Tabbouleh Salad with Pita Chips

Tabbouleh is a Middle Eastern salad that is really healthy and very addictive.  It makes a great alternative to potato chips and salsa/dip, and is a great spring and summer appetizer.  Although the recipe and ingredients are really simple, it is surprisingly fuckup-able.  So pay attention.

Tabbouleh with Pita Chips

First rule in making this is to buy fresh, ORGANIC ingredients (if you don’t have veggies and herbs from your garden.  Which you should, and is a topic we’ll revisit at some point).  The flavors in this dish are subtle, and shitty, tasteless veggies will make this dish completely bland.  Tabbouleh’s main ingredients are bulgar wheat and parsley.  Bulgar wheat is similar to barley, and you cook it by boiling water and dropping it in for about 12 minutes, until the water is absorbed.  So, start with 1 cup of cooked bulgar wheat, and when cooled, spoon it into a serving dish or baking pan.  Then, add the following:

• 3/4 cup chopped parsley (either curly or flat leaf)
• 1/4 cup chopped basil and/or mint (this adds a nice taste, but add at your discretion)
• 1/2 cup finely diced tomatoes (quartered cherry tomatoes work best)
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion (you can substitute regular white onion, but beware its strength; you don’t want to overpower it).
• 1/4 cup shopped red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped cucumber
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (you can add more if you prefer a little more tang)
• 2 TB olive oil
• 1 TB garlic powder
• 1 TB Sumac – a Middle Eastern spice I described in my Tuna Bagel entry.
• 1 Tsp oregano
• S&P to taste
• Pinch of sugar

Mix well.  Put it in the refrigerator, uncovered, for an hour or more.  Once done, mix again and spoon it out with pita chips as you would potato chips and dip.  You can either buy pita chips, or make your own – easy to do – just tear up some pita bread, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and olive oil.  Then spread them out on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

This is one of my favorite spring/summer snacks or appetizers – very light and healthy.  Enjoy

Tuna Bagels

I can’t stand slopping mayo on everything – it’s fattening and takes away the natural flavor of other ingredients.  Protein-rich tuna is often the victim of over-mayo-ing.  Tuna salad?  Gross.  Looks like something you would scrape off the wall of a bathhouse.  The following is a quick recipe that keeps tuna healthy and tasty (and cheap).  It’s great for a lunch for 2.

I like doing this on bagels, but you can use any hearty bread (sourdough works great, as does rye).  Take 2 frozen bagels (Lenders or whatever) and defrost in microwave for 20 seconds.  Then, spread a thin layer of mustard on the bagels.  Once baked, this will add a great tang to the bread.

Get a can of albacore tuna in spring water and spoon all of it into a bowl. Then, start cutting veggies.  As with most of my recipes, you have some leeway into what veggies you want to put in the mix.  I like the following:

• 1 carrot, diced
  
• 1 stalk celery, diced
  
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 1/4 cup pickles or pickled pepper rings (if you like some heat)
• 1/4 cherry tomatoes, diced (optional)
  

Add all of these to the bowl.  Then add some salt and pepper, a little garlic powder (1/2 tsp), and juice from half a lemon. If you have some, add some dill – fresh if you have it, dried will do.  Additionally, there is a great red spice called sumac – you don’t find it everywhere, but it’s a great addition to this dish.  It’s one of those Middle Eastern spices that you find in fattoush salads and other dishes and adds a little spicy zest to the tuna.  If you have it, add about 1/2 tablsespoon to the mix.

Now, you don’t need to, but I like to add a little dollop of Horseradish Sauce into this mix.  It adds some consistency to the tuna, and a little kick.  You can add a teaspoon of mayo, but don’t add more than that.  We don’t want this to turn into the ubiquitous tuna salad with gobs of mayo.

So, mix all of this together and spoon onto the bagels.  Don’t pile it on too high or the bagel/bread won’t support it.  Then put it into the oven at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes, until the bread is crispy.  Remove and eat.  This is one of my favorite lunches…enjoy.

Celery Seed Dressing

This dressing is really quick and really tasty.  It typically goes on salad, but can also be used for a marinade, particularly with chicken.  Get out the old blender or food processor and add the following IN ORDER.  It’s important.  If you don’t do it in order, it creates major tectonic problems (see Haiti 2 weeks ago).  My bad.

Add to blender:

½ cup sugar

2 tsp dry mustard

2 cups salad oil

1½ tsp salt

2/3 cups cider vinegar

4 tsp whole celery seed

6 tbls sweet onion

Blend until everything is thoroughly blended.   Put dressing in a jar with a lid or plastic container. Refrigerate 12 hours before using.

Dressing improves with age, as do I.

Kickass Pulled Pork Sliders

This is my new favorite recipe.  I started with Dan’s brother’s recipe for pulled pork and then I went completely off the reservation.  It was one of those experiments that really worked out.  The resulting recipe is the greatest discovery since the polio vaccine.  So f*ck you, Dr. Salk.

There are 2 parts to this recipe – the pulled pork itself and the accompanying slaw.  Well, 3 parts, if you count the buns.  The pulled pork takes about 10 hours.  The slaw about 10 minutes.  So, um, start with the pork.  You need:

• A crock pot
• 2 smoked & cured ham hocks (you can get these at Whole Foods or the Westside Market for you Clevelanders)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup finely chopped apple
  
• 1/4 cup red wine
  
• 1 boneless pork butt (Boston butt) 5-6 lbs. (you can get this at Whole Foods or the Westside Market for you Clevelanders)
• Spice rub:  Mix together in a small bowl:
  - 1/4 cup paprika
  - 3 tbsp dark brown sugar
  - 2 tbsp chili powder
  - 1 tbsp cumin
  -1 tbsp black pepper
  -2 tsp salt

Slice lengthwise down center of roast, until 1-2 inches remain and pull two sides apart, cut horizontal slit in each lobe of meat so roast will lay flat on cutting board. Apply spice rub by hand, massaging spices deep into the meat.  I said ‘deep into the meat’.  Put hocks in bottom of large crock pot, put re-assembled roast atop. Ideally, you should cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate for 24 hours, but I have found this to be not completely necessary.  Your call based on time available.  Pour chicken broth, chopped apple, and red wine over meat and cook in crockpot on low for about 8 hours, rotating and stirring occasionally.

After 8 hours, remove the pork from the crockpot and place on a large serving platter.  Using a fork, ‘claw’ the meat from the butt. Heehee.  Remove half of the liquid from the crock pot and set aside, leaving half in.  Put the “pulled” meat back into the crock pot with the remaining liquid.

With the crock pot still on, add 1/2 head of smashed and minced garlic, and about 1/2 cup of chopped roasted red peppers. Now, let’s talk BBQ sauce.  I have good recipes for BBQ sauce, but honestly, the best sauce to use for this recipe is Stubb’s BBQ sauce, which you can get at the store.  Add 3/4 bottle of the BBQ sauce into the crockpot and cover.  Continue cooking on low for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

While that’s cooking, prepare the slaw.  It’s super easy and its vinegary crispiness provides a perfect contrast to the savoriness of the pulled pork.  You will need:

• 1/2 small head green cabbage, shredded
• 1/2 small head red cabbage, shredded
• 1/2 small head napa cabbage, shredded
• 2 carrots, shredded
• Note: You can substitute 2 out of 3 cabbage requirements and the carrots by getting a package of slaw at Whole Foods – they have one I really like that contains some shredded cabbage, broccoli, and carrots.
• 1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 cup apple sliced into very thin slices (like little sticks)
• 1 red bell pepper, halved, seeded and cut into thin strips (optional)
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Toss together the cabbage, carrots, onion, and peppers in a large bowl. Whisk together the vinegar, mustard, and sugar in a medium bowl; season with salt and pepper, then slowly whisk in the oil. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss to coat.  Let sit at least 15 minutes at room temperature and set aside.

Bread – You can use any bread, really, but since these are sliders, I would suggest soft dinner buns, crown top, about 2 inches wide. This makes about 70 sliders, so get as many buns as you need to serve.  Split the buns in half (this recipe is great for its double entendres) and lightly butter (or margarine) the inside of each half. Spread them out on a big shallow pan and toast them in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350F (until they are very light brown).

You have all of your pieces done…time to put it all together.  Take a heaping tablespoon of the pulled pork from the crockpot and put on the bun.  Then spoon a corresponding amount of the slaw on top of the pork, and cap the sandwich.  Repeat for as many buns as you have.  Of course, these recipe can be modified to make regular-sized sandwiches, but they’re not nearly as cute.

Like I said, this is time and ingredient-intensive, but well worth it if you have the time.  Best thing I’ve made (and eaten) in a while – they got rave reviews at my last Xmas party.

I forgot to take a picture of the sliders, but this is a pic of a pulled pork sandwich on rye, something I made with the leftovers. You get the idea.

99% Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

It’s cold and there are scary viruses out there, and here you are without a swine flu vaccine.  Your only hope is chicken soup.  No one has proven why chicken soup makes you feel better, it just does.  It’s also really good for hangovers.  This is a really easy and cost-effective way to make awesome homemade chicken soup.  It takes a while, but you’re home sick…what else are you going to do?

Start by visiting your local good grocery store, or visit your nearest Boston Market and buy a cooked rotisserie chicken.  They usually cost $5-$8, and you can get about 4-5 meals out of this.  Yes, this is the 1% that isn’t homemade, but deal with it.  Do you really want to cook a whole chicken and then boil it down?  Thought so.

So, bring home this chicken.  Cut off some of the white meat, enough to make a sandwich later.  Set aside.  In the meantime, get a big pot.  Drizzle in some olive oil and some salt and pepper. Smash and mince about a whole head of garlic, and finely chop about 1/4 of an onion.  Throw into the pot and saute.  While that’s cooking, throw in some dried herbs - about a tablespoon each of oregano, thyme, red pepper, and celery seed.  Throwing in these dried herbs while the garlic and onions are sauteing brings out the flavor of the herbs.

Once the mixture above has carmelized, take the pot off the stove (with the ingredients still in it) and fill it with about 8c of water (Christ, when will we go to the metric system?).  Then put in the remaining rotisserie chicken into the pot.  Put back on the stove and proceed to simmer (a low boil) for at least 1.5 hrs.

While that is simmering, start chopping veggies.  There’s lots of room for personalization here…throw in your favorite veggies (or stuff you’re trying to get rid of before it rots).  I like the following:

• 1-2 stalks of celery
• 1-2 carrots
• Roasted Corn – get a can of sweet corn, throw in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, then saute for a few minutes – it really adds to the taste of the corn once in the soup.
  
• 1/2 cup chopped green beans
• 1-2 Green Onions

Set the veggies aside.  Check on the chicken…if you can easily fork off the meat from the bone, then you’re good to go.  Now for the messiest part of the whole thing: the straining.  Get another pot and a colander; put the colander over the new pot.  Remove the broth pot from the stove and dump all contents into the colander and pot.  The colander should now hold all of the larger pieces of chicken and bones, and the other pot should hold your broth.  Pick through the chicken and add the good pieces back into the broth (weed through the skin, bones, and other yucky chicken parts).  Put the broth with the good chicken back onto the stove.  Crucial Ingredient Alert: Tomato paste. Tomato paste adds a ton of flavor and sweetness to the broth.  Stir in 2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste to the broth.  Now, throw in your veggies. I like to keep the beans out of the broth until later, since I like them aldante.  The celery and carrots will take a good 30+ minutes to soften.  Once those have had a chance to soften, throw in 1/2 pound of wide egg noodles and the beans. Once the noodles are aldante, you’re done!  One note: Make sure you taste the broth once in a while…you may need to add some more salt to fit your taste.

There you go…several good meals (chicken sandwich and 5-6 servings of delicious noodle soup) for under $10.  Not too shabby.  Go spend your savings on ThreaFlu.