Roasting eggplants puts me in mind of our mortality, or at least, aging. The skin of a good eggplant is so beautiful, shining with health. Once roasted, though, it’s all crags, wrinkles and uneven tones. Sort of like what happens to us. Roasting deepens the flavour of eggplant and I hope that aging does the same for character. I think I’ll end the metaphor there.
All this eggplant sacrifice was in service of this week’s French Fridays recipe, Eggplant Caviar. A high-falutin’ name for a very quick and easy dip (or spread, depending on how you use it). Roasted eggplant mashed with garlic, onion, lemon, herbs and spices. Dorie recommends Piment d’Espelette, but I substituted cayenne. You may add chopped, fresh tomatoes if you like, though I didn’t. It has a bite and works well as a sandwich spread or a dip for crudités. This evening, I spread it on rye bread and added thin slices of cucumber. Tomorrow, I think I’ll use it in a chicken sandwich, on Quejos, which are gluten-free, so Kevin can have some, too.
This is another recipe that would make great picnic food. It’s making me want to take a trip to the Westside beaches with a picnic basket and some sparkling lemonade.
You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Eggplant Caviar
One Wet Foot 
Sounds delicious!
It really is delicious.
Teresa, Your Eggplant Caviar looks wonderful…glad you got it done. I love that you ate it with thin cucumber slices on bread, that was my dinner last night. Great minds! This would make great picnic food!
I did make your slow roasted cherries and will be assembling a tart with them today. I will post it this week with a link back to you on the cherries! Really great taste! Thanks for the recipe…I’m really loving the slow roasting thing!
I’m glad you liked the recipe and I’m looking forward to seeing your tart post!
Yours looks good…like a caviar alright 🙂 this is a healthy snack and good for taking to picnic !
Thanks, Elin – it does look a tiny bit like caviar, doesn’t it?
Oh no, we are all going to look like egg plants someday 🙂
At least the flavor made up for the appearance.
Yes – eggplants, all. And for something that looks so beautiful, it certainly is plain when cooked.
You know the saying-age before beauty! I’ll take my eggplant aged in the oven even though a perfect eggplant is a thing of beauty. I agree this dip makes nice picnic fare and can be dressed up so many ways or not, it’s good just plain on a cracker, I also like it on toasted pita;-)
I agree, Patty! The pita idea sounds really good.
I like the look of it without the tomatoes. It seems more like a dip that way. I agree – this would make a great picnic food.
It has a different texture than the ones I’ve seen with tomatoes. It’s a perfect day for a picnic, just wish we had the time!
This was hilarious. And yummy 🙂 So glad I was running behind this week so that I didn’t even think about the skin and aging thing – that would have put me over the edge. I did enjoy the dish and was happy it was so healthy, but in my rush I think I got the ratio of onions and tomatoes a bit heavy handed. And then I shared with Nana and she was not a fan- so I think I screwed it up for both of us. I will revisit and share with her again, and try to block out the thought of moisturizers while doing so……
Thanks, Tricia! I dialed back the onion and upped the amount of garlic and cayenne (which I suppose I should have mentioned in my post). That seemed to work quite well for me. Do revisit us and I hope your mind steers clear of beauty regimens!
That looks wonderful! Tasty *and* healthy.
Thanks, Leslie.
Yum, I bet this caviar would taste really good on that chicken sandwich you’re planning to have. And your post introduction made me smile. It reminded me of my own wrinkles on a really bad day (the roasted version, that is)! Haha…
I’m glad I made you smile – we’ll all have lots of wrinkles someday, if we’re lucky. The marks of a life well-lived is how I like to think of it.
It sounds very versatile. I bought the ingredients but just ran out of time to make it. Thanks for pointing out the various ways to use it – now that lone eggplant in the fridge may finally get made into the dip.
Your metaphor had me smilin’! … I should have taken a picture of the perfect outline in dried, baked on eggplant juice in the perfect shape of Bertha when I lifted her off the tin-foil!
Thanks for bringing this recipe to my attention, I didn’t have time for FFWD this month. Your dip looks really good. I had eggplant dip in a restaurant before and it looks like yours. Now I know it’s simple to make!
I bought cucumber to pair with this, then forgot about it in the fridge. And I agee with you about the pepper and onion – wished for more pepper and less onion. Looking forward to making this for friends.
I agree this is perfect picnic food, Teresa! Your aging metaphor made me laugh (so true)!
BTW, our dog was confused by the beach and ocean. She liked running in the sand, but the ocean’s waves scared her. Of course, the beach wasn’t actually dog-friendly, so we snuck on at night under a full moon (which was lovely). Maybe she wouldn’t have been unnerved in daylight.