Shhh...THE hummus recipe

For my dear friends Hilary and Helen, and their friends in Iowa City!

I debated whether or not I should write this post, since a good hummus recipe is such a coveted possession. This is mine and comes to you after much hard work to perfect the balance of ingredients.

To achieve the best hummus demands that you use quality ingredients and cook the chickpeas yourself. In addition, our pop-culture's interpretation of this salad is a grainy, thick paste that is served cold, which couldn't be further from the 'real thing'.

In Israel, hummus is an art. Its very nature is competitive, with rivalries abound, especially between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. My favorite place is Abu Hassan Ali Caravan in Yaffo (Tel Aviv), served fresh daily until they run out (around noon) and ordered by many from a car window as driving by.

True hummus is extremely well blended, smooth and more liquid. The best hummus is served warm with olive oil and zaatar sprinkled on top with thick, fresh, warm pita bread.

Enjoy this hummus recipe, it is a prized possession!

Tunisian Tbikha of Turnips, Saniya, Tahini Sauce and Harissa

This week I started moving my recipes to a Wiki site for easier management and to allow for searchability. Just click on the links and they will take you directly to the recipes. Thank goodness for my IT day-job!

Remember the z'hug I made a few weeks ago (recipe here)? We're going to use it again this week in a wonderfully simple dish called Saniya -- meatballs with a tahini/tomato sauce. We also have another vegetarian dish for my veggie friends out there, Tbikha of Turnips with Spinach and Fava Beans.

The Tbikha is an extremely healthful and easy-to-digest dish. It's best served over brown rice with a lot of homemade harissa. Tbikha is a Tunisian dish; the Tunisians, like the Yemini, love spicy food. The Romans, Turkish, French and Arabs all left their marks on Tunisian cooking.

The version of harissa I make is piquant, but not necessarily as spicy as the harissa you find in many middle-eastern stores. The dried New Mexican or Chipotle peppers used to make it can be found in the Mexican food section of your grocery store, or at any corner market carrying dried chili peppers.

Saniya (sinia, siniya, snia, snniya) is an arab dish, most commonly found in Israel. In this casserole you find strong influences from Turkey, where meat is extremely prevalent (think kebabs and bbq) and tahini sauce that's so good, it's drinkable!

As a sidenote, the tahini sauce can be used over many dishes. Try boiling some eggs, cutting them in half, taking out the cooked yolk and filling with parsley and tahini sauce...yum! It's great over any meat or salad, with pita...the uses are endless.

Enjoy!

--Adam

Vegetarian Hashwa (filling) for Stuffed Vegetables

The recipe I posted earlier this week for the Iraqi Stuffed Zucchini has an alternative, vegetarian stuffing that is absolutely delicious. This version is made with chickpeas instead of meat and is just as good as the non-vegetarian version. The secret, if you have the time, is to cook the chickpeas yourself. This is for you Rebekah and Chen!

Iraqi Hashwa Chickpea and Rice Filling (Hashwa Houmous), prep time 15 minutes, total cooking time (with chickpeas) 8-10 hours.
Fills about 2 lbs. of vegetables

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried chickpeas, washed and drained (be sure to check for small stones) or substitute 1 16oz. can of cooked chickpeas
  
• 1/4 onion, roughly chopped (for cooking with the chickpeas)
• 1/2 tsp. cumin (for cooking with the chickpeas)
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda (for cooking with the chickpeas)
  
• 1 onion, very finely diced
• 3 Tbsp. fresh, not dried, celery leaves, very finely diced (you may substitute 1/2 a stalk of celery very finely diced if you can't find celery with the leaves)
  
• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 tomato, peeled and chopped (optional)
• 3 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp. ground cardemom
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Skip steps 1-6 if you are using canned chickpeas
   
2. Soak the chickpeas overnight (or for at least 8 h
3. ours)
4. Drain the chickpeas and place in a pot on the stove. Cover with about 1+1/2" of water and begin to bring to a boil.
5. Dice the 1/4 onion and place it in the water with the chickpeas. Add the cumin, baking soda (this will help the chickpeas soften fully) and about 1 tsp. of salt.
6. Cover and reduce heat to an extremely low simmer (if using gas, your flame should be so low that it almost extinguishes). Cook for at least 3 hours and up to 5 hours.
   
7. Drain the chickpeas and rinse with cold water.
   
8. Grind the chickpeas and cooked onions in a food processor, into a very coarse paste. Do not puree -- the best consistency is dry and grainy.
9. Add the chickpeas to a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Knead by hand until thoroughly blended. Don't fill the vegetables more than 2/3 full to allow for expansion of the rice.

Alice Waters on 60 minutes (3/15/09)

If you missed Alice Waters on “60 Minutes” last night, you can still watch the piece here.

Iraqi stuffed zucchini and turkey pot-pie

This week, in duality, I diverge from the philosophies of this blog. Not only did I cook a non-middle-eastern dish (turkey pot-pie), I chose a second dish that uses a vegetable that is not currently in-season (zucchini). During my weekly trip to my local farmer's market this morning, one farmer had a few winter zucchini he had grown in his private greenhouse. They were absolutely beautiful and calling out my name, as I was opining for summer... The pot-pie came to mind as I was thinking about my midwestern roots.

Seemingly indigenous, you will find a multitude of 'stuffed', or mahshi, recipes throughout the Middle East. The Persians love to spice things up with dried fruit while the Iraqis savor a sweet-and-sour sauce over many of their versions of stuffed vegetable dishes. Commonly stuffed vegetables are, of course, eggplant (moussaka), zucchini, peppers and onions. More exotic mahshi are stuffed lamb, chicken fallopian tube (bithwould) and guava.

This week's dish is an Iraqi stuffed zucchini with meat and rice, one of my personal favorites. Iraqis cherish this sweet/sour combination, commonly found throughout Iraqi cooking. You you can imagine this combination to have traveled from the far east down the Silk Road as a localized interpretation of yin/yang through Persia's Zoroastrian balance between good and evil. You can further imagine this revolutionary idea influencing their close neighbor to the West, Iraq. In addition, this dish uses a central spice of Iraqi cooking -- cardemom.

The turkey pot-pie is a childhood favorite of mine (I am from the midwest, after all...). This recipe from the Mayo Clinic lends a healthy twist to this dish with its top-only cornmeal crust, use of sour cream instead of heavy cream and other in-season veggies. If you can't find frozen artichoke hearts, substitute potatoes, turnips or any other starchy, mildly mineral-y root vegetable (not beets). The easy filling can be made a day ahead; just mix the crust batter whilst the oven heats and the pie's ready to assemble.

Zucchini Stuffed with Meat and Rice (Mahshi Kousa)

Prep time 3o minutes, cooking time ~1 hour.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. small or medium sized zucchini; the best are the light, "Little Tree of Sarzano," zucchini which are light green with whitish stripes and shaped slightly like an eggplant.
• Hashwa meat-and-rice filling (see recipe below)
• 2 tomatoes diced
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil (canola is the best as it has a higher smoke point and does not break down)
• Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
• 1 Tbsp. white sugar
• 2 cloves freshly crushed garlic
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 tsp. crushed, dried mint

Instructions:

1. Wash the zucchini and slice off the stem end. With a long, narrow vegetable or apple corer (see photo below -- this is not the usual apple corer sold in the U.S.), make a hole at this end of each zucchini and scoop out the pulp, being careful not the break the skin and not the break through the other end. This is a learned, artistic step, so don't be disappointed if it takes a few of the zucchini to get the knack. The secret is digging in gently and giving a sharp, quick twist before pulling out the pulp. Dig out the majority of the pulp, leaving about 1/4" of skin and pulp throughout. The pulp can be kept for a stew or a salad.
2. Prepare the hashwa filling in a bowl. Fill each zucchini 2/3 full, to allow room for the rice to swell.
3. Saute the onions in the oil on a medium flame until translucent.
4. Add the diced tomatoes and saute for a few minutes more.
5. Mix 1 cup of water with the juice of 1 lemon and the sugar. Add to the tomato and onions.
6. Add salt and pepper to-taste.
7. Add the zucchini, each laying its side so that the opening of each hole is partly in the liquid.
8. Cover the pan and simmer gently for about 45 minutes, or until the zucchini are soft.
9. Crush the garlic cloves with a little salt. Mix with the mint and remaining lemon juice and sprinkle over the zucchini.
10. Continue cooking 5 minutes longer.
11. Add the mint (mint is added at the end, because prolonged cooking tends to spoil the taste).

Iraqi Hashwa Meat and Rice Filling, prep time 5 minutes

Fills about 2 lbs. of vegetables

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, very finely diced
• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1/2 lb. lean ground lamb or beef (I prefer beef)
• 1 tomato, peeled and chopped (optional)
• 3 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp. ground cardemom
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Put all ingredients together in a bowl and knead by hand until thoroughly blended. Don't fill the vegetables more than 2/3 full to allow for expansion of the rice.

Turkey Pot-Pie, prep time 15 minutes, cooking time 1+ hour.

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots, sliced into 1/4" rounds
• 2 stems celery, diced
• 1 chopped onion
• 1/3 lb. fresh white mushrooms
• 1 1/4 cups frozen artichoke hearts (sub. potatoes or any other white root-veggie)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp. dry mustart
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 lb. skinless, boneless turkey breast, diced
• 1 cup shelled edamame or English peas
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 Tbsp. each fresh dill and basil
• 1/4 cup low-fat sour cream (I use whole instead of low-fat, but that's just me)
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 cup plain almond or soy milk
• 1 Tbsp. honey (dark, preferably)

Instructions:

1. Saute the onions for a few minutes until translucent.
2. Quarter the artichokes or other root vegetable, lengthwise. Set the prepared veggies aside.
3. In a large, heavy, ovenproof saucepan or Dutch oven, heat the 1/4 cup olive oil over low heat. Add the mustard and 1/4 cup of the flour and cook, whisking constantly for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the stock, continuing to whisk to avoid lumps. Raise the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.
5. Add the garlic, carrots, celery and onions. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cook until the vegetables are softened (@ five minutes).
6. Add the turkey, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, edamame, tomato, dill and basil. Cover and simmer until the turkey is opaque throughout (@ ten minutes).
7. Whisk in the sour cream and season with 1 tsp. of the salt and the pepper. Spoon the mixture into a 9x13" baking dish and set aside (at this point, you can refrigerate this until ready to add the crust).
8. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Farenheit (220 C)
9. In a bowl, combine the cornmeal, the remaining 1/2 cup flour, baking powder and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt.
10. In another bowl, whisk together the soy or almond milk, the 2 Tbsp. olive oil and the honey. Add the dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.
11. Pour the batter over the turkey mixture. Bake, uncovered until lightly browned (@ 40 minutes). Let stand for 10 minutes more and serve.

Michelle Obama’s Agenda Includes Healthful Eating

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/dining/11lady.html?_r=1&hp

Afghan Friday-Night Chicken and Chickpea Soupy Stew with Meatballs and Uzbeki Barsch

We are in the midst of an infatuation with soups and stews at our house. Maybe it's the time of year or just that there are so many that look and end up tasting so good. Last week we tried a Yemeni soupy-stew and this week is the Afghan version. This stew is poultry-only and is an amazing dish to serve to guests since it includes meatballs. The Uzbeki barsch makes good use of the remainder of the cliantro used in the soup. Leafy herbs are in-season now in California, so both of these dishes make good use of what's in season. This also signals that spring and a new crop of abundant fruits and vegetables are on their way!

Meatballs, or koofteh, of all sort are extremely popular in Middle-Eastern cooking. Where we westerners associate meatballs with simple, inexpensive spaghetti, koofteh are given an almost royal status and served as an, "...only the finest," dish to your guests.

Given that meat was rare in ancient times and modern-day food grinders didn't yet exist, the most likely origin of meatballs was as a use for leftover meat. Language also gives some clues to their origin, as well. Koofteh -- the Persian word for pounded meat -- is a derivative of the word koobidand, or 'to pound'. The word kofteh is used throughout the Middle East, and carries through to Central Asia, showing from where the idea of meatballs may have spread.

Barsh is a gentler, rice-based casserole, best served with a salad or steamed veggies. Most of the flavor comes from the herbs included in the recipe -- dill, mint, cliantro and parsley. This casserole is an Israeli version of the steamed Uzbeki dish.

Chelov - Afghan Friday-Night Chicken and Chickpea Soupy Stew with Meatballs (30 minutes prep, 2 hours cooking)
Yield: 8-10 servings















Ingredients:

• 1 cup chickpeas
• 3-4 beef soup bones
• 1 small cornish game hen
• 10 cups water
• 2-3 dried limes, pierced (optional -- these are Iraqi dried limes from Basra, see photo)
• 2 cups chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 cup chopped leeks (about 1 large leek)
• 1 cup chopped celery leaves (or 3 chopped stems if you can't find celery with the leaves)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 carrots, cut into rounds
• 1 turnip, cut into rounds
• 1 potato, quartered and then sliced into 1" triangular pieces
  
• 1 lb. ground turkey breast meat
• 1/2 large onion, grated
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp. bread crumbs
  
• Juice of 1 lemon, or to taste

Instructions:

1. Soak the chickpeas in water to cover for several hours, or overnight. Drain.
2. Put the soup bones and the chicken in a large soup pot and add the water. If you like, prick the dried limes and add. Bring to a boil, skim off the foam that rises to the top.
3. Add the chickpeas and simmer, covered for 1 hour.
4. Add 1 cup of the cilantro, the leeks, celery leaves, carrots, turnip, potato, salt, pepper and turmeric. Return to a simmer.
5. To make the meatballs, mix together the ground turkey, onion, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste, and bread crumbs. With wet hands, form balls the size of walnuts and drop into the soup. Let simmer for another 10 minutes.
6. Add the remaining cilantro and simmer 10 minutes more. Adjust the seasonings and serve in soup bowls with a squeeze of the lemon juice. Serve over (Basmati) rice.

Uzbeki Barsch - Holiday Pilau with Cilantro, Parsley, Mint and Dill (20 minutes prep, 30-40 minutes total) Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 diced onion
• 1 lb. ground or chopped beef, liver or lamb (I prefer chopped lamb)
• 1 tsp. salt, or to taste
• 1/2 tsp. pepper, or to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon saffron strands
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 cups basmati rice
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
• 1/2 cup snipped fresh dill

Instructions:

1. heat the oil in a large frying pan with a lid. Add the onions and saute until translucent. Add the meat and stir constantly, breaking up any lumps.
   
2. Reduce the heat and add the salt, pepper and saffron. Continue cooking slowly, covered for another 10 minutes.
3. While the onions and meat are cooking, rinse and drain the rice three times (or until the water runs clear).
4. Pour 2 cups of the water into the meat and bring to a boil. Add 3/4 each of the cilantro and parsley; 1/4 each of the mint and dill. Simmer, covered for another 10 minutes
5. Add the rice. Press down so that the water covers the Barsch by an inch, adding the remaining cup (or more) of water, if necessary. Bring to a boil, cover and then lower the heat. Usually, I wrap a tea towel around the lid and bind it at the top, then cover while cooking rice. This helps to absorb moisture and keep the rice fluffy (see photo). Be careful to not burn the towel when cooking like this!
6. Just before serving sprinkle the remaining herbs and serve immediately.