Posts from the ‘Articles and Recipes’ Category

Jan 8

Making Levain, A Gift For Nando A New Kitchen Toy, Community Pick On Food52

I follow a lot of blogs, love them all and wish I could make every recipe on all of them. Sometimes I see a recipe and think this is something I have to make right away, usually it’s a recipe that challenges me. This is the case when I saw Ginger’s great recipe on her wonderful blog Ginger And Bread she posted a recipe for WholeWheat Sour Dough Bread, which is baked in a cast iron dutch oven and looks so crusty and delicious I had to make it. The challenge for me is making levain, I have never made it before and a good friend sent me some that she made which I promptly killed in what can only be characterized as a slow painful death. So far Ginger’s levain recipe has proven to not only be simple but it actually works and I have not killed it. Now I did not own a cast iron dutch oven but have wanted to get one for a long time so I decided to buy one (ended up with two) I went to my favorite home goods store Williams Sonoma and found a great deal on both, a Le Creuset oval Cocette, (4 qt) in a lovely shade of green and then I saw a very reasonably priced Lodge round cast iron dutch oven, the Lodge is on back order but I got the Le Creuset today. Love it and I will use it to make this wonderful sour dough loaf. I will post the photo’s of the bread after I make it, hopefully tomorrow. The dough is doing a slow rise in the refrigerator overnight.

Le Creuset

So here is my levain, rather shaggy looking right? This is Day 6, my kitchen is quite cold so it didn’t rise very much but Ginger said thats ok, be patient.

shaggy levain day 6

On Day 8 I put the levain in the refrigerator for 2 days, when my dutch oven arrived I took it out, fed it again (1 cup flour and 5 tbs water) and let it sit in the oven with the light on. Here is how it looked when I got it out the next day. Can’t wait to make the bread.

fed and puffy

My really good friend Jocelyn (Daisey Angel’s Mom) got Nando a gift, he is blind and lately is not getting around very well and she found this amazing device called Muffins Halo. A woman with a blind dog invented this to keep them from knocking into walls and bumping their heads. Ingenious right? Here is Nando with his Muffins Halo on, he is still getting used to it but already he is not bumping his head when he wears it. This was the best gift ever.

Nando not happy at first in his Halo

He can drink his water with it on he’s liking it

Finally I was so happy to see that my recipe for White Pasta With Garlic Parmigiano Breadcrumbs was picked and photographed by Food52. That was such a nice surprise today. I love this recipe, it’s so easy and delicious. I posted this recipe a while back on the blog, had not really thought about it until I saw the contest for Best Family Recipes. This was something my Mom used to make only without breadcrumbs that was my idea. It’s so simple pasta, ricotta, milk and parmesan cheese. It’s great like that but thought bread crumbs pan toasted with butter,olive oil, garlic, lemon zest and grated cheese would be wonderful on this simple pasta dish.

Photo by James Ransom for Food52

White Pasta my photo

Dec 31

130 Comments

Happy New Year And My Blog Anniversary!!

Taken from Pinterest

I want to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very Happy New Year. It’s 2015 and I can hardly believe it, where did 2014 go? They say time goes faster as you get older and I think that saying is absolutely right on. I know I have said it before but it’s the honest truth, I really appreciate you all. I look to you for inspiration, you challenge me and that makes me a better cook and blogger. This month is the 3rd anniversary of the start of my blog. I had no idea what I was doing, still don’t really.There is no plan or formula. I simply write and cook what I like and hope that you like and appreciate it.

Honestly, this has been a tough year for me. Trying to balance work, I changed companies this year after a very long time with my previous company. Then there are the pugs, well the pug now, this year I lost my sweet Izzy, and that hit me very hard I don’t know if I will ever really get over it, she was very special.

I don’t make resolutions because if I don’t keep them then I fail and I don’t want to fail. I do however give myself suggestions. For example this year I want to try to hone my photography skills. Although I own a camera I still use my iPhone to take all my photo’s for the blog. I want to learn more about photography, food photography to be specific, feature more great recipes from other bloggers, lose weight, volunteer more in my community, exercise more frequently.

I am also very active in the wine community and want to learn more about wine, all aspects and wine tasting. I have some great teachers, Michelle from Rockin Red Blog, Anatoli from Talk-aVino, Stefano from Clicks and Corks (Flora’s Table) Julian from Vino In Love, Jeff from The Drunken Cyclist to name a few and I plan to learn from them by carefully following their blogs and asking lots of questions. This year I want to actually visit a winery, maybe in the Finger Lakes or the vineyards in Long Island, keeping it local. I am hoping for more collaboration with my wine expert friends.

In 2014 I also found some fantastic blogs that are not food related or loosely related to food, I discovered some amazing talent in writing and crafts. Teagan Geneviene@Teagan’s Books is a very talented writer and I follow her blog religiously, she weaves incredible fantasy stories based on three ingredients, each week is a different installment and the readers can suggest ingredients or items which are incorporated into the story for that episode, it’s fascinating and exciting. Lord David Prosser@Barsetshire Diaries is incredible, you follow his exploits on his blog, it’s kind of like a Seinfeld episode, you are with Lord Prosser throughout the day from when he wakes following him all day and into the night and peppered in are lovely photo’s and some great music. It’s so much fun. Then there are the craftsmen, Michael@Michaels Woodcraft makes the most amazing cutting boards, ice cream scoops and anything that can be carved out of wood. You probably remember the giveaway here for one of his cutting boards and scoops. There are those that are harbingers of all that is beautiful and drool worthy, House of KTS (previously pure and complex) and Lynne Knowlton from Design the Life You Want to Live, Daniella who could crochet a house for you, Sharon who has a heart as big as Texas with her love for Special Needs Pets. Photographers, Patty Nguyen, The armchair Sommelier (wine and photography), Justine@eclecticoddsnsods, writing, photography, food, humor.

My wish for each of you reading this blog is that all of your dreams and aspirations come true and that you enjoy health, happiness and success in 2015. I want to thank you for putting up with me, following my blog, offering support and kindness and I so appreciate it all. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!

Before starting A Pug In The Kitchen I was very active in the food scene, I was a regular on the sites of both Food52 and Whole Foods Market, I regularly entered contests and was lucky enough to win some. It was competitive cooking that inspired and excited me and gave me the courage to start a food blog. Thank you all that voted for my recipes and gave me encouragement.

Here is a little trip down memory lane. This is my first post ever which I wrote and sat on for a week, petrified to press the publish button, the fear of the unknown I guess. Would anyone read my blog, would they like it, do I really have anything of substance to offer. All those thoughts flooded into my mind but eventually I took the plunge and found a warm and welcoming community.

Mixed Citrus Curd

This was my first post on January 14th 2012 for Mixed Citrus Curd. Actually my first recipe, the first post was a very scared me explaining that I would post something as soon as I could.

Here are some of my favorite photo’s that were taken in the last 3 years:

Her cupcake leash- Izzy

Nando- when he was younger he loved to sit in the window

May 2012 Sweet Daisey Izzy and Nando’s BFF

Photo by James Ransom for Food52- Flank Steak on Texas Toast With Chimichurri contest winner on food52 and published in their cookbook

Photo by James Ransom for Food52-Whipped Chocolate Caramel Ganache- contest winner food52

Jerk Chicken Photo by James Ransom contest winner Whole Foods

Jerk Chicken Kebab Photo by James Ransom contest winner Whole Foods

Tomato And Goat Cheese Tart

Galette With Blackberries and peaches

Mosto Cotto Fig And Goat Cheese Tart

Triple Chocolate cake

Beef Kabobs on Flat Bread

Open Face Steak Sandwich

Campari sorbet and soda

The best doughnuts from Dough at the Brooklyn Flea

Belgian Endive, orange, pecan, micro greens

My apologies this post was supposed to be maybe a paragraph but I just couldn’t help myself. If I didn’t mention you it’s only because this post would have to be the length of War And Peace if I included all of you. but you know I am so happy to have met you all and look forward to 2015 and more from each of you. Special shout outs to:

Carla, Jocelyn, 2 Cheryls, Rhonda, Sonal, Prudy, Mochi, Chitra, Margot, Laura, Vivianna, Emily, Jess, Louie, Amit, Johnny, Lindy, Pat, Bevi, Cynthia, 2 Linda’s, Justine, Julian, Jeff, Anatoli, Francesca, Stefano, Holly, Sharon, Lina, Sean Munger, Elaine, Virginia, Brandi, Kim, Olga, Loretta, Nancy, Amy, Cindy, Angie, Jhuls, Aleksandra,Tracey, 2 Liz’s, Amy, 3 Sarah’s, Amanda, Stacey, House of KTS, 2 Ginger’s, 2 Michelle’s, Georgie, Jenn, Sue, Mimi, Patty, Fae, Azita, Katerina, Laila, Hoda, Sadia, Susan, 2 Melissa’s, Christin, Pamela, the Patron of the Pit, my lovely friends from Ireland, India, the UK, Australia, Dubai, Canada and all of you whose blogs I follow and try my best to comment on or at least let you know I like. Best wishes for a wonderful 2015!!

Dec 30

53 Comments

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

I am thankful to wordpress for putting this very excellent report together and to you who faithfully read my little blog. Thank you.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 37,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 14 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Dec 24

96 Comments

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Happy Holidays!

I want to take this opportunity to wish each and everyone of you the happiest of holidays. This is the season of giving, enjoying the company of family and friends and whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanza I hope you have a fabulous day filled love and laughter, lots of delicious food and that you get to spend the day or days with those you hold dear.

I am thankful for each and every one of you, for your kind comments, enthusiasm and inspiration. Without each other why would we be tending to our blogs almost daily. This Christmas is hard for me, I have had to literally force myself to try to get in the spirit of the holidays. Losing Izzy just a couple of months ago still weighs on my mind. I am reminded of her daily and getting out my holiday things brought memories flooding back. I still hung her stocking. I hope you don’t think I’m silly for wearing my heart on my sleeve. Nando is doing a little better but losing his life long companion has been very hard on my frail little guy.

On a brighter note, I participated again this year in the Food52 Holiday Swap and got this incredible gift box from Jason. Look at all these goodies. You should consider participating, it’s a lot of fun!!!

Food52 Holiday Swap – Yes thats a bottle of KY bourbon

I made several gift boxes this year. dozen after dozen of cookies and mini loaves came from my oven, you saw my posts. It was fun and I like keeping busy.

One gift basket

Happy Holidays to all, I just wanted you to know how much I love and appreciate you and I look forward to more delicious recipes, amazing photo’s and mesmerizing writing from you all!

Nando

All dressed up

Dec 23

4 Comments

Mary’s Secret Ingredient- Holiday Gift Offer

Mary’s secret ingredient

My very good friend Mary Frances from Love The Secret Ingredient has a special offer for you just in time for the holidays, you know she puts together those fab boxes of goodies that come to you seasonally, Mary’s Secret Ingredient. Well, my apologies to Mary Frances in doing this so late, I had a crazy hectic day and am just now sitting down at the computer. What Mary Frances wants you to know is that you can purchase her amazing boxes of goodies as a holiday gift and she is even offering a discount of 20% just use the code “HOLIDAY 20” at checkout. It is a great gift for anyone who loves food, including yourself, who say’s you can’t get yourself a gift right?

I love the boxes, they contain items both food and food related and I love that so many items I have never tasted or used and it’s a wonderful introduction to a new product. Because of my wonderful box of goodies I was introduced to Calmer Sutra products, delicious teas and amazing honey. So this is a shout out for Mary Frances and her great boxes of goodies, they will make a wonderful holiday gift for any food lovers on your list.

Dec 2

125 Comments

Homemade Labneh With Roasted Fruit, Walnuts And A Honey Thyme Drizzle

Labneh

I love a challenge and when I heard that Chobani was asking home cooks to develop recipes for their “Made With Chobani” challenge I was inspired to create a recipe for them. I am a big fan of yogurt, I eat it every day and I am also a big fan of Chobani, it’s thick and creamy and delicious. I want you to know that I am NOT being compensated in any way for this, I am simply doing what I love to do, cook and meet a challenge and the opinion is completely my own.

They said the recipe can be a meal, appetizer or dessert. I used Chobani plain yogurt (4% milk fat) to make a healthful dessert that is not just delicious but it would make a lovely light dessert for the holidays. I adapted a recipe for homemade Labneh from one I found on Food52, roasted some seasonal pears and some grapes, toasted some walnuts, drizzled all of this with a simple honey thyme syrup and garnished with pomegranate arils.

What is Labneh, well it’s very simple, it’s yogurt cheese. When I say simple I really mean it, all you need is a good quality yogurt, like the Chobani yogurt I used, some lemon juice and a pinch of salt. No cooking required you only need to mix the lemon juice and salt with the yogurt and strain through a piece of cheese cloth or muslin. Labneh can be used with either a savory or sweet dish. for a savory use of Labneh drizzle with some olive oil, sprinkle some sea salt, dukkah, zaatar, herbs whatever you like. I used whole milk yogurt in my dish, it’s a bit of an indulgence for my Holiday Table but this cheese can be made with low fat or even “Zero” fat yogurt with the same creamy delicious results.

Labneh after 12 hours draining

Homemade Labneh

Serves 6-8

12 Oz Plain 2% or 4% Fat Greek Yogurt

1/2 – 1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

pinch of sea salt

Mix yogurt, lemon juice and salt thoroughly. Place strainer over a bowl and drape with cheese cloth, place yogurt mixture into the cheese cloth and fold over so the yogurt is covered. Refrigerate 12-24 hours. At 12 hours the labneh will be somewhat firm and spreadable and at 24 hours it will be even thicker. It’s wonderful either way.

Roasted Fruit

Fruit and Walnuts

4 ripe pears peeled, cut in half and cored ( I used bosc)

1 small bunch red seedless grapes (removed from stem) approximately 2 cups

1 tbs butter

2 tbs organic sugar

1 1/2 cup walnuts

Pomegranate arils for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degree’s. Butter a rectangular baking dish and place pears and grapes in the dish. Sprinkle with the sugar and bake uncovered for 30-45 minutes, the fruit should be tender. Remove from oven. Place walnuts on baking sheet and toast in the oven at 375 for 15 minutes approximately, you will know they are done when you can smell the walnuts be careful and watch the nuts they can burn quickly.

Honey Thyme Drizzle

1/4 cup honey of your choice

1/3 cup juice from cooked fruit

2 sprigs thyme

pinch of sea salt

Add the honey, juice and thyme sprigs to a small saucepan and simmer gently for 15 minutes, remove thyme sprig and remove from heat. If your fruit does not give off 1/4 cup of juice substitute another type of juice or water . You will need approximately 1/2 cup of the syrup.

A bowl of goodness

To Serve:

You can set out on a platter or serve on individual plates. A slab of labneh surrounded by the roasted fruit, toasted nuts and drizzled with the honey thyme syrup, scatter some pomegranate arils over the fruit before serving.

Light, festive and delicious

Nov 25

67 Comments

Chicken Nuggets-A Thanksgiving Dog Treat Recipe

Lessons From A Paralyzed Dog is a blog that is both inspirational and informative and when Sharon contacted me to ask if I would share a recipe for a dog treat I was more than happy to oblige. For years Sharon selflessly cared for her beloved Sophie who due to a rare disease became paralyzed, read about Sophie here. You see Sharon’s blog is near and dear to me she offers so much to pet parents of Special Needs Pets, both cats and dogs. My Nando is Special needs having suffered from diabetes for the past 6 years, he is also blind and has been almost 6 years. With the holidays it’s always nice to give our fur babies a special treat and although Nando gets these every day they are special.

So here is my recipe for Doggie Chicken Nuggets. I had to make them with diabetes in mind, I have had Nando on a very strict diet since he was first diagnosed he gets lean protein, vegetables and barley. These little bites contain ground chicken breast, coarsely ground vegetables, pumpkin or butternut squash, cheese and barley. They are low on the glycemic index and Nando loves them. Happy Thanksgiving to all pets and pet parents.

Chicken Nuggets

1 lb ground chicken ( I use breast meat) You can also use ground turkey breast
1 cup ground vegetables, I use parsley, spinach, carrot, kale and celery
1/2 cup cube pumpkin or butternut squash (steamed until tender)
1/2 cup cooked barley
1/2 cup grated cheese (your choice) I use cheddar a lot)
1 egg lightly beaten
small pinch of sea salt

Pre heat oven to 350
Cut your pumpkin or butternut squash into cubes and steam or oven roast until tender. Set aside.
Grind the vegetables in your food processor, pulsing until coursely ground (don’t pulverize)
Place chicken, vegetables. barley, pumpkin or squash, egg,cheese and pinch of salt in bowl and mix to combine.
On small sheet pan lined with parchment and lightly greased with olive oil place the chicken mixture and spread into a loaf. Bake for 30 minutes or until done. Let cool for about 20 minutes and then chop into bite size pieces. Store in refrigerator.

Nando

Oct 7

97 Comments

Inspire Me!

I am in a bit of a slump, I feel like I make the same things over and over again and quite frankly I am boring myself. I have a zillion cookbooks and I subscribe to so many great blogs but I don’t really know what direction to go, what to cook that will knock my socks off and thrill and excite me. I need a challenge. I was sitting at my computer with a pile of cookbooks and reading and commenting on the many blogs that I follow and it came to me. You, my fellow bloggers are my inspiration, I look at your posts and think oh yes, I really want to make this but then I get caught up in daily activities and more blog posts come in and the same thing happens.

So here is what I ask of you, send me a link to one of your recipes. Something you would like to see me make. I will feed them into random.org and won’t tell you the results. I will post the chosen recipe with photo’s and a link to your blog. So what do you think of my idea? Would you send me a recipe to make? The deadline for submission is Monday Oct. 13th and I will post the chosen recipe on Friday Oct. 17th and it will be my submission to Fiesta Friday. You will get full recognition for your great recipe, I am only the vehicle preparing it.

If you would like for me to cook one of your recipes just leave a comment with the link. I have no dietary restrictions, vegan, vegetarian, international cuisine it’s all fair game. I only ask that you keep the ingredients simple, nothing hard to locate in the US, and PLEASE nothing with organ meats, offal, fish heads, eyeballs or the like I don’t eat that. Sweet or savory I love it all. A complete meal or one item. I am excited at the thought of preparing a dish from one of your blogs. I will ask one of my wine expert friends to help me pair the perfect wine with the savory dish.

You all inspire me daily now I want to cook!

UPDATE: I am so inspired now that I decided to make two dishes one savory and 0ne sweet. How could I not?

Sep 15

87 Comments

2 Recipes Eating Clean And Special Walnuts For Fiesta Friday #33

Fiesta Friday

Eating clean, I’ve heard the term but never really grasped what it means, it’s quite simple really, read about it here in an article on Cooking Light, in a nutshell you eat unprocessed whole foods, nothing new really we should all eat like that, the term is new but not the concept. I receive emails from Martha Stewart living and really love some of the recipes from her site, I always have admired Martha’s business acumen and respect how she has built her empire and she also has some amazing recipes. This particular email had recipes that focus on eating clean, the recipes are always simple and are prepared on video by Shira Bocar. The salad contains Tuscan Kale (use tuscan its more tender when eaten raw), apples, beets and walnuts with a dressing made from avocado, white wine vinegar, dijon mustard and oil. I don’t have a mandolin which is what you are supposed to use to cut the beets paper thin, so as a result my beets were a bit too thick and raw beets really need to be thin, next time I will roast my beets for a little while and then slice,or get over my mandolin phobia and get one of those.

In the same email there was a recipe (I guess you can call it that) for broiling broccoli rabe and chick peas. This was a revelation for me, I always steamed it and the florets become overcooked while the stems are still hard and stringy, I wanted to give this a try, the key is for the broccoli rabe and chickpeas to be dry so plan in advance and let your vegetables and chickpeas drain and dry completely. I must say I love Martha’s clean eating video’s here is the one with the broccoli rabe. Shira serves with some fresh ricotta drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

The walnuts in the salad were a gift from Patty Nguyen, I love her blog, she is a photographer and a great cook, she also has the most adorable little dog. She came to NYC to visit her brother and we met at the Brooklyn Flea, These walnuts (Chandler walnuts) were hand cracked and are amazing, fresh and delicious. I told Patty I would use them in a recipe and post it, so Patty, here it is. Thank you for the delicious walnuts and I so enjoyed meeting you.

Chandler walnuts

I am bringing both of these healthful vegetable dishes to the party, Angie@The Novice Gardener is hosting this gathering of friends and great cooks, imagine the line up with so many great and talented cooks preparing the food, The co hosts this week are Andrea @Cooking with a Wallflower and Sylvia @Superfoodista enjoy the clean food my dear friends.

Creamy kale salad

Creamy Kale Salad

Ingredients
1 ripe avocado, halved, seed removed
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar (You could also use lemon juice) I added an extra tbs of vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons walnut oil or extra-virgin olive oil (I used walnut oil)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 bunch kale (8 oz.), stemmed and coarsely chopped
1 small red beet, peeled and thinly sliced (I used a golden beet also)
1 sweet, crisp apple, cored and cut into thin wedges
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
Directions
Combine avocado, vinegar, mustard, and oil in a food processor. Pulse until smooth. (It will be thick.) Season with salt and pepper.
Combine kale, beets, apple, and walnuts in a large bowl. Toss with avocado dressing. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. Suggestion: Add Farro, freekeh or some whole grain to the salad, it will be filling and delicious.

salad

ready for the broiler

Broccoli Rabe and chickpeas

1 bunch broccoli rabe cleaned and trimmed (Be sure to keep the leaves, they crisp beautifully in the broiler)

1 can chick peas drained and dried

6 tbs olive oil (If you use 2 small sheet pans 3 tbs per tray)

thinly sliced garlic 2 cloves

salt

Really important to make sure your broccoli rabe and chick peas are dry, moisture is the enemy for this dish Place dry broccoli rabe on sheet pan, don’t over crowd. Add the chickpeas and garlic. Spoon or drizzle oil and massage into the broccoli rabe and chick peas, sprinkle with salt and place in heated broiler for 2 minutes, take out of the oven and turn the broccoli and place back in the oven for another 2 minutes. Remove from oven and serve.NOTE: I washed and dried my broccoli rabe and chickpeas the day before I made the dish, just bagged and refrigerated and they were perfectly dry. I think it depend on your oven how long you leave in to broil. I found that after the prescribed 4 minutes in the broiler the broccoli rabe was still quite raw a bit too crunchy, it is probably my oven, I’m sure in the Martha Stewart test kitchen they have commercial grade ovens that have more BTU’s than mine. So I put it in an extra 6 minutes. It was done perfectly, a little toothsome but still tender. So the cooking time will vary.

ready to eat

Sep 7

97 Comments

Italian Tapas For Fiesta Friday #32

Caponata

Italian tapas, well it’s not really tapas in the truest sense of the word but it certainly can be eaten on small plates and it’s more of a prelude to the actual meal, I thought caponata, some good cheese and bread would be a nice addition to the party this week. Caponata is a Sicilian dish which is used as a side dish or condiment. I can remember my Mother serving on toasted Italian bread as a starter or appetizer. This is my version of my Mothers recipe, its less sweet and the vegetables are soft but still retain their shape.

Angie@The Novice Gardener is hosting this weeks event, she is always there for us and our co host is Hilda@along the grapevine. I hope everyone enjoys a little bit of Italy or Sicily. Buon Appetito!

Caponata

4 Italian eggplant washed and cut in half lengthwise. Skin on. (Or use 1 large eggplant)

1 Medium size onion chopped

2 Stalks celery (Use the tender inner stalks) chopped

3 cloves garlic minced

1 Red bell pepper de seeded and chopped

4 Fresh tomato’s chopped (I used 1 very large heirloom tomato and 1 smaller heirloom)

1/4 cup capers rinsed, rough chop

1/4 cup Olives Kalamata or green (I use a little of each) Rough chop the olives

2 tsp – 1 tbs organic brown Sugar (add 2 tsp taste and add more if needed)

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Pinch of crushed red pepper (optional)
Pre-heat oven to 450, clean the eggplant cut the tops off and cut in half lengthwise. On baking sheet lined with parchment brush a little olive oil on each half, both sides, place your eggplant cut side down and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. Chop the eggplant into bite size pieces.
In fry pan on med/high flame coated with olive oil add your chopped onion, cook until translucent. Add chopped celery and red bell pepper, continue cooking until they are soft and have started to caramelize. Add your minced garlic, cook for a minute or so don’t let garlic brown. Add your eggplant,tomato,capers, olives,crushed red pepper, sugar and vinegar continue cooking until mixture is thick. Eggplant will break down but thats ok this will take about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Let sit overnight. It tastes incredible when it has rested and all the flavors have blended together.