Fattoush Salad

Fattoush

I love Fattoush. I first had it at a Lebanese Restaurant in Ohio that I can't remember the name of. It was right down the street from the University of Toledo next to a Kinkos. I worked there when I was in high school because it was literally at the end of my block. It was my first experience with Lebanese food and out of all of the wonderful salads, Fattoush is my absolute favorite.

I've been craving Fattoush for a while and since it's officially sticky and hot in NYC Mirs and I have an agreement to not turn on the stove. Instead, we're making Salads-Enjoy!

Fattoush

Ingredients

6-8 small Roma Tomatoes

3 Lebanese Cucumbers (or any variety)

3-4 Small Radishes

2 Green Onions

Handful of Parsley
Mint about 7-12 leaves depending on how large they are

Matzos

1 Lemon

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Cumin

Coriander

Celery Seed

Salt and Pepper

Feta Cheese (optional)

Fattoush is traditionally made with Pita Chips but since we've got the no oven rule we substituted Matzo and it worked out wonderfully. I adapted 3 different recipes I found online to come up with this one.

In one Large Bowl

Wash the Cucumber and slice thinly. They should be disk like and firm-don't slice too thin!

Wipe the Tomatoes, de-seed and chop roughly

Peel the Radishes and Slice into thin strips

Thinly cut the Green Onions

Loosely chop the Parsley and Mint

Put all of the vegetables in a large Bowl and set aside

In a smaller bowl squeeze the juice one whole lemon. To the Lemon whisk in an equal amount of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. ( I just eyeballed it)

To the lemon vinaigrette add 6 twists of a salt grinder and 6 twists of a pepper mill. Add a dash of the three spices and continue to whisk until thoroughly mixed.

This is sort of a taste thing. Don't over do it on the Cumin, Coriander, and Celery seed, though. More liberal on the Salt and Pepper.

Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables and mix so that all of the vegetables are coated. At this point you can add more lemon juice or Oil to taste. Put in the fridge for 30 minutes to let the ingredients set.

at the 15 minute mark roughly crumble 2 Matzos in the salad and toss again.

Let rest for remaining 15 minutes and serve with a sprinkle of Feta Cheese

Citrus Marinated White Fish with Israeli Cous Cous and Micro Green Salad

Citrus Marinated White Fish

Micro Green Salad with Israeli Cous Cous

For This Recipe You Will Need

1lb White Fish (We used Cod)

2 Lemons

1 Lime

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Garlic Chives

Cilantro

Micro Greens

Chicken Stock

Tonight's Dinner was so easy, so yummy, so fresh, and wonderfully summery. The ingredients are VERY simple, the salad was simply dressed, the fish was amazing and the cous-cous added the perfect amount of grain to finish it off. I hope you love it as much as we did tonight!

Start by marinating the fish. In a large Ziplock bag put fish, drizzle about 2-4 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Add about 1/4 cups of chopped cilantro and 1/4 cups of chopped garlic chives. I also added the juice of one Lemon and one lime, 4 turns of the pepper grinder and seal the bag and set aside to marinate.

Cook the Cous-Cous in Chicken Stock according to package instructions.

For the Micro Greens, we used some growing in our back yard! It was probably the best salad I've had in my life because we felt wonderful and proud of our Urban bounty! The salad dressing is VERY simple; just olive oil, lemon and salt and pepper. Because the greens have such wonderful flavor you can completely omit the lemon and just enjoy it with a really good olive oil and salt and pepper.

In a small bowl put the juice of a half lemon, 4 grinds of salt and 4 grinds of pepper into the bowl. Drizzle about 1 cup of Extra Virgin Oil oil into the bowl while whisking briskly. Dress the salad and add more salt or pepper to taste. Reserve a small amount for the fish at the end of grilling-yummy extra virgin olive oil!!

After the Cous Cous is cooked and your salad is dressed turn a grill pan on to Medium-High heat.

I removed the Fish from the bag and added a bit of the juices to the pan as well. Cook for about 3-5 Minutes on the first side and an additional 3-5 minutes on the other depending on how you like your fish done. Drizzle with remaining Salad Dressing

Plate and Enjoy!

Tonight's Dinner

Tri-Colored Pepper and Tomato Penne

You Will Need

Fresh Rosemary (I took my herbs from my garden so the measurements are a bit fuzzy for me.)

Fresh Oregano

Fresh Thyme

Salt and Pepper

3 cloves of Garlic

1/2 of Medium Red Pepper

1/2 of Medium Green Pepper

1/2 of Yellow Pepper

1/2 lb of penne pasta

5-6 Large Button Mushrooms (The ones I used were larger than a silver dollar)

3 Chicken Breasts

1 can Stewed Tomatoes

Peppered Goat Cheese

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

***In Total for the Entire Recipe I'd say you'd need about 1-2 Tablespoons of the Herb Mixture. I took mine from my garden and used a mezzaluna to finely chop them. Keep a little extra at hand to add to taste. Our Basil isn't doing well but I think this would be amazing with a little fresh basil and fresh mozzarella instead of the goat cheese as a substitution-it would completely change the taste but it would be really yummy***

In Grand Erika Cooking Style I like to try to cook everything in one Pan-Which is what I did, with the exception of the Pasta.

Drizzle enough Extra Virgin Olive Oil to coat a Large Frying Pan and turn heat to Medium-High.

The Pan should be hot-but not smoking.

Season Chicken with Salt and Pepper on both sides as well as sprinkling with Herbs. I like to stab the chicken with a fork a bit too to tenderize and to insure that it's cooked through.

Cook the Chicken to just done-It can be a teeny bit pink on the inside because we'll continue to cook it later.

While the chicken is cooking, julienne your peppers

Put the Peppers Aside and Slice your Mushrooms so they are the same width as your Peppers.

Crush 3 cloves of Garlic with your knife and dice them very small.

After your chicken is done cooking, remove from the pan and set aside on a wooden chopping block to rest.

Put the Peppers and the Mushrooms into the remaining oil-Add more if necessary and cook until just done.

While Your Peppers and Mushrooms are cooking, cook pasta to package instructions and drain

***You'll have to play with the timing here-you want to pretty much start the pasta when your peppers have been cooking for about 3-5 minutes depending on your stove heat. My peppers smoked a lot before I added more Olive Oil and they got a little golden on some of the sides. You want to cook them-but not over cook them. I'd keep the temperature at Medium for the entire time, maybe start them at Medium-High to get a nice golden color before stirring them a bit. It's important to let them rest in the hot oil for a bit before you go at 'em with a wooden spoon or spatula-or the pan flip-my favorite***

So your pepper/mushroom mixture should be pretty well cooked at this point. Add the Chopped Garlic to the Mixture and Open your can of Stewed Tomatoes and add the contents of the can to the pan. Bring heat back up to Medium-High and let the mixture come to a simmer.

Mean while, cut your resting chicken into strips and add the chicken to the Pepper/Tomato/Mushroom Mixture.

Add about 2-4 Table spoons of Olive Oil to the entire mixture as well as the well Drained Pasta.

(The Point of this dish isn't a heavy tomato or cream sauce-it should taste fresh-you should get a lot of smoked peppers and tomatoes taste-the Extra Virgin Olive Oil will serve as your "Sauce" so use as much or as little as you like. It's important to also note that all of the wonderful properties of Extra Virgin Olive Oil are lost if the temperature is too high-so in this case, at the end of the recipe, you want your temperature to be at Medium-Low. You want to eat the oil to the temperature of the dish-but it shouldn't be piping hot)

Sprinkle a bit more of the Herb Mixture and Salt and Pepper to taste and Stir the Chicken and Pasta into the Pepper Mixture. Keeping the heat on Medium-Low allow the dish to cook for about 5-7 Minutes for the Ingredients to set.

(I'm a big Olive Oil Fan So I used a lot in the dish-you can choose to go easy on it, but you'll need to give the dish a bit more time to simmer so that all of the ingredients set.)

Add about a teaspoon of the Goat Cheese to the dish when it's served. The texture of the goat cheese is great against the vegetables and the tang is out of this world. Top with a bit of Fresh Ground Pepper and Enjoy!

Fire Roasted Tomato and Orange Pepper Seafood Alfredo

Fire Roasted Tomato Alfredo Seafood Linguine

I love this recipe. I made it last week for Mirs and decided to make it again last night. I've decided to give up on dairy for the summer to see if it has any positive effect on my eczema, so we shall see. In honor of all things dairy, I've decided to make some Alfredo.

For this Recipe you will need

1 lb package of linguine

1 Orange Bell Pepper

16 oz container of half and half

1 12 oz can of Spicy Diced tomatoes

mushrooms

garlic pepper

Parmesan cheese

butter

extra olive oil

frozen seafood (scallops, shrimp, and bay scallops)

I like to make this recipe all in one frying pan. It's easy to do, and it creates less mess. If your frozen Seafood Blend is in the Freezer, take it out and place it on the stove top to start the thawing process.

Cook your Pasta according to package directions, drain them but do not rinse, instead drizzle with a bit of olive oil to prevent them from sticking and return to the pan.

Start by cutting your pepper julienne style.

Drizzle about a table spoon (or so) into your frying pan. Turn your flame to Medium-High Temperature

Let the oil get warm but not smoking hot and then add your Peppers.

Let the peppers cook without disturbing them for about 3-5 minutes before adding about a half a package of sliced Baby Portebella Mushrooms to the peppers. You may need to add a bit more Oil to keep the pan with a slight sheen to it. You don't want too much oil but you don't want to have the peppers or mushrooms get burnt either.

When the mushrooms are cooked slightly and the Peppers are soft open your package of Frozen Seafood and Add it to the mixture.

Turn the Heat up to High to Cook the Seafood. After about 5 minutes or so you should get some water from the Seafood in your pan. Drain off as much of it as possible and continue to cook your seafood. The squid and scallop pieces should turn bright white as they cook and the shrimp will turn bright pink.

As your Seafood is cooking, open the can of Diced Tomatoes. Add the Tomatoes to the mixture and bring to a simmer.

As you can see in this picture, you'll still have a decent amount of water which you'll need to drain as much as possible. Water doesn't help with the alfredo cooking step, which is next. Try to drain off as much liquid as possible so that your tomatoes look sort of dry. Add Garlic Pepper to taste.

Making the alfredo is the next step. Alfredo is a really simple sauce to make. You can make it in a separate pan but I love to make it right in the same pot. You'll need about a quarter of cream-I prefer half and half but you can use heavy cream. You'll need about 2 table spoons of butter and Parmesan cheese. I'm not one to measure, you'll have to sort of pour a little, stir a little, taste a little.

Turn your burner to low heat and pour about 3/4 cups of cream into the pan and about 1/2 cups of cheese as well as the butter. Using a wooden spatula stir until you have a pinkish cream. If you turn the heat up just slightly you'll notice the mixture will get thicker. Continue this process of adding the CREAM and CHEESE-take a bit of time to taste as well, you may need to add more Garlic Pepper to taste. You shouldn't need more butter-Continue this process until you get your desired amount of Sauce. See the Video Below.

When you have the desired amount of sauce, mix the sauce mixture with your pasta and serve! I hope you like it! Mirs and I do! Pair with this wine and some crusty bread and simple salad for a complete meal. Enjoy!

Hang Over Cure Breakfast-3 Pepper Black Bean Scramble

Sorry-no pictures! Mirs got wasted with some college friends last night while I was working. My roommates, Casey and Kelly also got wasted. Erika was at work until midnight and then took a cab home with her cute, drunk girl friend and came home to a drunk roommate...

So this morning I made the following breakfast for all three of them, and myself. It was amazing and cured all of their hang overs. Well, it at least made them feel better :)

You Will Need

3-4 Medium Potatoes-Yukon or Russet
small Red Pepper
small Yellow Pepper
small Green Pepper
5-7 Green Onions
Salsa
5 Eggs
Mushrooms
Sour Cream
Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Canned black beans
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Butter
Tabasco Sauce
Salt and Pepper

Start with an extra large skillet and coat it with extra virgin olive oil and a teaspoon of butter. Turn your burner to low-medium and wash and cut your potatoes. Cut them length wise in half and then once more in half and then chop them so you have long dices.

When you have all of your potatoes cut, turn your burner on medium high and wait until your olive oil is almost smoking. Add the potatoes to the pan and turn the heat to medium. Watch out! You may get a splatter of oil.

While your potatoes are cooking cut each pepper in half and dice. Only use one half of each pepper. When finished dicing, add the peppers to the potatoes and stir. Next, cut your mushrooms into a long dice and add to the potatoes and stir. Add your green onions next, both white and green pieces. Make sure to stir after.

At this point your potatoes should be soft-ish and possibly browning in places. If not, turn your heat up slightly. Add a bit of salt and black pepper to taste-but not too much, the cheddar will have a little salt in it.

I used a half of a 12 oz can of black beans, rinsed and strained before adding them to the potato mixture. Lastly, I added about 1/4 cup of salsa to the potatoes. Make sure to stir up the salsa and beans to the mixture to bring up to temperature. At this time you can grate some cheddar cheese on top and leave it, it will melt on it's own. Depending on how your potatoes are cooking you can either keep the temperature where it is or turn it to medium low to cook your eggs.

I scrambled 5 eggs with about 10 drops of Tabasco in a separate pan. The Tabasco sauce adds an amazing depth to the taste to the eggs-it's not at all spicy-hot when you cook it in the raw eggs. Soft scramble your eggs in a separate pan until done, adding a bit of salt to them while cooking.

For Plating.

The first layer will be your scrambled eggs, then layer spoonfuls of the potato mixture to the eggs, top with a table spoon of salsa and a dollop of sour cream. I promise you-oh so yummy. Enjoy!

Dinner Tonight; Stewed Tomatoes, Chicken, and Polenta

Also Known as Chicken Caccitore ~You will need

About 8-11 Small Tomatoes (I used the heirloom tomatoes on the vine)

Sun Dried Tomatoes

2 small breasts of chicken cut into cubes

1 small yellow onion

3 cloves of garlic

package of portebella mushrooms

polenta

extra virgin olive oil

butter

red wine
whole milk

parmesean cheese

garlic powder

oregano

basil

salt

pepper

*Start with a small sauce pan and add a sprinkling of of extra virgin olive oil at the bottom of the pan and a small slice of butter. Set the temperature to the lowest setting to melt your butter and warm the oil.

*Meanwhile, cut your onion length wise and then into strips thin strips. Add your onions to the warm oil and butter combination and let them cook, stirring occasionally. They should be soft and browning slightly-you can turn up the heat to medium low.

*While your onions are cooking, rinse and cut your tomatoes into quarters. Make sure to keep all of the juices on your cutting board...it makes everything more yummy!

*So, when your onions are nice and soft you'll be adding your tomatoes and their juices into the pot. Cover the pot with a top and turn your heat to medium-high, stirring constantly.

*While your pot is going, slice up about 10 sun dried tomatoes into slices and add them to your pot as well. Add, salt, pepper, spices as preferred and stir.

*In a separate saute pan, start a bit more oil and a bit more butter to a medium-high saute pan. You'll be adding an entire package of sliced baby portebella mushrooms to the warm oil. Sprinkle the mushrooms with salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and garlic powder to taste. Make sure to let them cook for a bit-about 3-5 minutes before touching them! Gotta let 'em cook.

When your mushrooms are completely cooked-another 5 minutes or so (when they're golden brown) add them to the tomato combination but keep as much oil as possible to the saute pan. Add your wine, stir, and cover your pot. Depending on your stove, you should cook the tomatoes until they turn a rich red color are soft and fragrant. Make sure to taste. I like a lot of spice, so I kept adding them in. It should taste like tomatoes, not salt, though.

Add the cubed chicken to the hot oil and turn temperature up to medium-high. Add the spices and cover to cook. Add more oil to complete cooking and to prevent sticking to the bottom. When your chicken is done cooking-about 10 minutes or so turning frequently. When the chicken is done cooking, add to the tomato sauce. Turn the sauce down to simmer and cook the polenta according to the package instructions.

To the cooked polenta, add 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and pepper to the polenta.

*For plating, add a large spoonful of polenta to the middle of your plate. Add two large spoonfuls of the chicken and tomato sauce directly on top of the polenta. Add grated cheese to top and ENJOY!

Erika's Eggs Florentine

Brunch Today for my girl Mirs, Erika's Eggs Florentine*

I made my version of Eggs Florentine for Mir this morning for brunch. I am now going to share this recipe with you.

Start with corn bread (yes, corn bread) I used the recipe below
1 cup of corn meal
1 cup of organic all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of organic sugar
3 tsps of baking powder
1 tsps sea salt
1/4 cup of organic salted butter
1 cup of organic whole milk
1 organic brown egg
1/2 cup of frozen corn kernels rinsed to thaw out

Pre Heat oven to 425 and grease with butter an 8X8 glass baking dish

Mix the dry ingredients in a larger bowl and the wet ingredients in a small bowl. When the flour mixture is completely mixed, add the milk mixture and stir with a wooden spoon.

Pour the batter in the greased dish and back for approximately 25-30 minutes. This can be made a day ahead. Since I used day old corn bread, I fried it slightly in olive oil. You may not need to do this with just made bread. You'll get really thick slices, be sure to cut them in half, length-wise for your Eggs Florentine.

On a side note, it's amazing with butter and honey as an indulgent snack.

...so back to the Eggs Florentine.

You will need
about two handfuls of spinach rinsed
about a handful of mushrooms (i used portabella)
salt
pepper
garlic powder (to taste)
3 egg yolks
about a stick and a quarter of butter
Cheyenne pepper
extra virgin olive oil.

I started by sauteeing the spinach. Make sure to sprinkle some of the olive oil in a saute pan. Let the oil heat a bit before adding the spinach to the warm oil over medium heat. I used about three twists of fresh ground pepper and a sprinkling of salt and garlic powder before covering the spinach with a glass top and reducing the heat slightly. You want the spinach to wilt, but to remain bright green. Depending on your stove it should take about 3-5 minutes.

...meanwhile, you'll want to oil another saute pan with more olive oil to saute the mushrooms-same process, essentially, but you want to let these sit for a bit before reducing the temperature. The heat should be medium/high-ish but you don't want it too hot. Let them rest before messing with them, about 5 minutes then flip them with a fancy wrist flip or with a spatula. The mushrooms should be golden-brown. Make sure to sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and garlic as well.

At this point you can combine the spinach with the mushrooms and keep covered on the lowest heat setting.

To make the Hollandaise sauce...
You'll need a lemon
about a stick and one quarter of butter
Cheyenne pepper
3 large eggs
rubber spatula
a large slotted spoon

Start by putting a medium to large sauce pan on medium heat. Add all of the butter, cut into cubes and whisk butter until it's completely melted. Make sure you do NOT let the butter burn or boil in any way. When butter is completely melted turn off heat.
In small bowl separate your egg whites from your yolks (you only need to yolks) and whisk them together, lightly, until they are smooth.

Back to your melted butter, squeeze the juice from one whole lemon into butter mixture, making sure not to get any seeds in. A slight sprinkling of lemon zest is also good if you have a fine grater or microplane. At this time you can also sprinkle in some Cheyenne pepper. Mir likes her things spicy (she's a Texan, after all). Add a bit more lemon juice if your sauce is too thick.

Bring your heat up slightly but still on low. Add the egg yolks to the butter mixture and whisk until you have a thick and smooth sauce. Whisk lightly here, don't take out morning aggression out on your Hollandaise or you'll get a lumpy and gross scramble.

Poached Eggs...
You'll need a large-ish pot to boil some water. Add salt and a bit of lemon juice or vinegar to keep your eggs together. Depending on how you like your eggs (slightly runny, runny, or very runny) you'll have to edit your poaching time.
You want your water to be boiling, softly, not violently. I added my eggs one at a time. The whites got a little out of control and a bit foamy when adding the vinegar and lemon juice.
Mir says you only need to boil them for a few minutes, but she likes "very runny" eggs, I like mine a little on the jelly-like/slightly runny side, so I'd say poach them for about 3 minutes, give or take your stove.

Time for assembly.
Start with the toasted corn bread on the bottom, add warmed spinach and sauteed mushrooms, your yummy poached eggs and last, but not least your Hollandaise sauce...Enjoy!

I made some mimosas and bacon on the side...


*Next time I'll remember to post pictures