The Kitchen of Belis

This is one of the simplest recipes that I found recently. It could be a "Duh" moment for you but something as simple as chopping the brocolli instead of leaving it large really makes a difference.




Ingredients

1 large bunch broccoli
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly milled pepper
Fresh lemon juice to taste

Chop the brocolli into small florets; peel and finely chop the stems. Put the stems in the steaming basket, add the floret, then cover and steam until just a little short of being tender. Toss with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Okra is one of my family's favorite summertime vegetables. Having home-made Okra Stew has always been something that I would look forward to after spending the day on the beach by our summer house. Somehow, I associate okra with those days.

Luckily, okra is available all year around. I particularly like dried okra (see the picture below). Frozen ones work well too. Fresh would be the best of course, but I do not like the enormous ones grown here in the US.

Okra had a huge presence in the history of "Ottoman cuisine" or "palace dishes". Stuffed Okra especially was most prominent in ancient Ottoman cuisine.

Ingredients

2 handful of okra (I use dried okra)
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup of safflower oil
1 spoon full of tomato paste
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 table spoon pomegranate sour (grenadine syrup)
1 cup of boiled garbanzo beans
Juice of one lemon
Salt and paprika to taste

If you are using dried okra boil for 20 minutes and then drain (but keep the water). Saute onions in oil until tender. Add tomato paste and stir. Add chopped tomatoes and garlic and cook for five minutes. Add okra and garbanzo beans. Add boiling water till it covers the top of the mixture. Taste with salt and pomegranate sour. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes. Later, add lemon juice and cover the top and let it rest for 15minutes.

Goes well with rice.

I was very excited to find this recipe as it did not require the presence of fish sauce and oyster sauce which are ubiquitous ingredients of Asian noodle dishes. Don't take me wrong. I love to eat fish - or anything that comes out of the sea, but just don't like the idea of fish being liquidated or pasted (e.g., anchovy paste).

One interesting thing that separates Asian noodles from that of Italian is cooking style and time. Asian noodles are often drained, rinsed well to wash off the starch, then added to the dish and reheated. Italian pastas are best added directly from the cooking pot to the sauce. Also it is better to cook Asian noodles until they are tender, while Italian pastas work well aldente.

Because Asian noodles are cooked tender, it is better to use fresh noodles as they soak up the sauces and all its rich flavors. In this recipe I used whole wheat fettuccine, but you can try one of the hundreds of different Asian noodles which are widely available at supermarkets.



Curry Paste:

Burmese Noodles:


Ingredients for the Curry Paste

1/2 onion chopped
2 large garlic cloves
2 1/2 inch rounds of fresh ginger
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon turmeric (Turkish Translation: Hint Safrani)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Using a food processor work all the curry paste ingredients into a rough paste and set aside.

Ingredients for the Noodles and Vegetables

5 sun dried tomatoes
8 ounces of fettuccine (or Chinese egg noodles (or mein))
1/3 cup chopped roasted peanuts
2 table spoon coconut oil
1 large tomato, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 can lit coconut milk
1 handful of peas
2 carrots cut in julienne style
2 scallions cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Cilantro, basil and mint leaves to garnish

Soak the sun dried tomatoes in warm water in a small bowl for 15 minutes or longer. Prepare peanuts.

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat, add curry paste and move it around the pan for 30 seconds. Add carrots. Lower the heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes, stirring frequents and adding water from time to time - to keep it from sticking. When it begins to release some of the oil, add the tomato, raise the heat, and add the sun dried tomato liquid and coconut milk. Simmer for a minute, then add the sun dried tomatoes, peas, scallions, and soy. Turn off the heat.

In the meantime cook noodles in plenty of boiling water until tender. Drain the water and add noodles into the wok and mix with the curry paste. Garnish with herbs and peanuts. It is ready to be served!

Note: This recipe is adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone Cookbook.

This dish is my introduction to using saffron threads in cooking. I was told to get saffron threads rather than ground version just to ensure full of flavor and purity. Apparently, soaking in water before adding them into the food brings the color and the flavor even more. Also, the flavor was stronger the second day. Fun Fun Fun.







Ingredients

2 cups of brown rice
4 cups of vegetable broth
1/3 tsp Spanish saffron
2 tbs chopped chives
2 tbs lemon curls
2 tbs lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped shallots or white onion
2 tbs of butter
1 bay leave
Salt to taste

Saute shallots in butter until transparent in a medium size pan. Add saffron and the bay leave to onions. Add salt, lemon juice and vegetable broth and bring it to boil. Add rice in and cover pan. Simmer 30 minutes until the rice is tender. Serve hot, garnish with chopped chives and lemon curls.

Recently, I have been checking out food packaging for recipes. So far I have run into so many unexciting ones which were basically designed around selling more products. However, Trader Joe's totally surprised me...again. For the most part, the recipes on the back of Trader Joe's packaging are solid and useable. Especially the vinaigrette recipe on the back of the Herb Salad package. It rocks!






Shallot Citrus Vinaigrette

1 large shallot chopped, minced
Zest of 1 orange
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup of olive oil
4 TBS of lemon juice
2 TBS of apple cider vinegar (this was not in the recipe, our friends' 5 year old suggested it, thinking it would give it a kick)
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients and let the vinaigrette sit for some time.

Suggested salad - herb salad with pieces of 2 oranges, 1 medium size jicama cut in julienne-style, roasted pistachios

Quesadillas... I was having a quesadilla craving. However, I have been so bored with predictable restaurant-style, cheese filled grease bags you get in most places. Don't the Mexican restaurant cooks know that one doesn't need to be limited with creativity when it comes to making quesadilla? Enough is enough and I decided to make my own :)





Ingredients

15-20 pieces of medium size shiitake mushrooms
15-20 pearl onions in halves (you can use sliced yellow onions too)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed by using the flat side of your knife and coarsely chopped
2 Anaheim peppers seeded, chopped
1 roasted red bell pepper, chopped (TJ's Roasted Bell Peppers work just fine)
Your choice of shredded cheese (mine is Mexican-style soy cheese)
1 TBS tomato paste
2 TBS safflower oil
1/2 TBS of Mexican seasoning of your choice
Salt and pepper to taste
Water to moisten, about 1/4 of a cup
Whole wheat tortilla wraps

Heat the oil in a medium-size pan, on medium heat. Add onions. When onions start turning pink, add garlic and cook for about a minute. Add mushrooms and cook an additional three minutes. Then add anaheim bell peppers. Add your seasoning. Once you feel like you need to add more oil, add your water. Water in this case is a great substitute to oil and keeps the dish healthier. Mix in the tomato paste. Add salt and pepper. Cook until vegetables are tender. Add roasted red peppers. This will be your filling.

Warm the press grill. Warm up the tortilla wraps. Cover one wrap with the filling add cheese and place another one on top. Press cook for about three minutes until the wraps start to blister.

Cut in fours and serve warm.

If you do not have a press grill, that's OK. You can use a tortilla wrap size pan and press with a heat resistant plate.

Sweet potatoes are delicious cooked in many ways. My favorite way of cooking is probably also the simplest with the lowest number of necessary ingredients.



Ingredients

Sweet potatoes (4 ounce for a serve)
Olive Oil
Rosemary
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Scrub sweet potatoes well and cut them in half, lengthwise. Put potatoes in a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil. Add salt and pepper and chopped fresh rosemary. Bake them until they are tender when pierced. Ta-ta!