Workshop Blowtorch Baba Ganoush

Okay, so this is kind of a cooking 'ible but the recipe isn't mine so it wouldn't be right to claim otherwise on publishing it here so I'm going to put the emphasis on the workshop version 'cos all you makers out there will be dying to show off your culinary skills from the workshop!!! Also, it's one of those recipes I know my wife, for one, would never bother to make but that I love to make because it's not really cooking, well it is, just not in a pot or a pan.

There are two advantages to flame cooking the eggplant in preparation for baba ganoush: Firstly, it only takes a few minutes as opposed to a few hours in an oven, and secondly, you gain an awesome smoked flavor that will leave your guests wanting more. I've been making this baba ganoush recipe on my gas stove top since I discovered it last year but someone said they wouldn't be able to make it because they have an electric stove top. Then I said, "get a blowtorch, that would work just as well," without really knowing if that was true or not . So here I am trying the blowtorch method for the first time and guess what?....It works amazingly! So now that fantastic smokey flavor is still available to those of you without gas stove tops

I also show you how to make a simple support for the eggplant (in your Workshop) so you can concentrate on wielding the blow torch. ;)

Fire. If you have a gas stove top you're sorted. If not you'll need a blowtorch.
Wire
Pliers
Tongs, bowls, plates, scissors
Mortar and pestle if you've got it or a garlic crusher or not

Ingredients for the Baba Ganoush:
2 Eggplants
2 Cloves of Garlic
Heaped tbs of Tahini
Salt, Lemon, Cumin, Olive oil, all to taste

top with sesame seeds, olive oil and a sprinkling of fresh parsley or similar

A support will help the eggplant stay in place while you do the burning/cooking. I've used this fairly easy to bend wire on other occasions when I needed a custom made support like a stand for my mobile phone. It works a treat for quick set up but also adjustable as you go along. I cut a piece about a meter long and shaped it like you can see in these photos . It turned out to be way too high off the flame on my stove top so I bent down the sides. This won't matter if you're just going to be using the blowtorch method, you can just bring the blow torch as close to the eggplant as possible. on the stove top you will need to get it down nice and low.

Just fire it up and watch the skin wither and burn. Of course you will need to turn it with the tongs as you go. The support works really well to keep the eggplant where you want it. I went shifting it to the left and right as was nescesarry. All in all the eggplant was cooking for 14 minutes. If there is a lot of water, if the eggplant is very fresh, it might make a mess of your stove top with concentrated caramelized juices. So maybe thats all the more reason to keep it in the work shop and grab that blowtorch!

I don't know but I'm thinking you could probably do this placing the eggplant in an oven tray on top of your stove in your kitchen as this is already a place prepared for heat and flames etc. I took mine outside to the fire pit so I still used the wire support.

It worked really well. The wire support does it's job well here too. It holds on to the eggplant and I just run around the surface with the flame and burnt the skin. I spent less time with the blow torch than the gas stove top method, I had the feeling it may not have been completely cooked all the way through so I microwaved it for 2 minutes just to be sure. In hindsight I could have just kept going at it with the blowtorch, maybe lower the flame, and the heat would have done the job for me.

Okay back to the kitchen.

Here is a link to the cooking blog, El Comidista, where I found this recipe on. It's in Spanish so it might not be perfect for you. Maybe google translator will automatically change the language for you. It's a great blog ¡os lo recomiendo!

Let the eggplants cool a bit so you don't burn yourself.

Set out a large mixing bowl and another bowl with water.

Peel off the burnt skin with your fingers. The burnt caramelized juices will make the little black bits stick to your fingers so go cleaning your fingers in the water as you go.

The first photo of the peeled eggplant is the gas stove top one and the next shot is of the blowtorch one. One in the mixing bowl together I can't tel them apart!

Now comes the satisfying bit: Squash the eggplants by hand! this way the dip maintains more character and you get more texture than if you were to just blitz everything in a mixer. So that's what the author Monica Escudero say's and I agree with her on the idea of tasting chunks of ingredients in a dip like this or a chunky guacamole for example but I found the stringy bits next to impossible to squash in my fingers. They are very slippery! So I went at it with a scissors, cutting up the stringy bits and then its ready for the condiments.

I used my mortar and pestel to mash the garlic cloves with a pinch of salt. The salt acts as an abrasive agent and quickly the two ingredients form a paste. Add the garlic mix and the tahini to the squashed eggplant and mix well. Add the juice of one lemon but only as much as you like. Correct the salt and add some olive oil and a touch of cumin if that's your thing and a sprinkling of sesame seeds

Serve as an appetizer with crackers, pita breads or crudités.