Kefta With Egg and Tomato

This dish is North Africa's version of fast food. It is predominantly sold in train and bus stations. It is cooked on the spot and eaten right out of the pan with a chunk of bread. Despite the eggs in the dish, it's not meant for breakfast. We eat this as a light dinner.

The key spice ingredient in here is the ras el hanout, a delicious spice blend from North Africa and the Middle East. If you can't find any, you can easily make it yourself. I have modified an old article on spice blends to include this fabulous blend: spice blends.

Typically this calls for meatballs made from ground lamb, but I have adapted the recipe to use soy wadi, those great little meat-like chunks first discussed here. Instead of making meatballs from scratch, I use wadi cooked in a strong broth. In fact, I used the Shish Kabob recipe as the basis for the kefta.

Kefta with Egg and Tomato

Ingredients

Prepared wadi from this recipe
4 eggs
1 t ground cinnamon
parsley
2 T olive oil
1 14-oz can chopped tomatoes, undrained
2 t sugar
1 t ras el hanout
salt and black pepper to taste

Steps

1. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet. Fry the wadi shish kabobs until browned all over.

2. Stir in the tomatoes, sugar, and ras el hanout. Bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes to reduce the liquid. Season with salt and pepper.

3. make room in the mixture to add the eggs. Crack open the eggs in the spaces. Cover the pan, reduce heat, and cook for several minutes until eggs have reached the desired doneness.

4. Sprinkle parsley liberally and serve. Goes well with chunks of crusty bread.

Pucker Up With Pomegranate Molasses

Today's exotic ingredient is pomegranate molasses. This is a popular ingredient in the Middle East and it highlights several well-known dishes, such as fesenjan and muhammarah. It is an intensely flavored reduction of pomegranate juice. I don't like to eat pomegranate fruit because of all those dang seeds, but the juice and molasses are delicious: tart and tangy, with a hint of sweetness.

The following dish is really about the sauce. At the core of it is pomegranate molasses, mellowed slightly with nuts. We purchase our molasses at the local Middle Eastern grocery, but you can also get it from Amazon: Pomegranate Molasses - 14 oz.

Since my daughter is allergic to walnuts, I used pecans instead. It still tasted great, so feel free to experiment with the nuts.

This sauce could go over roasted vegetables, or perhaps even over a pasta. In this recipe, I pair it with bland stir-fried tofu pieces.

Tofu with Pomegranate-Walnut Sauce

Ingredients

2 T olive oil

1 package firm tofu, drained and pressed in a towel

½ T olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

½ c walnuts or pecans, finely chopped

1/8 t cinanamon

½ c water

2 t honey

¼ t salt

Steps

1. Make the tofu: cut tofu block into 5 or 6 thick slabs. Pan fry this in the 2 T olive oil.

2. Make the sauce: Heat the ½ T olive oil in a small skillet. When hot, saute onion and garlic until soft and transparent. Remove from heat.

3. Place nuts, cinnamon, and cooked onions into a blender. Pulse briefly, then add the remaining ingredients and blend for two minutes. Add water to get mixture to desired consistency (it should be thinner than mayonnaise.

4. Serve sauce over tofu, and optionally over rice.

Spice Blends

"Variety is the spice of life" is a common expression. Yet in American cuisine, spices are not really the spice of food. If you poke around the spice cabinet of a typical American kitchen, you'll find salt, pepper, and a few dried herbs. Mrs. Dash® might be the only spice blend you come across.

It is odd that spices are not a big part of the American food culture, but we pretty much stop at salt and pepper. Other cuisines have a very rich spice blend culture.

At the Evolution Kitchen, we keep a couple of our favorites on hand to put into dishes and to sprinkle on otherwise boring eggs. Here I present just a couple of them.

Garam Masala

This spice blend is very common in Indian cooking. Sure, you could buy it, but making our own is both economical and fun. All you need are the raw ingredients and a spice grinder. For the latter, we simply use a spare coffee grinder for such tasks.

If you can't find cardamom pods, you can get them here: Cardamom-Green Fancy Pods 2.0z By Zamouri Spices

The secret is to roast your seeds, which brings out their full flavor. Here is what garam masala looks like when in the dry roast phase:

This recipe makes about 8 tablespoons.

Ingredients

5 green cardamom pods

3 T coriander seeds

2 T cumin seeds

5 cloves

½ T black pepper corns

2 bay leaves

½ t ground cinnamon

½ t ground mace

Steps

1. Gently warm a dry, heavy pan.

2. Crush the cardamom pods slightly. Place all the ingredients except the cinnamon and mace in the skillet. Roast slowly, stirring often, until seeds begin to smoke slightly.

3. Remove the seeds from the heat and cool a little. Remove the little black seeds from the cardamom pods. Discard the green hulls. Put all the seeds and bay leaves into a grinder and grind to a fine powder. Add the cinnamon and mace and grind a little more to mix it up.

4. Cool completely before storing.

Zatar

Zatar is a Middle Eastern spice blend typically used on meat, vegetables, and bread. It is commonly present on the mezze table: Tear off a hunk of bread, dip it in olive oil, then dab in a bowl of zatar. It has an earthy, tangy taste that is hard to describe, and completely foreign to the SAD.

We use this spice for other things as well. It is fabulous on hard-boiled eggs. We also use it sometimes in our broth when we cook soy wadi.

The secret ingredient is ground sumac, a beautiful red spice made from sumac berries. You can usually find it in Middle Eastern groceries. Amazon also sells it: SUMAC, GROUND, 1.125 lb. jars.

This recipe makes about 4 tablespoons.

Ingredients

2 T sesame seeds

2 T dried thyme

½ t salt

1 t ground sumac

Steps

1. Gently warm a dry, heavy pan.

2. Add the sesame seeds and stir constantly until they start to change color. Remove from heat immediately and pour into a bowl.

3. In a spice grinder, grind the thyme leaves into a coarse powder. Add the sesame seeds and salt, and grind to a powder. Add the sumac and briefly mix.

Ras el hanout

Ras el hanout is a popular spice and herb blend from North Africa and the Middle East. It has a dizzying array of stuff in it, which makes for a very deep flavor used to season meat and egg dishes, as well as desserts.

Ingredients

1 t ground cumin
1 t ground ginger
1 t turmeric
1 t salt
3/4 t ground cinnamon
3/4 t freshly ground black pepper
1/2 t ground white pepper
1/2 t ground coriander seeds
1/2 t cayenne
1/2 t ground allspice
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground cloves

Steps

1. In a bowl, blend all the ingredients together. Store in an airtight container.

Muhammara

Muhammara is a dip from Turkey and other areas of the Middle East. If you're tired of hummus and baba ganoush, this is an excellent change of pace. It is a simple dish that derives its flavor from walnuts, roasted red peppers, and pomegranate. Other variations add spices like cumin, but I have kept this one simple. This makes a great bread dip or can be spread on toast. Some also use it as a sauce for meat dishes. We used it as a dip for our gluten-free flatbread (see this recipe).

You can often find pomegranate molasses in Middle Eastern groceries, or you can purchase at Amazon here: Pomegranate Molasses 10fl.oz This stuff is delicious and is useful for other Middle Eastern dishes.

Muhammara

Makes about 1½ cups.

Ingredients

1 c walnuts
2 small red bell peppers
2 T olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 t salt
1 T pomegranate syrup or molasses

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spread walnuts on baking sheet, and toast 5 - 10 minutes until light brown and fragrant. Remove from the oven and let cool.

2. Roast red bell peppers on a grill until the skins are black all over. When they are cool, rub off the blackened skin, remove the seeds, and coarsely chop.

3. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Remove from heat, and allow garlic and oil to cool.

4. Purée bell peppers, walnuts, garlic, remaining olive oil, salt, and pomegranate molasses in a food processor until smooth. Season with pepper. Transfer to small serving bowl.