Shakshouka with Turkey Meatballs

 SHAKSHOUKA W/ TURKEY MEATBALLS

I know...another savory breakfast dish with egg.  And, another internet fad, to boot!  Shakshouka seems to be all over the food blogosphere lately, so if you haven't tried it yet now is your chance.  I have no idea if this is an "authentic" shakshouka recipe, it's just something I made up based on pictures and my knowledge of Middle Eastern/North African spice mixes.  Shakshouka or not, it's extremely delicious (for any meal of the day).

It just so happens that I had a lot of time over the last few weeks to make breakfast.  Given I had the standard two weeks of vacation from teaching, plus an additional two "snow" days to follow, my muscles have barely done any work in 2014. Now, before you get all political on me and charge teachers for being lazy, I did also write an entire 25-page term thesis on the impacts of post-Solonic democratization in Classical Athens on Hellenic gender construction.  Turns out, the birth of democracy really sucked for women.  Anyways, it was nice to have a flexible schedule to read, write, and cook delicious shakshouka.

This version, has lean turkey meatballs packed with chickpeas and tahini, to bind the meatballs without adding any breadcrumbs.  A great thing I realized about this recipe is that the flavors get better the next day, so you can make the meatballs and tomato beforehand, and then reheat and add an egg when you're ready to consume.  It was delicious over creamy polenta, but can definitely hold its own if you're avoiding grains/carbs.  Vegetarian versions seem like they would be tasty and ridiculously easy - just replace the meatballs with seared eggplant for a delicious alternative. 

Chorizo, Kale, & White Bean Soup

Maybe if you've been poking around, you've noticed I've changed the design of the blog a bit.  The latest addition was a new travel log, which is something I've debated adding since the blog's inception.  I saw a really inspiring version of a travel log on one of my new favorite food blogs, My Name is Yeh (a blogger whose work/design I really love, and turns out she happened to grow up pretty much down the street from me).  So, anyways, I added that new page and writing those little blurbs sort of brought me back to one of the blog's major missions: to share my global food finds.  Making it also brought me a deep sense of saudade...and inspired this post.

By no means have I exhausted my list of flavors that I've found while traveling, particularly from Morocco and Portugal.   It's just that sometimes the practicalities of life get it in the way of recreating these finds.  But this weekend I tackled a version of Portugal's caldo verde, or a kale and potato soup spiced up with a choirço (chorizo).  We ate this as a first course at almost every restaurant we went to in Portugal.

The thing about caldo verde is that it is truly a simple soup, a sort of home cooked staple.  The flavor is mild, if not muted, hence the need for a few slices of spicy sausage.  Moreover, Garrett didn't find anything too mind-blowing about it (although I loved it).  So after he nixed the idea of making traditional caldo verde, he dreamt up a soup with greens and white beans.  I interpreted this as "caldo verde with beans," and this is the result.  Relationships are all about compromise.

I went ahead and made the nearest thing I could to chorizo with lean ground turkey, just to keep this as healthy as possible, but you could certainly save yourself a few steps and get pre-made chorizo.

Roasted Cauliflower Quinoa and Spiced Chickpeas

I recently read a piece on Food Republic's site called "10 Things You Didn't Know About Quinoa."  Well, most of the list I already knew because I've recently done lots of research on the plant.  Particularly #10: "Rinse and Repeat," which briefly and nonchalantly reports about the natural saponins coating unrinsed Quinoa which protects it from predators.  Strange how they fail to mention that the saponins also cause quinoa allergies in human beings, unless, of course, you rinse them off first.  Just some water will do.

RINSE OFF THE SAPONINS, PEOPLE!  

I'm going to completely spare you the details, but I have sadly developed the quinoa allergy after eating an unwashed batch over a year ago.  I made this recipe (and it was delicious) because I thought perhaps I had gotten over my aversion since I ate the Cranberry Quinoa Chicken Salad and was just fine.  It must just be that small amounts are OK.

Sadly, this will probably be my last quinoa post ever.  All I can tell you is that I'm glad my last quinoa dish was a good one.  I mean, I ate so much of this recipe that - let's put it this way - I really understood the extent of my allergy.  No need to fear, just rinse your quinoa and you'll be just fine. 

moroccan harira soup

Unfortunately I couldn't get this post up in time for Eid, but I made it anyways because it was simply the recipe I couldn't wait to try once I returned from Morocco.  Garrett and I pretty much at harira every night we spent in Morocco.  Its a traditional soup for Ramadan, served at iftar meals after the evening call to break fast.  As we traveled north from Marrakech to Tangier, we tasted a few variations of this soup, and the recipe below combines characteristics of a few different regions.   While most we ate were vegetarian (like this),  others had a rich, meaty flavor that must have been either lamb or goat.  In the north we were more likely to encounter the soup finished with egg whisked in, and I included that here because I think it adds some richness to a vegetarian version.

Our favorite harira experience, by far, was at a little neighborhood place called Cafe Kasbah in the Tangier medina.  We dropped by right before iftar just for a coffee, and the guy running the place, Hassan, was happy to have us sit while he and the other men running the six-table cafe broke fast.  They passed us dates, orange juice, and fried goodies, including us in their iftar ritual.  They gave us a rich, meaty harira and a thin grilled bread with chicken and onions pressed between the buttery layers.  We ordered nothing and they fed us happily, just passing dishes to our table.  I guess it didn't seem right to eat the iftar meal while others around them weren't included.  I don't think it every seemed right to a Moroccan to not offer a ridiculous amount of food to your guests.  I've never experienced such hospitality anywhere in the world.  We returned to visit Hassan and the cafe the following evening, this time ordering a delicious vegetable tagine, and of course, more harira.  We met a number of Moroccans who really made our travels wonderful, and Hassan was one of my favorites.  شكرا

Middle Eastern Stuffed Onions

In the last few months I've watched two impressive documentaries focused on the passing on of an acclaimed restaurant from father to son.  Side-by-side the documentaries are a perfect cultural Venn Diagram around the craft of food in the East and/or West.  The first was Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which documents the career and retirement of famous chef Jiro Ono as he prepares to hand his understated, but globally recognized Tokyo sushi bar over to his oldest son, Yoshikazu.  The second was the French documentary Step Up to the Plate (Entre les Bras), which tells a nearly identical story line about Michel Bras and his oldest son, Sébastien (except that Bras' restaurant is a lot less understated). 

While I saw the second film about three months after the first, I highly recommend watching them one after another.  In fact, I'd like to watch Jiro again just to do a closer cultural comparison.  Obviously, both films honor the incredible careers of Ono and Bras, but what I found most interesting were the comparison between Yoshikazu and Séba...both middle-aged men who diligently worked to become equally talented enough to open their own successful restaurants, if they had chosen a more independent path.  In Japan it is traditional for the eldest son to inherit his father's business, and Séba seems inspired by that despite a very contrasting Western worldview that glorifies the self-made man.  But despite Japanese tradition, or simply Séba's sense of duty, both documentaries acutely depict the intense amount of pressure both sons feel as they follow in their fathers' footsteps.  Each son must walk the extremely fine line that allows them to develop their own culinary identities while adhering to the culinary traditions of their family and culture.  The outcome for both is artistic mastery, I think.

If the cultural context of each film doesn't interest you so much, they're both very good food documentaries in their own right.  The amount of care and craftsmanship taken with the ingredients and cooking process is really well filmed.  Step Up to the Plate, in particular, highlights contemporary French cuisine as an intensive design process from the market to the plate.  

One dish Sébastien Bras creates, in particular, inspired this post...very loosely.  He roasted a whole onion, carefully removed the outer layers, and stuffed it with some sort of creamy, cheesy, Frenchy filling.  I was mostly impressed with how beautiful the roasted onion looked.  However, lacking the hours it would have taken to roast a whole onion, I opted for a faster method of cooking it whole.  And, lacking the desire to consume such a rich dish, I made a Middle Eastern filling of barley, chickpeas, and vegetables instead.  So, yes, quite a loose inspiration.  Inspiration, nonetheless.

chickpea tofu salad

CHICKPEA & TOFU SALAD

It was finally a warm enough day in Chicago to leave the house.  When the weather breaks Chicagoans crawl out of the woodwork looking like they've been cooped up for years, unshaved and crumpled (more so than what is normal for an average Wicker Park hipster).  We all blink at each others' pasty, pudgy bodies a little like "ew, that's what you look like under your puffy coat?" 

Well, to be honest it wasn't all that warm and I wore my puffier-than-average coat to suck it up and take my nephews and cousins to the Brookfield Zoo.  The plentiful sunshine made up for that late spring lingering chill, and chasing the rascals around gave me some much needed exercise (although I'm not ready to put aside my puffer for a bikini any time soon).

Zoo animals: Maddie & Max (upper), Abby & Sam (lower)

You feel me?  So I've been in the mood for lighter meals and have been thinking a lot about egg salad because Easter is coming up.  Seeing that I exploded my last egg in the microwave (it doesn't matter why I was microwaving an egg) that wasn't an option.  Oh, and I really have to watch my cholesterol.  But, I've also been tinkering a lot with the texture of crumbled tofu from the Tofu "Ricotta" Eggplant and Sweet Potato Ravioli posts, so I knew I could use it as a substitute.  Also, I had no celery, which is key to the texture of an egg or tuna salad, so I replaced that with radishes still around from the Chicken Pozole I made last week.  Oh, and mayo is grody, so Greek yogurt instead.

So go make this salad!  It's healthy and vegan and great for picnicking or packing for trips to the zoo.  If it weren't Passover (hence the matzo) I'd spread it on a dark pumpernickel or rye bread or egg bagel - anything that you'd normally pair with an egg salad since it has a similar fluffy texture from the tofu.  Here you go: texture/meatiness of egg salad + flavor or hummus = this recipe. 

baked chicken fingers

BAKED PARMESAN 

CHICKEN FINGERS 

W/ VEGGIE CHICKPEA SALAD

So as you know, loyal followers, I road-tripped to Michigan last weekend.  I am no stranger to car rides, seeing that I commute about 60 mi to work every day.  But don't worry, I carpool.  And thanks "the CP" I have developed some odd behind-the-wheel snacking behaviors.  This isn't helped by the fact that the standard CP podcast is the great "Mike and Tom Eat Snacks" (a new and long-overdue episode of which has been recently been posted).  

Before I continue with what is becoming a confessional post, let me just affirm that I am a really healthy eater and we all hit bottom at some point.

That being said, here are some of the snacking stints and phases +Dave Frantonius and I have fallen victim to in the past few years:

1. Homemade breakfast sandwiches (this was year one of the CP, when we were more ambitious),
2. Rockstar energy drinks and beef jerky combo (this was the year that I-94/"The Edens" was being repaved),
3. that one time we stopped at the Chinese buffet on Addison (yeah, the one with the "over 80 items" posted on the sign),
4. Shrimp Chips ('nuf said),
5. Caramel Bugles,
6. and most recently, ¡Sponch!

So back to last weekend's road trip.  Now, I'm sure many of you have at one point or another fallen victim to the roadside establishments that dot the midwestern landscape.  Between Gary, IN and Ann Arbor, MI lies a culinary desert, especially on Sundays when everything is closed.  Thus, I know you won't hold it against me when I confess to having stopped at the golden arches on the way home for some chicken nuggets and soft serve.

I haven't been to a McDonald's in at least six years, and probably under the exact same circumstances.  Caloric information posted on the menu!?  I got a grilled chicken sandwich instead (and watched Garrett eat chicken nuggets).

This version is much healthier, so go make it.

Vegetarian Minestrone Soup

HEARTY VEGETABLE MINESTRONE SOUP

Vegetable soups, like minestrone, are very hit-or-miss for me.  I lean towards versions that have a super fresh taste, and are more broth-y than tomoato-y.  Unfortunately, minestrone more often conjures up bad memories of Panera-esque soups that have been heated from frozen and sitting on an electric burner for a few days rather than cold Italian nights in Nona's kitchen out in the Appenines.  Trust me, I worked at an Einstein's Bagels in college and I know how this soup thing goes.  (Although they do, in fact, bake fresh bagels every morning at 5am.  Obviously, a college student's dream job.)  That thick, viscous, leaves-an-oily-film-on-your-lips consistency offends me.

I've never made minestrone before, but I figured it was easy.  I'm not always right, but I was right about that!  If you have some beans and hearty vegetables around, along with some tomatoes, stock, and a spice rack, then you can make a simple minestrone.

Katie's Salad Dressing & Simple Salad Rules

After a weekend of learning HTML (or is it CSS?) as a new blogger it's time to return to the original intent of this blog: my daily dinner habits offered up to the bride and groom to be, Bree and Brad.  But alas, blogs and the Constitution are living documents, and this project has evolved into much more than that.  I'm no strict constructionist, so if you aren't Bree or Brad, read on...

Once Garrett lovingly observed that when it came to holiday dinners and family meals my aunts only cooked "brown things."  Granted, those brown things are traditional and delicious, but he had a point.

Then, my sister Katie began getting the "salad assignment" and changed everything.

My family raves about her dressing.  Now, the kinishes, kishke, and kugel are complimented by the fresh acidity of red wine vinegar and lemon on top of green things.  But I think it's the garlic that wins their hearts.  Cultural syncretism at its finest.   Ahhhmerica.

Mediterranean Turkey Burger

Mediterranean Turkey Burger with Farro Tabbouleh, Tzatziki, and Spiced Chickpeas

There are a lot of components here, but the burger, tzatziki, and chickpeas all go very well together.  If you're not into the bitter flavor of tabbouleh, skip it and stuff everything else in a pita.