Where There’s Smoke…There’s Bacon
I appreciate the idea of hummus because it’s such a stinking fantastic dip and it’s not even based in fatty sour cream or cream cheese. I think eggplant based dips, to be honest, aren’t as delightful as bean dips, but I keep trying anyway, especially with almost-out-of-season eggplants filling crates at the farmers market.
I googled for a few baba ganosh recipes and turned to my friend Justin’s fav, David Lebovitz. Lebovitz accentuated the smoky qualities of the dip and I ran with it, adding extra smoky flavor everywhere I could.
Smoky Eggplant Dip with Bacon-fried Tortillas
Like Lebovitz said, I pricked one eggplant and let it sit right on the fire to char first. It then went in 350F oven for 35 minutes. I slit the eggplant in half and scooped out the flesh and threw it right in the food processor with one large tomato (chopped), spoonful of tahini, one roasted red jalepeno, more apple smoked salt than I care to admit to the dip’s admirers (to up that smoky flavor!), cumin, salt, pepper, parsley, a spoonful of warm water to get the dip going, and a few swirls of oil.
Now, I also put in some Cherry Glen chipotle goat cheese. This is like, um, nice cheese. Cheese that should stand tall on a cutting board and find itself in a place of honor on a cracker. Instead, I threw it in a dip, to be smashed around with plenty of other ingredients. But, you know what, it’s my cheese and I wanted to add some creaminess and some smoky heat without having to go to the store to buy chipotles in adobo. So I did it. Don’t hate me.
I tasted the dip, but it wasn’t quite there. There wasn’t enough flavor on the front of the taste, but plenty of smoky heat on the back. I reached for acid in the form of Nakano* roasted garlic rice wine vinegar. It did the trick. Plus more smoked salt.
To top off this smoky orgy, I fried a bunch of tortillas in bacon grease and while grease still clung to the corn-based disks, I sprinkled more apple smoked salt on top.
*complimentary
<3 <3 <3 me some baba! i am guilty of stashing roasted eggplants in the freezer in hopes they will make lovely baba once they are thawed.
please let me know how it works out.
So how did the tortillas work out in the bacon grease. Bet they were good.
You must tell us how the tortillas in the bacon grease turned out.
According to a friend that dined on the tortillas:
“Yes, there was a porkiness to them.”