In Las Vegas at Shish Kabob House I tried Eggplant Caviar for the first time. It’s a delicious dip that I didn’t know about. This dip is very popular in Eastern Europe. The recipe is pretty simple. It is basically cooked eggplants. Some variations are made with tomatoes (or tomato paste) and others are made with bell peppers. A few have both. Other ingredients are garlic and either lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Not all but some contain sugar or honey. A few contain Ohon Brand pepper paste and I saw one recipe that contains Aleppo pepper. I thought that since this is a recipe of few ingredients I would make the ingredients special. I cooked the eggplants at 500F to get a smoky char. I roasted the garlic to turn it sweet. I added one large roasted red pepper because they have great flavor. I also cooked down tomatoes for three hours and they got almost candied on the ends. The 3 hour onions also gave an amazing flavor too! Don’t mean to brag but this did come out FORKING delicious. Serving size is impossible to determine. I don’t know if you want a small amount to spread a small part of pita bread. Or maybe you want more to cover a grilled chicken breast. I’ll guesstimate at least 8 servings (but it will probably go further).

Ingredients for 8 servings

2 eggplants – cut in half make hatch marks

Around a cup – extra virgin olive oil – to generously coat everything you roast

1 large red bell pepper

4 small/medium sweet onions – small dice

4 medium/small ripe red tomatoes – diced

6 oz tomato paste (up to 6oz. you might need less depending on the size of eggplants)

2 heads garlic – cut in half threw the middle (Since this is a lot of work I always roast several garlics at a time and freeze them for latter use.

1 Tablespoon honey

5 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons Aleppo pepper

sea salt – to taste

Directions

Set one oven to 325 degrees F.

On the middle rack add the pan of diced tomatoes and one pan of diced onions. They get generously covered with olive oil and sea salt to taste. Cover the pans. They need to stay in the oven for three hours.

Set your other oven to 500 degrees F.

Your eggplant halves get cross hatched, generously and drizzled with olive oil. They stay in the oven on the middle rack for one hour.

When they are cool enough to handle scoop the flesh out with a spoon like you do for an avocado or a mango.bSet the flesh to the side.

Turn the broiler on and broil the red pepper. You want it charred on all sides. When you got it all charred up cover it with plastic wrap or foil. It needs to steam its self. When cool removed the seeds, stem, and skin. Dice. Set to side.

Turn off broil and set to 375 degrees F.

The garlic goes on a sheet pan cut sides up. Drizzle well with olive oil and cover with foil. This needs to roast for one hour. Then you whip up and set to the side.

Everything is roasted. Now you blend a few things together. This is easiest done with a stick blender. The Eggplant caviar I had at Shish Kabob House in Las Vegas was smooth but I did notice that some people do make it chunky. I made mine mostly smooth but saved some of the tomatoes to add last for a little texture and a delicious pop of tomato taste.

Blend together the onions, roasted red pepper, most of the tomatoes, the tomato paste, the eggplant, Aleppo pepper, roasted whipped sweet garlic, honey, apple cider vinegar. Top with remaining tomatoes. Serve with flat breads or pita bread. I read that some people use this as a sauce for grilled meats. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

It’s FORKING DELICIOUS Enjoy!!!

I was watching Diners Drive-Ins and Dives on Food Network TV. At one of Guy Fieri stops he tasted brisket from a restaurant and made good faces and yummy noises like he really liked it. They also had all the customer testimonies on how amazing that the brisket was there. I jotted down the way on how the restaurant owner said that she made it. It was so easy I couldn’t believe that you could make a really good brisket this way. No trimming. No separation of fatty and lean muscles of brisket. No smoking. VERY FEW INGREDIENTS. Basically just toss it in the oven with LOTS of onions, lots of garlic, a can of beer and salt and pepper…………Brisket was on sale recently so I wanted to try this out. Here is my version of what I thought I saw on Food Network. Serving size will differ. I don’t know if you want a small serving or a large serving. I also don’t know how much fat you want to eat. I don’t like fat so I might cut off more than you might. I got around 9 pounds of brisket from a 14 pound brisket and around 24 servings of onions with brisket liquid after I removed the fat.

Ingredients for around 36 servings

1 whole brisket (mine was around 14 pounds and it was too big to fit in a turkey roasting pan so I sliced off a few pounds of it and put that part of meat in another pan.

3 lbs onions – sliced thin

30 garlic cloves – sliced thin

1 – 12oz can of beer ( I used a lager beer)

a good sprinkling of my home make pecan sea salt (over and under the brisket) (after onions I topped it with a little more.)

a good sprinkling of fresh ground black pepper (over and under the brisket) (after onions I topped it with a little more.)

Above is most of the brisket before I finished covering it with onions. I didn’t even trim it.

Below is what I sliced off so I could fit most of the brisket in a turkey roasting pan (that was supported by a real sheet pan).. This one is free of onions so I can give some to my dogs.

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

My main pan of brisket goes in a pan with salt and pepper, onions, garlic and beer. Cover tight. (My small pan just gets a little bit of salt and pepper and a good splash of beer. (Both pans get covered tight)

I put the main pan on the middle rack and the small pan on the bottom rack.

5 1/2 hours latter I remove the small pan and after 6 hours I remove the large pan.

They came out completely different but both very good. I don’t like that succulent fat that many people love. So you leave it on if you like it or remove now like I did from both pans…It’s easy it just scraps off.

The small pan developed a delicious crust and is solid but moist.

The brisket in the main pan is fall apart tender.

Back Tracking………

I have to chill it overnight to slice it when it’s cold or it will fall apart and I have a delicious onion-ee liquid. While cold I remove the brisket fat that stays at the top. So that means results will differ depending on size and how you slice it. Without even thinking I sliced off the lean side but it still came out fine. If I did the same again I might have maybe just cut off the fatty end.

Someone here stayed by my feet the whole time.

The below plate is all cold.

I hate cutting brisket. I let my husband cut it up.

If you have dogs they will flock over to the brisket.

The restaurant owner I saw on Food Network serves her brisket with the onion sauce and chipotle mayonnaise. I added a few chipotle flakes to the onion-ee liquid.

A Special THANKS!!!! to Food Network and that Restaurant Owner that was on. (Sorry I didn’t catch who she was or I would insert her name and restaurant here) Thanks for sharing such a great and easy recipe!

I was inspired by reading about different meatloafs and came up with this. It’s not really a meatloaf inside of the cabbage but it was the inspiration for the flavorings. I boiled the cabbage leaves with apple cider vinegar, sea salt and smoked paprika to give them a nice flavor. Well these came out FORKING DELICIOUS!

Ingredients for around 8 servings

1 medium cabbage – core removed

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 Tablespoon sea salt

1 Tablespoon smoked paprika

1 lb 93% lean ground turkey

1 small onion – fine chopped

1 small carrot – either fine chopped or shredded

3 garlic cloves – ground to paste

1/2 cup scallions – sliced thin

1 teaspoon – dried thyme

2 eggs – slightly beaten

1 Tablespoon dijon mustard (I used Amora Brand)

1 Tablespoon ketchup

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire

1 Tablespoon (or to taste) bomba Calabrese or a dash of hot sauce or hot paste of your choice (I used Coluccio Bomba Calabrese)

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

pinch ground allspice

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil – chopped

1/2 cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs

1 Tablespoon seasoned vegetable base (I used Better Than Bouillon Seasoned Vegetable Soup Base) ((This is more flavorful than salt and adds less sodium))

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

neutral non-stick spray

Directions

Your cabbage with the core removed goes in a pot of boiling water with the apple cider vinegar, sea salt, and smoked paprika added. After a minute or so the leaves sort of come off by themselves. You pull them off one at a time with tongs and place on a dish or tray. Set to the side.

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl mix the onion, carrot, garlic, scallions, thyme, eggs, dijon, ketchup, Worcestershire, bomba, nutmeg, cayenne, allspice, sun-dried tomatoes, panko, soup base, and black pepper. Mix well. Then mix in ground turkey till incorporated. Score the bowl of meat mixture into quarters. Each quarter can be two portions.

Grab a smaller cabbage leaf and stuff with 1/8 of meat mixture. (excuse my bad photo…It’s hard to photo when you are using your hands)

This goes on a larger cabbage leaf that you wrap around the ball.

Wrap this so it is neat and together looking and place on non-stick sprayed sheet pan. Repeat till out of meat. You might have a few extra cabbage leaves that you need to use with your side vegetable.

Pour a small amount of the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes over the cabbage leaves and rub it all around the cabbage leaf.

These go on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree F oven till done. 15-20 minutes.

ENJOY!!!!

ENJOY!!!!!

I had potatoes still hanging around and some lemons that were getting old so I made my version of Greek Potatoes……….but…..I had some white sweet potatoes that used up too so I cooked them the same together. Both potatoes came out good. But those white sweet potatoes tasted not just good……but really great so this recipe should be Marinated Roasted White Sweet Potatoes. Serving size is always difficult to determine. All potatoes are different sizes and all people are different sizes and like to eat different size portions. I used 5 smaller potatoes and they shrink from cooking so I’d say that mine made 5 smaller servings so that means 4 servings for most people.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

5 white sweet potatoes (yams have darker skin. White sweet potatoes have light tan skin) – remove skin and cut into wedges

6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves – ground to paste

1 Tablespoon dried oregano

2 Tablespoons dijon mustard (I used Amora Brand)

2 lemons (just the fresh squeezed juice)

1 Tablespoon vegetable soup base paste (I used vegetable Better Than Bullion Brand because this is more flavorful than salt and less sodium)

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Neutral non stick spray

optional- a little bit if fresh parsley for finishing

Directions

Either boil your potato wedges 5 minutes or put them into a microwaveable bowl or container. Fill halfway with water, cover, and microwave 6 minutes. Let sit on counter.

In a small bowl mix together the oil, garlic, lemon juice, soup base paste, oregano, mustard, and black pepper till it emulsifies.

Drain potatoes. Let cool till just warm. Add them to a gallon zip lock bag. Add the small bowl of marinade you just made and massage it around the potato wedges. Squeeze out all the air you can from the bag. Let this marinate over night in the refrigerator.

The next day.

Set oven to 400 degrees F

Spray a sheet pan with non stock spray. Set out the potato wedges with a little space around them. They go on the middle rack till done. Timing will differ….Wedges may differ in size and age of potato can be a factor. Mine took 50 minutes.

These potatoes are delicious as they are but are also delicious with whipped feta cheese. (Just crumble a good quality feta cheese and blend with Greek yogurt)

Add a little pinch of fresh parsley if desired.

Enjoy!

All I had to cook with was carrots and I happened to come across Mark Huxsoll’s recipe modestly called Butter Roasted Carrots from Cook’s Country Magazine. It’s very similar to a lot of other recipes I did with carrots so I thought it would be good. due to what I have around the house I did change a few things. For the recipe I didn’t have goat cheese or parsley so I used a good quality feta cheese and cilantro instead. I also didn’t have fresh thyme so I used dried. I do think that it makes more crunch topping than is needed so add it to your liking. You can always use the extra in a salad or on chicken. I also didn’t think that this needed added oil with all the butter that was used so I left that out. Feel free to dress with olive if you care to. They say that this recipe makes 6-8 servings. I’m not sure that you will get that many servings. My carrots shrunk a lot when they caramelized. To me it’s looking like 4 servings…We’ll see and maybe I’ll update.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

1/4 cup skinned hazelnuts – crumble

1 Tablespoon sesame seeds – crumble

1 Tablespoon coriander seeds – crumble

1 teaspoon dried thyme – crumble

1 lemon – just the grated zest – crumble

1/4 teaspoon sea salt – crumble

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter – melted – split into 4 Tablespoons + 1 Tablespoon

3 lbs carrots – peeled – cut in half long ways and cut in half short ways

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper

4 oz Good Quality Feta Cheese – crumbled

3 Tablespoons pepperoncini – stemmed and sliced into thin rings

2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro, parsley, or scallions or a combination of all

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

Get a sheet pan with a rim and spread out the hazelnuts, sesame seeds, coriander seeds in an even layer. This goes on lowest rack in the oven for 7-9 minutes or until hazelnuts have browned some and everything is fragrant. This needs to cool off before you can process it. Set it to the side.

Turn up the oven to 450 degrees F.

4 Tablespoons of melted butter go on a rimmed baking sheet. The carrots go in a big bowl and get tossed with the one remaining melted tablespoon of butter, salt, peppers, Roast this on the lowest rack until the carrots are fork tender and nicely caramelized (40-50 minutes).

Transfer carrots to a serving dish. Sprinkle with crumble (to your liking), cheese, pepperonchini, thyme, lemon zest, and cilantro. Serve warm or at room temperature.

A Special THANKS!!!! To Mark Huxsoll and Cook’s Country Magazine so I could come up with what I got here.