cauliflower with dried cherries

Trying to catch up here, so it'll be short and quick.

My favourite variation so far on roasted cauliflower, with dried cherries, walnuts and chipotle.

You can guess how it goes.

Separate the cauliflower into fleurettes on the smallish side.
Add salt and enough olive oil to coat.
Mix with your hands so the fleurettes are evenly coated.
Roast in a hot oven (about 400 F) until browned (20-30 minutes).
Add
     roasted chopped walnuts
     a fair amount of chipotle
     dried, pitted tart cherries.
Drizzle a bit with fresh olive oil and lemon juice.
Enjoy.

If you have the timing right, instead of roasting the walnuts separately you can add them to the cauliflower after about 20 minutes and they can finish roasting together. But be careful. If it takes longer than you thought for the cauliflower to brown, the walnuts may get burned.

If you're wondering why I'm adding walnuts to roasted cauliflower all the time, it's because of the texture. I feel like I need the crunch.

I used Trader Joe's Dried Pitted Tart Montmorency Cherries. The best ever dried cherries. I love them so much I use them on everything from salads to meats. And frequently, for a snack, I mix them with chocolate chips and nuts.

comfort food in summer

A lot of my comfort foods are heavy on umami and feel like winter foods. Which is as it should be, because winter demands comforting. But I had a yearning for some favourites from childhood, and the veggies sitting in my fridge encouraged it.

I wanted bulgur. I also wanted the traditional rice with fried eggplant, which is eaten cold in the summer. So I combined them, and tweaked it some more to stuff it with more nutrients, because I refuse to make more than one dish a day in this heat. Last night I had it warm for dinner, and today I had it cold for lunch. Both were delicious.

ingredients:

• bulgur (2c)
• eggplant (1 large)
• green bell pepper (1 large)
• chickpeas (1 can)
• beef stock (2 c)
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• red pepper flakes
• walnuts

Cut up the eggplant and the green pepper. Put them on a large oven tray - don't crowd them. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and some olive oil. Put them into a pre-heated 425 F oven and roast until done.

Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a pot. Add the beef broth. When it comes to a boil, add the rinsed bulgur. Cover and cook at medium heat until there is no liquid showing above the bulgur. At this point, it's done or almost done. Note that unlike rice, the bulgur generally likes a 1:1 water ratio.

Add to the bulgur the roasted vegetables and a can of chickpeas which have been rinsed. Feel free to substitute some other legume as the protein source. Season with salt and pepper. Let it cook about 20 minutes on the lowest possible heat, so everything has a chance to meld.

Before serving, sprinkle the top with red pepper flakes (Aleppo, of course) and add walnut pieces. Enjoy. And as usual, it's very low GI, so no guilt at all.

olive oil

I love olive oil. I want to be olive oil. I want olive oil in and on everything. 

I like my olive oil strong and fruity. I want to smell the olives. Most olive oils on the market are way too bland for my taste. I see them advertised as subtle, refined, etc., and I think: For foreigners. Foreigners, meaning people who didn't grow up in an olive oil culture. 

In US, I usually get my olive oil at Best Turkish Food, an online retailer in Chicago. They are quick and helpful, and no, I'm not a shareholder.

My go-to olive oil is Tariş Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It's basic, it's inexpensive and it tastes like my childhood. I buy it in large 3 litre cans, but it's also available in 750 ml bottles.

 

Tariş is moving along with the times, though, and is producing olive oils with different acidities and methods of processing, along with organic olive oils, and terroir olive oils (they don't call it that, but these are specific to small geographic regions, like terroir wines). Very fancy. Very boutique. And priced accordingly.

I was curious about these different kinds and decided to try some, in spite of the prices. So I got a bottle of İlk El (literally, 'first hand'). Pretty bottle, pretty colour, expensive ($34 for a 500 ml bottle - ouch.)

I wanted to make sure I tasted it without interferences, so I made a simple lunch for myself with Crave Brothers ciliegine (very small mozzarella balls), tomatoes, and roasted walnuts. Drizzled it with İlk El, and dug into it accompanied by homemade sourdough whole wheat bread.

Bland, no character, for foreigners. I don't begrudge Tariş aiming some of its production for export. Look at all those best-selling Italian olive oils, most of which are blander than bland. (I have actually heard Americans complaining about olive oil that's 'too strong.' Wha?!!) So good for them. But not for me. I should've known better, of course. İlk El's acidity is less than 0.5%. Really fruity olive oil tends to have a higher acid content. My usual Tariş Extra Virgin is 0.8%.

One might generally want to be a bit stingy with such expensive stuff, but I'm pouring it all over everything, trying to use it up as fast as I can. And I'm trying not to feel guilty about sauteing salmon in $34 olive oil.

I also bought a bottle of Erkence, another boutique olive oil, and I'll report on it when I start using it. But I have a feeling I'll soon stop these experiments and go back to the old, iconic labels without fancy packaging. If they survive, of course.

today's lunch

For some reason, it no longer seems like a hassle to make lunch for myself. So today, roasted asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, and walnuts. Topped off with fried eggs for protein, and shaved slices of Manchego.

The little convection toaster oven makes it fast and easy. I roasted the salted asparagus and shiitake with a drizzle of olive oil, and added walnuts for the last couple of minutes.

I've been cooking a lot with nuts these days, because it makes me feel like I've eaten a full meal when I'm staying off carbs.

my afternoon snack

I love roasting vegetables simply, and I do it frequently, with many different kinds of vegetables. This is one of my favourites. Sometimes it's my veggie to accompany my dinner, sometimes (like today) it's a quick fix when I'm hungry in the middle of the afternoon.

Roasted cauliflowers with walnuts

Separate the cauliflower into fleurettes. Place on a baking sheet, sprinkle it with salt and red pepper (always assume I use Aleppo pepper, the red kebab pepper of Turkey, unless I say otherwise), drizzle with olive oil. Roast until almost done. Add walnuts to the baking sheet and continue to cook for two more minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with lemon juice. Easy, tastes great, and is super healthy.

Roasted vegetables lend themselves to variations. Try it with different spices, different nuts, combined vegetables, etc. I make mine in my counter-top convection oven, and it's ready in about 10 minutes.

red pepper and walnut gem

I've been craving muhammara. I think it started when my sister introduced me to the new (to me) species of fresh red peppers in Istanbul - fat, long, pointy, sweet and tangy, crisp, super refreshing. I did find some fresh red peppers here that were quite similar. They're called 'Ancient Sweets', imported from Mexico and described on the package as 'mysteriously sweet long peppers.'

Muhammara can be on the heavy side, and I wanted to make a refreshing summery version. Here it is.

2 fresh red peppers
3/4 c walnuts
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp pomegranate syrup
11/2 c canned canellini beans
salt
black pepper
Aleppo peppers
2 tbsp olive oil

Cut the red peppers into 1" chunks and chop them up in the food processor. Add about half a cup of the walnuts and the rest of the ingredients, chop fine. Add the remaining walnuts and pulse only a couple of times, to give it some texture. Cover and chill. That's it.

Play around with the ingredient amounts to make it suit your palate. Never ever assume my measurements give the best results. Remember, my kitchen motto is 'Wing It!'

Aleppo peppers are mildly hot red pepper flakes, called 'kebab peppers' in Turkey. You can get it at Penzey's. (Better yet, go to Penzey's if you can and lose track of time.)

Traditional muhammara generally has chopped garlic, but my head of garlic turned out to be a hideous  empty brown shell. I think it actually turned out more refreshing without the garlic, but if we were sitting down to an evening-long rakı (or arak or ouzo) table, I'd definitely include the garlic.

What I'm happiest with is the beans. Normally, you'd add bread to give the muhammara body. But I'm trying to stay away from white bread, and the multi-grain seeded bread just didn't seem right. So what to do? Beans, I thought. Turned out to be an excellent addition, if I do say so myself.

I warmed up a whole wheat tortilla, spread the muhammara on it, and devoured it with much happiness. It would be a good substitute for mayonnaise in chicken salad, or as a sauce for hamburgers or grilled anything.

This is a super nutritious and healthy dish with a very low glycemic index, and the addition of beans also makes it a good protein source. And it tastes very very good.