An Ode To Kabob Bazaar

In addition to my obsessive documentation of my culinary disasters, explosions, and other creations, I also pass time on Yelp, documenting my love or distaste for local DC dining and a few noteworthy shops and service providers. This new passtime was spawned by a random review I posted of the Bulgogi Cart, which just happened to get the honor of "Review of the Day." And like a cult, they pulled me in to their evil but oh so fun world of food critiquing. Kind of like what I am doing here, but aiming my laser beam at other people's creations.

I like to keep these two worlds separate, but I am often inspired to cook at home dishes I love, but rarely can get because of the proximity of the restaurant, or the full knowledge of the sheer decadent badness of the dish for me. And so, last night, Kashk Bademjan was born out of my love for the dish at Kabob Bazaar [See my Yelp Review] in Clarendon. This Persian dish is a smoky roasted eggplant dish full of savory carmelized onions and crispy garlic topped with something that looks like a thick yogurt or crema fresca and traditionally served with a nice charred flatbread, tsaziki, and fresh herbs. The only modification to this recipe I would make is to double the amount of carmelized onions and crispy garlic and use the extra to garnish the dish at the end like they do at Kabob Bazaar. Or use a smaller eggplant, which is probably what I was supposed to do in the first place.

This makes three generous portions and grades A- for nutrition, coming in at 169 calories (sans flatbread and you can reduce calories and fat further by baking or just steaming the eggplant), 11.9g fat (1.3g saturated), 1mg cholesterol, 404mg salt, 6g dietary fiber, 6.3g sugars, 3.1g protein, 3% vitamin A, 13% vitamin C, 6% calcium, and 4% iron.




As you can see, I got bored and played around with some digital effects for the photo. Hmm.

Anyway, I took one medium sized purple eggplant, peeled, and sliced it into big chunks. Then I sprinkled some coarse sea salt on it to draw out the bitter moisture inside and let it sit for about 20-30 minutes. Afterwards, I rinsed the salt and the moisture off and squeezed the pieces.

While the eggplant was sitting, I took half a huge Vidalia onion very thinly sliced (not just chopped or diced, but super fine slices ... I'm sure there is a fancy name for this that I don't know) and 4 cloves of roughly chopped garlic and cooked them in 1 tbsp grapeseed oil on medium heat in a saucier (aka big pot with high sides, but sloped so there is no edge between the bottom and the sides) so they would get nice and carmelized and not burn. Stir often. Golden brown char on the bottom is good. You want these to get nice and brown and fragrant. I wish had done more! I also wish I had done half Vidalia and half regular white or yellow onion. Keep that going, lower the heat if you have to.

Then, I heated 1 tbsp grapeseed oil in a separate skillet -- make sure you get even coverage in the pan because eggplant is super absorbant and you don't want the first piece in to soak up all the oil. I sauteed this for about 5 minutes before I realized the eggplant was sticking and just threw the chunks into my onion and garlic saucier. The moisture from the eggplant that released deglazed the saucier perfectly and helped keep the eggplant from sticking. Then I let the pieces brown a bit more before I threw in about 1/4 cup of water and threw the lid on it to steam until the eggplant was done, or ready for mashing.

I think it took about 10 minutes to steam. While it was steaming, I used my old eggplant pan, threw in 1 tsp EVOO and on very low heat (so the EVOO doesn't scald), fried a clove (should have done at least two!) of sliced garlic until crispy (just a couple minutes), then threw in 1 tbsp roughly chopped mint leaves, turned the heat off and let the entire thing cool. Take the spoon and pull out the mint and garlic while leaving the oil and mix it in about 3 tbsp of greek style yogurt.

Now, a potato masher works beautifully to mash the eggplant/onion/garlic mixture in the pot. The mixture should still be a little chunky. Add salt and pepper to taste. I added about 1/2 tsp I think. You want to let this cool just a little before you serve it so the yogurt doesn't get runny. Serve the eggplant with a dollop of the yogurt on top. Make a little indentation and drizzle the oil left in the pan. Now, what I forgot Kabob Bazaar does is they throw on some extra carmelized onions on top of the whole thing, which is one of my favorite parts. Anyway, serve with flatbread and fresh herbs, like chives, basil, mint, parsley, sorrel, or really anything you have on hand. I used some leftover naan from my Spicy Ethiopian Tomato Lentil Stew and it was perfect. Take a little piece of the flatbread, put a scoop of the Kashk Bademjan on it, throw on some fresh herbs and little yogurt, then fold the bread over and relish the flavors.