For starters there is
Chickpea with tabbouleh....a high protein source for the finely chopped parsley, mint, tomato( seeds removed), and cucumber ( peeled and de-seeded), fresh mint from my garden, moist Bulgar wheat ( cracked husked wheat berries), extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Served with curly lettuce leaves
The salad will be mixed with the dressing at the client's home.
I prefer my tabbouleh without onion, if you want to add onion it is better to chop it then rinse it in running fresh water to remove the strong flavors otherwise it will spoil the salad.
When I worked in Kuwait ( and Europe for the Kuwaiti family)I had to make bowls of this every day, sometimes at 2am for snacking.
Once dressed it has to be eaten as the lemon juice and oil oxidize the fresh herbs turning them black,also the herbs have to be washed well the allowed to dry very well.
Season with cracked pepper and sea salt as needed.
Minestrone soup...the key to this soup is that there is no real recipe, the housewives of Genoa, Italy just make a good broth then add whatever vegetables/herbs are available that season, sometime even not using tomatoes.
I prefer to add my pasta pre-cooked then it does not soak up all the good liquid.
Some great Minestrone's are greens with beans and fresh herbs or finished with pesto.
Entrees:
From Iran...baked stuffed red peppers...with basmatti rice ( turmeric, chopped parsley, pine nuts, green peas, tarragon) Originally it was made with lentils but one of my clients has had her Gall Bladder out and cannot digest legumes.
These I am baking in a tomato-oregano-tarragon sauce and adding grated cheese for them to continue cooking at home.
A side dish from India of curly kale stir steamed ( orig. stir fried but client has to cut down on fat intake) with fresh ginger root and green chili's..I will probably use 1/2 a own grown habanero pepper.
Red Chard with flax seeds and sherry...recipe orig.from Japan, I am adding sherry in place of sake, and flax seeds in place of sesame oil..another stir-steamed dish for same client.
For dessert:
An own dried organic currant ( grapes grown by another client in her garden in Venice California, and dried in the summer sun in my back garden this year) *sour dough bread..a great bread toasted and slathered with butter.
*The sour dough starter I use is 6yrs old now and was grown from a home grown apple and some of the grapes from last year.
A sweet potato - pecan loaf (cake).. an Old American South recipe combining Pecans from the "New World" and white sweet potatoes from Africa and spices from the Far East.. a very moist and delicious cake
Also cinnamon-raisin oatmeal cookies..when I lived in Norway in the early 70's the local baker made every dessert/cookie/"Danish" pastry with sugar and cinnamon..this is my "homage" to him...a wide variety of goodies but they all contained ground cinnamon in some way, delicious never the less.
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| Zucchini, celery and corn for the soup, carrots, red peppers, tomatoes for the Iranian dish |
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| Red chard, the stems removed for the leaves as they will be cooked first |
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| Parsley and lettuces for the salad |
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| Carrots, cucumber for the salad and sweet potatoes for the Iranian dish |
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| Curly kale..the stems are tender |
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| Sweet potatoes, small new potatoes for the minestrone, carrots for the soup and Iranian dish |
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| Lettuces and parsley for the salad |
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