Mouloukhieh

Put 1 chicken (I like best the organic free range type) in a pot, fill with water to cover the chicken,and add the ingredients below to make the broth:

1 onion with two cloves in it
A couple cloves garlic
Juice of half a lemon
2 Maggi cubes (bouillon cubes) or whatever you use to make a chicken broth

Spices:

• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cinnamon stick
• a few peppercorns
• a few sweet peppercorns
• Allspice
• 7-spices
• Ground coriander

If you don't have all those spices, don't worry about it. the idea is to make a good aromatic chicken broth. Use the "middle-Eastern spices" you have.

Boil until the chicken is cooked.

When the chicken is done, pass the broth through a sieve and "debone" the chicken, then set all the chicken pieces aside.

Frozen mouloukhieh leaves may be found in middle-eastern groceries. Put two packages of frozen mouloukhieh leaves in the sieved broth and bring to a gentle boil. Don't let it boil too much.

Take a big bunch of cleaned fresh coriander leaves (cilantro), and finely chop it together with 7 or 8 cloves garlic. Gently fry the mixture in some olive oil (or neutral sunflower seed or grapeseed oil). It smells heavenly :-) After a few minutes, pour the whole thing in the mouloukhieh broth. Add the chicken pieces to the pot, then adjust the taste with salt and lemon if needed.

Lentil patties (vospov kofte)

2 cups red lentils
4 cups water
1½ cups fine bulgur
1 tsp salt
1 onion, finely chopped
Olive oil, for frying the onions.

Another onion and a small bunch of parsley for serving.
Or some thinly chopped spring onions.


Pick the lentils for any small stones and rinse thoroughly.
Boil them in water until very soft. About 30-40 min (or 10 min in a pressure cooker). The mixture should be thick.
Turn off the heat, add the bulgur, salt, stir and allow to stand.
You can add a teaspoon of ground cumin and one of paprika to the mixture if you like.

Cook the onion in oil until soft.
Add to the cooled lentils and bulgur.
Knead to mix the ingredients well together when they have cooled down.

Shape into oblong patties with your hands (it helps to dip your hands in cold water every once in a while) and arrange on a plate.

Finely chop the other onion with the parsley and serve with the patties to dip in to eat.

These patties go very well with a salad of finely diced tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, onions, parsley and mint, condimented with a tablespoon of sumac, the juice of one lemon and a a couple of tablespoons of water. And salt and pepper.

Tea and caffeine

Want to drink more tea but want to avoid the extra caffeine?

Caffeine is more readily soluble in water than the phytonutrients in the tea are. So steep the tea leaves for 30 seconds, discard that water then steep the tea again as you normally would. This shouldn't affect the flavor or the antioxidant quality the tea.

(Read in Dr. Andrew Weil's Healthy Aging)

Nutritional Information

I just found this great tool to find out the nutritional information of any recipe you make. It's called the Recipe Calculator from the SparkPeople.

After you type in each ingredient, its amount, and how many servings your recipe makes, you get a rundown of the amount of calories in the dish, the fat types and contents, the cholesterol, sodium, potassium, carbohydrate and protein contents, as well as the percentage of daily values of several vitamins based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Thank you SparkPeople!

Zucchini egg cakes

My Mom usually makes a version of these with the pulp after she has hollowed out zucchini to make dolma.  This version uses a raw grated squash.

Ingredients:
1 medium sized green squash
6 eggs
1 medium to large onion, chopped
2-3 spring onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, shredded or mashed
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablspoons flour
Salt and pepper to taste

In a mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Add a tablespoon of the mixture at a time.
Turn when golden on the one side and fry on the other.

These also taste good cold.

Bon apetit!

Salmon steaks, potatoes, asparagus and salad

I was looking for a recipe with Salmon steaks, but got distracted and ended up having to improvise. It turned out quite well, so I'm sharing the recipes with you (whoever is reading, thank you :-) )

Start with the potatoes, as they take longest. But all in all it will be a quickly prepared dinner.

Peel and cut up some baking potatoes.
Boil until half done. Drain. Place in an oven dish.
Add olive oil, salt (Maldon salt is quite good here), black pepper and paprika and mix well.
Scratch the potatoes with a fork.
Place in the oven (220 degrees C or high) and let them get golden.

Make a green salad to your taste. Hold the dressing until ready to eat.

Prepare some asparagus by breaking off the tough edges, rinsing the tops and placing them in a pan, barely covered with water, until they are ready to be boiled.

For the salmon steaks, make a marinade with:
1 tsp mayonnaise
½ to 3/4 tsp Dijon mustard
Juice of half (or a whole) lemon
A good splash of Soy sauce (about 2-3 Tbs)
A heaped tablespoon of sesame seeds

Whisk it all together.
Pour over 4 salmon steaks (with skin) and let them sit for a little while. I only had 10 minutes to spare, and that worked out fine.

When the potatoes are kind of done (you can eventually just turn off the oven and leave them in there. This is not an exact science :-)), boil the asparagus for a very few minutes (about 3-4).

Heat a frying pan, coat it with a tiny bit of olive oil, take up the salmon from the marinade and fry, skin side first. Check for doneness by checking the colour inside the flesh side. Do no overcook. When the steaks are done, pour the rest of the marinade in the pan, it will rapidly come to the boil. Remove to a serving dish.

Dress the salad with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper (or anyhow you like). Serve everything.

Bon Apétit!

Bar-b-q time

The weather is finally warmer and sunnier again here in Denmark, so a very pleasant time to grill.

Remember that in addition to meat, all kinds of vegetables or bread brushed with interesting toppings can be also grilled.

Here I used one little batch of this mixture on wedges of pita bread, and another batch of the same mixture to marinate some pork chops in. I also used some organic ground beef, mixed with finely chopped onions and parsley, plus salt and pepper (called kafta in the middle east).

Make a salad of herbs, for example parsley, cilantro, mint, and red onion. Add tomatoes and cucumbers and avocado if you like. Toss with a bit of olive oil, lemon juice and some salt and pepper.

Bon appetit!