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About
Tabouleh
If you haven’t noticed, I have been on a path of middle eastern cooking. Why, you might ask? Basically because the recipes are packed with great flavors with very few ingredients. If you do not believe me then check out the pita bread, baba ghanouj, and hummus recipes. Adding to this path, I am bringing to you tabouleh salad. I often make this salad with roasted chicken, or hummus, and this one is truly easy to make.
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cup of water
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat couscous
- 1 bunch of flat leaf parsley, cleaned, and finely chopped
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 2 roma tomatoes, chopped
- 1 cucumber, seeded and finely chopped
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1/2 tbsp of fresh ground pepper
- 1/2 cup of crumbled feta cheese
To get started, bring your water to a boil, adding the salt, and couscous. Cover, and remove from the heat. Let this stand for nearly 7 minutes, then fluff with a fork. In the meantime, combine your olive oil, lemon juices, salt and pepper, and toss into the couscous. Chill this for 20 minutes. In the meantime, get your remaining ingredients together. Once the couscous is chilled, add in the remaining ingredients, and toss really well. Taste, and add more salt if desired.
Pita Bread
On my pursuit for delicious ethnic food, I wanted to be able to easily, and quickly whip up some bread to go along with two of my favorite dips; baba ghanouj and hummus. Now I have made plenty of breads this past year, as well as dough for pizzas, so this one just came natural. Ok, I admit that you can go to the store and buy pita bread, but you know what, it is not all that good, not only in the texture, but also in the flavor. This pitas are really great, not only because you can eat them warm, but they can be stored for up to a week, or placed securely in your freezer for up to a month.
Ingredients:
- 1 package of active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cups of warm water
- 1 1/4 tsp of salt
- Pinch of sugar
- 3 1/2 cups of flour
- olive oil
Start by adding the package of yeast to 1/2 cup of the warm water in a small bowl. Add your sugar, and mix with a fork. Let this sit for roughly 15 minutes. You will notice it begins to activate and gets nice and frothy. In the meantime, add three cups of flour, and mix in your salt to a large bowl. Get your one cup of warm water ready, and when the yeast is ready, make a well in your flour bowl and the yeast mixture, and warm water. With your wooden spoon, or paddle, begin to slowly mix this until it forms a soft dough. On your baking board, add a handful of flour and spread it on the board, and flour your hands as well. Now remove the dough and knead for nearly ten minutes.
To another large bowl, add about one tablespoon of the olive oil. Place your dough in the bowl and toss it to make sure you coat it with the oil. Cover and let this rise in a warm area for nearly one hour, or until it doubles in size.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees, with a baking pan inside.
Once the dough has doubled in size, remove to your baking board, and shape it into a log, cutting it into ten pieces. Flour the board some more, and with each ball, roll out into about a six inch diameter and about a 14 thick. You will also want to make sure your rolling pin is lightly dusted with flour during this process, otherwise it will stick.
Once you have a couple of ready, remove the baking sheet from the oven, and carefully place your dough discs onto the pan. Cook for 4 minutes, then flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Set aside on a baking rack to let cool. Continue this process until all of your pita dough is cooked.
Trust me on this one, of the ten pitas I made, only three remain. That is always a good sign. That and the baba ghanouj is no longer availble due to the mass consumption.
Baba Ghanouj
If there is one thing I miss about Dallas, Texas, it is a restaurant called Ali Baba’s. This place was quaint and the food was killer. I typically ordered the chicken which had this amazing garlic paste, as well as hummus or baba ghanouj. From time to time, my thoughts take me back to that place, and I end up making roasted chicken, and hummus, however this time around I made baba ghanouj. For those that have never tried hummus, or baba ghanouj, they are a must make. Truly delicious flavors of garlic, lemon, and olive oil. Baba Ghanouj is basically grilled eggplant with yogurt, tahini, garlic, lemon, and olive oil. Anyway, lets get started so you can start enjoying this one right away!
Ingredients:
- 1 large eggplant, approximately 1 to 1 1/2 lb
- 2-4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- olive oil
- salt
- 2 lemons, juiced
- 4 tbsp of tahini paste
- 3/4 cup of greek, or regular plain yogurt
If you have a grill, get it on high heat. With a fork, poke your eggplant a few times so when cooking on the grill it can release the pressure that is building up from cooking. Place on the grill and cook for roughly twenty-five minutes until fully seared and soft to the touch. Remove from the grill and place on a plate to let cool for 15 minutes or so. While the eggplant is cooling, prepare the rest of the ingredients and place them all in a food processor or blender. When the eggplant is close to being cooled, begin to squeeze it over a kitchen sink and try to get the water to come out of it. You will want to do this for a couple of reasons, one to not make the dip so watery, and more importantly, to get rid of the intense bitter taste.
Remove the skin, and place the flesh into the blender. Blend until you have a nice puree of baba ghanouj. You can add olive oil along with the process as well. If the mixture become difficult to blend, simply stop the process, and move the mixture around with a knife, then continue to blend.
Place in a serving dish and serve with pita chips, spread on sandwiches, or eat by the spoonful. Trust me, it is an amazing dip that is packed with garlic and lemon flavor that it will keep you coming back for more.
Frittata with Bacon and Mint
Sunday morning is one morning that I really get to relax and spend some quality time with my wife and kids. It is a special morning where we typically make some pretty darn good comfort breakfast, laugh, and plan out the rest of the day before everyone heads back to school and work. Sunday mornings are special to me. After making the kids french toast this morning, I took a few minutes to investigate my pantry. Backtracking my thoughts, I recall my coworker, Ryan, talking about a frittata that he makes. After a simple review, I thought to myself, that I kind of make frittatas for my wife, with potatos, eggs, and onion, however it comes out like an omellete style, of which, my wife really enjoys. This morning I was taking it to the frittata level, and one that is truly packed with some interesting flavors.
I started by getting a few simple ingredients together, and as I recently purchased Nueske’s bacon (after a conversation about pork with another one of my coworkers), I really wanted to use some fresh mint from my garden, and hence the bacon and mint frittata. Lets get started.
Ingredients:
- 6 slices of your favorite bacon, cooked until crisp, set to drain any fat, then chopped
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 cups of shredded hashbrowns
- 5 eggs
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup of fresh, chopped mint
- oil
Begin by cooking your bacon. Once the bacon is cooked to a nice crisp, roughly 10 minutes, set aside on some paper towel and let cool. With the bacon fat, add your onions and potatoes and cook until they are nice and crisp. During this time, chop the bacon, whisk the eggs, adding a pinch of salt and pepper to them, and add the mint. Mix well. Once the potato and onion mixture is nice and crisp, add them to the egg mixture and mix another time, making sure to combine all of the ingredients.
Preheat your broiler to 500 degrees. In the meantime, clean out the pan that you were cooking the onion and potato mixture in, and then reheat it on medium-high heat, and add about a tablespoon on cooking oil. Add your egg mixture to the pan, and cook for 4-7 minutes, making sure you do not mess it as it will create a nice bottom crust. Remove the pan from the stove and place it in the broiler, allowing to finish the top crust for another two minutes.
With your heating gloves on, remove the pan from the broiler, and slip it out from the pan, and onto a cutting board where you will cut into into pie shape pieces. Serve warm. Trust me on this one, the mint flavor really packs a great flavor with the onion and bacon. This one will be served throughout the year, that’s for sure.