Horrors of "Reality Check" when searching for Lebanese Recipe/Eggplant

[KoKo]

We've bought a "share" in an organic farm produce this Summer. So every Thursday we go to pick up our produce. This week we got okra and baby eggplants and I thought...hmmm...what can I make with this? Since we love Middle Eastern food ...and I have a few cookbooks I started searching but couldn't find something that seemed to fit what I was looking for. So, I did what I do when my cookbooks don't give me an answer and I went to Google.

BUT! typing in "Recipe for baby eggplants,okra, Lebanese cooking" as it downloaded I got a stab in my gut! REALITY CHECK!! ALARM! ALARM!

Given the situation out there today in the ME and what we now know of "NSA" spying on every word we type into our computers...that this simple "recipe search" could be construed as some code word for Hezbollah sympathizer.

In the Warped World of BUSHDOM....a search for "Lebanese Recipes" at this particular time would definitely get a "BIG FLAG," from some dorky BushBot who monitors this stuff in a stuffy room in the Pentagon, FBI or CIA's basement thinking he's got a "Big Fish" on the line. (Or at least that's where my stressed out brain went with this...given what we know about these idiot's incompetency.)

Is this the WORLD WE WANT TO LIVE IN? When will this Madness end??? When can we get back to WHO WE ARE.... AS INDIVIDUALS WORKING FOR COLLECTIVE PEACE and respectful of diversity?

[NVMojo]

1. piss them off, do the search anyways ...

[EFerrari]

4. It would be funny to come up with a whole Piss Them Off cookbook

Not Eggs a la Osama but Eggs a la Lebanese Incompetent Bush Jerks

The searches alone would keep the NSA out of trouble.

:rofl:

[tocqueville]

11. I could imagine "The Hezbollah Cook Book" or "1001 Falafel recipes"

with all the oriental spices Arabic cuisine uses, they'd probably think it is a manual in chemical weapons...

And O'Reilly would go nuts...

Bill O'Reilly's alleged falafel fetish now has a name

Link to http://www.falaphilia.com.
fa·la·phil·i·a (n.)
1. Obsessive fascination with ground spiced chickpeas shaped into balls and fried.
2. Erotic attraction to or sexual contact with garbanzo beans, coriander, and cumin.
3. An abnormal fondness for being in the presence of middle eastern foods. Also called taboulehmania, hummulingus.
4. Sexual contact with or erotic desire for a falafel.

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/10/14/bill_oreillys_allege.html

[EFerrari]

12. falaphilia!

:rofl:

[KoKo]

15. Oh dear! Your post is so good...well...what can one say about this but,

:rofl: and that doesn't even get to what you were saying!

[SheilaT]

2. Do not even for one minute

hesitate to search for recipes. The NSA and all those can go fuck themselves, and if they have a problem with Middle Eastern food, that's their problem, not yours.

For one thing, if they're actually monitoring transmissions closely enough to pick up your search (which I very seriously doubt) then seeing what you actually then looked at will prove that you really were looking for recipes, and not something else.

I get angry at people who for even a second worry about the spy agencies. Hell, if they were at all efficient that have all of us who post on DU on the no-fly list. And I never have problems getting on airplanes, and I don't think anyone else here really does.

So search for all the Lebanese eggplant recipes your heart desires.

[EFerrari]

3. I search for Lebanese eggplant recipes every day

just to piss them off.

:hi:

[Cleita]

5. For baby eggplants slice them (peel if you like but not necessary)

batter them up like you would onion rings and fry until crips. You can use your favorite dipping sauce. Zucchini and other summer squash vegetables can be done this way too.

Or, go ahead and google to your heart's content. If you land in the pokey I will bake you a cake :-)

[EFerrari]

7. One rich in natural metals, I hope.

lol

[tocqueville]

6. check here

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=28480

[karlrschneider]

9. What a great link! Thanks! I don't cook a lot of ME dishes but love

Taboulleh (sp?)...learned to make it from a friend who ran a VERY EXCELLENT steak house in Muskogee, OK of all places! :D

[rzemanfl]

8. I will Google Lebanese cooking right now. n/t

[KoKo]

10. I was "cooking" and just am getting back to OP and thanks for all your

replies of support and even a recipe.

I settled on this one ...which I will make tomorrow night. I got so frustrated I pulled out a frozen Italian Dish from the freezer because I was not in the mood to tackle the Lebanese Recipe tonight. But..here's the recipe that I'm cooking tomorrow night...whether NSA likes it or NOT!!! This one sounds REALLY GOOD..and to HELL with NSA tracking me down thinking I'm giving "code" to Nasrallah, FGS!!!!!! I'll do the okra thing another night. I'm Southern bred so finding something to do with okra from the Southern African-Americans for me is not so hard to find. "Okra Soup/Brunswick Stew/Fried Okra/....the combinations are endless...but aside from the Italian Okra recipes I know this Lebanese one sounds very interesting.

-------------

Lebanese Eggplant Casserole

Msakaet al Bathinjan
(1 vote)

2 pounds eggplants, peeled and thickly cut , lengthwise
2 pounds tomatoes, peeled and sliced
1 cup of dried chickpeas, cooked or canned , washed and drained
1 cup of quartered and sliced onion
2 tablespoons ground dried mint
10 cloves garlic, fried in oil
6 cloves garlic, crushed with a dash of salt
2 cups vegetable oil (or to cover eggplants)
1 teaspoon salt (as desired)
a dash of sugar
1 fresh red or green chili
Sprinkle salt over eggplant slices. Fry eggplants till golden brown and drain on paper towels.

Fry onion rings until soft. Stir in garlic until golden.

Add tomatoes, chickpeas, chili, salt and sugar. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes.

Add fried eggplants. Cover pot, cook on moderate heat for 10 minutes.

Mix dry mint with crushed garlic. Add mint mixture to pot. Cook for 2 minutes.

Remove chili and serve cold with main dishes.

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:OVsjKUmUzc4J:www.aubergines.org/recipes.php%3Feggplant%3D2975+Baby+Eggplants,+Lebanese+Recipes&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

[EFerrari]

13. Excellent! But, question: what kind of chili do you really mean? nt

[KoKo]

16. Not ME...but recipe says "one green or red chile." The Organic Farmer

give us some "green chiles" and I put one in a soup...and it was kind of OTT! :shrug:

[EFerrari]

17. Okay. I'm sorry if I held you responsible for a Hezbollah chile.

lol

I just wanted to know if we should use a smokey chile or a citrus - y chile.


But, maybe that will get me picked up. :shrug:

[benddem]

14. google

baba ganoush, they probably aren't smart enough to put that togeth.

[KoKo]

18. I'm still trying to figure out how I can "smoke" that eggplant in my oven

to get the real "baba ganoush" flavor. But, if I go and "Google Again" they might think I'm trying to figure a way to "smoke out" well.....other things other than eggplants...:-(

[Obamarama]

19. I just made baba ghanouj this morning......

I always grill my eggplant right on the grill. Gives it a terrific smokey flavor. Just keep turning it till the skin is slightly burnt and crumbly on all sides. Remember to let it cool off quite a but before scraping out the pulp!!