Eggplant with Capsicum Puree

Blog's Category:  My Own Fast and Easy, My Staple Food

Eggplant with Capsicum Puree

Intro

Sometime, when you put together recipe in a most spontaneous intuitive way, you get very good results. That was the case here - I had large eggplant, some leftovers of my marinated pepper and not much desire for chopping, mincing or any other knife work. Here you can see what come out of all of this. Recipe is pretty simple and easy but there is a key element in here - make sure that eggplant is cooked completely - very soft. Comply with this and you will get no-fail, easy, beautiful and delicious appetizer.
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Variations

- All ingredients are pretty much "set in stone". Just one I could think of is using jarred (store-bought) roasted capsicums (red bell pepper). But I would rather microwave fresh capsicum with a small amount of water than using stuff from a jar (which is usually way too sour or burnt).

Taste Description

Capsicum puree is a king here, along with fresh parsley it makes all the flavors

 here, sweet-&sour, garlicky and fire-y.  Roasted smooth eggplant with a somewhat chewy skin gives an awesome texture and base-taste to a dish.

How to Serve
Serve cold as appetizer. It looks very colorful on a banquet table! Also it's a great make-ahead dish - it will keep in a fridge for 3-4 days for sure.

Eggplant with Capsicum Puree

• 1 large and meaty eggplant
• 2 roasted capsicums (red bell pepper)
• 1 tsp sriracha hot sauce
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 4 tbs vinegar (you will need it just if your capsicum is not sour)
• 1 tbs sugar (or honey)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• salt
• 1 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

- Preheat oven to 375F. Cut stem off and slice eggplant in a half lengthwise. Make diamond-shaped cuts in a flesh of eggplant, sprinkle with salt and 2/3 of all your olive oil (about 1/3 of cup).

- Roast eggplant in an oven until it is completely cooked and very soft inside. Test by poking tough end (where stem was) - it should be completely, "butter", soft. If top of your eggplant is way too brown but flesh is still not quite cooked yet, cover eggplants loosely with a foil, add cup of water in a bottom of a pan / baking sheet and continue to cook until its completely soft.

- Meanwhile make capsicum puree by processing capsicums, sriracha sauce, garlic, vinegar, sugar, dash of salt and remaining olive oil. Add some water if needed to get a semi-thin puree. Taste and adjust seasoning.

- Remove eggplant from an oven, let it cool down.

- Transfer eggplant on a serving plate and cool down completely. Using sharp serrated knife, cut each eggplant half across into 1" sections and spread them out a little bit.

- Pour capsicum puree on a top of eggplant, sprinkle with parsley. Enjoy!


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