Labneh

Labneh is one of my (new) favorite things to make!  It is so delicious, easy to make and eat.  It is wonderful nutrient dense "fast food" which I tend to look for when heat approaches.    It is cultured food (always a plus) and fun to take to gatherings to share.  A friend shared this with me when we gathered for Matzah and I couldn't wait to get home and make it myself!  It is a simple yogurt cheese, store in (optionally flavored) olive oil.   This is delicious spread on crackers or bread;  Served with vegies as a dip; blended into pasta or rice as a sauce; topped on a grilled meat; served on a salad; or with fresh apples or pears!  It is versital and the seasoning options are endless.

Ingrediants:
Plain Yogurt or kiefer (homemade, or store bought)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt (to taste)
Herbs of choice (optional)
Garlic (optional)

1.  Take a gerneroously sized, clean flour sack, tea towel, or several layers of cheese cloth and lay in a bowl.  Plop your yogurt in the center off the cloth and gether it up  and tie the top to make something that resembles a "hobo sack".  (In times when my cloth was too small to tie well, I used rubber bands to close it.)  Now you will hang the sack and let the yogurt drip the whey into a bowl below.  You can do this many differnt ways, depending the tools you have available in your kitchen.  I like to set my spoon accross a gallon jar and let it drip.  There have been other times where I tied the sack to a upper cupboard handle and place a bowl underneath.  You want to keep your sack from sitting in the whey that drips out, so you need it to hang a few inches above the bottom of your dip container.  Some yogurt is "wetter" than others, so the amount of whey varies.  It is finished when it stops dripping. (Usually a couple hours - but its ok to leave it over night - the cheese will get a little tangierof you leave it longer.)

2.  In the mean time, take a jar and fill it 1/3 full of olive oil.  If you want to season it - now is the time.  Suggestions for seasons are:  Garlic, onion, sundried tomato, pesto, hot pepper of choice, red pepper flakes, basil, (and green herb of blend of choice).

3.  When the cheese stops dripping, take it down and open up your cloth, you will have a nice lcheese ball.  I like to take a small melon baller, dip it in the oil (if needed) and scoop it in the cheese to make a little ball.  Then drop it in the oil.  I do this until it all distributed in balls in the jar.  The cheese is delecate and spreadable soft cheese.  If you don't have a melon baller, just use a tea spoon.   Yu want the balls to be covered in oil.  So when yua re finished, if they are not, top the cheese with oils, so that they are immersed.  The oils helps keep the balls seperate too.  So as you are filling your jar, if you run out of oil, you may choose to add a little as you go, so that you are always dropping them in oil instead of stacking them directly on each other.

4.  Store the cheese in the fridge.  The oil does harden when cold (as seen in my photo) and it nicer when served with the oil "wet".  So pull it out of the fridge about 15 minutes (give or take, depending on how warm it is in the room) before planning to offer it.

Tips:

• 1 pint of yogurt fits spaciously in a quart jar with oil and seasonings. Keep that ratio in mind, with the amounts you choose to make.
•  I like to use a long handled tea spoon for serving the balls.  Be sure serve with some oil and herbs.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil is not cheap, but it has the best flavor and the best health benefits.  So don't waste it.  Use the left over oil and make another batch of cheese.
• I have not tried this yet,but a good virgin pressed coconut oil would be fun to try.  Especially if you wanted to try a sweeter version instead of a savory to go with jam on toast or make a danish or sweat bagel shmear or something.  I think this would convert very nicely in that direction as well!

Artichoke Bruschetta

This is 'California Food' to me - but really...its Italian. :-) It reminds me of my time in San Francisco. I had a taste for it when I saw it in a jar at the super market and thought I would splurge. I enjoyed it so much that I declared that I must learn how to make it. I looked at the ingredients on the jar and copied them down in my family cookbook. Lots of time passed (almost 2 years!), until I actually got to it...But I am so glad I did, because this a DELICIOUS summer food. I don't have exact measurements for you. But just use this list of ingredients with common sense to your proportions and you will be surprised how easy it is to make. That's what I did and it has been delishious every time

Artichokes Hearts, diced small (marinated or canned are wonderful - canned Hearts of Palm also work very nicely for this!)
Oil (I use Olive Oil)
Red (or yellow) Bell Pepper, diced small
Lemon Juice
Fresh Garlic, crushed
Seas Salt
Fresh Parsley (or dry)
Fresh Oregano (or dry)
White Pepper
Dry Crushed Red Chili Pepper (I use this sparingly)

We like to serve ours with crackers, flat bread, sour dough or crusty bread. It is also nice spread in a sandwich or wrap instead of mayo.

Baba Ganoush

I absolutely love Baba Ganoush! I might just growl if you get my near my bowl...that's how much I love the stuff! It is tasty, as a spread in a falafal sandwish, but may favorite way to eat it is to scoop into it with Pita or Lavash and make a meal our of it. It is light and delicious and healthy and wonderful dairy free dip option. It is easy to make and is especially attractive in the hotter months. This stores well in the fridge and is served cold, it is easy to make ahead and is wonderful for picnic lunches on Shabbat. This is my favorite recipe for Baba Ganoush.

2 medium eggplants*

Bake (whole) at 400F for 1 hour. Let cool and scoop the flesh out of the skin, it will similar in consistancy to cooked squash but lighter. Put that in a food processor.

Add the following ingrediants to the food porcessor or blender with a dry blade and blend to a smooth texture:

1/2C tahini

juice from 2 lemons

2 cloves of garlic

1/4tsp dr basil (or 1tsp fresh)

1/2C red or green onion

sea salt to taste

Chop 1/4C fresh curly parsley (small) and stir in by hand. Or use 2T dried in the step above and blend.

Raw Variation: You may make this as a raw dish. Instead of baking, remove steam and peel of the egplant (potato peeler works great). Slice and sprinkle with salt and let sit for an hour (or a little more). Drain, rinse and proceed with the remaining instructions above. This is also nice in the summer when you dont want to heat up the kitchen!

Enjoy!

*You may also use Japanese Eggplant for this recipe. It just takes about 4-5 of bigger ones to equal the amount of "meat".

Olive Tampenade

Costco sells this in a jar which is how I firt fell in love with. Than my local store stopped carrying it, so I had to learn how to make it myself. I was tickled to learn how eay is was to do! It is often used as a dip, sandwich spread or topping for fish and poultry. Make a batch ahead -it keeps well. My personal favorite way to eat it is by scooping it on to a cracker or flat bread as an appetizer or fast and healthy lunch.

Ingredients:
8 oz kalamata olives, pitted *
3 garlic cloves
2 TBS capers, rinsed and drained
2-3 TBS fresh Italian parsley
2 tsp grated lemon peel
Freshly ground pepper to taste
3 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 minced anchovy or 1/2 tsp anchovy paste (optional)

Toss all these ingrediant into a food processor and give a quick chop. Or mince each item with a knife and mix together in a bowl. I have seen it chopped so fine that it is like a paste or a spread, but my preference is what is pictured above.

Makes 1/2 cup

*I like to mix olives if I have them, black green and red, but Kalamata should be in that mix for sure.

p.s. Something I forgot to add in the original posting - Diced Roasted Red Bell Pepper, is also quite nice in Olive Tampenade! :-)

Ranch Dressing

I have been wanted to figure out a ranch dressing for the longest time. Than my daughter (Hailey) recently mentioned that it is her favorite dressing. We haven't bought it for the longerst time because the commercial stuff has such JUNK in it, and I knew better. I used to buy it from the health food store but it so expensive and goes so fast...I stopped doing that in light of our new budget. So when I heard her mention that it was her favorite, I purposed to finally do it. We are all very pleased with the results! This recipe makes a pint.

1C Mayonnaise
1/2C Sour Cream
1/4C+2T Buttermilk
All seasonings are dried
1/4 tsp each:
Dill
Oregano
Chives
Sea Salt
Parsley
1/8 tsp each:
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika

~Mix wet ingredients together
~In a seperate cereal bowl, add all the seasonings together and mix well than add to the bowl of wet ingrediants and mix well.
~Put in fridge and let strengthen for 4-6 hours

*If you need to use right away or you like stronger flavor than make your measures "heaping"
**If you need a thicker dip than reduce buttermilk to 2T or try using buttermilk powder instead. *** If you are in a rush, you can just measure your seasonings right into your wet bowl, however, you may not get an even seasoning, you get stronger tastes of one herb than another in different bites, so premixing it will give you a more uniform (flawless) dressing. Enjoy!

For a large selection of delicious salad dressings, visit A Dressing a Day Challenge

Bagna Calda (Italian Garlic Dip)

This is a recipe that has sentimental value to me in addition to being scrumdilicious! Ben and I were served this on our first date in San Francisco, at a (Italian Style) Garlic Restaurant called The Stinkin Rose. If I remember correctly, they served it with a house made herbed foccacia bread. (Hmmm that's something I have yet to learn to make...note to self!) But we usually lap ours up with a nice whole grain sour dough or crusty bread that we make at home. It is also delicious to top of meats, pasta, grains or steamed/sauteed veggies. It is full flavored, sweet and mild. You can serve it hot from the oven or use one of the smaller dip crock pots. This serves about 5-6 as an appetizer.

Ingredients:

2½ cups Garlic Cloves

2 cups Olive Oil

¼ cup Unsalted Butter, cut into bits ( I have used salted too)

1- 2 oz can Anchovies

Crusty Bread, crackers or veggies for dipping


Directions:

-preheat oven to 275F

-put garlic cloves into a heavy glass or ceramic baking dish and pour the olive oil over the top

-sprinkle the butter over the garlic

-lay the anchovies in a single layer on top*

-cover and bake for 1 1/2 hrs or until the garlic cloves are dense and limp-remove one clove to test; let it cool for a moment and then squeeze it gently between your fingers, the garlic should immediately burst onto your fingers, indicating that it is soft and spreadable--remove from the oven

-serve with sliced bread, crackers for spreading or raw veggies for dipping

**Don't let the anchovies gross you out. They just disintegrate into the dip, like a seasoning, especially if you give it a little stir when it comes out. Don't even think about skipping them...it just isn't the same! This dip is heavenly!

This is also the most delicious way to fight a cold!!

Boursin Cheese Blend

Have you ever bought this dip at the store? It is one of our favorites! However, it is expensive. When you have 8 hands diggin' into something they like...it disappears fast...let alone taking it to share with someone! So I wanted to figure out how to make it. I modified a recipe I found, and this is the result...DELICIOUS!

Boursin Cheese Blend

Use heaping (rounded) teaspoons for these measures. If you have fresh herbs you would like to use in place of the dried, use a Tablespoon equivalent for that ingredient. (Fresh is ideal, but not always possible, which I why I worked this recipe our with dry herbs.) Also , if you make your own homemade cream cheese, the texture of this will be more desirable, softer and more spreadable. The store bought stuff is really stiff, and is best at room temperature when it is spread. Because this is a stiff dip it is better spread not dipped. Serve this with veggies or firm crackers (Like Trisket, pita chips or Melba Toast) . Or you can warm it on the stove, adding Parmesan cheese to taste and use it as delicious sauce over pasta or broccoli. Also a little dollop on top of a freshly at the time of serving, grilled steak is heavenly! Oh this is also very tasty spread on a bagels! Also spread inside a wrap or to roll organic deli meat around it for pin wheel appetiser or a snacky lunch (or layer lox on top of the dip on to p or your bagel!) Oh there are so many yummy ways to use it!

2 tsp dr. chives
2 tsp dr. parsley
1 1/2 tsp dr. marjoram
1tsp dr. basil
1 1/2 tsp dr. lemon thyme*
1 tsp + minced fresh garlic (You could use 1/2 tsp garlic powder in a pinch)
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
8T butter, softened
8-12 oz cream cheese, softened

• Mash all the ingredients together in a bowl with the back of a spoon, or a mixer.*



• Put in the refrigerator overnight to blend the flavors (min 8 hours), it gets better with time! 2 days is even better! It keeps very well for a weeks.

Using a a mixer on a high setting will help whip air into the dip if you prefer it to be lighter instead of more dense. Both are good, but when it is a little lighter is it nicer to spread.

(update) If you can't find lemon thyme, you may use "plain thyme". I then I would consider playing with a LITTLE lemon zest or a squeez of lemon in the dip too. The botanical name ofr lemon thyme is Thymus x citriodorus, in case you need it. If you can find it to grwo some...it is worth it! It is wonderful for tea mixes and cooking.

Vegan Pate' - Who Knew?

I have never been fond of Pate' but thought I would give this one a "whirl". It is from The Raw Food Gourmet and I was so pleasantly surprised! This one has made it to the family recipe book!

Once you soak and sprout the seeds, it a zip to make. Its nice to have on hand for Shabbat or lunches during the week, because is it make ahead and easy to use different ways. It is tasty just as it is, but she also has recipes to use it in Raw Lasagna, Chilie Relennos, or Asian Style by adding other seasonings and ingredients. I have used it "plain" to dip veggies and crackers and have stuffed peppers with it and warmed them in the dehydrator. VERY TASTY. She also explains that it stores up to 2 weeks in the fridge, and can be made with any kind of nut and is easily adaptable with other seasonings. I am looking forward to playing with variations too.

Pate'

3C sunflower seeds. (Soak in water for 8-12 hours, drain and sprout for 2 hours)

1C lemon juice
1/2C chopped green onions
1/4-1/2C raw tahini
1/4C Bragg's Liquid Aminos
1 small red onion coarsely chopped
4-6T coarsely chopped parsley
2-3 med cloves or garlic
1/2 tsp dr cayenne pepper
pepper to taste

When seeds are ready, put all ingredients in a large food processor and chop until uniformly blended into a smooth paste.

Adjust seasoning to taste if needed.

Garlic gets stronger as it sits.

Mks 7-8 C servings