Spiced Eggplant and Tomatoes With Runny Eggs
Baklazhannaia Ikra (Poor Man’s Caviar)
Updated May 1, 2024
- Total Time
- 2 hours 45 minutes, plus chilling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1large eggplant (about 2 pounds)
- 1cup finely chopped onions
- 6tablespoons olive oil
- ½cup finely chopped green pepper
- 1teaspoon finely chopped garlic
- 2large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
- ½teaspoon sugar
- 2teaspoons salt
- Black pepper
- 2 to 3tablespoons lemon juice
- Dark rye or pumpernickel or sesame-seed crackers, for serving.
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Bake the eggplant on a baking sheet in the center of the oven, turning it over once or twice, until it is soft and its skin is charred and blistered, about 1 hour.
- Step 2
Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook the onions in 4 tablespoons oil over medium heat until they are soft but not brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in the green pepper and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes longer. With a rubber spatula, scrape the contents of the skillet into a mixing bowl.
- Step 3
Remove the skin from the baked eggplant with a small, sharp knife, then chop the eggplant pulp finely, almost to a pure. Add it to the mixing bowl and stir in the tomatoes, sugar, salt and a few grindings of black pepper. Mix together thoroughly. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in the skillet over moderate heat and pour in the eggplant mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then turn the heat to low, cover the skillet, and simmer for 1 hour.
- Step 4
Uncover and cook 30 minutes, stirring from time to time, until all the moisture in the pan has evaporated and the mixture is thick enough to hold its shape in a spoon. Stir in 2 tablespoons lemon juice and taste for seasoning, adding salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. Transfer the “caviar” to a mixing bowl and chill, covered with plastic wrap, until ready to serve. Serve on squares of bread or on sesame-seed crackers.
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Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Delicious and totally worth the trouble. Don't forget to piece the eggplant skins before roasting unless you want an explosion in your oven (voice of experience...).
This freezes well.
The final cooking stage took longer than 30min for me... more like 60min
I believe this is the same—or similar—to what my grandparents used to make, what they called prizmic (not sure of the spelling). It had such a strong smoky flavor, from the charred eggplant, that we would joke that my grandpa’s cigar was added to the mix. Thanks for bringing back memories.
It seems weird to be so separate with ingredients;however I did as told-cooking time seems lengthy so I will let you know. .. it looks and smells good-I roasted garlic two cloves that squeezed out of clove like butter....
This freezes well.
The final cooking stage took longer than 30min for me... more like 60min
Delicious and totally worth the trouble. Don't forget to piece the eggplant skins before roasting unless you want an explosion in your oven (voice of experience...).
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