$0.99 Gourmet

The NY Times has two very interesting articles about gourmet cooking on the cheap.


Here, the writer spends a week eating only what he can prepare from ingredients found at NYC $0.99 stores.

And here, gourmet seafood chef, Eric Ripert, creates recipes using $0.99 store finds.

Via Buzz Feed.

Bread & Butter, Faster

I've been saying that I'm going to bake a loaf of bread for the past 4 consecutive weekends. I've got all of the ingredients ready to go, but I keep not getting around to it.

I used to make my own bread every week. This was back when I was in college and spending an afternoon in the kitchen was better than writing a 20 page essay.

I want to believe that all that kneading and waiting around makes the bread more delicious, but this No-Time bread recipe from AT:Kitchn has me curious. There's little kneading and you pop the dough in the microwave to accelerate the rising time.

Minted Greek Wine

This sounds like it would make a great summer cocktail:

• 2 bottles dry Greek white wine
• mint syrup (recipe follows)
• mint sprigs for garnish

Combine 4 parts wine and 1 part mint syrup in a glass over ice, then garnish with a mint sprig (using these proportions, you can also make a pitcher ahead of time). For the wine, we recommend Domaine Spiropoulos Mantina Moschofilero, which is light and crisp, with hints of honeysuckle and subtle minerality.

Place ½ cup sugar, 1 cup water, and 20 fresh mint leaves in a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for two minutes. Stir until sugar is dissolved; let cool. Strain into a small pitcher, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Via Domino.

BBQ at Acar Kent

While we were in Istanbul, the city experienced some of the hottest weather in 30 years. On one of those sweltering nights, some friends invited us to their home for a BBQ.

Turkish cuisine's appeal is in the simplicity of its flavors. They highlight a few key ingredients and let them shine. Meats are simply dressed and grilled. Salads are served dressed with olive oil and Italian parsley or dill. Vegetables are prepared in olive oil or served pureed as appetizers.

Our hosts served a very refreshing, delicious potato salad. This salad was unlike anything I've ever tasted before, a combination of potatoes, cucumber and yogurt. And, they just sent me the recipe:

Summer Potato Salad*:

1 cup of yogurt
1 clove of garlic, finely diced
1 tsp salt

4 Russet potatoes
1 cucumber, grated
Salt to taste

Combine the yogurt. garlic and salt in a small bowl and stir well. Place in the refrigerator.

Boil the potatoes until cooked through. Cool, peel, and mash. I used a food processor and added a little milk. Add the prepared garlic yogurt and grated cucumber and stir until smooth. Add salt to taste. The salad is good right away, but for the best taste, let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours.

SOUNDTRACK:
"Stop Me," a reworking of the Smiths' track by Mark Ronson.



* Thanks to Erman and Burcu for the hopitality and the recipe.

Breakfast by the Bosporus: Menemen

Yesterday, we went to a cafe on the Bosporus to eat breakfast. We got a table against the marble railing, looking out over the water to the the other side of the city.

We ordered a very typical Turkish breakfast called menemen. It's a modified scrambled egg, mixed with tomatoes and peppers and served in a metal pan.


Menemen Recipe:
2 small tomatoes
1 small green bell pepper
1 spicy green pepper (such as a Hungarian wax pepper)
1 tablespoon olive oil
4-5 eggs

Peel and cube tomatoes. Then dice the other ingredients. Sautee in small pre-heated skillet with olive oil until slightly wilted. The peppers should still have some crunch.

Over low heat crack eggs into the skillet and scramble in the skillet cooking until eggs are fairly firm but the entire dish is slightly moist due to the vegetable juices.

Serve with a white, French-style bread.

Mmmm: Meyer Lemon Cake from Domino

I think I'll give this cake a try for Mother's Day. You can find the recipe on the Domino site.

The Good Egg

If you happen to hunt for eggs this weekend, The Good Egg will give you plenty of ideas for what to do with what you find.

Of all my cookbooks, this one changed my outlook on food the most. I had no idea how many amazing ways there are to enjoy an egg. I can't remember why I picked it up, but I went from eating the occasional egg in a breakfast taco into a 6-month egg odyssey.

My personal favorite: Eggs scrambled with chopped bacon and basil baked atop a hollowed-out half French loaf and topped with Parmesan and thinly slice tomato. A perfect dinner for a spring evening.

Impromptu White-Bean Humus

Over the weekend, we hosted an impromptu BBQ - thanks in no small part to the beautiful weather that seems to have arrived to North Texas several weeks early. I need to put together an appetizer quickly with what we had on hand. I ended up making a white-bean humus inspired by a recipe I saw somewhere recently (forgive me, I have forgotten where).

I was pretty nervous about the results, but the dip was a huge success. Here is the recipe:

1 can Canelli beans, drained
1/4 cup low-fat yogurt
1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Food process until smooth and chill for one hour. Serve with crackers, bread, or pita.

Lemon Sesame Muffins from The Kitchen

These sounds delicious:

Lemon Sesame Muffins
makes 12 generously-sized muffins

2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 c sugar
1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted (1/2 tsp salt)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons lemon rind (from about five small lemons; squeeze for juice as well)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 c oil
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla

Lemon Syrup
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon rind

Heat the oven to 375ºF. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan with liners or by greasing the cups. Mix the dry ingredients and the lemon rind. In a small bowl beat the milk, oil, egg and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and beat with a whisk just until smooth. Pour into the muffin cups and bake about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick just comes out clean.

While baking, prepare the lemon syrup. Whisk the lemon juice and sugar together in a small saucepan and boil for about five minutes or until reduced and shiny. Remove from heat and stir in the teaspoon of lemon rind.

When the muffins come out of the oven, immediately poke a couple toothpick holes in each muffin and carefully drizzle the hot syrup over them. Let cool for about 20 minutes in the pan to let the syrup absorb.

Red Lentil Soup for a Slushy Day

This is my absolute favorite soup. I first tried it at a beach resort in South Turkey. It was 12 am and my husband and I were starving, and this soup was all the resort kitchen had available at the pool-side bar. We each got a steaming bowl with a hunk of fresh bread. It was delicious.

Red Lentil Soup

1/2 pound dry red lentils
2 tablespoons butter
2 small white onions, chopped
4 cups water
Salt, pepper, and Cayenne pepper, to taste
4 cups plain canned chicken broth
1 cup milk

In a large saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat until just melted. Add chopped onion, salt and pepper. Saute for five minutes, stirring frequently.

Add lentils and 4 cups of water to the pan. Cook uncovered for 20 minutes and then cover and cook an additional 10 minutes, or until lentils are soft. Most of the water will be absorbed by the lentils. Add additional water 1/4 cup at a time, if necessary.

Turn the burner off and allow lentils and onions to cool for about 5 minutes. Transfer to a food processor or good blender and blend until perfectly smooth and set aside. Be sure not to leave any whole lentils or onion pieces in the sauce pan. I have a small food processor, so I blend a few cups at a time and transfer to a large bowl.

Return the empty saucepan to the burner over medium heat. Add 4 cups of broth to the pan and heat for several minutes. Add the lentil puree and Cayenne pepper to the pan and whisk until combined. Start with 1/2 or less of Cayenne. The soup will get spicier as it cooks. Continue to cook over medium heat until heated through, stirring frequently. Do not allow the mixture to boil.

Add milk and cook a few more minutes, until heated through.

Serve the soup with the juice of a lemon wedge squeezed into each bowl and a piece of soft French bread.

The soup will keep in the refrigerator for up to seven days. It tends to separate out, with the bean puree settling to the bottom of the container. Simply stir before heating.

If you live in Dallas, you can find red lentils in the bulk section of Sprouts. I have also seen them with the dried beans in Central Market. If you live in North Dallas, Shine's Mediterranean stocks them with their dried goods.

Recipe: Pumpkin Blueberry Muffins

I love pumpkin bread and tend to eat it all year round. This is a recipe that I improvised out of necessity, using a Cooking Light recipe for pumpkin raisin muffins as a base. After I began the recipe, I realized that I had no raisins, but I did have a bag of frozen blueberries. I accommodated the additional moisture contained in the berries by reducing the amount of brown sugar, corn syrup, and oil. The original recipe contained 202 calories and 5.1 grams of fat per muffin. These should be a bit lighter.

Pumpkin Blueberry Muffins:

2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry or bread flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon corn syrup or maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg, plus the whites of 2 large eggs (for a denser muffin, you can use 2 large eggs instead)
1 cup frozen blueberries
Cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat a nonstick, 12-muffin pan with cooking spray.

Combine flour, spices, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and whisk until combined.

In a separate mixing bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, buttermilk, oil, corn syrup, vanilla and eggs. Mix with a whisk until combined.

Toss frozen blueberries in flour mixture and form a well in the center. Pour pumpkin mixture into the well. Stir until just combined. Spoon into muffin tin.

Bake until lightly browned on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean (about 20 minutes).

Recipe: Turkish Toast with Egg, Dill and Feta

This is a very simple recipe that I have been served for lunch and that I have made as breakfast and as a light dinner. It's basically a Turkish take on a savory French Toast.

Ingredients:

4 1-inch thick slices of French bread
2 Eggs
2 tablespoons milk
Salt and pepper to taste
1 - 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
1/4 cup mild feta (use French feta if available), crumbled
2 tablespoons mozzarella, shredded
Cooking spray or butter

Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees. At the same time, pre-heat a non-stick skillet on medium-low to medium heat.

Combine the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and 1.5 tablespoons of the chopped dill in a large measuring cup and whisk lightly with a fork. Pour the egg mixture into a shallow dish.

Coat the heated skillet with cooking spray or butter. Dredge each piece of bread in the egg mixture, turning to coat, and place into the skillet. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side, or until bread is golden brown on both sides.

Transfer the bread slices to a small baking dish. Top each slice with 1 tablespoon crumbled feta, 1/2 tablespoon shredded mozzarella, and a pinch of the reserved chopped dill. Place into a baking dish coated with cooking spray and bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes, or until bread is crisp and cheese is brown.