Vegetarian 2 comments

Couscous Salad

By on August 23rd, 2010

This is so easy, I’m almost ashamed to be posting it as a recipe. But I’m lazy, which is exactly why I like making variants of this dish. I discovered pearl couscous about a year ago, packaged at Whole Foods under the moniker “Israeli Couscous.” The funny thing is I’ve had couscous a number of times in Israel, but never found this stuff. They just serve the standard Moroccan couscous you can get anywhere on the Mediterranean or in Paris.

Anyway, I digress. Pearl couscous is just a larger sized pasta (about the size of a ball bearing or peppercorn) that’s cooked more like rice. It’s good to make at least two cups of this, so you can store it and have it handy as a snack, but I’ll provide the recipe for 1 cup.

  • 1 cup pearl couscous
  • 1/2 package of feta cheese (4 oz, i think)
  • 1/4 cup red onion, chopped finely
  • 1/2 cucumber, diced
  • 1 medium tomato
  • red wine vinegar
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • olive oil

Cook couscous according to package directions. I prefer to brown it a bit in olive oil prior to boiling, but some brands are already toasted. Add a tablespoon of high grade (at least 92 octane) olive oil, stir well, and chill. It tends to clump together as the steam condenses, so I stir frequently during the chilling process, and sometimes even stir a couple of ice cubes into the bowl to speed it up.

Once couscous is chilled, chop onion, feta, cucumber, and tomatoes. Or add your own favorite vegetables – I’ve added olives, garlic, pine nuts, you name it. That’s it. It will keep for a few days in the refrigerator as long as you don’t have any leafy green vegetables in there, so you can pull it out for a light snack. If you’re making a lot, perhaps you can add the tomatoes at serving time so it will stay fresh. I prefer to serve with red wine vinegar (not balsamic). I think balsamic can be too sweet for this and i like the tartness of the red wine (or even white wine) vinegar. Grind some black pepper to taste. You probably don’t need salt as the feta will provide some salty flavor.

Vegetarian No comments yet

Mung Bean Noodle Salad with Tofu

By on July 20th, 2010

Ever since I bought that Mung vase at a garage sale (I can’t believe the deal I got!), I’ve been wanting to fortify my soul with some mung bean noodles. Also known as glass noodles, or bean thread noodles, these guys come in bundles (sometimes tied with string) in a pink net bag at your Asian grocery store.  They look just like rice vermicelli, so if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you may walk right by. I’ve seen these in the Asian section of my local HEB market here in Houston, too. You can do anything with these that you’d want to do with rice vermicelli, although these hold their own better and don’t turn into gluten immediately.

Advance warning – this dish could take more than an hour or so of elapsed time, given that you’re soaking, boiling, then chilling noodles. You can get a head start by preparing the noodles in advance.

This recipe is a cold salad, although it could be served with cold noodles and hot tofu (or other grilled ingredients, such as shrimp).  I have a friend who makes a noodle bowl from this with cold noodles, sesame oil, and scrambled eggs.

Start with…

  • 3 bundles mung bean noodles
  • 1 pound firm tofu
  • 5 limes
  • 1/4 cup cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons of fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
  • sesame oil (whatever it takes)

Soak the noodles in cold water for 10 minutes or longer. A day is ok, even, although it doesn’t make much difference to the end result. Boil like any pasta for 2 minutes. Remove and drain in a colander. Cover with ice to chill, or stir in some olive oil or sesame oil and refrigerate. If you refrigerate, it will turn into a solid mass, requiring some manual break up with your bare hands when you prepare the dish several hours (or a day or two) later. If you cover with ice and stir, you need 30 minutes to an hour to get the noodles chilled.

While the noodles are getting their groove on, you should get the tofu all cubed up, dumped onto an oiled baking sheet, and brushed with sesame oil. Depending on your measurement system of choice, cube size can be anywhere from 1/4 inch to 1 centimeter. Broil the tofu on high for 6 minutes and let cool – it’s ok to leave it in the oven after turning off the broiler – it won’t get too upset.

Squeeze limes into a measuring cup and chop cilantro. Once the noodles are cool, stir in fish sauce, soy sauce, lime juice (through a strainer, if there are seeds), and a few shakes of sesame oil, until the noodles are evenly coated with everything and feeling good and slippery. Add the cilantro and tofu and stir some more. Add more soy sauce and/or fish sauce to taste. When it’s ready to serve, you’ll know it!

That’s about it for this simple dish. Enjoy!

Vegetarian No comments yet

Kibbutz Barbecue with a side of World Cup

By on June 30th, 2010

Last night I had the pleasure of a cookout on a hillside in the north of Israel at a kibbutz with a number of colleagues. Of course, World Cup was playing on the big screen, as we watched Spain defeat Portugal 1-0.

The new dish I learned was quite simple. I’ve never been a big eggplant fan, and I was surprised to see two large eggplants just placed on the grill, whole. As one side collapsed, they were turned, and eventually removed.

Once removed from the grill, they were sliced open and slathered with generous amounts of tahini and the juice from half a lemon. I politely accepted a few scoops of the tender flesh, hoping I wouldn’t dislike it too much. It turned out delicious! I think it was the lemon that did it.

Random comments No comments yet

Smoky Salsa – First Attempt

By on May 29th, 2010

I’m drowning in tomatoes over here. The spring garden has been bountiful this year, yielding piles and piles of tomatoes. Some years, I make a big pot of marinara sauce, and this year I decided to try my hand at salsa. It turned out OK, but this recipe definitely needs improvement. First, I’ll share what I did, then I’ll move to what changes I’ll make with the next batch. The fact that these were garden fresh tomatoes put me ahead of the game from the start, but I did not exploit my advantage to the extent that I would have liked.


  • 4 pounds fresh tomatoes (about 18 medium to small dudes)
  • 4 small cloves garlic
  • 6 medium sized peppers (a mix of jalapeño and serrano – also fresh from the garden)
  • 4 limes
  • 1 medium sized yellow onion
  • 1/4 cup of fresh cilantro (alas, i had to buy this at the store – it’s more of an early spring crop)

Pictured are my tomatoes, with a couple of tomatillos thrown in – I’ve got those going on in the garden this year, too.

You’ll want to do some things in parallel – first start up your smoker and smoke the garlic, peppers, and onion. I like to slice an onion in half and smoke for about 30 minutes. Smoke everything until the peppers’ skins are charred so you can peel those off. The garlic should be easily peelable at this time, as well.

Once you start the smoker, get the water going for your tomatoes – you want to boil those bad boys for about 10 minutes. Remove, and plunge into iced water, or put them in a colander and cover with ice, and pour some cold water over them. Let the tomatoes cool down a bit so you don’t burn your fingers, then peel off the skins and core out the stem part. If you’ve boiled them for awhile, they’ll be pretty pulpy and not need much help falling apart. Toss these into a saucepan.

Add the peeled garlic (if it’s still firm, dice it), and dice the peppers and onion and add those, too.  Heat on medium so the tomatoes are bubbling. Stir a lot to break up the tomatoes – if they’re too firm, you may want to run them through a food processor, but they should be falling apart easily by now. Squeeze in the juice from the limes, and dice the cilantro. Let this simmer, while you stir for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro. Pour into whatever jars you have to store this in – I have some quart sized Ball mason jars, but note that this is not a proper canning recipe. you will need to refrigerate. This batch made about 1 and 2/3 quarts of salsa.

The Results

I found the sweetness of the tomatoes to be fantastic, but the heat factor on the salsa was just not there. The smokiness was really good. The recipe needed salt, too. Adjustments I’d make.

  • Double the onion
  • Double the peppers
  • Add salt to the recipe (1 tablespoon)
  • Double cilantro
  • Increase lime juice (i had four small limes, not really juicy – 4 large ones or 6 small ones would do the trick)

So recommended ratios are, for each pound of tomatoes:

  • 1 large juicy lime, or 2 smaller ones
  • 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
  • 1 large or 2 medium jalapeño or serrano peppers
  • 1/4 medium yellow onion

I’ll try this out next week after harvesting another few pounds of tomatoes, and let you all know the results.

Vegetarian No comments yet

Fresh Dill Pickles Redux

By on May 19th, 2010

I made another batch of fresh dill pickles from my garden cucumbers last night.  It’s getting hot and the cucumbers start getting yellowish orange on the vine from the heat, but they still taste great. The recipe is in this blog here. Here’s a picture before adding the liquid. I dropped in a couple of fat slices of red onion just so I could eat some pickled onions. I love those!

Fresh Dills

Texmex No comments yet

Stuffed Green Peppers

By on May 16th, 2010

This year, in addition to my regular mix of jalapenos and serranos, I planted some “chocolate peppers.” I had never heard of those. They turned out to be larger in size – about the size of a poblano but the bright green color of bell peppers. Maybe had i let them age on the vine, they’d have turned browner in color. But I was hungry.

I just cored out the top of these guys, and stuffed them with ground beef, diced onions, some leftover pico de gallo, cumin, salt, pepper, and slices of corn tortillas. I slightly browned the beef prior to stuffing just to drain some of the fat and get it partially cooked before popping into the oven.

Bake covered at 400 for about 30 minutes. Yummy!

Chinese, Seafood No comments yet

Sea Bass Filet, Asian Style

By on April 18th, 2010

Smoked Sea Bass

You can smoke or grill this.  Sea bass is so good, you don’t need to do much to it in order to have a fantastic meal. It’s a rare indulgence for me, but i felt like being indulgent yesterday when I was at my local grocer.

I bought a nice 8 ounce filet, and marinaded it in sake, soy sauce, a bit of sesame oil, chopped ginger, and garlic for about two hours, turning once.

I smoked this over pecan for about 30 minutes then moved it to directly over the coals for about 3 minutes to char one side.  That’s it!

I hate wasting a good marinade, so I took this, and sauteed some mushrooms and carrots with red pepper flakes in the wok to create a nice topping.  I had to add about a tablespoon of flour to thicken, and served with rice.

Enjoy!

Comfort food No comments yet

Brazilian Black Beans and Rice (Feijoada)

By on January 17th, 2010

Feijoada

If you want some black beans and rice that will kick any beans and rice recipe’s ass in futbol, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve enjoyed gallo pinto in Costa Rica (wonderful!), pintos and rice in Texas, and the southern Louisiana standard, red beans and rice. Feijoada beats all of them by a score of at least 3 goals to 1.

A good Brazilian friend hooked me up with this recipe, and for inspiration, I started with the recipe from the Eating Dangerously cookbook.

Total prep time: overnight (bean soak) + a little over 2 hours.

Here’s what I did:

  • 1 pound dry black beans
  • 1 1/2 pounds smoked sausage
  • 1/2 pound bacon
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 large cloves garlic
  • 2 tablespoons cumin
  • 2 tablespoons ancho chile paste (if you’ve got it)
  • 1 tablespoon chile powder
  • 2 large bay leaves
  • 1  jalapeño, serrano, or habanero pepper
  • 1 cup salsa
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 cups beef stock
  • aged cotija cheese or equivalent (optional)
  • rice (kind of important)

I started with 1 pound of dry black beans. Cover these guys up with at least an inch of water and soak overnight. After a couple of hours, you’ll need to check the water to ensure they’re still covered. First thing in the morning, I started up my smoker with pecan chunks and got the sausage and bacon smoking. Yes, I smoked the bacon – it is incredible. To smoke bacon, separate the strips so each gets imbued with wonderful pecan smoke. Once you’ve got the meat situation under control, return to the kitchen, pour the water off the beans, rinse them, and put them in a large saucepan. Add the beef stock, then enough water to cover the beans by about 1/4 inch. Add cumin and chile powder, bring to a simmer, then cook on low heat. Overall, I like to cook black beans about two hours. The meat will take about 1 hour to an hour and a half (I smoke at about 250 degrees F).

While all this cooking is going on, it’s time to do some chopping and sauteing. Dice up that onion and pepper, and chop the garlic finely. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the aforementioned chopped ingredients to said skillet. Saute for a few minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the bay leaves and chile paste if you’ve got it (I do have a recipe on this blog), and dip a slotted spoon into the beans and pull out about a cup of them. Mash the beans into the onion, pepper, and garlic mixture and continue to saute. Be careful you don’t burn the beans in the skillet – that can ruin the whole dish. Get this mixture bubbly hot, and add it to the pot o’ beans. Add salsa. Cover and simmer on low heat. This is about the time you need to think about starting your rice. I hate when I’m nearing completion of a recipe and then I remember the rice. D’oof! I cook brown rice, which takes 45 minutes. Call me a health nut – I want complex carbs with that sausage and bacon.

Now it’s time to check on the smoking activities. Note that i start with “smoked sausage,” from my local grocer but it’s so much better to smoke it again at home. I’m fortunate enough to live in Texas, which has the best sausage in the world – we’ve got a lot of Czech, Polish, and German influence throughout Central Texas, so there are some great brands from Elgin, Chappell Hill, and even El Campo. But I digress.

I like to smoke sausage until it starts to shrivel just a little bit. I also do not like to break the skin of the casing – too much fat can drain out and it gets too dry. When smoked long enough, most of the fat is gone, but there’s just enough there for the links to be juicy and tasty. OK, who am I trying to kid – this dish has high fat content – deal with it. If you take the time to nibble a piece of smoked bacon right out of the smoker, you’ll thank me later.

Once the meat is finished (60 to 90 minutes), remove and cut into small bite sized pieces. If you get nervous about fat content, dab it all with a paper towel before sliding it into the pot of simmering beans. Doing so will remove at least .2 to .4% of the fat before it hits your palate. Raise the heat on the beans to a more aggressive simmer and cook for at least 15 more minutes – or up to half an hour longer. Serve as pictured, with a crumbled aged cheese. I topped with sliced avocado.

Bom apetite!

Comfort food 1 comment

Austrian Potato Salad

By on November 23rd, 2009

I’m not a big fan of potato salad.  However, I had a couple of good potato salad experiences in quick succession – one at a German restaurant in Houston, and the other at a German restaurant in Munich.  I don’t think they called the one in Munich a “German restaurant.” Ever since those experiences, I’ve been thinking about making a potato salad mimicking those wonderful concoctions. They were both served hot, and had dill as the predominant seasoning. Other than that, they were simple and tangy. No mayonnaise to be found in either (and the crowd goes wild).

Well, last month, I happened upon an article in Cook’s Illustrated that described the best way to make a perfect Austrian pottato salad. This has no fat in it – not bacon, pork, butter, or mayonnaise – yet it’s scrumptious.

Side note:  I don’t know if any of y’all read Cook’s Illustrated, but it’s fantastic.  Every article describes the science of what you’re doing, and the writer embarks on a mission – trying all sorts of variations of a recipe, based on the science – before getting it right. The following recipe is my interpretation of this wonderful article.

This article describes how to keep the cellular walls of the potatoes intact, yet melt-in-your-mouth soft, without releasing too much starch and turning the thing into a gooey mess.

  • Six golden potatoes (about 3 pounds)
  • 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
  • 1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds, bruised
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped red onion
  • 2 tsp mustard powder

Peel and cube the potatoes. Put in a big ol’ iron skillet with 1 1/2 cups chicken broth, 1 1/2 cups water, and 1 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar. Add salt and coriander. Bruising the coriander releases some of the oils, enhancing the overall flavor experience. I have a little mortar and pestle that I use for just this purpose. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. If you have some potatoes that have managed to keep their heads above the liquid, give the whole mess a stir halfway through this to ensure equal treatment. While that’s going on, get your dressing going. Put the remaining vinegar (that’s 1 1/2 tablespoons for the math-deprived), mustard, onion (chopped as finely as you can get it), and dill into a bowl large enough to receive all the potatoes and tolerate a bit of mixing. Stir that mess up and let the onions soak up the vinegar. They’ll do that without any coaching from you, but it is important to get that vinegar sweetening and softening the onions as quickly as possible so there’s a few minutes of that going on before everything is combined.

Once 15 minutes of potato simmering have elapsed, check their softness. They should be so soft that a toothpick or knife tip slides into one with no resistance. If they still have a little “al dente” texture to them, let them simmer another 2-5 minutes. Once you feel good about the potato situation, increase heat to high and boil off some liquid for 2 minutes, then dump this into a colander that is placed over a bowl. You want to preserve that liquid – put 3/4 cup of it into the bowl with the vinegar, onion, mustard, and dill. Scoop up about 1 cup of potatoes, as well, and add those to said bowl. Break out your potato masher and go to work on those bad boys. This should make the dressing nice and creamy from the potato starch.

Now, all you have to do is tenderly dump the potatoes from the colander into the bowl that’s been getting all this attention. Gently stir them into the dressing until everything has a little red onion or green dill on it. Here’s where you don’t want to overhandle the potatoes, as they are in a very vulnerable state, and one stern look could cause them to break down and release starch everywhere. A few gentle stirs with a rubber spatula should do the trick. Serve hot.

If you don’t like this dish, then I pity you.

Comfort food, Italian No comments yet

Italian Meatballs with Balsamic/Marsala Sauce

By on September 14th, 2009

This is another of my low fat specialities. Or maybe not.

The sauce I made with this dish tastes a lot like Swedish meatball sauce, but the meatballs here are distinctly Italian, and could be used with a traditional spaghetti and marinera sauce.

  • 1/2 pound ground beef
  • 1/2 pound ground pork
  • 6 cloves roasted garlic
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh sage
  • 1 tablesppon chopped fresh thyme
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup italian bread crumbs (optional)
  • 6 cups chicken broth
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 cups beef broth
  • 1 cup marsala
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 16 oz. package egg noodles

Roast garlic at 325 for 25 minutes. Let cool and peel. At this low temperature the garlic won’t be too soft to manage, but still have that wonderful roasted garlic flavor. Chop garlic, sage, thyme, and add to the ground meat with an egg. Stir this mixture thoroughly.  I add the bread crumbs to soak up a little of the liquid from the egg, and to even out the consistency somewhat. You don’t want too much of that – I’m not trying to make crab cakes here.

Form meatballs out of this concoction – a bit larger than a golf ball seems right to me. That will make about 10 of them. Heat up an iron skillet, start heating the chicken broth in a medium sauce pan, and get some water boiling for your pasta. Brown the meatballs on each side while bringing the broth to a boil. Once the meatballs have been seared and browned on all sides, transfer to the bubbling broth and cook for 10 minutes.  At the same time, get your pot of pasta going - I prefer egg noodles for this.

There won’t be enough fat in the skillet to make a proper sauce, so add 2 tablespoons of butter and melt. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of flour until a nice paste is formed, then pour in balsamic vinegar and marsala. Bring that to bubbling, then add beef broth. Cook sauce until it’s the proper sauce-like consistency, remove meatballs from broth, and serve over egg noodles. Hint on the sauce:  if sauce is too thick, add more liquid. If too thin, cook it some more.

I store any leftover meatballs in the chicken broth.