When we did our Israeli dinner a couple of weeks ago, we surely needed salad. With all the richness from the lamb and sides, I was looking forward to fattoush. I have another fattoush on my blog – it’s called Syrian Pita Bread Salad. And it’s a favorite of mine (from my friend Joanne) that I’ve been loving for over 20 years – mostly because of the greens and the lemon juice dressing. But this fattoush is altogether different because it’s about the veggies.

In some Middle Eastern cultures, a fattoush salad is mostly about the BREAD. In others it’s more about the GREENS with the bread almost as a garnish (and that’s what the Syrian Pita Bread Salad is). In this salad, it’s all about the VEGETABLES. In the cookbook, Jerusalem: A Cookbook the authors explain that throughout Israel an every meal must-have is some kind of vegetable salad – tomato, cucumber and onion. It’s what they call an affliction! What a strange word to use for a food!

In some previous post I know I mentioned that when we visited Egypt in 1997 (we were IN the Valley of the Kings a mere 2 days before the massacre there . . . wow, was God ever looking out after us on that trip!), and then for 3 weeks in Turkey, we both enjoyed (yet got tired of) the breakfasts offered to us: platters of tomato wedges, big blocks of very salty Feta cheese, bread (pita, rolls or bagels) and hard boiled eggs. And little bowls or shakers of the herb mixture za’atar. That’s when I first tried za’atar and liked the lemony taste (from the sumac in it). So, I learned how important tomatoes are, for sure. Middle Easterners [it seems to me] eat tomatoes 365 days a year – not an altogether bad thing, but I think I’d get tired of it if I ate it daily at one or more meals.

Anyway, this salad – is a predominantly vegetable salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes), with an ample amount of stale flatbread, herbs (mint and sumac) and soaked with a yogurt and buttermilk dressing. The dressing contains both lemon juice and vinegar, and olive oil is drizzled all over the top before serving. It sounds complicated, but it’s not. My friend Cherrie made this, and she tossed it just before serving.

What’s GOOD: I liked the yogurt-buttermilk dressing. I liked how it soaked into the bread, but not completely, so there was still some crunch (wouldn’t have been, though, with the left overs, so make only what you know you’ll eat). I liked all the fresh veggies. I liked the mint. Would I make it again? Maybe, but I know I’d probably fix the Syrian Pita Bread Salad first. The two salads are hard to compare because this one is so vegetable-centric and the Syrian one is greens-centric. So it’s like comparing apples and oranges.

What’s NOT: there are a lot of ingredients, for sure. But once you get everything all ready, it’s easy to put it together at the last minute. It just needs 10 minutes sit. And if your tomatoes are not at their peak, this salad would be lacking in flavor.

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The humble eggplant. Made in so many guises. This one’s a side dish, or it could be a vegetarian entrée (it does have Feta cheese in it) if you served just one of those per person. Prepare to be surprised at the flavors in this version.

When I was working on the menu for the Israeli dinner we did awhile back, I had fun going through Ottolenghi and Tamimi’s book, Jerusalem: A Cookbook. There are some gorgeous photographs of food, homes, kitchens, markets, families, street people, city views, floors,  walls, doors and everything in between. And ample explanations about some of the more unusual ingredients not known much to Western cultures. Like sumac, for instance, and date syrup.

Our dinner group is comprised of 4 couples. The hostess chooses the theme or menu, and can leave each cook to her own devices to find an appropriate recipe, or in this case, since I wanted us to cook a full meal from this cookbook, I chose the recipes myself and sent them out. Initially I thought this eggplant might be part of our first food – a mezze. As it turned out we had 2 mezze items already so the eggplant was cut into thirds and everyone had a nice-sized chunk of it with our dinner. Peggy made this dish earlier in the day. We served it at room temp.

The chefs wrote a fairly long introduction prior to this recipe, about the eggplant. I’m going to type it here because I found it so interesting (the emphases below are mine):

Few ingredients have reached the level of veneration achieved by the humble eggplant or have found their way to almost every table in Jerusalem, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everybody loves to be associated with the eggplant – it’s like a little local celebrity. The number of people who claim to have invented baba ghanoush, or at least elevated it to the level of fine food, is extraordinary.

At the markets in the city, the eggplants come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, from the regular kind, elongated and uniform in size, to zebra – streaked on the outside and pure white on the inside, baby eggplants; globe eggplants; and the baladi, a local heirloom variety that is wide, flat and resembles an open fan.

Eggplants, depending on variety, lend themselves to pickling, stuffing, cooking in sauce, frying, baking, roasting, charring, burning, pureeing and even cooking in sugar and spice to make a festive jam (Moroccan) or fruit mostarda (Aleppine), a type of candied fruit conserved in a spicy syrup. They also marry beautifully with the flavors so typical of the city: tahini, pine nuts, date syrup, tomatoes, chickpeas, potatoes, lemon, garlic, lamb, fresh cheese and yogurt, olive oil, sumac, and cinnamon.

Arabs first brought eggplants to Italy and Spain, but it was the Jews who are said to have introduced them to these cuisines when moving and trading among the Arab, Moorish and Christian cultures in the 15th and 16th centuries. Sephardic Jews have always been identified with eggplants, as were Arabs, even when Europeans were quite suspicious of them and were reluctant to use them, believing that “mad apples,” as they were known, induced insanity.            . . . from Jerusalem: A Cookbook

This eggplant dish, really quite simple actually, has you roast the halved eggplant in a hot oven, scoring the open surfaces a little,  until they’re golden brown. Onions are cooked separately until they develop an almost caramel look and flavor, and they’re mixed with some mild green chiles and the spices: cumin and sumac. And lastly, some Feta is added in. This mixture is spread on the roasted eggplant and a topping is made using the fresh pulp and juice of a lemon, some of the green chile and garlic. That’s drizzled over the top and allowed to sit out until serving time. Can be served warm, or at room temperature. The only precaution mentioned in the recipe is that eggplant can dry out when roasted (probably because eggplants are not uniform in size) so they suggest you place a shallow pan of water in the oven to help keep the eggplant hydrated.

What’s GOOD: certainly this dish is different, but except for the sumac, it’s ordinary ingredients to most home cooks. I loved the combination – the soft flavorful eggplant with the browned onions and Feta. It has ample umami flavor. Also good that it can be made a few hours ahead of time – always nice if you’re cooking for guests.

What’s NOT: can’t think of anything. We liked it.

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Folks from the Middle East, and in this case, Israel, do know their carrots. They prepare them in a multitude of ways. from raw to cooked, even to dessert. This, however, is just a side dish, a salad to serve with a full dinner. They were absolutely outstanding mixed with some arugula.

Our quarterly gourmet group gathered at our house recently for a fun evening of Israeli food. Since I was the hostess, I got to decide what we’d make, and this time I chose to have a menu from Yotam Ottolenghi’s newest book, Jerusalem: A Cookbook. I chose the recipes (based on a leg of lamb as the main course), scanned the recipes and emailed them to everyone in the group. Each couple brought 2 dishes and a bottle of wine. You’ll see all of the recipes here in the next week or so.

The first bite from our main dish plate was a carrot. I loved them. Often in a Middle Eastern restaurant you will find a small platter (a mezze) of tidbits to nibble on. Appetizers. And carrots are frequent. Here on my blog I have a fabulous carrot salad – it’s a favorite of mine called Algerian Carrots. They’re so much of a favorite that they’re on my list of Carolyn’s Favs you can click to with all my favorite recipes on my blog. Those carrots have a vinaigrette on them, but it’s mostly lemon juice and garlic that predominate. I could eat those carrots every single day.

These carrots were somewhat different – they contained different spices (cumin, caraway and harissa) and it used cider vinegar instead of lemon juice. Harissa is a red chile pepper condiment – many upscale markets carry it now. The jar I have I bought from Williams-Sonoma some years ago (keep in refrigerator). So the flavors were altogether different. But good. And this one has some arugula tossed in at the end. We decided that to serve these straight away, without the greens, would almost be too heavy. We liked the arugula which cut the oil and vinegar a little bit.  The recipe says that often in Tripoli (where this recipe originates, Ottolenghi says) it’s made with pumpkin or butternut squash – or carrots.

Nothing about this is difficult. You do have to cook the onion, combine the spices, and cook the carrots. But once combined, they can be made ahead at least a day and that part of your meal is finished. Toss with the arugula just before serving.

What’s GOOD: well, I love carrots anyway, so it was a no-brainer that I’d like them. Good carrot flavor, just enhanced with the spiciness from the harissa and the cumin and fennel. They’ll keep for several days – just toss in fresh arugula on subsequent servings, if you have any left.
What’s NOT: nothing at all. Delicious.

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Well, the pan wasn’t quite dry, but almost. Just a little dab of butter was used to pan roast these delicious little beauties. It can’t get much easier than these.

Catching up on all the blogs I read is a steady, ongoing thing for me – I read so many, and if I let it get away from me, I’ll have over a thousand to read. Definitely over the top, and almost depressing to me – makes me feel like I can’t ever catch up! I can power-read occasionally – because it’s something I don’t like, or don’t think I’ll like, or it’s a subject not-dear to my heart. But when I read the Food52 blog pieces, generally I’m clicking over to the actual story and recipe on nearly every post. And they post several a day.

Perhaps you’ve already done these beans before – I never had, and it boggles my mind that you can actually cook green beans in nearly a dry skillet. Yup! The recipe is Spanish in origin, and a simpler method could hardly be found! Penelope Casas posted it on Food 52 recently. Mine, in the photo up top there, got a tad overdone, but they were still so tasty that my DH ate every single one on his plate before I could blink an eye, just about. And I finished off mine in a jiffy as well, before I even took a bite of the pork chops. And talk about easy.

Melt a little bit of butter, heat the pan to medium-high, toss in a bunch of cleaned, stem-trimmed green beans (dry them off well if you’ve washed them) and stir them around. In a few minutes they’ll begin to brown – you want those toasted brown spots on them. Not black, but several little strips of dark brown is just how you want them to be. Then, put a lid on it and turn down the heat. The instructions are specific – resist the temptation to add water, or anything at all. Just turn down the heat and cover, and cook them for about 15 minutes (depending on the size of the beans – if they’re those tiny haricot verts, less time will be needed). The moisture from the beans themselves will steam them done. Really. Yes. It works. Trust me. Then you toss them with the garlic and salt, and they’re ready to serve. Just like that.

What’s GOOD: How incredibly easy they were to make, and yes, I did want to put a little bit of water in that pan, but could hear the directive in my head – resist the temptation, the voice said. Delicious. I almost dare you not to like them! And yes, I’ll definitely be making them again. Sooner rather than later, if that tells you anything.

What’s NOT: Nothing at all – maybe just being careful about the heat levels – not too hot when you’re browning them (no burning) and then much lower when you’re cooking them (no burning then, either).

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Gosh, do I love this stuff. I’ve made a very similar recipe, spelled slightly differently, called Mujadara, and it’s an Armenian dish of the same style. Rice, lentils and onions. This one is slightly different, and it’s said to have Arab origins, but they’re one and the same. Slightly different seasonings, and a different preparation of the onions. Both delish. Both very worth making.

We were having lemony chicken on a shish kebob (not a very noteworthy recipe, so I probably won’t post about it), and I wanted a carb side dish and what came to mind was something along the lines of the mujadara I’d made a couple of years ago. I turned to one of my newest cookbooks, Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Ottolenghi and Tamimi. I’ve only made a couple of things so far from that book, but I assumed there would be a recipe for this dish in it. Sure enough.

It was slightly different, but not by much. Lentils cook almost to done and are set aside. Whole spices (cumin and coriander) are toasted, then rice added. The onions are tossed with a bit of flour and salt and are deep fried in a fairly shallow pan. They recommended sunflower oil, but I used grapeseed (which has a high flash point). That did take awhile – 5-7 minutes per batch and it took me 4 batches to get it done. That did take a bit of time.

The rice and lentils finish cooking with more added spices (turmeric, allspice, cinnamon) and a tiny bit of sugar. People in the Arab world often eat this as a vegetarian entrée, but I served it as a side dish. My earlier recipe garnishes with pine nuts and cilantro. Ottolenghi’s recipe just garnishes with the fried onions (which is the one ingredient that makes this dish).

If you serve this as a main dish, it probably will feed 8 people, but as a side dish it will serve more. I had quite a lot left over (which is fine with me) and I divided it up into 3 separate freezer bags with 3 additional little baggies with the onions separated that I inserted into the bigger bags. They’re already stashed in the freezer for some later evening when I don’t know what to make for dinner.

What’s GOOD: the flavors are just fantastic – the spices, the onions, the rice, the slight nuttiness of the lentils. All delish. Worth the effort.
What’s NOT: nothing other than it takes a bit of time to make, but like me, you’ll probably be glad you did it when you take a taste.

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This dish, gosh. Hard to describe without it sounding mundane, but it isn’t. And pictures hardly do it justice – purply broccoli? But, it’s delicious. It’s Sicilian, and most often when they serve it, it’s on top of a piece of amply oiled and browned rustic toast. And it’s a whole meal!

For a recent family dinner, our daughter-in-law asked me to make this dish with the minimal instructions she had, from her Aunt Pina, when she had prepared it on a recent visit. Karen’s aunt is Sicilian, and she’s an excellent cook, but I did have some difficulty interpreting the few directions. When I say minimal instructions, I mean minimal. So I went online and found a few other recipes for it, and discovered more about the dish. One Italian website (thank goodness for Google translations!) said that Affogati means drowned, but she explained that in the true sense of Sicilian-Italian, it means suffocated (because the dish is cooked completely with a lid). What a recipe title.

Most frequently Sicilians eat this as a vegetarian main dish and its quite beloved. Some make it with white wine, but mostly it’s made with red, which gives it a kind of unique color. There are variations of the theme – Karen’s Aunt makes hers without cheese, but with capers and green olives. Some make it with anchovies. Others have garlic. And raisins. All of the recipes use ample olive oil. Not just a dash or two, but several tablespoons, or at least more than you might think. And Karen’s Aunt Pina makes hers with tomato paste, which I didn’t find in any of the recipes I searched. So, you see, you can make this recipe your own, as I have.

Starting with Aunt Pina’s recipe, I adjusted and adapted it. The first time I made it according to the minimal instructions and everyone seemed to like it, but I thought it could use some adjustments. Cooking the onion first, for one thing, which would give the dish more onion character. Then, adding garlic, which is a no-brainer for me. Cooking the broccoli first with water, then adding the red wine later (I made it the 2nd time without the tomato paste) seemed like a good idea. I reduced the quantity of capers and olives (don’t use them at all if you’re at all caper or olive averse). Then the cheese. Well, what doesn’t taste better with cheese, I ask you? And Pecorino. I do love Pecorino a lot and usually I have some in my refrigerator.

So, the recipe below is my adaptation of the original recipe. If you’d prefer, do mix some tomato paste with the red wine (and mix it in very well so it’s a smooth liquid). I think the cheese added a lot, and I did find that I liked it cooked until it’s more “done” than our more common just cooked until al dente. This dish needs it to go further than that. I liked the garlic added in, and I preferred the cooking of the onions first, rather than layered into the pot raw. When I made it the 2nd time my DH was wild about it. The onions in the bottom had absorbed a lot of the red wine (so they were bright purple) which was pretty, besides being tasty. The Pecorino didn’t melt quite like I’d wanted (it clumped anywhere shreds touched one another), but the taste was wonderful.

What’s GOOD: the combo of flavors – the onions, the cheese, the broccoli. All of it good. It’s also quite easy to make.
What’s NOT: really nothing – try different cheeses if you’d prefer a softer, more melting type. Adapt the recipe to suit your tastes. It’s a good one.

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If you’re a chili-head, then you’ll want to know about where you can buy Hatch chiles. I wrote a bit about them a year ago – I tried to go to a roasting event at a local grocery store, but when I got there they’d already sold out completely. This year, thankfully, Frieda’s contacted me a few weeks ago, giving me the schedule of roasting events (I hope to stop by the one near me this coming Saturday and I’ll be going EARLY), and they offered to SEND me some. Yippee!

What’s unique about Hatch chiles? They’re only grown in and around Hatch, New Mexico. Hatch chiles are considered the cream of the crop, the tastiest of the lot and unique. Some people might say a chile is a chile, but you know they can vary in heat (scoville units), so obviously they can vary in texture and flavor too. My own experience with Hatch was only from hearing about them at cooking classes and on a culinary tour I did years and years ago in Santa Fe, and from that I purchased dried chile powder made from Hatch chiles. It’s a bit hard to find.

Enter Frieda’s – a Southern California based distributor of specialty produce. They obviously believed in Hatch chiles too, and began distributing them all over the U.S.

Glance at the left here, you can see one of their web pages with the U.S. map of their roasting events. It’s an interactive map, the one on their web site, so do go to that page and click on locations. Kind of fun.

There are some recipes too – a salad dressing, a dip, chile verde (that’s what I’ve used them for), in deviled eggs and several other ideas.

Hatch chiles aren’t hot-hot, though after working with them the other day my hands did mildly sting for several hours.

There is a recipe on their site for how to roast them – I roasted and broiled the ones they sent me (roasted first for about 10 minutes, then broiled for about 5 minutes) to get those lovely char marks all over, covered them for awhile, then peeled off the skins.

I’ll probably pack these up in about 2-3 smaller portions and freeze them. In the fall, when my mind turns to chile verde or a bowl of beef chili, I’ll pull them out and use them. Thank you, Freida’s for sending me some!

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As I look at that picture above, my mouth is watering. I can’t wait to have some more of it. I won’t eat it for breakfast, but I could. This salad is very, very different – of course – you need to like Brussels sprouts since you eat them raw (finely shaved) in this salad.

Numerous times I’ve mentioned recipes I’ve acquired as a result of reading Farmgirl Fare’s blog. Susan and her husband own a farm in the middle of Missouri never-never land (meaning they live way out in the sticks). They raise sheep, hay, and donkeys, dogs and cats as well as a myriad of their own vegetables every summer. Susan shares their seasonal changes (including a gushing river during springtime), farm stories and interesting photos every single day, particularly of Susan’s beloved donkeys. One of my all-time favorite recipes is a Susan one – Garbanzo Bean, Feta and Cilantro Salad. I could eat that salad every day for the rest of my life, I think. Which reminds me that I need to make it again very soon.

But on to THIS salad. Knowing that Susan’s an expert at salads, when I read about this one I knew I’d have to try it. Admittedly, I have a number of Brussels sprout recipes on my blog already, but this one – well, it’s certainly unusual – but that’s what makes it so good! Not everyone likes Brussels sprouts, I know, and especially raw ones at that. Which is why you need to cut/slice/shave the sprouts as thinly as possible. It helps to have a mandoline or a slicer blade on your food processor (I used the latter, though I have both – I just thought doing 2 lbs. of Brussels would be faster in the food processor). I used my middle-thin slicer.

The Brussels I bought were large – larger than I prefer – but that’s what was available. So I recommend that you halve them if they’re big, AND cut out the core. On the large sprouts, the core was well developed – just like a big honkin’ cabbage kind of core on a small scale – it was tough, so you do need to take that extra step – a nuisance, I know – but necessary.

Don’t be dismayed by the long ingredient list here – half of it’s the dressing (make double and use on green salads). The salad itself contains the Brussels sprouts, of course, Pecorino cheese, chives or green onions, lemon juice, and a number of optional additions to suit your taste (like dried cranberries, which I used), garbanzo beans (one of Susan’s favorites), raisins, almonds. I made this a few hours before a summer barbecue party recently, and I loved it, but I think I liked it even better the following day. In that time lapse, the dressing had softened the sprouts a little bit. The salad is chewy – know that going into it. It has to be healthy with all the cruciferous vegetable in it, although maybe offset by the fat grams in the dressing. But it’s altogether delicious!

What’s GOOD: the combo of flavors from the chewy Brussels sprouts, to the sweetness of the dried cranberries (or raisins), to the garlicky dressing that is just delish. The Pecorino cheese adds a kind of nuttiness to the flavorings – those dry Italian cheeses often do that. I loved it all, and even better the 2nd day.
What’s NOT: nothing really, unless you don’t like Brussels sprouts or the chewing of them when they’re raw. It’s not going to break your jaw – it’s just a chewy salad, that’s all.

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Need a really quick, easy and healthy slaw for summer? You could eat this any time of year, but it’s perfect for summer entertaining. It starts with the pre-cut packaged broccoli slaw from the grocery store. The rest is cinchy easy. The apple and pecans are what make this – well, maybe the curry powder added to the dressing also gives it an interesting twist.

It’s not often that I use a prepackaged anything, yet I know the package of broccoli slaw at the grocery store is probably quite healthy. It’s nothing but broccoli STEMS and carrots, I think. You could make your own if you have sufficient broccoli stems and carrots on hand. The mixture is tossed with a yogurt/mayo dressing which has the addition of some curry powder (I used a medium – meaning hot – heat level in mine and liked it a lot). The dressing is nothing but equal quantities of yogurt and mayo (and you could probably use nonfat or low fat of either or both), honey, rice vinegar, pepper and curry powder. Easy.

If you have some red cabbage on hand, add that to the salad mixture – my store bought package didn’t have it included. You do have to cut up a tart apple into julienne pieces – I peeled a green Granny Smith, cut off the domes on all 4 sides of the apple, put it through my alligator slicer and it made short julienne. That was really, really easy to do. Then I added pecans.

The nice thing about this is that it keeps for days. I made this the day of a summer dinner party we were having, and it was still wonderful 4 days later. As I’m writing this, we’re going to someone else’s home today for a barbecue and I’m going to use the 2nd package of broccoli slaw and just add another apple and more dressing to what I have left over from the first batch. The recipe came from Lydia over at The Perfect Pantry, a blog I’ve been reading for years and years.

What’s GOOD: the crunch for sure – of everything, including the pecans. The apple and pecans make this salad (to me anyway) and the dressing is very light. It’s got to be very healthy as well!
What’s NOT: gee whiz, nothing at all. It’s easy to make and great for a crowd.

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Revisiting this salad was a not a tough decision. In between making new things to post about on my blog, I also crave some of my old favorites. This one? I got a craving for it the other day – the day our weather turned from pleasant to hot and I wanted salad for dinner.

So this time I decided to ramp up the flavor just a bit – I added a poblano chile to the roasted veggies – and I added a few shallots to the mix as well. Other than that, the recipe is identical to the one I posted 4-5 years ago. But since I know many who have come to my blog somewhat recently haven’t ever gone back to look at old recipes, it’s a good time to revisit this one. It’s been on my Favs list all this time, and I always make it at least once every summer. It just begs for a nice piece of grilled chicken or pork. Even a juicy steak. Or ribs for that matter. If you want to read about my original post, you sure can.

Here’s a quick review of the recipe: you combine raw, peeled sweet potato, red onion, shallots and a poblano chile, toss them with a little bit of olive oil and roast them just until they’re tender. Meanwhile, you rinse and drain a can of black beans and make a spicy jalapeno dressing in your blender. I didn’t make any additional dressing – it seemed to be enough for the added ingredients. You can make this several hours ahead, and it keeps for a couple of days. Just return it to room temp before serving – that way the olive-oil based dressing will be loose enough to toss a bit better. I think I also added some green onions to the finished salad.

What’s GOOD: there’s something special about the sweetness of the potato countered by the heat of the dressing and the lovely color from the black beans. The onions are sweet too. Even though the dressing is made with jalapeno chiles, you’d hardly know it – it must be the sweet potatoes temper the heat somehow. But then, sometimes jalapenos are hotter than other times. Perhaps this one was particularly mild. I also love that it can be made ahead – in the morning when your kitchen is cool. And it really does keep for at least a day or two.
What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of. If it’s been on my Favs list for years, you know it must be a keeper!

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