The Best of Middle Eastern Food

 The Middle East has always been beset by conflict through the millennia. This overshadows the region's amazing array of both savory and sweet dishes.It's a shame because the recipes are so good and delicious. They should be the topic of conversation not war.

One of the tastiest (and my favorite )is za'arar. This is a mix of dried thyme, oregano, marjoram and cumin along with sumac cumin and coriander.OLive oil is added to create to create a smooth pesto like paste it can be made at home or bought at your store's spice section.You could easily use dry za'atar on chicken or steak  for a flavorful roast .It CNA be spooned in egg dishes or vegetable sautes tot. However the best way to enjoy the melding of herbs is over hot , crispy  fresh from the oven pita bread. It's sort of like a green pizza but with so much more flavor. Another delicious dish is tabouli.This is a salad consisting of chopped parsley , cucumbers and bulgur. Chopped scallions , tomatoes and garlic are also added. A dressing of olive oil, lemon coriander and cinnamon are whisked together.To give it cooling notes a handful of chopped mint tops off the tabouli.Serve with pita wedges or on its' own.Shawarma finishes off the Middle Eastern meal. This is roasted layers of lamb and beef and served with different sauces like tahini and garlic yogurt.

There are also sweets that shine in Middle Eastern cuisine.Baklava is made all over the eastern Mediterranean (including Greece).It is a labor intensive bake but so m=worth the work/It's ;Ayers of thin, crackly phyllo dough that can be made at home or bought. The layers are filled with ground pistachios and cinnamon The nuts are found in a blender or food processor and they and the spice are blended together . The phyllo dough has to be brushed with melted butter and then layered with the filling. At the end , the dough is scored into diamond shapes and baked in a 160 degree Farenheit oven. A sauce of honey, vanilla extract and lemon juice is made, cooked down into a syrup. This is poured over the cooled baklava and then served. Palestinian desserts , whether Muslim or Christian have religious meaning. Take Barbara named for Saint Barbara , whose resting place was a small village near Ramalleh.It looks a little like rice pudding but is made with wheat and different spices like anise and cinnamon.Raisins are added for texture.

The Middle East should be known for its' food not it;s conflicts. The world is missing out on delicious flavors molded together in tasty recipes. These should be known  and enjoyed

The Breakfast Book For You

Breakfast is undeniably the best meal of the day. That explains why we have brunch , and the evening meal breakfast for dinner.Now there's a new book that  has all things first meal. It's a recip e book, history book, and encyclopedia all in one. It is the epitome of  breakfast.

Breakfast :The Most Important Book About The Best Meal Of The Day (Oxmoor House Publishing 2018)was compiled and written by the editors at Extra Crispy, a blog about what else - breakfast. The site is rife with celebrity interviews and where to find the best hot chocolate along with recipes on how to turn leftover tinned popcorn into breakfast.It's a fresh approach to eating fun, healthy and/or traditional and the book also reflects that.I love this book.It has a plethora of really good recipes along with the why of what we eat in the morning  or afternoon  or evening. The history of the egg is fascinating, starting with the CroMagnons. Another interesting section, written by Jim Behrle. is the one on Taylor ham, why it's call what it is and why we cook it with four slits in it. Following it is an essay on livermush, a North Carolingian breakfast specialty. Coffee and , especially cappuccino affectionados will love the chart detailing the amount of espresso, milk and foam that go into our must have morning joes. There is also an excellent section on the mimosa, that ubiquitous brunch must have along with eight variations on it.Contributors have also written reminiscences about the breakfasts that defined their childhoods along with an eye opening essay on Anita Bryant, she of orange juice and old fashioned homophobia fame.

What about the recipes themselves? There are so many that I am going to try during this holiday season and well afterwards. I love the advice for making the perfect poached egg. There is also the perfect Hollandaise sauce to go with them, explained with such exactness that it'll be your go to recipe for this delicious , lemony sauce. The chart for five easy  smoothie recipes will come in handy for those who want a healthy "green" start to the day. All of them just have five ingredients which makes for an easy blend.Then there are the decadent Dutch babies, those puffy oven baked pancakes that feed four or five. Want more baked goodness? The Extra Crispy writers have a chapter on such tasty AM classics as DIY toaster strudel, made with phyllo dough and sticky toffee cinnamon rolls, based on the English sticky toffee pudding. Home bakers will love the recipes for buttery brioches and old fashioned fruit filled muffins. International breakfasts are also featured here.Dal pakwan ,a  fiery standard in Indian household would be perfect on a cold winter's morn along with the yeasty, sweet Shibuya honey toast, popular in Chinese and Taiwanese households. The best recipe by far is their take on a gingerbread house constructed out of Pop Tarts and decorated with a variety of breakfast cereals.

Breakfast  The Most Important Book About The Best Meal Of The Day is the must have holiday gift for breakfast lovers and foodies alike. It is informative and entertaining. Best of all it is chock full of yummy recipes that you can create for any meal, breakfast lunch or dinner!

A New Writer

The New York Times Food section has a new writer. Yotam Ottalenghi has joined the staff and with him will undoubtedly come interesting and fun recipes. Today's article will be no different with his spins on dessert. He gives cooking and creating an exotic vibe - perfect for the multicultural and always exciting Food section.

Chef Ottolenghi is much more than a cook. He's an entrepreneur. Visit his website and be dazzled by what's sold there. There are handmade heart shaped lollipops, seaweed and lavoosh  a kind of Armenian bread. There is also  a whole section of recipes.from starters to vegetarian from desserts to savory. His is a website that's hard to leave. He is a Jerusalem-born chef who studied at the London based Le Cordon Bleu and started with the first Ottolenghi deli n Knightsbridge, His cooking and recipes are a combination of Middle eastern, Syrian, Israeli, Armenian Lebanese, Turkish and Iranian. His cookbooks, such as Jerusalem reflect this with its' recipes of life. Today his premiere article is all about desserts and they have a Middle Eastern vibe. He promises more and more recipes with ingredients such as tahini along with spices and lemons, staples of Eastern Mediterranean cooking.Save his will be for interesting desserts to give dinners a  real eye opening finish.

Today's recipes are different, and not your typical dessert ones. Chef Ottalenghi gives us a refreshing granita. Like many Middle eastern desserts,it has rose petals along with pomegranate seeds and Pom juice.Mint is added for a refreshing bite. It's cooking everything down into a syrup and then straining it. As with a coffee granita, the liquid is frozen for two to three hours.a fork is used to separate the clumps and then  it'refrozen for two more hours. It's then scraped again  with the fork times being dragged across the top. This process is repeated  until the liquid is frozen into separate crystals throughout  which will take an extra eight to ten hours.Another  exotic sweet is pastry nests with poached pears, feta and saffron cream. This is an exotic take on classic poached pears with the nests made from kataifi pastry. or shredded phylo dough, These are spaghetti like strands that nestle the fruit. The pear , itself, is poached with such spices as cardamon , cinnamon, star anise, and a pinch of saffron. The saffron is also  added to the cream made with feta and a mix of mascarpone cheese and heavy cream.Slivered pistachios are aprinkled on top for crunch and texture.

Chef Ottolenghi is going to be a fun and fascinating fixture at the Food section. He'll bring a new vibe to dessert making, infusing classic recipes with a Middle eastern vibe. It'll be not just delicious sweets but ones full of flavor too.