It's the season to make eggplant pepper dip because it taste the best during summer when herbs and plants are in season. The flavor is soooo good. Slightly sweet, salty, very herbaceous, spicy and wow...Just amazing over rice or with any protein you like. Hope you can give this one a try because it's one of my favorites :)
6-8 wholeThai chili peppers(more or less depends on you)
1cup shallots(chopped)
1whole bulbgarlic(~10-12 whole cloves)
1/2 cupcilantro(chopped)
1-2wholegreen onion stalks(chopped)
1/2 tsp salt
1Tbspfish sauce
1tsp mushroom seasoning
Instructions
Roast the eggplants and herbs
Line baking sheet with foil. Wash the eggplants well and roast the eggplant on bake at 450' F with THE SKIN ON for 15 minutes. Don't forget to poke around 3 holes (with a fork) on each eggplant to ensure proper cooking. After 15 minutes of baking, flip/rotate and cook for another 15 minutes or until fully cooked. Set aside to cool. Then peel off the skin and cut into small pieces. Also roast the whole garlic cloves, rough chopped shallots, and chili peppers along with the eggplants. The chili peppers took about 15 minutes to cook. Take it out and allow the eggplants, garlic, and shallots to continue cooking. They took about 30 minutes total.
Pound away
In your mortar n pestle, add in the roasted chili peppers, garlic, shallots, salt and mushroom seasoning. Pound until the pepper is nice and pounded. Then add in the roasted eggplant and chopped cilantro, green onions and fish sauce. Pound until everything is well mixed. Taste, adjust, and serve. I like to eat it simply over fresh steamed rice. But you can also serve it with your favorite protein (Fried chicken, bbq pork, beef, etc)
Notes
You can make this dip with any type of eggplant you like. I prefer the Japanese or Chinese eggplant for this one.