avocado & bravado : a food blog

pasta with fava beans, kale, and bacon

Rose — Mon, 30 May 2011 06:00:54 +0000

Oh hello, my dear blog! Long time no see. Roughly two months ago, I started a new job that involved a commute to a mysterious land called “the Peninsula” (that’s south of San Francisco, for you non-Bay Area folk). I spent 3 1/2 hours commuting on a good day and when there were delays, up to 5 hours a day. I was transferred to the San Francisco office a few weeks ago and I’m finally adjusting back to life as usual and getting into the habit of cooking on a daily basis – and of course, blogging! Much of what I’ve been cooking the last couple months are tried and true old favorites, but I’ve started to wipe the dust from my cookbooks and RSS reader again. I’ve had Turkish cuisine on my mind a lot lately, as Cory and I recently sown the seeds of planning a two-week trip to Turkey next April, and have started to dip my toes into exploring Turkish food. Those recipes will have to wait for another day, though.

Most of the cooking I do now is on Sundays, fresh from shopping for the week, when there is a seemingly endless amount of fresh produce at my disposal. I’ve been experimenting with making mini-feasts with mezzes, or pasta dishes when I don’t feel like cooking for three hours. Although fava beans can be a bit of a pain to prepare, I always look forward to fava bean seasonn. The nuttiness of fava beans lends well with pasta dishes. And it’s hard to go wrong when cooking with bacon and cheese!

Oh, and! Last Sunday was my 26th (!) birthday. I am generally not very big on birthday celebrations, but I am a fan of using my birthday as an excuse to eat whatever I like.

It’s true. Despite my love for Mediterranean food, what do I choose to eat on my birthday? Diner food and ice cream from Fentons Creamery in Oakland. Diner food is kind of my secret shame, but it’s also what I grew up eating. I suppose I won’t have to worry about splurging on diner food until Cory and I make the cross-country trek to the Midwest at the end of the summer. In any case, on with the pasta!

Pasta with Fava Beans, Kale, and Bacon
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4 slices bacon, cooked and cut into 1″ pieces (reserve 1 tablespoon bacon grease)
1 cup fava beans, shelled (that’s roughly 1 pound in the pod)
1 pound pasta of your choice (I used macaroni)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch of kale, stems removed and torn into small pieces
1/2 cup parmiggiano reggiano
salt & pepper, to taste

Prepare the pasta:
Fill a large pot with water and boil pasta according to package directions. Rinse and set aside.

Prepare the bacon:
In a large stockpot, cook bacon over medium-low heat. Once cooked, transfer bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and drain. Once bacon has cooled, cut into 1″ pieces and set aside. Reserve about a tablespoon of bacon grease.

Prepare the fava beans:
Bring another large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, remove the beans from their pods. By now, the water should be boiling. Blanch the beans for about 2 minutes and drain in a colander. Rinse thoroughly with cold water. Peel off and discard the outer shell. Set the fava beans aside.

Bringing it all together:
Heat oil to a large pan (you may want to use a large pot, your pan may get very crowded). Once hot, add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Add the kale and cook until Cook until the cabbage has wilted, about 8-10 minutes. Once wilted, add garlic and stir for about 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add the kale and saute for 2-3, or just until the kale is beginning to wilt. Toss in the bacon, bacon grease, pasta, pasta, fava beans, parmiggiano reggiano, salt and pepper. Continue to saute until pasta is heated through. Serve immediately.

Serves 6

Try the recipe index for more ideas!

lentil soup with ras el hanout

Rose — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 20:45:20 +0000

Cory’s brother Casey moved back to the Midwest a couple weeks ago. On his last night in San Francisco, we invited Casey over dinner. It was a gym night, which meant dinner consisted partly of leftovers, prepared Trader Joe’s food (sweet potato gnocchi!), and a quick salad I made from whatever we had on hand. It had been an exhausting and busy week for the both of Cory and I. I checked out early that night, promptly falling asleep soon after dinner. I didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye to Casey, but he and Cory got to hear me snort in my sleep (the joys of living in a studio apartment!). Casey cleared out his pantry and fridge before coming to our apartment and brought us a bunch of goodies – 18 eggs, 4 pounds of red lentils, vegetable broth, canned olives, canned mushrooms, and more frozen okra than I’ll ever know what to do with.

The first meal I made with Caseyfood was soup, of course. Making a soup from the lentils and vegetable broth was the easiest choice, since I could happily eat lentils everyday. I used a mixture of red and brown lentils, since red lentils tend to get mushy and brown lentils stay firmer so long as they’re not overcooked. I flavored the soup with ras el hanout, a North African spice blend, that means “the grocer’s head” – a mixture of the best spices the seller has to offer. Ras el hanout blends vary, but generally include cinnamon, dried chili peppers, ginger, nutmeg, turmeric, and clove. Some mixtures include harder to find ingredients like dried rosebuds, golden green Spanish fly, grains of paradise, and cubebs. I made a mixture myself with what I had on hand, but ras el hanout blends with exotic spices can be found at Middle Eastern and gourmet groceries. And just a small warning: this makes a very large batch of soup!

Lentil Soup with Ras el Hanout
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2 tablespoons cooking oil of your choice
1 onion, diced
1-3 garlic cloves, minced
6 cups broth (chicken or vegetable) or water (I used 4 cups vegetable broth and 2 cups water)
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1/2 cup brown lentils (I ended up using a little more than 2 cups total, I measured 500ml on accident)
ras el hanout (see recipe below)
salt, to taste
1 cup cilantro, chopped

In a large stockpot, heat oil over medium heat. When hot, add the onions and cook until translucent, or 5-7 minutes. Add finely chopped garlic and stir for another 30 seconds, or until fragrant.

Add the tomatoes, broth or water and lentils to the pot. Add salt and ras el hanout and stir. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the lentils become tender. Stir in the cilantro and add more salt to taste, if needed. Ladle into bowls and serve. Enjoy!

Ras el Hanout
(from the epicentre)

1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne (I recommend a half teaspoon, but it really depends on how much heat you like)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/3 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon all spice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon clove

Mix all the spices until combined, add the spice blend to the soup.

Serves 8-10

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giveaway winner

Rose — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 05:53:31 +0000

My sincerest apologies for not announcing this yesterday, but the winner of the giveaway of Middle Eastern goodies is CJ. Congrats, CJ! Please shoot me an e-mail with your address so you can start cooking Middle Eastern goodies as soon as possible.

deconstructed hummus salad

Rose — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:13:59 +0000

I only had four full days to introduce my mom to San Francisco and catch up on almost two years of hugs. There were a lot of places I wanted to take her, but four days was just not enough. But during her short stay, we shared a lot of memorable meals. San Francisco is a great food city and I often feel like I don’t take advantage of that enough since I cook most meals at home. My mom’s visit gave us an excuse to eat whatever and wherever we wanted for a few days. Since we did a lot of walking back and forth to my mom’s hotel (and a lot of walking in general), Cory and I discovered restaurants in our neighborhood we had never heard of before. For example, Chile Pies & Ice Cream. Um, I think I’ll have to try their signature apple chile pie with cheddar crust al a mode, just to say I’ve tried it. Now that my mom and all the leftovers are gone, I’m back to cooking.

If there’s one thing I could eat everyday it’s bread and hummus. Okay, I guess those are two things. I like my hummus spicy, garlicky, with broccoli, and of course the traditional way. I don’t make hummus as often as I’d like, since I like to eat it only with bread and I consider bread to be a “sometimes food”. Nothing in the world can compare to freshly baked bread. And I could eat a lot of it. Everyday. Probably even right now. Unfortunately for me, I don’t think I ate much besides delicious, delicious bread while my mom was here. Still though, I was itching for hummus about a week ago and thought of making a deconstructed hummus salad. All the ingredients of traditional hummus over a pile of greens. I made it on a whim as a small side dish just before dinner and ended up going back for seconds of the salad. And I ended up making the salad three more times throughout the week. Yeah, I think I have a new favorite hummus recipe now. No bread or cleaning out the pesky food processor required.

Deconstructed Hummus Salad
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1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons tahini
1-2 tablespoon lemon juice (start with a tablespoon, add more to taste if needed)
1 tablespoon water
salt, to taste
1 15-oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
5 oz package of mixed greens (note: I also had about 2 cups of leftover red kale and used that as well)
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
sumac or paprika (optional, for garnishing)

Mince garlic and toss in a large mixing bowl. Mix in olive oil, tahini, lemon juice, water, and salt. Stir until everything is mixed together and fold in the chickpeas. Serve the chickpeas over mixed greens tossed with chopped dill. Garnish with sumac or paprika, if desired.

Serves 4

Try the the recipe index for more ideas.

sahlab & a giveaway

Rose — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:12:58 +0000

Sahlab is a popular wintertime drink throughout the Middle East. The drink is made with milk and salep, a flour made from the tuberous root of a species of orchid, Orchis mascula. Salep has a faintly floral taste, but the drink is mainly consumed for its thick texture. Other flavorings, such as orange blossom water and rose water, are added to the drink just before serving and it is traditional to dust the cup with a couple pinches of cinnamon.

Pure salep is notoriously difficult (and expensive!) to come by outside of Turkey, so you’re more likely to find powdered mixes with cornstarch, sugar, and a small amount of salep sold in Middle Eastern groceries. I’ve also seen people ditch the salep altogether and use cornstarch in its place. Even when only made with cornstarch, sahlab is a great drink for those chilly winter nights and a good alternative for those who don’t like tea or coffee. Salep is also a key ingredient in Turkish ice cream (dondurma), which is known for its chewy texture and resistance to melting.

And, oh yeah! A giveaway. Many months ago, a company I had never heard of approached me and asked if I would like to host a giveaway on my site. I went along with it, despite their somewhat slimy SEO tactics because in the end everyone likes free stuff, right? In the months since the giveaway, they’ve approached me two more times asking me to host another giveaway and sweetening the deal by adding $25 each time. I could offer a $75 gift card for a site I’ve never shopped at before. Maybe the winner will buy something related to food. Maybe not. Instead, I’ve decided to host a giveaway of my own. I often post recipes with ingredients that, depending on where you live, may be difficult to find. If you’ve ever wanted to experiment more with Arabic cooking, but haven’t had the chance, one lucky person (maybe you!) will be receiving some of my favorites – pomegranate molasses, tahini, fava beans, sumac, and sahlab.

To participate, leave a comment (just one!) and tell me what you would like to cook with any of the ingredients offered in the giveaway. The winner will be randomly chosen on March 8th.

Also, I will be taking a small break from blogging. My mom will be visiting San Francisco this week and I’ll need a couple days to recover after she leaves. See you next month!

Sahlab
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2 cups milk (I always use whole milk, but use low-fat or non-fat if you’d like)
sugar, to taste (if using pure sahlab powder or cornstarch, most if not all pre-packaged sahlab mixes already include sugar)
2 tablespoons sahlab powder or cornstarch

Optional flavorings and garnishes:

Rose Water (1/2 teaspoon per serving)
Orange Blossom Water (1/2 teaspoon per serving)
Almond Extract
Vanilla
Shredded coconut
Chopped nuts (pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts)
Ground cinnamon, cardamom, or nutmeg, for dusting

Add the milk (and sugar, if using) to a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir occasionally until hot, then add the sahlab powder or cornstarch and stir constantly until the mixture thickens. If adding extra flavorings, like rosewater, orange blossom water, almond extract, or vanilla, stir those in once the drink has thickened. Divide the drink into individual cups and garnish with chopped nuts, coconut, and dust with cinnamon, cardamom, or nutmeg.

Serves 2

Try the recipe index for more ideas.