I had fresh basil that I had to use today so I’m thinking either basil oil or pesto…..I didn’t have many pine nuts or walnuts or hazelnuts today so I went with pistachios. I usually do one thing that most people don’t do that really makes a difference. I use a small amount of garlic but usually it’s whipped sweet roasted garlic. It never gets too strong tasting and is sweet and delicious. To make whipped sweet roasted garlic use a lot of garlic cloves. Pour a good amount of extra virgin olive oil on them. Put them in a covered pan at 350 or 375 degrees F for one hour and then blend.
Roasted & Whipped Sweet Garlic
It keeps for a while in the refrigerator but I freeze it since I make it in big batches. Back to the pesto….I didn’t measure exactly but it went something like this.
1 cup fresh basil leaves
4 oz parmesan rough chop
1/2 cup pistachios
1 tablespoon whipped sweet garlic
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 dried Calabrian piri piri dried pepper – crushed (you can substitute any pepper to taste)
Blend…This time I left the pesto slightly chunky so you can taste everything in it a little more.
I do note that this stays for a while but is best to use in a few days…..after a week or so the oil gets very thick and the basil has less fragrance. You can brighten it back up with a little more fresh basil and a little more olive oil.
Over a year ago I did something like this before but this one is slightly different. Somehow poppy seeds, black garlic mixed with kalamata olives can be magical together with the right ingredients and taste great on vegetables. I simply roasted the vegetables with a light spray of oil and salt and pepper and took them out of the oven when done. The rest mixes up in minutes. Serving size is always difficult to judge. I got 6 side servings out of this. You might get less if your side servings are bigger.
Servings for around 6 servings
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (2 Tablespoons lightly sprayed on vegetables and 1 Tablespoon reserved for condiment)
1 small cauliflower – cut into florets
1 red onion – cut into slices
8oz spinach
4 1/2 oz good quality Feta Cheese cut into small cubes (I like the Israeli Feta from Trader Joes and my 2nd favorite is the Greek Feta from Costco)
1 Tablespoon urfa pepper (this is to coat the feta cheese)
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds – put threw a spice grinder
7oz kalamata olives – pits removed – chopped
1 + 1/2 Tablespoons black garlic
1 Tablespoon date syrup (you can substitute honey but you can easily find date syrup at Walmart)
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
sea salt – to taste
ground black pepper – to taste
optional 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, parsley, or scallions to finish
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
On sheet tray(s) spread out the cauliflower florets on one side and the onions on the other side incase they don’t get done at the same time. Spray them lightly with olive oil. Season them lightly with a little salt and pepper to taste. Put them in the middle rack of the oven and take them out when lightly charred. Mine took 20 minutes but timing may differ due to the way ovens work and the size and age of the vegetables.
In a small bowl mix the feta cubes with the urfa pepper. Keep to the side until ready to use.
In another pan add the spinach. Sprinkle lightly with oil and season lightly with salt and pepper. Cover pan and put this in 5 minutes before you want to serve on the lower rack while the other vegetables are cooking. I like mine like 1/2 cooked. You can do longer if you want or do them on the stove top.
Assemble and serve. I put the spinach on the bottom mixed the onions and cauliflower together. Spooned on condiment. Then added the peppered feta and topped that with cilantro.
Roasted Vegetables with Poppy Seed Black Garlic Kalamata Olive Condiment and Urfa Peppered Feta Cheese
This went FORKING GREAT with the Moroccan Style Turkey Meatballs with harissa that I just made.
Moroccan Style Turkey Meatballs with Harissa Vinaigrette Roasted Vegetables with Poppy Seed Black Garlic Kalamata Olive Condiment and Urfa Peppered Feta Cheese
I happened to have one cucumber that I had to use up and in my inbox on my computer a recipe came in from the New York Post from Yotam Ottolenghi called Grilled Cucumbers with Tomato-Cardamon Dressing & Mozzarella. Incase you didn’t know Yotam Ottolenghi is a multi award wining chef, restauranteur, and cookbook author. He is one of the most gifted chefs anywhere. If he puts out a recipe it is always worth trying. I wanted to do his recipe but I had to do several different substitutions due to what I had around the house. There was only one thing from the original recipe I wanted to change. I didn’t want to leave whole cardamom shells in the food…Maybe it does infuse better flavor….but I just don’t like cardamom shells in my food. The only problem that I had is that I couldn’t get grill marks to stay on the cucumbers. I did have nice medium light brown grill marks but somehow they disappeared. Maybe instead of a grill pan that I used maybe you can get grill marks to stay on from an outdoor grill.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
8 oz cheery tomatoes
7 Tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves – peeled, sliced thin
1 teaspoon white miso
3 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds – crushed
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 heaping teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon lime juice
optional – 1 Tablespoon date syrup (I thought my tomatoes weren’t sweet enough so I added a Tablespoon of date syrup. If you tomatoes are sweet don’t add the date syrup)
1 cucumber – peeled, cut long ways, remove seeds, cut in half, cut each half longways in 6 pieces
1/2 a very small head of cabbage – remove core, cut in 3 or 4 slices
1 Tablespoon olive oil (this is for spraying or sprinkling on the cucumber and cabbage)
sea salt – to taste
ground black pepper – to taste
4 1/2 oz cheese – I used caciotta cheese but buffalo mozzarella is recommended – torn
2 Tablespoon fresh cilantro – chopped
Directions
In a large fry pan on medium high heat add the tomatoes, oil, garlic, miso, bay leaves. cardamom, paprika, cayenne, sea salt. Stir. Leave on heat until it bubbles.
Turn down to medium low. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and decide if you need to add the date syrup (or honey). Stir in the lime juice and set to the side.
Use either your outdoor grill or a grill pan in a 420 degree F oven.
Lightly spray or sprinkle the cabbage and cucumbers with oil. Season them lightly with salt and pepper. Lightly grill the cucumbers. You don’t want mushy cucumbers so they can only take around 2 minutes at the most. My cabbage was perfect in 15 minutes on the grill pan in a 420 f oven. Timing can differ.
Transfer the vegetables to your tomato pan. Top with torn cheese and the cilantro and serve. This dish can be served warm or room temperature.
This recipe was an inspiration from Food & Wine Magazine. I came across Roasted Broccoli Steaks with Tomato Butter and Tapenade by chef Greg Vernick. I looked at the photo, read the recipe. While I was cooking I thought another onion would benefit the recipe. I cut the amount of stock to add but my sauce still came out too loose so I added a Tablespoon of tomato paste to make it right. I didn’t like the idea of adding tapenade so I added olives instead. And lastly instead of toasted crumbs I thought crushed Taralli crackers would be tastier. ANYWAYS****It came out FORKING DELICIOUS. Chef Greg Vernick’s recipe in Food & Wine Magazine gave me the inspiration to come up with what I got here. This recipe makes around 4 servings.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
sea salt – to taste (I used my home made lightly pecan smoked sea salt)
fresh ground black pepper – to taste
3 medium-small broccoli heads – cut in thirds threw the head like steaks
10 oz plum tomatoes – quarter
2 small red onions – cut in wedges
4 oz vegetable stock
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter – cut in small cubes
Optional – 1 Tablespoon tomato paste (if sauce is too loose)
4-6 olives – remove pits, slice or cut off of the pits ( I used cured black olives)
5 taralli crackers crushed
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F with a grill pan on the middle rack. Let this heat up at least 10 minutes.
In a large mixing bowl add the broccoli, tomatoes, and onions. Add the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste (around 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper. Mix and arrange in a single layer on the grill pan. Turn everything over after 10 minutes and mostly everything will be done in another 10 or 15 minutes.
The tomatoes get blended with 1/2 of the onions (this should be done with a stick blender or you have to wait for this to cool with a regular blender) Slowly blend in the cubes of butter. If this is too loose add the tomato paste. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (I used around 1/2 teaspoon H.M. smoked sea salt and around 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.)
Arrange the plates
Put tomato butter on bottom of plate. Then add broccoli and onions, add olives and crushed taralli. I also added some cherry peppers stuffed with cheese.
Roasted Broccoli and Onions with Tomato Butter and Crushed Taralli Crackers
A SPECIAL THANKS!!!!! To Food & Wine Magazine and Chef Greg Vernick for an amazing recipe to inspire what I’ve done here.
Smoked salt is very expensive no matter where you shop. I thought since we are smoking up a storm today that we should also try to do smoked salt.
Today we are smoking eggs, a brisket, corn, and sea salt today but I’m just talking about the salt here.
Our smoker doesn’t have any settings for heat. I think it smokes at around 160 degrees F. We left it in till we ran out of pecan wood (around 3 hours). I could have left it in longer for a stronger smoke taste but 3 hours the taste is there and I think is enough. The salt smells so good! Give it a try!
I was reading about Amish Onion Patties and found out that they are a scrumptious fried food that I have never had. I heard that they taste like onion rings. I figured out a baked version of and seasoned them a bit more. GOSH they are a BIG HIT because they are forking tasty and not so heavy. They have a crisp exterior and are light almost like an fluffy onion pancake inside. They are tasty the way they are but also would be great with any dip, dressing, or ketchup that you can think of….I think that they would be great as mini sandwiches too. This recipe makes around 16 patties. You need to eat at least two so that might be 8 small portions. I am certain that some will eat more than two patties so serving size is difficult to judge. I’ll guesstimate 6 servings.
Ingredients for around 6 portions
2 1/2 cups onions – sliced thin on mandolin and chopped (I used 1+ almost1/2 large onions)
1/3 cup scallions – sliced thin
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon corn meal
3/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon granulated onion
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 eggs – beaten
1/4 cup water
canola non stick spray
Directions
Set oven to 400 degrees F and spray two sheet trays with non stick spray.
In a large bowl add the onions, scallions, baking powder, cornmeal, flour, salt, sugar, granulated onion, pepper, Mix well.
In a small bowl mix together the eggs and water. Now add that to the big bowl and mix well.
I used a teaspoon and heaped it up with batter and placed them on the baking sheets like this.
My oven was preheated to 400 degrees F. One sheet pan went on the middle rack and the other sheet pan on the lower rack. In my oven I thought that the onions patties looked perfect to me at 30 minutes. Ovens can differ some so you might need slightly more or slightly less time.
About once a year I make my pastrami, rye bread or rolls, some sort of mustard and a slaw. This year I used sake instead of beer in my mustard so I did a little Asian Twist on slaw and it came out really great! Serving size is always difficult to judge because I don’t know if you want a tiny side cup or a true side order. This stuff really is tasty. You might eat more slaw than you normally do. I will guesstimate 6 large servings (large to me for slaw) but you might really get 8.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
1/2 small cabbage – shredded thin on mandolin
1 carrot – shredded
1/2 onion sliced thin on mandolin
2 small avocados – mashed
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 Tablespoons bonito flakes – split onto 2T& 2T (sold at Asian Markets) (2T for salad and 2T for finishing)
1 teaspoon dry dill
1/2 teaspoon granulated onion
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon dried parley
1 Tablespoon wasabi powder (or to taste..)
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon shiso fumi furikake (sold at Asian Markets) (for finishing)
1/4 cup scallions – either sliced thin or on a diagonal (for finishing)
Directions
In a large bowl mix up the dressing. Combine the avocado, yogurt, mayonnaise, dill, granulated onion, garlic, chives, parsley, wasabi, pepper, salt, lemon juice, and vinegar. Mix well. Mix in the cabbage, carrot, and onion. Mix well.
Serve
Finish with bonito flakes, furikake, and scallions
Avocado Wasabi Slaw with Furikake and Bonito Flakes
This recipe is by Gabriela Duhart who is a consultant with Humane Society International. I came across this recipe and thought wow it would be pretty cool to make carrot lox. I thought I’d give this recipe a try on my home made mini bagels (mini bagel recipe not published as of yet)
Ingredients for around 4 servings
4 carrots – boiled for 8 minutes and cooled
2 Tablespoons caper brine (liquid from a jar of capers)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon miso paste
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely chopped dill
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2/3 cup warm water
Directions
Slice the carrots into thin strips or sheets using a fine knife or vegetable peeler.
in a bowl (or a ziplock bag) combine the remaining ingredients and the carrots.
Marinate the carrots in the refrigerator. One hour will add little flavor. I tried them after letting them sit overnight and I thought the dominate flavor was soy sauce. Then I let them go longer. I thought I got the most and best flavors around 5 days latter.
Remove carrots from marinade and serve.
Humane Society Vegan Carrot Lox on home made mini bagel
I think that if you are vegan that this is a good recipe………..but……. It doesn’t actually taste like real lox plain. But it almost taste like lox in the home made mini bagel all dressed up. Those were my FORKING Thoughts on The Humane Society Vegan Lox Recipe.
I sure learned a lot from Chef Claudette Zepeda’s recipe for Strawberry (and Radish…..online the radish is omitted from the name of recipe ) aguachile recipe. I had no idea that you can lightly cook strawberries and come up with such an amazing strawberry sauce that is truly amazing. I just had to do parts of the recipe different. I also didn’t want to throw out vegetable and fruit solids that tasted so good and added healthy fiber and nutrition to the dish. I cut out some of the straining. I also cut out picking out seeds from tiny chitepin peppers (who does that?), and icing up and drying chopped scallions before serving (it really is a nice touch but………). Also picking off cilantro leaves one by one. The big one that I couldn’t agree with was not using one third of a roasted pepper because it was just too much roasted red pepper…….(how could that that be?….the roasted pepper is so darn delicious. By not doing all those things I guess what I made is no longer aguachile and really is a cold soup. >>>>>>>>Also I think I simplified the cooking of the strawberries. It is also very hard to keep a simmering bowl of water under a bowl with 2 pounds of strawberries for an HOUR…..I made that easier by cooking them in a low oven. This recipe was based from chef Claudette Zepeda’s Food & Wine Magazine Recipe. It came out delicious anyway. You need to know that this is a very time consuming recipe…I cut out some steps and it still is very time consuming. You are welcome to strain everything all you want if you care to. If you strain everything you will have a true aguachile but you also will end up with much less.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
1 red bell pepper – roasted – stem, skin, seeds, removed and chopped
2 1/2 pounds strawberries – stems removed, quartered divided into 2 pounds and 1/2 pound that is reserved for topping the aguachile
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 medium scallions – root cut off – white and light green chopped – separate the dark green part and trim thin on a diagonal
1/4 cup fresh cilantro – leaves and fine stems – chopped and reserve 6 of the thicker stems, chop the stems but keep them separate
4 regular radishes sliced thin or use any radish you want. You just need a little to garnish each bowl.
radish micro greens for garnish
optional sea salt flakes for finishing
Directions
Set your oven to 180 degrees F.
In a large baking dish or pan add 2 pounds (remember you should have reserved 1/2 pound) strawberries. Sprinkle the strawberries with salt and sugar. Cover the pan and place on the middle rack of your preheated oven. This stays in the oven for an hour.
Take a break…or do the next step and put it off to the side and into the refrigerator.
Combine the cucumber, lime juice, lemon juice, chiltepin peppers, bell pepper, white and light green scallions, reserved cilantro stems. Blend till smooth.
By now your strawberries should be out of the oven. You need to place them in a colander over a bowl to catch the juices that leak out. This will take another HOUR.
All the strawberry juice gets added to the cucumber/strawberry juice mixture. Blend up the strawberries till smooth and add that also to the cucumber mixture till smooth.
This needs to chill in the refrigerator a few hours before serving.
Assemble – divide the aguachile into 4 servings. Top each bowl with the remaining strawberries, radish slices, cilantro, scallions, radish sprouts. Add flaked salt if you like.
Strawberry Aguachile Style Cold Soup
A Special THANKS!!! to chef Claudette Zepeda and Food & Wine Magazine for inspiring me to do my twist on their amazing recipe.
About once a year I make pastrami and about once a year I make rye bread or rye rolls and a mustard. I usually make a beer mustard but this year I didn’t have any beer at home so I thought what tastes like beer here?….I thought Sake! So I made one jar of Sake Mustard. It’s similar to the beer mustard but is a bit sweeter. You do need a spice grinder to make this mustard. I made it a mix of ground and whole seeds…This recipe makes the perfect amount to fill a small Ball 1/2 pint canning jar. I’ll guesstimate around 8 servings.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
4 1/2 Tablespoons black mustard seeds (reserve 1 Tablespoon to keep whole if desired)
3 Tablespoons yellow mustard seeds (reserve 1 Tablespoon to keep whole if desired)
2 allspice berries
7 juniper berries
2 Tablespoons honey
2 garlic cloves – ground to paste
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 Tablespoon ground mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
5 Tablespoons sake
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon mirin
Directions
Grind up the mustard seeds except for the reserved seeds if desired. Grind up the allspice and juniper seeds and mixup everything that is left together (honey, garlic, pepper, turmeric, ground mustard, salt, sake, vinegar, mirin.
Enjoy!
Sake Mustard
Here’s this years rye rolls.
rye rolls with sake mustard
Here’s this years pastrami.
smoked pastrami
Did it only slightly different. Basically the same recipe November 2020 but separated the point from the flat of the brisket and used the flat for pastrami. Actually my husband separated them for me. He volunteered so I let him do it because I thought I might hack it up. He also did the beautiful slicing.
