STEAK WITH BABA GHANOUSH

My husband Pascal loves a steak but he always likes it plain whereas I love a bit of sauce or something on the side. My ideal is steak with a blue cheese crust or sauce - I so need to make that some day. Anyway I had ripped this recipe out of delicious magazine last year and when I suggested it to Pascal he wasn't particularly impressed but I thought, tough bananas, I am going to cook it anyway!

Here is the recipe for 2 people - it took about 35-40 minutes.

Ingredients for 2 people:

2 sirloin steaks

2 pita or flat breads

2 large aubergines

1.5 tbsp tahini

2 garlic cloves crushed

Juice of half a lemon

Some green leaves

Start by making the baba ghanoush. You can do this the day before if you fancy - just keep it in the fridge until you are ready to eat.

Push a couple of metal or wooden skewers / sticks into the aubergines length ways. Put over the barbecue for 25-30 minutes turning occasionally until charred all over.

When cool enough to handle, peel the skin off with your fingers. We were impatient and hungry and so ran them under cold water to cool them down. After removing the skin (we used a knife when it was tricky), roughly chop or pull apart the aubergines into a bowl with the tahini and garlic cloves. Then squeeze in the lemon.

Mix all together and season well.

Barbecue your steak according to taste - about 2 minutes for Pascal and about 5 minutes for me! Then serve with a toasted pita bread, your baba ghanoush and some green leaves.

Like Pascal, I was a little dubious about this - I thought maybe this meal might be missing something….like cheese! However it was actually really good - the baba ghanoush was delicious and it all went together perfectly. The aubergines were a bit fiddly to peel and cut - just make sure you char grill them enough and leave them to cool so you can handle them easily. If you don't have tahini, you can substitute it for a slug of olive oil. 

We had some leftover baba ghanoush so I had it the next day with some tabbouleh and feta - it worked really well then too and I think it would be fab with some lamb. A recipe that keeps on giving ;-)