABA GANOUJ (TANGY EGGPLANT DIP)

2 medium Eggplants
2 tablespoons Tahini
2 Garlic cloves, pressed
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley optional
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 300'F. Pierce eggplant with a fork and bake whole until the egg-plant begins to deflate (about 40 minutes). Let cool and scoop out insides and mash with a fork. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Make 4-6 sandwiches or serves 6-8 as a dip.

mousec, this is not exactly close to you but there is almost always lavosh at:

Jerry's Fruit Mart
Milwaukee Ave. just south of Oakton

Produce World
NW corner of Waukegan Rd and Dempster

Don't you just love this kind of food? --Joy

I made this recipe last weekend and it came out quite tasty. Just writing to say that I ended up baking my eggplants a little longer (maybe they were large and not medium). Also, the juice of one lemon was a bit too much. I added more tahini to compensate.

I very recently got a recipe from a Lebanese lady, which looks much like the one above, except for the addition of cumin and the fact that she calls for grilling the eggplant over hickory. I've not tried it myself, but she makes the best baba I've ever had. Topped with olive oil and pine nuts. The other thing is to leave the skins in or not -- I like the bitter, so I like 'em in.

My process is a little different and I think it blends the garlic in more evenly. I make a sauce of the garlic, tahini, salt and lemon.

Mash the garlic (1 clove for each eggplant) in a pestle with the salt (about 1tsp to each clove). It should make a nice paste. Beat in 1/2 C tahini and then beat in 1/4 to 1/2 C lemon juice. More if you like lemon.

Then beat in about 1/2 C cold water to make a sauce the consistency of thick mayonnase. At first the tahini tightens but will thin as you beat in the cold water.

Then peel and cube the cooked eggplant. Place it in the bowl of a food processor. Drizzle in the sauce as you pulse the eggplant to the desired consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Just my 2 cents:

1- After I poke holes in the eggplants, I have a tin can cover (or aluminum foil) that I put directly on top of the burners on the stove top with the eggplants sitting on it. This is the closest way to get the "burnt taste" that is common to good baba ghannouj.
2- no garlic
3- I also add half a cup or so of thick yogurt (yogurt that I drain in a colander by placing store yogurt with a paper towel underneath and let it sit for an hour or so). That just gives a really nice color and adds taste.

4- of course lemon, salt and pepper. And, the key is the tahini. Bad tahini will ruin the whole thing.

I put the eggplants (that usually get really burnt), in the blender after cleaning them.

and then mix by hand with a fork the rest of the ingredients.
Elie

I don't have anything to add to the good simple recipes listed already, except to strongly support the garlic/salt paste made with mortar and pestle. This makes a huge difference and I always do it. Take no shortcuts.

Whenever I have the WSM fired up for ribs, I used the last hour or so of the fire to roast eggplant (split, skin down, rubbed with olive oil). The bit of smoke adds to the baba ganouj.

http://search.foodnetwork.com/food/reci ... ype=Recipe

We regularly grill the eggplants whole on a gas grill. Poke with a fork, put directly on the grill and turn every 10-15 minutes and cook until deflated some what and all of the skin has a nice char. We remove the burned skin before eating, but the eggplant retains a great smoky taste.