1/4 c. mint
1/2 c. rice wine vinegar (use raw acv to make this recipe raw)
1/4 c. honey
salt
pepper
combine
then slowly whisk in 1/3 c. oil (whatever oil you like to use for dressings)
eat on salads, vegetables, lamb, fruit salad, rice and beans, roasted fish, pork, or anything else you can dream of! how about a cucumber and tomato salad with mint dressing as a topping for falafel or burgers? a three-bean salad with mint dressing? spooned on top of green peas?
Peanuts: 1/2 cup
Fresh Mint Leaves: 1/2 cup, packed
Onion: 1 large sized
Green Chillies: 6
Tamarind Extract : 1 tbsp or as needed
Salt to taste
Oil: 2 tsp
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Mustard Seeds: 1/2 tsp
Urad Dal: 1/2 tsp
Cumin Seeds: 1/4 tsp
Hing (asafoetida): 1/8 tsp
Oil: 1 tsp
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1. Heat a heavy bottomed pan on a medium heat, slowly roast the peanut to golden brown color. Cool and rub the skins off.
2. Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions and slit green chillies. (If you’re raw or don’t eat onions, throw in some fresh raw garlic, or maybe a little fresh lime juice!)
3. Fry the onions until light brown color. Take them out of the pan and set aside.
4. In the same pan, add the mint leaves and fry for 3 – 4 minutes and turn off the flame and allow it to cool.
5.Grind the roasted peanuts, tamarind pulp, sauteed onions, sauteed mint and some salt to a smooth paste by adding a little water.
6. Transfer the chutney into a bowl and keep it aside.
7. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pan for seasoning. Add the mustard seeds and urad dal and let them splutter.
8. When the seeds stop popping, add the hing and stir for a few seconds and turn off the heat.
9. Pour the tempered ingredients over the chutney and combine well. Serve with idli, dosa, ponga, or upma – or rice, veggies, meat, salad, or whatever else you can dream up!
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adapted from blend with spices
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I made a few alterations to this. First of all, I drastically decreased the amount of hot pepper, since a dinner guest was sensitive to spice. I also left out the asafoetida. This chutney is AMAZING. I served it alongside rice with chickpeas, dried fruit, and herbs, but I think this could potentially go with anything. It’s that perfect something to add when dinner needs a boost. I’m going to make a huge batch of this. I think it would be good on anything – cooked veggies or meat, cold salads – even just as a dip for raw veggies! Ground with a little extra water, this could make an amazing sauce, too. Highly recommended.
roast
leeks
carrots
potatoes
sweet potatoes
beets
onions
anything else in the world
in this dressing:
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½ lemon, zested and juiced
1 tsp mustard (not yellow hot dog mustard!)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
a few pepper corns, roughly crushed
salt to taste
1 tbsp honey (optional)
herbs, like rosemary or tarragon, whatever you like (optional)
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these ingredients together also makes a perfect salad dressing, with a few splashes of homemade fruit vinegar or whatever vinegar is your favorite.
i’d also bet it makes a great chicken marinade.
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adapted from this
Tahini Sauce: (theneh طحينة)
tahini (~4 T)
juice of half a lemon
salt
water
crushed garlic (opt.)
Add the tahini, lemon juice to a bowl and start mixing with a spoon. The mixture will become stiff and light in colour. Add a little water and mix again. Add the water small amount at a time until the mixture loosens to the consistency you want. It needs to be fairly loose but not water-runny. Add salt to taste.
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Yogurt and Tahini sauce: (Laban wa theneh لبن و طحينة)
This combination is mainly used as a base of many Syrian dishes; Mutabal, Ful bi Laban, Fatteh to name a few.
I occasionally use this combination as a side sauce instead of the pure tahini sauce described above. It is easier to eat as yogurt adds a nice tangy flavour that balance the heaviness of the tahini. I always serve this version with Lahmeh bil saniyeh.
Greek style yogurt 300g
tahini (~3 T)
lemon
salt
To make the sauce whisk together the yogurt and tahini. Add salt and lemon to taste. If the sauce is too thick, loosen with some water.
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Taratour: (طرطور)
thin the above tahini sauce and add “loads of chopped parsley”
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Yogurt and cucumber: (Laban wa khiyar لبن و خيار)
Every country of the Levant and all the neighboring territories have their own version of the famous Tzatziki. This is the Syrian one. In its native countries Tzatziki is usually used as an accompaniment unlike the Western interpretation of serving it as a dip.
In Syria we serve Laban wa Khiyar as a side sauce for “dry” rice and Bulgar pilaf. By dry I mean dishes with the grains as the main ingredient without a vegetable stew on the side. Riz bi Bazalia (Peas rice pilaf) Riz bi Ful (Broad bean rice pilf) and Burgul bi Ful (Broad bean Bulgar pilaf) are some delicious examples.
Yogurt 300g
One cucumber
Salt
Lemon
Garlic one clove
Dry mint 1tsp
Peel and finely chop the cucumber. Add the yogurt, dry mint and crushed garlic. Mix well and add salt and lemon to taste. Thin the mixture with some water if required to get the right consistency.
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from syrian foodie
1 very large red or yellow bell pepper, deseeded
¾ cup cherry or roma tomatoes
¼ cup sundried tomatoes
1 Tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
a sprig of fresh oregano
a few sprigs of fresh basil
2 dates or honey to taste
blend
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adapted from here
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EDIT:
today’s fantastic herbed tomato-”cream” raw pasta sauce:
a fistful of sundried tomatoes, soaked for four or six hours
a fistful of cashews, soaked for four or six hours
a huge pinch of fresh oregano
a fistful of fresh basil
a few cloves of garlic
a few turnip greens
a fistful of other assorted fresh herbs
three big locally grown heirloom tomatoes
two locally grown red peppers
a squeeze of lime juice
two pinches of salt
a dash of oil (olive, nut oils, whatever)
The Best Chimichurri
adapted by csagourmet from Michael Chiarello
1 bunch fresh flat leaf parsley (twist off and discard the tougher stems at the bottom)
1 handful fresh cilantro (not tougher stems at the bottom)
2 Tbsp. fresh oregano (measured as full leaves, not chopped)
2 medium-large cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 c. red wine vinegar (get good stuff, there’s no cooking here)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
3/4 c. extra virgin olive oil (again, get the good stuff)
Put all ingredients except olive oil in a food processor. Purée. Slowly stream in olive oil with the food processor running.
this recipe sounds perfect – super fast, incredibly easy, no-cook, 5 ingredient dipping sauce!
1/4 cup blue cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons heavy cream
zest of one Orange
zest of one lemon
made this for a friend with little bites of fried popcorn chicken, and she asked if i could make her a tub of this sauce to keep in the fridge.
the best part is that it takes less than five minutes to prepare.
this was created as a dipping sauce for fried food, but it’s healthy and could be used as anything from a pasta sauce to a topping for sauteed vegetables – maybe even a soup base (?)
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fry a fat pinch of minced ginger and garlic in oil for a few minutes
add prepared tomato sauce, a little lime juice, two pinches of five-spice powder (or blend your own with anise, fennel, pepper, clove, and cinnamon), and some gochujang (korean hot pepper paste – you can use homemade pepper paste, too!)
cook until flavors combine (only a few minutes)
this takes the cake for SUPER-FAST, easy, impossible to mess up, cheap, and versatile. add only what you’ve got in your cabinet and it’ll be wonderful.
no need to be exact – just a splash of this and splash of that.
substitute away; the only truly necessary ingredients are the first few.
cooked noodles
a splash of oil, butter, ghee, or fat
peanut butter
soy sauce
lime juice
ginger
cayenne
garlic
miso
cooking sherry
sesame seeds
chunks of mostly-cooked broccoli, raw snap peas, or whatever you like
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bored of the same old noodles? try adding:
rice wine vinegar and honey for a sweet-and-sour
leftover veggies
hoisin
crunched-up whole peanuts (or other nuts)
coconut milk
a raw version with raw zucchini ‘noodles’, raw grated carrots, and raw soaked and pureed peanuts-cashews-and-lime-juice (i’ve never done this. in fact i just invented it. but i bet it’s amazing, and i can guarantee i’m not the first person to think of it.)
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combine all ingredients except noodles in a pot. cook until smooth and combined.
toss with noodles.
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other peoples’ peanut sauces?
&& fried peanuts, gula jawa (palm sugar), garlic, shallot, ginger, tamarind, lemon juice, lemongrass, salt, chilli, pepper, sweet soy sauce, ground together and mixed with water
&& a thai-style peanut sauce recipe
a good old-fashioned american recipe. by “american”, i mean, does tamale pie really count as mexican? neither tamale nor pie, i told my friend we’d have to call it something different. nothing quite sounds right, though. rice-and-beans cornbread pie? poblano-pork cornbread-lasagna con salsa verde? who cares; it’s good. not quick, but very easy.
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i miss the tamale guy. i no longer live in a city. i am not going to simmer pork cheeks all day. a tamale craving out in the country? this will have to do.
here’s what i actually did:
PORK AND POBLANO TAMALE PIE___
(my version)
==green enchilada sauce:
a can of mild green chiles
half-can of hot jalapenos
a carrot
a head of roasted garlic
a roasted poblano
a raw yellow pepper (any bell pepper is fine)
cilantro (key, but i’m somehow out – used it all for kofta curry meatballs last night. used some raw mixed greens like arugala instead.)
a great deal of onion (houseguest refuses, so we’re going without, and it still smells wonderful)
cumin
coriander
oregano
a kiwi (wait, what? well, no tomatillos; why not?)
salt
a splash of lime juice
two drops of fish sauce
stick all that in the food processor and grind it up.
fix up some stock or bouillon and dump the ground-up veg matter (which should smell and taste amazing) into the stock. add a pat of lard if you have a greasy bacon-juice jar in the back of your fridge.
boil a while. some say an hour. you can stick it in a slow cooker if you have one – i don’t. really i’m guessing any amount of time is fine – even raw if you really wanted to. why not?
==pork
salt and brown a few pork steaks and chop em up into little bite-sized pieces.
next, you want to boil the pork steaks in the green sauce. i added a half-cup rice, a half-cup black lentils, and two cups water to the pork and green sauce and cooked it all together. i don’t know how long. until they are cooked? a while.
==cornbread topping
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal (preferably whole-grain stone-ground)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
cumin
coriander
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1 tablespoon honey
a bunch of cheese
half a can of corn
= the process
butter a pan and line it with pork-and-rice-and-chile-sauce mixture.
crack a few eggs on top.
you are layering these, by the way.
pour cornbread mixture on top of that.
grate tons of cheese on top of that.
bake at 400 until cornbread’s done.
tweaked a recipe i originally found here
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8:24pm
smell-wise:
so far, so good.
green sauce is bubbling on the stove and smells wonderful. i’ll add meat in another moment or two.
10:15pm
the whole thing’s in the oven. smells wonderful in here.
3/11
we finished it for breakfast. awesome, although i don’t know how much more special it is than rice and beans with cheesy cornbread on the side. will make this again.
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