Ikra | Fire Roasted Eggplant & Vegetable Dip | Vegetarian Appetizer Spread
In this video, I show you how to make Ikra. It's a roasted eggplant & vegetable dip or spread. How Mama used to make it. Ikra is made with fire roasted eggplant, roasted peppers, roasted tomatoes, roasted onion, and optional is garlic. The fire roasted flavors are what give this dish is signature flavors bringing out the sweetness in the eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. Roasting the onions and garlic is optional but definitely adds flavor too. In this video, I roasted everything in a wood burning pizza oven but traditionally we grilled them over an open flame on a BBQ. Either way is great. Roasting the vegetables also allows the skin to be removed easily once you let them cool slightly in a covered dish so the steam helps the skin to separate from the flesh. Once you have all the vegetables roasted and cleaned ( we remove the seeds from the peppers as well ) the next step is to sauté in olive oil and you can chop up the roasted veggies first or smash them up in the pan depending on how well done they are and how big the peppers and eggplant are. Anaheim peppers are excellent for this dish and the preferred eggplant is Japanese eggplant but the large ones will be fine as well. If you opted not to roast the onion and garlic, then you want to sauté' those first and then add the rest. How long you cook at this point is up to you. It's sort of personal preference how chunky or smooth you like it and how you plan to serve it. Ikra is great with crusty bread, toasted pita, with grilled beef or even tossed with pasta as a sauce of sorts! All the fire roasted goodness also makes a great dip with chips and it can be served warm, room temp or cold. It's a great way to make use of your grill this Summer.