The kid is BACK!!!!

Well, it's been almost a year since I last blogged, in fact it will be exactly a year in 9 days. Having said that, I've been away too long. I've had some issues that I needed to adress in my personal life, issues that have affected me to the point it took my passion of cooking away from me. I've been so self absorbed the last year that I've lost sight of the things that were and are important to me. I've been so self absorbed that I almost lost the most important part of me (including my passion)! I'm sorry... I'm sorry for many many things!!!!

Since my last blog, I did continue to cook a few things after the baba ganoush but we'll get in to that later. So, I'm back and ready to pick up where I left off. I hope that everyone continues reading and I really look forward to hearing from you.

Sometimes too simple is not always a good thing

I'd like to start off by saying good bye to a special friend...we've been through a lot together but in the end he just couldn't keep up. RIP Magic Bullet.... That's right my friends, the magic bullet bit the bullet :(

I guess I should have expected it and it was partially my fault for "maybe" over using it, but hey, when the infomercial says you can use it for anything and everything, well damn it, you should be able to!!! Like I really expected it to die on me over grinding almonds. Which leads me to my next topic.... what is up with all these gimmicks and gadgets that "supposedly" simplify your life in the kitchen? There's the Nuwave Oven Pro, Slap Chop, Robo stir, Chef basket, and my all time personal favorite... the Xpress, Redi Set Go.  Now I've never tasted food that has been cooked with these express cooking systems and honestly, I don't think I want to. There's just something not to comforting in a system that cuts your cooking time down by half.

Why all the rush? What ever happened to taking your time to cook? I get it, I understand that in today's society we're always on the rush. "I work all day, the kids have soccer practice, cheering etc etc, by the time I get home, I have to do homework with the kids, who has time to cook?" ..MAKE TIME!!!!!! There are meals that use 3-4 ingredients and only need maybe 30-40 minutes cooking time IF THAT!! You can prep most things the night before and when you get home the next day, throw it in the oven, the pot, the grill or whatever cooking method is called for. For me, part of the fun in cooking comes from the rush you get running around getting the things you need, trying to multi task 3-4 different things at the same time.

OK, enough with the rambling.... so I know I should have written this entry last week, but I'm not going to make excuses for myself. So, because I 've been a bit behind, I figured last week that instead of making one appetizer dish, I would make two and was I ever sooo glad I did. The dishes that were up this time around both come from the Mediterranean region of the Middle East. I first made charred artichokes with a lemon oil dip. Nothing about this recipe seemed hard, in fact, the hardest thing about it was when I was taking out the fuzzy part from around the heart of the artichoke, trying not to get the fuzz all over. Other than that, this was fairly simple.... the recipe called for:

2 whole artichokes, quartered and cleaned out of the fuzz. When finished, immerse them in acified water (1 tblsp of either vinegar or lemon juice) and put them to the side till ready to use. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, then take the quartered artichokes, 12 cloves of garlic, sprinkle some salt (I used coarse ground sea salt) and add 3 tblsp of olive oil. Toss them well till they are all coated and place them in a roasting pan, and then in the oven.  Roast them for 40 minutes, remembering to stir them once or twice till the artichokes are temder and charred. In the meantime, take one lemon and slice off to long strips of the peel, making sure to scrape off any remaining pith you may have on it. Once done, place the rind in a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for 5 minutes. You then remove the rind, drop it in cold water to "refresh" it and then chop it roughly. Put to the side till ready to use.

After 40 minutes, remove your charred artichokes and arrange them on a serving dish and let them cook for about 5 minutes. While the artichokes are cooling, you can begin to make the dip. Take the 12 cloves of garlic you roasted and using the back of a fork, carefully scrape out the garlic, add it to a small bowl and mash to a puree. Then, add lemon rind you chopped earlier and the juice of 1 lemon. Using your fork to wisk it together, with 3 tblsp of olive oil. Serve warm with the dipping oil and enjoy!!!!

I love artichokes, but I normally have had them either raw or when my mother would make them fricasse with peas and potatoes. I have to say, even though I made a slight error (I coated the artichokes with the entire 6 tblsp of olive oil, instead of just using 3 tblsp) but it still came out delicious. Even though I hate salt, or should I say excessive use of salt, the artichokes came out nice. You may be charring them, but you don't have a charred taste to them and the lemon oil gives them a nice citrus taste. Definitely something that you can have on a nice warm night with a bottle of wine. Coincidentally, I gave some to my mother and she said that the best part of the dish was the dipping oil. She liked it so much that she actually finished the dip off with some bread.

As I said before, I made 2 dishes that night. While roasting the artichokes, I started to broil the eggplants for the baba ganoush. Again, this is another faitly simple dish to make and does not take much time. For this recipe you need 2 small egplants, broiled for about 20 minutes or until the skin becomes blistered and black. Remember to turn them often.  While you are broiling your eggplants, you can start preparing the rest of the ingredients. In a food processor grind almonds till you have 1/4 cup. Once ground up, add 1 crushed garlic clove, 1/4 cup tahini paste, 1 tblsp fresh cut minth and 1/2 tsp cumin. By this time, the eggplants should be ready. Takem them out of the oven, peel the skin off and roughky chop the flesh. Place them in a colander and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. (I know this part is hard to do without burning yourself, so I used a nice sized mixing bowl to squeeze out what I could while the eggplant was still in the colander. BELIEVE ME THIS WORKS AND HELPS OUT ALOT). Then you add the eggplants to the mixture of almonds, tahini and cumin in the food processor and start to blend them together. As you are doing this, add the the juice of 1/2 a lemon and 2 tblsp of olive oli. Then end product should be a smooth paste like substance. Scoop out into a bowl and scatter another tblsp of fresh cut int leaves and drizzle olive oil over it. Enjoy with some wonderful Lebanese flat bread.

In a matter of 40 - 45 minutes I made to wonderfully refreshing dishes and again, the ingredients were minimal but taste was extraordinary. See, no matter how busy your day is, there is always time to cook.

Next up, and this will be done tonight, Hummus bi tahina..... who doesn't love hummus??????

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity......

Cooking should not be difficult. The problem is, I think, that our fear of "I can't cook" or "I'll make it wrong" hinders our ability to actually go ahead and cook.  If only we can go into the kitchen absent of any and all fear and allow ourselves to create. You make a mistake? So what, you learn from it and you won't make the same mistake next time. Trial and Error people... You screwed up on making spaghetti carbonara? Oh well, FUCK IT! you'll do it better tomorrow.  Gordon Ramsey, Mario Batali, Anthony Bourdain, Bobby Flay.... They didn't become who they are today without making mistakes along the way. Just remember, cooking should be fun. Cooking CAN be fun, in fact, it could be amazingly fun. Above all, cooking can be simple if we allow it to it be.

OK, so last time I told you that I was going to make an eggplant dip. Well, all it took was 5 simple ingredients and 25 minutes to create something amazing and magical which left a lasting impression in my mouth. I can still smell the smokey aroma of the eggplants, the sweet smell of sauteed onions and garlic and just looking at the lemon made my mouth water. And then of course, there's the olive oil.... and honestly guys, is there anything better than olive oil? I mean really good olive oil.... like first pressed, extra virgin, olivey good olive oil. Nope!!!!! Next time you're having a cookout, try this..... take a piece of bread, either Ciabata,  a French baguette or an Italian loaf, but not sandwich bread... put it on the grill to give it a nice brown color and great crunch and then, ohh baby, and then rub some olive oil on it and a little  pepper, a little bit of salt and some oregano.

OK, enough rambling about olive oil (even though I find it better tasting, better smelling and better for you over butter). So, the eggplant dip.... yes, the eggplant dip turned out great. It had a really great course but cream like texture to it... I loved the fact that even after running it through the blender, you can still taste the onion. You could defintely still smell and taste the smokiness of the eggplants. I only wish it was a little garlicky... honestly, you couldn't even tell that there was garlic in it.

Next up... Charred artochokes with a lemon oil dip

Uggggghhhhh!!!!!!!!

Ever have that day where you feel that no matter what you say, no matter what you do it's never the right thing or it seems to come out wrong? Yeah... well, welcome to my day! Lack of sleep, lack of an appetite, emotionally shot!!!!!!  Anyhow, unfortunately I didn't do any cooking today. I realized last night that I was going to be working late today and would not be getting home till almost 11pm.

So it's about 12:45am, still can't sleep, still no appetite but I guess I should try to get some shut eye.... I'll definitely be making the eggplant dip tomorrow though.  I guess that's it for now.

Good night

A night and a day late

Ok, I know I promised that I would have written about the aioli and tapenade on Sunday night, but with all that was going on and the holiday yesterday, I got a bit tied up..... Sorry guys!!!

So I made the ailoi and tapenade and what can I say? They were absolutely amazing!!! The tapenade called for black olives, capers, anchovies, lemon zest and olive oil. Let me start off by saying that when it comes to anchovies, I stay far away as possible from them. I don't know why, but I guess the saltiness of them and their smell kind of irks me. This coming from a guy who loves to eat fish.... the combination of all 4 igredients complimented each other very well. No one ingredient over powered the other; ok, maybe the lemon zest a bit (note to self, use a smaller lemon) but over all it was very good. I should have thought ahead and thrown some bread under the broiler for a bit but with all that was going on around me, who had time?

I think, if anything, my only mistake was that after I chopped everything up, I put it all in the food processor, which made it all a bit more of a thick pureed dip. Next time, I'll forgo the processor and just mix them up by hand. You learn from your mistakes!

As for the aioli????? I think I found something new to love!!!!! I'm a garlic lover to begin with.... shit, we have 2 garlic type dips in Greek cusine (tzatziki and skordalia). Both of which can be used as either a dip or as a side. Especially skordalia, when you have it with fried cod fish or with beets... but the aioli was just something different. Aioli, which is in the mayonaise family but I must stress, IS NOT MAYO, had a very vevelty smooth consistency. Simple ingredient like 2 egg yolks, dijon mustard, white wine vinegar and garlic formed it's base. Those 4 ingredients in themselves were great, but when I added watercress and 3 different herbs, something happened..... for lack of a better description, it was an explosion in my mouth. You could definitely pick out the ingredients, maybe even some of the herbs but what was even better about the aioli, was having served chilled. Traditional aioli is served at room temperature, but we're not in Provence.

Here's a little bit of advice..... when making burgers, and I mean FRESH, HANDMADE burgers, out of YOUR kitchen, avoid using the traditional condiments. Instead, use the aioli and see what happens. After I made the aioli, I made burgers.... not just any burgers but blue cheese and cajun spice burgers and cooked them up on the charcoal grill (I really hate gas grills... charcoal gives your food a better taste IMHO). Instead of using the regular stuff (ketchup, mustard, mayo) I used the aioli, and added instead of lettuce, watercress and tomato and an onion. (I guess I could thank Emeril for that one.)

I could go on and on and try to use words to describe the texture and flavors, but the bottom line is that words would not do any justice. I've always had a problem when people would try to explain what something tastes like... yeah ok, that's your opinion. If you really want to know what and how something tastes, you need to taste it for yourself. If anyone is interested in the recipes I have for both the aioli and the tapenade, let me know. I would more than happy to share them with you.

I guess that's all for now..... I have too much on my mind today so no cooking from me tonight, even if it is just appetizers. Tomorrow is a different story.... the menu for tomorrow is eggplant dip (no, not baba ganoush or melitzanosalata for those of you who know what I'm talking about).

Have a good night guys..... whoever and wherever you may be.......

Who has time to be bored?

After posting my first entry yesterday, I got to thinking. "What are people who read this going to say? Will anyone even read it?  I just made reference to Julie and Julia.. I'm going to get remarks the likes of 'idiot, you're copying a movie in real life'. " Well, yes and no..... I am doing the same exact thing as Julie Powell did, but for different reasons.

You see, growing up in my small town, people would always ask me, "Dino, what do you want to be when you grow up?" and I would proudly answer "a cook, like my dad!" Well yeah, there was a point in time where I wanted to be a priest, pilot, lawyer, politician but working in the kitchen was were I felt I did my best work. I felt as if I was creating something. OK, serving up eggs and home fries, burgers and fries, meat loaf, open faced hot sandwiches isn't exactly like painting the Mona Lisa, but it can be. Why shouldn't it be? Anything that comes out of a kitchen can be a work of art, no matter what that item is!!!

So why am I doing this? It's not like I have nothing better to do or because I'm bored. TRUST ME, there's never a dull moment in my life. I work in the social services field, so I'm either putting out fires between us and guardians or I'm constantly answering the countless phone calls I recieve from my staff and/or doctor's offices during and AFTER work. At home you ask? Well then it's spent chasing after my 2 1/2 year old son, a very curious little boy who insists on getting into everything and I mean EVERYTHING!!!!!! In fact, as I was just writing this entry, he decided he was going to climb the bookcase in my office. God I love that little boy, but he is DEFINITELY going to cause me to go either grey or bald before my time.... OK, back on topic.... I guess I'm doing this to fullfill a childhood dream of mine, or maybe I'm doing this because deep down, I still harbor a desire to work in a kitchen and create new things. I may not be a classically trained chef, with a diploma from LCB or CIA or any other culinary institution. In no way am I a Robuchon, one would only pray to attain his level of genius, but the bottom line here is that I love to cook. I love to cook and I want to share those experiences and my passion for cooking. But not just that, I want to hear from you, the reader and share your suggestions, remarks, advice and criticism.

So, I was looking through the cookbook and figured I would start, well, at the beginning. So I'll be starting off with the appetizers and work all the way up to the desserts. First up on the menu is a recipe from Provence; tapenade with an herb aioli and summer vegetables. Part of the recipe calls for 12 quail eggs... where the hell am I going to find quail eggs????? Anyhow, I'll let you all know how it turns out later tonight.

In the beginning......

So before I begin, I'd like to set the record straight, this is not some steamy, romantic, erotic adventure through the Mediterranean I may or may not have had; but then again, maybe it could be.. just not the type you may be thinking of.  No my friends, my Mediterranean love affair began at birth, from the minute I was pulled out of the womb and my mother cradeled in me in her arms.

Growing up in a Greek household, I experienced tastes, smells and sites that my American school friends never heard of, let alone ate. At a young age I remember watching my mother in the kitchen, cooking up traditional Greek meals for the family, simple meals like okra with tomatoes and onions in the oven, or string beans and potatoes on the stove top, or even a traditional pastichio (what I refer to as Greek lasagna). Till this day, as we all probably do, I compare other people's cooking abilities to my mothers... yup, as you imagined... no one can come close to her! OK, maybe the woman who taught her, my grandmother, but no one else. My fondest memory was watching my father take a whiting, wrap it in a newspaper and set it on fire to give the fish a smoked flavor. After which, he pulled the whiting apart, drizzled it with extra virgin olive oil (yes, we were eating EVOO before it became a mainstream item in the supermarkets) and lemon juice. It was amazing! What 6,7,8 year old child can say that they have eaten sweetbreads or other innards of a lamb and loved it?!?

It was my Greek heritage that opened the door for me to where later on in life, I could begin to branch out beyond that of our cusine. Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Lebanese;  you name it, I've tried it, the list goes on and on. And while all cusines are beautiful and tasteful, in their own right, for me, none can hold up to that of the Mediterranean. In an episode of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain refered to the food he sampled in Crete as being "the story of invasion, occupation and deprivation that resulted in some really good stuff". You hit the nail on the head Mr. Bourdain but let's go beyond that and say it holds true for ALL of the Meditterranean. It is a cusine that ranges in difficulty and complexity yet at times simple, explosive and mouthwatering. This my friends, is My Meditterranean Love Affair!!!!

Now you may be asking yourself, what the hell is this guy rambling on about? What is his point? Well, I'm getting to that as we speak.....

My second love affair is that of cooking. I grew up in the kitchen... both at home and in the family restaurant (yeah I know, Greek/diner jokes about to be hurled my way). In the kitchen is where I feel my best, my safest, my best moments of feeling at peace and one with the universe. "ok, but where are you going with this Dino?", you may be asking yourself.... it get's better guys, be patient..... I also have this extraordinary cookbook in my library with over 300 recipes from the Meditteranean.... (I think I just sensed dozens of eyeballs rolling).... and yes, after seeing "Julie & Julia" over a dozen times..... (you guys still reading or have you moved on to the next blog?) ..... so, as I was saying, after seeing "Julie & Julia" over a dozen times, I decided that I'll follow suit and like Julie Powell, who cooked her way through Julia Child's cookbook, I am going to cook my way through the Mediterranean.

So let the adventure begin.....