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!