So, I am a huge fan of the baba and make it on occasion, usually with not so great results.  I have looked at a gazillion recipes online and just never seem to get it right.  Well, this time I decided to NOT look at any recipes and just THINK about it before starting.  I like my baba super creamy and extra smoky, so I thought real long and hard like about it from a science standpoint and I did it.  There were three main tricks to getting the baba just right and here is my first recipe ever posted on my website.  I hate writing recipes, so you won't see many of them here.  I would rather come to your house and personally show you how to make something because it usually takes me less time and effort than to actually write a recipe.  It's all about technique people, unless we are baking.  

First I will tell you the 3 main tips for the perfect baba.  
1.  Pearce skin of eggplant generously.
2. Roast over your open flame at a lower temperature for a longer time...about 20 minutes.
These first two steps allow for maximum smokiness.
3. Let cool, then gently peel away charred skin and let liquid drain in colander.  This is to keep the baba from getting runny.  

Here you go!  Yeild- 2 cups baba 
1 large eggplant
1 large clove garlic
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup tahini-make sure to stir up your tahini well
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
salt to taste-and no I am not giving you exact measurements as it's a matter of taste, so don't ask me!

Complete first 3 steps from above.  Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.  Now, this is a perfect recipe for my taste, but you may now take this opportunity to tweak it to your taste. You want it creamier..add more tahini. More acidic...add lemon..blah blah blah. You get the point.  Like I said, it's all about the technique.  

I will be enjoying this with some grilled paprika chicken with pickled radishes and turnips on pita.  How do you like to eat your baba?

Now that you have my amazing baba ghanouj recipe, let's learn another recipe and make a really amazing appetizer with it.  

These tasty little bites are made with my baba recipe, some pita chips, and my really easy and scrumptious pickled radish recipe.

For the pickled radish
2 cups radishes-trimmed and cleaned
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon coriander seed
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large clove garlic-sliced
Optional-1/4 cup chopped beet.  The beet gives it a little more color and a little earthiness to it.

Put all ingredients except radishes in a pot and let simmer for 10 minutes.  Put radishes in a jar and pour over pickling liquid.  Put lid on jar and keep in fridge for up to 2 weeks.

For the grilled chicken
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 heaping tablespoon paprika
2 tablespoons honey
olive or grape seed oil to coat
salt and pepper to season

Put all ingredients in to bowl and toss to coat chicken well.
Grill over high heat for good sear and caramelization of sugars then reduce heat and cook to perfection.  Look!  When I was in cooking school and I asked my chefs "how long" or "when is it done"  I always got "when it's done" or "when it's perfect"  I would give you more specific times, but every grill is different and your breasts might not be the same size as mine. (insert beavis and butthead laugh here)  You get the idea.  
When chicken is cool, dice into small 1/4" pieces or thinly slice into bit size pieces.  You may bind diced chicken with a wee bit of mayonaisse..and I mean just a wee bit. Place a dollop or slice of chicken on pita chip and top with a dollop of baba and sliced pickled radish.  

You may use store bought pita chips or you can make fun ones like mine using fresh pita and a mini muffin tin.  I used a thin, Lebanese pita cut into triangles.  I then pressed the pita into the mini muffin tin and bake in a 350 degree oven until crispy.  These can be done ahead of time and kept in an airtight container in the freezer for up to a week.

From Grimoire's Black Book, Middle Ages
Burdock seeds in a martar pounde them.  Add of three-yeris-old goat ye lefte testycle and from ye back heris of whyte whelpe on e pynche of poudre, ye heris to be cutte on ye firste daye of ye newe mone and burne on ye seventh daye.  Infuse alle ye items in a bottel halfe fylled with brandye.  Leve uncorked twenty-one dayes to receive astral influence.  Cook on ye twenty-firste daye until ye thicke consistency is reched.  Add four droppes of crocodyle semen an passe throgh a fylter.  Rubbe mixture on genitalia and await ye result.

Lucayos Cook Book, 1660
To increase Ye Powers..
Take a Cock-Sparrow and pluck it whilst living, then throw it to ten wasps who will sting it to death.  Add the intestines of a Black Raven and Oil of Lilac plus Chamomile.  cook all in Beef-Fat until the flesh is in shreds.  Put into a bottle and hold near for use.  Ye shall see Marvels

American Negro Folklore
Place a live frog in an anthill and leave until the ants have cleaned the bones; then take the heart shaped bone and the hook-shaped bone;  keep the first yourself but hook the second in the clothing of a loved one.

A 17th Century Aphrodisiac Rump of Beef
Take a rump of beef and season it with nutmegs grated, and some Pepper and Salt mingled together, and season the beef on the bony side;  lay it in a pipkin with the fat side downward.  Take three pints of Elder-wine vinegar, and as much water, and three great onions, and a bunch of rosemary tied up together:  put them all into the pipkin, and stew them three or four hours together with a soft fire, being covered close.  Then dish it up upon sippets, blowing off the fat from the gravy;  and some of the gravy put on the beef, and serve it up.

An Ancient Chinese love potion
Pound the shell of a male venus's comb (a mullosk) to a very fine powder, add some urine, and let stand for three days, after which time put it out at noon to dry in the sund.  Then dip this in donkey-water and allow it to steep another threee days.  Again let it dry in the noonday sun and then sprinkle it lightly with the dew of flower blossoms; this will disperse the odor of the urine.  Drink from the solution at the time of copulation and you will be endowed with extraoridinary potency.