The Hirshon Syrian True Baba Ghanouj – بابا غنوج‎

August 12, 2018 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Baba Ghanouj Image Used Under Creative Commons License From zenanzaatar.com

Citizens, my last recipe was posted to help clear up the tremendous confusion in the West between what we think of as baba ghanouj and the variant with tahini called mutabbal. We usually get Mutabbal here, NOT the true Baba!

as noted on norecipes.com:

Mutabbal (متبل, sometimes transliterated M’tabbal) is a delicious Levantine condiment made with smoky roasted eggplant and creamy tahina with pungent garlic and the citrusy tang of lemon juice. It makes for a delightful dip for flatbreads and veggies, but it can also be used as a condiment for roasted meats, or in sandwiches.

Although many people call this dish Baba Ghanoush (بابا غنوج‎), Mutabbal is a distinct Levantine meze. Baba Ghanoush is more like a salad; with roasted eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, walnuts mixed with lots of olive oil. Mutabbal, on the other hand, is a condiment made with roasted eggplant, tahina(tahini), lemon juice and garlic.

In the Middle East, there is zero confusion between the two but here in the west, we always make the mistake of assuming mutabbal is baba, and it just isn’t. Only in Syrian restaurants in the West is the differentiation consistently clear.

Now the name for the true baba is a story in and of itself! It comes from the Arabic phrase “baba gannuj”, in which baba can mean father or daddy (or an endearment), and gannuj can mean coquettish or pampered.

The dish, the OED says, was named “perhaps with reference to its supposed invention by a member of a royal harem.” So the pampered daddy may have been a sultan.

Thus, the term baba ghanoush literally translates as “my father is spoiled like a child by my mother”, which is actually quite an inappropriate name. It is never to be uttered at a traditional Arabic family gathering as the father would be insulted and the mother and children shamed. The more honorable name is badenjan mutabbal (eggplant dip).

It is not certain whether the word, bābā, refers to the eggplant (which is considered the big daddy of vegetables) or to a person indulged by this treat.

Needless to say, my version of Baba is truly authentic and I highly encourage you to enjoy this wonderful and healthy treat, rich in antioxidants! 🙂

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon Syrian True Baba Ghanouj – بابا غنوج‎

Ingredients

2 large eggplants, not the Asian variety
⅓ of a small red bell pepper
1 small tomato
½ cup parsley leaves, tightly packed
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 ½ tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
½ cup pomegranate seeds
½ cup walnuts, chopped
Extra olive oil for garnish

Instructions

Eggplant Roasting Directions Steps are from Serious Eats:
If using a gas burner or grill (recommended): Preheat a gas or coal grill to medium heat and place eggplants directly over heat source. Cook, turning occasionally with tongs, until completely tender and well charred on all sides, 30 to 40 minutes. Wrap with foil and let rest 15 minutes.
If using the broiler: Adjust rack to 6 inches below broiler element and preheat broiler to high. Place eggplant on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Broil, turning occasionally, until charred on all sides and completely tender, about 1 hour. Eggplants should be very, very tender when cooked. Test near the stem and bottom ends. If a toothpick or skewer meets any resistance, continue cooking. (See note above.)
Remove from oven and gather up foil, crimping it around the eggplants to form a sealed package. Let the eggplants rest for 15 minutes.
Open foil package. Working one eggplant at a time, use a sharp paring knife to slit it open lengthwise. Carefully scoop out soft flesh with a large spoon and transfer to a strainer set in a large bowl. Once all eggplant is scooped, pick out any stray bits of skin and blackened flesh and discard.
Leave to drain for 30 minutes, then whiz briefly in a food processor.
Meanwhile, finely chop the red bell pepper, tomato, and parsley.
Once eggplant is soft, peel off the charred skin. Finely chop the insides of the eggplant or mash with a fork. Alternatively, pulse a few times in the food processor for a smoother consistency. Transfer to a bowl and mix in salt, olive oil, garlic, pomegranate molasses, walnuts, and half of chopped parsley.
Fold in half of the chopped tomatoes, bell peppers, and pomegranate seeds, reserving the rest for topping.
Drizzle baba ghanoush with some extra olive oil (TFD likes a lot of oil!). Top with remaining pomegranate seeds, chopped peppers, chopped tomatoes, and parsley leaves. Enjoy with warm pita bread!

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-syrian-true-baba-ghanouj-%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%a8%d8%a7-%d8%ba%d9%86%d9%88%d8%ac%e2%80%8e/

The Hirshon Levantine “Baba Ghanoush” – متبل

August 12, 2018 by The Generalissimo 3 Comments

The Hirshon "Baba Ghanoush" - بابا غنوج‎

Baba Ghanouj Image Used Under Creative Commons License From tandoorihut.com.pk

Citizens, baba ghanoush is a Levantine dish of cooked eggplant typically mixed with onions, tomatoes, olive oil and various seasonings.

However, what most westerners think of as “baba ghanoush” is actually a similar dish, made with mashed eggplants but without the other vegetables known as mutabbal (متبل literally ‘spiced’).

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “baba ghanoush” as “a Middle Eastern (originally Lebanese) dish of puréed roasted aubergine, garlic, and tahini.” Often other ingredients are added, like mint, onions, and various spices.

The Arabic and Jewish preparation method for this recipe is for the eggplant to be baked or broiled over an open flame before peeling, so that the pulp is soft and has a smoky taste. This smoky flavor is known as “al ha’esh”, or “on the fire” in Israel – but if the flavor is too strong, you can bake the eggplant, then cool and skin it according to the directions below.

It is a typical meze (starter), often eaten as a dip with khubz or pita bread, and is sometimes added to other dishes. It is popular in the Levant (area covering Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria) as well as in Armenia.

My version is quite traditional for the mutabbal variant without tomatoes and onions – I hope you enjoy it, Citizens!

Battle on – TheGeneralissimo

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The Hirshon “Baba Ghanoush” – بابا غنوج‎

Ingredients

2 large eggplants, not the Asian variety 
Juice of 1 lemon, plus a little extra 
2 tbsp tahini 
3 garlic cloves, crushed 
2 tbsp chopped mint 
1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley 
1 ½ tsp. freshly ground cumin 
¾ tsp. freshly ground coriander seed
 1 tbsp pomegranate seeds for garnish
 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil for garnish 
Aleppo pepper flakes and minced curly parsley for garnish

Instructions

Eggplant Roasting Directions Steps 1-3 are from Serious Eats:
If using a gas burner or grill (recommended): Preheat a gas or coal grill to medium heat and place eggplants directly over heat source. Cook, turning occasionally with tongs, until completely tender and well charred on all sides, 30 to 40 minutes. Wrap with foil and let rest 15 minutes. Continue to step 3.
If using the broiler: Adjust rack to 6 inches below broiler element and preheat broiler to high. Place eggplant on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Broil, turning occasionally, until charred on all sides and completely tender, about 1 hour. Eggplants should be very, very tender when cooked. Test near the stem and bottom ends. If a toothpick or skewer meets any resistance, continue cooking. (See note above.)
Remove from oven and gather up foil, crimping it around the eggplants to form a sealed package. Let the eggplants rest for 15 minutes. Continue to step 3.
Open foil package. Working one eggplant at a time, use a sharp paring knife to slit it open lengthwise. Carefully scoop out soft flesh with a large spoon and transfer to a strainer set in a large bowl. Once all eggplant is scooped, pick out any stray bits of skin and blackened flesh and discard.
Leave to drain for 30 minutes, then whiz briefly in a food processor.
In a serving bowl, stir the lemon juice into the tahini until it loosens up. Add the garlic and ⅔ of the chopped herbs and the ground spices. Add a squeeze more lemon juice if necessary.
Mash the aubergines gently with a fork, and then stir into the tahini mixture. Top with the remaining herbs, Aleppo pepper flakes and the pomegranate seeds. Pour a moat of oil around the edge and serve.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/hirshon-levantine-baba-ghanoush-%d9%85%d8%aa%d8%a8%d9%84/

The Hirshon Owensboro Black BBQ Dip

August 11, 2018 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Owensboro BBQ Sauce Image Used Under Creative Commons License From savoryspiceshop.com

Citizens, your well-seasoned and lightly smoked Leader – the gourmand that is uniquely TFD! – knows an infinite and pure love for all forms of BBQ!

One of my favorite forms of ‘Q is the unique, hyper-local version found only in and around Owensboro, Kentucky. Here, the meat of choice is mutton and the BBQ sauce is black, thin and based on Worcestershire sauce. One of the first recipes I ever posted on TFD was a BBQ sauce with the Owensboro flavor profile. This recipe today, however, is for the real deal!

As noted on the superb website dannwoellertthefoodetymologist.wordpress.com:

One of the interesting things about food history is that sometimes, what’s made at homes doesn’t have a fancy product name. It’s only when food writers try to categorize something for comparison that it needs to be identified uniquely.

Take, for example, what outsiders call Owensboro, Kentucky’s Black Barbecue Sauce. It’s probably the most obscure regional American barbecue sauce – the virtual unicorn of condiments.

Owensboro, Kentucky, is a town of about 60,000 in western Kentucky on the banks of the Ohio River, in Daviess County. Originally known as Yellow Banks, it’s named after Abraham Owen, another Kentucky Colonel, who was a legislator and soldier.

This condiment – or more accurately, the marinade – is made to go with what Owensboro is most famous for, their slow –roasted barbecued mutton. Yes, that’s right, not lamb, but gamey-flavored mutton, typically the shoulder. Mutton is actually more accurately called Ewe, which is the female sheep.

The sauce, or ‘dip’ as the locals call it, is designed to cut the gaminess out of mutton. Made with lots of acid and umami, Ownesboro ‘dip’ is typically a Worchestershire and vinegar based marinade (more liquidy, than a typical thick, viscous barbecue sauce).

The dip also has lemon juice (some families use orange juice instead), melted butter, and allspice. The marinade is mopped over the meat as it’s grilled, and served with the barbecued meat to be dipped. Every Owensboro family closely guards their secret dip recipes.

My friend Jerry grew up in Owensboro, and says some of his best memories with his father were manning the mutton grill at their local church’s festival.

He helped with ‘mopping’ the mutton with the black ‘dip’ several times as they grilled. He also was a burgoo runner, the other local dish Owensboro is famous for, a tomato based stew with several meats. The meats are typically chicken, mutton, and beef, mixed with tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, corn, onion and occasionally, peas, lima beans and other local vegetables like okra.

The first record of a barbecue in Owensboro is July 4, 1834, although it was probably going on way before then. Some families have been barbecuing for five generations, the skills and recipes being passed down from father to son. When local Whigs in 1844 needed to fundraise for their Kentucky presidential candidate, Henry Clay, they held a barbecue. When Confederate veterans wanted a monument, they held a barbecue.

Jerry talks of grills extending the length of an Olympic sized swimming pool at their church festival, his yearly family reunion (including several hundred cousins), and the annual Mutton Glutton, a barbecue festival held every Mother’s Day Weekend, where 20,000 pounds of ewes are grilled for the event. Barbecued mutton is so popular in Owensboro, that even a single parish festival can attract over 5000 hungry visitors.

Moonlite Barbecue is probably the most well-known restaurant serving the famous mutton in Owensboro, but there are many others. And, you could hit every church festival and family reunion over the summer months and get some outstanding versions too.

As is typical with barbecue, the first recorded ‘professional Owensboro barbecue chef’, Harry S. Green, was a black man, born into slavery in 1855. He began selling his barbecued mutton from his yard at Ninth and Hall Streets, in Owensboro, in 1890.

So why barbecued mutton? There are two stories. One goes that the early Welsh settlers in the area raised enormous flocks of sheep. So it was only natural that if a barbecue was in order, it would be mutton that would be loaded into the spits.

Early agricultural records in 1860 seem to corroborate this – there were recorded 11,000 sheep compared to only 6750 beef cattle in Davies County. Burgoo is said to have been brought to Kentucky by the Welsh. An 1887 article in a local newspaper said burgoo was “a barbecue where birds, chickens, squirrels, beef, pork and dog are thrown in a pot.”

The other story is that barbecued mutton was an acquired taste because mutton was the meat that early Roman Catholic parishioners donated to be used at their local church festivals. Parish picnics at Catholic churches in Daviess County Kentucky date back to at least 1877, when St. Martin Parish in Rome, Kentucky, announced a barbecue picnic fundraiser.

So, if you ever make it to the Mutton Glutton in Owensboro, don’t ask to pass the Black Barbecue Sauce – ask if you can have some dip, and you’ll not seem like such a Yankee.

Citizens, my version of this rarest of rare sauces hews closely to tradition, with a few TFD tweaks. I add a touch of balsamic vinegar, and a bit of mushroom ketchup (an early British precursor sauce to Worcestershire that would have been very familiar to the original Welsh settlers) plus some demiglace in place of butter. My true secret ingredient is a touch of Kentucky orange bitters – it balances all the flavors very nicely indeed!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon Owensboro Black BBQ Dip

Ingredients

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
¼ cup minced onion
¼ cup distilled white vinegar, plus 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
¼ cup Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce, plus 1 tablespoon
¼ cup Geo Watkins Mushroom Ketchup, plus one tablespoon (optional, but recommended - replace with Worcestershire sauce if not using)
2 tablespoons light brown sugar, plus 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
2 teaspoons fresh squeezed orange juice
¼ teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce
¼ teaspoon freshly-ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon freshly-ground allspice
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1 tbsp. (or more to taste) of More Than Gourmet Classic French Demi-Glace
A few drops of Woodford Reserve Orange Bitters, to taste

Instructions

Heat the vegetable oil over moderate heat.
Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft and light golden brown.
Add the remaining ingredients, and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. The sauce will thicken slightly - use an immersion blender if you think it needs it. Add a few drops of bitters to taste. Stir and serve warm.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-owensboro-black-bbq-dip/