Time for some cooking!

Before I left for Palestine I vowed to myself that I would cook more - I now had a well-equipped kitchen to myself (sadly, still no dishwasher... one day I'll have an appartment with a dishwasher!)  access to some very fresh produce and, more importantly, I was armed with an e-version of Yottam Ottolenghi's cookbook Jerusalem.  Cliché?  Of course... but in my defence I downloaded that cookbook long before I even applied for this job.  There's actually not really a need to buy his cookbooks, to be honest, as he has a regular column in The Guardian.  You'll find, however, that his recipes tend to have a shit-tonne of ingredients and lots of random spices and condiments - living in close proximity to Jerusalem does not make amassing these many ingredients or cooking his recipes any easier, actually.  So, in that sense this book was a bit of a let down.

But I have sussed out some 'easier' recipes to cook and tried my hand at Burnt Eggplant with Garlic, Lemon, and Pomegranate Seed Dip.

The recipe emphasised the smoky flavour of the eggplants and recommended burning the eggplants directly over an open flame.  Since I couldn't figure out how to turn on my oven and I have a gas stove, I went with that option.  If you're not cooking with gas (heh) then score the eggplants with a knife and place under a broiler.  Or bbq them... weather permitting.  My gas flame option was a bit of a delicate operation because the eggplants I bought were quite small.  When I went to the grocers to buy them all I could see were these miniature eggplants and went with that, thinking that the large eggplants at home were just the by-product of our un-natural North American way of farming and over-dependence on pesticides.  Actually, the larger sized eggplants were pretty much located right next to their dwarf cousins.  It would have been nicer to have the full-size aubergines because arranging the small ones to balance over the open flame was difficult, as you can see from the pic below, but I eventually got the hang of it.  Also, please ignore the coffee stains all over my stove.  I didn't feel it necessary to clean up before I was going to make a mess, but I'm not that slovenly.

The fire hazard was worth it for that smoky, smoky taste

You really have to burn the skin, maybe even let the eggplants catch fire once in a while.  Once that's done let them cool down and then cut a hole in the eggplant and scoop out the juicy insides.  Put the meat in a colander, add a bit of salt and let the water drain out for a while.

The recipe only asked for garlic, parsley, lemon zest and juice, olive oil and mint - but I thought some onions would be a fresh addition.  So I sauteed up an onion and - this is important - 2 cloves of garlic in their skin.  Adding raw garlic can be a bit smelly, roasted garlic is nice, but slow, so this is a good compromise.  Frying it in its skin prevents it from burning too quickly either.  Once the eggplant is drained chuck all those ingredients (so, eggplant, garlic, onion, parsley, lemon zest and juice, olive oil and mint) into a food processor/blender and pulse it.  You want it to still be a bit chunky, so not too much blending.

Here is where you serve it up with some pomegranate seeds delicately tumbled all around.  But I couldn't find pomegranate, and those things can be tedious (and messy) to deal with.  So I sprinkled some sumac over top, a middle eastern spice that seemed appropriate enough.  And it worked!  It had a nice fresh, yet smoky flavour (a bit contradictory, admittedly).  You'll notice I don't really use measurements here, because I'm that good.  Just go for a good balance, and you'll be ok - but not too heavy on the herbs.    

This filter is not conducive to food photography, but you get the idea.