Don't Be a Follower

I have a vivid memory of an incident that occurred when I was a freshman at UC Berkeley, waiting in line to buy books at the student union. There were four sorority girls in line in front of me, complaining about how they'd been maligned by a caustic person who claimed they were all replicas of each other (we didn't call them clones back then), with their uniformity of dress, hair, and personality.  The most vocal of the girls went on and on about how they each were so unique!  Why, she was wearing a pink polo shirt with white shorts and had a brown bob,  while her sister was wearing a blue polo shirt with white shorts and a blond bob.  The other two had blue shorts on with green and peach colored polo shirts, and their brown bobs had different lengths of bangs, so if anyone thought they were "Identical" then they were blind fools!

Why do I bring this up now?  Because April 6th was Nowrux - the Persian New Year - and all the food blogs had posts for the perfect Middle Eastern feast.  But did I follow the crowd and make hummus and baba ganoush on April 6th? No! I bucked the trend.  I am the kind of person who bucks the trend. And also the kind of person who lets her foodie email newsletters get out of control and doesn't realize there was even such a thing as Persian New Year.  

This past weekend I was catching up on that email and came across a slide show from Saveur magazine titled the Best Middle Eastern Recipes, containing, in their words, 45 Essential Middle Eastern Recipes:  http://www.saveur.com/best-middle-eastern-recipes

Everything in this slide show looked delicious, and there were a lot of paleo-friendly and vegetarian offerings which work well given all the diet restrictions going on in my household.  I decided I am going to try to make every recipe in the slideshow this month.

Broiling rose petals to dry them out for the recipe

Tonight I started out with the Persian Kuku Sabzi, which I am told translates to roughly Herb Fritatta. I had all the ingredients on hand except dried rose petals - and those are easy enough to make by taking the most fragrant rose from your organic garden and toasting it under the broiler for a few minutes until it releases a beautiful fragrance throughout your kitchen. The addition of ground walnuts, an assortment of chopped fresh herbs, and the lack of cheese give this fritatta a unique and delicious flavor.  It was quick and simple to make, low cal, and healthy.  Eggs. They're what's for dinner - definitely!

Herbs minced and ready to go

The recipe can be found here:  http://www.saveur.com/perrsian-kuku-sabzi-eggs-rose-recipe  However, as I was researching about Persian New Year, I came across another version of Kuku Sabzi from the New York Times which looks even better because it contains an even larger assortment of herbs and spices: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018062-fresh-herb-kuku    I am going to try to make this version in another week or so and I'll let you know how it turns out.

The finished fritatta - garnished with rose petals, chopped parsley and nasturtiums

I also made some sumac flatbread (m'sakhan) found in the recipe for Roast Chicken with Sumac Flatbead (http://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/roast-chicken-with-sumac-flatbread)  and was inspired by the slideshow's Tahini - Beet dip recipe (http://www.saveur.com/tahini-beet-dip-recipe) although I modified it slightly to use up some spicy Peruvian beet salad I'd made over the weekend, and because I didn't have all the ingredients called for in the recipe. Both the bread and the dip were a hit with the hubby and some friends who dropped by.

The whole meal - we ate the flatbread faster than I could photograph it! 

For the beet salad, I had previosly roasted, peeled and diced six medium beets.  I tossed them with a small handful of finely chopped parsley, two tablespoons of Vegennaise, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, pepper, and ghost pepper sauce (I use Diabo Sauce from Fat Rice restaurant in Chicago; while you could use sriracha or tabasco style sauce, the ghost pepper adds a different and better kind of flavor, and if you don't use too much, the heat can be the perfect foil for the bland sweetness of the beets).  I put about 1 cup of this salad into the blender.  The Saveur recipe calls for tahini but I didn't have any on hand, so I added 1/3 cup of toasted black and white sesame seeds, and the rest of the ingredients called for in the recipe, except the ice:  3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice, 3 medium cloves of garlic, a drizzle of olive oil to get a creamy texture, and a little more salt and pepper. I blended this all on high speed until the sesame seeds were pulverized, then served it with the flatbread.

Beads, Masks, and Kale Chips

Today was another very long day packed with big deadlines.  In the office by 7 AM, out at 8 PM plus another 90 minutes on the road.  I can't complain though, the work is intense but very interesting and the people I work with are great.  It's just hard to be stuck in front of a computer most of the day with little opportunity to move around.  This is definitely not how I had hoped to spend Fat Tuesday.

At least the cafeteria operator tried to create a mood of festiveness by serving Creole-inspired entrees and decorating everything with masks and beads.  I don't understand why they didn't take kindly to my suggestion that patrons had to flash some flesh in order to be served.  Personally I think it would have created a much-needed distraction to keep everyone from paying too much attention to the food. What is it with cafeteria food?  Despite the best efforts of the kitchen staff, no one could tell the difference between the shrimp etouffee, crawfish jambalaya, or chicken andouille gumbo -- it all looked and tasted like bland, soupy, red mush.

I got home a little before 9 PM and was not really in the mood to cook the miso eggplant I had planned for today.  I'd had leftover salad for dinner at the office and when I got home, I was craving carbs--crunchy carbs, crispy carbs, things like Kettle Chips or popcorn.  But alas.  There is never anything like that in our house. At best we might have a bag of "everything" pretzel crisps. What Joy.  I opened the vegetable crisper in the fridge to rummage through and suddenly, there it was - the inspiration I was looking for:  a bunch of kale.  Kale chips are almost like Kettle Chips, right?  If I could get my semi-broken oven to cooperate, there could possibly be some redemption. Since I didn't have a lot of kale left, I also added n some whole, large leaf spinach and a couple of carrots for good measure. I used a vegetable peeler to make thin slices of the carrots, which greatly enhanced their crisp-ability.

Sesame seeds and Furikake add a great crunch to the kale

I wanted to be sure the chips were well-baked and crunchy so I decided to add sesame seeds to the oil in which everything was tossed, and I also added the last of my furikake to increase the umami factor. The end result was a guilt free snack - no confession needed now on Ash Wednesday, at least not for cheating on my diet.





Kale, Carrot, and Spinach chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line two baking trays with parchment paper.

1 small bunch kale, washed and dried very well (should be completely dry)
1 bunch spinach, washed and dried very well
2 carrots, washed and dried
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp Furikake seasoning
2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds (black or white or both)
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

It's best to wash the vegetables when you first bring them home.  I usually wash and spin dry my greens, then roll them up in paper towels and place inside a plastic bag.  They last a week or longer this way and they are ready to use when needed.  You don't want water on the produce when you put it into the oven or the vegetables will steam instead of drying out, and you will end up with limp, wilted not-at-all-chiplike vegetables.

Combine the seasonings (Furikake, sesame seeds, salt, and cayenne) in a small bowl and stir to combine.  Using a vegetable peeler and pressing hard on to the carrot, peel off ribbons of carrot. Toss in a plastic bag with a drizzle of olive oil and a teaspoon of the seasoning mix.  Lay the carrot strips onto the parchment paper of one of your baking trays, leaving space in between each carrot.  Place in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes. Check frequently to ensure they don't begin to burn.

Remove the tough stems from the kale and spinach, then cut into larger, rough pieces.  Add to the bag you used for the carrots, drizzle in the rest of the olive oil to lightly coat the greens, and sprinkle on the remaining seasonings,   Toss well, then spread in a thin layer onto the second baking tray.  Place in the oven and roast for about 8 -10 minutes or until the chips are crispy.  You may need to remove some of the more well-done chips and let others continue to bake for a little longer.