Day 93! Lebanon - Ardishawki Mahshi - Stuffed Artichokes - Up Next, Lesotho

Ardishawki Mahshi - Stuffed Artichokes

I love artichokes in every way shape or form. And I love Middle Eastern food just as much, so when I came across several Lebanese recipes for stuffed artichokes, it was, as my kids aptly say, a no brainer. Oh, yeah, and the pine nuts - anything with pine nuts in it automagically makes it to my top 10 list. One of the nice things about this recipe is that it could easily be adapted to a vegetarian meal by leaving out the meat and substituting spinach, rice or even tofu.

Located in Western Asia, Lebanon is at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabic hinterland. The beautiful country sits on the shore of the Mediterranean sea and is bordered by Syria to its north and east and Israel to its south. Lebanon's rich history dates back some 7,000 years.

Due to its location, Lebanon boasts a wide variety of starches, fruits, vegetables and seafood. Lamb and goat  and chicken are eaten more frequently than beef and are most frequently grilled or baked. Garlic and olive oil are used in abundance and vegetables are often eaten raw or served pickled.

Stuffed Artichokes - Ardishawki Mahshi

4 large artichokes
1 1/2 cups ground lamb or lean beef (rice, spinach or tofu can be substituted)
1 cup minced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 tsp. flour* (I don't know why, but every recipe I checked, used flour)
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp. butter
2 Tbsp. freshly chopped parsley
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Cut off the artichoke stems close to the base. Remove tough outside leaves, then gently separate the leaves to form a cup. Using a pairing knife, remove as much of the choke from the center as possible, being careful not to cut through the heart. Rub each artichoke with a cut lemon and place in a bowl and sprinkle with a little flour until ready to cook.

Meanwhile, heat a few Tbsp. of olive oil and fry onions until just slightly golden. Add meat, pine nuts, garlic, parsley and season with salt and pepper.

Next, boil artichokes in about 2-3 inches of water for 15 minutes until tender. Arrange them in a shallow pan and stuff each artichoke with meat mixture, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Squeeze lemon juice over artichokes and dot with butter. Mix flour with half a cup of water and pour into the bottom of the artichoke pan. Bake in 350F oven for 15 minutes. Serve hot with rice.

Final Assessment:  This was a simple, delicious and beautiful meal. As I mentioned, the artichokes are sprinkled with flour and a flour/water mixer is added to the baking pan before baking, but I have NO idea why. Every recipe I looked at called for flour, so I used it, but I can't say that it made a difference one way or the other....maybe one of my wonderful readers can enlighten me!

Pomegranate Avocado Salad with Miso Dressing Recipe

Happy New Year! It's hard after the holidays not to want to take a break from all the indulgence and make sweeping resolutions. My diet resolutions this year are simply to eat more soups and salads. Sure, I'd love to eat healthy, exercise more and lose weight but I'm trying to be realistic.

When it comes to soup, there is no problem. I probably eat soup for dinner once a week. While I grew up eating salad every night, it's just not all that popular around my dinner table. I have a couple of ideas to shake things up. I am going to try to develop more interesting salad combinations and recipes. I am going to get creative with salad dressings and I am also going to try eating more salad for lunch.

This is a salad I served on New Year's Eve. It is very festive looking, don't you think? The salad is light and healthy, but has a good variety of flavors and textures. The Napa cabbage adds color and crunch, the pomegranate adds color but also sweetness, which is balanced by the saltiness of the miso dressing. The dressing uses white or shiro miso, which is less salty than other darker miso. I've added a few teaspoons of tahini which I always seem to have on hand for making hummus. I don't use it for anything else! Perhaps finding more uses for pantry staples should be another resolution...

Avocado Pomegranate Salad with Miso DressingServes 4-6

Ingredients

8 leaves Napa cabbage, shredded
8 cups mesclun or spring greens
1/2 cup pomegranate "seeds"
1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced

Dressing
3 Tablespoons rice bran oil
2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons white miso
2 Tablespoons water
2 teaspoons tahini
1/4 teaspoon sugar

Instructions

Whisk together the salad dressing ingredients and taste for seasoning.

Toss the cabbage and greens and dressing to lightly coat. Garnish each serving with pomegranate and avocado. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

More pomegranate salad recipes:

Fruity Pomegranate Salad with Savory Soy Vinaigrette from White on Rice Couple

Spinach Pomegranate Salad with Apples and Walnuts from Pinch My Salt

Golden Beet and Pomegranate Salad from Simply Recipes

Nigella's Pomegranate, Onion and Coriander(cilantro) salad from Real Epicure

Day 92.5 New Year's Day Corn Muffins with Raspberry Jam

Corn Muffins with Raspberry Jam

New Year's Day morning. I am not a big fan of New Year's Eve. I hate the hype, unrealistic expectations and drunken resolutions. But I do love the morning, and so to kick off New Year's Day 2011, I resolved to make beautiful corn muffins filled with raspberry jam for breakfast.

This recipe comes direct and unadapted (because there are some things so perfect, they can't be improved upon)  from my favorite baking cookbook, quite possibly of all time, flour (no capital 'f'), by Joanne Chang owner and operator of Flour Bakery + Cafe in Boston, and co-owner with her husband, of Asian restaurant, Myers+Chang.

flour was the thing I wanted most for Christmas. Not only did I get it, but it came autographed with the inscription, "Make life sweeter...eat dessert first!". Words to live by. And, when I sent an email to Flour bakery telling them how much I loved the book, Joanne Chang took the time to personally write me back. How cool is that?!

Until this morning, I had never used a scale to measure baking ingredients, but according to flour, if you really want to bake with accuracy, the scale's the way to go. Unlike measuring cups and spoons that vary by brand, the scale gives a true weight in grams, eliminating the potential for inaccurate measurement that could potentialy wreck an otherwise perfectly good recipe.

Before pursuing her culinary passion, Chang got a degree in applied mathematics and economics from Harvard - so if she says to use a scale, really, who am I to question her recommendation? Amazingly, Santa brought me a scale for Christmas, so this recipe  marks my Salter scale debut. These are the little discoveries that get me looking at life with fresh perspective. Nuts, I know, but totally true.

Hereto-with the completely unadapted, unaltered, unadulterated recipe from flour 

Corn Muffins with Raspberry Jam (makes 12 large muffins)

• 2 3/4 cups (385 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (200 grams) medium-coarse yellow cornmeal
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick/56 grams) unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup (165 grams)packed light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup (240 grams) milk, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup (70 grams) canola oil
• 3/4 cup (180 grams) creme fraiche, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup (255 grams) raspberry jam

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven, and heat the over to 350F. Butter a standard 12-cup muffin tin, coat with nonstick cooking spray, or line with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until well mixed. In a small bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar until it forms a thick slurry. In a second large bowl, whisk the eggs until well blended. One at a time, whisk the milk, then the oil, then the creme fraiche, and finally the butter-sugar slurry into the eggs. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and fold carefully, just until the dry and wet ingredients are well combined. The batter will be thick and pasty.
3. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into each prepared muffin cup. Spoon 1 tablespoon jam on top of the batter in each cup, then top off each cup with another 1/4 cup batter, making sure the cups are evenly filled. They should be filled to the rim.
4. Bake for 25-28 minutes, or until the edges of each muffin are golden brown and the center springs back when pressed with a fingertip. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan.
5. The muffins taste best the day they are baked, but may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you keep them longer than 1 day, refresh them in a 300-degree oven for 4-5 minutes. Or, you can freeze them, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap for up to 1 week; reheat directly from the freezer, in a 300-degree oven for 8-10 minutes.

Potluck Posts 12/31

December started out chilly with a quick weekend in Montreal and ended back in San Francisco after a glorious week on Oahu. There was lots of good food in both places, stay tuned for more details!

Some of my favorite posts on the Epicurious blog were about cognac and brilliant (non-alcoholic) bubbly beverages. I also ran an interview with Elizabeth Andoh, author of the gorgeous book Kansha. One of my more popular posts was my best tips for making macaroni and cheese.

Speaking of tips, my somewhat controversial post on travel tips ran on Between Bites, there was also Dorie Greenspan's shopping guide to Paris (you'll want to bookmark it for your next trip!). Last but not least I also had a piece about the sweet treats you can eat in Louisville.

Finally I have some big news to share, as of January I will be the San Francisco editor of BlackboardEats.com. I hope you will poke around the site and sign up for great restaurant deals in Los Angeles, New York or San Francisco as well as the "everywhere" edition. I will continue blogging here and there.

Happy New Year!

Day 92! Latvia - Wild Mushroom & Potato Soup - Up Next, Lebanon

Latvian Wild Mushroom and Potato Soup

This was one of those days when my best intentions to prep, photograph, cook and write up tonight's Latvian Wild Mushroom and Potato Soup seemed destined to fail. First, I'd forgotten to charge the camera battery, then, my kids had "cooked" earlier in the day, and left crap all over the counter and the sink brimming with nearly every pot and pan in the kitchen. Chaos reigned supreme today, and while I didn't get all the shots I wanted, in the end, I got the Latvian Wild Mushroom & Potato soup made and it was down-right delicious - Victory!

Located in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, Latvia is bordered by Estonia, Lithuania, Russia and Belarus. Up until the 1800's, the Latvian people were indentured as serfs, except in Eastern Latvia where emancipation came decades later.

Traditional Latvian cuisine is based on locally grown food, relatively inexpensive ingredients such as dried peas, pork and bacon. Potatoes, wheat barley, cabbage, onions, eggs and wild mushrooms are all staples Latvians enjoy. For the most part, Latvian cuisine uses few spices and tends to be high in fat, originating out of historic necessity to eat foods that would sustain the body until the next (sometimes uncertain) meal.  Because the country is located on the East Coast of the Baltic Sea, fish is also enjoyed in the country.

Latvian Wild Mushroom and Potato Soup 

• 1 lb. wild mushroom mix, roughly chopped
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 cup water
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 6 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 4 slices bacon, crumbled
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp. sweet Hungarian paprika
• Creme fraiche and freshly chopped dill for garnish

1. Heat olive oil and butter in a large soup pop.
2. Chop wild mushrooms and saute in olive oil and butter until soft. Add white wine.
3. Add potatoes, water, stock and salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat and cook until potatoes are soft.
4. Meanwhile, fry bacon in separate pan till cripy. Drain on paper towel, remove all but 2 Tbsp. fat and saute onions in grease.
5. When potatoes are soft, puree about 3/4 of the mixture, then add back into soup pot.
6. Add bacon and onions to soup and simmer.
7. Add heavy cream, paprika and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
8. Ladle into soup bowls and tops with a dollop of creme fraiche and chopped dill.
9. Serve with salad and hearty bread.

Final Assessment:  This turned out to be wonderfully rich and savory soup that I think will be even better in the morning once all the flavors have married. Great to serve up on winter night. A+

Day 91! Laos-Garlic Duck and Jasmine Rice - Up Next, Latvia

Laotian Garlic Duck with Jasmine Rice

Okay, so all you uber-foodies out there, don't laugh, but while looking for duck in the supermarket today, I came across a capon. Unsure as to whether or not this fowl was some kind of duck, I placed a culinary 911 call to my friend Ben, who knows everything there is to know about food. And, if he doesn't know, his cyber-snoop skills are so supreme that within 2 minutes, he'd replied that no, capon is not duck, it's a castrated rooster. Uhhhhh...okay, so not a duck. Not only that, he'd located a slaughter house in the next town over that carried fresh duck, quite possibly with its feathers intact. But, as luck would have it, "my" Market Basket didn't let me down. They had plenty of duck breast in stock, along with all the other ingredients I needed to make tonight's Laotian dinner.

Located in Southeast Asia, Laos is a landlocked country that is bordered by Burma, The People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.

Laotian cuisine is distinct from other Southeast Asian countries because it's influenced by several Thai provinces as well as Cambodia. Moreover, there is a significant French tradition found in Laos, especially in less rural areas, where baguettes and French fusion restaurants are common place.

Jasmine Rice

Two heads of garlic make the fragrant paste

Turmeric flavors and colors the dish a beautiful golden hue

Browned duck - say no more

Cilantro and lime put the final touch on the dish

Garlic Duck and Rice (adapted from Global Gourmet)

• 2 cups jasmine rice
• 2 whole heads garlic, cloves separated and peeled
• 2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp. sea salt, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
• 3 tablespoons nam pla (fish sauce)
• 4 duck boneless duck breasts or one 4-5 lb. duck, cut into serving sizes, excess fat trimmed
• Fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish
• Lime wedges for serving

1. Put the rice a strainer and rinse well, then soak in cold water to cover.
2. Meanwhile put the garlic, pepper, salt, turmeric and nam pla into a food processor and process until the garlic is pasty and ingredients are well incorporated - scrape sides as needed.
3. Place a deep skillet or flameproof casserole with a lid over medium-high heat. Add the duck, skin side down, and brown well, adjusting the heat and turning so that pieces are evenly browned - about 5-7 minutes if using duck breast, 10-15 minutes if using a cut up duck. Transfer to plate when done, and pour off all but a couple of tablespoons of the fat.
4. Add the garlic paste to the skillet and cook, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Return dug to the pan and stir to coat wit the sauce.
5. Add 3-1/2 cups water to the pan with the duck and bring to a boil. Drain the rice and slowly stir into the pan. Bring the water to a boil again, cover, turn the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the rice cooked through, about 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the duck and rice mixture sit for 10 minutes. Garnish with chopped cilantro and lime wedges.

Final Assessment: What can I say? Duck, jasmine rice, turmeric, garlic, cilantro and lime...heaven.

Day 90! Kyrgyzstan - Manti (Meat Dumplings) for Lunch - Up Next, Laos

Manti with red-pepper vinegar, sour cream and butter toppings

First I had cheesecake for breakfast, then I shoveled off the calories, moving mountains of mercifully fluffy snow with help from my boys, their friends and my faithful German shepherd, Buddy-Boy who supervised the job. Next, I set out to make Manti dumplings from the country of Kyrgyzstan for lunch - a perfect way to spend a blustery, blizzardy day!

Santa brought me a bunch of really cool kitchen stuff this year, including a bamboo steamer I  used to make these dumplings. In Kyrgyzstan multi-tiered steamers are called mantishnitza, and are made out of steal, not bamboo, but this was perfect to get the job done.  My Mom also gave an incredible Japanese 6" Santuko knife with a double bevel that I immediately cut myself on. I don't have good knife handling skills, but this mini samurai sword might just motivate me to hone them in a hurry.

Located in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous landlocked country that borders Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and the People's Republic of China.

Food in this country is very similar to that eaten in Kazakstan and relies mainly on horse, mutton and milk products. Stews, skewered meat, dumplings and noodles are all staples. The fat- to-meat ratio tends to be high, producing delicious dishes that are best eaten hot.

Manti are considered a typical, local dish, but there is some dispute as to where the dumplings originated, some claiming they are Turkish or Tartar. Regardless, there seems to be consensus that their origin is somewhere in Central Asia. Hands down,  my family voted  these dumplings their favorite of all the "stan" countries I've cooked in thus far.

I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with bread hook attachment
to make the dough. If you don't have one, it's fine to mix by hand.

Manti - Meat Dumplings (Adapted from 5 different recipes - I picked what I liked from each to make my own version)

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup water (or slightly more, added by the Tbsp. if dough is too dry)
• 2 onions, peeled
• 1 medium potato, diced
• 1.5 pounds ground beef or lamb (I used ground chuck, because it has a good fat:meat ratio)
• 1 tsp. cumin
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tbsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 Tbsp. minced garlic
• Garnish: Vinegar, sour cream and/or butter

1. Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the eggs and water, mixing well with your hands. Add more water if needed, to form a soft dough. Cover and set aside for at least 30 minutes.
2. Shred the onions and place them in a colander or sieve and set over a bowl to drain the juice and discard. Combine the onion, garlic, ground beef, potato, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper and cumin; mix the meat well with a spoon until well mixed.
3. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces (keep covered in plastic wrap to avoid drying out). On a floured surface roll dough out into a rectangle shape, rolling dough as thin as possible without tearing it. Cut the rectangle into 2-3 inch squares with a knife.
4. Place about 2 teaspoons of the meat filling in the center of each square. Bring up two diagonal corners of the dough and press them together on top - do the same with the other two corners. Repeat until all are filled and sealed.
4. Place the prepared manti onto steaming trays or steamer basket so they don't touch each other to avoid sticking. Steam for 20-25 minutes.

Serve topped with vinegar, sour cream or butter - goes well with a salad as well

Final Assessment: These dumplings were delicious and easy to make. Like anything that involves making dough, it takes a little bit of time and makes a little bit of a floury mess on your counter top, but so what, it's all worth it when you bite into a tender and satisfying dumpling fresh from the steamer. A++ from the dudes in my family.