Mung Beans with Burghul (Burghul M’ash)

Until my mom visited recently and made this dish I had only used mung beans in a couple of simple soups and southeast Asian desserts. I never really thought of the mung beans with their Arabic name, M’ash. The traditional Lebanese way to use it is to cook it with lots of browned onions and cut…… Continue reading Mung Beans with Burghul (Burghul M’ash)

Mugaritz: Dried Tomato Salad, a Bunch of Garlic Cloves and Herbs

Soaking a fruit or a vegetable in pickling lime or Calcium Hydroxide is a theme in the Mugaritz book. Soaking any vegetable in a mixture of water and pickling lime binds the cellulose and makes the fruit firm. The longer it is soaked the harder a shell it forms. The reason pickling lime is sold…… Continue reading Mugaritz: Dried Tomato Salad, a Bunch of Garlic Cloves and Herbs

Le Ratatouille

Summer is winding down (sure it is October, but this is Houston…summer goes all the way to November sometimes) and the summer produce is really at its peak (and it’s cheapest). Even the run-of-the-mill supermarket tomatoes are very good this time of year. They are sweet and with the right balance of acidity. The red…… Continue reading Le Ratatouille

Yogurt Flatbreads with Barley and Mushrooms

This delicious vegetarian dish comes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s book Plenty. The chef is much better known in the UK where he runs a chain of “deli” shops that serve a huge variety of creative dishes, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. He also has a weekly column in the Guardian newspaper. The website has a lot of his…… Continue reading Yogurt Flatbreads with Barley and Mushrooms

Yellow: Tomatoes, Saffron, Corn, Virtual Egg

A while back I was making a chicken stew that included saffron, a Tagine really. The saffron needed to soak and flavor a portion of chicken stock that I had put in a white bowl. The color was so pretty with the deep rich yellow of the saffron threads slowly diffusing and swirling into the clear…… Continue reading Yellow: Tomatoes, Saffron, Corn, Virtual Egg

Virtual Egg

Of course it’s a gimmick, but it is so cool. It’s also great to see the look on your guests face when they bite into one of these expecting a good old egg and then doing a double take. Their brain is telling them that this is an egg but the signals they are getting from…… Continue reading Virtual Egg