My hands are burning! I had some giant eggplants and mild peppers from the farmer's market and ton of our garden tomatoes to use up, so I made an ikra or caviar loosely (very loosely) based on this recipe, using one of the eggplants. It tasted OK but seemed to be lacking -zest-. But not to worry! I had gotten a few habaneros to experiment with (I know little about cooking with peppers and thought they might be good for adding heat the pickled peppers-and-eggs we like), so I microwaved one of the habs, then thought I should try a half of it in the blender to see what it would taste like. Well, gosh, they're such teensy pretty little peppers (a beautiful orange color), I figured I might as well throw in the whole thing. WRONG. HOT. HOT. I hastily nuked up and blended in the other giant eggplant to try to dilute out the heat, but it's still pretty hot - though tasty! But now one of my hands is burning from the pepper - it's even under one thumbnail. This is my first expeience with habaneros; at least I haven't (yet) gotten the pepper in my eyes!

It's edible (and actually pretty tasty) with flatbread, and might go well over rice or rice-and-beans. I'm curious to find out what Bill thinks of it. I have so much of it now that I do hope he likes it! It might mix well with yogurt or labneh. But isn't it a beautiful color!?    ¶ 7:12 PM