The Levant region or al-Sham in Arabic, has a distinct kitchen which is completely different from the Turkish one. Outside the Arab world this smoked eggplants dip is known as Baba Ghanoush, however the Palestinian-Syrian-Lebanese Moutabbal spread varies largely from its Turkish counterpart, and one of the most notable differences is the darker color of the later due to added molasses and grilled vegetables inside the spread mixture, which is a big no-no in the al-Shami cuisine.
Our recipe is based on the legendary eggplant delight served by Al Sham restaurant of Haifa, our hometown.
Ingredients
Eggplant mixture
For serving
Preparation
- Wash the eggplants and cut their skin in a few spots around them. This would allow liquids to drain out and prevent explosion while grilled on open flames or baked in the oven.
- Grill the eggplants for about 30-50 minutes or bake them for about 1-2 hours, until their peel is burned and their flesh is completely soft when pocked by fork.
We recommend the traditional grilling of the eggplants on open fire of the gas stove or of a BBQ grill. However, baking them in the oven at 230°C-250°C would be fine as long as you keep rotating them every now and then.
- Place the cooked eggplants in a large bowl and allow them to cool down for at least 30 minutes.
- Drain away the excess bitter fluids of the eggplants, peal out the burned skin and keep in the bowl only the clean flesh.
* We learned from Al Sham restaurant to keep the eggplant caps for serving. - Using 2 forks, break the eggplant flesh into thin strings.
Alternatively you can chop the eggplants by knife, but it would be much messier and the texture is less pleasant to chew in our opinion. - Add to the eggplants in the bowl the Tahini, lemon juice and salt and mix them all together.
- Before serving decorate the eggplants mixture with some freshly chopped Nana mint, fresh pomegranate seeds, and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and pure syrup of dates or of carob.
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