Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Lebanese Moussakka - مصقعة الباذنجان



Serves 3-4

Ingredients:
1 eggplant
1 big onion sliced
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 can of cooked chickpeas or garbanzo beans
2 cups of canned cut tomatoes along with the juice
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 cup of water
Olive oil
1 tablespoon of all spice (or 7 spices)
Salt and pepper

Take most of the skin of the eggplant by peeling it, leave some stripes and slice it into medium slices. Add salt and pepper, brush it with olive oil and bake it until it's half cooked. Meanwhile, cut the onion in half and slice it, medium slices too not too thin and add to a pan, sprinkle olive oil, some salt and pepper and let it cook until golden, then add the garlic and tomatoes. let all cook until tomatoes are tender then add the allspice, tomato paste and a cup of water and cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Now add the chickpeas, mix all together then add the eggplant and let them simmer for another 8-10 minutes. Voila!

Tip: A lot of people still fry the eggplant (half way) and let them drain on a paper towel then add it to the mix. However, I bake them for less calories, but what I do also is after I take them out of the oven, in a non-stick pan I add some olive oil and add the eggplant to brown them a little bit. This gives them a wonderful flavor, color and texture.

For those who like to fry the eggplant, don't forget to sprinkle salt on those slices and let them drain their water half an hour at least before you fry them so they don't absorb a lot of oil.

Serve with any green salad.

Stay tuned...

I hope you haven’t missed me too much. I’m in New Zealand learning many fascinating things that I was hoping to have shared with you already, but they’re keeping me pretty busy here, and the blogging muse is lying low. So I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a bit to learn why the warehou might be the next big fish, or why you might want to consider eating the meat of wool sheep rather than meat sheep, especially if they're hoggets, or what region some of the biggest wine makers here are looking to next.
There has been sun and fog, happy reunions and slightly angry ones. Oh, and for New Yorkers who want to know where their chefs are, Brad Farmerie is here in the Land of the Long White Cloud, too. I hadn’t seen him in a short-sleeved shirt before, and so I didn’t know he had tattoos.
For readers who enjoy chain restaurant trivia, can you tell me what former chain restaurant executive is now the United States’ ambassador to New Zealand?
That and so much more lies ahead.