In Las Vegas at Shish Kabob House I tried Eggplant Caviar for the first time. It’s a delicious dip that I didn’t know about. This dip is very popular in Eastern Europe. The recipe is pretty simple. It is basically cooked eggplants. Some variations are made with tomatoes (or tomato paste) and others are made with bell peppers. A few have both. Other ingredients are garlic and either lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Not all but some contain sugar or honey. A few contain Ohon Brand pepper paste and I saw one recipe that contains Aleppo pepper. I thought that since this is a recipe of few ingredients I would make the ingredients special. I cooked the eggplants at 500F to get a smoky char. I roasted the garlic to turn it sweet. I added one large roasted red pepper because they have great flavor. I also cooked down tomatoes for three hours and they got almost candied on the ends. The 3 hour onions also gave an amazing flavor too! Don’t mean to brag but this did come out FORKING delicious. Serving size is impossible to determine. I don’t know if you want a small amount to spread a small part of pita bread. Or maybe you want more to cover a grilled chicken breast. I’ll guesstimate at least 8 servings (but it will probably go further).

Ingredients for 8 servings

2 eggplants – cut in half make hatch marks

Around a cup – extra virgin olive oil – to generously coat everything you roast

1 large red bell pepper

4 small/medium sweet onions – small dice

4 medium/small ripe red tomatoes – diced

6 oz tomato paste (up to 6oz. you might need less depending on the size of eggplants)

2 heads garlic – cut in half threw the middle (Since this is a lot of work I always roast several garlics at a time and freeze them for latter use.

1 Tablespoon honey

5 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons Aleppo pepper

sea salt – to taste

Directions

Set one oven to 325 degrees F.

On the middle rack add the pan of diced tomatoes and one pan of diced onions. They get generously covered with olive oil and sea salt to taste. Cover the pans. They need to stay in the oven for three hours.

Set your other oven to 500 degrees F.

Your eggplant halves get cross hatched, generously and drizzled with olive oil. They stay in the oven on the middle rack for one hour.

When they are cool enough to handle scoop the flesh out with a spoon like you do for an avocado or a mango.bSet the flesh to the side.

Turn the broiler on and broil the red pepper. You want it charred on all sides. When you got it all charred up cover it with plastic wrap or foil. It needs to steam its self. When cool removed the seeds, stem, and skin. Dice. Set to side.

Turn off broil and set to 375 degrees F.

The garlic goes on a sheet pan cut sides up. Drizzle well with olive oil and cover with foil. This needs to roast for one hour. Then you whip up and set to the side.

Everything is roasted. Now you blend a few things together. This is easiest done with a stick blender. The Eggplant caviar I had at Shish Kabob House in Las Vegas was smooth but I did notice that some people do make it chunky. I made mine mostly smooth but saved some of the tomatoes to add last for a little texture and a delicious pop of tomato taste.

Blend together the onions, roasted red pepper, most of the tomatoes, the tomato paste, the eggplant, Aleppo pepper, roasted whipped sweet garlic, honey, apple cider vinegar. Top with remaining tomatoes. Serve with flat breads or pita bread. I read that some people use this as a sauce for grilled meats. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

It’s FORKING DELICIOUS Enjoy!!!