Eggplant caviar

I've often made eggplant caviar, also know as Poor Man's Caviar, to serve with crostini or as a dip to snack with pre-dinner drinks.

One word of advice - spear the eggplant in a couple of places. This will prevent it exploding in the oven - it can happen and it can decorate the oven quite spectacularly.

Eggplant Caviar

1 large eggplant
2 tomatoes
1/2 a medium onion, very finely chopped
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, very finely chopped
juice of a lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C. Place the eggplant on a baking dish and cook until it become very soft and collapses.

Remove from the oven and when it's cool enough to handle, strip off the skin and remove the stalk.

Chop the flesh and place it in a sieve to drain.

Meanwhile plunge the tomatoes in boiling water, remove the skins and cores, squeeze out the seeds and finely chop the flesh. Place in a bowl with the eggplant, chopped onion, parsley and garlic and mash together with a fork. Add the lemon juice and oil and check to see if the flavour is balanced, adding more of either if you wish. Season with salt and pepper. Chill.

Serve on crostini or with Melba toast or crackers.