Filed under: recipes
Cola de Mono (Tail of the Monkey) is a Chilean Christmas drink made from milk, cinnamon, coffee, tequila, and vanilla. Cola de Mono has become a Christmas tradition in my family, lovely to have around when extended family is up late playing cards. I’ll warn you that it’s deceptively strong. There are 2 full cups of tequila in there, but all you’ll taste is the cinnamon. It makes sense to serve it in tiny glasses.
I have altered the Sundays at Moosewood recipe in replacing their instant coffee with strongly brewed real coffee. I think instant coffee “crystals” are bizarre, so I don’t keep them in the house.
COLA DE MONO RECIPE
6 Cups milk
1 Cup sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
1/4 Cup strong coffee
2 Cups tequila
1 teaspoon vanilla
METHOD:
Bring the milk, sugar, and cinnamon to a boil in a saucepan. In the meantime, brew the strong coffee. When the milk mixture has come to a boil, remove it from the heat and stir in the coffee. Cool to room temperature, then chill it even further in the refrigerator. When well chilled, add the tequila and vanilla. Pour it into capped bottles or carafes, and return to the refrigerator. Let the cinnamon sticks remain in the bottles to continue infusing the beverage.
Serve very cold. It will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks.
Filed under: recipes
Honey, are you still buying hummus from a plastic carton? Can I help you break that habit? Honestly, hummus is one of the easiest things to make from scratch, and is worlds away from that stuff in the refrigerator case. Most packaged/processed hummus cuts corners by omitting the tahini, the crucial ingredient that makes hummus what it is. Haram! Without tahini, those dreary tubs are merely bean dip. If you’re ready to try, I can hold your hand through the process.
You can experiment with different brands of tahini to find a rich, toasty, flavorful tahini that you like. You might decide to avoid some of the cheaper tahinis which are pale in color, and as bland as mortar. Arab groceries and health food stores tend to carry a good variety. Try to find something dark and rich, something tasty enough to spread on toast. You can always ask the clerks what their favorite brands are.
I’ve been making hummus from scratch for 10 years, but 2 years ago a Palestinian friend helped me refine my recipe. He told me the basic ratio is 1 can of chickpeas to 1 lemon. In the past, I had added the lemon juice a few tablespoons at a time, tasting as I went. Now I know to simply start with a whole lemon as a solid foundation. You can always add more to taste, but this takes alot of the guesswork out of it. Since then, I have also started adding lemon zest. The zest adds a deeper, more elemental freshness.
Some people keep 2 kinds of olive oil in the kitchen at all times: one of decent quality for a saute, and another darker, fruitier olive oil for raw things like salads. If you have a fruitier olive oil on hand, you’ll want to use that here.
I’m lucky enough to have a big food processor in the kitchen, which whips this up in a snap with its big blades and massive motor. If you’re working with a blender or “stick” immersion blender, it will take just a bit longer because the blades are small. With a blender, you’ll need to pause from time to time to scrape down the sides and make sure everything is incorporated. You might also want to mince your garlic clove ahead of time, in case it gets ignored by the tiny blender blades. I suppose it’s easier than making it the traditional way with a mortar and pestle.
HUMMUS RECIPE
14-oz can of chickpeas
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
3-4 TBS tahini
1 garlic clove
1/4 tsp ground cumin
generous pinch of salt
generous stream of olive oil
1/4 cup water
METHOD:
Wash and rinse the canned chickpeas thoroughly in a colander over the sink to wash away all of the canning slime. Throw the chickpeas in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients. Blend until very smooth. Taste for adjustments. If you think a particular batch needs more flavor (depending on the size of the lemon or the brand of the tahini) you can add more lemon juice or tahini.
Serve at room temperature in a wide, flat bowl. Make a wide, shallow well in the center of the hummus with the back of a spoon. Drizzle olive oil in the well. Sometimes I sprinkle sumac or zaatar over the top for a pretty presentation. I also had a great version in Lebanon topped with warm, toasted pine nuts. If you’re setting up a mezza spread, muhammara is a natural complement.
Filed under: recipes
This is my favorite risotto. It’s deeply, vividly fuschia, like eating melted jewels or bougainvillea blood. Besides being visually stunning, it’s one of the tastiest risottos I know of. The rich sweetness of the beets is tempered by the brightness of lemon juice and zest.
Please don’t be tempted to buy the shrink-wrapped beets that are pre-cooked and peeled. Because those are already cooked, they would contribute far less flavor to your risotto. This recipe calls for peeling raw beets, and grating them raw into the risotto. Your hands will turn fuschia whilst grating, so this would be a good opportunity to wear a favorite cute apron.
This risotto gets some leafy greens stirred in toward the end. If you bought your beets with the beet greens still attached, use them here. If the beets are sold without the greens, then choose another favorite green like chard or kale.
This risotto is inspired from a Deborah Madison recipe. I have strayed from Deborah in adding toasted walnuts, and have altered some of her language.
BEET RISOTTO RECIPE
6 Cups vegetable broth
3/4 Cup walnuts
3 tablespoons butter, or a mixture of butter and olive oil
1/2 Cup finely diced onion
1 1/2 Cups Arborio rice
1/2 dry white wine
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped basil
3 medium beets, peeled and grated, about 2 Cups
3 Cups beet greens, or another green like kale or chard
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon, or more to taste
1/2 Cup grated Parmesan
METHOD:
Toast the walnuts at 350F while you are working on the rest of the recipe. When their toasty fragrance becomes apparent, let them roast in the oven a little while longer to get darker and more flavorful. Chop them fine with a big knife.
Bring the vegetable broth to a simmer in a small saucepan.
Mince the onion. Peel and grate the beets. Chop the greens. Chop the parsley and basil.
Heat the butter in a wide heavy pot like a Le Creuset. Add the onion and cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the Arborio rice, stir to coat it well, and cook for 1 minute. Add the wine and simmer until it’s absorbed. Stir in half of the parsley, the basil, and the grated beets. If using chard or kale, add them now because they are sturdier than beet greens and need to cook longer.
Add 2 cups of the broth, cover, and cook at a lively simmer until the broth is absorbed, just a few minutes. Remove the lid, and begin adding the remaining broth in 1/2 cup increments, stirring constantly until each addition is absorbed before adding the next ladle-ful. Before adding the last 1 cup of broth, add the beet greens, if using.
Taste for salt and season with pepper. Stir in the lemon zest and juice to taste. Stir in the toasted walnuts. Serve dusted with the Parmesan and remaining parsley.
Filed under: recipes
As a vegetarian, I’m perfectly content with the wealth and variety of side dishes at the Thanksgiving table. No need to experiment with silly fake-meat. Last Thanksgiving I tried this seasonal dish from the LA Times. It was so compelling and satisfying that it was easily the first dish to make it onto this year’s menu. Even the non-vegetarians admitted that it surpassed the turkey hands-down.
The baked sweet potatoes are smashed with walnuts and mace to form the patties. A cinch to assemble. The mushroom sauce comes together in just a few minutes on the stove. Sage in the sauce makes it a perfect fit for Thanksgiving, but I plan on continuing to make this all winter, using different herbs I happen to have on hand. I also won’t use chanterelles all season, but will probably whip up a weeknight version of the sauce with white buttons and cremini.
FOR THE CAKES:
2 pounds sweet potatoes, pricked all over with a fork
1 1/3 Cups panko bread crumbs
1/2 Cup toasted walnuts
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon mace or nutmeg
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 Cup flour
FOR THE SAUCE:
3 tablespoons butter
4 shallots, finely chopped
1 1/2 pounds mixed mushrooms (I used half chanterelle and half cremini)
2 tablespoons chopped sage, divided
3/4 Cup heavy cream or half-and-half
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
METHOD:
Bake sweet potatoes in a 425F oven until soft, about 45 minutes. You can toast the walnuts simultaneously while the oven is hot.
When cool enough to handle, peel and discard the skins. Roughly mash in a large bowl until chunky. Stir in bread crumbs, walnuts, brown sugar, mace, egg, salt and pepper.
Place the flour in a wide, shallow dish. Form the mixture into patties. You can decide on the size. Coat each in flour, and set on a baking sheet. Heat oil in a skillet over medium hear. Fry in batches on both sides until golden.
Mince the shallots. Chop the sage. Slice or quarter the mushrooms.
Melt butter in a skillet over med-high heat. Add the shallots with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Stir often until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and 1 tablespoon of the sage. Saute 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the cream and simmer until just thickened, 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in the vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve the sauce over the croquettes. Garnish with the remaining sage.
Filed under: recipes
I threw this risotto together last night. I had a butternut squash I needed to use, and realized I was in the mood for a risotto. So there you have it. The result was so perfect that I felt compelled to share the recipe with all of you. Some of my friends have confessed to me that they enjoy risottos in restaurants, but haven’t attempted them at home. Well, perhaps this is the season to try. The traditional risotto method is simple, and allows for infinite variations with seasonal vegetables.
The squash-walnut flavor combination was stirring in the back of my head because of some recent discussions about Thanksgiving menus. I also suspected that toasted walnuts would work because I always include them in my favorite beet risotto.
The magic of risotto is that the Arborio variety of rice is short and round, and gradually releases starch whilst cooking. This starch creates something resembling a creamy sauce (without the cream). For those of you who haven’t cooked risotto before, you slowly cook it in a big pot, lid off, with onions and white wine, stirring as you gradually add ladles of broth. Parmesan is added at the end — so if you like wine and parmesan, this is the rice dish for you. Quite a different method from basic steamed rice or a pilaf, but definitely not difficult.
A cast iron pot like Le Creuset is perfect. You will want something that conducts heat well and evenly. There are also lovely risotto pots in the shops with round bases, the perfect shape for continuous stirring (which by the way also makes them perfect for polenta.)
Arborio rice can easily be found in a brick-red box at Trader Joe’s.
6 cups vegetable broth
3/4 Cup walnuts
2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
1 small yellow onion, finely minced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 Cups Arborio rice
1/2 Cup dry white wine
3 Cups tightly diced butternut squash
salt and pepper
3/4 cup grated parmesan
METHOD:
Toast the walnuts in a 300F oven. They will toast while you are working on everything else. Eventually when they smell good, keep checking them until they are deeply brown in color, but not quite burnt. The darker the color, the more intense the flavor. Let them cool a bit, then finely mince them with a big knife.
Finely mince the onion. Mince the garlic. Peel and dice the butternut squash into small cubes about 1/3 – 1/2 inch thick.
Simmer the vegetable broth in a small saucepan. (You will be gradually incorporating this hot broth into the risotto.)
Heat the olive oil or butter in a heavy pot. Saute the onion for a minute. Add the garlic, and continue to saute for 2-3 more minutes. Add the Arborio rice, and stir until well coated.
Add the wine, and stir constantly until it is absorbed into the rice. At this point, add the butternut squash, and 1/2 cup of the broth, still stirring. When the broth is absorbed, add another 1/2 cup of broth. From now on, continue to add 1/2 cup of the broth at a time every 2-3 minutes, whenever the rice starts to look a little dry. You don’t necessarily need to stir constantly, but you do need to stir frequently enough to keep the bottom from sticking. Sometimes I read a book while stirring risotto or polenta.
It will take about 18-25 minutes for the rice to cook. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the parmesan and minced walnuts. Serve immediately.
Filed under: recipes
My kitchen was fragrant this weekend from garlic and acorn squash roasting in the oven. This lovely autumn soup is based on a recipe from Deborah Madison’s cookbook Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
Halves of winter squash are roasted face down with garlic cloves in their cavities. This technique allows the garlic to slowly infuse the squash with warm garlic steam. When soft, it all is added to a pot of browned onions, herbs, and broth. After simmering a bit, a stick immersion blender purees everything smooth.
I strayed from Deborah’s recipe in increasing the amount of garlic from 6 to 10 cloves. Feel free to even go further. The roasted garlic is soft, rich, and almost sweet.
Deborah Madison recommends pairing this soup with blue-cheese-walnut crostini. That was decidedly fantastic, creating a perfect trio of soup, crostini and red wine. It made a lovely meal with my friend Floriane. The crostini recipe also follows below.
ROASTED WINTER SQUASH SOUP WITH SAGE
2.5 to 3 pounds winter squash (I used 2 acorn squash)
1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for rubbing on the squash
10 garlic cloves, unpeeled
12 whole sage leaves, plus 2 tablespoons sage chopped
2 onions, finely chopped
chopped leaves from 4 thyme sprigs, or 1/4 teaspoon dried
1/4 cup chopped parsley
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 quarts vegetable stock
fontina, pecorino or parmesan for garnish
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 375F. Halve the squash and scoop out the seeds. Brush the surfaces with olive oil. Stuff the cavities with garlic, and place them cut sides down on a baking sheet. Bake until very soft and tender, about 30-35 minutes.Meanwhile in a small skillet, heat the 1/4 cup olive oil until nearly smoking, then drop in the whole sage leaves and fry until speckled and dark, about 1 minute. Set the leaves aside on a paper towel. Using a rubber spatula, transfer the sage-infused olive oil into a heavy soup pot. Add the onions, chopped sage, thyme, and parsley. Cook over medium heat until the onions are browning on the edges, about 15 minutes.
Scoop the squash flesh into the pot along with any juices that have accumulated in the pan. Peel the garlic and add it to the pot along with 1 1/2 teaspoon salt and the broth. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 25 minutes. Puree the soup with a stick immersion blender. Taste for salt. Ladle into bowls, and garnish with cheese and fried sage leaves.
BLUE CHEESE AND WALNUT CROSTINI
baguette slices
4 ounces, Roquefort, Maytag, or Danish blue
3 tablespoons butter at room temperature
1-2 teaspoons cognac
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
freshly milled pepper
finely chopped parsley
METHOD
Toast the baguette slices under the broiler until nicely browned on one side, then a little less so on the second. Cream the blue cheese and butter until smooth, then work in the cognac, walnuts and black pepper. Spread on the paler side of the toasts, then broil until the cheese is bubbling. Remove, and dust with the parsley. Serve warm.
Filed under: recipes
Southern California finally got a hint of fall this week, right at the tail end of September. I can actually wear a cardigan in the evenings now. I bought a butternut squash to celebrate the change of seasons, and used a fabulous recipe that my sister Deb pointed me to last winter. It’s an elegant and unusual stir-fry from my favorite Thai cookbook, True Thai by Victor Sodsook. Slices of pumpkin are stir-fried with tofu, basil, and an insane amount of garlic.
Now that the weather is cooling off, I imagine I will make this on a regular basis. It’s a cinch to assemble, and I love making my house smell like garlic.
The recipe calls for kabocha pumpkin, but I used butternut squash since that’s what my grocery had in stock today. I might get in trouble for saying this, but I think many winter squashes and pumpkins can be used interchangeably in most dishes.
For this recipe you will need to obtain a bottle of “crushed yellow bean sauce.” It’s an earthy and delicious fermented bean sauce that reminds me of the black bean paste used in Sichuanese tofu dishes like mapo tofu. You can easily find this sauce in an Asian grocery. My “Healthy Boy Brand” bottle has a funny baby on the label.
STIR-FRIED PUMPKIN WITH TOFU AND BASIL
1 pound kabocha pumpkin or butternut squash
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
10 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons crushed yellow bean sauce (tao jiew dam)
2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon white pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable stock
19 ounces firm tofu, cut into bite-size pieces
3/4 cup loosely packed Thai basil or Italian basil
METHOD
Scoop out and discard the seeds and fibers from the pumpkin or squash. With a sharp, heavy knife or cleaver, chop it into quarters. Cut off most of the peel and slice the pumpkin into thin, bite-size pieces.
Place all stir-fry ingredients within easy reach of the cooking area.
Set a wok over medium-high heat. (If you don’t have a wok, a wide skillet will do). When it is quite hot, add the oil. Rotate the wok a bit so the oil coats the sides. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and stir-fry briefly, just until golden and aromatic. Add the pumpkin and stir-fry for 3 minutes.
Add the yellow bean sauce and brown sugar, and stir-fry until blended, about 1 minute. Add the white pepper and vegetable stock and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the tofu and stir-fry until it is heated through, about 1 1/2 minutes.
Turn off the heat. Stir in the basil and cook for a few seconds, just until the basil begins to wilt.
Transfer to a serving platter and serve with steamed rice and chile sauce.
Filed under: eating out
I spent most of my summer in Lebanon, in a program through my grad school. My mornings were spent volunteering at a center in Beirut for street kids, doing art with them and setting up an exhibit for their work. My afternoons were filled with Arabic language classes. I also spent my last two weeks (and my free weekends) traveling around Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Needless to say, I ate very well. I kept all of you friends in mind, and properly documented my memorable meals.
A typical breakfast for me in Beirut was manaeesh, a grilled flatbread topped with fresh cheese. This particular one was topped with feta and fresh thyme.
This arugula salad was topped with a mound of sauteed eggplant. It lacked a conventional dressing because once tossed, the sticky eggplant would slick up against the arugula to create its own sweet and sour coating. The flavor reminded me of the rich and complex Sichuan dish “yuxiang qiezi”.
Hummous in Lebanon in always fantastic, but approaches the realm of the divine when topped with warm, toasted pinenuts.
After wandering the old souq of Tripoli for hours, we had a late lunch at this cafe that only served hummous. This one was garnished with chickpeas.
When in Syria, I had to visit Aleppo, the birthplace of muhammara. You might remember that my first recipe on keitopotato was for muhammara. I’m crazy about the pepper-walnut-pomegranate mash, and I got a few friends there addicted to it as well. This little batch of it in Aleppo was by far the best. It had the perfect balance of walnuts to peppers. Rich and luscious, yet spicy. I wanted to lick the plate clean. In Syria they know how to make it pretty, topped with crushed walnuts and a drizzle of more pomegranate molasses. I’m going to start serving it like this at home.
These two dishes were part of mezze at a rooftop cafe in Damascus. The thyme salad was for serious thyme-lovers. A mound of thyme mixed with feta, kalamata olives and minced onion in a lemony dressing. The labneh next to it is a stiff yogurt, that here was mixed with fresh mint, walnuts and garlic. A friend told me that the Lebanese have always eaten so much yogurt that the name of the country might possibly have been named after their favorite food. Labneh. Lebanon. The land of yogurt. What an adorable legend.
Look at this cute little log of haloum! This particular log of the squeaky cheese is coated and deep fried, ready to be sliced and eaten with fresh hot flatbread. There are so many ways to serve haloum, and you honestly can’t go wrong with any of them. I first fell in love with haloum at a backyard birthday party in London for a guy from Cyprus. The party was populated by Cypriot guys, who were having a good time at the grill. They grilled platters of super-fresh haloum, in hunks a full inch thick and 3 inches wide. They squeezed lemon over and brought it out on platters to us white-wine-sipping girls. Hot and chewy, but sizzlingly-crispy on the outside. I was smitten. Because of my crush, in Lebanon my fragile little heart wouldn’t let me pass up a haloum dish. And there were many.
Eating this stuffed eggplant, I finally realized why people wax poetic about them. This little guy was stuffed with roasted peppers, kalamata olives and walnuts. Rich and spicy from the walnuts and peppers, with a solid floor of earthy, salty umami flavor from the olives.
In Syria we tried fatta, which is an unusual assembly of humble ingredients. It consists of crunchy, dried flatbread that is then soaked in tahini. It’s finally topped with chickpeas and drenched in olive oil and yogurt. This one had a sprinkling of pistachios as well.
The Syrian Lonely Planet disappointed me time and again with inaccurate descriptions. One time they actually got it right was when they recommended this little cafe in Aleppo that only serves ful. Ful is a warm fava bean stew, rich and zesty with fresh garlic and plenty of lemon juice. Since this cafe only serves ful, they know how to make it memorable. They add to the stew a thick stream of tahini sauce, and pour the famous Aleppan red pepper sauce over. The cafe was tiny and dingy, packed with men inhaling bowls of the hot bean stew. What a find.
Mashed potatoes isn’t a common mezze dish here in the states, but I’ve got to tell you that it works. Instead of being mashed in butter and milk, imagine then smashed into olive oil and fresh thyme. The result is fragrant and soft, and easily lends itself for bread-dipping. I wouldn’t serve this by itself as an appetizer, but it’s a great complement to other mezze dishes.
This was another fun potato mezze dish. They’re like cube-shaped french fries, but they’re tossed in garlic, parsley, red chiles, and lemon juice. This restaurant near the Place d’Etoile made the best ones I found. They were the crispiest and had the most assertive garlic-lemon flavor.
I ate at Le Chef at least 4 times. It’s a scruffy hole in the wall place tucked in between the posh restaurants and bars of Gemmayzeh. We kept coming back to Le Chef because they make affordable Lebanese comfort food. The daily assortment of vegetarian stews won me over. Things like Turkish eggplant with cinnamon or the broad beans stewed with tomatoes. This “Lebanese omelet” was fun. It’s flat (instead of folded like a French omelet) and the additions are incorporated into the egg mixture instead of being a filling. This one had minced onion and fresh herbs. Tasty. The owner of Le Chef is known for repeatedly calling out “welcome!!” to his guests and folks on the sidewalk. When I asked about the vegetarian daily specials, he cried out, “welcome vegetarian!!” He brought out this omelet as a mezze for the whole group, but made a point to me that the omelet was indeed vegetarian. Adorable. On my successive visits to the restaurant, he would see me in the doorframe and call out “welcome vegetarian!”
Each time I was at Le Chef, I had this lemony lentil soup as a starter. Only a dollar. You’ll notice the arak next to it. I was actually the only one in our group who enjoyed arak. But I couldn’t help it. I think licorice liqueurs are pretty fine.
I don’t normally seek out fussy things composed in a mold, but this eggplant dish just happened to show up at the table that way. What a complete delight. The thick slices of eggplant had been cooked so delicately that they completely fell apart in my mouth. Gushing to friends later, I gasped that the eggplant was so soft that it “felt like a down pillow in my mouth!” I never heard the end of it.
I had Arabic language classes every afternoon in the Hamra neighborhood of Beirut, and naturally ended up perusing the cafes. Du Prague was one of my favorites. This spinach dish there isn’t profound in any way, but after eating salads day in and day out, I started to crave cooked greens. These were perfect, with garlic, lemon, and Spanish almonds. I had tried Spanish almonds a few times before the trip, but it seemed pointless to eat something shipped in from Spain when I could get great almonds from right here in California. But there is something special about that particular variety of almond. They are flatter and smoother than California almonds, and feel more comfortable on the tongue. Once again I was teased by my friends for being impressed with the “mouth-feel” of food.
Upon arriving in Damascus, tired and hot after a drive from Amman, we stumbled into this Iraqi restaurant near the convent we were staying at. We were told to simply order the number of rice platters we wanted, and they would bring out the rest of the food that goes with it. We got a table full of mezze dishes, bowls of soup, then the rice platters accompanied by 5 vegetable stews. Perfect comfort food. Stews and rice always get me. It reminded me of Iranian and Afgani food (which makes sense). We ended up eating there 3 times. We always finished our meals with Iraqi tea, a sweet cardamom tea carefully crafted by the man on the sidewalk who was commissioned by the restaurant.
The highlight of Tripoli was the baklava. This grand bakery is known as making the best in the world, and apparently ships boxes of their baklava to Lebanese expats everywhere. In my limited experience, they are by far the best I’ve ever had. The butter is browned, which provides a richer, toastier floor of flavor. The toasted nuts are packed in a thick layer. Simply exquisite with a cup of espresso or arabic coffee.
Spent a lovely afternoon at the Massaya winery in the Bekaa valley. After a fantastic lunch, we were brought a bowl of apricots and plums to finish off our bottle of reserve wine.
Here’s another spread of complimentary fruit. We had been waiting weeks for figs to come into season, and these were our first, served with perfect plums, miniature green apples and watermelon.
Most ice creams in Lebanon broke my heart because they were infused in rose water. I find rose water insipid like a cheap perfume. This cafe in Baalbeck was one of the few we found that served rose-water-free ice creams. Refreshing.
We heard the best ice cream place in Damascus was near the Umayyad mosque. They make soft homemade vanilla and chocolate. It’s so soft that the server just grabs it with his (gloved) hand and smooshes it in your glass dish. The next guy down the counter pounds bright green pistachios with a behemoth mortar and pestle (think of the girls pounding lemons at the hot-dog-on-a-stick). A handful of the pistachios are pressed onto all sides of the ice cream like emerald sequins. The best part of the ice cream experience was Amanda’s accidental charades with the waiter, but you’ll have to ask her about that.
My first week in Beirut, I was profoundly baffled to find my tea options limited to Lipton yellow label. It was the main concern I wrote home about. I had always assumed that tea was a big deal in the Middle East. I quickly learned that tea just wasn’t a big focus for the Lebanese compared to their other foods and drinks. Once I arrived in Syria, I found fantastic “tea with mint” on every menu. Not “mint tea” mind you, but strong, sweet, black tea with floating fresh mint leaves. It’s usually served in clear glasses which enhances the visual experience of watching the green leaves float lazily. I always loved getting it at places like this, served on a traditional round metal tray that sat on a tripod to create a table.
It’s easy to fall in love with Arabic coffee. It’s the cardamom. When I came home, I made a pot for my Grandpa Elvin, who is normally suspicious of non-american-style coffee. Even he became a quick convert.
One of the joys of a hot summer in the Middle East is finding a fresh juice stall in the afternoon. This row of stalls was a block from my hotel in Aleppo. My favorite was half orange, half strawberry.
This man in Damascus makes the best frozen lemonade. He pours fresh lemonade into the whirling ice cream maker. While it is spinning, he constantly drags splashes of the lemonade up the side with his spatula. In a few minutes, this process creates super-fine ice crystals that feel like velvet on the tongue. It’s chemistry magic.
Filed under: recipes
This tomato sauce is easy enough for those who can’t cook, precisely because of its unusual method.
Most other tomato sauces begin with chopping onions and garlic, and sauteing them awhile before adding tomatoes, wine, red peppers, etc, etc, etc. My simple method has absolutely no sauteing. And the only chopping is one big slice to hack an onion in half. If you can cut an onion in half, you can make this sauce.
You simply throw canned tomatoes into a saucepan with a hunk of butter and an onion cut into 2 halves. You practically poach the onion in the tomatoes, while the butter slowly smooths everything out. At the end, you remove the onion halves and throw them away, leaving a tomato sauce that has a gentle savory onion edge, but no actual onion.
Not only is this recipe the easiest, it’s actually the most delicious tomato sauce I’ve made. The flavor is savory and delicate. I’ve been making this tomato sauce for the last 2 years, and use it for everything from pasta and pizza, to casseroles like eggplant parmesan and polenta lasagna.
This recipe is also perfect for my friends who have food-texture issues about small bits of onion. Everything here is smooth and clean.
Please don’t be tempted to substitute olive oil for the butter. I tried that once, but the olive oil was just the wrong kind of fat for this sauce. It actually made the sauce slimy and oily. Stick to the butter on this one. It keeps the sauce soft, luscious, and flavorful.
I prefer to use canned whole plum tomatoes. I think they have a better quality than just diced tomatoes. Plus, diced tomatoes remain rubbery with their geometric right angles even after cooking, which creeps me out a little. I like that whole canned tomatoes get naturally soft when cooked. Then right before serving, I just whir it a bit with an immersion blender to smooth it out.
TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE
28-ounce can tomatoes
5 tablespoons butter
1 onion
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
torn basil leaves (optional)
grated parmesan (optional)
METHOD:
Empty the canned tomatoes into a saucepan. Peel the onion and cut it in half. Add the onion halves, butter and salt to the tomatoes.
Simmer 40 minutes. Stir from time to time, keeping the onion wedges immersed so that they can effectively flavor the sauce. Remove the onion pieces with chopsticks or tongs. Throw the onion pieces away.
Puree with a hand-held immersion blender. Add the torn fresh basil leaves or parmesan if desired.
Filed under: recipes
This weekend I volunteered at the Fair Trade coffee booth for the Southern California Mennonite Relief Sale http://mcc.org. I ordered the beans from Just Coffee, an old contact from my fair trade days. These particular beans were from a small cooperative in Guatemala that previously had been farmed by slave labor. The new coop farmers are former guerrillas, who have essentially turned machetes into plowshares. You can read more about the farm here
Since it was a hot weekend, we knew we would sell more iced coffee than hot. At last year’s sale, we made iced coffee by brewing hot coffee and chilling it. The results were adequate, and the only real flavor came from the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and cinnamon we added at the end.
This year we tried the cold-brewing method that Just Coffee provided on their website. The recipe makes a thick concentrate. The concoction is more stable, with a refrigerated shelf life of 2 weeks. I decided to trust the experts, and got out a few gallon jars to make enough concentrate for the weekend sale.
The results were perfect, and I have become a convert to the cold-breweing method. When the weather gets hotter, I plan on keeping a jar of this concentrate in my fridge. I was so pleased with this new technique that I couldn’t help but share it with all of you.
ICED COFFEE CONCENTRATE RECIPE
1/2 lb coffee grounds
5 cups room temperature water
METHOD:
Combine coffee grounds and room temperature water in a large jar or pitcher. Allow to sit 12 hours. Pour through a coffee filter or very fine mesh strainer to remove the grounds. Refrigerate.
Serve over ice mixed 1 part to 3 parts water or milk (for example: 1/4 cup concentrate and 3/4 cup milk). At our coffee booth, we added a shot of sweetened condensed milk that had been thinned a bit with milk and vanilla. That kept the customers happy. This afternoon at home I have made a few cups of iced coffee, but since I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I kept it simple with coffee concentrate and milk.
