Recipe 4: Mezze Platter - Part 2 (baba ghanoush)

This dish can also be had as a side dish to an Indian meal. A close resemblance to the bharta. Loved it..

Ingredients

Brinjal (egg-plant / aubergine)	1	Almost 400 gms
Lemon juice	2 tbspn
Garlic cloves	6 to 8
Onion	1	Thinly cut
Fresh curd	2 tbspn
Cummin	1 tspn
Coriander	Some twigs
Salt	To taste

Method

1.    Slice the brinjal in half and pierce it with fork at lot of places

2.    Place the brinjal in a microwave dish in the microwave on max temperature for about 25 to 30 minutes (the brinjal has to be soft and the insides have to leave the skin easily, if required microwave for some more time – keep checking)

3.    Let the brinjal cool for sometime

4.    Scoop the entire insides (leaving the skin) and keep aside for use

5.    Dry roast cumin seeds and onions on a tava

6.    Add all the ingredients to the brinjal except for the curd in a mixer and blend for 2 minutes

7.    Check for the mixture and add curd (before you put curd, the mixture will be rough as there is no liquid)

8.    You are free to add some water (you don’t have to make it liquidy, so watch the water)

9.    Once the paste turns into a smooth well-blended paste, you are done

10. Remove this in a serving bowl. Good to be relished with a pita bread

Note:

1. Alternatively, you can roast the brinjal on a medium flame directly on a gas burner from all sides, until fully roasted
2. When we mixed all ingredients (except curd), the paste was very rough. It wasn’t getting mixed, that’s when we added some (very little) water and blended
3. The curd is not a part of the original recipe. Curd helped us in adding volume and giving a good texture (smoothness) to the dish