Hungry Mouth

Gigantes Plaki: A Greek bean dish

This is my first ever entry in IMBB (Is My Blog Burning).  I'm excited to be joining the fabulous food blogging community. 

We encountered this delicious bean dish in tavernas throughout Greece, usually served at room temperature as an appetizer. One advantage of this dish is it can be cooked 1 or 2 days in advance.  It improves with age. For more about our 3 weeks in Greece last spring see Exploring greek food. 

Gigantes Plaki

1 c dry gigantes or large lima beans
3 bay leaves (Greek if possible)
2 T EVOO
1 onion, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz can chopped tomatoes, fire roasted preferred
2 T rigani (dried oregano, Greek if possible )
1 bay leaf
1/2 c red wine
1 T honey
S & P to taste
juice of 1 lemon
1 T red wine vinegar
1/4 c chopped parsley
1 T chopped Parsley
1 T chopped Dill

Soak beans in lots of water to cover over night or boil beans in lots of water for one minue and allow to sit covered for 1 hour. (These beans soak up lots of water).  Drain beans.  Return to pot and cover with lots of water, bring to boil, reduce to simmer, add 3 bay leaves, cover and simmer.  Check every 15 minutes.  Beans are done when they are just soft through-out.  They will cook a bit more later. (Mine took 30 minutes to get done).  Drain beans (save water) and remove bay leaves.  In same pot heat olive oil.  Saute onions til soft.  Add garlic and saute for a few minutes.  Add tomatoes plus their juice.  Add rigani, bay, wine, honey and S & P.  Allow to simmer for 15 minues or until well amalgamated.  Add beans to sauce.  Add enough reserved bean water to keep beans juicy but not soupy.  Barely simmer for about 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend, or if you prefer, bake beans at 325.  Beans should be meltingly tender but not quite falling apart.   Add lemon juice, vinegar and 1/4 c parsley.  Remove from heat.  Serve hot or at room temp.  Garnish with chopped parsley and dill.  Makes 4-6 side dish 8-10 appetizer servings.

Wonton Baskets

I confess that I stole this recipe! From a neat website http://www.finedinings.com/ . The only changes I made were to add a caper to each basket, and sprinkle them with dill rather than parsley.

The Best Shrimp Remoulade

I lived most of my adult life in Houston, TX. When I craved really good food, I'd hop in my car and drive to New Orleans. This was often a spur of the moment Friday night trip. I'd spend all day Saturday stuffing myself and drive home on Sunday feeling fat and happy.

My favorite New Orleans dish is Pommes Souffle. I've never encountered it in a US restaurant outside of the Big Easy, probably because it is very difficult to cook successfully. Basically, it is the ultimate French Fry served with a Bearnaise dipping sauce. The potatoes are twice fried in such a way that they puff up to form a thin crisp potato shell surrounding air. The potatoes must be aged and sliced perfectly in order to puff. I'd love to share a recipe but I have never had any success cooking the dish at home. My potatoes are all duds.

My second favorite dish is Shrimp Remoulade in the style of Arnaud's Restaurant. I think I have come close to perfecting this dish. My recipe is inspired by one in "The New Orleans Cookbook" by Rina and Richard Collin. I have a large collection of Cajun/Creole cookbooks and "The New Orleans Cookbook" is my favorite. I highly recommend it. While I love Paul Prudhomme's books, the recipes don't always succeed in the home kitchen. Another excellent cookbook is "Cajun-Creole Cooking" by Terry Thompson.

Shrimp Remoulade

In this recipe it is important to adjust the amounts of the sharp flavored ingredients (vinegar, cayenne, horseradish, etc.) to your own taste. Start with less and add more to taste.

1 bunch green onions
2 small stalks celery
3 large sprigs parsley, stemmed
3 Tb Creole mustard (see note)
4 tsp sweet paprika
1/4 t cayenne or more to taste
2 heaping T horseradish
S & P to taste
3-4 T white wine or Sherry vinegar
5 t lemon juice
1 t dried basil
1/2-3/4 c olive oil

1 green onion, minced
2 T minced celery
1 T minced parsley
romaine lettuce
1 lb. large cooked shrimp, shelled and deveined, chilled

Process 1st 3 ingredients until almost a puree. Stir in remaining ingredients up to olive oil. Using a wire whisk slowly add olive oil til well blended. Taste and adjust seasoning. Stir in the minced green onion, celery and parsley. Chill at least 3 hours or overnight. When ready to serve, shred romaine lettuce and spread about 1/2 c. on each of 4 chilled salad plates. Arrange shrimp on top. Cover with remoulade sauce. Garnish with a slice of lemon and serve. Serves 4.

Note: Only Creole mustard will work in this recipe. Zatarain's in an excellent brand which is stocked by one of my local grocery stores in California.

This makes a great light summer meal with a boiled artichoke and some crusty bread.

Beets

I am still on a Greek trip in my head. But I have an excuse...the food was delicious. For the most part we ate inexpensive food and it blew American fast food away. It blew American middle level food away. Everywhere in Greece the food was impeccably fresh, perfectly cooked and beautifully served. The mezes served at every taverna were particularly notable.

So let's talk beets.* Greeks have a wonderful way with beets. They serve them with their own greens. Let me add that my sweetheart who despised beets was completely converted. If all you have tasted are canned beets this will open a new world for you. Here is my attempt to recreate a typical taverna Greek beet dish.

1 red onion, halved and sliced
1 juicy lemon
1 t Greek oregano
1 bunch of fairly young beets (2-3 inches or less in diameter) with greens
EVOO
S & P

Marinate the onion with the juice of lemon and oregano.

Scrub and top the beets leaving an inch of green...leave the tail intact (this keeps the juice from leaking). Line a baking pan ( a metal loaf pan works well) with tin foil and place beets in one layer. Cover pan tightly with foil and roast beets til done in 400 oven...1-2 hours depending on size. Test with a skewer to make sure they are tender throughout. Let cool for a a few minutes then remove ends and peel (I use rubber gloves so I can handle them while quite warm and avoid staining my hands). Slice.

Meanwhile wash greens and remove tough stems and icky leaves. Chop roughly. When ready to peel beets, throw greens into a saute pan with a splash of water and cook til wilted/tender which should only take a couple minutes. Drain in a colander and press out excess water. Chop into smaller pieces. Immediately toss with warm beets, EVOO, onions and S & P to taste. Serve with a lemon slice. This is great warm or at room temp, as well as the next day.

*Apologies to my friend, Pim.

Fava

After 3 weeks in Greece, it remains a mystery to me why the Greek dish called "Fava" is not based on fava beans. I adore fava beans and was excited to order it the first time we saw it on the menu in a tiny beach town taverna on the north coast of Lesvos. We were served a plate of mashed beans..delicious but bright yellow in color. Huh? What did they do to fava beans to make them bright yellow? Well, I had not done my research. A couple days later reading through my notes on Greek food I saw that "Fava" was actually mashed, seasoned yellow split peas.

So as soon as I returned home I had to try to remake Fava. Luckily, I had yellow split peas on hand due to my recent preoccupation with Indian food. Here is my attempt to recreate Greek Fava loosely based on a recipe from Diana Kochilas' interesting book "The Glorious Food of Greece". I recommend this book highly for reading purposes but it is not easy to cook from for me. It's organized by region which means that all the different courses are mixed up. I can't just pick up the book and look in one section for lamb recipes. I prefer books that are organized by course when it comes to cooking. Reading is a different matter, though.

So here is the recipe I made and it was delicious:

EVOO
1 red onion, minced
1 c. yellow split peas
water
Bay leaf
1 t Greek oregano
Red wine vinegar to taste
S & P to taste
chopped scallions

Saute onion in a smallish stockpot in EVOO. Add peas, toss around til coated, then add water to cover peas and bay by about an inch and simmer til done. The idea is to cook the peas til they completely fall apart and absorb all the water so be careful with the water. It will take about 1- 1 1/2 hrs for the peas to totally break down. Stir often and keep a close watch and add more water if needed to prevent sticking. When almost done stir in oregano and S & P. When done add vinegar to taste. Then let sit til cool. Peas will become very thick. Scoop into a shallow bowl. Scatter scallions on top. Serve with warm pita or pita chips to scoop. Opa!