Extracting Moisture for Creamier Baba Ganoush
Next step: drainage. In Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty, he suggests transferring the scooped eggplant flesh to a fine-mesh strainer to drain off excess liquid. This is a good idea—the dip I made with drained eggplant flesh had a much better, creamier texture than the version made with undrained flesh—but it’s time-consuming, taking up to an hour for the eggplant to drain completely. Could I hasten the process?
I tried squeezing the eggplant in cheesecloth and pressing it through my fine-mesh strainer with a ladle. Both methods work, but they’re a bit messy. Instead, I reached for my salad spinner, placed the fat chunks of eggplant flesh around its perimeter, then took them for a gentle spin and watched as the brown, watery juices flowed out of them. I was left with eggplant as dry and concentrated in flavor as if I’d let it rest in a strainer for a full hour, in just about 30 seconds.
