We were dining at our favorite Moroccan Restaurant in Phoenix Arizona called Alzohour Market. I picked up dried fava beans there.

The owner and chef Zhor told me that fava beans are a popular breakfast dish in Morocco. Latter I read that the fava bean dish called Ful Medames is the national breakfast dish of Egypt but is very popular across North Africa and the whole Mid East.

There is a recipe on the back of the bag that I was going to try until I came across Chef Helen Graham’s recipe. I picked her recipe because it also involved making a pesto topping for the fava beans and even included a recipe for a Yemenite type flatbread called malawach so it seemed like a much more special recipe…….To be honest I did have a slight issue with the recipe. When I went to make the malawach (flat bread) I had a feeling that my dough was too dry. But I resisted changing the recipe because for this one I really didn’t know what I was doing….and I measured and weighed everything to the exact. I’m also making a dough that I am not familiar with. The recipe also states that you might not need all of the water……..So I thought that I shouldn’t add extra water?………The problem I had was that I couldn’t fold the dough as much as it should have been folded. So I folded as much as I could.

You are suppose to roll the dough as flat as you can. Brush it with butter. Sprinkle with nigella seeds and Maidon salt.

Then roll it up.

Coil the dough.

Roll it flat again. Butter it and nigella seeds and salt……Then you repeat two more times …By rolling it up and coiling again but I couldn’t……My dough was too dry…….Maybe my flour was ground different?……Sometimes that is an issue in recipes……..so I folded it less. Still came out FORKING GREAT!!!!!!. Maybe I just need to be stronger to make this dough to fold it more?

Malawach is supposed to be a fried bread but I knew my dough was off and thought that it might fall apart in the fry pan so I baked it instead……and the flat bread came out crispy and really different. It’s kinda like a cross between a cracker and a croissant.

I think that it is really great anyway……… Don’t know..I never had or heard of malawach before. This was my only real issue with the recipe but it all came out delicious!

This makes around 4 servings

280g dried fava beans – soaked over night in cold water in the refrigerator – ful medames

1/2 teaspoon baking soda – ful medames

splash olive oil – ful medames

1 large onion finely chopped – ful medames

5 cloves garlic finely chopped – ful medames

2 teaspoons ground cumin – ful medames

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon – ful medames

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper – ful medames

2 teaspoons sweet paprika – ful medames

1/2 a large lemon – the zest and the juice – ful medames

2 tomatoes – fine chopped – ful medames

4 Tablespoons yogurt (for serving)

200g AP flour + more for dusting – malawach

10g sugar – malawach

1/2 teaspoon sea salt – malawach

100ml water – malawach

1 Tablespoon nigella seeds – malawach

Maldon salt – to taste – malawach

125ml clarified butter – melted to brush and fry malawach

5 cloves garlic – rough chopped – pesto

45g parsley leaves – rough chopped – pesto

20g basil – rough chopped – pesto

10g preserved lemon – blended – pesto

1 teaspoon lemon juice – pesto

150g olive oil – pesto

Maldon salt to taste – pesto

neutral non stick spray.

Directions

Drain the fava beans and add them to a sauce pot with the baking soda. Cover at least with over an inch of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer….You will need to add more water every so often. Drain the beans when they turn tender (usually 2 hours set to the side when done)

Make the Malawach. Mix the flour, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl. gradually add the water and knead it for 5 minutes. Then cover it and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 4 balls. Dust your surface with a little flour. Start with one dough ball. Roll it out as thin as you can. Brush it with butter and sprinkle it lightly with nigella seeds and Maldon salt. Roll it like I described in the beginning if you can…….If not just fold in half and roll as thin as you can. Then butter it again and add another sprinkle of nigella seeds and Maldon salt. If you can repeat again. Roll as thin as you can. Butter again, spring again with nigella seeds and Maldon salt. Fold one more time and roll as thin as you can. If you can fry yours in butter that is what you are suppose to do but I thought mine would fall apart so I baked mine at a pre-heated 350 F oven on a non stick sprayed sheet pan. I also gave the flat breads a brushing of melted butter. They went in for 15 minutes and then I flipped them over for another 10 minutes. I thought they came out nice.

Heat oil in a sauce pot. sauté the onion and garlic till soft and not brown (about 7 minutes). Add the cumin, cinnamon, cayenne and paprika. Cook till fragrant. Then add your cooked beans that are on the side. Take out a few spoonfuls of the beans to blend with the tomatoes. Add to bean mixture. You might need to thin with some water. Add lemon juice, zest, and salt

Make the pesto. Garlic, parsley, basil, preserved lemon, lemon juice all get bended. Slowly add the olive oil and blend that in too. Add Maldon salt to taste.

The Ful Medames (fava beans) go in each bowl with a Malawach (flat bread) cut in half, topped with pesto and a tablespoon of yogurt.

A SPECIAL THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! To Chef Helen Graham for sharing her FORKING FANTABULOUS Recipe so we all can enjoy it!!!!!!

I was sort of gifted with a lot of yellow squash and I wanted to do something interesting and different with them. Often I use my spiral cutter and make spaghetti strings with the yellow squash that kind of cook its self from being marinated. Then I heat it up and it isn’t so squashy and it is stringy instead. Today I thought that I would try shaving the squash instead. But what flavors should I do today?…..For inspiration I was searching the internet for Top Chef recipes, a few other chefs, and award winning chef, restauranteur and cook book author Yotam Ottolenghi recipes. I do Ottolenghi recipes a lot because he is one of the most gifted vegetable chefs in the world. Yotam Ottolenghi does a COLD marinated yellow squash salad with kiwi salsa. I changed it up a little and I thought a spicy apple salsa just when real nice with squash this time of year. I used 3 pounds of yellow squash. So that makes 6-8 servings depending on how big you make the servings. This takes a few hours for the squash to marinate or just do the squash the day before.

Ingredients for around 7 portions

3 lbs yellow squash – ends cut off and sliced very thin like a shave

1 teaspoon fennel seeds – toasted – ground

1/2 teaspoon dark brown sugar

1/2 lemon – juice and zest

6 cloves garlic – ground to paste

4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 cup pecorino romano cheese – grated

2 apples – coarsely grated

3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 red chile – fine chop (I used a Fresno that was spicy)

1/4 cup fresh cilantro – chopped

2 Tablespoons fresh parsley leaves – chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground dry mint (if you have fresh mint use about 2 Tablespoons)

2 Tablespoons fresh basil – chopped or torn

optional 1/2 cup of either dried corn kernels or 1/2 cup toasted salted pepitas

Directions

Put the shaved yellow squash in a gallon ziplock bag. Keep in the refrigerator or set to the side.

Put a small fry pan on medium high heat and add the oil, sugar, garlic, and the toasted and ground fennel seeds. Cook only a minute or two till the garlic is cooked and take off heat. Add the vinegar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Mix well. When this is room temperature add it to the bag of shaved squash. Squish it around to distribute. This needs to marinate at least 1/2 a day or overnight.

Make the apple salsa. In a medium bowl mix together the apples, vinegar, ginger, chile, cilantro, mint, parsley, and basil.

To serve – you can serve either cool as a salad or heated up as a side dish. The original recipe adds toasted hazelnuts….For the salad version (cold)……If I had those dried corn kernels I would have added them to this recipe for a little crunch.

This recipe is GREAT cold or hot……I think I actually like it better hot with added pepitas. Below is warmed up with pepitas.

A SPECIAL THANKS!!!! To Yotam Ottolenghi for sharing his amazing recipe so I could come up with what I got here!