Middle Eastern Meal

I LOVE middle eastern food. Its great to eat when its hot outside, delicious, and most of it you can eat with pita bread or with your hands. Both of which I like doing.

Mjaddarah (onions, rice and lentils)

1 cup rice
1 cup lentils
Oil
Onions

1.) put rice and lentils in a pot.
2.) Add 3-4 cups of water
3.) Cook the stuff til it boils
4.) Once it hits the boiling point, lower the heat and simmer for 15 min. or until done.
5.) While the lentils and rice cook, fry the onions til they are caramelized, then add to the rice and lentils.

Salad Shirazi

Cucumber
Onion
Tomato
Mint
Parsely
Lemon / Lemon juice
Olive oil

1.) Chop up and seed the cucumbers, tomatoes and onions
2.) Mix in the other ingredients
3.) Pile the stuff onto pita and eat

Pita Bread

1 package of yeast, or quick rising yeast
1/2 cup warm water
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teapsoon salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 cup lukewarm water

1.) Disolve yeast in water, add sugar and let sit until frothy
2.) Add other ingredients
3.) Knead/mix until you have a nice dough, and then coat the dough in oil, place in a bowl and let rise about 3 hours.
4.) Pinch off small balls of dough, make them into a pita shaped thing
5.) pre-heat oven to 500 degrees
6.) Place a pan on the bottom rack and place pitas on the pan
7.) Cook for 2 minutes, flip, cook 2 more minutes and then take the pita out
8.) continue until all the pita's are cooked.

Miso Soup

Miso soup is a sweet, tangy soup that hails from japan. Its one of my most favorite "comfort foods" to eat when I get a cold or relax in the afternoon and have a snack. It is a pretty simple soup to make, and it has tons of health benefits too.

Basic Ingredients:
Miso Paste
Dashi or Wakame Sea Weed + hot water or Vegetable soup stock
Scallions

Other Things you can add:
Mushrooms
Cubed Tofu
water chestnuts
somen noodles
Egg plant
Potatoes
Radish)
Thin pork slices (this would make the soup tonjiru)
Carrot

1.) Bring a few cups of dashi, soup stock or wakame seaweed + water to a boil.
2.) Once the soup boils turn the heat down, and keep it at a pre-boil temperature.
2.) add the solid/hard ingredients to the soup and cook until softened.
3.) Add disolve some miso paste into the soup. Once you do this, do not allow the soup to boil as this will change the flavor of the miso.
4.) Add soft ingredients and green vegetables to the miso and heat for a short time.
5.) Eat

Most Miso soups only have 1-3 ingredients in small quantities. Usually an item that floats and one that sinks. The ingredients are supposed to reflect the season and also have contrasts of color and texture. Having Miso is supposed to be as much as an aesthetic experience as a taste one.

Fried Rice

Fast, easy and Delicious. I love fred rice. And this isn't the fake stuff you get at a chinese restaurant. This is the real deal.

Left Over Rice
1 Tbsp Oil
Soy Sauce
Pepper
Ginger
add-in's: sausage, egg, carrots, onions, peas, other vegetables....


1.) In a frying pan or wok heat the oil.
2.) Add in sausage or tofu and cook for a little bit.
3.) Add in chopped vegetables, pepper and ginger. Cook.
4.) Add in rice and cook until it starts to crisp up.
5.) Sprinkle soy sauce over rice.
6.) Push rice to one side and crack egg in opening.
7.) When the egg is done being scrambled, mix it in with the rice.
8.) Eat.

Virtual Eggs

I found an interesting concept/recipe over at Gourmet Magazine of a virtual egg. Its made out of a yellow tomato, mozzarella cheese and Gelatin. It sounds pretty intriguing and I bet if you added pesto to the center it would be like deviled eggs. But I don't know about the texture...jello-cheese...Then again it gives me an idea....

I think I'm going to make tomato jello. with a basil whipped cream topping and see what happens.

I might experiment with gelatin/agar agar more. A savory jello just might be what the world needs.

Mashed Potato Fritters

You have a ton of left over mashed potatoes. They are getting to the point of being dry and un-re heatable. What do you do with them? Not in the trash thats for sure!

Mashed Potatoes
Onion(s) or Green Onions
Flour
Milk/Soy Milk
Egg / 1 Tbsp ground Flax seeds
Baking soda
(salt, garlic, pepper, etc if the mashed potatoes don't have them already)
Oil

1.) Crack an egg in the mashed potatoes. 2 eggs if you have a ton. (Or add flax seeds if you're vegan)
2.) Add a little milk, a dash of baking soda and a few table spoons of Flour. Mix and add flour/milk until you get a good consistency. You want the "dough" To be able to hold together. Start with a little milk and work your way up.
3.) Add chopped onions or green onions to the mashed potatoes. And mix well.
4.) Heat some Oil in a frying pan, and then add a spoonful of the mashed potato dough. Fry one side until it starts to turn brown and then flip and fry the other side. Continue until all the mashed potatoes are cooked.
5.) Eat! These are good with ketchup or by themselves.

Basic Crepes

This is a basic crepe recipe that can be modified to your taste and the situation. I make them often in college since there are few ingredients and it takes a small amount of time and effort.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup water
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar, This is optional, for dessert crepes.
2 eggs / 2 tablespoons maple syrup or 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup milk

1. Combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Once every thing is mixed bang the bowl on the cabinet to get the air bubbles out. You can also let the batter sit in the fridge for an hour.
3. Heat a small non-stick skillet and grease with butter, oil, or non-stick spray.
4. Pour about a tablespoon of batter into the center of the pan and swirl it around so the batter covers the entire surface.
5. Cook for 30 seconds and then flip the crepe, being careful not to fold it.
6. Cook the crepe for 20 more seconds and then put it on a flat plate or cutting board to cool.
7. Continue making crepe this way until all the batter is gone.
8. Once the crepes are cool you can stack them and they won't stick together.
9. Put anything you like into your crepes, meat, fruit, cheese and then eat!