Fattoush

It recently dawned on me that the best way to support my determination to eat a healthier diet was to make sure the good foods I brought home were prepped and ready for grabbing and gobbling. I can be lazy and just having them in the house was not enough. Also, Atlanta’s swampy summer heat was fast approaching. That meant my motivation and activity level were about to take a nosedive.

I needed a good alternative to the easy shove-cracker-in-the-mouth routine I occasionally (frequently) adopt.

Digging around for ideas that would translate into quick and easy but could also hang out in the fridge, I stumbled on Fattoush.

It is pronounced Faa-toosh. It is a salad. It originates from either Syria or Lebanon and dates back hundreds of years.

I loved it on first sight and knew it was going to land on my favorite summer foods list. It had a lot of fresh mint. I could use my preserved lemon. It came from the Mediterranean world of tabbouleh, hummus and baba ghanoush.

Fattoush is meant to have hearty pieces of raw vegetable and is traditionally topped with stale or fried pita. Portions often have more veg and a bit less greenery than the usual salad. The dressing is tart and lemony, a perfect contrast to the sweet summer vegetables.

Prepping ahead allows you to toss handfuls of veg and greenery into your favorite salad vessel, drizzle dressing, top with bread and be ready to eat in under 5 minutes.

Instant gratification!

My Version of Fattoush and How I Prep Ahead

(about 4 servings to last 4 days).

1. The Bread
• 2 pita bread pockets
• 1 clove garlic
• Olive oil

Open up the pita and gently rub the inside with the clove of garlic. Put on a cookie pan and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Toast at 400° for 10 minutes. Cool and break into wedges. Store at room temp.

2. The Dressing
• ½ cup water
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• Juice of 2 lemons
• Skin from ½ preserved lemon, rinsed and finely minced, or zest of ½ lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic pureed---1 clove can be from the pita (puree in a mortar and pestle with a pinch of coarse salt or “puree” on your cutting board with salt and the flat side of your knife)
• 3 TBS of good olive oil
• Pinch of sugar
• S&P to taste
• **½ tsp Sumac powder

Combine the water and cornstarch in a small saucepan and heat over medium, whisking until the cornstarch dissolves and the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool and then whisk in the balance of dressing ingredients.

Store, tightly covered, in the fridge. Shake well before using.

3. The Greens
1 cup mint leaves
½ cup flat leafed parsley
***5 ounces purslane (or arugula)

Toss together. Wrap lightly in damp paper towel and tuck into a zip loc bag. Store in the fridge

4. The Veg
½ cup grape or cherry tomatoes
2 Kirby cucumbers (pickle cucs), seeded (not skinned) and cut into 1” pieces
4 radishes, sliced thin
½ red onion, cut into 1” dice
1 red, yellow or green pepper, cut into 1” pieces
½ cup of canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Store in a strainer set into a bowl-----to catch any seepage. Top veg with dry paper towel and set a few ice cubes inside the rim of the strainer to weigh down the paper towel. Refrigerate.

Optional other things: carrot (cut into round slices), red cabbage (cut into 1” pieces), black olives, pomegranate seeds, feta cheese served in a wedge and set over the top of the salad.

**Sumac is a reddish colored powder with a sour lemony taste. It is also used with kabobs, rice dishes and sprinkled over humus. In Atlanta, find it at the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market in the European section.www.bufordhighwayfarmersmarket.com
Or, look for it in any market that carries eastern Mediterranean foods---Turkish, Lebanese, Arabic. On line: www.amazon.com   .Sumac 7ozSumac Spice 2.0 oz - Zamouri Spices.
They have a 7 ounce package for $3.96.

***Purslane has a peppery crunchy taste and looks like baby spinach. It also contains more omega3 (good) fatty acids than any other green leafy veg. I have had trouble finding it in Atlanta. I substitute arugula. 

Bacon Meets Chocolate

When Michael Symon was on Dinner Impossible, long before he was Iron Chef, I watched him dip bacon into chocolate. Just like the skeptics on the show, I thought the idea sounded awful. But it was good after all, the idea caught on and now you find it all over.

Much, much later, Cory the Kid found chocolate covered bacon featured in a restaurant blog on line. I could hear him salivating all the way from New York. I resolved then and there to, learn how to make it, pack it up, mail it off and surprise him for his birthday. Lacking a way to keep bacon and chocolate chilled during transit, the project never quite got off the ground.

Now the Kid's in Atlanta and I've had 2 months to work on the bacon with the chocolate. The final result is wrapped and in the fridge; chilling out and waiting for delivery.

But I must 'fess up, I’m glad I had some time. What I thought would be easy--how difficult could it be to dip anything in chocolate!---turned into quite a project; it is not all that easy to dip said bacon in said chocolate and the first 2 batches landed in the trash. Cory the Kid, this bacon’s for you.

How To Make Chocolate Covered Bacon

• I pound of thick cut bacon

• 2 (3.5 ounce each) bars of chocolate, pick a decent brand, do not be afraid of mixing 2 different flavors. I used extra dark bittersweet and plain old milk. Hazelnut is also very nice.

• 2 low sided cookie pans, 1 lined with parchment paper

• Tongs

• 1 double boiler or a heat proof bowl set over a sauce pan

Method:

Lay all the bacon on an ungreased, low-sided cookie pan and bake at 425° until done. I like my bacon a little toothsome, but you can make it crispy.

Remove the cooked bacon to paper towels and let the bacon drain and cool.

After the bacon has completely cooled, put it on clean paper towels and pat off as much grease as possible. Cut each piece in half. Set aside. Do not refrigerate.

Brake up the bars of chocolate and put ¾’s of it in a double boiler over barely simmering water. (Or the heat proof bowl over the sauce pan)

Melt the chocolate slowly; do not let the bowl of chocolate touch the water; do not cover the bowl while the chocolate melts. (That forms condensation which turns into water which drips into your chocolate which is definitely not good!)

When all the chocolate has melted, remove the double boiler from the heat. Add the remaining chocolate and stir gently until all of it is melted and smooth.

Using tongs and working one piece at a time, submerge your bacon pieces into the melted chocolate and turn to coat well.

Remove the bacon from the chocolate and let the extra chocolate drip off. Put the chocolate covered bacon on a cookie pan lined with parchment.

Repeat until all the bacon pieces are coated.

I had extra chocolate so I spooned it over the already coated bacon to make the chocolate extra thick. Do not try to re-dip.

Chill the chocolate covered bacon, uncovered, overnight.

Store covered. Keep chilled.

Wedding Bell Blues

I am not ashamed. I will admit it. I could not wait to see pictures of Chelsea's wedding. And when I finally did, I was in awe. That dress was to die for. She looked beautiful and even Hillary, not always the standard of fashion, was dressed and coiffed to kill. 

But there were no pictures or mention of the food and I am so disappointed. Knowing the bride to be gluten intolerant and a sometime vegan, I was expecting to read about a menu that rivaled the dress; a Vera Wang-like creation of gustatory elegance, Eastern refinement and cutting edge creativity. The last word in foodom. A new artisanal standard. 

Alas, nothing. No hint of crostini or peek at some fondant. No locally sourced, seasonally appropriate anything. I am crushed. The despair! (Did they eat?)

 

Bad Cop, Good Cop

There seems to be, anyway what borders on, an excessive obsession with food terminology these days. What? Do I dare say it? Am I writing blasphemy? (Can you write blasphemy?) But really, think about it. Twenty years ago: did anyone really care what we ate other than it tasted good and included fruit and veg? Our benchmark was that odd pyramid along with wash your hands before you eat. Period. The end.

There were no food police. There was no slow food, locally grown, locally sourced, farmed/not farmed, grass fed, organic, low salt, no fructose, near extinction, farm-to-table, seasonal, artisanal, bad fat/good fat…anything!

To borrow a phrase, the linguistic pot that governs our food choices today is over whelming and over done. There. I wrote it. It’s out. Now shoot me.

There is a revolving door of foods that shift from used to be good to bad to then okay, but just a little, to maybe you shouldn’t eat it after all. We are warned that unless it’s from the farm or the lake or the ocean next door, we are polluting the earth. We are no longer capable of knowing deep fried food might be bad on a daily basis so we legislate against it. Unable to read a food label or turn a box around, manufacturers are now being urged to print the stuff in front.

And, on a personal note, I do not enjoy the rain of guilt and disapproval when I ask for a burger that’s pink inside rather than charred to medium gray.

What’s happening to us? Do we lack the sense to understand the “everything in moderation” rule? Do we not get it already that we need to be given more descriptions, more delineation, more warnings?

Enough I say! You don’t have to remind me that we are living longer and healthier and all the exercise and food consciousness helps. I know that. You know that. Now, let me be human and goof off now and then.

Post On

I do not suffer from ADD although you might think so as this is my 3rd blog site. No, it's just a matter of finding a spot where I can write in peace, unfettered by endless complicated decisions about designs, settings, URL's or someone threatening the legal equivalent of shock and awe because my domain name was similar to theirs. 

So, here I begin again. Hopefully, this will be the last move and I can again focus on The Food (and me).