Spicy Spinach Sidedish

Spinach is one of my least favorite veggie. However, driven by the hope that one day will live a healthy life, I did my best to combine it in different recipes and sometimes I succeeded to create tasty recipes that suit my anti-spinach palate.

Like today, for instance, when I was courageous enough to combine it with a spice I am not using that often - if ever: carom (or ajwain, that I got courtesy of SpiceKitchen UK). A combination of caraway, cumin and fennel, it contains thyme and has a bitter taste (a mixture between anise and oregano). Therefore, I tried to combine it with other ingredients that may alleviate its sparkling: pistachios (salty, Turkish ones) and my beloved garlic, plus the olive oil used for frying. 

Overall, it went out pretty tasty. It's super fast to prepare and it makes it into a tasty sidedish for a main meat meal. For a vegetarian combination, you can add some freshly sliced tomatoes with cheese, or some freshly boiled potatoes.

Ingredients
- 2 generous tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 teaspoons carom seeds
- 4 big garlic cloves cut in rounds
- around 20 pistachios, halved
- 100 gr. baby spinach leaves, carefully cleaned

Directions:
In a medium pan, heat the oil at 250C. Add the carom seeds and fry it for a couple of minutes until it starts sizzling. Add the garlic and keep mixing with the spices for another 2-3 minutes. Continue with the pistachio for another 2-3 minutes. Add the spinach in small batches while mixing. As the spinach is slowly frying, mix all the ingredients a couple of time.
Serve it fresh and lukewarm.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Bon Appétit!

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Delicious Side-Dish with Okra, Rice-Shaped Noodles, Garlic, Tomatoes and Aleppo Pepper

Okra is such a versatile and not always easy to match vegetable, especially for people like me, who didn't grow up with. As many other food-related products, I've discovered okra relatively late, but through trials and errors, I've discovered my own dish combinations. 

But I haven't try anything new for a long time, maybe for too long. It is not always easy to find the fresh product - and I am not a supporter of frozen veggies anyway - and most of the shops selling it are located quite far away from me. Sometimes, I was simply not in the good mood for paying the full attention requested by preparing a recipe with an ingredient so unfamiliar to my usual eating habits. 

The wonder happened yesterday and I was not only happy to taste okra again, but also to scribble fast the main directions of a new recipe. 

You can use this as a side dish - a good company to a meaty meal - or if you want more consistency, to add some shredded yellow cheese to make it into an autonomous meal. It suits very well white fish.

It is easy to prepare - you only need 45 minutes - and delicious for the palate, as well as healthy.

Ingredients

200 gr. fresh okra, finelly cut in rondels

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 cloves garlic, finelly cut

5 middle-sized tomatoes, finelly sliced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo Pepper

100 gr. rice-shaped noodles. it goes very well with rice

2 tablespoon cooking oil

Directions for preparing the okra mix

Warm the oil in a pan at medium heat. When it start sizzling, add the okra and keep mixing in order to have them fried on both sides. After 5 minutes add the garlic and keep mixing. Sprinkle the salt and add the tomatoes. Mix well for another 5 minutes. When ready, add the Aleppo Pepper, mix well and put it on the side.

For the rice-shaped noodles

In a pot, add the oil and warm it for a couple of minutes. Add the rice noodle and mix it well with the oil. Pour water, at a ration of 2 cups of water for a cup of rice noodles. Mix it well and leave it boil for around 15 minutes.

When the noodles are ready, add the okra mixture and mix it well while heated at medium size temperature for another couple of minutes.

Now, it is ready to be served, either as an independent dish or as a side dish to meat or fish.

Serves: 3

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Bon Appétit!

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Spicy Cauliflower with Black Sesame

Cauliflower is such an easy match for a variety of flavors, especially spices, allowing the culinary imagination to easily fly away. My experience - although limited - is that you rarely can get it wrong with cauliflower, such a versatile vegetable which keeps a good and healthy company to heavy meals. I've tried this recipe during the Hanukka holidays, when everything is filled with oil and was in desperate need of some healthy side dish. 

Ingredients

1 medium-sized cauliflower, with separated florets

1 teaspoon za'atar

1 teaspoon Berbere spices, received part of Spice Kitchen UK Brand Ambassador Program

1 teaspoon black sesame

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

Warm the oven at 250C, at least 10 minutes before starting the baking. On a sheet pan, smear the florets with olive oil - preferably on both sides, then add the various spices and the salt, also on both sides. Let it bake while turning from a part to another every 10 minutes. When ready, add the black sesame and mix it a couple of times.

Cooking time

30 minutes

Preparation time

10 minutes

It makes it a good side dish for both meaty and diary menus. Especially for the latkes, it was my favorite companion. You can also serve it as an entrée, together with a fresh salad - cherry tomatoes with cucumber, with or without oil. The Berbere spices are giving to the meal such a heavy consistency that it changes completely the otherwise bland cauliflower flavor. 

Bon Appétit!

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Tahini Honey Cake - (An Almost Failure)

Tahini/Tehina/Sesame sauce is such a modern ingredient nowadays, generously used in various sweet and savory combinations, not only for the classical salad. It has a heavy dense texture and adds an aromated note of originality to any meal, especially a cake. And I am not talking only about halwa.

However, it seems that in my case things take longer as expected when it comes to success in the kitchen. A couple of weeks ago, I tried my own variant of tahini cake, which didn't came together well. Maybe because it was too much oil and too much tahini, and something was so wrong that even after 2 hours the entire composition was still in a liquid form.

But I am not someone to give up too fast, therefore, on the occasion of the Jewish High Holidays, besides my classical honey cake, I wanted to improve the initial tahini cake recipe and adapt it for the usual list of ingredients served on this occasion. The result was much better, although it did not look very good for the picture - the upper side went a bit burned as I had to keep it in the oven for over an hour. However, it baked well and had a deep nutty honey taste. Most probably, a third time will even better - at least visually - but until then I am happy to share this successful attempt.

Ingredients

- 2 1/2 cups white flour

- 19 gr. baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1 cup white sugar

- 75 ml. honey

- 3 medium-sized eggs

- 100 ml. tahini

- 2/3 cup cold milk

- 1 teaspoon grounded cardamom

- 100 gr. butter for the pan

Directions

Preheat oven at 250 C. Grease the pan with butter.

Add the ingredients, one by one, first the sold one, followed by the liquid, while mixing well every time. Pour the content into the pan. Wait a couple of minutes and then bake it in the oven. 

To be served morning, with the hot coffee, or as a companion to the afternoon tea.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Baking time: Over 1 hour. It depends a lot of the kind of oven you have, but generally, one hour is the minimum time requested for achieving a proper baked texture

Serves: 9

Bon Appétit!

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Corn on the Cob with Ras El-Hanout, Salt and Butter

Many autumns ago, corn used to be my main meal for the final weeks of August and mid-September. Mostly eaten as corn on the cob, it only involved salt, and a lot of time spent in the boiling temperature of the kitchen while boiling corn after corn. It was all what I was eating for lunch and dinner and the natural sweetness of the corn was what I needed for that part of the year. 

Meanwhile I grew up and my tastes become more complex. Many years I just avoided corn on the cob, because too proletarian for my newly acquired preferences. Also, it was not so easy to find that countryside corn sold in the farmer's markets in the old country. A new world was opening to me and it was no place for that past any more.

However, once I settled up and diversified my life and food experiences, the old recipes and life stories were just another opportunity to share an unique story. My story.

Therefore, why not using them as a basic for just another spicy experience?

Ingredients

- 2 normal size corn
- 1 tablespoon salt for boiling the corn and another tablespoon for smear it on all sides of each corn
- 1 liter cold water
- 2 tablespoons butter, one for each corn

- 1 tablespoon Ras El-Hanout

Directions

Preheat the water at 250C. When almost boiling, add the corn and let it boil for at least 45 minutes. If the corn is too ripe, you can wait as long as one hour. When ready, take them out of the water and smear the butter all over each of the corns. Add salt and the Ras El-Hanout, spreading it all over the surface. You can use a cooking easel if you want an almost perfect coverage.

Serve it warm or at the room temperature. Reheat, if necessary, in the microwave.

A typical spice for the North African cuisine, usually mixed with couscous, this spice-mix of Ras El-Hanout has at least 25 different ingredients, among which: turmeric, paprika, salt, nutmeg, ginger, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, sugar, all spice, clalli powder, star anise, cloves, rose petals. Only the mention of each and every one of those ingredients stirs tasty memories therefore you can imagine how does it taste the full combination added on the corn. The butter creates a special fluidity adding a milky note.

You can also use this corn mixture as a main ingredient of a salad, eventually together with tomatoes, onion, avocado and some olive oil. 

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes-1 hour, depending on how ripe the corn is.

Serves: 2

Bon Appétit!

Disclaimer: The Ras El-Hanout spices were offered by Spice Kitchen UK part of their Brand Ambassador Program, but the opinions are, as usual, my own. Their Ras El-Hanout was a 2-star great taste award winner in 2017.

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About a Different Kind of Pepper: Urfa Biber (Isot Pepper)

This is less a post about recipes and cooking ideas, but has as main character a very special kind of pepper: Urfa Biber or Isot Pepper. Part of my selection from the Spice Kitchen UK collection, with whom I've entered a partnership part of their Brand Ambassador program, I've received a couple of spices to test in the next weeks and months, starting with the very special Aleppo pepper.

The inspiration of Monday's lunch was something a bit different: a very black looking powder called Urfa Biber. Biber means pepper in Turkish, the country of origin of this special kind of pepper. Practically, it is part of the red pepper family, produced through a process of 'sweating': drying of the seeds during the day, followed by wrapping them tied during the day. Compared to other peppers, they are less spicy, with a warm note which creates a pleasant balance of flavors. 

I used it twice for my lunch: spread modestly on my fresh tomatoes, and as one pinch used for by very special barberry rice - 1 cup Jasmin rice, plus 25 gr. dried barberries (or Berberizen as they are called in German). The other part of the meal were Turkey cevapcici, brought to me by the kosher meat Of Tov company. Especially in the case of the rice, the urfa biber was a great balance to the mild sparkling taste of barberries, without pungency of any kind. Given that the day before I had a 25 km. hiking this meal was not only easy to prepare but also full of energy and fresh vitamins (barberries are rich in Vitamin C). 

As for the urfa biber, my short documentation indicates that it has a great variety of uses, among which: on roasted eggplants, fried eggs, but also brownies. Testing in process so keep an eye on my blog for updates.

Disclaimer: Spices offered by Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Program, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

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Easy, Skyr-based Scones

I've tried my hand on scones several times in the last blogging years, very often with tasty results. They are easy to prepare, always delicious and with a low chance of failure. All you need is a bit of imagination and some basic ingredients - like flour, baking powder and salt. The rest can be easily matched from the fridge or pantry.

Yesterday, I was thinking to have some of them again, because wanted to have some afternoon snacks and we were quite out of good treats.

You can have those scones with a cuppa or a big coffee mug, fill with jam - my latest love is a fig jam that I hope it will never finish - or add some extra cheese for some dairy taste. I was very happy to find an extra use of the Skyr Yogurt, an Iceland-made product which I instantly fell in love with a couple of years ago and would love to explore more in some next posts. Brought from Norway over thousand years ago, Skyr is officially classified as cheese. It has the consistency of the strained yogurt but with a much milder flavor.

Ingredients
500 gr. white flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon backing powder
300 ml. Skyr Yogurt
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds for the garnish

Directions

Heat the oven at 250C, at least 10 minutes before starting the baking. Mix the ingredients and let them interact with each other for at least 10 minutes. By hand, make small doughs and add them on a parchment covered tray. Bake it in the oven for around 20 minutes or until completely baked.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 25 minutes
Make it into 20 tasty little scones. To be eaten immediately!

Bon Appétit!

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Thuna Steak with Sesame Oil and Soy Sauce

I never worked with thuna before, except the canned one, lazily added to a salad. I don't like that much either the texture or the taste therefore I rarely invested too many seconds thinking about it. Today though, I impulsively decided to try something new. So, it was thuna steak with sesame oil, soy sauce and some black sesame seeds garnish.

Ingredients
250 gr. frozen thuna. I don't like frozen meat or fish, but it was the only available option, therefore I had to wait a bit more until the two piece were completely defrosten
1 tablespoon of orange juice, spread over the thuna on both sides. It is always recommended when you cook fish, but especially for the frozen variant, as diminishes the unpleasant fish taste
1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce
1 tablespoon of black sesame seeds, for garnish

Directions

Heat the oven at 250C, at least 5 minutes before the fish is prepared in the pan. Spread the lemon juice on both sides, followed by the brown sugar, the soy sauce and the sesame oil. When in the oven, take care to turn on both sides every 10 minutes or so. 

After 30 minutes in the oven, take the thuna away and put it on a pan on the stove and fry it for another 15 minutes. You only need to add some couple of drops of sesame oil.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes.

Because of all the ingredients - especially the sweet soy sauce and the brown sugar - it tastes slightly sweet but in a very healthy discrete way. I served with country potato fries and some fresh tomatoes on the side. It was a very fulfilling and healthy lunch and hopefully, I am courageous enough to try again some thuna recipes soon.

Bon Appétit!

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Chop...chop...chop...the Parsley for Tabbouleh

While many of the foodie humans around are spending impressive amounts of time trying to figure out how to do an Instagram-perfect layered cake - for those keen to follow my visual adventures on Insta, I am boiledwords there too - I am terrified about my lack of skills on chopping veggies. Ten years ago, while preparing a barbecue party, I was assigned to finelly cut the tomatoes for an Israeli salad and what I got back was the remark of my friend: 'Is this what you call chopped tomatoes?' And he was right but instead of honing and improving my skills I tried to avoid as much as possible to go again through the same challenge. 

But as there is a beginning for everything, it i also an ending for fears and frustrations and inferiority feelings. Today is the great day when I will do my own tabbouleh salad. Because I want and I can and I'll do it. Chop...chop...chop...

I've slightly adapted the recipe presented in Cooking Class: Middle Eastern. The Australian Women's Weekly, 2003 edition. 

Ingredients
2/3 cup burghul
4 cups fresh parsley, finelly chopped
1/2 cup fresh mint, finelly chopped
3 green shallots, finelly chopped
1 small red onion, finelly chopped
4 medium-sized red tomatoes, finelly chopped, without seeds and the chore
2 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

Cover burghul with the same amount of cold water and let it rest for 15 minutes. Press the burghul for spreading the water uniformly in the bowl. After 15 minutes drain the rest of the water.

The most of the time - around 30 minutes of preparation, in total - was spent chopping. I had in the front of my eyes the beautifully fine tabbouleh bowls served in the restaurant. And kept chopping more and more. The onions were the best, the tomatoes went well, but the mint and parsley were a far cry from any original chopped recipe. Which means that I should keep practising at least once the month for better and more experienced results. Maybe I also need a special knife, as a good knife can really help to achieve the best final results. Chop...chop...chop

The final result was delightful, easy to match with some fried chicken or an autonomous salad for the busy healthy mornings. You can add a drop of yogurt, feta cheese, goat cheese, or just eat it as an individual meal or a side dish for a meaty meal. 

Suitable to be kept in the fridge for at least one hour before eating and to be prepared and eaten in the same day.

Serves: 6

Bon Appétit!

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Ginger, Honey and Teriyaki Sauce Chicken Thighs

Since 2010, when my blog was launched successfully in the online waters, I posted only 2 meat recipes. For your information, I am not a vegan or vegetarian, although I fancy to eat clean and healthy, and the low frequency of meat recommendations is due to the fact that I only eat kosher meat which if you are outside of Israel, America or England, might be a bit problematic, but not impossible to purchase. Anyway, I am not blessed with fancy restaurants to try various top notch meat recipes - I would sing you Hanukka songs for a piece of beautiful roasted duck in plum sauce or chestnuts right now - therefore cooking meat is always a challenge, but not an impossible thing. I do have more than one choice to try from and in the next years, my experience with meat will get diversified as well.

One of my staple meat meal are the chicken thighs, which I usually cover in various sauces. It is easy to prepare and cook, rich in proteines and matching nicely a salad or a portion of potatoes. 

This recipe is an Asian winter variant, without oil, which I perfectly loved because the tastes of the ingredients are mixing into the meat flavor with exquisite results.

Ingredients
5 chicken thighs
1 tablespoon greeted fresh ginger
3 tablespoons Teriyaki sauce
3 tablespoons honey

Directions
Place the defrosten chicken thighs in the pan. Smear on both sides the ingredients in order to cover them properly. For the honey and Teriyaki sauce, I used a brush. Place it in the oven at 250C and cook it for around one hour or until ready.

To be matched with a fresh tomato salad, mashed potatoes or just a classical portion of French fries.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes
Serves: 3

Bon Appétit!

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Brushetta Recipe - Easy Like Sunday Morning

Good late morning everyone! Fancy something special for your brunch today? I made today my first bruschetta and very happy about it! If you want to have and eat it too, here is the easiest tastiest recipe around the world wide web:

Ingredients
2 slices of black bread
3 medium sized tomatoes
3 garlic cloves finelly minced - if you are supposed to have a lot of busy meetings for the rest of the day, you might skip this. I never do it, anyway
1 bunch of fresh parsley
2 tablespoons dried tarragon
2 tablespoons olive oil
A pinch of sea salt, on taste

Directions

Grate two tomatoes. Add and mix well the ingredients. Spread the juice on top. Slice the tomato and add to the bread.

To be eaten with some slices of fresh Fetta cheese. Goat cheese goes perfectly well too. Or some fried eggs. It is important to take it easy, enjoy the taste and think about the good things coming your way.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2

Bon Appétit!

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Delicious Ricotta Cheese Quiche with Tomatoes and Basilicum

I love quiches, especially during the winter, and as an easy meal to kill some short days when I am not too in the mood for cooking. Although I know that it is easy to make and hard to finish, I do not credit myself too often for such a culinary adventure, not because I might have some unpleasant cooking failures memories, but simply because baking requires on my side a lot of attention and focus which I am not always have in excess - especially when the baby chooses to roam around the kitchen exactly in the moment when I am about to prepare some complicated recipe.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a look at a German cooking book - Biergarten Cookbook, by Julia Skowronek - dealing with the usual food served in the famous local beer garten. Most of the recipes were not my cup of tea, but the ricotta cheese quiche with tomaotes and basilicum rang a bell home and decided to try my hand to something new.

The following recipe is a slight adaptation from the book. 
Ingredients
1 ready made Filo pastry
250 gr. ricotta cheese
200 gr. sour cream
4 eggs, medium size
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
5 shallots, finelly chopped
20 cherry tomatoes, halved
100 gr. Pecorino hard cheese
12 fresh Basilicum leaves
I used a 50cm. diameter baking pan.

 Directions
Heat the oven at 250C, at least 15 minutes before baking.
Add the ricotta, sour cream, eggs, shallots and mix well. Continue to add the salt, pepper, olive oil and mix until creamy.

Set the pastry in the pan and pour the cheesy content. Add the tomatoes and the leaves, and spread the hard cheese on the top. You can also add the basilicum when the quiche is ready to keep the leaves fresh, but I loved how the taste of basilicum infuses the mix of ingredients. You can leave to rest before putting to the oven for a couple of minutes - 5 to maximum 10.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 45-50 minutes

Serves: 7

Bon Appétit!

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