Cucumber & Yogurt Salad With Herbs (a.k.a. Tzatziki)

When my husband and I traveled through Greece and Turkey many years ago, we developed a new appreciation for two foods, in particular -- eggplants (which are used in many dishes with delicious results) and tzatziki, the traditional greek cucumber and yogurt salad that accompanies nearly every meal.

The greeks have amazing yogurt, it's actually a point of national pride for the country's 11 million inhabitants. And understandably so, for it is delicious, managing to be both remarkably creamy and also lower in fat than American-style yogurt due to the fact that it is made from ewe's milk instead of cow's milk.

Tzatziki is easy to make, refreshing and a great summer salad that is a perfect side for lots of meals from grilled meats to stewed lentils to baked eggplant to roasted chicken...

If you'd like to try making this with greek yogurt, there are several brands available in the U.S., the most widely available of which is probably Fage. However, this salad will be delicious when made with a whole-milk American yogurt, too. I used a delicious organic European-style (tends to be more liquid than American-style yogurt) yogurt made by Strauss, our beloved local creamery.

One of its beauties is that it is a flexible salad - you can add less or more yogurt, depending on your preference for consistency, and use just dill or a variety of different herbs (dill, cilantro, and parsley are all good), as you like.

Here is the basic recipe - I am leaving the amounts loose since they will depend on how much you want to make and how much of each thing you want to add (some might prefer more onion and less yogurt, others no onion and tons of herbs, etc.)

Tzatziki (Cucumber and Yogurt Salad With Herbs)

Ingredients

* 1 large cucumber, washed and peeled if the skin was waxed and cut into thin slices (try to find an organic cucumber if possible)
* 1/4 to 1/2 small red onion, peeled and cut into paper thin slices (if you love onion, use a lot, if you don't love onion, use less or none at all)
* 1- 1 1/2 cups organic whole milk yogurt
* 2 tsps fresh dill, washed, dried and chopped
* 1 tsp fresh parsely, washed, dried and chopped (alternatively, you could also substitute fresh cilantro for either the dill or the parsley)
* Freshly ground black pepper
* Fine sea salt

Directions

1. Combine the herbs, cucumber, and yogurt in a bowl and stir to mix.

2. Season to taste with the salt and pepper.

3. Taste and adjust the amounts as needed (you can add more yogurt, herbs or onions if you feel any one of them is lacking).

You might also like:

• Chopped Summer Salad
• Hummous With Caramelized Onions & Garlic Topped With Golden Beets, Toasted Pinenuts, and Greek Yogurt
• Creamy Beet Salad
• Spiced Lamb Kebabs With Tomato Jam
• Lemon-Scented Quinoa With Tahini & Chickpeas

Carrot Soup With Orange & Ginger

My friend Chelsea made me lunch last week. One of the things she served was a delicious, gingery carrot soup. It was so good that I was inspired to make my own, particularly since there have been such lovely new carrots at the farmers markets lately.

The bright orange color is gorgeous and the soup is both sweet and savory with a pleasant little zing of spice from the ginger. It's also high in beta carotene and all sorts of good vitamins.

The recipe below is from the Williams Sonoma Soup cookbook which I use often.

Carrrot Soup With Orange & Ginger
Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients

* 3 tbsps olive oil
* 2 leeks, including tender green parts, thinly sliced
* 6 carrots (about 1 lb total weight), peeled and thinly sliced
* 1 red potato, about 1/2 lb, peeled and coarsely diced
* 1 1/2 tsps fresh ginger, peeled and minced or grated
* 5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
* 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
* 2 tsps grated orange zest
* Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
* Thin orange slices and/or sprigs of fresh mint for garnish

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and saute until just slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add the carrots, potato, and ginger and saute until the vegetables are just softened, about 5 minutes longer.

2. Add the stock, cover partially and simmer until the vegetables are completely softened, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat.

3. Puree the soup in batches in a blender or food processor, leaving some texture and return to the pan. OR use an immersion blender to puree the soup in the pan (much easier!)

4. Return the soup to medium heat and stir in the orange juice and zest. Season to taste with salt and white pepper.

5. Ladle into bowls and serve, garnish with a spring of mint and an orange slice.

¡Olé! Quesadillas With Mango Jicama Salsa

We made these quesadillas for dinner last night and they were meltily delicious! The combination of flavors and textures was pretty darn perfect - rich melted cheese, crispy tortilla, savory sauteed summer squash and red onions, crunchy jicama, sweet, juicy mango, a little bite of red onion, and the tang of lime juice. Qué sabor!

You can make yummy quesadillas with just cheese but we opted to add some sauteed zucchini and summer squash since they are abundant right now. There are tons of other things that would work well in a filling, too - black beans, peppers, corn, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc.

Likewise with the salsa. There were ripe mangoes and tons of jicama so that is what I went with but a peach or nectarine and tomato salsa would be delicious. Although there is some chopping and grating time involved, as tasty meals go, it's not too much work.

Mango Jicama Lime Salsa

Ingredients

* 2 ripe mangoes, peeled and chopped
* 1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
* 1/2 small jicama, finely diced
* 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, washed, dried and chopped
* Juice of two ripe limes
* Sea salt

Directions

Combine the first four ingredients, then add the lime juice, stir thoroughly, and add sea salt to taste!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Quesadillas With Sauteed Squash & Onions
Serves 4

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups cheese (cheddar, monterey jack, or pepperjack), shredded
* 2-3 small zucchini or summer squash, sliced thinly lengthwise
* 2 medium red onions, sliced
* Ground cumin
* Chopped cilantro
* Freshly ground black pepper
* Sea salt
* 8 large flour tortillas
* Olive oil

Directions

1. Sautee the onions and squash in olive oil over medium heat until the onions are translucent and the squash have softened, season with salt, pepper and cumin and stir in the chopped cilantro.

2. Lightly grease a large frying pan and heat on a medium-low flame. Lay one of the tortillas in it and sprinkly with cheese, then distribute some of the squash and onion mixture evenly over the cheese. If you did not use much cheese, sprinkle a bit more on top of the squash mixture to ensure that it will melt through.

3. Top with the second tortilla and press it with a spatula then cover the pan for 1-2 minutes to help the cheese melt. When the bottom of the first tortilla looks nicely crisped/browned, it is time to flip the quesadilla over to toast the other side.

4. Once the second side is nicely toasted (2-4 minutes, depending on how hot the flame is), flip the quesadilla out onto a plate and cut into 6 pieces.

5. Serve with sour cream and mango jicama salsa or any variation on salsa you feel like making (or buying.) Buen provecho!

What Am I? Chopped Liver!!!

Although chopped liver may have a reputation for being ordinary or second-class, I think it is anything but! I have loved this rich and toothsome Jewish-American version of pâté since I was a kid. A delicious chicken liver & herb crostini appetizer I recently tried at Corso Trattoria reminded me how much I love chopped liver. So I decided to make a batch.

Since one of the liver's jobs is filtering out the body's toxins, it seemed extra worthwhile to make sure that the livers I used were from the healthiest animals possible. Finding organic chicken livers proved a tad challenging but after making a few phone calls, Whole Foods came through. They had just ordered a bunch in response to customer demand -- apparently I was not the only one requesting organic chicken livers -- go figure...

The recipe below is one I'd clipped a while back from Martha Stewart Living (despite the fact that Martha has carefully cultivated an ultra WASPy image, her magazine often includes good recipes for Jewish dishes.) I consulted several other recipes online and in my Jewish Holiday cookbook before getting started and found them to be nearly identical to Martha's recipe. The main difference between them was that Martha's recipe calls for you to cook the livers in the same pan as the onions, while the others direct you to broil the chicken livers.

This recipe also calls for rendered chicken fat (a.k.a. schmaltz) although I am sure you can substitute oil or butter if you don't happen to have any schmaltz on hand. Luckily, I had roasted a chicken recently and saved the schmaltz for just this purpose. I did this by letting the chicken stock cool down completely in the fridge and simply skimming the hardened fat off the top.

Chopped Chicken Liver
Serves 8

Ingredients

* 1/4 cup rendered chicken fat (schmaltz)
* 2 medium onions, chopped
* 1 pound organic chicken livers, trimmed and rinsed
* 2 teaspoons coarse salt
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 1/4 cup Marsala wine
* 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, washed, dried and coarsely chopped
* 2 large eggs (free range organic), hard-boiled

Bread or crackers for serving

Directions

1. Heat the chicken fat in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook stirring often until they are translucent - 8 - 10 minutes.

2. Add the livers and sprinkle with salt and pepper then cover and cook, stirring often, until cooked through - about 12 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

3. Place skillet over medium heat and deglaze with the Marsala and thyme. Cook, stirring, until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Let cool completely.

4. Pour the pan juices, liver and onion mixture, and hardboiled eggs into the bowl of a cuisinart or blender (you can also do this the authentic way, using a cleaver, if you prefer). Pulse the mixture until coarsely chopped and season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Serve on crackers or toast. Batampte!

Got leftover chicken? Chicken salad with fresh herbs

Last Friday, in a fit of domesticity, I roasted a lovely, plump, free range, organic chicken. I prepared it the way I usually do - by rubbing a mixture of garlic, lemon zest, chopped fresh rosemary, black pepper, and sea salt under the skin, brushing it with olive oil and sprinkling it with salt and pepper. Although I find the experience of sliding my fingers under another animal's skin both unsettling and oddly satisfying, it does make for a more flavorful bird...

Not surprisingly, after two yummy dinners of roast chicken with new potatoes and carrots, there were some leftovers to be disposed of. I picked the bones clean and simmered the chicken carcass (mmm, carcass...) with some herbs and veggies to make stock which I froze using this method for handy use in future cooking. And I made a tasty chicken salad with the leftover meat and some fresh herbs I had on hand.

The basic recipe is below. We were all out of both curry powder and garam masala at the time but had we had some on hand, I would probably have made this a more overtly curried chicken salad**.
I have left out the amounts as they will vary based on how much chicken you have to work with as well as your preferences for consistency, taste, etc. If in doubt, start with a small amount of yogurt/mayo, onion, and spices so that you can taste and adjust as needed. Remember, you can always add more of any given ingredient if you need to but it is awfully hard to "take back" anything once you've added too much.

Chicken Salad with Fresh Herbs

Ingredients

* Roasted or boiled chicken, cut into pieces or shredded
* Plain yogurt and/or mayonnaise (this is up to you - some people hate mayo and some love it - you can use one or the other or combine the two)
* Minced onion, shallot or scallions (use whichever you prefer or have on hand)
* Dried currants (you can also use raisins if you prefer but you may want to chop them a little)
* Fresh parsley, washed, dried and chopped
* Fresh fennel, washed, dried and chopped
* Fresh cilantro, washed, dried and chopped
* Ground cumin and/or coriander
* Sea salt
* Freshly ground black pepper

** If you want to make this a curried chicken salad, try adding curry powder or garam masala and chopping up some green apple to add sweetness or mix in a little mango chutney or apricot jam if you don't have any apple available.

Directions

1. Combine the chicken, onion, herbs, currants with the yogurt/mayo and mix to combine.

2. Taste to see if the consistency and flavors are to your liking and add more yogurt/mayo if needed.

3. Season with the salt, pepper and ground spices and taste again. Adjust by adding more of whatever is lacking as needed.