Babaganoush

Spring is a great time for dips and salads, so today in celebration of the warm weather we had a salad. Roquette, cos lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red capsicum and tuna with lashings of babaganoush on top.

The best thing about cooking babaganoush is you get to be a bit primitive, charring the eggplant on the open flame. I remember my surprise at the smoky flavour of this dip on my first encounter and I'm not sure that I immediately loved it. But I char with gay abandon these days filling the kitchen with an aroma reminiscent of marijuahna burning (so I am told). 

The smoky richness of babaganoush goes well with salads, barbecued meat and fish, especially lamb or just plain old carrot sticks, pita bread or water crackers. 

Babaganoush

Ingredients

1 medium to large eggplant (aubergine)

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of coriander seeds

1 clove of garlic

75 grams tahini

75 grams olive oil

50 ml water

Half teaspoon salt

Juice of 1 large lemon

Method

The smoky flavour of babaganoush is developed by placing a whole uncooked eggplant directly onto the gas flame of your stove top. Turn the flame on full and let the eggplant cook until it is charred on the underside then turning it over with a pair of kitchen tongs repeat the process on the other side. You will find the peeling process, which comes next, easier if the eggplant is well charred, so don't pull it off the stove too quickly.

Once this is done, put the charred eggplant aside in a bowl to cool 

Dry roast your cumin and coriander in a heavy based pan until they darken slightly and release their aroma. 

Place the seeds in the Thermomix bowl and grind on speed 10 for 60 seconds

Add the garlic and chop on speed 7 for 5 seconds or until evenly chopped

Now that the eggplant is cooled slightly, peel the charred skin away. Make sure that you leave as much of the browned layer beneath the charring as possible, this is where the flavour is. 

When you have removed all of the skin, cut off the stem and place the eggplant in the Thermomix bowl. 

Add the other ingredients ie tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, water

Blend on speed 5 for 30seconds.

Turn out into a bowl and sprinkle with soumak more for the decoration than for flavour

Eat whilst still warm (which I think is the only way to go) or at room temperature.

Za'atar Bread

They say you recognise soulmates from past lives by their smell. A hint of something familiar, alluring, attractive or comfortable caresses your nostrils, the earth moves and you remember. For the past week I had the flu and my sense of smell (and taste) deserted me.  I spilled half a bottle of tea tree oil on the floor and could smell nothing- no smell, nothing at all. I could have met a thousand soulmates and passed them by without a clue. So you can imagine that eating food was nothing like what it should have been either: salty, bitter, sour, sweet but nothing in between. What a strange world it is without smells, happily removed from and oblivious to the stinky things in life, but isolated from the pleasures that smell brings without really knowing it. Anyway my sense of smell is back and the richness of life awaits.

Za'atar is a herb mixture from the Middle east which is used to flavour kebabs, chicken, fetta cheese and more. However I know it best as the distinctive aromatic topping on Middle eastern herb bread. Za'atar lends piquancy and a herby aroma to the bread and it is very addictive. You have to love anything that starts with a Z don't you?

Soumak is the only ingredient which might be unknown to you. Well perhaps you might know it as the tangy red speckles on Arnott's barbecue shapes.  It is a crimson red powder with a sharp lemony tang and is available at the Queen Vic market or at middle eastern grocers. 

Za'atar Herb Mix

Ingredients

15 grams Sesame seeds toasted

35 grams Soumak powder

10 grams Oregano

10 grams Marjoram

10 grams Thyme

1 teaspoon Seasalt

Method

For za'atar you will need to toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying-pan on the stove. The Thermomix isn't set up to cook at such high heat because of the damage this does to the food, but despite the damage, toasted seeds do taste very nice. Put the seeds in a cold pan and place over high heat, agitating the pan constantly to brown the contents without burning. When the seeds are toasted to a light brown remove them to the Thermomix bowl immediately to prevent burning.  

Empty your packets of herbs and the salt into the Thermomix bowl. I actually used packets of herbs that weighed 8 grams and didn't fuss about finding the extra 2 grams. 

Pulverise all of the ingredients on speed 10 for 30 seconds or until you have a fine powder.

Pour your za'atar powder into a screw top jar.

Za'atar Focaccia Bread

I followed the recipe from the Australian Thermomix Cookbook, but I did find I needed to add quite a bit of extra flour because the dough was sticky.

Ingredients

200 g boiled water

200g cold water

1 sachet of dry yeast

20g olive oil

500g white bakers flour

Pinch of salt

Method

Place water in the Thermomix bowl add the oil then the yeast. Mix for 5 seconds on speed 6

Add flour and salt and mix for 20 seconds on speed 6

Set dial to closed lid position and knead for 2 minutes on interval speed

Add extra flour as the dough kneads if it feels sticky.

Remove dough from the Thermomix and leave covered in a warm place for up to 1 hour to rise.

After an hour take a large sheet of silicone baking paper and on it stretch your dough into an A4 sized rectangle.

Dip your fingers in flour to stop them sticking and press all eight fingers into the dough to make a line of indentations without going all the way through. Repeat until the entire rectangle is covered in indentations.

Fold the dough in half, stretch out to an A4 sized rectangle again and repeat the indentation process. 

Repeat two or three times and then leave the A4 sized rectangle with indentations covered with a teatowel or gladwrap to rise for another 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 220˚ C

Sprinkle the dough heavily with your za'atar powder and drizzle liberally with olive oil, don't hold back, the herb powder needs to be moist with the oil.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

We made tuna, rocquette, red capsicum and parmesan cheese sandwiches with this bread and they were magnificent.