Wood-fired!

Smokin! eggplant

April 11th, 2008

Who doesn’t love warm bread with luscious Mediterranean dips! Smooth hummus, sharp yoghurt, earthy beetroot and smoky baba ghanoush. I love the latter but as my partner is luke-warm about eggplant (or aubergine if you prefer) I don’t make it as often as I would like.

At the market last week I couldn’t resist picking up a beautiful example and then had to work out what I could do with it that would be acceptable. My daughter-in-law was bringing over home-prepared pizza to cook in my oven for us to eat while watching the Super14 rugby. She chose to do Margherita and a Greek-style lamb with tzatziki (both delicious by the way). So I thought a baba ghanoush with toasted bread would be a good starter.

I referred to a few books but was immediately taken by Maggie Beer’s recipe that uses home-smoked eggplant (from her luxurious tome Maggie’s Harvest).

Maggie calls her recipe Smoky eggplant with tahini and describes how to smoke the eggplant in a small domestic smoker like mine shown on the right. I use sawdust from my own workshop - in this case blackwood and a little huon pine - and, on Maggie’s recommendation, added a few rosemary stalks. I normally can smoke a trout or a duck breast in the 20mins that a container of methylated spirits provides. Maggie suggests longer than this and in fact mine took two lots of metho, ie. 40mins. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and place in the smoker skin-side down. (I had bought a reasonably large one so it was a tight squeeze in my small smoker. Maggie suggests 2 small-medium ones which would fit better.)

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Maggie’s recipe is:

2 small-medium eggplants, halved lengthwise
1 clove of garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
juice of 1/2 lemon
150ml tahini
sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

Smoke the eggplants following the instructions given above. Leave the eggplants until cool enough to handle, then chop them roughly before pulsing them in a small food processor with the garlic, adding olive oil in a thin stream. Stir in the parsley, lemon juice and tahini, then check the seasoning.
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I smoked the eggplant pretty much as Maggie recommends turning them after 20mins. I added a little more garlic and lemon juice to the mix.

The result was extraordinary and well beyond any baba ghanoush I have ever tasted! A creamy, succulent dip with such a rich smoky flavour. I don’t think I was alone in detecting a hint of smoked duck in the aroma! Even my partner was a fan and is happy for me to make it this coming weekend as a starter for my persian lamb stew.

Highly recommended.

Entry Filed under: Food