Black lime chile spice mix

A mainstay of Persian cooking, black limes (aka noomi basra; limoo amani; and loomi)  are fresh limes blanched in salt water (which means they are briefly scalded in boiling water before being plunged into freezing water) and left to dry until they're rock hard, resulting in golf size, brown to black coloured balls with a brittle texture that easily yields itself to a grinder.  You can find them in most Middle Eastern grocery stores.

They are traditionally used whole to flavour stews and spices. I created this rub because I wanted to take advantage of the funky citrus flavour but to use on roasted and bbq meats.

I used dried sugar rush peach chiles because they are my favourite and I have a lot of them but you can use a medium chile powder or any other dried chiles instead depending on the heat you prefer. If using super hot chiles, I’d just use one.

Yield: about ¾ cup

Ingredients

4 dried black limes (aka limoo aman or noomi basra)

3 dried sugar rush peach chiles (or 1-2 tsp chile powder)

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried mint

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground turmeric

Method:

If using whole dried chiles, remove the stems of the chiles and grind to a fine powder in a spice or coffee grinder. Put into a small non-reactive bowl.

 

Crack open the black limes – I used a small kitchen mallet – and remove any seeds. Grind the limes to a fine powder. Add to the chile powder in bowl.

Add all the other ingredients to the bowl. I tend to grind spices as needed so cinnamon was also ground and parsley and mint crushed from whole before adding to the bowl.

Mix it all together and store in an airtight glass container. Store in a cool dry place and it should retain its potency for a few months.

Great as a rub on roasts or grilled meats – just add a few tablespoons to some olive oil and rub on the meat.

Also a great addition to soups, stews, and even popcorn.

 

 ©️ Gail J. Cohen 2022

Garden fresh gazpacho

This year I planted green pepper basil in my garden. It is exactly as you can imagine - green leafy plant that tastes like a mix of basil and green peppers. I had never seen it before and didn't really know what to do with it but wanted to use it...so the combination of many ripe tomatoes and this new fangled green pepper basil led to the following gazpacho recipe.

I also didn't feel like cooking. This whole operation took about 10 minutes including picking things in the garden.

Green pepper basil

Yield: 2 large servings

Ingredients

1 beefsteak tomato
1/4 white onion
1/3 English cucumber
1/3 red pepper
2 green basil leaves
1/2 garlic clove
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of salt

Basically cut all the vegetables up a bit then put it all into a blender with the vinegar, oil, and salt. Waz it up for about 30 seconds - you still want a bit of chunkiness in your soup. Check the seasoning and add salt or more vinegar to suit your taste.

Serve and enjoy.

© 2018 Gail J Cohen

Stuffed zucchini

This recipe is a bit of a variation on stuffed zucchini that my mom has made since I was a little kid. I love potatoes and think that little cubes of it are fantastic in this rich and lemony tomato sauce, so I added them and the mint and chile flakes to zip it up a bit.

You can make this dish vegan by skipping the ground beef and using more rice and more of the zucchini innards for your stuffing. You an also add some slices of eggplant to the sauce to give it more texture. (Be sure to salt them first).

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 fat zukes

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tomatoes, sliced thickly

1 cup passata

250 g ground beef

3 tbsp chopped parsley

1/3 cup cooked rice

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 potatoes, cut into small cubes

2 tbsp chopped fresh mint

Pinch of chile flakes

Juice of half a lemon

4 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Carefully cut the zukes in half and scoop out the inside. Be careful to get as much of the flesh as you can but not to make any holes in the skin. Roughly chop and then reserve the pulp. Put the zukes aside.

To prepare the filling, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a medium-sized frying pan. Add half the onions and sautee for a few minutes until they start to turn brown. Add half the garlic and sautee for another minute.

Add the ground beef to the pan and brown. Add the tomato paste, about 1/3 of the chopped zucchini pulp, rice, mint, parsley, chile flakes, salt and pepper. Then add about 1/3 cup of water so your tomato paste has enough liquid to mix well into the other ingredients. Cook the whole mixture for about 10-12 minutes until it’s just cooked.  Put aside to cool.

In a large, flat-bottom oven-proof pot (it needs to be big enough to lay out your zukes as well as go in the oven), heat up the remainder of the olive oil. Sautee onions and garlic as above.

Turn the heat down to med-low. Carefully add the passata so you don’t get splattered. Lay the tomato slices (and eggplant if you're using it) on the bottom of the pot, add the rest of the chopped zucchini pulp, lemon juice, potato cubes, salt, and pepper. Bring to the boil.

In the meantime, take the cooled filling and carefully spoon it into the zucchini shells.

Place the stuffed zukes on top of the vegetable mixture in the pot and reduce the temperature to low.Simmer covered for about 20 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 350F.  After 20 minutes, turn off the burner and remove the cover from the pot. Put the pot in the oven uncovered to cook for about another 20 minutes. 

When it's ready, the dish should be a bit brown on top, and the veggies (particularly the potaotoes) all soft. Depending on the water content of the zukes, you may want to remove them from the sauce and boil it down for a thicker sauce or just serve it as is.

Serve with rice, smothered in the rich cooking sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.

© Gail J. Cohen 2018

10 things to tickle your tastebuds: Mediterranean edition

Recently returned from two weeks visiting the European countries along the Mediterranean. Beautiful seafood, everything so fresh. We ate in lots of markets, restaurants, bars, and on the street. Of course, wine and coffee are amazing practically anywhere so I don't touch on those but here are a few food highlights and suggestions in no particular order!

1. Lemon-based foods in southern Italy. The lemons that grow in Sicily, Naples, Sorrento and other areas in the south of Italy are just amazing. Even had a dish of meatballs wrapped in the leaves of lemon trees that was out of this world. But a real standout was a candy store  called Confettie e Agrumetti that we happened on in Sorrento that makes in-house “confetti alla crema lemoncedro,” which is basically a beautiful little sweet that is lemon cream wrapped in lemon candy shell. OMG!

2. Something with squid ink, just because black teeth at the table are sexy! And those who live in seaport actuallly know what to do with squid ink. In Valetta, Malta, there’s a little family run spot that serves a wicked tagliatelle neri agli scampi. It was super seafoody and definitely a unique flavour. In Barcelona, squid ink risotto was much the same but with a lot less chance of getting squid ink all over your shirt when you’re eating it.

3. Cured meats: I am sure for all time there will be a debate over whether prosciutto di Parma ham, or jamon Iberico is better. I’m putting my vote in for the Spanish version. Every time I ate the jamon, it melted in the mouth. In Italy, it was a lot more varied and often quite tough. Spanish salami also won the day for me over its Italian counterparts although to be fair I probably only tried a dozen or so of the hundreds of types of salami available in Italy.

4. Fresh cheese: ricotta, mozarella, buratta. Some are made with cow’s milk and some with the milk from water buffalos. Either way, fresh cheese anywhere in Italy is spectacular. One of the best was a little pat of ricotta that we were given as the amuse bouche before lunch at a Roscioli in Rome. But it doesn’t matter where you get it from if it’s made fresh because it will be simply amazing.

 
5. Calissons in Aix-en-Provence. Marzipan is a beautiful thing and the confectioners of Aix have been making these traditional sweets since the 15th century. The method for making them, like champagne, has been made “official” since 1991. The almond-shaped sweet has a base of almond-and-dried fruit paste topped with a layer of royal icing. A one-bite wonder that is surprisingly not too sweet.

6. Olive oil: Every country along the Mediterranean makes its own olive oil and claims its is the best. Again, I vote for Spanish olive oil over most of the others European nations but it’s worth trying some of the local organic olive oil no matter where you are. They are all different and you never know when you’ll hit on a spectacular one as we did in a small little shop in Arles, France where we found one from the Vallée des Baux de Provence that was made with mature black olives and had a very unique and deep flavour. Oh yeah, also just eat lots of olives.

7. Shrimp/scampi: Particularly in the tapas bars of Barcelona, you can have these gifts of the sea prepared many ways. One tapas bar served  whole fried spicy red shrimp. Now they were a bit finicky because they were deep fried with the head and shell on but the flavour was out of this world. A good tapas place will likely offer up a whole lot of shrimp options. Likely none will disappoint.

8. Ocotopus. The more tentacles the better my friend Michael always says. Often when you order octopus, it ends up being very rubbery but when the experts who live by the sea make it, you won’t be disappointed. Char grilled with just a bit of lemon and garlic sauce is my favourite.

9. Gelato. It’s good almost anywhere in Italy, where there are also a whole lot of artisinal gelaterias that have popped up. In Rome, there was one worth a long, long walk in the rain: Romana, which is quite near the Termini Station but not near to much else! Perhaps the best pistachio gelato I’ve ever had, and I have had a lot. Amorino Gelato in Valetta serves its gelato in the shape of a flower, which is darn cool.

10.  Gyro sandwiches, or as we like to call them, french-fry sandwiches. Beautiful, herby lamb or chicken cooked on the upright spit, sliced off, and made into a pita sandwich with tomatoes, garlicky tzatziki, and, of course, a few french fries. They’re available from street side vendors all over Athens. Follow it up with a bit of luscious baklava from a local bakery. It’s just better because you’re buying it in Greece.