marinated olives and feta

Got a “salt tooth”? This is definitely in the top five fastest, easiest, impossible-to-mess-up, quickest appetizers that makes you feel like an extremely wealthy person. There is something about this that feels extremely rich and fancy. Pretend you’re at a rich person’s dinner party after TEN minutes of effort, AND you still get to wear sweatpants.

I love and crave olives. Sometimes I get cheapo green olives stuffed with pimentos, usually for a recipe like pastelón or a bloody mary party. They’re around $2 from the dollar store or a discount food store, and much easier to find than a fancy oil-cured olive. If you have a discount warehouse in your area, like Costco, you might be surprised how affordable even a really nice olive like a Castelvetrano can be in bulk.

I was expecting this recipe to be okay, more of a way to use up leftover olives than anything else. I was NOT expecting this to be my new favorite thing. Feta is increasingly outside of my budget – but happily, Aldi still carries a $3 brick of feta in brine. That means this “appetizer” is under $5 to make. Why did I put appetizer in quotes? Well…… I started making this recipe around a year and a half ago, and in that time I used an entire industrial-sized bucket of olives. This isn’t just a good recipe. It’s truly great.

---

I didn’t measure any of this – it’s not really that kind of recipe – but I’ll include the measurements from the original from Bone Apple Teeth in case you’re a measurer. (Double the recipe if you’re sharing this for dinner!)

4 oz olives
3 garlic cloves
1 lemon, peeled into strips
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes
3 oz brick feta (not crumbles)

Smash the garlic cloves and olives, remove peel from lemon in wide strips, add every ingredient except for the feta to a saucepan and “sizzle” over medium-low heat for five to ten minutes or until your kitchen smells quite garlicky.

Add feta, crumbled into large chunks, into a jar. Pour the mixture over the feta. Let sit for an hour, if you are patient enough.

Pro tip: if you refrigerate it and the oil goes semi-solid, just leave the mixture (still in the jar, or in a small bowl) on top of your toaster oven as you toast some bread, and the ambient heat will melt the oil.

Transfer mixture to a small bowl, dunk your bread in there, and enjoy!

---

recipe written and created by Claire Saffitz from Bone Apple Teeth

---

If you’re not into bread, I *highly* recommend this as a salad dressing. (I’ve had it for lunch, served over greens, several times over the past few weeks. Add some grains like cracked wheat or quinoa and it’s filling!) If that sounds too healthy, you can use this as a pasta sauce, use cold as a dressing for a grain salad like farro or spelt, eat with baked or fried fish or even use as a dressing for canned tuna, or serve with roasted veggies. This would be amazing dumped over some ratattouille, thrown on top of a white bean stew, or even as a dressing for potato salad.

---

Is it low-sodium? No. Is it heart-healthy? Sure! Harvard Medical School says that a diet rich in olive oil is associated with longevity, and the Cleveland Clinic says that olives are a great source of vitamin E, fiber, and may even reduce your cholesterol and high blood pressure. Did I check the validity of the studies quoted by these medical experts? Nope! Would I eat this even if it was associated with negative health outcomes? Yes! Nobody can keep me away from this meal I have been consistently craving.

Enjoy!

chinese sesame paste dressing

trying to get some vegetables back into my diet… salads last week with marinated mushrooms and balsamic vinaigrette were great, so this week maybe i’ll toss some cucumbers and radishes in this for lunch.

+

this recipe is from the book phoenix claws and jade trees by kian lam kho

+

2 T chinese toasted sesame paste* + 2 T water
1 t toasted sesame oil
1 t chile oil (optional)
1 t white rice vinegar
1 large clove or 2 small cloves garlic
1/2 t salt
1/2 t sugar

stir together and let sit at least ten minutes before using

* = i don’t have this but omnivore’s cookbook suggested 1 part tahini, 1 part peanut butter, and a drizzle of toasted sesame oil as a substitution

+

modified from the highly recommended cookbook phoenix claws and jade trees by kian lam kho

+

fantastic – fast and easy peanut sauce with a great sesame flavor

smoked oyster caesar dressing

The first tinned fish that I liked was, strangely, smoked clams. While sardines and anchovies always smelled too strong, the smoke flavor overpowered the fishiness. From there, my appreciation for tinned fish grew. I found that, when blended into sauces, I couldn’t even detect the fishiness. From there, I started adding fish sauce to my soup, stew, stir-fry, to bone broth snacks…

I am trying to work up to the point where I can snack on my mom’s herring in sour cream sauce with her. Ty and her sardine sandwiches are a great inspiration. I’m not there yet.

Until then, here’s a dressing that looks ten feet tall. Nothing subtle about this. Sounds perfect.

+

2 egg yolks
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1-2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 3.7-ounce can smoked clams or oysters packed in oil & drained

In a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, or in a blender, pulse the egg yolks, lemon juice, Dijon, garlic, salt, and Worcestershire until thoroughly combined. With the machine running, add the vegetable oil very slowly to make an emulsified dressing. Then add the smoked clams or oysters.

Serve with romaine hearts, lots of black pepper, and pecorino romano cheese for a caesar salad, or pour on anything – it’ll keep for a week in the fridge.

 

+

adapted from Justin Warner’s smoked oyster caesar recipe

+

edit 1/2016

Well, it’s certainly powerful. It makes me want to try to make a traditional caesar with anchovy to see how it compares. This has been good on mashed rutabegas and leftover turkey. It’s not exactly bad or good. It’s just its own thing. I wouldn’t exactly recommend you serve this to picky guests. It’s… a lot. Really. Very fishy.

I cut the salt in half (to 1 tsp) when I made it, and I love salty food. 1 tsp made it plenty salty. I adjusted the recipe to reflect this. Tread with caution.

strawberry dressing

maybe you are in a part of the world that isn’t frozen – or maybe you’re reading this in the heat of the summer.

this will be an attempt to:
1. break the monotony of my favorite dressings that i can’t stop making
2. bring a little summer to this wildly cold day

also a great way to use up the strawberries in your garden or fridge that are right on the edge of too soft to eat.

+

a cup of strawberries, or however many you have
1/3 c olive oil, or other nice dressing oil, like walnut
1 tsp balsamic, or to taste
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
a pinch of salt

blend til smooth

+

from just one cookbook

quick balsamic vinaigrette

I know the world of salad dressing is a lot bigger than classic honey mustard (I do equal parts honey, mustard, oil, and lemon juice) but I always have diy honey mustard ready to use in the fridge, so I never branch out. This week is all about new dressing!

—-

Essential Balsamic

1/4 c balsamic vinegar
2 t mustard
1 t brown sugar (opt.)
1/2 t kosher or sea salt
1/4 t black pepper
1/4 clove to 1 clove crushed garlic
1/2c – 3/4c olive oil, depending on how vinegary you like it

put all ingredients in a small jar and shake the daylights out of it

—-

Creamy Balsamic  (really awesome)
make recipe as above, but add 2 T mayonnaise. doesn’t taste mayonnaisey at all – just creamy, sweet, and sour.

Blueberry Balsamic (also really awesome)
make recipe as above, but add a few dried blueberries, crushed fresh blueberries, or a teaspoon of blueberry jam

Strawberry Balsamic
you get the idea, right?

Blackberry Balsamic
mmm

+

This is my new favorite dressing. I had it on a salad of spicy greens from the farmers market with sweet grapes, dried blueberries, and cashews. Amazing!

+

from inspired taste

goddess dressing

This incredible blogger modified this recipe ten times in an attempt to perfect it. Combined with legumes like beans, this dressing forms a complete protein!

Perfect dairy substitute!

Consider this revision eleven, because I found revision ten way too salty.

2/3 cup expeller-pressed canola oil, other neutral oil, or even extra-virgin olive oil (146 grams)
1/3 cup tahini, as thick as possible (80 grams)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (60g) [may need another tsp. for a total of 65 grams]
1 1/2 Tbs. soy sauce (24 grams) [depends on your soy sauce—you may want to start with just 4 tsp., about 21 grams]
1 1/2 Tbs. lemon juice (23 grams)
1/2 – 1 1/2 tsp. fine sea salt (~9 grams or less)
2 medium cloves garlic (~9 grams)
1 Tbs. white sesame seeds, lightly toasted til light golden brown (~9 grams after toasting)
2 Tbs. minced parsley (8 grams) [or 2-4 tsp. dried parsley??]
2 Tbs. minced chives (6 grams) [or 2-4 tsp. dried chives??]
water, if needed, to thin, or xanthan gum to thicken

Measure out your oil into the container you’re going to blend the dressing in. Tip: use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to measure the oil, then reuse the cup for the tahini. You’ll have one less cup to clean and the tahini will come out more easily.
Add the tahini. Note: If your tahini is not already made from toasted sesame seeds, then you may want to toast it yourself in a small skillet or pan over low heat until lightly fragrant. You’ll probably need to toast a little extra to end up with the 80g needed. (Some is always lost to the pan.)
Combine all the remaining ingredients except for water and herbs, and use a stick blender or food processor to blend it. You can also mix the dressing by hand, but then you’ll need to finely mince or crush the garlic, and the sesame seeds won’t get fully integrated.
Finally, stir or whisk in the herbs and water. You add the herbs after blending because you want flecks of green, not a uniform green/brown color. It’s best to hold off on adding the water until the end because the amount depends on how thick your tahini was. You’ll want to add just enough water to reach the desired consistency.
Makes about 2 cups, or 16 two-tablespoon (~30g) servings. Fits perfectly into one of the larger Annie’s dressing bottles. You’ll just need a funnel to fill it. Or you can just leave it in the container you blended it in, or transfer it to a pint-size ball jar.

+

modified from the hard work at the captious vegetarian

+

This dressing is fantastic, and so far has been perfect on everything.

It replaces:
sour cream – try it on potatoes!
cheese – try it on vegan broccoli casserole!
mayonnaise – amazing on bean salad or chicken salad!

& of course, it’s fantastic on green salads, too.

You must try this even if you’re not veg or into healthy eating – it’s my new favorite thing to put on a hamburger and french fries. To be honest, I have put it on everything recently. I went through two cups of it in less than a month.

Try this!

mint dressing

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?

simple light dressing for roasted vegetables

roast some:

leeks
carrots
potatoes
sweet potatoes
beets
onions
anything else in the world

that you’ve coated in this dressing:

+

½ lemon, zested and juiced
1 tsp mustard (anything besides 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)

+

this also makes a perfect salad dressing or chicken marinade, with a splash of homemade fruit vinegar or your favorite vinegar.

+

adapted from camera and clementine

+

this is amazing on every root veggie!

syrian yogurt and tahini sauces

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.

+

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.

+

Taratour: (طرطور)

thin the above tahini sauce and add “loads of chopped parsley”

+

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.

+

from syrian foodie