For a long time, I was misguided. I have repented my ways and am attempting to make amends.

Yes. I’m talking about radishes.

I really used to dislike them – too crunchy, too accrid on my tongue. To own the truth, I still can’t eat a big chunk of radish, especially if it’s very spicy. But when they’re thinly sliced into a salad like this one, these crispy red and white root vegetables are absolute perfection.

In France, radishes are eaten as an after-school snack, dipped into coarse salt and soft butter. The simple combination of those flavors – radish, butter, salt – inspired this beautifully quick salad. Ameir and I liked this so much that we ate the whole bowl of it, and I went back to the store the next day to buy two more bunches of radish. And yes, we ate all of that, too.

This is a technique more than a recipe. I didn’t make exact measurements, but was just tasting and admiring colors to see how much of an ingredient to add.

The parsley compliments the crunch and pepperiness of the radish. Altogether, the two make a pretty strong flavor profile. Enter bread, butter, and cheese.

The salad is piled on top of buttered and toasted sourdough toasts. I suppose you could make croutons out of them and eat the whole thing from a big bowl. The toasted, buttery bread provides another kind of crunch, but a little warmth and softness to counteract the possible harshness of the radish and parsley.

The cheese is the simplest but most important part, I think. I picked a classic syrian cheese, which has the light flavor of ricotta but the texture of a harder buffalo mozarella. I don’t mix the cheese in, but leave it in big crumbles on the side to pop into your mouth in between bites of salad-atop-bread.

The salad is dressed very simply – olive oil and balsamic. The former provides a fruity sweetness, the latter a sweet-tart tang.

Recipe after the link

Radish and Parsley Salad

1 bunch red radishes
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, stems and leaves
Sourdough bread (or crusty baguette)
Butter
Kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
A mild cheese that can be broken into chunks

Crumble the cheese into biggish chunks and set aside onto your serving platter. Slice the radishes as thinly as possible and put them into a bowl.

Separate the parsley stems and leaves. Give the parsley leaves a rough chop, or julienne them as best you can if you like the leaves smaller. Slice the stems as thinly as possible. These provide a light crunch as well. Add all the parsley to the bowl with the radishes.

Sprinkle salt and course black pepper onto the radishes and parsley.

Pour some olive oil over the salad and mix – start with half a tablespoon, then add another until the salad just glistens and the leaves taste a bit fruity.

Pour a little bit of balsamic vinegar over the salad (quite less than the olive oil). The leaves should just taste a bit sweet and tangy.

Slice the bread into toasts and spread with butter. Put under the broiler and toast only on one side until golden brown. If you want the toasts very crispy, toast on both sides. Try to time everything so the toasts are still a little warm when you serve.

To serve, pile a few tablespoons of salad on top of the toasts. Enjoy creamy bites of cheese as a palette calmer between or alongside bites of the salad.

I love roasted corn. The savory sweetness of each kernel, the way the grill-marked pieces pop softly in your mouth, the charred aroma. Yum. The best way to eat it is straight from the grill, rubbed with lime or lemon and coated in salt, black pepper, and paprika. You can also shave off the kernels and make a roasted corn salad.

Unfortunately, the latter is kind of impractical to make for a big crowd. Not everyone wants to gnaw corn off the cob and get those little pieces stuck in their teeth. Then again, corn is an essential part of a summer barbeque, and I was unwilling to give up the flavor experience that is grilled corn.

Also, I had better things to do than shave off corn kernels from a million cobs. Like decorate mini cupcakes with my sweet little sisters-in-law.

See – isn’t this much better than shucking corn? I divided up in an exact number how many each pair of hands was allowed to frost with the piping bag and decorate with the rainbow candy sprinkles. We have to make it even to prevent the “Why did she get more than me” discussion.

So I had to recreate the flavor of roasted corn the cheating way, grilling a five pound can of the sweet stuff.

This was surprisingly easy, so much so that I do not have a real recipe. Basically, I drained 5lbs of corn over the sink. Then, in batches, I laid the corn over paper towels, patted it dry, and threw it into a hot grill pan in a single layer. I let it sear on one side till it was brown, then turned it over. At the end, I kind of tossed the kernels around the pan till they were to my desired level of brown-ness. Each pan-amount of roasting takes about 4 or 5 min.

All of these went into a bowl with diced tomatoes and cucumbers, chopped cilantro, and very finely sliced red onion. Some cubed avocado would be phenomenal in this.

I dressed the salad thusly – lemon juice and olive oil, (more of the former than the latter), cumin, black pepper, salt – and, of course, pureed chipotle-in-adobo to taste. (I really am obsessed with this stuff, aren’t I?)

Voila! Roasted corn salad, for a crowd, made on an inside grill pan. Not saying it’s just as good as the charcoal-grilled kind, but it was pretty darn delicious (and I didn’t have to shave all those kernels off)

Okay, so you have leftovers? Make barbeque leftovers soup with this instead of the guacamole. It’s wonderfully smoky and rich.

How many of you are confused right now? Good, you were paying attention.

How many of you don’t know what I’m talking about? Don’t be shy, I can’t see you through my computer screen (or can I?).

Cooked cucumber in a soup? What?

I’m not majnoona. I was hesitant at first, too. But honestly, it kind of just tastes/looks/feels like zucchini in the final stew. No one will notice.

At the end of the year International Law Journal banquet, the Editorial Staff treated us all to a dinner at Southern Rail Restaurant in Carboro. It was, to say the least, pretty phenomenal. There was a simple salad with a roasted garlic vinaigrette. Dessert was a coffee pot-au-creme with vanilla bean and nutmeg whipped cream. But dinner…oh…dinner was amazing. It was a linguini in a spicy tomato cream sauce with artichoke hearts and tomatoes, topped with a perfectly cooked salmon that had some kind of sweet crust to it. I don’t now how they did it, but it was just perfect.

To mirror that, I revamped my usual shrimp, spinach, tomato sauce pasta to try to capture the spicy-sweet aspect of Southern Rail’s salmon pasta. I didn’t know how to sweeten the shrimp, so I just caramelized the onions and garlic. Delicious!

Recipe after the link

Shrimp Pasta, Revamped

1 box thin spaghetti
2 (28 oz) cans tomato sauce
About 1/4 – 1/2 cup cream
15 large shrimp, peeled
3 handfulls of fresh spinach
4 cloves garlic, sliced really thinly
1 onion, sliced thinly
Salt, black pepper
Cayenne pepper
Sugar
Olive oil for pan, as needed

1. Heat the tomato sauce and cream together (put as much cream as you like, really), and season with cayenne until it is sufficiently spicy. I think I put in about 1 – 2 tsp…but that’s because I’m desi. Add it to freshly cooked pasta.

2. Over medium heat, sautee the onions until soft. Turn the heat to high for a couple of minutes to let them brown. Turn the heat back down, and add a pinch of sugar and let them cook until sweet, about 3 more minutes. (My secret quick-caramelize technique).

3. Add the very thinly sliced garlic to the onions (making sure that the heat is on medium. Do not burn the garlic. Do not. Burn. The. Garlic. Do not.) Cook until lightly golden brown.

4. Put the shrimp in a single layer in the pan, nestled in the onions and garlic. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper.

5. After shrimp are cooked, put in three handfulls of fresh baby spinach and toss to get it all mixed in. Salt it. Cover the pan.

6. Plate your pasta. I’ve finally figured out how to roll it into nests, fancy-like.

7. The spinach should be wilted by now. Serve a big spoonfull of garlicky-sweet shrimp and spinach on top of each bowl of pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Koshari is Egyptian street food – and, really, isn’t street food always the best part of any cuisine? It’s based on kitchery – a very simple rice and lentil mixture served in Pakistan and India. When Desi workers came to Egypt, they brought kitchery with them, and I really have to say that the Egyptians perfected it.

It’s really very simple. Lentils are cooked in a savory tomato sauce, and then the dish is served in layers: rice, tomato-y lentils, then caramelized or fried onions on top. It’s eaten spicy, so hot sauce is served alongside. Fancier versions have chickpeas and other legumes too. I added extra veggies by putting eggplant in the rice.

I made this over at Amy Aziza’s house at a mini housewarming party to break in her new kitchen. Angela made empanadas, because she’s Puerto Rican and awesome like that. Natasha brought Charlie Chaplain. Emilie was beautiful and smiling. It was great!

Koshari

2 cups lentils (I like brown lentils Koshari, the same as for this Eggplant and Lentil Stew)
1 large can tomato sauce (28 oz I think?)
2 cups rice + 4 cups broth or water to cook it in
1 eggplant
A lot of garlic (a lot)
A lot of onions (a lot)
Salt, pepper, hot sauce
Paprika or cayenne, depending on your heat tolerance
Cinnamon
Olive oil
Hot sauce to serve

1. (before you do anything else, start this, because onion caramelization is best if it is done over a long period of time. If you forget, cheat and add sugar). Dice or slice a lot of onions and put it on a medium low heat with a bit of olive oil. Let it go. Keep coming back and stirring it. Add some sugar if you want to help the onions along. At the end, before you serve, turn up the heat so the onions get crispy on the edges.

2. Chop one or two onions and a bunch of garlic and saute in some olive oil until soft-ish. Add the lentils and an equal part of water and boil until the lentils are almost soft. Drain any excess water, and then add more garlic and the tomato sauce. Simmer until lentils are soft. Salt and pepper it.

2. Cut the eggplant into chunks and put it in a colander. Salt it and let it drain for 15 min at least (this gets the bitterness out). Pat dry, sprinkle with cayenne, black pepper, and cinnamon, and fry in batches.

3. Sautee an onion and garlic until soft. Add the eggplant, stir. Add the rice and stir. Add some cinnamon (this is a Magrebi – Moroccan – touch that I really like, but the cinnamon is entirely optional) and black pepper. Add the liquid (water or broth) and cook the rice normally.

To serve: Put down a layer of rice, then a layer of tomato lentils, then top with caramelized onions. Add hot sauce to taste!

This flatbread have become kind of a staple snack or party food for me. I was inspired by a cheese-and-olive pie that Neomonde bakery makes (and theirs is much better than mine will ever be).

The green olives really make the dish – they’re just salty enough. Black olives may be a little too bitter for a delicate flatbread like this. I usually use Roma tomatoes, but today I had one of the big fat ones – just take care to cut it thinly so you don’t have juice making it soggy. If you slice the onions very thinly, they caramelize a bit, which makes a nice sweet contrast to the salty olives.

Tomato Olive Flatbread

1 Pillsbury Thin Crust pizza dough
1 Tomato, sliced thinly
handful of green olives, pitted and chopped
1 small onion, sliced very thinly
Shredded mixed Italian cheese
Handful of parsley, chopped
Garlic powder

1. Spread the pizza crust on a baking sheet. Cut in half lengthwise and stretch a little. You don’t need to roll it out, just stretch it a tad bit evenly around the sides.

2. Sprinkle with garlic powder and bake in a 400F oven for about 5 minutes (following the directions on the package for a crisper crust).

3. After it is lightly cooked, spread on the cheese, then the onion slices, tomato, green olives. Sprinkle parsley on the top.

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the crust is crispy and until cheese is melted (or browned, if you want).

Mustard Mayo potato salad – it’s…well….it’s kind of ickish. It’s only something you can have a little bit of at a time, or go through phases of it (you eat a big tub, then you’re off it for a year). Also, it kind of only edible at picnics, isn’t it?

I saw something like this on Barefoot Contessa. After boiling the potatoes, she puts in chicken broth and white wine. Well, I didn’t have any of the former, and I’ll never have any of the latter (the Muslim thing, and all). And I didn’t have mustard to make a vinaigrette, but the garlic and rosemary flavored olive oil in this was just perfect. This is a really light, fresh potato salad that I served with chicken sandwiches. Hot, warm, or room temp, I think, would be best.

Warm Garlic and Rosemary Potato Salad

10 small new red potatoes
1 – 2 tbs fresh rosemary sprigs
2 big cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil
4 scallions, chopped
Handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
Salt and black pepper

1. Pour olive oil into a pan over low or medium low flame. Add the garlic and just let it simmer lightly until it gets golden brown. This will take only about three minutes – think of it as steeping. At the very last second, put in the fresh rosemary sprigs and let them sizzle for a few seconds.

2. Clean and quarter the potatoes, then put them into cold water. Add salt. Boil the water and potatoes until potatoes are soft. Drain.

3. Pour the hot olive oil onto the hot potatoes. Mix well.

4. Mix in the fresh chopped parsley and scallions. Salt, pepper, and eat!

This really simple spice rub livens up sweet potatoes for a great side dish. If you want them saucy, you could cook them a little in a fresh tomato sauce after they come out of the oven.

3 sweet potatoes, cut into even chunks
fresh cilantro, chopped

Spice mix:
1 or 2 chipotle peppers + some adobo sauce
2 limes, zested
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp paprika
1 or 2 tsp brown sugar (trust me)
Salt to taste

Puree the chipotle peppers in a small food processor and add the rest of the spices. Add enough lime juice to form a paste. I think I added both limes worth of juice.

Mix into the sweet potatoes.

Spread into a pan and roast at 425 for about 30-40 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh cilantro before serving.

Amy made this incredible Korean Salad to go with the butternut squash and wild mushroom pierogies. It sounded weird at first because of the different tastes, but the spicy-tart vinaigrette really goes well with anything creamy.

The original recipe says to make it with only lettuce and chives, but Amy adds cucumbers as well, which I think is a great idea. Finely grated carrot or radish would be great in this too.

Korean Salad

2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp crushed red chili flakes, or to taste
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar or other mild vinegar (if you use apple, you probably don’t need the sugar)
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp sugar
Chives, a couple of large bunches
4 cups any tender lettuce or mixed lettuces
1 cucumber, seeds removed and diced
1 tbs toasted sesame seeds for garnish, optional.

1. Make dressing by combining sesame oil with chili flakes, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, sugar and about a tablespoon of water.
2. Wash and dry chives, then cut them into 1- or 2-inch lengths. Wash and dry lettuce. Toss chives and cucumber with lettuce, then pour dressing over all and toss again. Garnish with sesame seeds, if using, and serve immediately.

Amy and I met rather by chance; she sat next to me in Business Administration and we bonded over the weirdness of the class, religion, and food! So while we were “studying” for the exam, Amy (a double-Pole) taught me how to make pierogis. They’re delicious little dumplings filled with cheese or some kind of vegetable mixture – we did butternut squash and wild mushroom (porcini and cremini), but you can also do potato – then mixed with caramelized onions and topped with sour cream.

I used twice as much caramelized onion as the recipe calls for. The sour cream really makes the dish; don’t leave it out! Amy served this with a spicy Korean salad – even though it was such a mixture of ethnic foods, the smoothness and creaminess of the pierogies and sour cream went really well with the vinegary-spiciness of the Korean salad. I really recommend this pairing.

We used this recipe for the dough. We rolled it out onto the counter (with plenty of flour), and cut it out with a 3-inch round glass. This is the recipe for the Wild Mushroom filling.

Butternut Squash filling
3 cups butternut squash, diced
1 onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
Cumin, salt, pepper, to taste
Paprika or cayenne, to taste

Caramelize the onion, then add the tomato and squash. Flavor with cumin, salt, and peppers. Resist (or succumb to) the temptation to eat this with a spoon. Mash it up a little so most of the lumps are gone. Stuff inside the pierogies!

Enjoy the pictures! I’m experimenting with a Lightbox plugin. Click on the first picture (first on the left, of the dried porcini mushrooms), and then you should be able to click through the rest like a flowing gallery, complete with captions. As you can see, I had fun taking pictures while Amy was doing all the work. Let me know what you think!

This is a traditional Syrian dish of zucchini hollowed out and stuffed with cooked ground beef, then baked with a tomato sauce. The filling I used here is the same thing I used for making kibbe, and it really turned out well.

Kousa Mahshi

1 to 1/2 lb ground beef (whatever one package is)
2 onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, diced or minced
1/4 or 1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 to 1 tsp cumin
Salt, pepper
Dry or fresh parsley
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1 16 oz can tomato sauce
1 or 2 cups of broth (i don’t like to mix chicken broth with beef, so I used veggie broth)
7 green zucchini

1. Slice the zucchini lengthwise into two boats. Score the center and scoop out the flesh, leaving a rim around the edge. Try to get the ones with the bigger brown, round spot on the butt – these have more flesh, and you can use the zucchini you scoop out for other yummy things (or, you could make this feta stuffed zucchini by Veggie Venture)

2. Saute one onion and three cloves of garlic until soft. Add the ground beef and break it up so it cooks evenly. Add the walnuts, parsley, allspice, cumin, salt, and pepper. Mix in about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce. (I also added a good chunk of garlic-herb butter I had in the freezer. Shh….don’t tell).

3. Remove all that from the pan. Sautee one sliced onion and three cloves of garlic and add the rest of the tomato sauce. Let it simmer to flavor. Add the broth so it’s more liquidy, enough to pour into the pan and kind of braise the zucchini.

4. In two large 13×9 pans, divide the tomato sauce evenly. Lay the zucchini boats in the pan (I cut them in half so it was four little half-boats per zucchini – easier to serve).

5. Put about 1 tablespoon of filling into each boat (each full boat). If there is extra ground beef, let it fall into the sauce.

6. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until zucchini is tender. To serve, put a few piece of stuffed zucchini into a plate and spoon the tomato sauce on top.