Thursday, September 2, 2010

Caviar D'Aubergine

Recipe from Richard Olney's "Provence: The Beautiful Cookbook"

Caviar D'Aubergine
Eggplant Spread
The spread is best served warm, as an hors d'oeuvre accompanied with warm toasts and chilled white or rosé wine.

3 elongated eggplants (aubergine), about 1.5lb (750g) total weight
2 cloves garlic
pinch of coarse salt
2 salt anchovies, rinsed and filleted
freshly ground pepper
fine salt
4-5 tablespoons (2-3 fl oz/60-90 ml) olive oil


1. Preheat an oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. Prick the eggplants several times and place them in a shallow baking dish. Bake until the flesh is very soft when pierced with a knife tip, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and, when cool enough to handle, split the eggplants in half. Using a spoon scrape the flesh onto a plate. Discard the skins and mash the flesh to a coarse purée with a fork.
3. In a mortar pound together the garlic and coarse salt to form a paste. Add the anchovies, grind in pepper to taste and pound again. Empty the contents of the plate into the mortar and turn with the pestle, slowly adding the olive oil until the mixture is a loose, spreadable consistency. Add fine salt to taste.

Serves: 4

5 comments:

  1. This looks delicious. How strong an influence are the anchovies in this dish? Have you tried it with as well as without them?

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  2. It's not so strong, but if you have a good palate you will be able to detect it immediately. Haven't tried it without the anchovies, but Jesse says Gordon Ramsay has a similar recipe without anchovies.

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  3. I finally tried the eggplant caviar, Duylinh! Very delicious. We can hardly detect the anchovy. Although I used the 2 smallest and rinsed them well. This makes a LOT! Great for a party. Deborah Madison also has a good recipe in "The Savory Way" which is quite different. I'll have to post it.

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