This week is barbecued lamb for Easter and the kids (except Eilene) love mushrooms. I am frequently trying to find new ways to spice them up.
Za’atar is an herb blend found (in various blends) throughout the Middle East. Apparently no one agrees on how to spell the translation (there are 9 variations) or which herb go into it (there are 4 possibilities for the primary herb, depending on the region of origin), but everyone knows they love it.
Karl’s Greek Mushrooms
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
Adapted from anonymous
Usually when I make Greek lamb I make potatoes. In fact, it is a bit of a rut. To break the mold, I looked for a Greek rice side dish. Finding one that was close on Food.com, I adapted it to my personal style. Jan doesn’t like white rice, so I switched to brown. For my family there are never enough onions. And who can make a Greek dish without garlic and pepper? Most of the other dishes would be heavy on the herbs, so just a little parsley as an accent in flavor and color.
Karl’s Greek Lemon Pilaf
Filed under Side Dishes, Starches
Spinach seemed like a good vegetable to go with my Greek Easter Feast. I have been wanting to try to make spanakopita, but for several reasons I have hesitated. First of all, Jan generally does not like dishes made with fillo (actually she does, but all the butter used to make it flaky doesn’t like her). Also, the two ways of making this dish gave me problems. Struggling with the thin sheets of buttered fillo to make little triangles seemed too fussy. The second way, as a pie, buries all that buttered fillo under the spinach so that it never gets flaky What is the point? There has to be another way.
Karl’s Spanakopita Rolls
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
In making my Moroccan Oxtail Tajine I trimmed a bunch of artichokes down to their bases. This left we with a pile of leaves and stems that I was loathed to just throw away.
My mother, Claudia, raised me to not waste food. I feel like it is an absolute sin when, for example, a recipe for chicken stock has you boil a whole chicken with vegetables and then instructs you to throw away the “solids.” These are recipes written by people who have never been hungry a day in their lives. I simply cannot do that!
Karl’s Moroccan Artichoke Dip
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
This is a recipe I have been making for years, because every other recipe I had tried struck me as bland. Please notice the absence of any word like “traditional” in the title. Today, I have just been reading a “rant” about “Traditional Irish Soda Bread,” which I found through a Karen Boatman’s “Home Plates” article. In many ways I have to agree with his sentiments.
Karl’s Colcannon
Filed under Side Dishes, Starches, Vegetables
I wanted a new side dish to go with my Pork Tamales with Mole Poblano. In Mexican cuisine beans and rice are the standard side dishes. Refried beans do not really lend themselves to a lot of variation. This left me to do something with the rice, but I wanted to do something other than my usual Mexican Rice. I thought about making a green mole rice, but when I Googled “Mole Verde” most of the recipes were on how to use this sauce on chicken with rice as a side dish.
Karl’s Green Mole Rice (Arroz Mole Verde)
Green Mole (Mole Verde)
Filed under Side Dishes, Starches, Vegetables
Adapted from a recipe by Chelsie Kenyon, About.com Guide
The epazote is a key ingredient to this dish adding a distinctive flavor. It is a Mexican herb that when raw smells reminiscent of citrus, savory, or mint, but is not any of them. It culinary purpose is as a carminative, i.e. it helps stop gas from forming. Left over epanzote may be used as a tea, like fresh mint.
Filed under Side Dishes, Starches
I am spending hours roasting a pork shoulder to have the pulled pork for tamales on Sunday. I wanted something more than my usual boiled parsley potatoes to go with it. Stuffing came to mind. However, my thanksgiving stuffing is enough for a crowd and it has been a while since I’ve used instant stuffing. Since this will be for pork I am using cornbread and I have reduced the proportions, because this is just for the three of us.
Karl’s Cornbread Stuffing
Filed under Side Dishes, Starches
I needed a vegetable side dish to go with my twice-cooked tofu. In China, it is a very poor household indeed that has only one dish to go with their rice. Variety is the spice of life and the Chinese take their food very seriously. Like the French, if they are not eating, they are talking about food or thinking about food.
To make a change from what I made to go with the twice-cooked pork, I used celery as the foil to the giant bamboo in my side dish.
Spicy Giant Bamboo and Celery
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
I needed a vegetable side dish to go with my twice-cooked pork. I wanted something with spice, color and crunch. I had some daikon radish, red bell pepper and green onions left over from another meal that would add the color. I only needed some chili garlic sauce to add the spice and some giant bamboo for the crunch.
Stir-fry on the right
Filed under Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables
karllueck
Miriam
Jabberwocky Stew 