Israeli Couscous with Mushrooms

Israeli couscous is actually a type of toasted pasta, but the best way to cook it is to treat it like rice, with measured amount of water. This way of cooking will result al-dente and separated grains.

Caponata

When I’ve found some ripe tomatoes, eggplants and peppers at the farm stand, I’ve decided it’s time to prepare a nice batch of Caponata – a tasty sweet and sour Sicilian eggplant dish.
Caponata is wonderful as a side dish, especially with fish and seafood, but also with chicken and other meats. It is also wonderful as a topping for Crostini, and can also be served as a dip, with crackers or toasted points.

Spaghetti with Goat Cheese, Prosciutto and Walnuts

This tasty and easy to make dish I have for you here, is perfect for a quick lunch or light dinner. Once you gather the ingredients it takes minutes to assemble and serve the dish.

Feta and Scallions Stuffed Tomatoes * Tomato and Bread Salad

Summertime means lots of salads with fresh ripe tomatoes. However, sometimes it’s nice to use the tomatoes for other purposes, such as in the recipe here, for tomatoes stuffed with a tasty cheese mixture.
This doesn’t mean we’ll skip the tomato salad option altogether. Quite the contrary, the scooped inner part will be a base for a quick and tasty salad.

Colorful Couscous, Lentils and Raisins Salad

One more post from the early days of the blog.
See you next week with a new post. :)

Tasty Eats

Preparing traditional couscous from scratch is a labor intensive task; it requires mixing semolina with oil and water, passing it through a sieve, steaming it in a special pot, mixing it again, and repeating the process once or twice more… No wonder that up until modern times, when the instant couscous was created, this great grain product was not as popular as it is today.

The homemade couscous purists may snub the instant couscous, claiming it is not as tasty as the original. They may be right to some extent, just like those who are in favor of fresh homemade pasta versus dried pasta are. However, just as most of us will not start making fresh pasta for lunch, the same goes with instant couscous. It is extremely easy and quick to prepare, and when made properly, it is tasty and highly versatile. So don’t be deterred by the term…

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Mushrooms and Sweet Potato Mini-Bakes

Baked mushrooms casserole is a favorite of mine, and as Thanksgiving dinner is approaching rapidly, I’ve decided to experiment with my original recipe, to make it more suitable for the holiday.

Roasted Beets and Orange Salad + Savory Beet greens Cheese Patties

When you see at the store a bunch of beets with the greens still attached to them, you know they are as fresh as it gets. Nevertheless, the fresh greens are not just an indication for the beets’ freshness; they are also edible and tasty on their own right, so it makes even more sense to buy the bunch.
Here, I have used the bunch to create two dishes: a colorful roasted beets salad and savory beet greens cheese patties.
Both dishes go great together, but you can, of course, serve each on its’ own.

Roast Beef with Roasted Vegetables

The Holidays season brings with it lots of roast beef recipes, and rightly so, as it is one of the best dishes for an easy and tasty entertaining. The only problem is that many of these recipes are very long and detailed.
While it is the best approach for many, others may be deterred by the overwhelming information and end up thinking the dish is too complicated to even try. So, my goal here is to try to make the explanations as short and as simple as possible.

Colorful Potato Salad

Most potato salads are, how shall we put it politely, “aesthetically challenged”… They are pale and heavy, with way too much mayonnaise and in many cases, too much sugar.
Here is a lighter and more colorful version, inspired by a Russian potato salad, named “Olivier” after the Belgian chef who created it when working in Moscow. The original salad contained many rare and expensive ingredients, so later on more down to earth versions were created. The majority of these versions contain a large amount of cold cuts and canned peas and carrots, and even though they are more colorful than the average potato salad, they are still quite heavy.

Scallops with lemony cream sauce + Israeli couscous salad

When I found these beautiful fresh wild scallops at the store, I quickly grabbed a few. They are so flavorful and so easy to prepare. The only concern with scallops is to remember that they are delicate creatures, so you need to cook them gently and quickly, otherwise their texture becomes rubbery. So, make sure to cook them as close to serving time as you can. I’ve paired the scallops with a delicate lemony cream sauce, that compliments their natural sweetness. I also added a bit of garlic, thyme and roasted red peppers, for both color and flavor.

The scallops are served on a bed of Israeli couscous, but you can serve them on their own, or with any other type of small pasta or polenta.

Citrus, Fennel and Radicchio Slaw, with Pan Roasted Lamb Chops

The term “slaw” took the “Cole” (definition: a brassica, especially cabbage, kale, or rape) out of the “Coleslaw” – a salad made mainly from shredded cabbage. Now when we say “slaw” it means a salad made with any shredded vegetables.
In the following slaw, I’ve combined Fennel and Radicchio – two ingredients that are mostly identified with the Italian cuisine, even though they are known and used all over the Mediterranean. They may not be as popular in any household in the U.S., but it’s definitely worthwhile to get to know them.