This recipe is a happy accident. I was reading up on how to make Toum sauce. Toum sauce is that garlicky thick white sauce that you eat with shawarma. Most of the recipes were very similar…..almost exact for toum sauce…….They all involved blending together garlic, neutral oil, salt and lemon………but all toum recipes I read also suggesting adding one more ingredient to soften the garlic flavor and also for thickening…….One person suggested adding mashed potatoes. Other suggestions were egg whites, yogurt, and mayonnaise. I made the toum and it came out probably the way everyone else’s toum sauce come out…….It came out thinner than what I would like and also far more garlicky than anyone on earth can handle. This stuff can kill all the vampires and maybe weeds and insects too!. ….I was planing on making the leeks and serving them up like Shawarma with the sumac onions, toum sauce and tehini sauce………..Then I got inspired from chef Neil Campbell’s recipe for charcoal roasted leeks with tarator and date brown butter….I thought that sounds really good but I don’t have any charcoal……….and I already had my toum sauce……..So I thought that I could change the toum sauce into tarator sauce. Tarator sauce is an emulsified sauce of nuts, garlic oil, and other things. Unlike toum sauce every recipe that I read was completely different but they all had nuts, oil, and garlic. Then I read latter that there are at least three main kinds of different variations of tarter that are different. The Turkish version is made with walnuts, garlic and sometimes bread. The Lebanon and Syrian versions are made with tahini instead of nuts and the Balkan style is more yogurt with cucumbers…….At the time I was in panic mode when I made tarator style sauce so I didn’t measure…… You got guesstimates there. Anyways….Leeks are very delicious with tarator and date brown butter. This recipe makes more tarator sauce and maybe more date brown butter than you might use but they are delicious together and would be great on most vegetables.

This recipe makes at least 4 servings

1 bundle of leeks (these were the biggest leeks ever with lots of green leaves that I boiled with vegetable bullion and pureed for other things) Greens trimmed off. Cut in half long ways. Tips cut off to fry crispy. I think this dish is best served at room temperature.

canola oil for frying.

1 head garlic – all the garlic cloves peeled and ground to paste

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 large lemon – just the juice

1/2 large lemon – just the juice (this goes on the leeks latter)

1/2 cup toasted walnuts

1/2 cup roasted almonds

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup tahini

1/4 cup yogurt

6 oz feta cheese

1/2 cup home made jalapeño brine

4 oz butter (I used unsalted but either works here)

2 Tablespoons date syrup (or to taste because they all taste different…some are sweeter and some taste more like dates)

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions.

Make the date brown butter. In a sauce pan on medium heat add the butter. Let it go till it turns brown. Take off heat and add date syrup to taste.

Make the tarator sauce. Blend together the garlic, sea salt, canola oil, lemon juice, walnuts, almonds, mayonnaise, tahini, yogurt, feta cheese, and home made jalapeño brine till it’s like a thick sour cream consistency. Put to the side.

Put a fry pan on medium high heat with around three tablespoons of canola oil. When the oil is hot add the leeks cut side down and leave them there till the brown. Flip them over and add 1/2 cup of water and let them cook about ten minutes. (you can leave them that way but I prefer to cut them up because they are easier to eat that way. When they are done remove the braised leeks and put them to the side. Add salt, pepper, thyme, and remaining lemon juice to the leeks.

Clean out the pan and add enough oil to fry up the leek tips (around an inch) on medium-medium high heat. When the oil is hot add the leek tips. Fry till crisp (around seven minutes)

Put together however you like and enjoy.

When I was on vacation in Napa we enjoyed our dinner at La Torque. It was there that I tasted for the first time Fennel Marmalade. It was amazing with fish but I was thinking today that it would also be amazing stuffed into a turkey breast that I prepared in the sous vide. It would have also come out great doing the turkey breast stove top in a fry pan too. Anyway this is how I made fennel marmalade. I got 6 generous servings.

Ingredients for around 6 servings

2 fennel bulbs – core removed, remove dry outer coating, save fronds for garnish, slice thin

1 sweet onion – peeled, slice thin

1 hot pepper or to taste – sliced thin (I used 1/2 spicy banana pepper

1/4 cup sugar

2 lemons – the fresh squeeze juice and zest (save zest for garnishing)

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons white wine

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

3/4 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds – crushed fine

Directions

Everything (except garnishes fennel fronds & lemon zest) goes in a pot on medium high heat. You need to bring this to a boil and then reduce to simmer till thickened like marmalade. I think this took close to an hour.

Enjoy with fish, chicken, or turkey!

Enjoy!

When ever I don’t know what I want to make I have a list of creative chefs that I like. Safeway had a sale on corn so I needed a new idea for corn. I came across Yotam Ottolenghi & Ramael Scully’s recipe for corn cakes. They were seasoned a little differently than what I would normally do with fennel, cumin, celery seed, and tarragon. But what I really liked about the recipe was that it was nearly free of flour…..only two tablespoons for 5 ears of corn so it also seemed like a healthy recipe and that is a big bonus to me. I didn’t change much in the corn cake recipe….but I did make them much smaller, added more cheese to each one and didn’t bother buttering the cups I put them in. The beet-apple salad is suppose to be creamy with yogurt. I left the yogurt out so it would be just a nice light salad that isn’t drippy. The recipe is pretty easy but the hardest part of the recipe is to know how much to process (or blend) the corn mixture. You want the corn ROUGHLY CHOPPED BUT NOT A WET PUREE….some kernels will still be whole. This came out delicious…..The corn cake is sort very creamy and tasty. It did come out extremely delicate. I was sort of lucky that mine came out of the pan. I should have used cupcake liners. I thought that they would pop out more easily so I will recommend to use some sort of liner. The original recipe says 6 servings. I got 16 much smaller corn cakes. Depending on how you are serving them you will want to use either one or two a serving. Serving sizes are going to differ here. I don’t know if you want only one corn cake or three corn cakes. I’ll say that this recipe makes around 8 servings.

Ingredients for around 8 servings

5 corn on the cobs – peel corn, remove kernels with a knife or use 500g frozen corn kernels thawed

100g shallots – rough cut

3 garlic cloves – chopped

1 teaspoon fennel seeds – lightly toasted and coarsely crushed

1 teaspoon ground cumin – lightly toasted

1 teaspoon celery seeds

15g small tarragon leaves rough chopped

1 teaspoon baking powder

80g sweet butter melted (original recipe calls for 20g more butter to grease the molds….I used non -stick spray)

2 large eggs – yolks and whites separated

2 Tablespoons flour

90g feta cheese (original recipe calls for 60g…I think I actually went slightly over 90g) The cheese needs to be cut into a chunk for each corn cake. You can make any size you like because they are YOURS! The original recipe suggest 6-12 corn cakes…I got 16 corn cakes ……so I needed 16 chunks of cheese.

1 teaspoon course sea salt (or to taste)

1 Tablespoon Aleppo pepper (or to taste)

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (or to taste)

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper (or to taste)

2 raw beets – peeled and cut in very thin shreds

1 apple peeled, cored, cut in very thin shreds

1 Tablespoon sherry vinegar

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 lemon (just the juice)

1 teaspoon fennel seeds – roasted and coarsely crushed

1/2 teaspoon celery seeds

15g parsley leaves – rough chopped

5g small baby basil leaves

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Line your cupcake pan with either cupcake liners, Elongated cupcake liners, or parchment. Then either butter the liners or spray with non stick spray.

Combine the corn kernels, shallots and garlic until the corn kernels are rough cut but not a wet paste.

add the fennel seeds, cumin, celery seeds, tarragon, baking powder, butter, egg yolks, salt, and peppers.

Whip the egg whites till stuff. Fold a little in till gone.

Time to fill the cupcake pan. I didn’t use liners so some of mine were a little harder to get out. I don’t want you to have any trouble so I recommend to use liners.

Next I squish down a chunk of feta into each of the corn cakes.

After I patted the edges down on top of the cheese.

Then I put them on the middle rack of my preheated 400 degree F oven for 25 minutes till they gave off aroma and looked toasty done. If you did yours bigger they will need more time. Maybe around 40 minutes.

While the corn cakes were in the over it only took a few minutes to make the beet-apple salad.

In a large bowl combine the beets, apple, sherry vinegar, oil, lemon juice, fennel seeds, celery seeds, parsley. Finish with the tiny basil leaves.

Soon the corn cakes will be coming out of the oven. They need around 10 minutes to cool a little before you can serve.

A special THANKS!!!! to Yotam Ottolenghi & Rameal Scully for sharing their AMAZING Recipe so I could come up with what I got here.

ENJOY!

I am always looking for beet recipes. I read this combination of beets, orange, mint, cheese and salsa macha on a menu somewhere and wrote it down so I could prepare it. Everything here is easy but I had to learn how to make salsa macha. I studied several recipes and they all were somewhat similar but also were different. Salsa Macha is basically a rich Chile oil from Veracruz Mexico. It’s basically made up of chilies, garlic, nuts, and seeds that are fried in oil and then chopped or blended. I picked chef Nud Dudhia’s recipe because I love some of his other salsa recipes. I added four ingredients to his recipe. These ingredients make it pop just a little more and also happen to add a little more shelf life to his recipe. Portion size is difficult to judge. I don’t know if you need a very small amount for a small taco or more to cover a vegetable. I think salsa macha would be delicious on almost any vegetable. This recipe makes around a cup so I’m guesstimating around 6-8 servings.

Ingredients for around 7 servings

1 habanero pepper – (you need to wear glove) – stem removed. quarter it

1 dried pasilla or guajillo chile pepper

1 dried chipote pepper (I used a tablespoon of chipotle flakes)

1/2 star anise

2 garlic cloves

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 oz peanuts

1 Tablespoon jalapeno brine (only use homemade or just add plain vinegar)

2 Tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon honey

Directions

Heat up the oil in either another pan or in a microwavable dish in the microwave oven (about 90 seconds in microwave)

Toast the chiles, garlic, cumin seeds , habanero, and star anise in a dry pan on medium high till the pan gets fragrant.

Add the heated oil and let it cook up for a few minutes. Then add remaining ingredients (brine, sesame seeds, peanuts, salt, and honey. You can take it off the heat. If using a stick blender you can transfer to your blending container and blend. If you are using a traditional blender then you should wait till it cools off and then blend.

ENJOY! Use the salsa macha however you like.

A Special THANKS!!!!!! To chef Nud Dudhia for sharing his FORKING Amazing recipe so I could come up with what I got here.

This recipe is sort of a spin off of Food & Wine Magazine’s recipe Sweet Potato Gyoza with Beet Puree. I wanted to make my own pasta instead of buying gyoza wrappers. I also needed to change a few things. But I did the beet puree almost the same. This recipe made me 22 half moon ravioli. Serving size is difficult to judge…It depends if you only want a couple of ravioli or a whole plate of ravioli. I’ll guesstimate this to be 4 servings for the majority of people.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

2 eggs – pasta

3 egg yolks + 1 egg white – (the egg white is for sealing the ravioli) – pasta

1 cup ap flour + a few tablespoons + a sprinkle for rolling (different brands are ground different you might need up to 1/3 cup more than one cup)- pasta

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil – pasta

2 pinches sea salt – pasta

8 oz beets -peel, cut in half or thirds depending on size -beet puree

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter – beet puree

2 Tablespoons rice vinegar – beet puree

2 Tablespoons cooking water from beets – beet puree

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest – beet puree

1 lb sweet potato – peeled, sliced 1 – 1-1/2 inch disk -filling

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter – melted – filling

2 Tablespoons hazelnut butter (I made mine in a spice grinder) – filling

1 teaspoon sumac – filling

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander – filling

1/2 teaspoon ground sea salt – filling

1.4 teaspoon ground black pepper – filling

2 Tablespoons scallions – sliced thin for finishing

2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves – chopped or torn for finishing

Directions

Set oven to 400 F.

Put the sweet potato slices in a pan and add about 1.2 cup of water and cover the pan with foil. Do the same with the beets. Timing might differ some. In my oven on the middle racks the beets took 90 minutes and the sweet potatoes took 60 minutes. Take them out of the oven when you can piece them with a fork.

Make the pasta dough.

In a medium sized bowl mix up the two eggs with the three egg yolks, oil, and salt. Mix well. Add the cup of flour and mix well. I suggest to have up to 1/3 cup of flour on the side. Each brand of flour is ground different so it is impossible to give an exact measurement. Today I needed to add about half of the 1/3 cup of flour that I had on the side. You knead the dough and you can tell it’s right with it doesn’t stick to your hands. Wrap the dough up in plastic wrap and leave out till you are ready to roll it out. (You will need a little more flour for rolling.

Mash the sweet potatoes with the butter, hazelnut butter, sumac, coriander, salt and black pepper. Set to the side.

Blend the beets with butter, rice vinegar, beet water, and lemon zest. Set to the side.

Roll out the pasta dough around 20 x 15 inches.

I used a three inch cookie cutter and painted the edges with egg white. (I also didn’t re-roll the pasta scraps. You can re-roll the scraps but the dough will be tough…Instead it’s a better idea to just hand cut the scraps into strips and make something like a macaroni and cheese….

Anyway…back to ravioli

Then I used my smallest scooper and scooped out the filling.

I think it is easiest to start in the middle……and just pinch your way down on each side.

Have a pot of salted water boiling.

Boil up your ravioli. They don’t need too long maybe up to two minutes. If you aren’t eating them all now you might want to give them a spray of oil so they don’t stick together.

Serve with beet puree and top with cilantro and scallions. (I had some leftover squash puree so I added that for a pop of color.

A Special THANKS!!! To Food & Wine Magazine for inspiring me to come up with what I did here.

Don’t waste the pasta scraps.

I had a lot of zucchini to use up so I was looking for zucchini recipes. The most interesting one that I found today was one by Great British Chefs called Harissa Hasselback Courgette Recipe with Dukkah. I liked the idea of the recipe but changed many things. The zucchini white bean dip I did not exact but from memory of a Michael Solomonov recipe of Brussels sprouts that I thought made sense….I also flavored it with his recipe for zhoug sauce since I have a jar of it that I made. The dukkah recipe from G.B.C. tasted ok but I thought it was missing something….. I happen to have Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe for dukkah and I added the ingredients that he put in his and it tasted much better. I also didn’t use purchased harissa and have my own recipe for it so I used mine. So this recipe is a mash up of Great British Chefs, Michael Solomonov, Yotam Ottolenghi, AND ME! I had enough zucchini for a party. You might want to cut this recipe down in half or a quarter depending on your needs. I had 4 pounds of zucchini to use. It’s at least 8 servings.

Ingredients for around 8 servings

4 lbs zucchini

6 Tablespoons harissa – preferably home made (2 CLEANED UP roasted red bell peppers chopped, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon caraway, 2 Tablespoons e.v.o.o., 3 garlic, 1-3 hot peppers-chopped, 2 Tablespoons tomato paste, juice of 1 lemon, 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar, s&p to taste Blend)

4 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 lemon -just the fresh juice

sea salt – to taste

ground black pepper – to taste

3 oz hazelnuts – lightly crushed

3 Tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1 teaspoon lightly toasted coriander seeds – crushed

1 teaspoon lightly toasted cumin seeds – crushed

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon oregano

1 – 15.5 oz can white reduced sodium white beans – drained and rinsed three times.

2 heaping Tablespoons tahini

1/2 lemon – just the juice

2 Tablespoons zhoug (preferably Micheal Solomon’s recipe)

1/2 cup yogurt

sea salt to taste

black pepper to taste

1/4 cup chopped cilantro (leaves and only the tender stems) for finishing

Directions

Set oven to 400 degrees F.

In a bowl (med-large bowl) combine the harissa, olive oil, and lemon juice and set to the side.

Hasselback 3 pounds of the zucchinii using either chop sticks or a wooden spoon next to the vegetable so that you don’t cut threw. You can pick up the zucchini and fan it open and dip it into the harissa to coat it.

After the zucchini get coated with the harissa the zucchini go on sheet pans.

They stay in till they look slightly caramelized. About 40 minutes..The other pound gets sliced up and drizzle a small amount of olive oil on it. Also give it a small amount of salt and pepper. This also goes in the oven with the rest of the zucchini.

While the zucchini is cooking make the dukkah. Combine hazelnuts, sesame seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, sea salt, black pepper, paprika, and oregano. Mix and put to the side.

The sliced zucchini is done when it gets charred.

The last thing to make is the zucchini white bean dip. Blend but leave chunky the charred zucchini slices, beans, tahini, lemon juice, zhoug, yogurt. Add salt and pepper to taste.

SERVE! Put the dip under or on the side of the zucchini. Top with dukkah and fresh cilantro.

It’s FORKING Delicious!

ENJOY!

I’m always looking for new beet recipes and came across this recipe from Apricot Lane Farms for Beet Pudding with Yuzu cream. It’s a very good recipe that is also easy. You can even substitute another citrus since fresh yuzu is hard to come by. It’s not as good as fresh but I used bottled yuzu because I like the unique flavor. I also made one mistake while cooking this recipe. I substituted corn starch for the arrowroot…..It turns out that corn starch has far more thickening power than arrowroot. Luckily I had some thickened beet liquid that I added to thin it down to the correct consistency. So if you substitute corn starch you will only need one tablespoon and don’t use two tablespoons like I did. This makes 8 servings.

Ingredients for 8 servings

2 medium eggs

1/4 cup honey

1/8 cup yuzu juice

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter – cut up in small cubes

1/2 cup heavy cream

12 oz beets – peeled, small dice

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup full fat coconut milk

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup yuzu juice

4 medium egg yolks

2 Tablespoons arrowroot

1 teaspoon vanilia

Directions

Make the yuzu cream.

1 Fill a medium saucepan with around 2 inches of water. Bring the water to a simmer on medium – high heat.

2 In a medium metal bowl combine the 2 egg yolks and a 1/4 cup honey. Set the bowl over the simmering water. Whisk one minute. Add (1/8 cup) yuzu juice and continue whisking till thickened (5-6 minutes).

3 Remove bowl from the pot and whisk in butter a few cubes at a time till incorporated. Cover bowl. Refrigerate until cool.

4 When curd is completely cool whip up 1/2 cup of heavy cream until stiff. Use a rubber spatula and fold in the curd. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

5 Make the beet pudding. Place beets in a medium sauce pan with around 2 inches of water. bring to boil on high heat. Reduce to a medium-high simmer. until beets are fork tender (15-20 minutes).

6 Drain the beets and blend them up with the heavy cream, coconut cream, honey and salt. Blend till smooth and creamy. This mixture goes back in the sauce pan. Bring it to medium heat and simmer for around 5 minutes and so that it thickens some.

7 While the beet mixture is simmering in a small bowl mix together the egg yolks, yuzu juice, arrowroot, and vanilla and set to the side.

8 ladle about a 1/4 cup of the beet mixture and whisk it into the egg mixture and whisk well. SLOWLY pour the egg mixture into the beet mixture whisking aggressively. Continue whisking until the mixture is thick. Remove pan from heat.

Have 8 cups ready for the pudding. Top with yuzu cream when ready to serve!

A special THANKS! to Apricot Lane Farms for this amazing recipe.

I got this recipe sent to my email that was called something like Cabbage Caesar with Crisp Chic Peas that I was going to do. But I couldn’t when I read the recipe because you don’t actually make the dressing. You just add a few things to mayonnaise. I used to work in fine dining and I used to make Caesar Dressing table side so I had to do something different. By LUCK I had a great original idea and the leftover egg white from the dressing became a crouton. I didn’t add cheese to the dressing that is traditional because when you prepare fresh Caesar dressing table side the cheese is just part of the finishing. You can toss cheese into your dressing if you desire. This recipe makes around 4 servings.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

1 egg white (You will need the yolk to make the Caesar Dressing) – egg white crouton

pinch granulated garlic – egg white crouton

big pinch Red Boat salt – egg white crouton

4 garlic cloves – ground to paste – dressing

8 anchovies – dressing

1 teaspoon anchovy oil (from the can of anchovies – dressing

1 egg yolk – (You will need the egg white to make the crisp Red Boat egg white croutons) – dressing

6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil – dressing

1 Tablespoon (heaping) dijon mustard – dressing

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire – dressing

1/2 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice – dressing

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar – dressing

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper – dressing

1 small cabbage cut in small wedges with core removed

1 bell pepper cut into strips

1 red onion cut in half and strips

1 carrot – peeled and cut into thin slices

1/4 cup olive oil (to sprinkle on vegetables)

sea salt to taste

black pepper to taste

1 – 15oz can chick peas drained and rinsed three times

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

A generous amount of Parmesan cheese for serving

Directions

Set oven to 250 degrees F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Whip the egg white till firm peaks. Stir in the garlic and Red Boat salt. Drop half teaspoons of mixture on to the parchment paper. Bake 10 minutes on a middle rack and shut the oven off. Leave them in the oven to harden for about 30 minutes and then remove from the oven.

Set to the side for when you are ready to serve.

Make the Caesar Dressing.

In a medium bowl mix together the ground garlic, anchovies and anchovy oil till it is a smooth paste. Then add the egg yolk and mix well. Add two Tablespoons of oil and mix until it emulsifies.

Add two more tablespoons of oil and make it emulsify again.

Then add two more tablespoons of oil and make it emulsify again.

Add the dijon and mix well. Add the Worcestershire and lemon juice and mix well again. Lastly add the red wine vinegar and black pepper and mix well again. It should look like picture below. You put this away till ready to use in the refrigerator.

Roast the vegetables and the chick peas.

Set oven to 425 degrees F.

The cabbage should be in small wedges and the pepper onions and carrots go together on another pan.

The chic peas go in a bowl with the olive oil, garlic, and pepper. Mix well and place them on a sheet tray too.

Then put the vegetables on the middle rack. The chic peas go on the top rack and in around 25 minutes they should be done.

(sorry forgot to photo the chic peas)

Now put everything together.

Give out a nice little pile of cabbage. Top the cabbage with some vegetables and chick pea. Top with LOTS of parmesan cheese. (dressing can go now or serve on the side) Finish with crisp Red Boat Egg Whites and cracked black pepper. (Below picture is light with cheese and also light with chick peas so you can see things)

ENJOY!!!