Baba Ganush

Back in March during Purim carnival I was in charge of Middle Eastern meal and Baba Ganush was apart of it. I was planning on making it from scratch, instead it turned into an adventure, where I had to search all stores for eggplant and ended up ordering it in bulk from Persian store. For some reason searching for eggplant left a mark on my mind, so when I walked in to my local oriental market and saw eggplants for 89 cents each, I had to buy a bunch and make something.
There are several spreads that are made from eggplants in Russia. As usually it is baked and pureed with something in addition to flavor it. Tahini was not very popular in may family and in fact not really known. When I was growing up usually garlic and mayonnaise or sour cream were added to flavor the cooked eggplant.

I learned to make Baba Gaush in the States and it is simple but takes time.
Eggplant is sliced in half and liberally salted, then allowed to rest to release the juice for up to 30 min. Then he juice is rinsed off and eggplant is roasted in the oven for about an hour at 375F. Once it is ready it is cleaned from skin before it is placed in food processor where it's pulsed and pureed with the rest of the ingredients.


3 medium eggplants
garlic about 5-6 cloves
parsley about 12 sprigs
1/2 c tahini
1/2 lemon juice
1/4 c olive oil
salt and pepper
This is a great spread with pita, or crackers and goes great on sandwiches.

Two Vegetarian appetizers

These are simple and versatile vegetable dishes that can be easily used as side dish or an appetiser, as I did at a party. One is baked tomatoes and the other is grilled eggplant. These are really easy to make and go really well with goat cheese as well as on their own.

Several pounds of Roma tomatoes and cut in half and placed on the oiled baking sheet cut side up. You can clean and scoop the seeds out, but the seeds do not bother me, so I left them in. I sprinkled the tomatoes with salt and pepper and Herbs de Provence. Then I tried different ways of cooking these. I have done it the slow method for about 3 plus hours in the oven at 200F. They dry out very much like sun dried tomatoes. The other method is faster and leave the tomatoes little more juicier if you cook them at 350-375F for about 1 hour or even less. After they are cooked they could be placed in a container and covered with olive oil for storage in the refrigerator. You  will need 

• Roma tomatoes
• oil for baking sheet and for brushing eggplant
• salt
• pepper
• Herbs de Provence

These do not really need to be packed in oil, it is just an option for you and the tomatoes are better if they are reheated in the oven the next day.
The other appetiser is not very complicated either. The eggplants are sliced length vise, brushed with olive oil and broiled for few minutes. Once the eggplants are done, they get filled with mixture of garlic and cilantro.

• 2 large eggplants
• bunch of cilantro
• 1/4 c garlic cloves or less if that is too spicy for your taste
• 1/4 c olive oil (Extra virgin if you want extra flavor)
• additional oil for brushing the eggplants
• salt and pepper

Slice eggplants and salt generously the slices. I do not peel the eggplants so the end product looks nice. Let the salt draw out the water from the eggplants for up to 30 min. While the eggplant sits with salt, in small food processor make eggplant filling -cilantro pesto by blending cilantro, garlic, salt pepper and oil. The filling should not be too liquid but well blended paste, so add oil just enough for the ingredients to chop well together. Rinse and blot dry the slices with paper towel. Arrange eggplants on the oiled baking sheet you can try a non stick spray on foil, works to. Brush the top of the eggplant sliced with oil. This vegetable will absorb almost as much of the oil as you will give it, so do not overdo it, oil here is more for the flavor then cooking. Broil about 2/3 up from the bottom of the oven and not immediately under the element. I then closely watch the eggplant as it broils, for It can easily burn and cooks really fast. If you feel the need you could flip it over, but I usually do not. When it looks slightly brown and wilted it is ready. Send the next bunch in. Depending on the size of the eggplant, 2-3 baking sheets will get the job done.  Once the first batch is done fill the eggplants with cilantro paste while they are still warm, so that the flavors merry well. Spread about 1 tsp over the eggplant slice and roll it on itself and arrange the rolls on the serving plate.
I was told that these go great with vodka shots. But I like them by itself and with small piece of cream cheese or goat cheese, just do not plan on kissing without mint gum later on. Other then that, enjoy!

One Can Never Have Too Many Latkas

Since I love latkas and welcome the opportunity to make some I also try to come up with different varieties of latkas. These recipes have come out great.

3-4 large potatoes
3 eggs
1/4 c flour
2 tbsp of  subziash (Persian mix of dried parsley, leek and spinach)
1tsp slat and pepper
Potatoes are shredded on small shredding blade in a food processor and drained of excess liquid. I keep the starch that comes out with the liquid and put it back in the batter. The rest of the ingredients are mixed well with the shredded potatoes and subsequently fried in oil and drained on paper towel. Best when served hot with sour cream.
I love potatoes and pumpkin so I thought these  would go good together. See if you like this combo.
Here it was hard to approximate how much I was putting in, since pumpkins come in different sizes so after shredding the potato and pumpkin I weighed both. By volume shredded vegetables seemed to be the same. Here how they measured out to be.
2 large potatoes (approx 2 lbs)
1/2 of med pumpkin (approx 1.2lbs)
3 eggs
1/4 c flour
salt and pepper
After shredding with small blade both pumpkin and potato are drained and mixed well with the rest of the ingredients. The latkas are fried at slightly lower temperature of oil, to allow the pumpkin to cook through. Additional salt and pepper may be needed to taste. After I was done with half the batter, I decided to add something to it. I mixed in
1tsp of sumac and
3/4 tsp of paprika.
That added little more flavor to these and this version came out delicious, too. My kids and husband loved it and enjoyed for lunch with sour cream.

Latkes, Draniki, Deruny, Kartoffelpuffer, Bramborák etc.

It is Hanukkah time again and that means fried food. The holiday that celebrates the miracle of oil lasting for eight days even though there was only enough for one. So, oil is celebrated and it is the key element in the kitchen this time of the year, and the preferred food for frying is latkes. Latkas are not uniquely Jewish, in fact they seem to have been adopted. According to Wikipedia

Potato pancakes are commonly associated with traditional cuisines of Luxembourg (gromperekichelcher), Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Belarus (as draniki), Germany (f. ex. as Kartoffelpuffer), Poland (as placki ziemniaczane), Ukraine (as deruny), Ashkenazi Jewry (as latkes or latkas (Yiddish: לאַטקעס, Hebrew: לביבה levivah, plural לביבות levivot)), Hungary, Slovakia, Persia and the Czech lands (as bramborák or cmunda), although other cuisines (including those of India and Korea) have similar dishes, such as Gamjajeon. It is also the national dish of Belarus. In Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian cuisines, potato pancakes are commonly known as deruny (Ukrainian: деруни) or draniki (Russian: драники, Belarusian: дранікі). Throughout Germany, potato pancakes are also very common under the names Reibekuchen or Kartoffelpuffer, and they are eaten either salty (as a side dish) or sweet with apple sauce, sugar and cinnamon; they are a very common menu item during outdoor markets and festivals in colder seasons; a traditional favorite in southern Indiana during holiday festivities.

Note that more traditional latka is much thicker.

I think that this dish is more like hash browns then pancakes. The exception is my mom's recipe.
Most recipes I come across have all the liquid squeezed out of them, with adds to the crisp and crunch of  the final latkas. My mom's recipe is different. It still has the crunch but the texture and thickness is different. These come out very thin and soft in the middle with lacy and crispy edges and take very little flour. As a kid I remember, it was a long process of grating the potatoes by hand on fine grate and inevitably your hands would be scraped. The Russian name of latkas is draniki, roughly describes what happens to your hands in the process of preparing it. My grandma said if your hands are not scraped you did not make latkas, because it was not possible to came away undamaged.  It would also take some time to go through all of the potatoes, so by the last potato is done, the grated potatoes would have oxidized and turned purplish gray. I thought that was the right color.

These days my food processor gets the job done in no time. Before Hanukkah I get those huge baking potatoes at Costco and with that supply I get though latkes week just fine. For this recipe I use fine blade. Labeled A. 

1 very large potato
1 egg
1 tbsp of flour
1/2 tsp salt and pepper
Mix all ingredients after the potato is grated and cook in hot oil. You may need more salt and pepper after they are done. Once the edges turn golden brown I flip them and in about another minute they are ready. I place cooked pancakes on the paper towel, to drain excess oil.  
Latkas #1
Other more traditional latkas are done in much similar manner except that the potato is drained after being grated on blade A
3 large potatoes
3 eggs
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt and pepper.
Additional salt may be needed after cooking. I use large metal mesh colander to drain potatoes before mixing in eggs and flour in the batter. When they are fried they are thick and sometimes I try to level out the latkes on the frying pan so they are not so thick and high.  Drain cooked draniki on the paper towel. They are best  hot of the pan with a dollop of sour cream. Yes, it has become tradition in US to eat them with apple sauce, but growing up I never heard of such thing. It is blasphemy to me, this dish is best with sour cream!

Latkas #2

Another traditional latkas are done with exactly same recipe but shredded on a different blade and the potato again is drained after being grated on Blade C. That gives these latkes different texture and bigger crisp. This is much closer to hash browns then to pancake.
3 large potatoes
3 eggs
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt and pepper.
The process of cooking is much the same as in the previous recipe.

Latkas #3
Yet another classic recipe calls for addition of an onion to the mix. But the rest of the recipe is almost the same.
3 large potatoes
1 large onion
3 eggs
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt and pepper.

I first use the Blade B or C to shred the potato, then transfer it to drain. While that is draining, I switch the blade to regular double edge blade and blend together the onion and the rest of the ingredients. Once the batter is ready I transfer it to the bowl and add the drained potatoes then mix well. The rest of the cooking process is the same as in other recipes.
Eating same thing for a week will get boring even if you love potatoes and anything fried. So, to keep things interesting I think up different ways a recipes that I will add in the next post.

Chicken Spice Rub

There is a spice mix that I have came up with and have been using all this summer on chicken. I have done chicken on the grill and also baked it in the oven, as well as broiled it. Chicken comes out tender and flavorful. The mix is really easy to make. I use an old large spice container to mix and keep the leftover rub in. Once I run out I refill it by adding the ingredients to it. Sometimes I use table spoons to measure and if I do not need to  much I use teaspoons. Therefore I'm using equal parts as measurement.

2 parts each of:
Paprika
Sumac
 No-Salt Seasoning like Mrs Dash
1 parts each:
Celery salt
Curry powder
Ground mustard
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Turmeric
Cumin
Chili
Salt
1/2 part Allspice
optional dash of Smoke powder

I made chicken breast bone in, on the grill with this spice rub and it came out really tender and not at all dry, as sometimes happens with chicken breast.  I suspect that turmeric powder has tenderizing properties, or perhaps the curry powder does. In any case I do not  have the same effect when I use other spices on chicken. At our friends house this summer I made similar rub, he may have been short on some of the ingredients and I did not use all that are on the list. I covered chicken leg quarters in the spices and due to grill malfunction the chicken spent about 1 hour and 45 min on low heat under cover. The result was supper juicy and tender chicken parts that was falling of the bone and soon vanished of the plate. On another occasion I made 10 lbs of leg quarters and my co-workers enjoyed it at the weekly Sunday potluck. The top picture shows this recipe used for baked chicken.

When broiling I put the tray in the middle of the oven and not too close to the heating element. I believe that high heat seals in the juices as it cooks the meat through. This is sliced up chicken breast, that is still juicy after almost 30 min in the oven.

I have not tried this rub on beef, but I did on turkey. It definitively added a lot of flavor to turkey. I do not cook pork so if you try it on it let me know how it was.

Lecho or Lecsó

When I was growing up in Soviet Union we did not have a large variety of fresh fruits and vegetables through out the winter months. We did have carrots, potatoes, onion and occasional beet or cabbage. If we were to eat fruits and veggies in the winter it would have to be canned. A lot of people, my grand parents including, would  spend their summer time between the little plot of land that they were lucky to have and kitchen, canning the fruits (and vegetables) of their labor. I do not know where they got the strength and how they lived on 5 hrs of sleep in the summer, but if it was not done it was not there when you need it in the winter. A lot of people survived like that during Soviet era, - that's communism - or socialism for you.
My grandparents canned everything that they grew. We had apple compote; we were eating sour cherry dumpling in the middle of the winter, as well as many jams and vegetable spreads were consumed in the winter, thanks to the tireless work of my grandparents. Occasionally, you could buy vegetables in cans in the stores, but not large variety. For some reason, this one is particularly stuck in my mind. Not sure why, since it was never made by my grandma. Perhaps, it just stands out in my memory because it was not made by her as almost everything else was. In any case, this was labeled as either Hungarian, or Bulgarian dish and was common  in the diet of Soviet people. I do not know the recipe of the dish in the jar, but after some experimentation, I think I came up to something very close to it, except may be more delicious then I remember.
This recipe is really simple, not authentic and vegetarian in my version.

Here Lecho is soaking into a slice of sourdough

2 onions cut up in large dice
3-4 carrots sliced or cut
5-6 red, yellow or orange peppers cut in pieces
can of plain tomato sauce
2-3 table spoons of paprika
1/2 tbsp of salt 
1-2 tblsp oil
The rest is easy. In a large sauteing pot, add oil and to it all of the vegetables. Paprika, and salt sprinkled over and tomato sauce is added to it. Stir often and start with large flame under the pot, then when everything is uniformly mixed and seem to get along, bring the flame lower and cook for another  20-30 min. All of the veggies will be tender and soft. I suppose canned or fresh peeled tomatoes will go well instead of tomato sauce, I have even added catchup before, when it looked like all of the fluids evaporated and it looked too dry. This makes a nice side dish or goes well over rice and polenta.

Fried Green Tomatoes

The most predictable weather in the States is in the Bay Area, California, in my opinion. The temperature is fairly stable and not much of a pattern. Hot in the summer and rainy in the winter. Lot of South Bay residents I know grow their own tomatoes. Our backyards are shaded by the number of fruit trees. I have figs and persimmons, nectarine and guava, and get to try our neighbor's plums, apples, apricot and lots of other fruits. Ah, the joys of California's weather. This year however, I got cough by surprise by the sudden coming of fall weather. Well, I knew that autumn was approaching, it just came to suddenly, and it feels like it got colder in a day, not gradually. I think my tomatoes got cough off guard, too. I doubt that any green tomatoes will get to ripen on he vine. Well, that should not be an obstacle to good food. I always thing of the movie when I cook this dish. There are a lot of versions of this simple yet delicious recipe on the net.

5 large green tomatoes thickly sliced

3 eggs

1/2 c milk

1 c flour

1 c bread crumbs or panko or corn flake crumbs, or a mix of any of those 

salt & black pepper

vegetable oil for frying

Optional favorite spices, like Italian seasoning ad Mrs Dash,  could be added to the flour. Sliced tomatoes are dredged in flour, then dipped in mixture of eggs and milk, then coated in bread crumbs and fried in oil. About 5 at a time are submerged half way in oil. Once one side is browned, the tomato slices are flipped over. That takes about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Place on the plate that is paper towel lined. I like to keep those worm in my toaster oven, they are better crunchy, so do not heat in the microwave.