An easy vegetable soup with chickpeas and a fresh taste (garlic, lemon, parsley, mint- typical Mid-East combo) that will brighten your taste-buds and make promises about spring.

Nothing easier than just throwing it all in a pot (medium sized):

26 oz can of chickpeas or use dried- 1 1/2 cups after soaking

1 litre of broth (water and bouillon is fine)

any combo of chopped fresh veggies- cauliflower, zucchini, onion, carrot, celery, kale…

3 chopped tomatoes

4 or 5 large cloves of garlic, sliced thinly (Think of it as a vegetable.)

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1-2 teaspoon turmeric (anti-inflammatory)

salt to taste

chili sauce or powder to taste, optional

Bring to boil for a few minutes and then simmer until veggies are cooked to your preference.

Now the magic- Just before serving add:

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 bunch chopped parsley

2 green onions, sliced thinly

Serve with a dollop of yogurt and sprinkle generously with dried mint.

Fancy cooks can prepare the yogurt ahead of time with generous amounts of dried or fresh mint, salt and raw crushed garlic to taste.

This soup will have you holding the bowl with both hands, drawing the scent in deeply and giving thanks.

   Ingredients in bold.

Make broth:

1.5 litres of broth (Water with bouillon works fine for me, but my Cambodian friend insists homemade broth from bone is the only way.)

-charred ginger, several garlic cloves, onions or shallots cut in chunks

 

-a spice bag (bouquet garni) containing:

 1/2 cinnamon stick

1 – 2 whole cloves

8 cardamom pods, cracked

4 tsp each of corriander seed and fennel seed, ground together

 

(I added a bunch of dried basil and ground in a bunch of mustard seeds and 2 tsp. cumin seeds…I can’t resist throwing things in. I also added 1 chopped fresh turmeric root for its anti-inflammatory properties.)

 

 

 spice bag/ bouquet garni

 

Bring broth to a boil and then simmer- the longer the better- until aromatic. Strain.

Then adjust the taste with the four essentials of Eastern Asian food- salty, sour, hot and sweet. I used lots of fish sauce, lime juice, fresh red chili and raw honey.

 

In a large bowl arrange cooked veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy- whatever’s in the fridge), cooked rice noodle and a cooked protein (tofu or shrimp or thinly-sliced beef or chicken.)

Pour hot broth over this and serve with your choice of garnishes:

bean sprouts, fresh basil, mint, cilantro, hoisin sauce, chilies, lime.

Enjoy!

Crispy tasty chicken made with zakat.

 

Zakat is a popular spice combo used in the Middle East, often simply sprinkled on flat bread with olive oil and baked.

Buy Zakat at a Mid-East grocer or mix your own by combining sesame seeds, thyme, sumac and salt.

 

Sprinkle chicken pieces on both sides with olive oil and a generous amount of zakat. Marinade at least an hour (in the fridge). I used chicken thighs, but drumsticks and breast strips are yummy too.

Cook at 350 until cooked through and crispy outside, about 30 minutes depending on your choice of cut.

 

Leftovers are mighty good cold.

A Japanese teacher invited a bunch of us newly-arrived English teachers from Canada, U.K. and Australia to her home. The activity waiting for us was gyoza-stuffing. We sat around a table and scooped spoonfuls of the stuffing into dumpling wrappers and chatted. When we’d finish a pile, our host would take them into the kitchen for a few moments and come back with hot treasures that we dipped in a sauce that dribbled down our chins. Delectable. Her stuffing was cabbage, minced pork, carrots, garlic, and pickled ginger.

Gyozas are stuffed dumplings that are fried and steamed at the same time.

Suggested stuffings:

1- cabbage, carrots, tofu, ginger and garlic

2- minced pork, garlic, ginger

3- scrambled egg, green onion

4- shrimp, corriander

The combinations are limitless. On St. Laurent in Montreal’s Chinatown there is an exceptional gyoza shop that’s always packed with diners. They serve only gyoza, but the menu is four pages long.

The dumpling wraps are available at Asian shops but I noticed the package also says “perogy wrappers” so that may be easier to find in some towns. I always buy a few packages and freeze them until the urge for gyoza hits.

 

So here we go- this is more fun with company- thanks Anne!

 

Grate all ingredients (or in the case of shrimp, chop small) and mix in a big bowl.

 

Put one wrapper flat on your hand and use the back of a wet spoon to moisten the outer edge.

 

Put a big spoonful of stuffing in the middle, fold it over and squeeze the edges shut in a half-moon shape.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, maybe put some music on.

 

 

 

Put a little oil in a non-stick pan and bring up to medium heat.

Place the gyozas in the pan and shake to be sure they aren’t stuck.

Stand back and add a little water. Say 1/4 cup.

Cover.

 

 

They take about 10 minutes- just check the bottoms- they’ll be brown and crispy.

By now they’ll be stuck together- hence the Chinese name: pot-stickers.

 

 

 

 

Flipped a few here so you can see the colour.

Gyozas freeze well.

The sauce is vital. You can use tamari sauce with a bit of water to thin it, or soy sauce thinned by 50% water or, if you’re lucky, you can find and buy gyoza sauce.

Regardless, add a teaspoon plus of fresh red chili sauce (comes in jars- most grocery stores carry this now) to about 3 tablespoons of tamari. It’s thin and drippy.

Dip and slurp and tell me you love me.

How to pick & cook fiddleheads:

 

If it looks like a fiddlehead- it is. Fern leaves first emerge curled tightly into buttons called fiddleheads. Pluck them before they unfurl into giant fronds (or pick them up now at the farmers’ market, most grocers…) Store in cold water.

 

 

Fiddleheads are mild-tasting. They’re full of EPA omega-3 fatty acids & high concentrations of antioxidants. Also vitamins A & C, potassium, iron & calcium.

No need to clean them- just cover with cold water in a pot and bring to a boil. As soon as the boil is reached, drain the water.

Repeat 2 more times: cold-boil-drain.

Fiddleheads will be perfectly cooked & cleaned. The water from the first 2 drains will be brown but the third time it will be green.

Season with lemon (I’m out of fresh) or butter and pepper or tamari.

Side with boiled eggs, fish, chicken or ham. Good in fried rice; cold salads with lemon, diced peppers & pickled red onion.

So good…a distinctive taste of spring in my area of the world.

My friends say this taste is synonymous with my home, but for me, the taste is India itself.

Put a bit of water in a pot with crushed cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom pods (1/3 stick cinnamon, 1 whole clove and 3 pods per person).

Boil this for a few minutes, then add a mug of milk for each person ( I use rice milk, but a mix of soy and rice is really good, or regular old cow’s milk.) Add a black tea bag per person.

Heat gently and add 1/2 – 1 teaspoon honey per person or to taste. Leave it on the stove until you can’t resist the smell. The longer you leave it, the better it tastes.

Another option: use loose black tea and put it in the pot with the boiling spices before simmering. This is more traditional but I find it too strong.

I write “Village” moussaka, but I mean “cheap & simple”, quite different from the online recipes I see.

You need:

olive oil
2 eggplants
minced lamb
generous 1/2 cup of salje (see recipe)
1 onion
garlic- a whole bulb
rosemary in any form
thyme
optional- mint

Slice eggplants into discs, sprinkle with salt, dab with paper towel once they become wet, then fry both sides in generous amount of olive oil. Set aside.

Fry onion & lamb together, then add sliced garlic and salje.

Turn down heat and add rosemary to taste (careful- it can be strong- if you’re using ground rosemary, start with 1/2 teaspoon and taste). Add 2 teaspoons thyme and if desired, a bit of mint. Simmer.

Taste & adjust seasoning. Remember the salje is full of salt and chili, but you may want to add these…

Using an oven dish, layer meat sauce alternating with eggplant slices. The first layer will be meat sauce, the top layer will be eggplant.

In Turkey we didn’t have an oven, so the eggplant was stirred into the meat sauce and they simmered together on the stovetop. Delicious and one less dish to clean.

Serve with rice or crusty baguette.

okonomiyaki with mayo and sauce

         I pretty much lived on okonomiyaki when I was in Osaka; it was a cheap and satisfying meal. I cooked the vegetable pancake effortlessly at home, but my favourite was hot off the grill on the street, steaming in the winter dark. The vendor/cook always tried to garnish it with tiny silver dried fish and seaweed flakes, but I would stop him in time. The mayo and “oko” sauce was all the topping it needed.

I was told that each city in Japan has its own version of okonomiyaki. When I went to Hiroshima the okonomiyaki had corn in it and that struck me as just wrong after months of the Osaka version.

You will need:

A small-medium grated cabbage,              1/3 cup water,

2-4 teaspoons grated ginger or 1-2 tablespoons sliced pickled ginger,

6-7 eggs,                                                    ¼ cup flour (rice flour works for gluten-free)

sliced bacon or ham (vegetarian version without is just as yummy),

oki sauce (see below),                                mayonnaise.

Mix everything together except the bacon. Heat a frying pan with oil and drop a big spoonful in, flattening it into a circle, any size you want. (They’re the size of a pancake in Osaka and smaller in Tokyo.) Add sliced bacon or ham on top. Cook on medium heat, flip it when it turns colour and crisps up. Leave it longer on the second side as the bacon cooks.

Serve with a dollop of mayo and generous squeeze of okonomiyaki sauce. Mix them on top.

Okonomiyaki sauce is vital! If you’re lucky, purchase it at an Asian food shop (T&T has it). If you can’t find it, you can make it:

Mix 60 ml tonkatsu sauce + 60 ml Worcestershire sauce + 2 tablespoons ketchup

Or, if no tonkatsu sauce is available, just make it with Worcestershire and ketchup.

Truth is, “okonomi” means “whatever you want” or “to one’s liking” so feel free to add any grated or chopped veggies. I knew people in Japan who made their okonomiyaki in layers instead of mixing it all together. One gaijin made hers by going light on the eggs and heavy on the flour and ham pieces and adding cheese. (Nothing Japanese about that!) And hey, if you like dried fish and seaweed garnish, there are lots of such little bags in the Asian stores.