Roasting Aubergine to Complete Char

The technique of charring aubergine directly over flame until the skin is completely blackened and the interior collapses is one of the most ancient in the Middle Eastern and South Asian culinary canon. It appears in Palestinian, Turkish, Indian, and Persian cooking under different names — mutabbal, baba ghanoush, bhartha — but the technique is identical: complete destruction of the exterior to produce a smoky, collapsed interior that no oven can replicate.

Whole aubergine placed directly on a gas flame, under a grill, or on hot charcoal and cooked until the skin is uniformly black and the interior has completely softened and collapsed. The charred skin is then peeled away, leaving flesh that carries the smoke of the burnt skin throughout.

Charred aubergine flesh has a flavour that exists nowhere else — smoky, sweet, slightly bitter from the char contact, with a silky texture that absorbs dressings completely. It asks for tahini, yogurt, garlic, and acid to structure its softness. Without these it is simply smoky vegetable matter. With them it becomes one of the great dishes of the Levantine table.