Baba ganoush with home-grown aubergines

My little harvest from the garden last week left me with a puzzle of what to make. But a chef pal suggested some ideas, one being baba ganoush - the smoky, Middle Eastern dip.

My aubergines were not plump (more long and thin) but hey I was just glad they grew having been told my several gardeners it was impossible to grow them properly in our Northern European climate.

So after checking two were ripe I brushed them with oil and stuck them on my hot griddle pan.

They took about 10-15 minutes to blister then I put them on tinfoil to cool before scooping out the flesh.

I got the pestle and mortar out and bashed a couple of large cloves of garlic with tahini, half a lemon squeezed and some olive oil.

It all got a bit stiff and hard to work with so I got out my Cuisinart blender and used the chop button to mix it all with the aubergine flesh.

The chop button on here doesn't make things puree-like, it's more for things like pesto.

I nearly forgot to add the salt and pepper - don't! It needs it.

The result was a lovely, creamy and smoky dip - one tip though, add lemon juice to taste. I think I put a little too much.

The tomatoes were next... See my salsa post

BABA GANOUSH

2-3 aubergines

2-3 cloves of garlic

1 large tablespoon of tahini

Juice of half a lemon or to taste

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Blister aubergines on griddle or pricked and wrapped in foil in a medium hot oven. Leave to cool then scoop out flesh.

Blitz with a hand blender with the rest of the ingredients.

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