I was inspired to create this dish while dinning at Atlas Bistro in Scottsdale from the fall restaurant week menu. One of the most delicious and memorable parts of that dinner was the mound of Israeli Couscous. I could taste the blended beets blanketing the couscous. I never had such a dish and thought it was interesting. Lots of delicious Harissa came with the couscous that taste identical to my recipe for Harissa. It took me so long to do this dish because my local supermarkets (Costco, Safeway, Walmart Grocery, WinCo) don’t sell Israeli Couscous and I often forget about looking for this ingredient.  I knew I could recreate it and I did and ran with it. The flavors go together like magic. This one will dazzle most people.

I used Israeli Feta that that is less tangy and more creamy than regular feta cheese. I purchased it from Trader Joe’s. If you can find a home made Feta Cheese that would be even better!

Ingredients for the beets around 8 servings

2 lb beets (usually I peel after cooked but this time I peeled before cooking, cut up a little)

1 bay leaf

1 cinnamon stick

1 Tablespoon allspice berries

1/2 preserved lemon

1 cup water

1 cup rice wine vinegar

1 cup sugar

1 cup apple cider vinegar

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees. Add everything to your roasting pan. Cover with foil. Cook about one and one half hours or until beets are fork tender.

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Ingredients for the Harissa Vinaigrette about 8 servings

2 red bell peppers roasted- remove stem, core, seeds and skin – chopped

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon caraway seed

2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

3 garlic cloves – chopped

sea salt (fresh ground to taste)

black pepper (fresh ground to taste)

1-3 hot peppers-  (you have to wing it here. All peppers have different heat and I suggest adding your chopped hot pepper at the end and then decide on how many you want to use. This sauce should be spicy.)

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

1 lemon just the fresh juice

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

Directions just blend till smooth.

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Ingredients for couscous about 8 servings

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 cup dry Israeli Couscous

1 1/4 cup vegetable broth

Directions saute couscous in olive oil on medium high heat for 2-3 minutes until you see the couscous is slightly toasted. Add vegetable broth and bring to boil, cove, reduce to simmer for about 10 minutes, when couscous is done.

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Ingredients for creamy beet sauce for couscous for about 4 servings

2 oz. water

1 cup beets – chopped well (these are the beets you just cooked)

2 oz feta cheese

Directions

Blend well and mix into couscous.

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Assemble and add ons to finish

Cut up leftover beets and serve them with the couscous. Use a generous amount of Harissa with each serving.

14 leaves of chopped mint (one leaf or a little more per serving)

8 teaspoons of roasted crushed pistachios  (one teaspoon per serving)

8 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil (one teaspoon per serving)

1/2 cup chopped scallions (about one tablespoon per serving)

Tasty and different! Delicious…….you just might not want to be as fancy and mix the harissa into the couscous. Something that you would eat at a restaurant. You might want to make want to double or triple the Harissa recipe. It is great on eggs, grilled meats and is super awesome on spaghetti squash too.

My husband usually isn’t into this kind of food and he said it was so delicious anyone would love it. He says I should make it the next time his parents come over.

 

 

This kind of potato is easy to prepare and is very tasty.

Just wash and cut your potatoes in half.

Get out your fry pan and put it on medium heat.

Put a combination of half butter and half oil in your pan and made it about a 1/4 inch high (5 or 6 mm) or slightly higher to cover the cut surface of the potatoes well. Add a few cloves of smashed garlic and a couple sprigs of either thyme or rosemary to add some flavor to your potatoes.

Fry your potatoes until they look golden crisp add fresh cracked sea salt and fresh cracked pepper and turn over and fry up the bottoms of the potatoes about 15 minutes. Add fresh cracked sea salt and pepper to the bottoms of potatoes.

Set your oven to 400 degrees F or around 200 degrees C

Remove potatoes from fry pan and place potatoes on a baking sheet. They need to cook for about 15 minutes. I turned mine over half way though.

Yummy everybody loves potatoes.

 

I enjoyed a similar salad out at  a restaurant and I thought I could recreate it slightly better and I Forking did! This is a refreshing light delicious salad that’s easy to prepare and looks like something from a very upscale restaurant.

Ingredients for 4 servings

One medium melon. (I used a honey dew but I think just about any ripe flavorful similar kind of melon would do) Remove rind and seeds and cut in halves into thinner slices

1/2 rind of preserved lemon chopped fine

1 Tablespoon of the preserved lemon brine (if you used my recipe…because it’s fresh lemon juice and kosher salt) (as a substitute use 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice and salt to taste)

3 Tablespoons sunflower oil

3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons pure honey

1 Tablespoon fresh mint – chopped fine

2 oz. whipped cream cheese (you might want slightly more to get you pastry bag working but you only use about 2 oz. at the most)

4 pinches of lavender

optional edible flowers broken down a little

Directions

Arrange melon slices on plates and set to the side.

In a small bowl add preserved lemon, preserved lemon brine, sunflower oil, vinegar, honey and mix well and pour over each serving.

Sprinkle the mint and optional flowers over each serving.

Get a disposable pastry bag and a small rose tip. Insert the tip to bag and fill with cream cheese and twist the end so the cheese doesn’t fall out.

Hold the bag and add pressure and make like sort of a hook motion.

Now do a reverse hook motion into what you already did.

Now you have some cheese that looks like a flower bud.

Make several all over the salad.

If you feel like it make a rose in the middle. Apologies for not being able to take good pictures while doing a rose. I found I can’t handle a cell phone a pastry bag and my other hand holding a flower nail very well. But I’ll try to do better another time.

For right handed people hold your nail in your left hand and make a little mountain of cream cheese on the nail.

Now go around the top to make the center of the bud leaving a small hole in the top.

After this it’s easy!!!! Just keep going around making petals starting at the top doing small ones  that get larger till it looks right to you and remove with a butter knife.

This is so delicious! The delicate whipped cream cheese doesn’t over power anything so you can taste all the delicious flavors. This really is BETTER than what I tried from some high end restaurants.

 

 

 

 

Perserved Lemons have an intense lemon flavor that will elevate most savory or sweet foods to the next level. Preserving lemons is very easy to do but you need to wait a month for them to be ready to use.

Who has a forking month to wait for preserved lemons?

I just read in Food and Wine Magazine that you can preserve lemons in your oven in about three hours. Mine took four hours but I used regular lemons instead of the sweeter and thinner skinned Meyer Lemons recommended. The recipe comes from ChefBenFord.com. He did his recipe with only three Meyer Lemons.  All lemons do come in a variety of sizes from the very small to the very large so you have to wing the time. I used about 18 small lemons total.

Chef Ben Ford’s  recipe is called Roasted Preserved Lemons. He does use Meyer Lemons. I can’t find Meyer Lemons right now from any stores in the area so I’m using regular lemons because I want some preserved lemons.

Start by washing them really well. then You basically trim the stem end.

Make like quarter cuts but not all the way threw.

Good Sprinkle of kosher or sea salt

Add about one lemon fresh juice per every lemon in your dish. In short half the lemons are preserved and half are juiced.

Put the dish in a 200 degree oven for three-four hours. You might need to turn the lemons half way threw.

To use you need to scrape out all you can from the rind.

Now you have something lemony delicious that you can use in a variety of ways. The first thing I made with my preserved lemons was a delicious Melon Salad. Can’t wait to do more with the preserved lemons.

Who has a forking month to wait for preserved lemons?

This is better!

When Life Gives You Lemons Forking Preserve Them!

 

 

 

I usually pound chicken breast, then salt and pepper them on both sides, dust them lightly with an unusual healthy flour and then pan fry them in a regular fry pan with non-stick oil. They come out with a nice crust and are very tasty, flavorful and moist.

I had my SousVide all fired up so I thought I’d cook off four already slightly pounded out chicken breast four different ways. This is another way to make perfect chicken breast and you can easily infuse them with flavors.

For boneless chicken breast you need to set the SousVide at 146 degrees F or 63.5 degrees C and leave the chicken in the water bath between two and four hours. I would make three hours  as your target if your doing one or two pouches and if your doing more I’d go to the four hours.

You need to add frozen fat of some kind. That can be butter, olive oil or animal fat. Some sealing machines do have a setting for liquids but all sealers can seal with frozen fat. You also need to add things like garlic, onion, celery, carrot, salt, pepper and herbs to make the chicken taste good.

I made up four bags of chicken breast four different ways.

 

Basic with a few extras- About 1/4 sweet onion, a couple slices of orange, 2 small pieces of apple, 1/2 celery rib cut up, 2 smashed garlic cloves,  a small carrot cut in sticks, 1 sprig thyme, small handful of basil, about two Tablespoons of frozen fat (olive oil, chicken fat or garlic confit) , About a teaspoon sea salt and about 1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper

The variations below are similar to the basic recipe just a few ingredients that are different.

Lemon Garlic Dill – onion, celery, carrot, apple, orange, lemon, dill, frozen garlic confit, salt and         pepper – This one came out Forking Amazing and was my favorite!

Mexican Inspired – cilantro, onion, orange, poblano pepper, garlic, carrot, celery, frozen chicken fat, ground achiote, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper

Asian Inspired- 2 lime leaves, cilantro, Thai basil, lemon grass, fresh ginger in slices, garlic, orange, apple, carrot, celery, onion, Szechuan peppercorns, frozen chicken fat, salt and pepper

Your finished chicken can be served right away and you can easily brown it in a sauce pan on medium high heat with some either canola oil or a mixture of butter and canola or vegetable oil. Many people like grape seed oil but I never use it because anything grape is harmful to dogs and if you know me then you know that I share some chicken with my dogs. It only takes a minute or a little more time to brown the chicken in a pan.

All the chicken came out great it was all soft, moist and flavorful. However the chicken made with garlic confit was super amazing not sure why. All the flavors were far more intense with a little pop. I will have to experiment using the SousVide with frozen garlic confit more.

To make garlic confit put a bunch of garlic cloves in a baking dish or baking sheet. Sprinkle generously with extra virgin olive oil. Cover. Put in a 350 degree F oven for about an hour or until cloves are soft and tender and whip. I keep some in the refrigerator and freeze the rest in very small salad dressing containers. The garlic confit is also excellent for using in dressings and any sauce you prepare that you don’t cook because you will never have a too strong garlic taste.

That’s a little bit of Using the SousVide with Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast.

 

 

 

I made this lemon anglaise-like cream that I was going to use for cake with and then I decided I could do something far more interesting with the cream and I combined it with fresh cut fruit and large tapioca pearls.

The Tomatillo is looks like a green tomato but is really a berry that’s related to the gooseberry. It taste almost watermelon like when it’s raw like from the part near the rind. Jicama is neutral and adds a nice light crunch. The fruit adds flavor and sweetness and the tapioca makes the salad special. Thai Basil adds just the right seasoning that ties everything together. This salad seems light and is refreshing.

Ingredients for about 8 servings

1 12 0z. can evaporated milk

1/2 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

4 lemons – the fresh juice and zest (you need about a cup plus 1/4 of juice)

4 XL yolks -beaten

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup water

pinch salt

1/2 large jicama – peeled and cut in cubes (about 2 1/2 cups)

2 oranges peeled and supreme and cut in smaller pieces

1 lb tomatillos 3 large or bunch of small cored, peeled, cleaned – cubed

1 apple cored cubed

l lemon just the fresh squeezed juice

2 Tablespoon fresh Thai Basil – chopped

1/2 cup large pearl tapioca

2 cups water

Directions

In a small mixing bowl combine cornstarch sugar, salt, yolks and mix well. In a saucepan on medium heat add your butter, lemon juice/zest, water, Whisk in your small bowl contents into your sauce pan. The mixture must bubble and thicken. Let it bubble for about 5 minutes and turn down heat so it doesn’t burn.

When done refrigerate.

Prep up the produce if you haven’t done already.

There are different kinds of tapioca out there that need different cooking methods so follow the directions on the kind you purchased. Mine was to bring to boil, then reduce to slow boil for about 10 minutes and then reduced to simmer about 10 minutes. Staring often because this stuff sticks. I recommend using a nonstick pot if you have one. Rinse the tapioca well and then add the tapioca to the chilled lemon sauce. Then pour the sauce over the produce and add the Thai Basil.

People will be impressed with this one. Delicious with interesting flavors and textures. This recipe might be prize winning. I should forking charge for this one.

Your Welcome!

 

I had a bunch of pickling cucumbers, some lemons and some fresh rosemary and I was undecided if I wanted to make pickles or salad so I made salad but pickled style. The salad came out very light and refreshing. Cumbers are really a blank canvas you can infuse any flavor to them. Rosemary can be a harsh flavor and isn’t typically used with cucumber but if you are very careful and don’t over use it then it is fine and goes very well with lemon. After you make it the the flavors need at least a day to combine but for the best flavor you need to let it sit about one week.

Ingredients to make around 14 servings

3 1/2 lb pickling cucumbers – remove ends, slice in chip shapes

1 carrot peeled, and sliced very thin

1 sweet onion sliced thin

1 1/2 cup water

1 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

1 1/2 cup white vinegar

1 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons kosher salt

1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice and a small amount of the zest.

8 garlic cloves smashed

1 oz fresh rosemary – finely chopped

Directions

In a large bowl add your cucumber, carrot, onion and rosemary. Get a medium sized sauce pan on the stove and add all the remaining ingredients. Bring to boil and then reduce to slow boil for about twenty minutes. With a slotted spoon remove the garlic and discard. Pour the hot liquid over the big bowl with cucumbers. Chill and serve.

Very light and tasty.

I recently dined at Carvalho’s Brazilian Kitchen in Scottsdale AZ and tried their potato salad with my steak. The Brazilian Potato Salad had a good play of flavor between the sweet soft carrots and briney olives. It also was  very bright tasting maybe from lemon.  I became inspired to create a similar salad. The interesting thing that seemed different to me was the texture. It was more like mashed potatoes mixed with chunks of firm potatoes.

My recipe isn’t exactly the same but it is similar. I took liberties and added hearts of palm because it was suppose come with my dinner and was substituted with something else. The hearts of palm surprisingly goes well in the salad.

Some of the tricks to making this potato salad are to boil the potatoes just right. You need to have a cooked but firm center and the ends need to be softer so than when you mix you get a creaminess from the ends of the potatoes. The other part of my trick is to infuse the potatoes with flavors from boiling them with a hot banana pepper and scallions. The palm hearts I added added another texture and taste that goes remarkably well in this salad.

Honestly my potato salad came out really amazing but I never would have thought about making such a salad if it wasn’t for Carvalho’s Brazilian Kitchen.

Ingredients for about 8 servings

2 LB russet potatoes – peeled, cut in halves

1 hot banana pepper (or other hot pepper you like to boil the potatoes with)

4 scallions (to boil the potatoes with)

1 Tablespoon salt (kosher or sea salt)

3 carrots peeled – cut in quarters longways- and half again

1/3 cup olives pitted and then rough chopped – I used kalamata

14.1 oz. can hearts of palm – rinsed well and drained – rough chopped

3 scallions – rough chopped on a diagonal

1 lemon -just the fresh squeezed juice

1/2 cup low fat mayonnaise

fresh ground salt to taste (about a Tablespoon)

fresh cracked pepper to taste (about 1/2 a teaspoon)

Directions

Place your potatoes, 1 tablespoon salt, hot pepper and 4 scallions in a medium size sauce pan. fill with water to the top of produce. Bring to boil and then reduce to a slow boil for around 15 minutes. You want the potato to be just fork tender. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon and set them to the side. You will re-use the water to do your carrots. When cool enough to handle cut the potatoes in large chunks and place in a large bowl. set to the side.

Now add the carrots and they need to cook about 8 minutes. You want them soft but not falling apart.

When carrots are done drain them and add them to the large bowl of potatoes.

Throw out the used scallions and used hot pepper. (you might want to keep the liquid for making vegetable soup)

Now to the large bowl add olives, hearts of palm, 3 scallions, lemon juice, low fat mayonnaise and stir gently. Add fresh ground sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

The forking truth is that after a gave my husband a small bowl to try he kept coming back for more. He kept saying this is really good. He didn’t even think I should call this potato salad Brazilian Potato Salad. He said it’s just REALLY GOOD Potato salad.