Pseudo-Baba-Ganouj

For Kurt and Cheryl's party on Saturday, I planned to make baba-ganouj with roasted red pepper. Then I got a bit over-enthusiastic with the hand blender and I ended up with something that tasted great, but that was way over-homogenized. One might even say "whipped".

1 eggplant
1 red pepper
3 cloves garlic
juice from one lemon
extra virgin olive oil to taste
cayenne, black pepper, ground cumin and salt to taste

Poke the eggplant a few times with a fork so that it doesn't explode, then put the eggplant and red pepper under the broiler (or near the top of a very hot oven). Turn every couple of minutes until they are nicely blackened. If the eggplant gets blacked before it's soft, transfer it to the oven to cook a bit longer. Put the pepper in a paper bag for a couple of minutes when you take it out (to steam), then peel, seed, and finely dice it. Peel and chop the eggplant.
While things are roasting, convert the garlic into paste, then transfer to a bowl and add the lemon juice, a couple Tbs olive oil, and the spices. Mix well.
Add the diced pepper and eggplant to the bowl and mix well. At this point you can mash the eggplant (to get what I regard as the proper texture), or homogenize the hell out of with a hand blender or food processor to get something with a texture more like mayo.