Eggplant Caviar

Recipes are like playing the telephone game – one person gets a recipe from a cookbook, they add their own twist and they pass it along to a friend. That friend changes an ingredient here and there, then gives it to their sister. She makes her version and on it goes. That’s what is great about cooking – recipes are constantly evolving and changing to suit the needs and tastes of the individual cook. You can put your unique stamp on a dish and call it your own.

Eggplant Caviar started with a recipe from Tom Coliccio’s book Think Like a Chef. Josh Kulp, chef at Sunday Dinner, adapted Tom’s recipe to create a party dip. I tasted Josh’s version and recreated it in my kitchen and created the version that you’re seeing here.

And if you’re wondering about the name, Tom Coliccio called his original recipe “Eggplant Caviar”. Recently, I was reading up on eggplant and various ways to prepare it, and found out that the name “Baba Ghanoush” translates to “Poor Man’s Caviar”, which I’m assuming was the inspiration for the name of Tom’s recipe.

Click here to download and print a pdf of this recipe:

Eggplant Caviar