A veggie dip inna jiff!

My boyfriend's brother Vernil lives in New York and every October we make the trip to "hang" with him. I could visit New York a thousand times and make new discoveries. My last discovery was Trader Joe's line of convenience stores. They have everything!!! But Verns came across an eggplant and garlic dip that is to die for! And since there's no Trader Joe's here in Trinidad, well....the next best thing, make it myself!

Trader Joe's Eggplant Garlic Spread

So I read the label looking for the ingredients to find that the Trader Joe's Eggplant and Garlic Spread is based on a traditional Bulgarian recipe. The ingredients are eggplants, peppers,fefferoni peppers, garlic, tomato concentrate, salt, sugar and sunflower oil.

Fefferoni peppers???? Never heard of them. Goggle to the rescue. Fefferoni peppers are indigenous to the Balkan States. They are long, thin and hot. The amazing thing about food though is the appreciation you can have for something that is not familiar to your palette or even from your region.

So we don't have fefferoni peppers in Trinidad and Tobago, but should I let that deter me from trying to make my homemade version of this delicious spread? No way! So like a true Trini champion I pioneer the course, LOL!

Here in Trinidad eggplants or melongenes are referred to as baigans. The word baigan is used in both Bhojpuri or Hindi, two languages spoken in India. A large portion of our population can trace their ancestry to India. In 1842, the Fatel Razak left India with indentured labourers making their way to the shores of Trinidad and Tobago seeking a new life.

Ok, so away with the History lesson, back to the kitchen. Now the picture below shows what the Trader Joe's spread looks like. My mission.... to make my take on this Bulgarian recipe version of this delicacy with local ingredients.

So a trip to the Arima market, which is a post all on its own yields a beautiful baigan and these huge sweet peppers as seen in the picture below.

Ingredients

1 lg. eggplant
2 lg. sweet peppers
1 head of garlic
sea salt
tomato paste (as desired)
black pepper
cumin aka geera
smoked paprika
olive oil

And the ingredients. Back row, from L-R: Black pepper, Extra Virgen Olive oil, Sea salt. Front row, from L-R: Smoked paprika, crushed chili flakes, tomato paste, garlic, eggplant, sweet peppers

One of the tricks of the trade I've learnt from watching the cooking programmes and reading texts is to stand the pepper on the tip and as I always say, if you don't have expert knife skills, PLEASE be careful. But stand the pepper on its tip and run the knife down each face of the pepper and you get the long, beautiful slices you see in the picture below. Now I cut my peppers this way because I like to and its just prettier to me and gives a better roasting surface than smaller chunks. But you know what I always say, do your do and make it your own. I used red peppers but you can use whatever, red, green, yellow, orange or even a mix...

Sliced sweet peppers

I do the same with the baigan. Cut off the top and stand it on the base this time and run the knife blade in 1/2" thick lengths. You can slice the baigan in 1/2" thick rounds as well, whichever is easier for you.

Sliced eggplant

In a big bowl, a bowl that you can toss your sliced vegetables, pour the olive oil. Season with salt and black pepper and smoked paprika and a pich of cumin, which we call geera, another word reminiscent of our East Indian culture. The paprika and geera are optional. If you want to stick to the authentic recipe for as far as possible leave them out, but you know I like to do my thing. Crush one whole head of garlic in a mortar with a pestle and toss in with your vegetables.


Toss with olive oil, black peppers, smoked paprika, chili flakes and garlic

In your oven, which you would have pre-heated at 400 degrees F, pour the seasoned vegetable slices onto a lined baking tray, sprayed with a non-stick spray, just like in my picture below.

Seasoned vegetables ready for roasting

Roast for 20-30 minutes or until your vegetables look like this picture below.

Your oven roasted veggies

Put your roasted vegetables into your food processor and start the process. Add the tomato paste, some add a pinch of sugar. If you want your spread smoothe like a puree, process on HI speed. for a chunkier spread you can pulse on LO speed. Just keep looking at it until it gets to the consistency you want.

Pulse in your food processor for a chunkier dip or for a smoother puree process on a HI speed

And this is my version of the Bulgarian classic eggplant and garlic spread with peppers...not fefferoni peppers, good ole Trinidadian grown sweetpeppers. Can you tell the difference from the Trader Joe's version? I think not.

The homemade version. can you tell the difference?

If you have a backyard garden and you have extra baigans, this is a wonderful, tasty delightful way to put them to use. This spread also makes a wonderful gift when artfully bottled and personalized and is a hit for entertaining and best of all? All homemade!

Just a reminder, this spread has no artificial preservatives, so as soon as it has cooled fully, refrigerate.