Ancient Foods.

The Egyptian culture has been around for more than 7000 years. The Egyptian people has been living in the same Nile valley with no interruption during all those years. So it's safe to assume that some aspects of this ancient culture never disappeared. One definite aspect of this continuity is food. Why would it change? The people are still growing the same vegetables, raising the same animals, with very little variation. I heard an archaeologist once say that if someone from the Pharaohs era came back to life and went through an Egyptian village, he would not feel the time difference at all. In a way, this may be considered as lack of progress, but this constancy throughout the ages kept the food repertoire almost intact. Strangely enough, the last 10 or 15 years managed to do what 7000 years couldn't even touch. The fast food invasion changed a lot in the Egyptian way of eating. Now fast food chains are popping up everywhere in the country, and the younger generations feel that this is the food of today and are turning their backs on the traditional cuisine. This of course led to rampant obesity and all the ills we are facing here. Unfortunately today's parents are not doing enough to preserve the culture. This is maybe why I try, on my own, to keep some tradition as long as I can and cook what I grew up eating. Even if some of these dishes were not served in our house as often as in other households, time and distance contribute to that nostalgic feeling about these meals.

                                                

Today we're making Kosheri. This is a traditional dish that I guess has been served in Egypt forever. I don't know the origin of the name, but it is eerily close to the word "Kosher". Well, Egypt had always had a large Jewish community, and this could well be a dish inherited from ancient times, traditionally served from one generation to another. What could confirm this theory is that this is a purely vegetarian dish made of rice and lentils with onions, no significant fat added. The additions came much later (tomato and pasta). In our family, we never added pasta as a topping, but my husband, following popular customs, asked for it. So I'll add pasta. I keep it to the minimum and have some extra, in case someone else wants some more. You'll need:

2 cups of rice

2 cups of green lentils

1 cup of small pasta (elbows)

1 large onion

1 can (14.5 oz) tomato sauce

3 tsp ghee or butter

1 tbsp vegetable or canola oil

2 tbsp vinegar

Hot sauce, Tabasco, optional

I don't usually boil rice, and in this case I should not. The traditional recipe calls for boiling the rice and cooking the onion in 3 tbsp of ghee or butter. But since I intend to caramelize the onion in less than 1 tbsp of oil, I prefer to cook the rice in some butter or ghee. This is the only fat we'll add to the dish.

Rinse and drain the rice several times. In a nonstick pot large enough to hold the cooked rice and lentils (at least 4 or 5 qt) melt 2 tsp ghee or butter, and add the rice. Stir several times to coat the rice and toast it a little bit. Add water according to the package directions. Add salt to taste. Cover and bring to a boil. When the liquid is absorbed, reduce the heat, stir the rice a couple of times, cover again and let cook until done. In the mean time, rinse and drain the lentils several times. Drain and put them in a pot large enough to have them covered with at least 1 inch of water. Cover and let boil. Add water as needed until it becomes tender. Add salt at the end. Drain. By now the rice is done. Remove from heat and add the cooked drained lentils. Stir to mix.

Slice the onion. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a nonstick skillet. Add the slices of onion with salt and pepper. Let cook stirring occasionally until it's caramelized (it becomes dark brown). Remove the onion to a plate. Drizzle the remaining oil on the rice and stir. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.

To make the sauce: melt the remaining 1 tsp of ghee or butter in a sauce pan. Add the tomato sauce, plus 1/2 the can water. Let cook until the butter comes to the surface. Add salt and pepper and stir. Add the vinegar, stir, then remove from heat.

To serve: put the kosheri in a large platter. Top with the caramelized onion and drizzle some of the sauce. Top with the pasta and drizzle some more tomato sauce. Serve the remaining sauce, and the hot sauce, on the side. Serve with a salad. 

                                                    

Something old, something new..

As I may have told you before, I never ate lamb before I got married. Lamb in Egypt had so much fat, and cooks, as usual, did not trim it all, so for me it was a no no, and I had it banned from the house. Of course they tried to trick me several times and cook it anyway thinking that I wouldn't notice the difference, but every time they tried that, I would come home and smell the lamb at the front door. So my mother stopped trying. Fortunately lamb here is different: if you trim the fat, at least all the visible fat, you get a nice piece of meat that you can cook and not worry about me rejecting it. So, after the first time I've tried lamb, and that's another story about my secret recipe, I managed to have a complete repertoire of lamb dishes that we all enjoy. This is one of those recipes.

LAMB WITH ROASTED BELL PEPPERS AND SUN DRIED TOMATOES

I first made this dish at the end of one summer, when I had a lot of leftover leg of lamb from summer grilling. You just cut the meat in cubes and you're good to go. Of course you can make it from meat you just bought for this dish. Also, it is easy to make with what you have in your kitchen: you can use fresh red bell peppers, fresh tomatoes or canned diced tomatoes. The only adjustment you have to make is in the timing of when you'll add these ingredients. If they are fresh, they should be added at the beginning of the cooking process.

Also you can use stock or a combination of stock and red wine. It's up to you. You'll need:

2 lb boneless lamb, preferably from the leg

3 tbsp flour

1 1/2 cups roasted red bell pepper

1 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup beef stock (or 1/2 cup stock and 1/2 cup red wine)
3 tbsp sour cream

2 tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

3 sprigs of rosemary, chopped

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp paprika

Salt and pepper to taste

Trim all fat from the lamb and cut it in cubes, about 1 inch. In a shallow dish, season the flour with salt and pepper and toss the lamb cubes in it to coat them on all sides. Reserve the flour for later. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the butter, and add the chopped onion. Cook, stirring until translucent. Add the lamb and cook over high heat until browned on all sides. Add the paprika and 1/2 to 1 tbsp of the flour you used to coat the lamb. Stir well to combine for 1 or 2 minutes more, until fragrant. Drain the tomatoes from their oil, cut them in large slices and add them to the skillet. (If you are using fresh peppers, add them now). Stir. Deglaze the pan with the wine, stir to incorporate. Gradually add the stock, stirring constantly. Add the rosemary and half of the parsley. Reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for 40 to 45 minutes until the lamb is tender. Remember to stir occasionally because the meat has a tendency to stick to the bottom of the skillet, so don't be fooled by the liquid on the surface. Add the sour cream, stir to fully incorporate. Turn off the heat and let it rest before you transfer it to the serving plate. Serve sprinkled with the remaining parsley.

QUINOA PILAF WITH ONION AND CARROTS

                             

This time I said to myself "Let's try something new with the old lamb recipe". I usually serve the lamb stew with rice or couscous. But today I decided to go for quinoa. I had it sitting in my pantry for a while now. I bought it as usual thinking outside the box, and still I was undecided whether to use it or not. I've had quinoa before at lunch from the health food salad bar. I knew that my mom would be open to suggestions, but what about my husband? I tried it anyway thinking that he had his favorite lamb, and if he doesn't like quinoa, we'll always have pita bread to go with it. It was a success.

Quinoa is a seed, it looks like sesame seeds, but round and smaller, the size of a pin head. It comes from South America and is gluten free. It is an excellent source of protein and a good source of dietary fiber, iron and B vitamins. You can make a larger batch of quinoa, use what you need and refrigerate the rest to use it later in a salad  or as another side dish when you add some more ingredients to it. You have to check the package to know how much liquid you need to add to your quinoa. As usual I didn't boil it, I prefer to make it pilaf, like rice, and add some flavorings to it. You'll need:

2 cups of quinoa

1/2 onion 

1 carrot

4 cups stock (chicken or vegetable)

1 tbsp canola oil

1/2 cup basil leaves for garnish, optional

Salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor, or the small chop chop, pulverize the carrot, then the onion. Heat the oil in a nonstick sauce pan large enough to hold the grains and the 4 cups of liquid. When wilted, add the quinoa and stir to toast for a couple of minutes. Add the liquid and stir. Cover and let boil. When the liquid is absorbed, reduce the heat, stir and fluff  the grains. Cover again and continue cooking on very low heat until the quinoa is tender and fluffy, about 15 minutes. It will be a little chewy and some white spiral-like threads will appear around each grain. Transfer to a platter and sprinkle with thinly sliced basil leaves (you can also use parsley).

                                                                                         

                         

Bizarre but easy foods.

BEEF TONGUE

                                                                                                         

Still thinking outside the box, I came up with two new sources of protein, just to break out of the usual beef/chicken/fish cycle. Always faithful to the principle of buying what's fresh in the market, I didn't hesitate for one second when I found beef tongue at the store. I love tongue, so I knew for a fact that this one will be a success. I never had to cook it before, I always relied on my aunts for that. When I first came to New York, I used to get a delicious smoked tongue that you only had to boil and serve. Then it disappeared from the markets. So this one will have to do. This is the first time I have to deal with fresh beef tongue. But I'm not intimidated. The traditional recipe is very easy: you only need time to fully cook the tongue. So I checked out the recipe, and decided to tweak it a little bit. You'll need:

1 whole beef tongue

1 medium onion

3 cardamom pods

4 cloves

2 bay leaves

2 tsp celery salt

Salt and pepper

Rinse the tongue and put it in a pot large enough to have it covered with water. Bring to a boil. Drain and discard the water. Rinse the tongue again, clean the pot and fill it with water. Return the tongue to the pot, cover and bring to a boil. Add all the other ingredients. Keep the pot boiling over medium heat. You can keep the pot half covered for at least 2 1/2 hours. (The bigger the tongue, the longer it will take to cook). Every now and then check the pot: add water if it needs, and turn the tongue on the other side. When the tongue is tender, it's ready. Remove it from the pot to a platter. Discard the water. When it's cooled enough to handle, remove the skin. If it is really well done, it will come out easily when you pull it with your fingers. At this stage some cooks like to brown it whole in some butter. If you'd like that, go ahead. I didn't. Slice the tongue and serve.

You can use the leftovers as a topping for a chef salad, or in a sandwich with a little mustard, lettuce and tomato.

EASY CHICKEN LIVERS

                                                

How many times you looked at chicken livers in the store and said to yourself "Nah, it's too much work!" Well, it isn't. I'm giving you a basic recipe for chicken livers that you'll love and you'll have it ready in minutes. I'm not kidding, I mean literally in minutes. It's very nutritious, and since it's easy to make, you'll probably have it more often than you think. You'll need:

2 containers of fresh chicken livers (about 1.8 lb)

1 tbsp frozen onion/garlic mixture

1/2 to 1 tbsp butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse the livers under running water, checking to make sure that the bile pouch (a dark green pouch about 1/2 inch long) is been removed. If not, remove it carefully so it doesn't burst and ruin the whole thing. Also remove all visible fatty parts (very small). Drain livers in a colander. In a nonstick skillet, mix the livers with the onion and garlic. Add salt and pepper. Stir over medium heat until its liquid is absorbed and the livers are browned on all sides. Make sure not to break the livers while stirring. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water. Stir and let reduce to a slightly granulated sauce. Add the butter. Stir to coat. You're done.

Serve over rice pilaf and a vegetable of your choice.

NOTE: Do not add the butter while the livers are still in their liquid, it will prevent them from completely browning and will diminish the flavor.

"Don't tell anyone it's so easy" dinner.

I usually go shopping with a basic list of items that we need in the house. Staple items that we should always have in our pantries. I leave the rest of the shopping to what I find in the store: I go for what is fresh today, and sometimes this leads me to get new ideas, most of them completely out of the box. This dinner is the result of one of these excursions. I found quail at the butcher's, and I built around it a complete exotic dinner. When you tell people you're serving quail, they will definitely think that you're an accomplished chef, maybe trained in Paris. Who else would serve quail on a week night? Or maybe you had it delivered from Maxim's, also in Paris. When they'll see your proud achievement, they will never think that it was so easy to make. They'll think you slaved over it. You don't need to tell them otherwise.. nobody needs to know our secret! With the quail we're serving freek, a grain that is so easy to cook and gives you an extraordinary result, and okra. Yes okra. It's a delicious vegetable that is usually overlooked and people are afraid to serve. You will, and you'll surprise everybody.

ROASTED QUAIL AND FREEK

                                                  

Quail is a very small bird, smaller than a pigeon, that is now generally farm raised for their meat and eggs. The meat is dark, closer in color and texture to a duck's meat, without all the fat. I took a chance with this bird because of its similarity to pigeons. I grew up watching people eating pigeons and consider them a delicacy. I had my own reservations about it, mainly because of the way it was cooked: it usually had a lot of visible chopped onion in it, and this is something, as you know by now, I cannot see in my food. I thought, "Why not? I might be able of getting something out of this". The main idea was not to cook it the way I saw people traditionally prepare it. So I did: I found a simple way to prepare quail and eliminate all my apprehensions about the old way. It is also very versatile: you can cook quail over the stove, alone or in the same pan with the freek, you can cook it in the oven, buried in the freek, or even grill it inside or outside. It's up to you. You'll need:

6 birds

3 sprigs of fresh rosemary

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 tbsp frozen onion/garlic mixture, divided

2 tbsp olive oil, divided

Juice of 1/2 lime

Salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups freek (bulgur 1/2 cut)

Chicken stock (or 2 tbsp granules or 2  bouillon cubes)

Cut the birds in half, rinse them and make sure that there are no small feathers on them. Put the birds in a bowl. Finely chop the rosemary and thyme, and add them to the bowl. Also add 1 tbsp onion/garlic mixture, salt and pepper, the lime juice and 1 tbsp oil. Mix well to coat on all sides. Set aside to marinate. In the mean time, you can prepare the okra (recipe follows). When the okra is cooking, choose a nonstick skillet large enough to hold the quail and the freek; or 2 large skillets if you decide to cook them separately. I made a one skillet dish. Heat the skillet and arrange the quail halves in it, skin side down. You don't need to put any oil, the birds are marinated in oil. When they brown on one side, turn them and let them brown on the other side.

Remove the quail to a platter. In the same skillet, add 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp onion/garlic mix and stir til the onions are soft. Rinse the freek, drain it and add it to the skillet. Stir for 3 to 4 minutes, then add enough liquid to barely cover the grains. If you are using the granules, add water, then stir in the granules or the bouillon cubes. The liquid should not be more than 1/2 inch over the grains. Cover and let cook until all the liquid is absorbed. Reduce the heat, stir the grains and return the quail and any liquid accumulated in the platter to the pan and try to position it in a way that it's almost covered by the freek. Add 1/2 cup of liquid, cover and let cook over low heat. When the grains are tender your dish is ready.

If you chose to cook them separately, when you brown the birds add some liquid to the skillet, bring to a boil, cover and let cook until the quail is tender, the liquid is absorbed and you have a light sauce in the pan. Cook the freek as above, without adding the quail in. Serve by putting the freek on a platter and top with the quail and its sauce.

To grill the quail, just heat an inside or outside grill, arrange the quail skin side down until it's cooked on that side without disturbing it too much, turn and let it cook til done. How easy is that?

OKRA IN TOMATO SAUCE

                                                      

Okra is a special vegetable. I grew up eating it in tomato sauce, and I was a bit taken aback when I saw how it is prepared in some countries, even here in the States. I tried it fried, but didn't like it. I honestly couldn't bring myself to try it mashed in West Africa, or chopped, elsewhere. The trick in cooking good okra is not to let it become mushy. Today I used frozen baby okra that I usually get from a Middle Eastern grocery. It's imported from Egypt and it's already cleaned for you. If you choose fresh okra, here is what you should do: rinse and drain the okra and spread it over paper towels to dry. This will help also with the small thorns that cover it. Do not cut the stem horizontally. Cut it around to make a small cone over the tip of the okra. Removing the whole thing will let the gooey thing ooze out of the okra more easily, but cutting my way will keep it from doing that. Now your okra is ready. You'll need:

1 (16 oz) bag of frozen baby okra, or 1 lb fresh okra

2 to 3 garlic cloves smashed

1 (14 oz) can tomato sauce

Juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp oil (canola or vegetable)

Salt and pepper to taste

In a sauce pan heat the oil, add the garlic and stir for a minute or so. Add the okra while not completely defrosted. Sprinkle the lime juice and stir to completely defrost and dry cook the okra, about 3 minutes. Add the tomato sauce, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir making sure that you don't break the okra, cover and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let cook until the okra pods are tender. Serve as a side dish with the quail and freek.

                                                   

Conquering the classic American dinner.

What else could it be? A juicy huge steak with a side of potatoes, baked or otherwise, the whole thing smothered in butter or cream. Your mouth should be watering by now. Stop right there. Everybody tells us that this is a recipe for disaster. These meals can create havoc with our health. But we still want our meat and potatoes. If not, what else is left for us to eat? How can we keep our tradition of "deliciousness" without digging our own grave? Everywhere we turn, we find guidelines, recommendations and tips for nutrition and healthy living: reduce the intake of fat and sodium, they all tell us. Basically less butter, less fatty meats. So are we all going to become vegetarians, eating only fruits and vegetables? Are we going to give up forever our favorite dishes? Of course not. There is a huge variety of lean meats out there, and with a little creativity we can prepare them with less fat, and combine them with more and more vegetables. All we need is a little tweaking and we can have our meat and potatoes back.

ROAST BEEF AND POTATOES

Growing up, the best days of school were when the lunch menu had roast beef. It was the classic eye round, tender and juicy. I hardly remember what was served with it. I only remember the lean and delicious beef slices. When, all grown up, I went to study in Paris, the best thing I would receive from home was a whole cooked eye round that would constitute the center piece of dinner with my friends for days. Now, here I am with a beautiful cut of eye round trying to replicate the delicious memories of the past. I cooked it on the stove, in the oven, covered, then uncovered, covered all the way through, and uncovered from the start. Nothing worked. I could never get the same result. Then one day I had the slow cooker out, and it dawned on me: why don't I try it in the slow cooker? And I did. It came out perfect. You'll need:

1 eye round about 7 x 4 inches

1 tbsp onion/garlic mixture

6 to 8 potatoes

1 large onion

1 tsp oil

1 cup stock (beef or chicken)

2 cubes of beef bouillon 

Salt and pepper to taste

Trim the small layer of fat on the bottom of the eye round. Rub the onion/garlic mixture and salt and pepper on the meat. Let it marinate while you prepare the onion and potatoes. Slice the onion in less than 1/2 inch slices. Peel and cut the potatoes in cubes, about 1 inch. Put them in the slow cooker, add salt and pepper. Mix to make sure that all are seasoned. In a nonstick skillet heat the oil and brown the eye round on all sides without disturbing it too much. Add the meat to the slow cooker. Sprinkle the 2 cubes of bouillon around it. Add the cup of stock. Turn the slow cooker on high and let it do the work. You may check on it after 2 hours, if it needs more liquid, but I don't think it will. Two hours later, (total 4 hours) your dish is ready. Remove the meat to a cutting board, and with a slotted spoon arrange the potatoes on the side of the serving dish. You may want to reduce the liquid left in the cooker in a small sauce pan and serve it on the side. Slice the meat and arrange it beside the potatoes.

BEEF MEDALLIONS WITH FENNEL AND ARTICHOKE SAUCE

Since we're talking "light beef", I wish you'd go the extra step and change the meat and potatoes routine a little bit and have some beef and vegetables. This dish is not a big departure from the classic beef dinner, it only has some different vegetables. Here I used another cut: a round tip. They say that leaner cuts of meat have the words "loin" or "round" in their name. I usually get a whole piece (this one was 9 1/2 lbs) and cut it myself according to my needs. Don't be intimidated: it is very lean and comes almost with no visible fat. All I do is cut it along the muscle lines: you'll get several pieces that you can slice, cube or leave whole. You may just want to remove some membranes around parts of the meat. So, I sliced the medallions about the size of my palm, about 1/2 inch thick. To make it easier for you, slightly freeze the meat before slicing it. You'll need:

1 1/2 to 2 lbs beef medallions (about 10 pieces)

2 fennel bulbs

1 bag (16 oz) frozen artichoke hearts 

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes

4 cubes of bouillon (one cube= 1 cup stock)

3 to 4 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tbsp onion/garlic frozen mixture

2 tbsp olive oil (I use extra light)

1 tsp herbes de Provence

Salt and pepper to taste

Marinate the beef in the onion/garlic mixture with salt and pepper. Trim the fennel bulbs, cut them in half, core and then slice them. Slice the artichoke hearts when they are not completely defrosted. Try to make the slices of the same size. In a nonstick skillet, heat 1 tbsp of oil and brown the meat medallions in it. In batches if necessary. Remove to a platter. In the same skillet add another tbsp of oil, add the garlic, and stir for 1 or 2 minutes. Add the fennel. Sprinkle the herbes de Provence, then add the artichoke slices. Stir constantly. Deglaze the pan with 1 cup stock. Stir and add the tomatoes. Return the meat to the skillet with any liquid in the plate. Cover and let cook on medium heat. You may add more liquid until the meat is tender.

Serve with a side of orzo pilaf.

                                            

"What to do with this ?" meals.

Every now and then, my husband triumphantly comes home with a sausage, a Polska Kielbasa beef sausage. He likes it as a side dish with eggs, scrambled eggs, on week-end brunch. Usually we use up only one half of it, and the rest goes to the refrigerator. He usually totally forgets it, until I find it hiding somewhere in there, and it's up to me to decide what to do with it. Of course according to our house rules, no eating the same thing twice, so there is no way we are having eggs and sausage again soon. But another rule I have is that no food should be thrown away. So, I have to come up with a way, or ways, to use the remaining piece of sausage, of course not as a side dish to eggs. I've tried it in salads, potato and pasta, but as you may know by now, salad doesn't count for my husband. So here is what I came up with yesterday.

SPANISH INSPIRED CHICKEN

This can be a one dish meal or an end of the month meal. It has all the ingredients of a meal in the same skillet, and you can make it using ingredients you have at hand in your refrigerator and pantry. You can also be very creative with it, you can use fresh or canned ingredients: I used fresh tomatoes I had from my yard, but canned diced tomatoes can also work. On the other hand the classic paella recipe (hence the "Spanish inspired" part) calls for fresh red bell pepper, but I had roasted bell peppers in a jar, so I used them. Also you can use more or less meat (chicken and sausage): for this dish I used a package of chicken thighs with 5 pieces in it and the leftover sausage I had (1/2 of the Polska Kielbasa beef sausage). You can use turkey sausage or any kind you prefer. You'll need:

5 boneless skinless chicken thighs

1/2 sausage beef Polska Kielbasa

1 medium onion

2 large tomatoes (or 1 can, 14.5 oz, diced tomatoes)

1/2 red bell pepper

1/2 bag (16 oz) frozen peas

1 1/2 cup rice

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp each: garlic powder, paprika, dried oregano, turmeric

1 tsp lemon juice

2 cups chicken stock (or 2 tbsp granules plus water)

Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse and pat dry the chicken pieces. Trim all the visible fat, and you may cut the thighs in half. Put the chicken pieces in a bowl, add the garlic powder, paprika, oregano and salt and pepper. Mix to coat, add the lemon juice and let stand to marinate while you prepare the vegetables. Dice the onion, the tomatoes and the pepper. Slice the sausage in 1/2 inch slices. In a nonstick skillet, brown the chicken in 1 tbsp oil. Remove the chicken thighs to a platter. In the same skillet add the other tbsp oil, then cook the onion til tender. Add the turmeric, the sausage and stir. Add the rice and stir to coat with the oil and turmeric. Add the tomatoes and return the chicken pieces to the skillet with their liquid. Stir, and add 1 cup of stock. Remember that tomatoes and the other ingredients have some liquid in them so you don't need to add all the liquid needed according to the rice package directions. So we'll start with one cup and add as needed. If you are using the granules, add them when the liquid is hot so that they dissolve easily. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let cook til all the liquid is absorbed. Check the rice for donness. You may need to add some more liquid. When the rice is almost tender, stir in the peas and the diced bell pepper. Stir to incorporate and let the liquid be completely absorbed and the rice tender.

NOTE: If you are using fresh red bell pepper, you should add it with the onion so it can take its time to cook. I used roasted bell peppers, so I added them at the end. 

POTATO SALAD WITH SAUSAGE

This salad couldn't be easier. You don't even need to have a recipe for it: simply mix the ingredients with a light dressing and you're done. I never make it the same way twice. It all depends on what I have at hand, and what we are in the mood for. This time I had half of a Polska Kielbasa beef sausage, some potatoes, which I boiled, a carrot, 3 or 4 scallions (white and green parts), 4 celery stalks, 2 sprigs of rosemary, 2tbsp mayo and 2 tsp mustard. Cube or slice the sausage and cook it in a drop of oil. Slice the celery and scallions, grate the carrot or pulverize it in the chop chop, cube the potatoes, put everything in a bowl. Sprinkle the salad with the chopped rosemary and mix the whole thing with the mustard and mayo. Adjust the seasoning and serve.

                                                                                                                                    

Bizarre Foods.

Sorry Mr. Zimmern, but today I really have to use this title. Yes, today I'm cooking some bizarre foods. This is the best way out of the same old routine and get some excitement in our lives. But first we have to determine what do we consider "bizarre foods". Basically I think that we tend to call bizarre all foods that we are not used to. Yes we have a tendency to eat what we are used to, even if it is bad for us. We tend to make and remake the same recipes, eat the same things over and over again, without trying to open up to new foods or recipes. We eat a lot of fast food, and processed foods, and we try helplessly to convince ourselves that somewhere in there, there must be something good for us. Not true. All studies confirm that processed foods are not good food, and that there is a lot of things out there that we can eat: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean meats and a whole new world of recipes that we should try and enjoy. One easy way to change a bad eating habit is to be open to other cultures and the way they eat. Lately we seem to have opened up a little, we eat sushi, Mexican food and Chinese food.. but it's all somehow sanitized. These  dishes are not the same in their country of origin. We always end up bending the recipes to make them suitable to our taste. It seems that we consider ourselves the "culture of reference", but why should we? We eat cheese, we love cheese, but some cultures in Africa and Asia, way older than ours, don't know cheese at all, and may consider it bizarre. Some may consider a food "bizarre" simply because they never experienced it. So my question is: "How can we say with certainty that a food is bizarre?" Do we really know what goes into a hot dog? or into the fast food that we love so much? Other cultures know for a fact that food doesn't always come from a supermarket or in a plastic container. I've traveled around the world and seen many examples of cultures and peoples living on the fruits of their land: they eat what they grow in their fields and the animals they raise. They eat everything and nothing goes to waste. So have the courage to experiment, don't let anything (texture, color or smell) hold you back. Try everything at least twice, just to make sure that you really don't like it, but I'm sure that you'll find many things out there, that you thought were bizarre, delicious and that you'll ask for seconds.

OXTAIL STEW

                                                       

Guess what I found at the store the other day? Yes, I found oxtail. To tell you the truth, I've never seen it before in my life. Actually, I remember vaguely that when I was maybe 6 years old, I was at the butcher's with my uncle, who pointed out that the small bones on the butcher's counter were "oxtail". Of course, at that age, I couldn't even understand what was that. So, years later, here I was standing in front of the meat display case looking at oxtail. I was amazed that what I was looking at was not the skimpy little pieces of bone barely covered by meat, as I remembered it from my childhood, but a huge chunk of meat, like the osso buco cut. So, without any hesitation I took the oxtail home. I went directly to my sources: Julia Child cooks it in a minestrone type soup. The Egyptian Julia Child, Abla Nazira, browns it with onions and a bit of tomato paste. Other books don't even mention oxtail. So I guess I'm on my own on this one. And here's what I did. You'll need:

4 lb oxtail

3 tbsp frozen onion/garlic mixture

2 tsp sumac

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp oil

1/2 bag frozen pearl onions

Beef stock as needed (about 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 can (6 oz) tomato paste

Salt and pepper to taste

The first thing I noticed is that oxtail is very fat, so I removed all the fat I could see. Now, mix the meat pieces with the onion/garlic, salt and pepper and sumac. Cover and refrigerate overnight. 

When you're ready to cook the oxtail, put the flour in a shallow dish, and lightly toss the oxtail pieces in it. In a nonstick skillet large enough to hold all the pieces in one layer, heat one tbsp oil and start browning the oxtail pieces in it on all sides. Remove the meat to a platter. In the same skillet, add the second tbsp of oil and cook the leftover marinade. When it's browned, it will need only a couple of minutes, add the pearl onions still frozen and stir. Deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of beef stock or water. Stir the tomato paste in 1 cup stock. Return the oxtail pieces to the pan, add the tomato mixture. Stir and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat. Let simmer until the meat is fork tender. You may need to add some more liquid until the oxtail is done. Serve over mashed potatoes, pasta or rice pilaf.