Tuesday Treat - Eggplant "Tapenade" for Canning

This has been an exceptional year for eggplant from the garden. I can't believe how much eggplant he keeps bringing me - on Saturday he brought in another 5lbs. That is a LOT of eggplant.


Eggplant is a vegetable that does not keep well; it does not freeze well, it does not dry and rehydrate well and when I went looking for canning options I found only one. Fortunately it was a good one!


The original recipe can be found HERE. I have altered it quite a bit as I can't eat peppers. And I must admit that each year it changes a bit as well. I think I have hit on recipe perfection this year. I use this throughout the winter as a spread for crackers, a filling for ravioli, a sauce for pasta and an add-in for risotto.  This is the first year I have been able to can two types - hot and mild. He has brought me so much eggplant that I have two and half cases of half pints canned with enough eggplant roasted and ready to go for another case of half pints.  I will be in tapenade heaven this winter! In past years I have barely canned half a case!


Woo hoo!  
So here you go:


Since I make this with whatever he brings in from the garden my measurements are really on the fly and "to taste." It takes a long time in the pressure canner as you will see and I have learned that if you are going to use it as a spread for crackers it really improves with a spritz of lemon juice added - it brightens it up considerably. It is also not the prettiest looking thing you will ever cook, that's for sure. It's basically mashed eggplant...so it can be a bit grey. But it tastes DELICIOUS so don't let that put you off.


Preheat the oven to 350°


I trim the eggplants and cut a slit in the sides so they don't explode in the oven. That would not be good. Put the eggplants in a baking dish and rub them will olive oil.

The garlic is hiding

Then I decide how much onion and garlic I will need compared to how many eggplants the hubby has gifted me with; I usually do one onion and two cloves of garlic to 5 eggplants. I roughly chop the onions and leave the garlic cloves in their skins. I put it all in a baking dish and add a bit of olive oil and mix it all up.

This was one of three....LOTS of eggplant!

I roast the eggplants until they are very soft and look like the above photo. The timing will depend on the size of your eggplants.


I keep the onions in until they are very, very soft. The garlics will be perfect.

Put the whole eggplants (if they don't fit just cut or break them up) into your food processor with the steel blade. After you have processed all of the eggplant just put it into a large bowl.

Add in the onions and the soft, roasted garlic from inside the skin. Process this until it is well chopped.

Add it to the eggplant in the bowl. Don't let your camera batteries die when you are trying to blog about something you are making.


*sigh*


Into the onion/garlic/eggplant mixture I add salt and pepper to taste. If I am going to make it "hot" I add in red pepper flakes. For some reason I can eat these. If I want it to just be mild I start my canning here.


Prepare your jars and pressure canner per usual. Fill the hot half pint jars and leave 1/2" headspace. Place in the pressure canner and following the directions for your canner and your altitude can for 85 minutes.


It does tend to settle a bit after canning for that long. It also darkens in color. But trust me, this stuff is DELICIOUS! You could also just make up a small batch and use it right away. I did that when I made my eggplant raviolis.