pomegranate seeds/babaghanoush

[johnstevens77]

88V8 asked about pomegranate seeds a week or two back, I just came across this recipe on my PC.

Don't forget that what is known in the UK as babaghanoush is known as moutabel/mtabel in Lebanon and the Gulf and that I always call it moutabel from habit.
In Cairo, the onion was cooked in the oven and chopped, in this recipe from Saudi it was left uncooked.

BABAGHANOUSH

1 LARGE EGGPLANT
1 DICED TOMATO
CHOPPED ONIONS
DRY MINT
DICED CUCUMBER
LEMON JUICE
OLIVE OIL
SALT AND PEPPER

GARNISH
POMEGRANITE SEEDS
RADDISH



METHOD
Grill and clean the eggplant under running water.
Squeeze out the bitter juices and chop.
Stir in the remaining ingredients except garnish.
Garnish and pour a little olive oil over.

john

[Diziet]

I poke a couple of holes in the aubergine and cook it directly over a gas frame, turning with tongs to make sure it cooke evently. it takes only a few minutes, and gives it that wonderful smoky taste.

In Greece, this dish has far fewer ingredients - lemon juice, finely grated garlic (not too much), salt, olive oil. It's the taste of summers in Greece to me.

[johnstevens77]

[quote="Diziet"]I poke a couple of holes in the aubergine and cook it directly over a gas frame, turning with tongs to make sure it cooke evently. it takes only a few minutes, and gives it that wonderful smoky taste.

Which is how I do mine of course but the recipe is old and would have been done on a charcoal grill, (BBQ). If you want the authentic taste but have an induction or electric cooker or perhaps an AGA, then cook it next to the heat under the salamander/domestic grill or mabe even use a blowtorch out doors.

Having written that, I see where the misunderstanding is. As a profesional, to me a grill is live bottom heat, eg charcoal and top heat is a salamander. That was confusing when we redid our kithcen at home!


In Saudi, we always used an open gas flame even though we had charcoal BBQ's in the kitchens, in the London UK residence on Park Lane, we used the salamander method.

I tasted chargrilled eggplant moutabel for the first time in Saudi, other hotels in Jordan, Cairo and the Gulf cooked them in the oven, very bland.

john