Here's some info I got on smoking eggplant for babaganoush. From my experience, the eggplant did not get much of a smoky flavor. I think you can cook it without smoke and still get good babaganoush. My problem before was that I was using an electric smoker, which smokes at low temperature, and I get more of a smoky flavor on vegetables if I grill them over charcoal.

Your tahini should last a long time in the fridge. I store the jar upside down, as otherwise the oil is on top and difficult to stir into the paste. I add a bit of toasted sesame oil to my babaganoush, but I use a different oil on the eggplant when grilling.

Tahini is also a major ingredient in hummus, which I make much more often than I do babaganoush.

Tahini lasts quite awhile - months years...

It does separate which is a pain. I store my jar upside down in the fridge to help with that.

As far as the eggplant - I have only made babaganoush a few times. I never smoked the eggplant.

If you have never made anything with tahini - it does have a strong flavor. Use less and add more if needed. Same with the garlic - which gets stronger as the baba sits. Peel paint, dissolve tastebuds, kill vampire strong.

I brush my peeled eggplants with EVOO and broil them. The main thing is that eggplant can sometimes get a bitter flavor, so I salt them and let them "sweat" for 15+ min. and then wipe with a paper towel. Then I do the broiling. You'll find a lot of recipes for babaganoush that give you a technique of wrapping the eggplant in tinfoil and "grilling" it or smoking it or whatever they want to call it, on the stove burner. I never made eggplant for years because that just seemed like too much fiddling for me. Then, when I discovered a recipe for the broiled eggplant that tasted plenty good to me, I make babaganoush all the time. As far as being an eggplant dip, you don't absolutely have to use tahinni, you can use mayo or just some EVOO. The fat carries the flavor. I make roasted dip with just the eggplant and roasted red peppers which is naturally low in fat, no other fat other than what coated the eggplant during the roasting. Bear in mind, THIS IS NOT TRADITIONAL AND I'M NOT IMPLYING THAT IT IS. So if you want to do it traditionally, I'd say build a fire in your outdoor grill and wrap the eggplants up in tinfoil and set over coals, or broil over and open flame, but in a gas oven, that's basically what you are doing anyway. The smokey flavor comes from mildly carcinogenic compounds anyway, lol! But then you'll get into the whole controversy of charcoal vs gas grilling too. As for me, I make eggplant dip, (untraditional) all the time by broiling the eggplant. I sometimes use tahinni, but since mine is often bitter due to getting rancid, I tend to leave it out. I even keep sesame seeds to grind into my own tahinni to try and avoid the rancid flavor but I just don't use them often enough. YMMV.

The easy way to cook the eggplant is poke a bunch of holes in it with a fork and put it over a burner flame, turning regularly (no foil, but it does drip, so lining the burner pan might help), or put it under a broiler in a pie plate. When the eggplant is all sunk in and charred looking, it's ready. There's nothing worse than undercooked eggplant. When it's completely cooked, the inner flesh is green and soft and sweet.

Cut open the eggplant and scrape it out with a spoon. If the seeds are big and heavy, remove the large lines of them. Scrape the skins with your spoon to get the charry tasting part.

Combine with fresh pressed garlic (a couple not huge cloves per large eggplant) and techinah (a couple heaping spoonsful), and some lemon juice (half a small lemon's) for baba ghanouj. You can add additional seasoning and spices to taste if you want to.

As LPink mentioned, you can also serve it as is, with a little olive oil & S&P, or with mayonnaise for an eggplant salad.

Or you can cut the eggplant into strips for pizza or sandwiches. :)

Humus dip is pretty common so you must have had that. Chick pea, tahini, lemon, etc.

Very similar using roasted eggplant as the bulk veg. Tahini, lemon, etc.

A purchased container of babaganouch, un-like humus, is oddly bland. Many international treats and recipes are originally made to use up their harvest bulk. Why tomatoes are canned, beans are dried. Frozen veggies, and fruits..made into.jams and jellies. Stuffed grape leaves in cans...marinated artichoke hearts...all those 'international' delicacies i oggled in the grocery as a kid. lol.

Roasting in the oven, sliced, then oiled, is a fine way to soften and steam/cook eggplant. Even a hit under the broiler. Roast with some onion, shallots, garlic, red pepper, then chop it all coarse with a topping of toasted sesame seeds and some greens like cilantro. Or a favorite Japanese dish with ginger and soy and bonito flakes.

Or just put all that yummy in a cuisinart and make babaganouch. One tbsp of tahini. Lots of lemon.

If you find that you love it and tahini, you can make your own tahini by just roasting sesame seeds in a skillet, then into a blender with lemon, cilantro stems and a bit of water...sesame seeds are full of oil. I just use a water emulsion for a fresh blend. (cuts down on the oily)

Thanks, all, I just finished it and it's pretty good, although I had to adjust with more salt, pepper, garlic and lemon juice. The next time I will slice it and salt it as instructed above to get rid of some of the bitterness. (But it's not too bitter.) I also had thought about the roasted pepper even before it was mentioned above and put some of that in plus some fresh parsley at the end. I had initially pricked the eggplants and roasted them at 450 for half an hour and let them cool and pulled off the skins. Then I had also roasted 3 garlic cloves along with it. I used my immersion blender to mush it up good. But as I said, I had to add more seasoning and even put in some garlic powder to suit me as I don't think there's such a thing as too much garlic. As for the tahini, I only put in 3 tablespoons.

You can never have too much garlic in authentic baba ganouj, so you're in good company. Sounds like the right amount of techinah. Congrats on the success!

Rita, after you bake the eggplants, transfer them to a sieve and let the bitter liquids drain out of them. No need to do the cutting + salting to get rid of the bitter liquids if you're baking. I always do it this way. Some eggplants are very bitter and this can ruin the dish. I follow Claudia Roden's recipe.

This is Claudia Roden's recipe, and she sure knows how to make this dish:

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggplant (about 2 pounds)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 generous tablespoons tahini
• juice of 2 lemons, or more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt
• generous drizzle extra virgin olive oil (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Prick the eggplants all over with a fork, and then place eggplants on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Roast the eggplants until very soft (up to an hour), turning the eggplants every 15 minutes or so.

Remove from oven, and let stand until cool enough to handle. Slit open the eggplants. Scrape out the seeds with spoon (don't worry about getting all of them), and discard. Scoop out the flesh and place it in a colander with small holes. (Discard the eggplant skin and top.) In the colander, mash the flesh with a fork, and using kitchen scissor, snip at the flesh to cup up any remaining fibers or large chunks. Let the eggplant sit for a few minutes to allow the bitter juices drain out. Transfer the eggplant to a bowl and add the garlic, tahina, lemon juice, cumin, and a little salt. Mix well and taste to adjust flavors.

If desired, serve with a generous drizzle of olive oil on top.

Here's the link:

http://www.allisonklein.com/recipes/Baba+Ghanouj

Sounds perfect and yum. Maybe someday I will be back up in business with a grill and can experiment with doing eggplant outside over coals or gas flame. As it is, here in the frozen North, I am fine with indoor methods for now! But then, it's hard to get good eggplant in the winter here too. I have even had difficulty growing them. I either get bitter ones, or a very small harvest. But I try every year. This year, instead of the Italian varieties, I'm trying the small, elongated Japanese type.

Tahini is to sesame seeds what peanut butter is to peanuts. If you don't have tahini you can use a little 'natural' peanut butter (i.e., non sweetened, just ground peanuts). Not traditional, but not bad, either.

Wintercat, thanks for the tip on draining it in a sieve, I'll try that the next time.

A few months ago I ate at a Persian restaurant (The Pomegranate) in Greenville SC. The food was fantastic, and the high point for me was an eggplant and tomato spread called Mirza Ghasemi. It's first cousin to baba ganouj, consisting of eggplants and tomatoes (the same combo as in ratatouille). I haven't tried to make it at home, but if anyone has a tried & true recipe for it I'd appreciate it. (Not meaning to hijack the thread, but for eggplant freaks it would be a worthy addition to the recipe box.)