Jade Keller

(Why does that sound, in my head, like Lucille O’Ball crying out “Baba lou!”)

Ok, so I promised that I would give you three taste tests last week and only did two because I am a slacker was swamped with work. So this one is a little late. But it’s yummy! And makes for a great appetizer/hors d’oeuvres dish for parties! Did I mention parties? Because we’re not getting into holiday party season yet are we? Oh yes, we probably are.

And this is a dish we can all pretend is healthy because it involves vegetables. And olive oil. Olive oil is healthy – and good for your skin! (Can you tell I’m going on little sleep here?) Plus, I’m sure you’re looking for a way to use up all those eggplants, right?

Right, so. I got this recipe from Pioneer Woman, because, you know. She’s amazing and we love her.

And I started with these lovely babies.

Her recipe called for 3 medium-large eggplants. These babies are from the farmer’s market and were about as big as they came. So I used four of them. I would recommend doing about 4-6 eggplants if they’re on the girth-challenged side. If you get a little too much, it’s okay, ‘cuz a little extra eggplant never hurt anyone.

I pricked them with a fork and stuck them in the broiler. And in case you’re wondering, she isn’t kidding when she says to shrivel and blacken the heck out of those guys. It took nigh on an hour under my crappy-ass sucky stupid little broiler. (And I pricked them good, I promise!! You can see that in the picture, right? I don’t know why I’m getting all insecure about the prickage of my eggplants.)

Then I got a little happy with the tahini sauce, which I don’t recommend because whooo-ee! tahini is strong. (This, incidentally, is why a lot of eggplant is good – just in case you, like me, get tahini-happy). I put about 4 1/2 tablespoons of it in, but remember I had the itty bitty eggplants. Mine also looked more paste-like than hers did, so maybe the type I got was stronger? Moral of the story: add a little first and taste. Don’t go all whole hog (whole tahini?) unless you’re sure. So I had to overcompensate with the lemon to tone it down. I put about 2 whole lemons worth in – which turned out to be fine; just made it nice and tangy.

Plus garlic. Mmmm, lots of garlic. Kosher salt, minced parsely, and olive oil…mmm, can you smell it yet? SO GOOD.

Then I served it up with oven-warmed spinach & garlic pitas from the IV Food Co-op.

Manna from the heavens. It goes well with just about any type of bread, pita or tortilla. Or crudites. Or scooped up with your finger. Whatever. I’m not saying I’d do that…just, you know, if you did, it’d probably taste good. And I wouldn’t judge. I should have chosen a more exciting background for these photos to give the baba ghanoush the attention it deserves, but I couldn’t wait. I was too excited to eat it up to care about such high-minded things as photo backdrops.

Survey says: ♥♥♥ +1/2 It’d be great for either a dinner party, potluck-type thing, or a special multi-course dinner where you want to impress your guests. It would also work well as leftovers when you’re by yourself in front of the TV and are too lazy to cook and all you can think to do is grab the bread and dip it in any thing runnier than bread. At least the meal would have a minimum of two colors in it.

Rating System:

♥♥♥♥♥ Omigod this is awesome, I could eat it every night!
♥♥♥♥ Wow this is amazing for a special meal!
♥♥♥ Great choice for a dinner party!
♥♥ Hey, that was pretty good. We should have it again sometime.
♥ Eh. S’all right….
♠ Ugh, no! That was so bad I just had to share.