Day 31: Baba Ganoush

inspired by The Palomar

As well as my need for a supply of biscuits another consequence of being (gulp) busy this week is that I’ve got less time to cook.

As I explained in yesterday’s post I’m making scrubs for the NHS. I love being able to help. And I love being able to use some of my skills again. Let’s face it the past month has basically felt like a holiday. The ultimate staycation.

This time last week I was faffing around with quail eggs and trying my hand at folding samosas. I was planning all sorts of future dishes. Now those dishes are on pause for a few days and so I’m improvising the next couple of blog posts. Which makes me a bit nervous. I like to have a plan.

But no time for trying to confit a potato right now.

I have to admit making these 10 pairs of scrub trousers was a bigger undertaking than I was expecting. I’ve not done much sewing over the past couple of months. And that meant one thing. I was slow.

Thankfully Aidan offered to help. This is a man who has never done any sewing before. I started him off gently (which basically meant he just did all my ironing, I really am quite cruel!)

But before you know it he was cutting out pockets, overlocking seams and adding in drawstrings. Next batch I’m going to get him on the sewing machine (oh but hang on, does that mean I have to do the ironing….maybe not then!)

To celebrate the fact that the scrub trousers are finished, and that Aidan is still talking to me after I called him a Stitch Bitch (it’s an industry term I swear!), we are having a barbecue.

Since we’ve only had a garden for a few months, and more importantly our barbecue only arrived last week, this is another first for us.

Aidan is definitely in charge here though. Just like when we cook a roast we split into teams. He does meat. I do veg. However there’s not much veg in our BBQ selection.

Thank you Oddbox for saving the day (and giving me something to blog about!) We had another aubergine on our veg box this morning!

Out comes DJ BBQ’s “Fire Food” cookbook. His recipe for Dirty Baba Ganoush involves throwing (gently placing, safety first everyone) the aubergine and half a bulb of garlic directly onto the coals and letting them cook til they’re really soft and black.

Then leave them to cool before scraping the flesh out of the aubergine and the garlic cloves and smooshing together. Yup, smoosh is a word. It’s a very technical term.

Watch DJ BBQ in the video to see how to smoosh. Chop and smoosh.

Then just mix with tahini and lemon juice and you have incredible baba ganoush! I served mine with some homemade hummus (or is it houmous?) and flatbreads. Hummus was a Jamie recipe.

For the flatbreads I simply mixed equal amounts self raising flour and natural yoghurt to form a dough. Stretch out with your hands (I warn you this dough is sticky…use lots of flour!) until you have them about the size of a pitta bread and then cook in a hot dry pan for a few minutes on each side.

But what does all of this have to do with The Palomar? Well quite simply it’s the best baba ganoush I’ve had. Ever. The whole atmosphere of the restaurant is amazing. You can sit at the counter by the open kitchen and the chefs will serve the food directly to you. And wow their pitta bread is amazing! Little pillows of joy ready to be dunked into a selection of delicious dips.

My quick yoghurt flatbreads definitely aren’t in the same league as their pitta breads. But my baba ganoush? I reckon that comes pretty close…