Baba Ganoush - recipe

When we were in Sydney recently we ate at the  Union Hotel where my brothers friend is the chef. The baba ganoush that was part of the impressive starter selection was fantastic. It had a really smokey flavour. Greg (brother) asked for me how it was made. It seems the two secrets were charing the egg plants on a BBQ and roasting a head of garlic (top off with olive oil poured over) wrapped in tin foil in the oven until it is totally soft.
I prepared the egg plants last night while I had rotisserie chicken cooking and the garlic was cooked with our feijoa crumble dessert.

I always have tahini in the fridge (and chickpeas in her pantry) as a quick stand by ingredient for Hummus. It is a paste made from ground roasted sesame seeds. In my supermarket it is in the organic/whole foods section in a jar.

Babaganoush

For about 1 1/2 cups: 
2 medium eggplants
1/2 a head of garlic, roasted in oven
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons tahini
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
about 1/2 teaspoon salt

Char eggplant on BBQ until black all over.
Once the eggplant is cool enough to handle, place on a chopping board, cut in half and scrape the flesh out of the skin. 
Cur top off garlic head and drizzle with olive oil. Roast in tin foil in oven until head is soft. 
Place the egg plant flesh and garlic squeezed from head in a food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade, add the lemon juice and tahini and process until smooth.

With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil and add the salt. Stop the processor, taste the mixture and a little more salt if required.

Serve immediately, or transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to a week.

The Union Hotel - Newton, Sydney

We had a fantastic dinner last night at the bistro in the Union Hotel in Sydney, a business owned and run by my brother's childhood friend Michael Carter.
While Michael was not able to be with us he had made sure were were well looked after.
He had organised our starters, which just kept coming. While it was hard to choose a favourite the duck liver terrine got rave reviews from our group and I just loved the baba ganoush, (I've requested the recipe, maybe an upcoming blog after I have experimented it a bit).
The standard menu was what you would expect from a pub bistro but the blackboard menu was a lot more upmarket and interesting while still being really reasonably priced.

I ordered grilled ocean trout, served with a salad with shaved fennel as a main. Some of the more game members of our group ordered kangaroo.

Thank you Michael - a great meal.