Playing With Fire, and How Bread Is the Best Utensil
Learn about forgiveness, and how the assembly of seemingly plain ingredients can harmonize into a complete dish
I vividly remember biking along Sonnenallee on a sunny Tuesday morning in Berlin. Zooming past markets and breakfast joints, the scent of stale cigarettes and sounds of sizzling meat and chatter permeate the air. Window after window, shawarma and döner spin around and around, hypnotizing me into a trance. I hop off my bike and slide into a recommended breakfast spot: Azzam Restaurant.
Walking in, aromas of za’atar and bubbling pots filled with chickpeas hit my nose. Families feasting, middle-aged men sipping tea, and hipsters dot the tightly packed tables. Orders are being called out left and right, and the occasional whiff of stale cigarette smoke sneaks in from outside. I step up to the plate and place my order: one baba ghanoush, two manakish (one za’atar and one cheese), a shawarma plate, and one fatteh, all with the works (hot sauce, toum, vegetables, and pickles). I sit down at my table, anxiously awaiting my ascension to heaven.
This week, we’re aiming to take notes and inspiration from Azzam.
Get the recipe:
Baba Ghanoush, Za’atar Pita, and Juicy Chicken Thighs with Herbs, Fresh Vegetables, and Pickles
Come and cook it with us on Wednesday, March 10th at 6pm PST (add to calendar)!
There is some debate on what can be considered baba ghanoush, and what is actually moutabal, a cousin of baba ghanoush. After doing some research, I still can’t conclusively say which is which. After narrowing my sources down to only Lebanese and Syrian chefs, I found a regional difference. The recipe from Mama’s Lebanese Kitchen uses tahini, while Chef Kamal’s recipe also uses some yogurt. When I did some more research, I found that Syrian sources considered the two recipes above to be moutabal. Both Zen and Zaatar, and Syrian Foodie agree that baba ghanoush doesn’t have tahini, and instead has pomegranate molasses, walnuts, and other vegetables. This recipe won’t claim a nationality. It’s how I like to eat it and people can agree or disagree on its authenticity.
It’s worth noting that this recipe can go multiple ways in terms of the eggplant preparation, and each way has its implications. My objectives with baba ghanoush are to create a silky smooth dip with a smoky taste. My preferred approach is bolded below.
Cooking techniques:
Cook time: 30-40 minutes, Just broiling the eggplant results in a bit of the roasted and smoky flavor, maybe equivalent to the 5 minute fire roast + microwave method.
Cook time: 20-30 minutes, Fire-roasting the eggplant for the entirety of the cooking time (20-30 minutes) results in the most concentrated smoky flavor and a nice caramel color.
Cook time: 15 minutes, Fire-roasting the eggplant for 5 minutes then microwaving in plastic wrap for 10 minutes results in a light smoky flavor, with a tender texture.
Cook time: 10 minutes, Just microwaving the eggplant results in a tender texture with virtually no smokiness. If you choose this method, I’d recommend adding liquid smoke to taste.
Eggplant sizing techniques:
No modification resulting in stringy and silky strands of eggplant with chunks.
Chopped up eggplant resulting in a chunky but not stringy texture.
Puréed with a blender/food processor for a smooth and consistent texture with few chunks.
As you can see, there is a tradeoff with timing and technique. The methods involving the microwave lack the smoky flavor you get from the high heat of a fire or broil, and require help from liquid smoke. If you have a gas stove, I recommend the fire-roasting method. If you have an electric stove, or are short on time, I recommend the microwave-only method with liquid smoke for flavor. Adding liquid smoke does not add the depth or complexity that a fire roasted eggplant provides, but it suffices. If you can’t get your hands on liquid smoke, it’ll be okay. You’ll just have a delicious eggplant dip that doesn’t taste smoky.
Also, I’d recommend brewing a cup of super strong black tea at some point. After the meal, you’ll really want something to wash it all down and cut through your impending food coma.
Now, let's get THICC. In case you forgot, THICC stands for techniques, habits, ingredients, concepts, and context.
As an iteration from last week’s breakdown, I significantly pared down the THICCs to focus on. I still want to be thorough, so for those who want more, you can read through the other THICCs further down this page. I want this to serve as a reference you continue to revisit, so read as few or as many THICCs as you'd like, and feel free to skip to the recipe.
Basic focus
broiling (technique) - Broiling is the process of placing food under an intense heat source like an open flame. This is useful for cooking ingredients quickly, or to finish a dish with a blast of heat (e.g. melting and browning some cheese). You don’t want to broil ingredients whose outside layer will burn before the inside cooks, unless that’s your intention. In this application, broiling the chicken thighs creates a slightly crisp exterior, while keeping the interior juicy.
textural contrast, texture (concept) - It can be a bit monotonous to be eating a dish that’s all soft and creamy, or all crispy and dry. Textural contrast, in some contexts, makes our food more dynamic, and helps us achieve balance, another THICC explained below. In this dish, the slightly chewy and crisp pita, crunchy onions and pickles, meaty and juicy chicken, and creamy baba ghanoush all occupy a unique textural role. Those ingredients work together to create a well balanced bite that doesn’t overwhelm you with too much of one texture.
bread, pita/khubz (ingredient) - In many cultures, bread represents life. “In Egyptian Arabic, bread is called ʿaish,” which directly translates to “life”. It is one of the fundamental elements of a meal in the Middle East and a lot of other regions. Most breads do a great job of absorbing flavorful sauces and holding other foods. In this application, pita serves as both a pocket to hold everything together, and as a sponge to wipe up all of the delicious juices left behind.
Intermediate focus
balance (concept) - Balance as a term is self-explanatory, but achieving it isn’t always so easy. Understanding how to balance certain elements will help you achieve harmony when cooking. This dish achieves balance at two levels:
Rich eggplant, olive oil, and tahini is balanced by bright lemon juice, sharp garlic, and smoke from the charred bits.
The ensemble of rich chicken thighs and creamy baba ghanoush is balanced both texturally and flavor-wise with a few ingredients: crisp, sharp, and slightly sweet raw onions, slightly acidic tomatoes, crunchy and sour pickles, and bright aromatic herbs.
fat content (concept) - Ingredients with a higher fat content (and often more connective tissue) will be more forgiving and won’t overcook as easily as leaner ingredients. Chicken thighs contain much more intramuscular fat and connective tissue than chicken breasts, and as a result can be cooked to higher temperatures and longer without overcooking and becoming dry. The potential flavor (to quote Joe Rosenthal) of all that fat compels me to use chicken thighs instead of chicken breast in most cases anyways.
fire-roasting (technique), smoke (ingredient) - The smoky flavor introduced by cooking with fire is critical to the flavor of baba ghanoush. Without fire-roasting, we would not have smoke, and would need to introduce it in other ways. There is no real substitute for it, but if we needed to introduce that same smoky flavor, we could add liquid smoke (concentrated smoke and water mixture), or charred eggplant skin in this context. Smoke provides a slightly bitter and savory background flavor that balances the rich eggplant and fat from the olive oil + tahini.
Advanced focus
eggplant (ingredient) - Eggplant is a widely used vegetable belonging to the nightshade family. Other nightshades include tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes. Eggplants have a porous spongelike structure that allows them to absorb a lot of oil or water. The key to cooking eggplant is to make sure that their spongy texture is broken down to avoid dry spongy bites. When making baba ghanoush, we cook eggplant on high heat for a long time to break down that structure and create a silky smooth texture.
garlic (ingredient) - Garlic is a highly aromatic root vegetable that pervades almost every cuisine. It provides a sharp and irreplaceable flavor and aroma. In the baba ghanoush, garlic provides a sharp bite and helps balance the rich olive oil and eggplant.
microwave (technique) - The microwave is a quick way to cook almost anything; however, its application only makes sense in certain contexts. In this context, the microwave is used to reduce the cook time of the eggplant by covering it and effectively steaming it in around 10 minutes, instead of 20-30 minutes broiled or fire-roasted.
More THICCs to focus on
wash your hands (habit) - You’re touching food then eating it; wash your hands to make sure they are clean so your food isn’t contaminated.
organized workspace (habit) - Keeping your workspace organized will make cooking feel less awkward, less stressful, and will have you feeling more effective and efficient. Some examples include pulling out all of my ingredients before starting to prep.
visualization (habit) - For operational efficiency and efficacy, visualizing the operations of a recipe allows you to catch mistakes before you make them, and ensures you have a bit of foresight into what you’ll need at certain points while cooking.
taste as you go (habit) - Tasting as you cook is like driving with your eyes open, it allows you to adjust seasoning, recover an imbalance, and so much more. You wouldn’t drive with your eyes closed, so don’t cook without tasting as you go. If I’m cooking for people other than myself, I like to have a couple of spoons or forks out for tasting so I don’t cross contaminate.
clean as you go (habit) - When you have downtime (e.g. waiting for your food to cook), you can get a jump on cleaning up your workspace to save time and counter space. Washing your dishes and cleaning your space as you cook will reduce stress and time spent on the dish.
stable cutting area (habit) - Making sure your cutting surface is stable and doesn’t slip gives you more control over your cuts, and helps prevent accidents. Ingredients which are naturally unstable (e.g. spherical) can be stabilized by creating a flat surface to place face down on the cutting board. For example, when cutting an onion, slice it in half along the root to get two stable halves instead of trying to cut a rolling ball.
salt (ingredient) - Salt is important in savory dishes to bring flavor out from ingredients. When cooking, always make sure you are properly salting your food. Also, salt draws moisture out of food through osmosis. Putting salt on an ingredient will dehydrate it, starting with the surface. This is useful when trying to create a crust or remove moisture. For example, salting a ribeye steak and leaving it overnight will result in a more intense crisp because the Maillard reaction can occur more immediately without water having to boil off first. Joe Rosenthal expands on this in his article How to Steak. Some preparations of eggplant call for salting the flesh to draw out moisture, then patting it dry, concentrates the eggplant flavor and prevents an overly watery end product.
black pepper (ingredient) - Pepper is a widespread spice used in a lot of cuisines, and lives on tables in many (not all) countries right beside salt. Pepper introduces a subtle and fruity, while simultaneously bold flavor, and is said to compliment a large array of ingredients and flavors. Check out this wildly in-depth article about the history of pepper and its different varieties by Caitlin Penzeymoog.
chicken, chicken thigh (ingredient) - In this recipe, we are using chicken thighs because of their fat content and ability to stay juicy longer than chicken breasts.
mint (ingredient) - Mint is used in tea, desserts, and many other contexts as a distinct and bright herb. Mint provides a bright and aromatic flavor in this ensemble and adds freshness.
onion, yellow onion (ingredient) - Onions are another allium that are ubiquitous across most cuisines. They provide a natural sweetness and crunchy texture in this context.
tomatoes (ingredient) - Tomatoes are a part of the nightshade family, along with eggplant, peppers, and potatoes. They have a nice sweetness when ripe, and some acidity.
lemon (ingredient) - Lemons are a type of citrus with a distinct flavor. You can use the zest for more of the aroma, or the juice for the acidity. In this recipe, lemons provide some balance for the baba ghanoush.
olives (ingredient) - Olives are a savory fruit cured in salt and often brined. Olives provides a rich and savory flavor. My brother, Eli, and I have been eating olives since we were babies, and continue to devour them as a snack mostly.
pickles, pickled turnip (ingredient) - Turnips are a root vegetable with a nice sweetness to them and an intense crunch. You can roast, fry, mash, and pickle them. In this recipe, we can prepare pickled turnips to provide a briny and crunchy element.
pickles, pickled cucumber (ingredient) - Pickled cucumbers are often brined and lacto-fermented, created a sour and flavorful bite. The crunch of the pickle also helps in balancing out the textures of this recipe.
za’atar (ingredient) - Za’atar is a spice blend traditionally made of hyssop (wild thyme) and sesame seeds. Sometimes the spice blend also includes sumac, savory, oregano, basil, marjoram, or thyme. Za’atar has a distinct smell and taste, and a deliciously crunchy texture when toasted on some bread. I usually buy a za’atar spice mix at the store, but you can make your own if you’d like.
olive oil (ingredient) - Olive oil provides a floral and fruity aroma and can range from spicy to grassy. It has a low smoke point (320ºF - 405ºF), so it would burn on a very high temperature pan, but it’s fine for most applications if you want the olive oil flavor. Something to consider: olive oil when blended into water, such as in an emulsion like pasta sauce, can increase the taste of bitterness. This is because polyphenols, a bitter antioxidant present in olive oil, are pulled out of the oil into the water. In this dish, baba ghanoush has a significant amount of olive oil in it, and could take on that slightly bitter taste; however, this hasn’t been an issue in my experience.
emulsions (concept) - In the kitchen, an emulsion is a mixture of water and fat. Normally those two liquids don’t mix, but with a bit of magic (not really), you can incorporate them. Our baba ghanoush is an oil-in-water emulsion, meaning little tiny droplets of oil are dispersed throughout the water (eggplants are mostly water), creating a creamy and smooth dip. If you want to understand that magic, I strongly recommend Jacob Burton’s series on emulsions. He explains that the more viscous the continuous phase is (water-based liquid in this case), the more easily it will emulsify. I theorize that draining the liquid from the eggplant makes it a more viscous continuous phase, promoting a more creamy and stable emulsion. I still need to test that out though.
Maillard reaction, browning (concept) - The Maillard reaction “is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor.” Our chicken thighs will develop a light brown crust when broiled due to the Maillard reaction.
sizing (concept) - Size matters. When cooking eggplant specifically, thicker and larger eggplant will take longer to cook through than thinner, smaller varieties. Similarly, a chicken thigh with the bone in and skin on will take longer to cook than a skinless, boneless cut. This occurs both because the piece of chicken thigh would probably be bigger with the bone in, but also because of the different materials and their thermal properties. “A bone can impede or accelerate cooking. Fat may or may not be an effective insulator. Depending on, well, everything…” If you’re interested in how different materials and their thermal properties affect cook times and temperature, I’d recommend reading through this wildly in depth article.
seasoning (concept) - Add enough salt to most things, and they will be delicious. Properly seasoning food lets the ingredients speak for themselves. You can also season with MSG, sugar, and other flavor enhancers including spices.
color contrast (concept) - Paprika and parsley provide a nice accent to the white/beige color of the baba ghanoush. Also, note that both the tahini and the lemon juice whiten the baba ghanoush mixture.
water content (concept) - Water is a core component of most food we eat. It affects almost every other concept and characteristic of our food. Too much water in our pork skin and we can’t get that sheet of crackly crunchy goodness, too little water in our salmon due to overcooking will result in a tough and dry texture (when proteins are heated, fat and water are rendered, causing a dry texture). Pay attention to water-related details as you cook.
Azzam (context) - Azzam is one of many breakfast spots on Sonnenallee in Berlin dishing out hummus, baba ghanoush, fatteh, and shawarma (among many other dishes). It serves popular dishes from Lebanon and the Middle East more generally. Neukolln, the Berlin neighborhood Azzam is situated in, hosts a large population of Middle Eastern immigrants and descendants of immigrants from Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and Turkey among other countries. This melting pot gave way to hundreds of bustling businesses. This includes hummus spots like Azzam and City Chicken, to bakeries like El Salam Bakery & Confectionery serving up heaping servings of baklava and other sweet pastries.
