Mediterranean Couscous Salad

Couscous is an ancient style of pasta made from wheat very common to the Mediterranean and known by a lot of names. I see it repeatedly show up on FoodTV on different shows and used all sorts of ways, usually associated with Moroccan or Sicilian cooking. Finally after getting beaten over the head enough with its merit I started trying it in different things based on what I saw on Food TV.

Couscous is the easiest thing in the world to make. Pour boiling liquid on it. Cover it. Wait 5 minutes and you are done. No stirring, draining or watching hoping it doesn't boil over or burn. A stupid easy way to get carbs in your diet. While it sits and steeps you can get whatever else you want with it or in it prepped.

This recipe is inspired by a lot of the flavors of the Mediterranean but doesn't pay any particular allegiance to any particular one.

Mediterranean Couscous Salad

• 1 can chicken broth (vegetable broth if you are in a vegan mindset)
• 1/2 t garlic powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 1/4 c couscous
• 1 T mint (2T fine chopped if using fresh)
• 1 T parsley (2 T fine chopped if using fresh)
• 1 T basil (2T chiffonade if using fresh)
• 1 c grape or cherry tomatoes - halved
• 1 c cucumber, quartered then sliced
• 1/2 c coarse chopped roasted red pepper
• 1/2 c sliced kalmata olives
• 4 green onions, tops included, sliced
• 1 lime, zest and juice.
• salt and pepper to taste

Combine broth, oil, garlic, and bay leaf in a small sauce pan. Cover and bring to simmer, simmer for 5 minutes covered to develop bay leaf flavor.

Combine couscous and dried herbage, if using fresh do not add now. Pour the hot liquid over the couscous. Cover. Let it steep 5 minutes, tightly covered until liquid is absorbed.

Once liquid absorbed uncover add lime zest and juice and fluff with a fork. Add any fresh herbs, the veg and fold in gently. Add fresh cracked black pepper to taste.

NOTE: as the broth and olives bring a salt element to the salad do not test for salt until it has rested at least an hour. At the end of the rest period flavors will have melded enough to test for salt, taste and adjust as needed. Serve or allow to sit until meal time. Can be served at room temp or chilled.

Really important, resist temptation to remove lid while steeping. Doing so you run the risk of losing moisture and having a dry chewy couscous.

Toss in any board juices with the veg as it is flavor you'll lose otherwise. Be very careful with the salting as too much and both the cukes and tomato will release too much moisture making the salad wet...and those vegs very funky rubbery.

Primordial Slime Dip

The mother of all dips. Here in CA we are able to get a steady supply of fresh, unbruised perfectly ripe avocados. The rest of you get those hard as rock or beat to a pulp rotted ones...or worse frozen dip at the warehouse stores. Ugga.

So what else do you do with them but make the original better than store bought guac, you make the Ultimate Primordial Slime Dip. Don't exactly remember where I got the name from a bajillion years ago when I moved to LA but I still use it. The name raises eyebrows and is some outright tasty stuff.

Primordial Slime Dip

• 4 medium ripe avocados
• 2 limes
• 2 green onions
• 1/2 c salsa fresca
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 5-10 drops Tabasco
• 1/4 c fresh chopped cilantro
• salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste.

Cut the avocados into halves and scoop out the flesh, make certain to clean out the skin of all the darker green goodness. Juice the limes over the avocado and mash with a potato masher to your desired consistency...I like chunks not fine puree. Thinly slice the green onion and add to the avocado mixture. Add the salsa fresca, garlic, Tabasco and cilantro. Fold in gently. Salt and Pepper to taste. It can be eaten right away but is best if you lay plastic wrap directly on the dip and then put on a tight lid and let the flavors blend for an hour or so. The plastic wrap directly on the dip will prevent it from turning dark. Store unused portions the same way.

Braised Beef Short Ribs Provencal

Some days I just want something beefy. Something really hardy. Beef Short Ribs are a good way to go on the cheap. It is a tougher cut of meat that needs a long slow cooking, either stewing or braising to make it fork tender.

Beef Short Ribs are a good cut to work with. Bone-in when you can get them as that adds even more flavor to the final dish. The added boner to the deal, pun intended is that if you like the marrow you have a nice bit in each bone.

This recipe is a combination of a couple of Beef Burgundy recipes. French food isn't always about pissy saucing and fancy prep taking hours. A large majority I have found to be very simple for both categories. Provence is in the southern part of France where they can grow citrus and you find it in a lot of their cooking. Ditto things like tarragon and thyme.

The end result is a dish very close to what I had for lunch one day in Paris last year. The only thing I have not been able to duplicate or find a recipe for is the lentil stew that the Mono Prix Cafe served along side their braised beef short ribs. Someday maybe?

Braised Beef Short Ribs Provencal

• 4 - 4 1/2 lbs Beef Short Ribs
• 1 c all purpose flour
• 1/4 c Montreal Brand Steak Seasoning
• 1 large yellow onion
• 1 c carrot
• 1T chopped garlic
• zest of 1 orange
• 1 T tarragon
• 1 T Thyme
• 1 T parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 can beef broth (12 oz)
• 2 c +/- red wine
• Salt
• Pepper
• 6T butter
• olive oil

Mix flour and steak seasoning. Dredge beef short rib through flour and coat well. In fry pan over medium-high heat add a couple of tablespoons olive oil and 2T butter. (Oil keeps butter from burning). Add beef short ribs to hot pan. Sear each side well. Do in batchs so the ribs get a good seared crust.

Put seared short ribs on platter while cooking up the others. Reserve the unused flour mixture. When done with the searing deglaze pan with 1C wine. Scrape up all the bits from the bottom.
Set pan and all the bits aside.

While searing the beef in heavy large dutch oven heat over medium flame. Coarse chop onion. Cut carrots into 1/2" thick cubes. Add 2T oil and 2 T butter. Add carrots and onion. Add tarragon, thyme and parsley. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir often until soft and onion is beginning to caramelize., about 10-15 minutes. Add garlic, orange zest and cook 1 minute, being careful to not burn the garlic. Deglaze pan with the beef broth, scraping up the brown bits.

Add the reserved beef ribs to the dutch oven include any juices that collected on the bottom of the bowl. Add the wine from the deglazed skillet. Add another cup of so of wine to the dutch oven to just cover the beef short ribs. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning as needed.

Bring to a boil then cover with the lid. Reduce heat to simmer and 1 1/2-2 hours. (Or put in 300F oven for same time period).

At end of cooking period take 2T of the reserved flour seasoning mixture and 2T butter. Cut butter into the flour with a fork to make a beurre manie'. Add the beurre manie in little bits and stir in well to make a thick gravy.

Serve with small boiled herbed potato or mashed potato on the side.

Use just enough oil to coat the vegies and stir often so they cook evenly. Salt at this stage helps the vegies sweat out their liquid and caramelize faster.

It is really important to get a good sear and crust on the ribs as that color is flavor.

You get the idea...damn new camera phone is extra sensitive to jiggles but you get the idea.

Mixed Berry Cobbler

Everyone has their favorite dessert type. Mine is fruit pies, cobblers and crisps. There is something special about that warm syrupy fruit with a pastry...topped with iced cream or whipped cream that just ends the day perfectly.

For me I do not have a "pastry hand". I can't do pie dough to save my freaking life. Many a dough tossed before those premade crusts showed up on the market.

My all time favorite still is a Cobbler I learned to make in High School. Never failed me but there are a couple of tricks to it. The key is timing...depending on the fruit and its moisture content your baking time can vary widely. With really moist fruit it has taken me nearly 30 minutes longer than the "recommended time" to get the dough portion to set. Trust me, when done right it is a rich caramelly chewy and crunchy topping perfect foil to the warm soft fruit. Worth the frustration until you nail it. I'll probably toss of other variations with other fruit as time goes so you get the idea on how versatile this really is.

Mixed Berry Cobbler

• 2 12 oz frozen mixed berry
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 T corn starch
• 1 C all purpose flour
• 1 C sugar
• 1 egg - beaten
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 1 stick butter melted.

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly toss fruit sugar and corn starch. Put into 8X8 glass baking pan.

Add sugar, flour, salt and baking powder to mixing bowl. Toss lightly to distribute. Add whisk attachment to mixer and set at medium speed. Slowly pour in the egg mixture. Mix about 3 - 5 minutes until the dough resembles coarse sand.

Sprinkle the dough mixture evenly over the berry mixture. Pour melted butter evenly over the dough mix.

Bake 60-75 minutes. It could be longer depending on the wetness of the berry mixture. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

It is entertaining to watch the whisk spin in the bowl...

Perfect example of the dough mixture at the right texture.

Stooopid easy dinner

I love to eat. I love to cook. Somedays one just hasn't got the time, energy for doing up a big meal. Enter Fresh & Easy, a new market idea in the LA Area. Am a fan, but then again I knew they were coming for a couple of years before the first store opened near me in Arcadia.



Fresh & Easy is owned by the UK Giant Tesco. This is the small neighborhood market with a huge selection of ready to cook dinners. A life saver when live just grinds you too tired to be productive. Between it and Costco I rarely go to a regular grocery store anymore.


Doctoring is the key to making the store bought stuff better and "your own". I started with their nifty Pork Medallions with Chipotle Cream Sauce. Garnish was easy...topped it with F&E Roast Peppers after I browned them off then poured on the Chipotle Cream.


I served it over my "latin rice" which is a easy toss together with staples I always have on hand. In this case salsa and canned roasted peppers. Add in the F&E Cheesey Brocolli and dinner is done in 8 minutes.



Easy Latin Rice

• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 can Minute Rice
• 1 T dried chopped cilantro
• 1/2 C salsa fresca
• 1/4 c coarse chopped roasted pepper.

Add broth, rice and cilantro to Microwave proof bowl. Heat on HIGH for 5 minutes until it comes to a simmer. Let sit covered 5 minutes. Just before serving add salsa fresca and roasted pepper. Toss with fork and it is ready to go.


There you go a stupid easy dinner that looks and tastes like you busted your hump getting it out in 10 minutes.

Strawberry Lemonade Fruit Spread

As a little kid we lived in the UP of Michigan, yes, I am born a "yooper" and quite proud of it. Every summer at the end of July into early August the strawberry's ripened on the farms north of us along Lake Superior around Calument, Houghton over to Ontanogon. My grandparents living in Minnesota would come for a short visit and it ended with strawberry picking. We'd fill the trunk of his old Galaxy Sedan with Berry's, we'd fill the back of our old Country Squire Wagon with berry's and head home. Other than a picnic lunch along Lake Superior we'd just pick berry's for what seemed an eternity (I was 5 at the time so who remembers how long we really were there).

Even after we moved to MO my grandparents for years made the drive to the UP for berry picking. When I was in high school I went along for the ride one day. From Ely to Houghton was some 8 hours of driving, 328 Miles. My grandparents were in their 70's at the time and I had just started driving, I was sent to go along in case Grandpa got tired and needed help driving back. Didn't happen. We left at 1AM and got to town for breakfast around 9. By 10 we were in the fields and started picking berry's. Breaking long enough to enjoy sandwiches Grams packed then back to the picking. By 3 PM we were on the road home and back by 10PM that night. Grandpa drove the whole thing, which was fun as his ancient 68 Galaxy had neither power steering nor power brakes and I don't think I was up to manhandling a car like that then (I was still a runt at 16).

Enough of the diversions and back to the point of this post. Fresh Strawberry Jams were always a big deal growing up. My Mom and Grandmother would make dozens of jars of jam from all those flats. Some would be simply sliced and frozen for shortcake right way, others would be frozen for shortcake in the winter.

Both of my Grandmothers were always cooking up small batches of jam. Living in Northern Minnesota they always were out in the woods picking little batches of berries for eating fresh, baking pies or simply making small batches of spreads. You haven't lived until you have had real wild strawberry, raspberry or blueberry fruit spreads. Nothing comes close in the store to the intense flavor they have.

In So Cal by the time July rolls around we are a few months past peak berry season. The stores have cheap flats of strawberry that are so ripe if you don't use in a day or so they start getting mushy and soft. Those over-ripe berries according to my Mom is what is perfect for making jam and spreads.

I didn't have enough for a full batch today, but I do remember watching my Grandmothers make small batches and it is really easy to do. If you can boil water you can make your own fruit spread, it is that easy. I use lemon juice for small batches as it contains the natural jelling agent pectin to help it set. I also use the peel to up the lemon quotient...more like strawberry lemonade than plain strawberry jam.

Strawberry Lemonade Fruit Spread

1 1/2 lb strawberry, halved
1/2 c sugar
1/4 corn syrup
2 T water
1 small lemon - zested and juiced.

Put the first four ingredients into a heavy, wide sauce pot. It must be heavy to prevent scorching and wide enough to evaporate off the moisture. Zest the lemon with a rasp and add to the strawberry mixture. Slowly bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir occasionally. Reduce heat to low simmer for 5 minutes. Use a potato masher or similar to mash down the berry's to the consistency you like, I use very light mashing as I like to see big chunks of fruit in the spread.

Simmer for 15-20 minutes until the berry mixture is reduced by 1/3 - 1/2 and starting to thicken. Add lemon juice and stir in well. Using a spoon carefully skim off as much of the foam as possible.

Pour the fruit spread into a sterilized jar and seal lid. When lid "pops" you know it is sealed and you can put away into fridge to let it set at least 24 hours before using . This makes about 2 cups which is a nice use for left over fruit.

Slow simmer to reduce, stir carefully so you don't coat the sides and have scorching.
For gawds sake...save the foam, that fruit scum is great on wonder bread!
Everything needs to be sterile for storing. Boil the funnel, jar, lid and ring for at least 5 minutes before filling. Everything needs to be hot when being filled to prevent contamination.

Ravioli in Alfredo Sauce with Fresh Tomato and Basil

Some days its about doing it stupid easy. In my house Ravioli, the Costco Kirkland Brand frozen 4 cheese is a hit. Some like marinara which is a lot healthier as it is lower in fat. Others like it in Alfredo only. Being the lazy cook in the summer I look for short cuts with as much pre-made stuff and tart it up with fresh herb and veg.

Last nights dinner was just that. A jarred Alfredo served as a base. It is really too thick and pasty for my taste though one of my picky eaters is a total fuss budget and likes it that way. For her I pour off about 2/3 c of the sauce and heat it separately for her. The rest I thin with non-fat milk then I move on to bringing it up a notch via doctoring with the fresh herb and veg for the rest of us.

Ravioli in Alfredo Sauce with Fresh Tomato and Basil

• 1 12 oz 4 Brothers Alfredo Sauce
• 1/2 c non-fat milk
• 1/2 c julienned basil
• 1 c halved grape tomato
• 24 Kirkland 4 cheese Ravioli'
• Parmesan for garnish

Thaw the ravioli and bring them to room temp under a damp towel to prevent drying. Doing this they cook faster with less chance of overcooking or puffing up and leaking filling.

Mix the Alfredo sauce, 1/4 c fresh basil. Warm gently, do not boil as it will curdle. Cook pasta in boiling well salted water. Add to Alfredo sauce, toss in the tomatoes about a minute before serving to allow them to just warm through and get their juices into the sauce.

Serve up 6 ravioli per person with sauce and tomatoes. Garnish with about 1T julienned basil from the reserved basil. Add grated Parmesan, I prefer it thin sliced for nicer bites but you can do a fine grated.

For gawds sake use the real deal Parmesano Reggiano not that canned powder stuff, there is a huge difference and fresh when bought in a big enough chunk is the better value.