Chunky Mutabbal for Dinner

Chunky Mutabbal for Dinner... more

by Murtaza Humayun Saeed

Title

Chunky Mutabbal for Dinner

Artist

Murtaza Humayun Saeed

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Chunky Mutabbal for Dinner

This, I took inspiration from the hummus in the course. We love hummus and mutabbal at home. The course helped me for the first time make hummus with sprouted chick peas (unheard of concept – I hadn’t ever even seen sprouted chickpeas – thank you. Although I made hummus regularly at home, I have never mutabbal myself. Considering how much I like it, and that it is plant-based, I thought I would whip up a mutabbal in no time. However, I needed some guidance on how to make this to get it right so I took the help of an online video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QceJ_1hOOz0

Mutabbal is also known as Baba Ghanoush. The video was very helpful. I did make it my own by skipping the cup of diary yogurt. This also helped to maintain the bitterness of the egg plants – which I enjoy.

3 regular sized egg plants

½ cup Tahini sauce

1 tsp shredded garlic

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp sea salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

¼ cup lemon juice

Feeling empowered by the momentum of the course – I did not think of opting out of this dish – though it required something I haven’t done before. This recipe required – for those who like the smoky flavor – to roast each of the egg plants on an open stove for 12-15 mins. Thankful that I had had an energy drink, I started roasting the egg plants one at a time and sealing them in aluminium foil once done. This helped to make the skin soft and helped peeling very easy. I used a knife to chop through the pulp of the egg plants to make it more consistent. The ingredients all went in to one bowl, and using a wooden spoon I mixed everything up and to my joyful surprise I had made mutabbal for the first time. And it tasted absolutely great. I sliced up two cucumbers – did not deseed them – just used them as a dip and enjoyed with the family. I preferred not to use the blending machine for this recipe as this helped the dish be chunkier, a texture I was hoping to achieve.

This was a great way to end the day by making a dish with egg plants - which also provide a lot of great nutrition. I came by a website that read off 18 benefits of egg plants! So I will definitely be making this dish again. This was the most fun and back breaking dish (standing to roast the egg plants for about 40mins) I made the whole day. I am glad I could live up to my own plan.

I must ask whether the roasting reduces the benefits of the egg plant’s potential powers and how it effects the ph level of the food? It would interest me in knowing whether there is another way to make this dish. However, the smoky result comes from the roasting only as far as I have understood.

Uploaded

March 31st, 2015