Lebanese Girl For the Win

I was going to call this post "Middle Eastern Day," but I already have a post titled that.

We got to class and tried the previous class's hummus. It was not good. I'm glad I was already in charge of the baba ghannouj, because I wasn't about to risk that being as bad as the hummus. Chef started telling us about the recipe, and he mentioned all the usual suspects: chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and olive oil. Then he said something about Tabasco and my mouth dropped open. He went on to mention cumin and coriander, and said that the most important ingredient is water! Then my head exploded.

After I cleaned up the mess, I got to making my baba ghannouj. I used the food processor for eggplant, tahini, garlic, drained yogurt, and onion. You could taste that the eggplant was cooked on the grill, which is the entire goal of the dish. It was awesome, and I caught Chef packing some to take home with him.

Taylor and I were plotting to make my hummus recipe instead of Chef's, but Chef caught him and started adding water, Tabasco, cumin, coriander, essentially ruining the hummus. Luckily, there were some chickpeas left after some other kids made falafel, so I made my hummus. Like I said, it's chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and olive oil if needed. Then it gets topped with a drizzle of olive oil and some cayenne. That's it. It got eaten way faster than Chef's did, and even Chef said it was good when he tried it. Everyone who did a side by side taste test said mine was better. I'm sure I looked very smug in class today.

We also made some chicken marinated in yogurt and then grilled on a flat top, which is the dish I used to eat at Lebanese restaurants as a kid, back when I was a picky eater. Of course, we made flatbread as well, three batches this time because we love our bread.

Three more days of class!