Israeli Smoked Egg Pate

Salad might be the last thing you'd think of preparing on the grill, unless you're the chef of the Aubert Shulemet

Smoked egg pâté is the house specialty of this historic restaurant in Rosh Pina, Israel

Here's how we prepare it on Primal Grill. First step, you need six hard-boiled eggs, cooking time about 11 minutes

Next step, let me show you how to turn your charcoal grill into a smoker

It's easier to smoke the eggs on a charcoal grill than on a gas grill

I like to use natural lump charcoal. You can see the jagged shape

To light it, you use a chimney starter. That's this cylindrical-shaped device

You place a piece of crumpled newspaper or a paraffin starter at the bottom

And always light your chimney on the grill using a butane match

And light it. The beauty of a chimney starter is that it funnels the heat upwards

so that the charcoal lights uniformly without lighter fluid. And I have a batch of charcoal I lit earlier

What you want to do is set up your grill for indirect grilling. That means that you dump the lit coals in these side baskets

And you leave the center of the grill coal-free. Now, simply place the grate on the grill

and the eggs go on the grate, away from the heat. And to smoke the eggs, I'm using hardwood chips

These are actually cherry. They've been soaked in water for about one hour

It's a handful on each mound of coals. And the reason you use soaked chips

they will smolder and smoke rather than catch fire as they would if they were dry

Okay, finally, simply cover the grill. You always want to position the vent holes in between the two mounds of coals That way the smoke will be drawn over the egg in an even fashion Wide open we want to smoke these at a fairly high temperature

Smoking time, 15 to 20 minutes. Swap outs. Can I clear over here

The next thing we're going to do, so while that's grilling, I'm going to show you how to make pita bread

And we're going to make the za'atar, right? And the za'atar is a mixed herb

We need a pastry brush. And go. It's been 20 minutes, and you can see the beautiful ochre color of the eggs

That's due to the smoke. If you haven't burned all your charcoal

if you put the lid back on and close the vents, put the charcoal out, you can reuse it another time

Cut each egg into quarters. Next, transfer the eggs to a food processor

The Aubert Shulamet is a wonderful restaurant and inn located in an artist town in the north of Israel called Rosh Pina

And it actually overlooks the Sea of Galilee. So once you have the eggs in, we'll add mayonnaise

It's about one tablespoon per egg. and then a little salt, a little freshly ground black pepper

and a few tears of fresh lemon juice. Squeeze the lemon between your fingers to catch any seeds

And you want to puree the pate, running the processor in short bursts

And, of course, your most important tools are your taste buds, So taste it right on the money

Smoked foods are something of a specialty at the Aubert's Chulamette. And it's a very interesting story

One of the owners of the restaurant had a friend who came from the United States and demonstrated the art of Southern American smoking And at the restaurant you find smoked egg pate smoked chicken and even smoked goose breast

And the last step, just a little chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley. And to serve with the smoked egg pate, another Israeli specialty, pita bread grilled with satar

So to grill the pita bread, you're going to use a different setup, direct grilling in a three-zone fire

Here's what you do. Dump out the coals in a thick layer over one-third of the grill, slightly thinner layer in the center

Just adjust the coals like this. You want to leave one-third of your grill coal-free

Now, what's the reason for that? I call this the safety zone. Pita bread has a tendency to burn very easily

So by leaving yourself a safety zone, if it starts to burn, you can move it to the cooler part of the grill

Next step is to make the za'atar. And za'atar is a sort of a rub, a Middle Eastern rub

Every recipe is different. Mine consists of equal parts oregano, marjoram, thyme

toasted sesame seeds, and finally a little salt for flavor. And as you've seen me do before

I like to mix the ingredients for the rub with my fingers. That way, if there are any lumps, you can break them up

Now for the pita breads, spread the pita out. And brush the bottoms with extra virgin olive oil

And then season the pita breads with some of your zatar. Zatar is used as a seasoning throughout the Middle and Near East

And as always remember to brush and oil your grow grate A couple swipes of a metal grill brush And to oil the grate dip either a folded paper towel or this cotton cloth in vegetable oil and run it across the bars

of the grate. This will keep the pita from sticking. Now, simply arrange the pita bread

On the grill, cooking time is quick, 30 seconds max per side

Remember, the grill was the original toaster. And you want to keep the pita breads moving

And the beauty of having this cool or safety zone is once the pitas are cooked

you simply move them here. you don't need to worry about them burning. Now you can see I actually did burn the edge a little bit on this pita

I'm not worried. Remember, the act of grilling, it's sort of a ballet between cooking and burning

and right at that caramelized edge, that's where all the flavor is. So all we need to do now is simply stack the pita up

cut them into wedges. Man, I can't wait to try this

Mmm! That smoked egg flavor and the herbal flavor in the pita

you know, when we were developing this recipe in the test kitchen, the crew could not stop eating it

So there you have it, smoked egg pate with Sartar grilled pita

From Israel to Arizona to you. Okay, very nice. That's a cut

Are we okay to roll