For the Love of Food

Ahh, Vegeta – the magic seasoning. I’d actually never heard about it until I asked for the REAL Garlic Chicken Recipe from Nermin. After making my version of Garlic Chicken, I asked Nermin why his tasted so different, and, well, it’s because there is soooo much more on it than just garlic! This is not an exact recipe, but I wanted to share.

Ingredients:
Vegeta Seasoning (I found this at my local Turkish market)
Garlic powder
Paprika
Flour
Sunflower seed oil for frying

Directions:
I’m still not 100% on the ratios, I just sprinkled a bit of everything on, then covered the chicken in flour. I then fried the chicken, I believe for about 20 minutes.

I then cooked up some mushrooms, onions, and frozen green beans in the oil left in the pan (I didn’t use a lot of oil).

This is another one of those meals that I some how come up with, but I’m never sure how I ever thought these ingredients would go well together! And, yet again, the dish comes out delicious!

Ingredients:
500 grams potatoes
200 grams of a soft smoked Italian Sausage, chopped
1/2 of a Granny Smith Apple, chopped
1/2 of a Red Onion, sliced
1 clove of Garlic, minced
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Oregano

Directions:
In a medium-sized pot, place in cleaned potatoes with skin and bring to boil. Depending on the size of the potatoes, boil for 15-30 minutes (larger potatoes will need longer). Once you can prick them with a fork and they’re not hard, remove from heat, drain water, and set aside to cool.
In the mean time, in a skillet of some sort, heat some of the olive oil Рenough to coat the bottom of the pan lightly. Simultaneously saut̩ the sausage, onion, and garlic for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. In the mean while, remove the potatoes from the pot and slice. Then, add the apple and potatoes, and stir. Season with salt, pepper, and oregano. Cook until the potatoes have re-heated through and caught on the flavor of the spices.

Serves 2.

Well, May 17th came and went, and still I cannot eat sugar – my problem has not gone away. At this point (3 months later), I rarely crave sugar, and I’m becoming more creative with what I can eat. The other day I happened upon some information about something called Agave Nectar. It’s a natural sweetener that comes from the same plant that tequila is made of, and it’s mostly fructose – which I can handle. To me, agave nectar tastes like maple syrup or slightly like honey. I read (somewhere – sorry, no reference!) that in cooking/baking you should use 3/4th of a cup of agave nectar to 1 cup of granulated sugar and then reduce the liquid in the recipe by 1/3rd.

I tried the agave nectar in these chocolate yoghurt pecan cupcakes and in the whipped chocolate topping. I found them sweet enough, but my husband said they were a little bland. I guess since I haven’t eaten any refined sugar in so long, my taste buds find mildly-sweet sweet enough!

Unfortunately, I didn’t find the cake fluffy enough, and after one day, the whipped cream that I made started to liquefy. I will keep trying to find a better recipe, but I don’t want to spend my precious time posting this recipe since I don’t really think it’s worth it. BUT, if you really really want it, just leave me a comment or send me an email and I’ll give it to you.

Ingredients:

6 fried Calamari, diced
2 Carrots, jullianed
4 Mushrooms, chopped
2 coves of Garlic, minced
40 grams of dry Vermacelli
Oil for frying (optional)
3 Tablespoons of Soy sauce
3 Tablespoons of Sherry
1/4 Cup of Oyster sauce
9 Rice paper wrapers
Lettuce Leaves (otional)
Spearmint Leaves (optional)

Directions:
In a pan, heat up a small amount of oil, ans saute the calamari, carrots, mushrooms, and Garlic for a few minutes. In the mean while, place the vermacelli in hot water to soften. Add the soy sauce, sherry, and oyster sauce to the carrot mixture, and combine well. Place a lid on the pan and let cook for about 3 minutes. Remove the Vermacelli from water and add to the carrot mixture. Coat well with sauces.

In another bowl of warm/hot water, soften 1 rice paper at a time. Set aside (don’t stack ontop of eachother or they will stick). Place a small amount (about 2 Tablspoons-worth) of mixture in the center of each rice paper, and fold to cover. First flap over the left side, then the right side, then the front, and then the back.

At this point, you may eat the rolls, or you may fry them for some extra crisp.

You may serve them as is, or wrap them in lettuce and spearmint leaves – this givs it a nice fresh bite to it.

This is a really great pizza for those hot days because you can eat it cold.

Ingredients:
1 Recipe of Pizza Dough
1 Recipe of Refried Beans (use a vegeterian version for a vegetarian meal)
100 grams of Sour Cream
a dash each of: Garli powder, Onion power, Chili powder, Paprika, and Cumin
about 1/2 a Cup of Salsa
1 Cup of shreded Gouda
2 Cups of shreded Iceberg Lettuce
1/2 Cup of sliced Black Olives

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Oil a large casserole dish with olive oil. Lay out the pizza dough in the dish. Poke the dough with a fork multiple times to keep it from bubbling up in the middle. Bake for 20 minutes (oil the dish with olive oil). Remove the dough from the oven and let cool.
Layer in from bottom up: refried beans, spices, sour cream, salsa, cheese. lettuce, and olives as depicted bellow:

Serves 3.

On a side note: the first time I served the pizza, it was mildly warm and my husband said he would have liked it hot, while I had wanted it to be cold. For dinner we had the left-overs and they were cold/room temperature, and my husband thought they tasted much better that way than partially warm.