Cocoa and Lavender: Pampered Papa

Did you know that "baba ghanouj" translates to "pampered papa?" In Arabic, baba is papa, or father, and ghanouj is pampered. Neither Wikipedia nor Markipedia know a definitive reason as to how it got this moniker, although harems seem to figure prominently in any attempted explanation.

Baba ghanouj is a dish traditional to the Levant. It is very popular in Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and even parts of southern Turkey.

I never ate baba ghanouj in my youth, but became interested when I purchased a book called The Flavors of Aleppo written by well-known Syrian chef Poopa Dweck.

I have made quite a few of the recipes from her gorgeous book, but the one I have enjoyed the most is the baba ghanouj.

I make it from memory now and was startled the other day when, for some reason, I looked into the book at the original recipe. While my changes are minimal in terms of ingredients, my method has drifted to a technique that produces a wonderfully smoky, lemony, and creamy baba ghanouj.

I like my method, and I think you will, too. It makes papa happy.

Adapted from The Flavors of Aleppo by Pooja Dweck

1/2 cup lemon juice

3/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

flatbreads, for serving

Heat a gas or charcoal grill to high. Place eggplants on the rack directly above the heat and cook 6 minutes a side on 4 sides (total of 24 minutes). Place charred and blistered eggplants in a colander to cool.

While they cool, place tahini, lemon juice, cumin, salt, Aleppo pepper, and 2 tablespoons warm water in a 2-cup glass measure. Using only one beater of a handheld mixer, blend these ingredients until smooth. They will thicken very quickly. Set aside, but do not clean the beater.

Once cool enough to handle, cut the eggplants in half and scoop out the flesh into a wire mesh sieve set over a bowl. Try not to get too much of the blackened skin into the flesh. Let the eggplant drain for 10-15 minutes. You will see the bitter brown liquid accumulate in the bowl. Discard this liquid.

Using the single beater, add another tablespoon or two of warm water to the tahini-lemon mixture and mix. Move it and the drained eggplant flesh to a medium bowl. Using an immersion blender, purée until the mixture is light in color and creamy in consistency.

Serve with flatbreads. You can either cut them into wedges or serve each person their own flatbread, to be torn by hand.

Serves 6-8 as an appetizer.

Note: I tried blending the lemon juice and tahini with the immersion blender to reduce the number of utensils, but found that the single beater did a better job of mixing the tahini, while the immersion blender performed better once the eggplant was introduced.