Caviar...

Not real caviar, no, I'm not that full of cash to cook anything with it. I must even admit I've never tried it. But I do make eggplant caviar on a regular basis. You can eat it as a dip, or as a spread. We generally eat a few mouthfuls over a little bit of fresh white bread.

I have to give credit where it's due, though, and say that I didn't personally make this one. It was made by my dear friend Eysméralda - but it still fits the title of this blog, and I wouldn't have made it much differently.

I know it's not the traditional way to cook it - usually, one would roast the eggplants in the oven. I tried. I burnt my fingers removing the meat from the skin. And there was one casualty. The first time I cooked this, I killed my oven. I had forgotten to cut off the ends of the eggplants before roasting them. They exploded, taking the door of the oven with them.

Okay, the door still hung to the oven. But it never agreed to close again.
For the love of quick cooking, preserving my fingers (the skin stays tender enough to be blended with the rest), and functioning ovens, I turned to the pressure cooker.

The caviar (on top)
with bread and cucumber-paprika salad

Caviar d'aubergines

4 or 5 eggplants

2 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

a few leaves fresh coriander

olive oil

salt

Wash and dice the eggplants, put them in your beloved pressure cooker and cook until they're tender. By the sight of my nose, that should be something like 20 minutes.

Cut, peal and hack the garlic and herbs.

Put the eggplants and oil into a bowl and use a hand mixer to turn them into a somewhat smooth paste - don't worry if its not perfectly smooth, it doesn't have to be perfect to taste good ! Add the garlic and herbs. Serve cold. Or hot if you're very hungry and don't have the time to wait until it's completely cooled.

Now, there are dozens of way to prepare this. You can mix up spices and herbs, add lemon... Try a few things out and find what you like best ! You can cook a lot of the caviar, and keep it in the fridge for a few days.