Dumi & Joan's International Apartment of Cuisine: October

I am prematurely posting this - but please check back through the end of October, will be posting new recipes as they are created.....

Vanilla Date Smoothie:

My best purchase here thusfar has undoubtedly been the Tefal blender I found on sale about a week ago.  This is meant as no offense to the beautiful Anatolian rug I found in the Bazaar, but let's be honest, a blender can well, blend!

I LOVE this smoothie - it is surprisngly light and fluffy and gives me my necessary morning dose of sugar.  All you do is place in the blender: 1/2 cup plain, nonfat yogurt, 1/2 cup skim milk, 3/4 cup ice cubes, 3 dates and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and well, blend. 

Chocolate, Banana and Flaxseed Smoothie

blend together: 1 banana, 1/2-3/4 cup skim milk, 1 cup ice cubes, flax seed, 1-2 tbls cocoa powder.

Very Banana-y Smoothie:

place in blender: 1 chopped up banana, 1/3 cup plain yogurt, 1 tsp honey, 2/3 cup ice cubes, 1 tbls flaxseed. blend!

Whole Wheat and Flax Pancakes:

One of my biggest qualms with the food here is that, ironically, in a country with so much whole, fresh food, the local grocery stores sell only a variety of mass-produced, Nestle-like cereals.  As sugary and delicious as these cereals are, I am much fonder of a heartier breakfast.  So what to do?  make it!

I found a recipe, and with a little substituting, came up with these very hearty pancakes (that can also be made as waffles, if you are lucky enough to have a waffle iron).  All you do is mix in a bowl:

-2 cups whole wheat flour (or 1 cup whole wheat with 1 cup cracked wheat, oat flour, buckwheat flour, etc)

-2 tablespoons wheat germ,  if you have it

-2 tablespoons flaxseed, crushed or whole

-2 tablespoons choppped up walnuts

-1 tablespoons baking powder

-1 teaspoon salt

-1 teaspoon cinnamon

After mixing this together, add and mix:

-2 egg whites

-1 cup skim milk

-2 tablespoons butter

This will form a very thick dough-like batter.  Heat up a skillet and cook up the pancakes! 

*tip: feel free to add chopped up apples, blackberries, blueberries, bananas: whatever you like into the dough. my favorite way to eat these, if not plain is with bonne manam jam.

*tip 2: I make mine on the weekend and freeze them so I can grab one in the morning, toast it and have a good, quick breakfast. definitely worth a little weekend effort. enjoy!

I just thought you all needed a visual of Dumi and her awesome Romanian ways of opening cans with knives

Orzo Pasta with Spinach, Shallots, Tomatoes and Red Pepper:

Bring about 1 cup of uncooked orzo pasta to a boil in a pot, let boil about 10 minutes.
In a saucepan, place a little olive oil and sautee 6 or 7 shallots (shallots are really small here, so if you are in the U.S. maybe 3 or 4).  When the shallots are grilled, place 2 sliced fresh red peppers in the saucepan and sautee as well.
In another, larger pot, place about 4 cups uncooked, fresh spinach in a full pot of water - bring to a boil and cook for about 5 to 6 minutes.  When done, place in the saucepan with the shallots and peppers.
Cut up about 15 cherry tomatoes, and throw in the veggie saucepan at the very last minute. 
When the pasta is done, throw that in the veggie saucepan as well and cook for 2 minutes.  Then serve!

Joans Hummus

this was a day or so old, but still good!

Let me first say that I am very hesitant to give out this recipe, as it is my precious keepsake.  However, my "recipe" is actually very makeshift, so I figure it can't do too much harm.  Here goes:

Place in a blender: about 2 cups of chickpeas (garbano beans), 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1/3 cup tahini, 2 to 3 cloves minced garlic.  Now, you will need to put some water in, this will add to the creamy effect.  I usually end up adding about 1/2 cup, but add 1/4 first, blend and then another 1/4 cup.  And of course, add some salt and pepper to taste.

*tip: don't be afraid to play around with the proportions of hummus, I recently had a friend suggest I put more tahini in, and now the tahini-hummus rules in my kitchen. 

also, once you've "mastered" your favorite propotion of ingredients, think about adding cumin, chopped of olives or chopped up roasted red peppers before blending.

Dumi's Cauliflower and Chickpea Pilav (courtesy of BBC)

Heat 1 tsp vegetable oil in a large, non-stick pan and add two large onions, sliced. Cook over a medium heat for 5 mins until starting to turn golden. Stir in 1 tbls curry paste and cook for 1 min. Add 1 cup rice, 1 head cauliflower and 1 1/2 cups chickpeas, stirring to coat in the paste.

Pour in 1-2 cups water with vegetable bouillon mixed in and stir. Cover and simmer for 10-15 mins until the rice and cauliflower are tender and all the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in sliced almonds (if you have some, we didn't and it was still great) and coriander (we put in basil), then serve.

Pizza "Rustica" with Lot's-O-Veggies

thinish crust pizza with white cheese, eggplant, red pepper, olives, red ionion and garlic

I've been procrastinating making homemade pizza dough for years.  So I decided that here is the perfect opportunity to take the plunge, the worst thing that could happen is that Dumi and I would eat overly-yeasty pizza dough one night.  The dough part turned out to be incredibly simple, probably because I chose a simple recipe.  I halved the recipe, so if you want a bigger pizza, just double this up. 

Pulse together 4 cups of flour (I used cracked wheat flour) with 1 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt.  Then add 1/2 cup butter that you have chopped into small pieces, to help it pulse easier.  Pulse that combo until the mix is course and mealy, then add 2 large eggs and pulse that.  It should look something like this:

the pre-chilled dough, nice and mealy

Now chill that in the fridge for an hour, or a few!  I made this in the morning and went to school all day, and that was fine as well.

Once you are ready to make your pizza, preheat your oven to 300 degrees Farenheit.  Choose the veggies you want to use.  I chose: eggplant, red peppers, onions, garlic and olives.  First sautee 1 clove garlic in olive oil for a minute or two, then add thinly sliced red onions and continue to sautee.  Add 1 sliced fresh red pepper and 1 thinly sliced eggplant.  Sautee for about 10 minutes.

While you are sauteeing the vegetables, take your dough out of the fridge and place on a cookie sheet.  My dough turned out to be very mealy, which made me nervous, as I had the idea of an almost sticky-like dough in mind, but it turned out great!  So take your dough, whatever consistency it is, and with a rolling pin, press it down and out, covering the surface of your cookie sheet.  I made my dough about 1/4" think in the middle.  With a spatula or brush, brush on a few tablespoons of olive oil evenly across the dough.



basically, you can't go wrong with baked dough, veggies and cheese!



When your veggies are pretty well-cooked (they don' have to be completely done, in fact, you may want them kind of crunchy), transfer them from your sautee pan onto the pizza.  Then place however many black olives you like on the pizza.  Then take a cheese of your liking, and place as much as you like all over.  Cook pizza for about 10-15 minutes, or until edges are golden brown or cheese starts to bubble.  Let cool a little bit and serve warm.

Red Curry Shrimp with Bamboo Shoots and Rice Noodles

In one bowl, bring rice noodles to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.

In a large saucepan sautee 3-4 cloves of chopped garlic with a few tablespoons of vegetable oil, Dumi and I were super lazy on this particular night, so the garlic was more chunky - still delicious.  Then add 1-1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen shrimp and sautee.  for 5 minutes, making sure to drain any excess shrimpy-water.  Add 1 cup bamboo shoots or bean sprouts if you have them.  Now for the sauce: add 1 can coconut milk and 2-3 tbls red curry paste, depending on how spicy you want it and stir.  Bring to a boil, uncovered and cook for 5 minutes or so. 

Dumi's Peasant Salad:

recipe to follow soon!