Moroccan Cooking with Grandma Lalouf

I had such a pleasure learning the Moroccan way of rustic cooking with my best friend Lindsey and her grandmother.  After a year of asking Lindsey to invite me over to her grandmothers, I was finally granted my wish!  I was invited over to her grandparents lovely home for a very filling lunch with the family and then a cooking lesson.
It was really interesting to hear stories of life in Algeria and Morocco when times were rough.  The style of cooking directly mirrored this. The way grandma cut the eggplant without a cutting board was very minimalistic and interesting to me.  All of the dishes had bold strong flavors from garlic to turmeric. They were all delicious and unique in their own way.  She taught me how to make the eggplant dip which is very similar to babaganoush. The recipe is to follow…

Needless to say, I had a wonderful time and hope to get an invitation back for yet another lesson 🙂

Print Recipe

Grandma Lalouf's Eggplant Dip Recipe

Servings

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 eggplants peeled and chopped
• 2 lbs tomatoes blanched & skin removed
• ½ teaspoon chili oil (homemade mixture of chili flakes and oil)
• 8 garlic cloves minced
• pinch of salt

Servings Ingredients 2 tablespoons oil 2 eggplants peeled and chopped 2 lbs tomatoes blanched & skin removed ½ teaspoon chili oil (homemade mixture of chili flakes and oil) 8 garlic cloves minced pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Cook eggplant in oil for 10 minutes then remove. Cook tomato for about 10 minutes. Add eggplant, garlic, chili oil and salt to cooked tomato. Simmer for 1 hour uncovered.
2. This dip not only can be served with pita chips, vegetable cridite, but even spread on bread for a different sandwich!
3. Cooking option 2: leave out the tomato and add lemon juice (to taste) and cumin (1 tsp)
4. Enjoy!