My variant of chickpea avocado salad with lemon and dill, by Tori Avey

When I am out of time and inspiration, the recipes of Tori Avey are my the main source of comfort. I love their simplicity, but also some background/historical stories that she usually includes, creating the perfect experience of the recipe. As I do love avocado a lot, and also chickpeas, ingredients that are rarely missing from my kitchen, I did not think twice and proceeded to the immediate preparation of this recipe that popped up into my social media flux a couple of weeks ago.

Except the boiling and preparation time for the chickpeas - that may last longer, even 1 day, depending of what kind of chickpeas do you use - everything is relatively simple and can be done within minutes. Instead of the dill in the original recipe, I used same water crest, a very fresh seasonal choice. It serves 2. 

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

200 gr. of water crest

1 ripe avocado

150 gr. of chickpeas

1 tablespoon za'atar

1/2 teaspoon salt

If you like it spicy, why not use a teaspoon of Cayenne pepper?

In the mixer bowl, I added the olive oil, lemon juice, avocado sliced into small parts, the za'atar and the chickpea, plus salt. I first mixed them with a wooden spoon, and thereafter melted up at moderate speed for maximum 3 minutes. 

I spread the result on slices of potato black bread.

With a lemonade or a cold tea, it is a perfect morning or evening treat, especially during the summer. 

Bon Appétit!

Brown rice noodles with sour-sweet sauce

When the sun is so hot, I have a lot of writing inspiration and less fun for cooking. There are always some interesting recipes calling my name, and I promise to try at least once little Shavuot cake before the holiday. Till then, I very fast recipe using some unusual noodles I discovered at my Asian shop. The package of brown noodles is made up of small little pockets, that need to be kept in boiled water for maximum 5 minutes.

I tried to taste them without sauces or other veggie combinations, but the result was completely disappointing. In other words, there was no taste at all. And nothing annoys me more than a tasteless food. Thus, adding a lot of sweet-sour sauce was more than helpful. 

The preparation time is maximum 15 minutes. The meal is rich, simple and matches a glass of hot tea. 

Bon Appétit!

Another way to say how much I love salmon

I am this kind of simpleton that I do not care too much about sophisticated methods to prepare and serve the salmon as long as I do have salmon on the table. Usually, it is the easiest product on my Shabbos list and I insist to have it on the menu on other occasions as well. 

When I am waiting for guests, I should be creative and wrap even a modest and tasty piece of salmon in a more sophisticated way. But Sukkot makes me always happy because I add a lot of vegetables and fruits on the plate and many of my worries are naturally solved.

As I was - as usual - out of time, I made the following marvelous combination:

avocados

slowly roasted pepper - red and yellow

olive oil

sesame seeds

salmon

I kept it in the overn for a couple of minutes to allow all the ingredients communicate and melt a bit properly, but I served it cold, as an hors d'oeuvre. The preparation did not take more than 15 minutes, the roasting stage included. It gives you the feeling of being full (the avocado is guilty for that) and you need a talking break before the next meal. 

That's all. 

A noble combination

For the long afternoons of the autumn, this treat is a real noble choice.

All you need to make yourself feel special are:

- Camembert cheese

- toast or any black bread - eventually with pumpkin seeds

- fresh figs

- maybe 1-2 drops of olive oil

You can make the plans for the new year while silently listening to the birds getting ready to leave and sipping a good white wine.

Bon Appetit!

An adventure in appetizers: melted onion dip

A couple of months ago, at the beginning of my cooking adventures, I set up the objective of cooking - at least - one new meal each week. Shy at the beginning, I advanced until reaching the level of around 5 new meals the week. My skills are improving, but I am still very very far away from the objective of a good and reliable family chef.

Due to my increasing interest for cooking, I added to my Kindle and book shelves many new books, new cooking books. Besides the literary and publishing aspects that I cannot got out of my mind, the new and fresh recipes are what I am looking for. 

For the last week, I browsed the pages of the 20 recipes include in Blair Daniels' book - An adventure in appetizers. Most recipes are simple, could be done in maximum 1 hour and are the perfect ingredient for people looking to taste something good while watching Super Bowl or anything it is interesting for you. You can also use some of the recipes to impress your friends at a party or for solving fast a difficult riddle about what to prepare in the evening after a long day at work.

As I am not a cheese-and-bacon type of person, I was very happy to find some nice ideas of drinks - Strawberry Lemonade Champagne Punch and Pina Colada Fruit Dip -, serious recipes rich enough for do not want anything else - baked potato dip or the melted onion dip.

The last one I chosed to experiment myself, but considered that will not be enough for the evening meal and thus, I added it to my Japanese noodle. The result was very good, but hard to digest and the next day we were on lemonade and decided to turn on diet for the next days. As in many other cases, I adapted the original recipe in the following way:

Noodles and onions

Ingredients:

2 large sweet onions chopped finely

2 Tbs. butter

1 cup Emmentaller cheese

2 gloves garlic minced - I tried the garlic+onion combination the first time and did not regret the decision. 

In the original recipe, it was recommended to ad 1/2 Tsp. Tabasco Sauce - not my favorite - and 1 cup Mayonnaise - that I do not want to hear about.

Preparation

First, I added in the pan - the original recipe is talking about oven -  the chopped onions with butter, followed by the garlic and the cheese. Because of the cheese, you should melt them regularly. Wait until the onion turns brown.

Bon appetit!