Baba Ghanoush

I think when you grade a recipe you should follow the recipe all the way through. This allways makes me smile when I see people saying "I substituted this for that and I also fried it instead of baking and then I used different amount of ingredients and it tuned out to be yacky, so do not bother." I like to follow recipes and find out what makes the taste. So here it is: 1. This is very important to have a good tahini. Buy one made from roasted sesame seeds. No mayo can substitute tahini. If you like you can use mayo in addition, but that alternates the taste. 2. Choose big eggplant or 2 medium. One of the comments here was very helpful. 3. Bake it - do not fry. Do not cut and do not peel before baking. The catch here is not only to make it soft. It is important that skin and some eggplant meat burn. The best method to use described by TYEBUG in comments. 4. I did not have to deal with bitterness. Eggplants here in California are not bitter at all. I tried Chinese eggplants for this recipe as well, the regular eggplants are better, they taste different. Chinese eggplants might be a great alternative to bitter once in your area. Do not forget to salt it at the end!

I love this recipe, but I roasted my eggplant the way my Greek mother-in-law showed me...I place the whole eggplant, skin and all on the stove burner and charred each side over medium-high heat until it is soft and black all over. Then, i wrap it tightly in foil and placed in on the burner at low heat for about 30 min, turning once. By this time it should be very soft. Let it sit until it cools enough to handle and unwrap the foil over a bowl to collect all of the juices that leak (the juices add so much flavor) and carefully remove the blackened outer skin and discard that. Then you are left with a perfectly smoky eggplant pulp to add to the other ingredients. I keep the seeds in it and don't have any complaints of bitterness.

This was great addition to a Mediterranean themed buffet. My friends are still talking about it! I thought the amount of lemon juice was just right. To avoid bitterness, I drained the eggplant pulp really well after roasting and before mixing with the other ingredients (put the pulp in a colander; place a plate and a little weight like a bottle of olive oil on it; let sit for 15 minutes). Great recipe!