Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Turkey Meatballs in Quince-Rosewater Syrup

Recipe Source (partial): Mallos, Tess.  The Food of Morocco.  Murdoch Books, Millers Point, 2008 p. 104

So none of my recent recipes have satisfied my meatball craving.  I don't know why that should be, but whatever.  I'll just have to keep playing until I find what I'm looking for, or possibly just enjoy eating more meatballs.  I wanted a meatball dish that I could enjoy during the week.  I also wanted something with quinces.  You may recall that not too long ago I posted a recipe for quinces in a rosewater syrup.  That was in preparation for this recipe.  I figured I might as well combine the two and see what I came up with, and I'm very glad that I did.  You see, the turkey meatballs matched beautifully with the quince sauce, just beautifully.  Neither my husband nor I could get enough.  This dish was great.  It also reheated easily and well with the addition of about half a cup of water.

Turkey Meatballs in Quince-Rosewater Syrup (serves 4; approx. $1.36/serving)

1 pound ground turkey

1 egg

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 cup water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 serving (aout 1/2 cup?) Quinces in Rosewater Syrup.  Make sure you get some of that syrup!

Equipment:

• Mixing bowl
• Mini-prep mini food processor
• Large saute pan

1. Combine the turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, cardamom, salt and pepper in the mixing bowl.  Knead well to mix thoroughly.  Form into meatballs the approximate size of walnuts and set aside.
2. Combine the quinces with the onion and lemon juice in the mini-prep.  Puree.
3. Heat the oil in the saute pan.
4. Add the meatballs and brown on all sides.
5. Add the quince puree and the water.  Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer until the meatballs are thoroughly cooked.
7. Eat.  Complain that there are not more.

Recipe: Medieval Fried Meatballs

Recipe Source: Anonymous.  The Treasure of Useful Advice for the Composition of a Varied Table.  Thirteenth century AD, probably Egyptian.  Published by Lilia Zaouali in Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, M. B. DeBevoise trans., University of California Press, Berkeley, 2007 p. 87

So, my recent experiment with meatballs in avgolemono did not cure my craving for meatballs.  I don't know why.  Maybe they're just comforting.  Things around here have been kind of insane the past few weeks, maybe I'm subconsciously seeking that kind of familiar comfort.  Maybe they're just good.  There's a reason we find meatball recipes coming from all over the world, after all.  Whatever it is, I made these a while ago for a Sunday dinner and they came out pretty well if I do say so myself.  This is a medieval recipe that comes to us from Egypt - well, probably Egypt.  It's a very simple recipe, calling for seven ingredients.  It's very easy to pull together and very easy to like - assuming that you like cilantro, that is.  You can try it as a cocktail party appetizer, or serve as a main course.

Medieval Fried Meatballs (serves 8; approx. $1.12/serving)

1 pound ground lamb

1 onion, ground

1 tablespoon ground pepper

Pinch kosher salt

2/3 bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 egg

6 tablespoons olive oil

Equipment:

• Mixing bowl
• Skillet
• Saucepan

1. Combine the meat, pepper, salt, cilantro, coriander and egg in the mixing bowl.  Knead until thoroughly combined.
2. Use your (clean) hands to roll pieces of meat into balls the approximate size of a walnut.  Set aside.
3. Fill the saucepan about halfway with water and bring to a boil.
4. Add the meatballs.  Work in batches if you have to.  Cook until the meatballs are about half-cooked, three or four minutes.  Drain.
5. Heat the oil in the skillet.
6. Working in batches if necessary, fry the meatballs in the oil until done to your liking.  Drain.
7. Serve.

Recipe: Quinces in Rosewater Syrup

Recipe Source: Mallos, Tess.  The Food of Morocco.  Murdoch Books, Millers Point, 2008 p. 232

It's that time of year again.  I have managed to acquire another bushel of quinces at a very reasonable cost so it is now time to re-boot The Great Quince Project.  This year I've had some specific requests for things so that should take care of some of my bounty, but that's not the point of The Great Quince Project.  The point is to explore all sorts of tasty treats that I can only make at this one time of year, so that's what I'm doing.  The first recipe for the season comes from Morocco.  It's not the recipe I initially intended to be the first recipe of the season.  The recipe I originally intended is a savory(ish) recipe, not a dessert.  It did, however, require one to make this recipe first.  Now, I could have written this up as part of that recipe, but I decided not to.  You see, I decided to make a super-sized batch of this ingredient.  A few of the quinces in my bushel were partially bad - no great surprise considering how many there were and the recent weather - so I decided I would use p all the ones that I had to cut up.

So I was already making this recipe.  The day before I decided to cook we'd hosted one of those big medieval history events I've mentioned.  I did not cook for this event, being the event organizer.  I did however find myself with a lot of the leftovers.  One of the dishes of which there were leftovers was rice pudding.  Now, as rice pudding goes it was a wonderful rice pudding - almondy and creamy.  The thing is, I'm not usually the biggest rice pudding fan in the world.  I was however having guests over for dinner that night, and one of those guests is a rice pudding fiend.  I hadn't any other dessert ideas and was frankly exhausted.  Why not add some quinces in rosewater to the rice pudding?

I made a few small changes to the original recipe, other than increasing the quantity as mentioned above.  I decided to use honey instead of superfine sugar.  I had this jar of really tasty, high-quality honey that I'd bought over the summer.  It was still good but it was threatening to crystalize on me.  Rather than waste it, I decided to use it here.  Besides, I love the flavor of honey.  If I have to have sweet, I want it to taste like honey.  I think the proportion of rosewater I used was higher than called for in the original recipe too; the original said "to taste," and "to taste" with regards to rosewater is quite a lot in my book.  I left the lemon zest in the syrup rather than removing it for storage and service, which I thought worked quite well.

I don't mind telling you that this worked out better than I could have possibly imagined.  Both of my guests had been present at the history event the night before and had partaken of the original rice pudding.  They loved the rice pudding then, but they hardly recognized it when the quince and rosewater syrup was added.  They enjoyed the way it meshed with the almond.  And how much did I like it?  I'd originally intended to send home any uneaten rice pudding with my friends, but I kept a little bit back just for me.

Quinces in Rosewater Syrup (serves 12 when used as described; approx. $0.32/serving)

6 - 8 qunces, washed and quartered

18 fluid ounces honey

Zest of two lemons

4 tablespoons rosewater

Water to cover

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Large, fine-mesh strainer
• Bowl
• Covered storage bowl

1. Put the quinces - still with their peels and cores - into the saucepan and add water to cover.
2. Bring to a boil, then cover.  Reduce heat and simmer 40 minutes.
3. Drain through the strainer into a bowl.  Return the liquid to the saucepan.  Reserve the solids.
4. Add the honey and lemon zest to the pan.  Stir until the honey no longer resists the spoon.
5. Return the mixture to a simmer.
6. Pull the skin from the quince pieces, then core and halve each piece.
7. Return the quinces to the saucepan with the rosewater.  Continue to simmer another 30 minutes, this time uncovered.
8. Transfer to the covered storage bowl and chill.
9. Serve over rice pudding.  Yogurt or ice cream would make good choices too.

Recipe: Rutabaga Salad

Recipe Source: Jenkins, Sara and Mindy Fox.  Olives & Oranges.  Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2008 p. 27

If you want to play a slightly funny joke on your dinner guests make this easy salad.

When I was first putting this salad together my husband came into the room.  "What's all that cheese for?" he asked.  I told him it wasn't cheese, it was rutabaga.  He said, "Is 'rutabaga' Farsi for cheese?"  I said, "No, it's a giant (expletive) turnip."  He said, "Oh," sampled some and went on about his day.  The recipe directed that the dish sit out at room temperature and I duly assembled it and sat it out on the table, well out of reach of dogs and cats and marauding small children.  A friend of ours walked in.  He looked at the dish.  He looked at me.  He looked at the dish again.  He looked at me again.  I asked, "Can I help you find something?"  He said, "Shouldn't this cheese be in the fridge?"

Okay, it's not hugely funny, but sometimes I'll take what I can get.

I had a couple of rutabagas from our final farm share shipments sitting in the fridge.  I needed to do something with them.  Unfortunately for me, I was feeling incredibly uninspired and had to resort to my cookbook collection for inspiration.  I found it in this book, which I rarely use.  I'm glad I did, though.  This was incredibly easy to prepare with my food processor's help.  It was delicious and easily assembled ahead of time.

I made a few changes.  I increased the quantity mostly to use up the rutabagas.  I used lemon juice instead of lime because I had a bunch of lemons on hand that needed to stop occupying fridge space.  I increased the harissa because I frankly like the stuff.  I also added some herbs because I had them and because I thought they would round out the dish.

This simple salad was a real hit.  Try it sometime when you've got a lot of people to feed and less time to do it in.

Rutabaga Salad (serves 8; approx. $0.79/serving)

2 rutabaga, peeled and grated

2 tablespoons kosher salt

12 tablespoons lemon juice

5 tablespoons harissa

1 handful fresh thyme leaves

1 handful fresh oregano leaves, chopped

Equipment:

• I used a food processor to grate the rutabagas.  You can use a box grater if you need to  but try not to bleed into the food.
• Small bowl.
• Whisk

1. Combine your grated rutabaga and salt in your serving bowl, which should be roughly the size of Belgium.
2. Set aside a minimum of five minutes.
3. Combine the remaining ingredients in the small bowl and whisk to thoroughly combine.
4. Pour the dressing over the rutabaga and toss to coat.
5. Set aside up to six hours.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Beet and Red Onion Salad

Recipe Source: Mallos, Tess. Cooking Moroccan. Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, 2005 p. 41

I am not a fan of beets. I've learned to accept them when they're raw, but in their cooked state I must state that I am really not a fan. I keep trying, but I think that there are two reasons for my distaste. One is the smell. I have never learned to be fond of the smell of beets cooking. They were not part of my olfactory or culinary landscape when I was small and they aren't part of it now. The other reason is the fact that they're really kind of sweet. I remember a song from Sesame Street when I was a very little kid, all about sugar beets. Now I really have no appreciable sweet tooth. If it's going to be sweet it had darned well better involve chocolate. Beets and chocolate sound like a pretty awful combination. So I don't tend to eat them.

What I do like is beet greens. I don't know about you, but where I live I can't get beet greens without getting beets too. I usually serve them up raw, but in this case I decided I would cook them. Cooking them brings out their sweetness a little more and people seem to prefer them that way. I increased the red onion because I had them lying around and to make the dish more palatable to me. I added some coriander to the dressing, for which I also reduced the oil. There were some procedural changes too. The important part of this dish is the cumin.

Beet and Red Onion Salad (serves 8; approx. $1.53/serving)

8 beets, washed and peeled

3 tablespoons olive oil

6 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 red onions, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Saucepan
• Small bowl
• Whisk

1. Fill the saucepan with water and bring to a boil.
2. Add the beets. Boil until tender, about an hour. Add water if need be. Open your windows because cooking beets smell bad.
3. Drain the beets and let them cool.
4. When the beets are cool enough to handle, halve them and slice them very thin. Add them to a serving bowl.
5. Add the onion slices to the bowl.
6. Whisk the remaining ingredients together in the small bowl. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and serve.

Recipe: Fish with Chilies and Olives (Kabkabou)

Recipe Source: Boujelben, Mohammed. Tunisia: Mediterranean Cuisine. Könemann, 2006 pp. 116 – 7

Yesterday I posted something about a make-ahead fish dish that just didn't do it for me. This dish makes up for it. I made it, once again, at a time when my husband was travelling and I had to fend for myself. I did not get bored with this dish. There were no flavors that overpowered other flavors. It just worked very, very well for me. I did not want to stop eating it. I wanted to keep opening my fridge every day, heating up my kabkabou and moving on.

I made a few small changes to the recipe. The original called for grouper. I did not have grouper. I had cod fillets, which I thawed and which worked quite well in this dish. I increased the capers because I've come to love them and I increased the olives because I had them on hand and wanted to clear the fridge. I increased the garlic, obviously, and I reduced the olive oil. I added a red onion because I wanted to use them up and I increased the tomatoes because I didn't want partial cans cluttering up my refrigerator. Everyone can use more lycopene in their diets, after all. You see it here served over brown rice.

Kabkabou (serves 4; approx. $3.73/serving)

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes

1 onion, finely chopped

1 red onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

6 garlic cloves, crushed

1 pinch saffron strands, soaked in ½ cup water

2 cod fillets

1 tablespoon cumin

2 red chilies, chopped

2 green chilies, chopped

1 pickled lemon, cut into strips

3 tablespoons capers

1 cup pitted Kalamata olives

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Sauté pan
• Mini-prep miniature food processor

1. Puree the tomatoes in the mini-prep.
2. Heat the oil in the sauté pan.
3. Add the onions and cook until deeply colored.
4. Add the garlic and tomatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Simmer 10 minutes or so.
6. Add the saffron water to the mixture. Stir well.
7. Dust the cod with salt, pepper and cumin. Add to the sauté pan.
8. Simmer approximately 10 minutes.
9. Add the chilies. Cook 5 minutes.
10. Add the lemon, capers and olives. Cook another 5 minutes.
11. Serve.

Recipe: Eggplants with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

Recipe Source: Walden, Hilaire. North African Cooking. Hackberry Press, Dallas, 1992 p. 33

I served this as a side dish at the cookout we held for the out-of-town guests for my daughter's christening. I realize that it's a little early for eggplants yet, but I was feeling kind of desperate. I needed something that could be made ahead of time and would hold up overnight, that would be interesting and filling. I've also developed a bit of an obsessive-compulsive disorder with regards to side dishes. There need to be at least three vegetable dishes on the table any time I'm entertaining or else I get twitchy. I realize that this is very weird and I accept it.

Anyway, I made a few small changes to the recipe. I doubled the recipe first of all, because we were expecting a crowd. I increased the garlic. I added some cumin to the dish because I love cumin. I used canned diced tomatoes because they taste better at this time of year and wind up being cheaper as well. Finally, I substituted fresh marjoram for the dried mint. My husband is allergic to mint so we don't even keep it in the house, and I had some fresh marjoram on hand from a previous recipe.

The result was very well received, if I do say so myself. There weren't any leftovers. I can't tell you how it was myself because I never got to try it!

Eggplants with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese (serves 15; approx. $2.62/serving)

4 eggplants

1 bunch fresh marjoram, leaves only

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, with juices

5 garlic cloves, crushed

Black pepper and crushed red pepper to taste

22 ounces fresh goat cheese, sliced into thin rounds

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• Broiler (optional; you can do this on the grill if you have capacity) and broiler pan
• Large baking dish

1. Preheat your broiler.
2. Put the eggplants under the broiler. Cook until they are blistered and blackened on all sides.
3. Remove from the broiler and let cool.
4. When the eggplants are cool to the touch, peel them and chop the flesh. Meanwhile heat your oven to 400 ̊.
5. Combine the eggplant with the tomatoes, marjoram, garlic, peppers and cumin in the bowl.
6. Turn out into a baking dish and layer the goat cheese over the top.
7. Cook until the cheese is melted and lightly browned, about 25 minutes.
8. Serve.

Recipe: Chicken with Preserved Lemon and Olives

Recipe Source: Walden, Hilaire. North African Cooking. Hackberry Press, Dallas, 2004 p. 61

Okay, maybe it's a little silly to let world events guide my menu but sometimes you just can't help yourself. I realize that so far Morocco hasn't been troubled by the same kinds of upheaval that's been seen in the rest of North Africa and, indeed, the Arab world, but it is all that upheaval that drew my hand to this book when planning my menu. The cuisine of North Africa is a beautiful and delicious combination of flavors that has always appealed to me, so it's not as though I was exactly disinclined toward the dish to begin with.

I made a few small changes. I doubled the onion and garlic – the garlic on general principles and the onion to get more melatonin in my diet. I used fresh ginger instead of ground. I used a combination of Moroccan olives (which at this particular market were black and oil-cured) and green olives (Greek and cured in a garlicky brine) instead of the green Moroccan olives called for in the original. I increased the cinnamon and I added ½ teaspoon cumin to the mixture. Finally, instead of using a combination of parsley and cilantro I simply used all cilantro – I just don't much care for parsley.

The flavor of the broth was good, and I truly loved the little black olives. The chicken, however, was kind of dry. Next time I will probably use turkey.

Chicken with Preserved Lemon and Olives (serves 4; approx. $4.57/serving)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 finely chopped red onions

6 garlic cloves, crushed

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 large pinch saffron

1 chicken

3 cups water

¼ cup black oil-cured Moroccan olives

¼ cup brine-cured green olives

2 large bunches cilantro, finely chopped

1 preserved lemon, chopped

Equipment:

• Mini-prep miniature food processor
• Large sauteuse with lid

1. Heat the oil in the pan.
2. Add the onion. Sauté until golden.
3. Combine the garlic with kosher salt, ginger, cinnamon, saffron, pepper and cumin in the mini-prep.
4. Stir this mixture into the onions and cook until fragrant.
5. Add the chicken and the water. Cover and bring to a bare simmer.
6. Simmer 1 ¼ hours, turning the chicken at least twice.
7. Add the olives, preserved lemon and cilantro. Cover and cook another 15 minutes.
8. Serve with the sauce.

Recipe: Lentil and Squash Tagine

Recipe Source: Mallos, Tess. Cooking Moroccan. Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, 2006 p. 73

Someday I strongly suspect this will be one of my daughter's favorite foods. It is, as you can see from the picture, bright orange. It also makes a great vegetarian entrée should one be required, and it makes a decent side dish as well. People who don't usually like squash dishes really got into this and there were no leftovers whatsoever. This dish is also remarkable in that I did not make it. No, I had an overly busy weekend that week and received help from my wonderful husband.

Wonderful Husband doesn't usually like to mess around with recipes the way I do. He tends to follow them pretty exactly, so there aren't a lot of changes to describe. We used red lentils instead of brown because I had a whole lot of them on hand. The garlic was increased. The sugar and parsley were omitted, since squash is more than sweet enough without it and I didn't buy parsley that week.

Lentil and Squash Tagine (serves about 12 as a side dish)

1 ½ cups red lentils

2 tomatoes, grated

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into pieces

¼ cup olive oil

1 onion, minced

8 garlic cloves, crushed

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon turmeric

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon tomato paste

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Equipment:

• Saucepan
• Large sauté pan

1. Put the lentils in the saucepan. Add 4 cups water and bring to a boil.
2. Simmer, covered, 20 minutes.
3. Heat the oil in the saucepan
4. Add the onion. Cook over low heat until softened.
5. Add the garlic. Cook a few seconds.
6. Add the spices. Cook 30 seconds.
7. Add the tomatoes half the cilantro, salt, pepper, lentils and squash. Stir well, then cover and simmer 20 minutes.
8. Garnish with the remaining cilantro and serve.

Recipe: Alexandrian Sauce

Recipe Source: Anonymous.  The Treasure of Useful Advice for the Composition of a Varied Table.  Thirteenth century AD, probably Egyptian.  Published by Lilia Zaouali in Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, M. B. DeBevoise trans., University of California Press, Berkeley, 2007 p. 130

Just to make it clear, this recipe is for a sauce whose origins are in Alexandria, not a sauce made from Alexandrians, okay? That would be a very different website and probably would involve law enforcement in some way.

So, the main course for the big medieval feast we prepared up in Maine was roast beef with two sauces. This is not the way it was intended. I intended to serve three sauces. Unfortunately for me, I left one at home: the Alexandrian sauce. The two sauces I brought were certainly adequate and delicious, so I don't know that we needed this sauce, but I was kind of looking forward to it. I said a lot of bad words in the privacy of my tent that night.

So this recipe didn't get tasted that night, but I did sample a little of this in my kitchen before packing it up and putting it in the wrong place. This is a really simple sauce – really, really simple. I made the first version of the recipe. For the hot spices I used ground ginger and pepper. I probably could have included something else here too, but my brain was pretty fried by this point. In flavor it kind of reminded me of my husband's Lemon Sunshine Sauce. It would have been fine on roast beef, but I definitely think that this would go better on chicken or possibly even some kind of vegetable. It would probably make a decent salad dressing if you were so inclined. If you're not trying to be historically accurate, some kind of crushed red pepper would go really nicely here.

Alexandrian Sauce (makes about 1 cup; approx. $0.22/ounce)

4 ounces olive oil

8 ounces lemon juice

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon ground ginger

Equipment:

• Whisk
• Small bowl

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Whisk well to emulsify.
3. Re-whisk just before serving to ensure that the liquid and the oil have not separated.