Avocado Harissa

Harrisa is a Tunisian Hot Pepper Paste made from roasted bell peppers, hot peppers, garlic, a few spices and herbs. I was thinking the flavors in Harissa would work great with avocado and they do. I mixed everything up with a fork and left some texture because that is my preference. You can think of this avocado condiment as a sort of a Tunisian Inspired Guacamole. This Avocado Harissa is good with chips, pita bread, toast, eggs, grilled meat and sandwiches. If you want to embellish it you can add a little mild creamy feta (hard to find) or goat cheese and sweet tiny tomatoes is also tasty with it.

Ingredients for about 8 servings

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

3 garlic cloves – ground to paste

1 hot pepper – I used one fried serrano pepper – chopped fine (you might want more heat..more pepper)

1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

1 lb avocado

1/4 cup scallions – sliced thin

2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro – well chopped

fresh ground sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions

In a medium mixing bowl add cumin, caraway, garlic, hot pepper, lemon juice, vinegar and mix well.

Cut the avocados, remove pit and scape out the flesh into the bowl.Break the avocado down to your preference.

Add the scallions and cilantro.

Add fresh ground sea salt and pepper to taste.

SERVE!

Avocado Harissa

Something original and different that most people don’t know they’d like!

The Forking Truth

Vegetarian Italian Style Beans

This dish is a much lighter style of a rich bean dish that is one of the few side dishes I make with chicken fat. These Vegetarian Italian Style Beans don’t contain any added fat, meat or cheese. I don’t even bother to sauté the vegetables because I chop them small and they give all their flavor up to the beans that way. This dish is flavorful and easy to make. I cooked dried lima beans for this recipe but used two cans of reduced sodium beans so I’d have three different textures of beans in this dish. Freshly dried beans will always come out better than canned  beans but I’ve found that the beans sold at the stores near me aren’t always so fresh. An old bean will never get soft…so all the effort goes to waste sometimes. It’s ok to purchase reduced sodium canned beans every so often. They aren’t as sweet and creamy as a really good fresh cooked dried bean but if you rinse them really well they come out like quick soaked method beans. Usually I like to use the fresh dried beans I come across come from the local Farmer’s Markets but those darn tasty local beans usually have the most rocks mixed in them too. Today I also used slow cooked and reduced tomatoes I had in my freezer. This dish come out like a thick rich soup but is only thickened from tomato paste and the beans. Day one I thought I might have been heavy handed with the sage but after a day it was perfect. You can also season less and add more the next day if you prefer.

This recipe makes about 10 servings

1 lb dried lima beans – inspected and rinsed well. Soaked overnight in three times as much water as beans (WATER ONLY….)

15 oz can of reduced sodium garbanzo beans – drained and rinsed three times

15 oz can of reduced sodium white beans – drained and rinsed three times

2 celery ribs – chopped well

1 large carrot – peeled and chopped well

1/4 large sweet onion – chopped well

2 garlic cloves – fine hopped

4 hot/sweet jarred cherry peppers – fine chopped

2 teaspoons course sea salt

3 Tablespoons tomato paste

6oz slow roasted tomatoes – rough chopped

4 springs fresh thyme – I’m guesstimating here my thyme was shaped with lots of tiny sprigs

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon fresh sage – well chopped

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons dried basil

big pinch dried crushed red peppers

i good sized pinch ground white pepper

fresh ground sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

optional – maybe up to a Tablespoon sugar. Taste and decide. Depends on your tomatoes.

optional – maybe 1 garlic clove more – taste and decide if you want to add one shredded garlic clove. Taste and adjust any seasonings necessary.

Directions.

Rinse the lima beans and put them in a big pot. Cover the beans with water (WATER ONLY) that is an inch higher than the beans. Bring to boil and then reduce to simmer. Let the pot simmer for an hour loosely covered.

After an hour everything remaining except for the to taste sugar, salt, pepper and optional extra garlic goes into the pot.

Let the pot simmer another hour and stir occasionally.

After an hour decide on the sugar, fresh ground salt, pepper and maybe another garlic clove to taste. At this point the seasoning should be about correct.

It’s good now but I think it’s better the best day.

Serve as is or with grilled meat , meatballs a sautéed green and maybe grated cheese and a little extra virgin olive oil.

Vegetarian Italian Style Beans

Most people will enjoy this.

The Forking Truth

No Mayo Avocado Mustard Deviled Eggs

This recipe is MAYONNAISE FREE. You make fresh mustard with avocado and then simply mash in your egg yolks. You do need a spice grinder to prepare the avocado mustard. For best results prepare the Avocado Mustard the day before. This recipe makes 3-4 times more mustard than you need. Use the extra mustard to spread on sandwiches.

Ingredients for about 6 servings

4 Tablespoons dark mustard seeds

2 Tablespoons yellow mustard seeds

1 allspice berry

6 juniper berries

1/4 cup sherry

1/3 cup sherry vinegar

2 Tablespoons fresh garlic cloves – ground to paste (2 Tablespoons of garlic paste…this is lots of garlic)

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

sea salt to taste (about 10 turns from a Costco disposable)

tellicherry black pepper to taste (about 15 turns from a Costco disposable)

1 cup of whipped avocado

8 large eggs – boiled – peeled – cut either traditional (across long ways) or threw the middle with yolks removed in a small bowl (2 egg white you won’t use just snack on them or toss them in a salad for lunch….if you like over stuffed eggs you need 10 or more eggs for 6 servings)

1/4 cup avocado mustard

splash cayenne hot sauce – preferably Franks Red Hot

splash Worcestershire sauce

optional up to a 1 Tablespoon water or 1 Tablespoon (mayonnaise I won’t tell) if you think it looks dry***I do note that it gets slightly moister as it sits

fresh ground sea salt to lightly season egg whites

fresh ground black pepper to lightly season egg whites

2 pinches of Piment d’ Espelette to lightly season egg white or just use your favorite kind of paprika, any red fruity dried pepper or for extra spicy cayenne

about three inner celery leaves – well chopped

Directions

You need to grind up the mustard seeds, allspice and juniper berries. Add the spices to a medium mixing bowl. To the bowl add sherry, vinegar, garlic, turmeric, avocado and one Tablespoon water and mix well. Add fresh ground salt and pepper to taste. Wrap and refrigerate over night.

Spicy Avocado Mustard

To the small bowl of egg yolks add 1/4 cup of Spicy avocado mustard, splash hot sauce and a splash of Worcestershire. Mix well. If it looks too tight add up to a Tablespoon of water…..but I note mixture will turn more moist as it sits. Be careful about that because you don’t want runny eggs either.  If don’t need it to be mayonnaise free you can add a Tablespoon of mayonnaise.

Lightly season both sides of egg whites.

Either spoon in filling or use a pastry bag.

Insert pastry tip. Fold over ends of bag and fill.

Twist to hold in filling. Apply pressure and apply in a circular motion. Some celery leaves as a garnish is perfect for these eggs.

Avocado Mustard Deviled Eggs

Tasty and different.

The Forking Truth

Focaccia di Recco

I heard about a Killer Dish from my local Newspaper the Arizona Republic. Our food critic (Dominic Armato) said it was the Ligurian Style Focaccia from Pomo Restaurant. It was  a focaccia that I was not familiar with but had to try. When I tried this focaccia at Pomo it was two very thin sort of something like between a super thin Sardinian like cracker called music paper and a tortilla with melty flavorful cheese in the middle. It seemed light as heaven and was very tasty……I mean FORKING DELICIOUS…. I had to try to make one at home. The cheese used for Focaccia di Recco must be either crescenza or stracchivo cow milk cheese…..it is a cheese that is what mozzarella wants to be….It’s creamier and tastier than mozzarella.  These cheeses are not available anywhere that I know of except the internet so I used taleggio ……..I know my bad but I needed something Italian and I had that at home……. This recipe is from Ciao Italia…YOU KNOW…The Award Winning PBS TV Show with multi award winning Mary Ann Esposito. Did you know her Cooking TV Show is the longest running Food Show on TV?…..I thought I’d try out her recipe. Mary Ann’s recipe for me came out ,more cracker-like than the Focaccia I had at Pomo. (I have Ideas on how to tweak)…. But I also note that the different flour brands, different water, different ovens and different humidity all will differ any recipe. I also found my focaccia cooked up in half the time of the directions from Ciao Italia (I think there was a typo). Anyways this was my first try to make a Focaccia di Recco. Now I sort of have a better understanding of it and Thank Mary Ann Esposito for her wonderful recipe.

Ingredients for about 8 servings

3 cups ap flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons cold water

12 oz crescenza cheese

Directions

Set oven to 450 degrees F

Mix up ingredients in a large bowl.

Knead till smooth.

Cover and let rest 1/2 hour.

Divide dough in half.

Roll into a 16 inch circle and prick dough.

Place dough on an oiled 16 inch round pan.

Dot the dough with cheese.

Roll out the other half of dough and also prick and then place over the dough with cheese.

Seal the dough slightly.

Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with course sea salt.

Put in the 450 degree F oven till browned, puffy and bubbly.

In Mary Ann’s Oven this takes 30-35 minutes but in my oven it took 15 minutes.

SERVE

If you use the crescenza or stracchino it taste even better with a very small amount of warm honey. If you use taleggio like I did a little bit of reduced balsamic is delicious too!

“That smells heavenly to me.” “You know I want some.”

Focaccia di Recco

Very Tasty. Someone requested me to make another one.

The Forking Truth

No Dairy Potato Stuffed Quinoa Chicken Meatloaf

Today I thought I’d come up with another kind of Chicken Meatloaf. This one is basically doughnut shaped and filled with potatoes. To make the meatloaf I used Quinoa instead of bread crumbs for the meatloaf. and made it with ground chicken 96% 4%fat that seems so much lighter than beef.  Since I didn’t have any dairy in the house I used flavorful chicken fat (schmaltz) that I saved in my freezer and used it like butter for the potatoes. I sautéed finely chopped onions in the chicken fat till the onions were clear and then mashed them into the potatoes….WOW FORKING INSANELY AMAZING FLAVORFUL POTATOES! These potatoes came out so good you just might want to do these potatoes for Thanksgiving. If you chop the onions as fine as I did the onions just melt into the potatoes and come out smooth. It’s a possibility that the potatoes are even lighter than mashed potatoes because I added only chicken fat with the cooked onions……no butter, cream or dairy. Even the cooking water from the potatoes is so good you need to save some for the meatloaf but the rest you should use for other things. Either make a soup or sauce with it. Reheat meats or vegetables in it. If you make it exactly the way I suggest it will come out surprisingly great! The Chicken Meatloaf also comes out very flavorful and MOIST. Even re-heated this meatloaf still comes out moist. I think this meatloaf doesn’t really even need a sauce but you can embellish slightly if desired with a suggested thyme butter, thin chicken gravy or a small amount of a traditional kind of meatloaf sauce. This is so tasty that just a small forkful of the potatoes with the meatloaf is enough.

Ingredients for 6 servings

2 lb russet type of potatoes – peeled and cut in halves and in a pot of cold water

1 Tablespoon kosher salt (to add to pot of potatoes)

1/2 large sweet onion – peeled (to boil with potatoes- discard after potatoes are cooked)

1 hot banana pepper – cut longways in half – to boil and flavor potatoes – discard after potatoes are cooked)

1 garlic clove – to boil with potatoes – after potatoes are boiled smash the garlic and fine chop it into the onions that get sautéed and added to the potatoes

1 cup sweet onion – VERY finely chopped or grate (for potatoes)

3 ounces schmaltz (chicken fat) (for potatoes)

1 egg beaten (for Potatoes)

2 teaspoons course sea salt (for potatoes)

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (for potatoes)

1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper (for potatoes)

1 lb ground chicken (I used 96 lean with 4% fat)

1 cup quinoa (already cooked)

2 L eggs – lightly beaten

1/4 onion – finely chopped

2 garlic cloves – grated

1/2 celery rib – finely chopped

1 carrot – peeled and finely shredded

1/4  cup – fresh parsley – finely chopped

1 teaspoon – fresh thyme

1  teaspoon ground black pepper

2 teaspoons chicken base – preferably reduced sodium Better Than Bouillon Brand (it’s like chicken flavored salt)

2 Tablespoons cooking water from potatoes

non stick cooking spray

Directions

Put the pot with water (water should cover the potatoes by between 1-2 inches) and the potatoes on to a medium boil with the kosher salt, 1/2 onion, garlic and banana pepper) You MUST purchase the banana peppers from Asiana Market…..They are too hot to eat but cooked with other things give off an amazing flavor. Cook the potatoes till they are soft (fork tender) about 15-20 minutes. DO NOT THROW OUT THE WATER! you need 2 Tablespoons for the meatloaf and you might want to save the rest for a soup or something else you might prepare. You can leave the potatoes in the water so they stay hot while you make the meatloaf mixture but take pot off the burner and place somewhere else on the stove. You can throw out the used banana pepper and the used 1/2 onion.

In a medium-large mixing bowl add the ground chicken, 2 eggs, quinoa, 1/4 c onion, 2 garlic, celery, carrot, parsley, thyme, black pepper, chicken base, 2 Tablespoons potato water and mix well and place to the side.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray baking sheet(s) with non stick spray.

In a fry pan sauce the cup of finely chopped onions with the chicken fat till the onions are clear and soft with that one clove of mashed and finely chopped garlic that you saved from the potato water. Add the onion mixture to your just drained potatoes and mash. Add the remaining course sea salt, black pepper, white pepper and one egg and mash very well till smooth.

Either pipe or scoop 6 piles of potatoes with lots of room around them on a sprayed baking sheet(s)

The meat gets piped around each mound of potatoes. (or you can spoon)

Put them in the oven and remove when done. (In my oven they took 25 minutes).

Then I hit it with a small amount of meatloaf sauce I made from slow cooked tomatoes, spiked with pickapeppa sauce.

No Dairy Potato Quinoa Chicken Meatloaf

Even when you re-heat leftovers the potatoes are creamy and flavorful. The chicken meatloaf is delicious, well seasoned and also stays moist.

No Dairy Potato stuffed Quinoa Chicken Meatloaf

These meatloaves would also be good with a splash of thyme butter,some thin chicken gravy or a small amount of a traditional type of meatloaf sauce.

The Forking Truth