Mutabbal/Baba Ganoush ( Middle Eastern Eggplant n Tahini dip)

                           Mmm.... Middle Eastern food! Living here, I cannot help posting or blabbering about it now and then. It's from here that I learned delicious food could be easy to make and in no time. Back home in India, making dinner was a tiresome lengthy process. The time manager inside me used to squeak n rebel about those hours of cooking dinner in the evenings when one could actually take rest and enjoy a book! Looking back I feel they were  pure horrible waste of time.. May be,the husbands may not agree. But give them delicious food in no time, and they wouldn't dare to complain ;)

                  What I was trying to explain is that, you could actually make a delicious dinner with one of the yummy dips in the middle east(which is of course easy to make) together with a packet of pita bread or arabic hubbs. Baba ganoush is one of the dips we love to order from Arabic restaurants together with grilled chicken, kebabs and pita breads. I have already posted the recipe of Hummus, the chick pea- tahini dip which is another delicious one which we enjoy very often.

              BabaGanoush is distinct with an outstanding smoky flavour which is characteristically formed by the grilling of the Egg plant. You may not find it striking, the first time you try it; but after two- three trials, you slowly get addicted to it. Did I say 'addicted'? Oh yes! That is exactly what this dip is going to do over time. Don't say, I didn't warn you... :)
           It is usually served garnished with olive oil and minced parsley. You can infuse some kick into it by garnishing with paprika and/or pomegranate seeds..
Here you go...

Greek Salad

     Presently, I have got a crush for yummy salads. After having breakfast with Mr.KB at 7' O clock in the morning and sending him off to office, I wander about in the house with my kids, doing things I ought to do. Nothing stops me in my chores other than the insisting demands and doubts of the pre-schooler or the hungry wails of his little brother. I go about satisfying the hunger pangs of the boys and soothing them to a better mood and doing my chores, until about some 10.30, when I get my own hunger pangs.

       I used to stuff myself with whatever which comes to my hands like biscuits, cakes or chocolates until it dawned on me that I was making myself unhealthy with my not so healthy elevenses. That was when, I started searching for delicious and filling salads. Greek Salad is my newly found infatuation and find it reliable to stuff myself with, without bothering much about my hips. It is also quite different from the ordinary green salads with a hint of interest elevated by the addition of feta cheese and crispy fried oats. The recipe is adapted from that on the Quacker Ots tin. It is a great suggestion for healthy and delicious dinner too.

Greek Salad Recipe

1/2 a bunch of lettuce, torn

2 or 3 medium ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges

3 cucumbers, sliced

a small bunch of mint leaves

100 g pitted black olives, sliced or quartered

125g low fat white feta cheese, cut into cubes

4 tbsp quick cooking Oats

3 tbsp thyme

1 tsp frying oil

2 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

Put the cut vegetables into a salad bowl. Add cubed feta cheese and black olives. Fry the oats in the oil and keep aside. Sprinkle thyme and the roasted oats over the salad. Serve seasoned with olive oil and lemon juice.

     This salad goes to SERVE IT- RAW event co-hosted by Krithi of Krithi's Kitchen and Denny of Oh Taste n See. 

Sweet Pasta Salad

             
         Pastas and noodles are in good terms with my son and he likes to have them plain. He hates cooked vegetables in them and find excuses to avoid them. When I make vegetable noodles, he tend to fish out the noodles from among the vegetables and blame it on his tool. To my questions, he answers with a cheeky grin. "Oh mom, only the noodles tangle on the fork and the vegetables tend to fall away" (!) And I find myself at a loss for words...

           But he likes raw vegetables, unless they are not 'plants' ( that's what he calls the green leaves like lettuce and parsley). So when he started fishing out the 'plants' from his salad, I had to think of a better plan to make him eat them. He love the salads we used to get from Pizza hut and Sweet Pasta Salad was his favourite. I have wondered, why he never noticed lettuce in it. More often he ate more salad than Pizza. So I thought it was high time I tried the pasta salad at home. I googled for the recipe and what I found tasted no where near to the salad on our tongue. So I made my own experiments and somehow the salad turned out to be a Pizza hut sibling (if not a clone). Actually it was so simple and I was glad that my son loved it. Surprise! Surprise! he didn't notice 'plants' in it.

Sweet Pasta Salad

Things you need:

300g spiral pasta/ Rotini pasta
2 carrots, cut into small cubes
1 small head of romaine lettuce, torn
1 green /red bell pepper (capsicum). cut into small pieces
1 cup steam cooked sweet corn
1/2 tsp black pepper pdr
3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 tsp oregano (optional)
Salt to taste


Method:

• Cook pasta in lightly salted boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes.
• Drain and transfer to a salad bowl. Add the carrots, lettuce, bell pepper and sweet corn and combine.
• In another bowl combine the mayonnaise, honey, pepper, lemon juice,salt and oregano.
• Toss the salad with dressing.
• Chill for 1 to 2 hrs in refrigerator and serve.

Bean Sprouts Salad

                          Here is a delicious and highly nutritious salad to have in the winter. Mix all the ingredients and you would hardly wait for the main course to finish it off.

Things you need:

Bean sprouts              -   250g
Onion, thinly sliced     -   1
Thick coconut milk     -   1/4 cup
Lemon juice               -   2 tsp
Scraped coconut        -   2 tbsp
Chilly garlic sauce       -   4 tbsp
For garnishing :
Spring onion, sliced               - 2 tbsp
Fried onion slices ( optional)  -2 tbsp

Method:

• Boil the bean sprouts in water for two minutes, drain and set aside.
• In a salad bowl mix together,the chilly garlic sauce, lemon juice, scraped coconut and coconut milk. To this add the boiled and drained bean sprouts and mix well.
• Garnish with spring onion and fried onion and serve immediately.

Linking this to 'Any One Can Cook # 43 hosted by Ummu Mymoonah of Taste Of Pearl City

Hummus

                 A nutritious and yummy dip which is very popular in the Middle East. Also known as 'Hummus bi thahini', it is made with cooked and mashed chick peas and sesame paste. It is high in iron and vitamin C and has significant amounts of folate and Vitamin B6. Chick peas make it a good source of protein and dietary fiber. As an appetizer and dip, hummus is scooped with flatbread such as pita. It is also served as an accompaniment to falafel, grilled chicken, fish or egg plant.

Hummus Recipe

Things you need:

Chick peas                   -    1 1/2 cup

Salt                              -    1/2 tsp

Garlic                           -    2 cloves

Twahina (sesame paste) - 1/2 cup

Lemon juice                  -   3 tbsp

Olive oil and parsely      - for garnishing

Method:

• Soak the chick peas overnight. The next day, drain it and rub well with your hands.Take a sauce pan and add the chick peas and water upto an inch above its level and boil adding a pinch of salt.Remove the froth which forms on the surface. Now pressurecook it in low flame until the chickpeas are well cooked and soft.
• Mean while blend the garlic and salt in a blender and add 'tahina' and lemon juice to it. Blend well until it forms a fine off white paste.
• Now drain the cooked chick peas saving the juice. Add the chick peas to the blender with the tahina paste and blend well until fine. Add the saved juice as needed to adjust the consistency.
• Adjust the salt and transfer it to a shallow bowl. Garnish with olive oil and parsely leaves or mint leaves. Serve with pita bread or grilled chicken.

Fattoush / Arabic Bread Salad

       Yet another healthy and delicious salad from the Middle East.. Apart from the vegetables and leaves, the addition of fried pita breads (Arabic Hubbs) make a twist in its flavour.. Infact more interesting than the addition of croutons.. If you have some stale pita breads with you, then cut it into small pieces and deep fry it in oil or toast it in the oven. Then add it to your salad and you have a delicious dish which is quite filling.. I am ignorant on the aspect of how this Labanese salad would have evolved. May be when somebody was preparing salad, they didn't have croutons with them and had some stale pita breads and they just might have experimented by adding pita breads. It's just a guess ;) The very first time I saw it in Arabic restaurants, I had an intuition that it might be awesome and it was.. Very much satisfying and relishable.. I came to know that it is an addition in Arabian Ifthar parties and befriended it with my other Ifthar dishes..

Coming to the recipe..

Things you need:

1 head of romaine lettuce, torn in pieces
A few Persian cucumbers or English cucumbers
A few tomatoes,seeded and  diced
A few radishes sliced
Green onions sliced
A hand ful of chopped Italian parsely and a hand ful of fresh mint
A green pepper diced (optional)
A large loaf of pita bread or 2 small pita breads
Olive oil for frying the pita breads

For dressing:

• 2 small lemons, juiced
• 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 generous table spoons of 'sumac' plus extra to sprinkle on pita bread slices.( 'Sumac' is a dried leaf powder which has a tangy flavour and available in Arab markets, used in some of the salads. It has a reddish brown colour)
• 2 or more cloves of garlic mashed in a dash of salt in a mortar. If this salt is not enough, you can add more salt in the salad according to taste.

Method:

1. With kitchen scissors cut the bread into thin square slices. Fry them in oil until crisp and brown. Take out from oil and drain on a kitchen towel. Immediately sprinkle sumac powder over it and keep aside.
2. Prepare all the salad ingrediants. Mix the dressing. When ready to serve, toss the salad with the dressing, incorporarte the fried pita breads and serve.

Tabouleh

               
                I had never thought I could enjoy eating a lot of leaves raw until I made aquaintance with the myriad of green rich salads in the middle eastern cuisine. Back in India, vegetables are mostly eaten cooked and the few green leaves which are consumed raw are usually served as garnishes or toppings.. It had never occurred to me that eating leafy rich salads can be satisfactory or even delicious. I was taken totally unawares by the diversity in flavour and unique ambeance of the different leaves I saw in the Arab markets. Parsley was one of them which actually imparts a distinct smell and flavour to the food that it is an ingredient in many delicious salads and marinations.. In fact it is awesome, even as a garnish for fried chicken or fish. No wonder it is considered as the most popular herb in the world.

             Tabouleh is a middle eastern salad recipe which I got familiar with recently and has parsely as the main ingredient. It is definitely yummy with the lemon and olive oil dressings and the richness of bulgar, and a beauty on the dining table with its vibrant colours. If you are actually on a low fat diet it can serve as a whole food too with the 'carbs' in bulgar and the vitamins A and D in the parsley, not to mention the nutritious richness of tomatoes and cucumbers.. So, off with the recipe...

Things you need:

1/2 cup bulgar( bulgar is a kind of broken wheat)
2 medium tomatoes
1/2 English cucumbers
1/2 green pepper
3 green onions
1 cup freh parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp mint, finely chopped
1 lemon, juiced
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method:
          Cook the bulgar for half an hour in boiled water until done. Drain in a fine mesh sieve and press out the water. Chop the tomatoes, cucumber and green pepper in the same size. When dicing the tomatoes first seed them. Finely dice the parsley and mint. Chop green onions very thinly. Toss everything  in with the dressing and mix well. Add adequate salt and pepper.

Thoom / Garlic Sauce

           
         The middle eastern cuisine is popular for its innumerable verities of dips and sauces. They give an elevated interest to the unique grilled and smoked preparations of chicken and mutton, they have. This particular dip which is also known as 'Zait B Thoom' grabbed my good old attention (totally), the very first time I tasted it. Well, what came to my lips then where.. " creamy.. soft..savoury! mmm.. totally irresistible". It could be pedigreed as a colonial cousin of mayonnaise, but not as tangy. Quite mild and humble for the flavour sake... and healthier too coz it uses egg whites unlike yolks in mayonnaise. Still, how it charms the taste buds so, is a myth.

          The processing is more mythical (if you do not think scientific). The way each globule of oil incorporates in to each drop of liquid to become a totally different emulsified texture is a real wonder. Those  who are not familiar with the theory of emulsification would gape like an idiot as to how the mixture could get thicker and thicker as you go on adding oil. Your simple pretty logic tells you, the mixture should get thinner and watery as you add  liquid to it...

          While I was strolling through the web, I came across many sites which discusses the scientific theory behind the formation of mayonnaise. It was real fun seeing people 'seriously' discussing about the volume of the cylindrical vessel and the velocity of the whisk acting together to form a wonderfully uniform emulsified mixture... So who says, there are no scientists in kitchen? ;) Now let me share some of my own 'scientific' findings.. While you add oil you must add it little by little in thin streams or drops. If you add a big amount all of a sudden, you would risk breaking the emulsion. The oil would then float on top as a different layer. Also, your whisking should neither be too slow nor too vigorous. That would  break the emulsion too..
Let's have a look at the recipe..

Things you need:                                                   

4 egg whites

3 cloves of garlic

2 tbp vinegar

3 to 4 cups of vegetable oil or any salad oil

Salt to taste 

Method                                                                                      

          Grind the garlic finely with a dash of salt in a mortar.Whisk or blend together the egg whites and ground garlic until frothed up. Add the vinegar and mix well. To this mixture add oil little by little while you continue whisking in medium speed. Make sure the mixture is completely emulsified and uniform before you pour more oil. If you are using an electric whisk keep the speed low. You can whisk in high speed before adding oil. You will note the mixture thickening as you go. Go on adding oil and whisking until the desired thickness is reached. If it hasn't reached the desired thickness even after adding the measured quantity, you can add more until the desired thickness is reached.

Serve:

Use with peta breads or grilled chicken. Goes well with Tantoori Chicken too. Refrigerate after usage. It can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week.