Spicy Eggplant Spread
Spice it up
Eggplant was a special preparation ritual that my mother would do about once a month growing up. Usually it was eggplant parmesan, or a cold Sephardic salad called menendjena, which I believe translates from Ladino (a now almost defunct language) to English as eggplant.
As my pallet matured, I developed a taste for 🌶️ spicy hot peppers and came across Spicy Eggplant Spread in specialty groceries.
My recipe is simple, slow cooking, that could take place in a few hours, a day, or over a couple of days. I prefer the long slow food method. Everything is from my garden. You can get all of this at your farmers market
This is a not an exact recipe.
Collect equal amounts of eggplants and tomatoes. Or more tomatoes than eggplants or more eggplants than tomatoes. It's up to your taste. I prefer equal amounts.
1-2 onions, any kind. The onions on the left are white spanish onions fresh out of the garden.
Hot peppers to taste
Salt the eggplants
Eggplants
Wash the eggplants with fruit and vegetable wash. These cute little, not yet ripe eggplants to the right, are a Turkish Eggplant. They start out green and ripen to deep red orange.
Remove the ends, and slice thin. I use the slicer blade on my food processor.
Get a bowl big enough to hold the soaking eggplants. My mother used to say this "removes the bitterness".
Mix a small amount of salt (1/4t - 1 t depending on your taste and amount of eggplants) in drinking water in the bowl.
Add the sliced eggplant and rub the salt water into the slices. Then fill the bowl with enough water to cover the eggplants. They will float. I place a plate on them to keep them submerged and then cover the bowl to keep out dust and any flies that may find their way into your kitchen.
I like to leave this to wilt for 12-24 hours. You can do it for as little as 2-3 hours.
Rinse the eggplants and soak again
Rinse with water
Drain out the discolored salt water (this is the bitterness) and fill the bowl with clean plain drinking water.
Wash the plates, and use again to weight down the eggplants.
Again, I like to soak again for 12-24 hours. You can do this for as little as 2-3 hours. This de-salts the eggplants.
Squeeze out water.
Boil the eggplant slices in half water and half apple cider vinegar for 1 minute, turn over and continue t boil for another 1 min. Drain.
Chop the onions and wash your fresh hot peppers. The amount of hot pepper depends on your taste.
In a baking pan, mix the onions and eggplant slices with a generous amount of olive oil and some oregano. Place the whole hot peppers on top. Roast at the same time as the tomatoes. (read below)
roast the tomatoes
Tomatoes
Wash the tomatoes with fruit and vegetable wash. Tomatoes have a green dust on them that is a natural bug repellant. I like to make sure it is completely washed off, so the sweet tomato flavor shines. Place them in a dry baking dish, and roast both the eggplant mixture and tomatoes at 350℉ for about 1 hour or until the tomato skins are wrinkly or sort of collapsed. Stir the eggplants every 20 minutes or so.
The photo to the light are my beautiful Jeune Plumb tomatoes. Select whatever tomatoes tickle your fancy.
When finished roasting and cool enough to handle, remove the stems and seeds from the hot peppers, unless you like very hot, than leave the seeds in. I use a knife and fork to prevent hot pepper burns.
Cool and mash everything together, with generous amount of olive oil and another splash of apple cider vinegar. You can use a stick blender or food processor or a hand masher. Whatever works for you.
are you going to preserve some of the spread?
Wash your jars
If you are going to preserve some this this delicious Spicy Eggplant Spread, wash your canning jars. I like to use small jelly size jars.
My finished jars are in the photo at the top of this article.
What the spread looks like before I filled my jars
Ready to eat!
You can serve this with fresh crusty bread and cheese. Use as a dip for chips. Spicy Eggplant Spread makes a great sauce for pizza, meats, salads. Use as a condiment for salsa, mix with yogurt. Spread it on bread as an addition to any sandwich. It's so versatile. Enjoy!