Surely there will be some of you reading this who will scoff at beets, mashed up at that, standing in as an appetizer. I’m telling you it’s good. Very good, in fact. But then, I like beets! It’s cooked beets with yogurt mixed in, some garlic and spicy heat, a jot of oil and maple syrup, then decorated with toasted chopped hazelnuts, green onions and goat cheese.

Have you ever looked for something new and different to take as an appetizer to someone’s house? This might just be the one, providing the group is adventuresome. Some might be put off by the color, let alone the smooth creamy texture, but according to the cookbook, Jerusalem: A Cookbook this is a frequent visitor in a mezze meal. It could also be served as a vegetable, but I think it worked so very well as an appetizer. We had 2 appetizers the night we did this Israeli meal, and the 8 of us just didn’t dig into either of them much – not that both weren’t delicious – they were – but we got to talking and drinking our glasses of wine, and gosh, suddenly dinner was ready. I ate a couple of pieces of sangak bread with the beet appetizer and thought it tasted wonderful. I liked the crunch of the hazelnuts on top. A few days later I had some more, and I served it as a side vegetable, in a bowl, when we ate the left overs.

The beets are cooked (or buy the already cooked ones in the vacuum sealed pouches at Trader Joe’s and some other markets). They are mashed up with some yogurt, some garlic, a bit of red chile, some maple syrup (original recipe calls for date syrup, but who has that, I wonder?), olive oil and then some za’atar. If you don’t have za’atar, it’s probably no biggie. Za’atar, or Zatar is a spice mixture. Some American versions don’t contain herbs from the plant of the Middle East (in Lebanon, for instance, they grow a plant that they call a za’atar plant, related to the oregano) – the little jar I had (see photo at left) contains sumac, thyme leaves, white sesame seeds and salt. Other mixtures might contain marjoram and some oregano.

My friend Dianne, who made this, said the beet mixture was quite thin when she got done, so the recipe indicated to add some mashed potato (cooked, obviously). She did and that gave it a better consistency. Alternately, perhaps adding a bit less yogurt would do the trick too.

What’s GOOD: the taste – it’s slightly sweet, actually. But beets are sweet to begin with. The consistency is smooth and I particularly liked the toppings (green onions, crumbled goat cheese and toasted hazelnuts). It’s a very unusual appetizer – the color alone is startling!
What’s NOT: Nothing at all.

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Decadent! Rich! Sweet! Chocolaty! All of those things and more. If you crave an over-the-top kind of dessert, here’s your ticket to chocolate nirvana.

Right off the bat I’ll tell you, this dessert is really rich and sweet. Not the kind I’d serve after a rich 3 or 4 course meal. Maybe after a more simple meal, even soup, salad and bread, when you can handle the calories, fat and sugar! When you’re still hungry. Phillis Carey served this at a recent cooking class. She says that even though her class teaching subject could be something like meats, or even vegan, if she doesn’t serve dessert, her class sighs in sadness. So, usually Phillis prepares some kind of dessert in every cooking class. I have many-a-dessert in my repertoire that have come from her classes. She and I have many things in common when it comes to desserts.

The cake is fairly normal in that it’s a chocolate batter, using unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate and cocoa. It makes a relatively dense cake – this isn’t a light and fluffy kind of fare. More like a brownie, actually. You also make a caramel sauce – and at the end chocolate is added in, hence it’s a chocolate-caramel sauce. You absolutely NEED the vanilla ice cream to cut the richness and the chocolate. Don’t skimp on that ice cream.

What’s GOOD: Well, everything about the dessert is good – even in 2 parts (both the torte and the sauce) are delicious all by themselves. Put it all together, and it’s just decadent. What else can I say. As I mentioned, be sure to NOT skimp on the ice cream.

What’s NOT: If a complaint could be made, it’s that this dessert is ultra-rich and sweet. What’s there not to like about that, though?

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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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If it were possible I’d be poising my fork or spoon right there in that sauce and poking a little piece of salmon to eat with it. So easy to make. So decadent. If you’re watching calories, read no further – just forget this one!

It must have been about 20 years ago that I first had “burr-blahnk.” (Please – do laugh at and with me here . . . ) Having never heard of it, I knew nothing of its spelling, let alone its origins (French) and it’s meaning (beurre means butter and blanc means white, and in this case it means white wine). Thus, a white wine and butter sauce. We were in a fish restaurant, with white tablecloths, and I know the waiter looked down his very long nose at me, that I didn’t know about it. I went right home and looked it up, only to discover that it’s just a butter sauce, but made very exactingly so it doesn’t separate.

Phillis Carey served this salmon dish at a recent cooking class I went to, and gosh, was that saffron sauce delicious. You can see a tiny strand of saffron down in the right front of the sauce in the photo above. She was very generous with the saffron when she demonstrated, so it came out a really gorgeous golden color, and you could taste the saffron.

First you need to prepare the achiote paste and flour mixture. What is it, you ask? The spice mixture (sold in a chunk as in the picture at left) usually includes annatto (they’re seeds, from an annatto tree), Mexican oregano, cumin, clove, cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, garlic, and salt. The annatto seeds dye the mixture red, and this gives the meat or vegetables it seasons a distinctive red hue. Some regular grocery stores carry it – if not, seek out a Mexican or South American market. The mixture is believed to be Mayan in origin. Anyway, you mix the achiote with flour and dip the salmon into it. Achiote gives a lovely red color to things, and it gives off a bit of heat as well. In my book, this version is a very mild amount. If you’re sensitive, you can leave it out.

The salmon fillets are seasoned with salt and pepper, then dipped into the achiote flour mixture, then briefly browned in a skillet, just 1-2 minutes per side. Onto a parchment-lined baking sheet they go and roast for about 7-9 minutes. In that time you make the butter sauce. White wine, shallots, rice vinegar and saffron go into a sauce pan and cook briefly. Then you begin adding the butter in small amounts, watching very carefully that the mixture doesn’t boil (if it does, the sauce will separate and you might as well throw it out and start over). Kept just below a boil, you can add the butter in several batches, and whisk it around to melt. Once you add enough butter (and yes, you add a LOT) the sauce thickens some. At the end you add some orange zest, chives and salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, everything else about your dinner needs to be ready (hot plates, salads plated, vegetables made, rice put onto hot plates) so when it all comes together you’ll put those salmon fillets right onto the plate and drizzle the slightly thickened butter sauce over the top. This would make a lovely company meal, but you might enlist help from someone else to help get everything plated and ready when the sauce is done. You can reheat the sauce, but it’s very, very difficult to re-heat a sauce without it boiling, and that sauce will separate if you do. Trust me – I’ve done it – so I know!

What’s GOOD: Well, the sauce is just lovely. Really tasty. And yes, very decadent. Serve some rice alongside so if you can’t scoop up all the sauce with the salmon, you’ll get all of it with the rice. Serve a green veg with it to give nice color to the plate.
What’s NOT: if you watch fat grams and calories, forget this one. But really, each person only gets a couple of tablespoons of sauce, so it may not be so bad after all! You also need to pace your meal carefully and have everything all ready when the sauce is done.

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Light cookies – they’re fairly low in sugar, but brightened up with the sweetness from the golden raisins, and given some crunch with the addition of some finely ground polenta. These are the usual kind of refrigerator cookies (meaning there’s no leavening in them) so they’re a slice and bake. Can be made 2 days ahead and baked fresh at the last minute.

We’re hosting a Bible study group at our home for the next 7-8 weeks, and the instructions suggested it would be nice if the hostess served something to eat (not a meal, but a snack or dessert depending on what time of day the group meets). Ours is from 7-8:30 pm, so dessert was the order of the day. Last week I made a pound cake. Guess I should post that one, although I’m going to make another one that will, hopefully be even better, so I wasn’t positive I’d even post this one. However, now that it’s all gone, I will say it was very, very good.

Anyway, I thought I’d vary what I served. The group likes coffee. I think these cookies will go well with a cup of coffee at this week’s meeting.

Of course, there’s a story attached to this. I got the recipe from a blog many years ago. When I went to that blog the other day, I was re-directed to a different blog, and I couldn’t find the recipe at all. But when I input the exact URL of the old blog, it did come up. However, only AFTER I mixed up the dough did I realize there was something wrong . . . since it’s been some years since I put this recipe in MasterCook, I have no recollection about it. Generally I read the comments about a recipe, if there are any, and whether I mis-typed something, or if I researched and decided to change the quantity of flour, I don’t know. The flour quantity was 2 3/4 cups. And now the recipe says 1 1/2 cups. Not the kind of typo one would usually make since it involved altogether different numbers. But once I mixed up the dough, it was so dry and crumbly I couldn’t even hold it together. As this crumbly mixture sat in the stand mixer, I began researching the recipe, and found that the flour quantity had been changed. I wasn’t about to throw away a perfectly good bowl of crumbly dough, so I improvised. I added a whole egg and a half a cube of butter and whiz-bang, it all came together easily. I did not increase the sugar – I tasted it and didn’t think it needed it. I left everything else as it was.

There are the raw, sliced cookies. Anyway, the recipe has been changed from the original. I don’t even want to give credit to the original since I’ve changed it all around. (She might be very annoyed with someone who tinkered with her recipe!). So suffice to say, the cookie was a nice change of pace from chocolate chip or brownies, or oatmeal or peanut butter. These are more subtle. Crunchy for sure because of the polenta grain in them. Very nice with a cup of tea or coffee.

What’s GOOD: That they’re not so sweet (you could make them sweeter by adding more sugar, but I liked them this way). They’re different – a subtle flavor, yet the lemon shines through. Very nice. Easy also.

What’s NOT: nothing at all.

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Having defrosted a nice chunk of salmon, I thought I would grill it and serve it with some kind of salsa or something, but when I asked my DH if that sounded good, he said no, it didn’t (we ate a lot of plain grilled salmon on our recent trip to the Pacific Northwest). So I had to figure out something else to do with it. This is what I concocted.

As a blog writer, I always think it’s important to tell you where a recipe comes from. I’m a reluctant innovator when it comes to cooking. Yes, I do veer off a recipe’s design sometimes, especially if I don’t have an ingredient or two. But more often than not, the first time I make something I make it according to the recipe. I don’t just open the refrigerator (or freezer) door and grab this and that and make it up as I go along.

So I went to that website I’ve told you about before, Eat Your Books, and did a search (amongst my own cookbook titles I’ve input there) for salmon. About the 3rd or 4th entry was a salmon soup. It sounded interesting. From an English cookbook, The New Covent Garden Book of Soups. (The last time we were in London – 10 years ago probably – I bought it at Harrod’s.) Then I went hunting for the cookbook on my cookbook shelves. And couldn’t find it. I dashed upstairs where I have another stack of cookbooks that I don’t use very often, and the most recent additions that came from our 2nd home we sold last spring. Most of the cookbooks that lived there had to find a home here. Nope, wasn’t there, either. Maybe I left that cookbook out there – I did leave a few for the new owners – wasn’t that generous of me  :-\. I thought I left just a few that I didn’t like particularly.

What I did have was the exact title for the recipe – so I did a web search for the recipe. Nope, not there either. What to do? The only thing I had to go on was the list of ingredients. I jotted them down and began to work on my own version of this soup since I had no quantities at all. I improvised a lot – I had onion, and I also added a shallot. I added celery because I think fish type soups always benefit from the flavor in celery. I added thyme as a flavoring as well, since I often like thyme in fish soups and chowders. I think canned tomatoes were listed, but I didn’t want a big 14 oz. can, so I added a can of salsa verde instead. I have some of Penzey’s seafood concentrate, so I used that too. The recipe called for milk, but somehow milk didn’t fit into my idea of a fish and tomato based salmon soup, so I eliminated that. A relish wasn’t even part of it, but I knew the soup contained “tomatoes” and “basil.” It could have been just a couple of small chunked-up tomatoes added into the soup liquid. The basil could have been dried. My mind conjured up a little tiny pile of fresh heirloom cherry tomatoes and some slivered basil carefully placed on top of the salmon cubes. There! A soup was created.

It wasn’t fancy. It didn’t take but about 20-30 minutes to make. The salmon was cut into big 1” cubes and I ever-so gently simmered them the last 5 minutes. I didn’t want the salmon to fall apart – I still wanted to see those big chunks. Everything worked just fine, and the flavor was really good. Not a normal kind of soup, for sure. If you think salmon and soup, likely you’d think chowder first. We did see salmon chowder on more than one menu when we were on our trip. Having used the canned salsa as part of the soup, it actually gave it a lot of zip. If you don’t like chile heat, use canned tomatoes instead.

What’s GOOD: how easy it was to make. Very tasty, filling, satisfying and simple. Just right for a weeknight dinner with some bread and butter. Using canned salsa made the soup pretty spicy, so use your discretion if you don’t like heat. If you like, toast a thick piece of white bread (a country loaf type or sourdough) and put it in the bottom of the bowl, then ladle the soup on top and garnish. I actually added some quartered brussels sprouts to this recipe just to give some added veggies. Most folks don’t like them, so I left those out of what I printed below. Zucchini would be a good substitute.
What’s NOT: nothing, really.  I’d make it again.

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Hearty, comforting and healthy soup. There’s no cream in it – the broccoli provides the creamy texture. I know that sounds strange, but it’s true. Read on . . .

Rarely do I watch The Chew. The show is so fast-paced (frantic almost, like The View which I refuse to watch at all because they all talk over each other) and loud that I will only watch it on occasion and rarely do I ever try one of the recipes. A few over the years . . . but I know the show is well liked by many. When we were on our trip I happened to turn on TV and I tuned in to the program and Stacy London [a TV fashionista and co-host of the show What Not to Wear, another show I don’t watch] was making a soup. She had someone come to her home to cook for her and this recipe was borne of that professional relationship, as I understood it. Apparently, she had leftovers of both a healthy pureed broccoli soup and one with white beans and sausage and Stacy decided to combine the two. She loves it so much that she learned to make it herself and eats it by the gallon.

It’s no secret around here that I love soups. Not only for their ease (a meal in one pot) but soups are comforting and provide infinite variety. And often I add a little jot of cream to soups. This soup looked like it had cream in it, but it doesn’t. Nary a bit of cream or dairy at all. Basically you make 2 soups – a broccoli soup in one pot (which gets pureed and becomes the liquid in the other soup) and the spicy sausage and cannellini bean soup in the other. Once the broccoli soup is cooked through (takes no time at all) it’s whizzed up in the blender and then that’s added to the other. Because I had some mushrooms on hand, I added them, and I think I added some zucchini too, though neither of those were in the recipe.

The only fat in the entire soup is a tablespoon or two of olive oil to sauté the onions, the same for the chicken sausage soup plus whatever intrinsic fat is in chicken broth and the chicken sausage (not much, in other words).

Adapting the recipe a little, I added some fresh mushrooms and zucchini to the soup. Why not, I said? I wanted more veggies and texture since the broccoli is completely pureed. The recipes serves 8, and that’s about right – we had 2 dinners and 2 or 3 lunches out of the one preparation. I’m sure it would freeze well also.

What’s GOOD: I like that it’s a very healthy soup. I really had to work at it to taste the broccoli (and I like broccoli) since it’s pureed. You honestly think it’s a cream soup! My DH liked it a lot and told me each time I served it that it was really good. I felt the same way. A keeper. It’s not gourmet. It’s not over-the-top with flavor, but it’s just wholesome and good. It’s thick – you can see that from the photo. If you wanted a lighter soup, add more chicken broth and thin it some.
What’s NOT: nothing at all that I can think of.

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Having never heard of “The Cookbook MANifesto,” I was intrigued when I read about it on the Eat Your Books blog. It makes perfect sense to me:

• Don’t buy a cookbook because everyone else has it.
• Just because someone can act or sing, doesn’t mean they can write a cookbook.
• If there are tons of ingredients you cannot pronounce, move along.
• You should love the images.
• If it makes you drool, that’s a good sign.
• You should be able to actually make the recipes inside.
• As a rule, you may make 6 – 8 recipes out of any given book, so see if you can find those first.

That’s just the BUYING part of the manifesto. There’s more about the using of cookbooks, and also about creating them. Click on over if you want to know more.

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Don’t we all welcome an easy and tasty chicken dish you can cook in less than about 30 minutes? This isn’t going onto any taste hall of fame, but it’s good and hearty.

We ate a lot of fish on our travels to the Pacific Northwest. So much so that when we got home I wasn’t craving anything fishy at all, but wanted chicken. I do get tired of it sometimes too, but our first night home I wanted some fowl. We visited Costco for a new stash of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and I bought some fresh mushrooms. Everything else was in the kitchen pantry.

The recipe came from an Oprah show some years ago, when Cat Cora visited the program. What makes this preparation Greek is really just the cinnamon. The Greeks do eat pasta, though, so it’s kind of a cross between Italian and Greek. The original recipe suggests using orzo pasta, which the Greeks do love – almost more so than the Italians. My changes to the recipe were: (1) I added mushrooms just because; (2) I had some Pecorino-Romano cheese that needed using up, so I mixed it along with the freshly grated Parmigiano; and (3) I added some crumbled Feta cheese. I must say that of those changes, it was the Feta cheese (because of the saltiness, I think) that made this dish taste so good. I also added just a tetch more cinnamon too.

The original recipe called for chicken pieces (which probably is more traditionally Greek). I used chicken breasts, so I’ve changed the directions as breasts cook so much faster, of course. If I had chicken pieces, I’d just cook it longer with a lid on to help develop some good flavor in the sauce. Chicken breasts without bones don’t impart a lot of character/flavor to anything, unfortunately. But it was what I had, so that’s what I did. I was too lazy to hunt in my pasta stash for orzo, so I grabbed thin linguine (my go-to favorite pasta, actually). My DH was so happy to have some pasta – we eat very little of it – maybe once a month at most. And yes, it did taste good!

My only caution: don’t over cook the chicken – since it’s cut into strips, it doesn’t take long to cook through. Every minute cooked after that just makes chicken breast meat more dry. Keep that in mind as you brown the pieces, then simmer in the sauce for a short time. Meanwhile make the pasta and combine. Don’t forget that Feta cheese.

When I entered this recipe into MasterCook, it shows a very high sodium content. It must be the tomato paste. I buy a very low sodium brand (Hunt’s I think). The Feta cheese and both Italian cheese add sodium to the dish as well. Watch how much extra salt you add, that’s all.

What’s GOOD: how quick it was to make – it was a satisfying dish. Comforting. As I mentioned at top, since this sauce is based on tomato paste, it’s not overwhelming in other, good flavors. Next time I make it I’m going to use chicken broth instead of water.
What’s NOT: this isn’t going to win any flavor contests, but remember, this is a quick, easy dinner to make in a short time. Your family will be happy.

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(photo from wisegeek.org)

I was reading a blog post over at Food52. The staff there post several times a day, so if I don’t keep on top of it, next thing I know I’ve got 350 posts to scroll through. Yikes.

This particular one was very interesting to me – it listed all the different kinds of cooking oils and why a cook would use one vs. another. About the flash point; about the taste profiles and why you’d use one in a salad dressing and another for frying. I knew some of it already, but to tell you the truth, I forget. Probably I need some kind of chart to refer to, but I just don’t have the energy to create a spreadsheet to do that; at least not right now anyway.

Nevertheless, the post is a good one – you’ll need to read all the way through it to figure out which ones to use and for what reasons. Anyone want to make a spreadsheet for me? I’ll post it here if you do.

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