Mutabal or Eggplant Cream

How to prepare a cream of aubergines or Mutabal.

A Syrian cream, the Muhammara or cream of peppers , another Moroccan, the cream of beans or Byessar , and two Lebanese, the classic Hummus or chickpea puree  and this same recipe today.

You already have an easy way to present part of the Maghreb culture and gastronomy in your home.

An option with creams of vegetables and legumes to remain as a great connoisseur of the rich and extensive Arab cuisine.

Eggplant cream, Mutabal, Mutabbal, Baba ganoush or Baba Ganuch is a fine cream, very soft and exotic on the palate.

We can accompany it with a bit of crusty bread or freshly baked pita bread , raw vegetable sticks such as carrots, celery or cucumber.

As simple as preparing a few roasted aubergines mixed with tahina , lemon juice, garlic and cumin. Dressed with a good extra virgin olive oil and a little of our paprika from La Vera.

A classic in Mediterranean cuisine. A delicious recipe available to everyone, cheap, simple and that you can cook at any time of the year, in summer or winter, it is timeless and goes great on any date.

This aubergine puree pasta is typical of the cuisine of the Middle East, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, although not all are the same.

Popular tradition says that this is a sweet and seductive dish, it is difficult to stop eating once it has started, and that the women who consume it regularly acquire the same characteristics of sweetness and seduction.

The most moralistic tradition says that precisely for this reason it is necessary to be prudent in its consumption, since it can endanger virtue.

I suppose it applies to both them and us, so eat it in moderation … or not. I leave you with it, I hope you do it at home and enjoy it.

Before cooking. Preparation of aubergines

1. Preheat the oven to 190º C. Cut the aubergines in half, lengthwise, putting coarse salt on the cut side.
2. Let stand 15-20 minutes on a drainer, wash well and dry with absorbent paper.
3. We do this to avoid excess water from this ingredient, they must sweat and release all the water and for this we use salt.
4. Bake the aubergines, placed face up in the middle tray for about 30 minutes with heat up and down and air. One trick to speed up the process is to give the pulp a few cuts to speed up the baking.
5. Once they are very tender, we take them out of the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes, until they can be handled without burning.
6. Then we remove the skin and with the help of a spoon we remove all the pulp (if any piece of skin falls, it does not matter), we reserve the pulp on a plate. This will be the base of this delicious cream.
7. If you do not have much time, I have prepared the eggplants in the microwave from time to time, the result is not the same but the taste is very similar.
8. For this we only need to introduce the eggplants as is for 15 minutes at full power, and then we will follow the advice from step 3.

Preparation of eggplant cream

1. We make juice with half a lemon, strain it in case there are seeds and reserve.
2. Peel the garlic cloves. I prepare it only with 3 but those who like it a lot can add more, like with gazpacho, and on the contrary if you are not enthusiastic about garlic, remember that you can tune the cream as you like.
3. We place the pulp of the eggplant in the glass of the mixer with the garlic, the tahini, the pepper, salt, the juice of half a strained lemon, the ground cumin, a pinch of freshly ground black pepper, salt and the virgin olive oil extra.
4. We beat with maximum power until we have a puree type cream. It will be a little denser and we reserve in the fridge. Cold is much better.
5. If you have a food processor you can control the texture much better but I prefer how it works with the mixer.
6. The best way to present it is to choose a large flat plate. In this way we will share it among several. We distribute the eggplant cream.
7. Sprinkle with a little paprika from La Vera (or mixed, sweet and spicy if you like it that way) and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

We can accompany it with normal bread, pita bread with a touch of oven (what works best). Some nachos, potato chips, or raw vegetable sticks like carrots or cucumber.

I leave it to your liking. As you can see it has no science, it is easy and fast to prepare, super healthy and nutritious.

A dish that children love and that you can even prepare with them.

Preparation of the Tahine or Tahina

If you can not find where to buy this traditional Arabic sesame based pasta it is very easy to prepare it at home. So you will have it freshly made and with a little virgin olive oil it will last a lot of time. It can even be frozen.

Sesame seeds can be found in any market.

1. We begin by toasting or browning the seeds over very low heat for about 10 minutes. You can do it both in a pan and in the oven, whichever is most comfortable for you.
2. Once they are lightly browned (without exploding), we place them in a coffee grinder. We give two touches and go to a mortar. If you don’t have a grinder, you do it directly in the mortar.
3. Add a splash of extra virgin olive oil and a little water and mix with the mortar until you get an emulsion.
4. The consistency should be creamy and even somewhat thick, there should be a paste between white and gold. Its flavor is pronounced and resembles that of dried fruit. Add salt to taste.
5. Tahine or sesame paste is not only used to make this type of cream ( hummus also has a lot of it) but it also accompanies many other meals.
6. It is even a fundamental ingredient in the gastronomy of Eastern Europe where it is used in many snacks. They spread the tahine on the toast like butter.

I encourage you to visit more recipes for  delicious tapas, snacks and skewers for an unforgettable evening with yours.