TABOULI WITH DRIED FRUITS & PISTACHIOS

This is a fantastic dish to keep company to any grilled meat or fish. It is no more work than just knowing how to boil water and that is precisely all you have to do. You can change the look of this golden grain by adding anything your pantry owns. Of course you need to keep in mind that food is like clothes, they need to match. So you can have a seafood tabouli, a sundried tomato, olive and prochiouto tabouli, a Greek salad tabouli, a fresh vegetable tabouli, a grilled vegetable tabouli or even a left over from last night bits and bites tabouli or even a pistachio nut apricot and cinnamon tabouli.

The one below is my favorite.
2 cups plain bulgur (cracked wheat) or cous cous
2 cups hot salted water

Tomato and parsley vatiation
2 cups fineley chopped tomatoes
1 cup finely chopped red onion
½ cup finely chopped green onion
2 cups finely chopped parsley
½ cup chopped green pepper
½ cup chopped red pepper
¼ cup roughly chopped mint
A hand full pitted kalamata olives
½ cup olive oil, salt and pepper
¼ cup fresh lemon juice

Dried fruit variation
½ tsp fresh lemon juice
A few leaves of fresh tarragon
A few leaves fresh mint
Freshly ground black pepper
½ cup dried apricots, finely chopped
½ cup dried figs, finely chopped
½ cup sultana raisins
¼ cup grated carrot
½ cup sliced toasted almonds
½ cup halved pistachios
¼ cup green onion, finely chopped

In a large salad bowl place the dry bulgur. Pour over the hot boiling water, salt and 2 tbs olive oil. Cover with a dish towel and allow to sit for a couple of hours . Remove the towel and fluff the bulgur working with two forks.

Continue by adding the rest of the olive oil with lemon and all the rest of the ingredients. Omit the lemon if you are making the dried fruit edition. Place in the fridge and take out when ready to serve. Your guest will be indeed impressed.

TIRAMISOU
“Pick me up”
CREAM
½ pound mascarpone cheese
½ liter whipping cream

COFFEE MIXTURE
4 tbs instant Nescafe or espresso
1 liter fresh milk
4 Tbs coffee or chocolate liqueur

36 “lady fingers” or “savoyardi” cookiesor 1 pound of cookies
1 cup cocoa powder

In a clean mixing bowl whip the cream with 1tbs of powder sugar until it is very thick. Do not over beat as it will turn into butter!! Fold into cream room temperature mascarpone cheese. In a second bowl mix the milk with coffee and liqueur.
You will now need a pyrex pan about 9X13 in.
To assembly the dessert you start by dipping, not soaking!!, very fast the cookies into the milk coffee mixture. Cover the bottom of the pan by layering the cookies next to each other and spread half of the cream. Continue with a second layer of cookies and finish by spreading the rest of the cream on top. Refrigerate and when ready to serve generously dust through a fine sieve the cocoa powder. Only good comments and compliments are echoing as your family and guests get to taste the “pick me up” dessert. This is what “ti ra misou” means in Italian. A little help with the coffee, the liqueur and the cocoa certainly can “pick you up”…anytime, anyplace.
In case you feel like making your own savoyardi cookies here is the recipe since they can be used for a tea party and other occasions as well…eating occasions I mean. You will need:

6 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
3 egg whites
¼ cup + all purpose flour

Whip the yolks with ¼ cup of sugar until they hold stiff peaks. Continue by whipping the egg whites with another ¼ cup of sugar until they get pale and light. Fold the two mixtures by folding in the flour through a fine sieve. On buttered baking paper shape long cookies by dipping a wet spoon into the mixture. You cannot hold this dough, it is very light and wet. There are special molds to be filled that give a better looking cookie. Bake in 350 degree preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Before baking sprinkle with sugar. Allow to cool and can be kept into a air tight container for up to two weeks once they are cool and dry.

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SPANAKOPITA

1 kilo (2.2 lb.) of fresh spinach.
1(1 pound) package of Athens Phyllo dough.
2 large good-looking leeks.
2 green onions, sliced
1-½ cups of good green olive oil.
½ cup cut up fresh dill.
½ pound Greek feta cheese
4 lightly beaten eggs

First clean the spinach from dry and yellow leaves, wash it well, let it drain and then chop it up, medium roughly. Do the same with the leeks and green onions. Put the spinach, leeks, green onions and dill in a deep bowl add salt, pepper and ½ of olive oil and “knead it” until it looses volume and spinach looks wilted and has a dark color.
Add the crumbled feta cheese, lightly beaten eggs and put the mixture aside. Take a nice 9x13 baking deep, lasagna pan dish and brush it with olive oil.

Open the package of the phyllo dough, cover it with a damp towel and start layering one sheet at a time by brushing them with the olive oil. Allow part of the dough to go up on the sides of the pan, because later you will fold them in. You want this to be a somewhat sealed pie on the sides. When you have used half of the dough spread the spinach mixture in it. Continue by layering the rest of the dough. Finish by brushing the top final layer with olive oil. Take the bottom dough that overlies on the ends of the pan and bring in over the top layers of dough. Pat it down and brush with more olive oil. Let that extra dough hang outside the pan and you finish with layering all of it, go back and turn in by folding it at the ends. As you work with this pie you will find out some other little way you like to do this or that! It is your pie; your dough and you are the boss!!

Now before you bake it you HAVE to score it in diagonal pieces. If you do not you will have to find a new way to serve it because the dough gets real crisp and there is no way to cut it in pieces. Bake it in an already heated oven 350 f. For at least one hour or until the phyllo has a light golden baklava color like. Place your rack pretty low, or maybe in the middle rack, since when you use phyllo dough the top gets cooked faster than the bottom.
Enjoy this pie as an appetizer serving it in diagonal pieces in a nice platter or as a main meal if there is nothing else to eat.

CHICKEN WITH ORZO


INGREDIENTS

1 large cut up chicken
1 pound orzo pasta
1 cup chopped tomatoes
¼ cup olive oil
4 - 5 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and dry the chicken pieces well. I always love to cook chicken with skin and bones on. You will need 11x13 baking pan that will eventually hold about five cups of liquid.
Place the chicken pieces into the baking pan and season with salt, pepper, olive oil. Add garlic and tomatoes. Cook in a 370F. oven for about 45 minutes or until meat is tender αnd still has a light color. Then remove from the oven add about 4 cups of salted hot water and return to the oven. Let juices get almost bubbly and real hot and then add the orzo pasta. Make sure the pasta is all over and around the pan. You might have to add extra salt, cook until all pan juices are absorbed and pasta is cooked. Optional accent would be some sundried tomatoe pieces and or sliced kalamata olives.
Serve with a good portion of freshly grated parmesan cheese on top

You might want to visit the following picasa picture gallery from my recent trip in the United Kingdom. I was kindly invited by the European Christian workshop to speak on outreach through loving table fellowship. My good friend Angie Thomas from Nashville Tennessee came to attend the retreat and be with me as well.
http://picasaweb.google.com/emelirry/UntitledAlbum#