Palakottai Baba Ganoush [smoky jack seed and eggplant dip]

This is chapter 2 of a little palakottai series that started with an updated hummus recipe and continues here with an absolutely delightful twist on the classic Levantine baba ganoush–here made with the addition of nutritious and tasty jackfruit seeds to fire-roasted baby eggplants.

We’ve become experts at dissecting and dismembering the great beast that is the jackfruit. It’s still a lot of work to cut a jackfruit, but we just get it done. It’s become a part of our summertimes, brimming with reminiscences of Appa’s visits to Pondicherry. Sometimes we get fruits full of seeds that just want to grow. Those we leave to themselves.

It’s the seeds that come out looking clean and whole and beautifully grainy, like the Palamaram’s wood itself that we seek.

But fire-roast you absolutely must.

Here again, as with hummus, the dry, thirsty character of the jackfruit seeds needs to be countered with the giving softness of roasted eggplant which adds its own alluringly smoky flavor to this dish. Oven-baking won’t do it, so that should be a very last alternative.

For this baba ganoush to work its wonders, you will need first to select only smallish eggplants: Indian eggplants are best, “Disco katthirikkai” or Rosa Bianca eggplants are an option, and Italian eggplants can work if they’re not oversized. The big globe eggplants (goondu katthirikkai or fat eggplants) will take too long and will cook unevenly on common household stove flames. Long Japanese eggplants might work, but you will need to take care to move them to roast the whole length evenly (I haven’t tried; I’m guessing). [Read more about eggplant types here.]

I stick a knife or a metal skewer in mine and use that implement to balance the eggplants on the burner top. It doesn’t take long–10 mins tops, on a small flame gets you 2 eggplants, perfectly done, which is just about all you need, though you could add one more.

Peel the charred eggplants and make sure you get out all the black char–that’s not good to consume. The flavor that has now permeated the eggplant flesh is all you are looking for, and that’s smoky sweet and a perfect complement to the almost blank-palette of the jack seeds themselves.

And that’s all really.

We paired this with roasted cauliflower — you can make the dressing for a piquant side, or make a mixed-herb green chutney, or skip the green additions entirely as they are a bit of a distraction from the otherwise warm-roasted tastes of the baba ganoush.

Some shredded konnapoo or amaltas petals went on top as a garnish, since Cassia Fistula is in season. Any other edible flower will add that little touch of color and beauty, too.

Jackfruit Seed and Fire-Roasted Eggplant Baba Ganoush

An Indian twist to a Levantine classic! This baba ganoush is made with both eggplants and jackfruit seeds, which pack a nutritional punch. Fire-roasting the eggplants brings out all their wonderfully smoky flavors and makes this simple, familiar dip quite extraordinary.

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Ingredients

  

• 1 cup of jackfruit seeds
• 2-3 small round eggplants. See note.
• 2 teaspoons tahini
• 4-5 large cloves of garlic
• juice of 1 whole lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika or red chilli powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, dry roasted and roughly crushed
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

 

• Boil the jackfruit seeds until tender, with salt. Drain. If you have not removed the white, papery seed-coats prior to cooking, then be sure to remove them after the seeds are cooked. Place the seeds in the jar of a blender or food processor.
• Fire roast the eggplants by sticking a knife or metal skewer into their tops and placing over an open flame. If you have a “roti grill,” you can use that, too—it is a little easier. But if you’re working just with an open burner, just make sure you keep a close eye and turn the eggplants every few minutes or so. They cook very fast, and char very easily. Test them with the same knife used to skewer: when they are very soft and the knife goes in without any resistance, they’re done.
• Once the eggplants are all well-charred on all sides and very soft, transfer to a plate to cool and then peel. Be sure to remove all the charred skin, as that is carcinogenic.
• Cut the eggplants roughly and add them to the blender jar, then add the garlic cloves, tahini, salt, paprika or chilli powder, and lemon juice.
• Don’t add water yet—pulse a few times and see how it goes. If the blades get stuck, add just enough water to get them going, though the moisture
• If you’ve not dry roasted the cumin, do it now. Transfer to a mortar and crush roughly with a pestle until ground but not too powdery. Add to the baba ganoush and pulse to combine.
• Adjust salt and spices.
• Transfer to a serving dish and mix in half the olive oil. Use a spoon to create swirls, and drizzle the remaining half of the olive oil on top.
• Serve warm with assorted roasted vegetables: cauliflower, carrots, beans all work really well.

Notes

• You do need a gas stove for this recipe. It’s just not the same with baking eggplants in an oven, but if you must, then that’s your backup.
• Choose eggplants carefully for this recipe. Very large eggplants will not cook fast enough or evenly enough on average home cooking ranges. Long ones will need moving up and down to get them cooked along their total lengths. The best ones are really medium sized “baby” eggplants (Indian eggplants) or what we know here as “disco” katthirikkai for their purple and white striations (Rosa Bianca). See this helpful guide on eggplant varieties.