Eggplant Onion Tomato Dip

I was rather inspired to cook this dish after a lunch session at my friend's place. While chatting, she was also cooking at the same time. I can never "multi-task" when I am cooking. Can you multi-task while you are in the kitchen, cooking? E.g. talk to someone else in person or over the phone, text messages? I seriously can't.

This eggplant tomato dip is delicious (so good that kiddos love it!).  The spice is mild but importantly, the tangy tomatoes and sweet onions have actually hidden the often acquired taste of eggplant. Roasting the eggplant prior to making this dish has also drawn out some liquid or moisture from the eggplant, reducing the bitterness.


I did not even know what dish my friend wanted to prepare. She placed a globe eggplant in her oven to roast *we started chatting*, and in the midst of that, went back to the stove and stir-fry another vegetable dish *still chatting*. Not realizing that time has gone past, she then removed the roasted eggplant from the oven. At this time, the flesh of the eggplant has been cooked (charred) and softened. Next, she was removing the flesh from the eggplant and adding it into a simmering pot of pre-fried onions, tomatoes, spice. *still chatting*. At this instance, the dish was coming together as some kind of spiced mashed-eggplant dish.


Eggplant, Onion-Tomato Dip/Eggplant Quick-Stew
Roast 1 globe eggplant, follow instructions here. Remove flesh from eggplant, set aside.

In a food processor, blitz half medium-size onion, 1 tomato, 3 cloves garlic, 1 cm ginger knob, 1 fresh chili. Do not over-process. The onion-tomato mix should look like finely diced mixture and not a paste.

In a pan, heat some oil and aromatize 1 tsp curry powder, pinch of ground turmeric, cayenne pepper, cumin then add the onion-tomato mix and fry for a few minutes till a gravy-sauce forms. When simmering, add the eggplant and mix it thoroughly with the gravy till like a mash. Simmer for 2-3 more minutes till all the flavors develop. Serve as a dip, with bread or as a side-dish with steamed rice. You can even use it as a pasta sauce.

Then it came back to me that I have actually made a similar quick-stew before using similar method of roasting the eggplant, removing the flesh and using it in a stew, also with tomatoes and onions.