Happy Birthday to Me!

Last week was my bday, hooray for me, hooray for presents. My fave present so far is - big surprise here - a cookbook. My hubby got me Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, by Ana Sortun.Since then I have been cooking up a storm, or haboob, as the case may be. I found a really cool Middle Eastern market, Baiz Market in downtown Phoenix, got a ton of cool new spices, pita, and 3 different kinds of feta (who knew!).

So far, the household favorite has been Muhammara on Flatbread with Za'atar. Muhammara is a walnut, red pepper and pomegranate dip. Remember the first time you tried hummus, or tzatziki, and the flavor combos were a revelation? Muhammara is the same thing! Here is a copy of the recipe from my cookbook, and here's another variation from Paula Wolfert that I want to try, to compare.

Za'atar is a spice blend of Jordanian thyme, sumac, sesame, and some other stuff. It is addictive and amazing, especially on this flatbread. In this batch pictured, I kind of skimped on the za'atar, next time I will use a lot more!

Flatbread with Za'atar

adapted from Spice, by Ana Sortun

1/4 oz active dry yeast (1 packet)

3/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cups bread flour

1 tsp salt

4 Tbsp olive oil

6 Tbsp za'atar

Proof yeast by mixing with warm water until it blooms. Whisk in the 1/4 cup olive oil, flour, and half of the salt. Knead with a mixer or by hand (pretty easy with this dough) until satiny and tacky, but not sticky, adding more water or flour as necessary to achieve that texture. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and put in the refrigerator overnight to rise. Two hours before baking, remove from fridge and place on a 10x12 baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and let dechill for 90 minutes. Stretch out dough to corners of baking sheet, trying to keep it an even thickness. Brush with remaining olive oil, sprinkle with za'atar and remaining salt, and let proof for 30 minutes, uncovered. Preheat oven to 375 and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on the edges.

Elizabeth David's Ratatouille en Salade

So I'm reading Elizabeth David for the Chow Cookbook of the Month project. She had quite the life. Just a few highlights:
-ran away from home to become an actress
-eloped with a married lover and toured the Mediterranean on a sailboat
-arrested for being a British spy in Italy and deported to Greece
-after German invasion of Greece, evacuated by military to Egypt
-worked as a librarian in Cairo until she married a British officer and moved to India
-moved back to London, published 11 books on food and cooking that introduced the English to then exotic ingredients like olive oil, garlic, saffron and zucchini

Cool, huh. I bet she could take Martha Stewart anyday.

Anyhoo, she has a great Ratatouille recipe that I had to share-

Ratatouille en Salade
adapted from Elizabeth David Classics

4 japanese eggplant
2 tomatoes
4 small shallots
1 clove garlic
6 coriander seeds
1 yellow bell pepper

Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes, salt and place in a colander to drain moisture. Dice the tomatoes, shallots and bell pepper. Saute the shallots for a couple minutes until soft, add the eggplant, bell pepper and 1 clove garlic (whole), cover and cook for 30 minutes. Now that everything is nice and stewy, add in the tomatoes and coriander seeds and let cook uncovered until the tomatoes "melt." Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve hot, or let cool and serve room temp. I served it hot (I am impatient). I didn't miss the zucchini that you often see in ratatouille, the dish was sweeter without it, and went so well with fresh basil. A perfect summer dish!

Ellie's Garden Risotto

This week's CEiMB pick was Garden Risotto, chosen by A Singleton in the Kitchen. Spring comes a little earlier here in Arizona than the rest of the country, so it's actually too late for delicious, local asparagus and I decided to leave it out. Even without the asparagus, this was a nice take on the usual risotto blanco I make. Spinach and parmesean is always a tasty combination, and the bright green peas added color and sweetness.

I had to cheat on Ellie a bit and add butter, because it is so good in risotto, but the 1 tablespoon I added is minimal, especially divided between 6 servings. I also used shallots instead of onion, because I had 'em, and prefer their flavor in risotto. Since I was using boxed chicken broth instead of homemade, I boosted its flavor by soaking a hunk of parmesean rind in the rice during the cooking process. The rind adds a touch of creaminess, and I feel happy knowing I'm getting every penny out of that expensive parmigiano-reggiano.

Garden Risotto
adapted from The Food You Crave, by Ellie Krieger

1 1/2 cups arborio or other short grain rice
1 large shallot, finely diced
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup white wine
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen spinach
1/4 cup parmigiano-reggiano, grated

Heat the chicken broth in a medium saucepan and cover to keep warm, making sure you have a ladle or measuring cup that can easily fit into the pan's mouth. In a heavy saucepan, heat the butter and olive oil on medium, and add the shallot. Cook about 5 minutes on medium to medium-low, so all that great shallot flavor imparts itself into the butter/oil. Add the rice and cook another 5 minutes to fully toast the rice, but do not let it brown. Pour in the wine and simmer until it is absorbed, then add the broth in stages, about 3/4 of a cup at a time. Let the broth absorb fully into the rice before adding more. This is a slow process, so put on some music, practice your yoga poses and be patient as you ease the starch from your rice, stirring all the while.


It will take about 25 minutes to add and absorb, add and absorb all the broth. When it is creamy, not soupy, and the rice grains have lost their bite, add in the peas and spinach and stir until they heat through. Lastly, add the parmesean cheese, and season with salt and pepper until perfect, and enjoy!

Check out the CEiMB blogroll to see what adaptations the rest of the group had, I always pick up some good ideas and pretty pictures!

Dry Fried Green Beans

My mom makes these all the time, they have great texture, and are the perfect combination of spicy and sweet. When beans are not in season, I like to use Trader Joe's frozen haricot verts.

Szechuan Green Beans

1 lb green or long beans

1 tbsp grapeseed or other oil

1 tsp chile garlic sauce

squirt of honey

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp ginger, minced

a little soy sauce, to taste

Heat oil in a wok or pan til really hot. Add beans and cook until slightly brown in spots, like 3-4 minutes if fresh, and 5-6 if frozen. Remove beans to another dish. Saute ginger and garlic 1 minute, then toss in beans, honey and soy sauce, taste and adjust sweet salty and spicy seasonings as necessary.

Rainbow Chard

Trader Joe's has a prepackaged chard mix with 4-5 different kinds of chard that are so pretty, I couldn't help taking pictures of this simple recipe.

Tangy Greens
serves 2 as a side dish

1 bunch or bag chard
2 leeks
1 teaspoon dijon or whole grain mustard
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
olive oil
S&P

Slice white and light green parts of leeks into thin coins, wash thoroughly, leeks are dirty little buggers with lots of nooks and crannies. The belly button equivalent of the veggie world. Saute leeks in 1 tablespoon or so olive oil for 5 minutes on medium, or until tender. Add mustard and vinegar and chard. If chard is taking a long time to cook, splash in some water so it steams as well as sautes. Really good with some salmon and a nice baguette.

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

Had a close to perfect Sunday yesterday involving a long run, coffee, reading the whole paper, football-happy husband, rain, soup and slow roasting something fragrant all day in the oven. Not pork again, it's the new year, dammit and we are healthy! Tomatoes. Weak, winter, supermarket (actually worse: supermarket on-sale) tomatoes. If you see them, fear not bargain shoppers, you CAN buy them and get a tasty result.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

tomatoes, preferably Roma, Grape or Cherry
olive oil
dried oregano, and other herbs if you have 'em
salt

L: my ugly picture, R: pretty picture from Google images


Put tomatoes in baking dish. If they are romas, cut in halves or quarters. Bake at 225 for 6 hours or so. Can be longer, or shorter, depending on how hungry you get or how many errands you have to go do. Eat in a million ways, I like to involve fresh bread, basil and standing over the sink yet still staining my only white shirt. The white shirt, no!

Greek Winter Greens

My mom came to the rescue with a recipe when I told her about the terrible mountains of greens in my fridge. Have you ever tasted collard greens raw? Kale reminds me of garnishes, and dandelion greens don't even pretend not to be related to weeds. I persevered and I don't know if it turned out as the recipe intended, but it's actually pretty good. The sauce has a nice depth to it from the wine and capers, and that, along with the tomatoes, really transforms the usual rabbity harshness of greens into well rounded flavors that I can more than just tolerate.

The original recipe called for leaf celery, or chinese celery, which I think is just more leaf, less stalk than the usual celery, and Aleppo pepper, but I couldn't find either so I used regular celery and red pepper flakes. I also substitutued whole canned tomatoes because that's all I had.

Greek Winter Greens

3 bunches greens (I used collards, kale, and dandelion greens)

2 small onions, minced

3/4 c stalks of leaf celery, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

10 capers, chopped

olive oil

14.5 oz can of crushed tomatoes

1 c wine

3 T mint, chopped

1/2 c leaves of leaf celery, chopped

1/2 c parsley, chopped

zest of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon

Blanch greens by dropping 'em in boiling water for 2 minutes and then plunging immediately into an ice bath. If you use spinach, or other tenderish greens, reduce boiling time as low as 30 seconds. The greens will cook more later, so half done is fine fer now. Drain and chop the greens, you should have about 3 cups at this point. Don't squeeze the liquid from the greens, enough will come out from the chopping; you'll need this vitamin packed juice to thin out the sauce later(I did squeeze and then had to add water later).

Saute garlic, onions, celery and capers in olive oil until soft and caramelized, about 20 minutes(I didn't cook mine long enough, you can tell in the pic). Add wine to deglaze, along with the tomatoes. In hindsight, if I had any anchovies, I'd throw them in too, mmm. Add S&P to taste, be careful capers are salty so you won't need too much salt. Bring to boil, then lower to a simmer for 20 minutes so flavors can mingle. When sauce is yummy, add in the greens, along with the mint, parsley, celery leaves, lemon juice and lemon zest. Simmer a little more to get the sauce flavor into the greens, or until the greens are tender and sauce is the right consistency.

Next time I might play with red wine vinegar in addition to, or instead of the lemon juice, and maybe top it off with some extra virgin olive oil...but it was pretty good for the first time around, and the first dish where I've actually enjoyed all this healthy stuff. You're welcome, digestive system!