Smoked Eggplant

[JonK]

In the kitchen, as elsewhere, necessity is the mother of invention. We developed this recipe for a smoked eggplant puree during a summer when our garden produced a tad more of the purple fruits than we could eat or give away. The puree can be used as a dip, a pizza base, a pasta sauce, a sandwich spread, etc. It freezes well, though we prefer to freeze the unseasoned puree and season it only before use to keep the fresh flavor of the seasonings. Remarkably, people who swear they wouldn't touch eggplant with a ten-foot fork love the stuff.


Smoked Eggplant Puree


2 lbs eggplant, halved or quartered if large
8 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
¼ tsp MSG or 1 tbsp soy sauce
½ cup fresh basil leaves, packed
¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

hickory or mesquite wood chips for smoking

Brush eggplant with 2 tbsp of oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Soak wood chips and wrap in heavy duty aluminum foil. Punch several large holes in the foil. Build an indirect fire. Place packet of wood chips on coals with hole side up. Place eggplants across from coals. Cover and smoke for one hour.


When eggplant is cool enough to handle scoop out flesh from skin (which will be tough) into bowl of food processor. Add remaining 6 tbsp olive oil and other ingredients. Puree, Season to taste with salt and pepper. We used this like pizza sauce and as a pasta sauce.


Smoked Eggplant Pizza


1 recipe pizza dough for a 12 x 14 inch pizza (approximately)
1 cup eggplant puree
2 cups (about) Roma tomatoes, sliced, salted and drained (or other tomato, seeded, sliced salted and drained)
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
¼ lb sliced or grated cheese (we like provolone, havarti, or fontina)
chopped parsley

Cover pizza dough with eggplant puree. Distribute tomatoes and onion slices. Top with cheese and chopped parsley.

(We’ve done this with a grilled pizza as well. Grill the dough on one side. Turn and top the grilled side. Grill the other side.)

[home_cook]

Here is my favorite recipe of eggplant hot salad

• 75 gr chickpea or garbanzo bean
• 75 gr snap or string beans
• 75 gr lentils
• 75 gr green peas
• 50 gr the canned corn
• 2 onions cut into cubes
• 1 large juicy tomato cut into big cubes
• 1 eggplant cut into big cubes
• 1 zucchini cut into big cubes
• 3 cloves of garlic crushed
• 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil
• fresh coriander chopped
• juice of half of lemon
• salt

Put chickpeas, string beans and green beans in separated bowls with cold water and live them for 24 hours. In boiling water cook first chickpeas and string beans. After 10 minutes add lentils and green beans and cook till soft. In a big skillet fry onion and garlic with olive oil till golden. Add eggplant, zucchini and tomato and fry more 5-7 minutes (make sure that the vegetables remain firm). Add cooked beans ,cover and cook on low heat for a 45 minutes. In the end season with salt and pepper, add canned corn, lemon juice, chopped coriander and to remove from heat. Serve hot and enjoy.

[Culprit]

[quote=JonK;151287]In the kitchen, as elsewhere, necessity is the mother of invention. We developed this recipe for a smoked eggplant puree ...

I can save you an hour preparing this recipe.
Add a few drops of hickory seasoning liquid smoke (it's not a chemical. it's a concentration of real smoke in a water base) instead of doing all that messing around with foil wrapped hickory sticks.
You'll never know the difference - unless you add too much of the LS.

[JonK]

Hi, Culprit--Yes, we keep several kinds of liquid smoke around our kitchen, especially for the winter months when smoking outdoors is a shivering chore. And there are other recipes (see my post for "Faux Lox" under lox recipes) where it's our standard operating procedure.

But for the smoked eggplant (which vegetable is usually in abundance during warmer months), we figure since were out on the grill already, adding the real thing "smokewise" is not a big deal. Our one try (during the winter) for roasting the eggplant in the oven and adding a bit of liquid smoke was not as satisfying as the real thing.

Thanks for the suggestion. Others may want to try it.