Snacking On Egypt

It is time to eat some Egyptian snacks... ok *an* Egyptian snack. After a bit of searching, we opted to try to make Egyptian baba ganoush. Baba ganoush is made using eggplants (also known as aubergines.) There are a few different ways to make baba ganoush and it appears that depending on the territory, or country there are variations that are specific to that area. In Egypt, baba ganoush has a distinct smokey flavor that can be achieved by roasting the skin of the eggplant over a flame on a gas stove burner, before completing the rest of the steps. 

The next step of making the baba ganoush, was to cook the eggplant in the oven. I preheated the oven to 400 degrees and then cooked two eggplants for 40 minutes. 

Once the eggplant was done cooking, removed from the oven, cooled and skinned, I tossed the two eggplants in the blender along with two cloves of garlic (minced), two tbsp of olive oil, two tbsp of lemon, some tahini (the recipe I read called for 3 tbsp, but I didn't actually measure this, I think it can be adjusted to your taste), a pinch of parsley and a pinch of chili powder. Hit the puree option on the blender and let it go until it is smooth (or your desired consistency.) After the first taste we thought it was a bit bland, so we added some salt. We sprinkled a little fresh parsley on top and that's it! 

We served it up with some mini pitas cut in half.  

How about you? Did you try any new foods over the weekend? Have you had baba ganoush before? What are some favorite snacks in your house?