Oh The Things I've Cooked (and not Photographed)

Maybe it's because I have a meeting every night this week, or the fact that I just facilitated a 30 person conference, or that I'm moving next weekend, but somehow I haven't managed to photograph the food that I've made this week, which makes me disappointed because it was pretty darn interesting!

Food item #1: Shakshouka, an Israeli/Middle Eastern dish traditionally made up of a spicy tomato sauce upon which eggs are poached. Here's one recipe link and a photo from Wikipedia's entry:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/04/shakshuka/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakshouk

You might also call this dish the perfect dinner or breakfast item for a quick protein and lots of vegetables. I chopped onion, garlic, and zucchini, sauteed them and then added in a bunch of chopped fresh tomatoes from wife's garden (you can use a can of diced or plum tomatoes that are chopped), sumac, and coriander. I didn't go the spicy route this time but you could add peppers, paprika, cayenne, cumin, etc. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then crack about 4 -6 eggs spaced over the top of the sauce. Cover with a lid and let simmer gently until the egg whites are cooked and the egg yolks have slightly cooked. To serve, scoop up the egg and sauce underneath and top with cheese (shredded cheddar, feta, etc. ) and possibly herbs (chopped parsley). Have some kind of bread or pita along side for scooping up extra sauce!

Food item #2: Tapioca pearl dumplings. Of course. If you have 1 cup of tapioca pearls that you inherited that previous recipe experiences have shown have an odd smoky flavor - you must seek long and hard to find one of the few savory recipes that might benefit from an odd smoky flavor. And  you're trying to clear out your pantry of odds and ends before you move. So this perfect confluence of events led to: Thai Tapioca Pearl Dumplings. Check out Sala's gorgeous photos!
 
This is one of the most creative savory uses of pearls that I was able to find, but let me just say the implementation of this recipe also requires creativity. I was able to successfully make the tapioca dough consistency, but it's a perfectly timed process: e.g. the dough needs to cool enough after boiling water that you don't burn your hands while needing, but if you let it cool too much, the dough seizes up. You also have to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. Also, I had difficulty stuffing it without the filling falling out. Could be my mixed veggies weren't minced enough? I used a mixture of onion, garlic, ginger, minced cabbage, carrot and peanuts. My dumpling balls were not perfect by any means - some of them looked more like I had simply mashed the filling together with the dough and rolled it into a ball :)  but once I steamed them (using a bamboo steamer) for about 20 minutes (I had very small pearls), they were a beautiful translucent, jelly like texture on the outside and you could see the darker filling inside. The sauce that goes along with this dish was delicious.  I don't know if I would make these again, but they do look impressive. Unfortunately I have about 3 cups of left over filling so I guess now I have to figure out if I can use my small quantity of rice flour to make another kind of dumpling dough from scratch....

Food Item #3: Fried green tomatoes! Enough said! Lots of green tomatoes from wife's garden tempting me to try my hand at frying again. I did a simple batter of cornmeal mixed with my cajun spice mix (roughly I can recollect that I made this spice mix when I made fried okra using paula deen's recipe). If the green tomatoes were juicy, I just dipped them straight in the cornmeal mixture. If they were a bit drier, I dipped them quickly in milk and then into the cornmeal mixture. SOOOOO wonderful. (fried in canola oil - no bacon lard for me!)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/fried-green-tomatoes-recipe/index.html