eG Foodblog: Marlena - Life is Delicious Wherever I am

[Tapenade]

I made my lemon-garlic chicken tonight. I put oregano, garlic and lemon peel under the skin and stuffed it with lemon quarters, garlic, oregano and rosemary. Then I placed lemon and garlic around the chicken.

Here is a picture.

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And even by Michelle's usual standards, it was totally scrumptious The taste of the herbs and garlic was more pronounced than usual, and I could have sworn that I smelled the oregano growing on the hillside and heard the kids bleating in the dark.

[artisan02]

we have eggplant, three cucumber (the big kind!), two bags of salad, three containers of cherry tomatoes, a bag of multicoloured peppers

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Marlena, I have the little book you did on vegetables for Williams-Sonoma, and I have made the roasted multicolored peppers and cherry tomatoes recipe there. It is sooooooooooo good!

Christine

[marlena spieler]

I made my lemon-garlic chicken tonight. I put oregano, garlic and lemon peel under the skin and stuffed it with lemon quarters, garlic, oregano and rosemary. Then I placed lemon and garlic around the chicken.

Here is a picture.

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And even by Michelle's usual standards, it was totally scrumptious The taste of the herbs and garlic was more pronounced than usual, and I could have sworn that I smelled the oregano growing on the hillside and heard the kids bleating in the dark.

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yummmmm my favourite things: lemon, garlic, chicken, lemon peel, lemon quarters, garlic, oregano, rosemary, and baby goats bleating on the hillside!

wish i could have been there!

marlena

[marlena spieler]

we have eggplant, three cucumber (the big kind!), two bags of salad, three containers of cherry tomatoes, a bag of multicoloured peppers

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Marlena, I have the little book you did on vegetables for Williams-Sonoma, and I have made the roasted multicolored peppers and cherry tomatoes recipe there. It is sooooooooooo good!

Christine

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ooooh, thanks, christine, you know, its wonderful to be reminded of 1. something that is delicious that is an old friend recipe-wise, and 2. that you're enjoying it (and letting me know!).

When i looked at these peppers this evening, they were so abundant, and a veritable treasure trove of peppers, because usually peppers are expensive and scarce here, but when i looked at them i thought: multicoloured roasted peppers and tomatoes, all caramelized and very mediterranean. i think it will be a good mediterranean antidote to the spate of puddings we've been eating the past few days.

x marlena

[helenjp]

Good gracious, you people have been eating all night while I've been asleep!

The spinach you had for lunch sounds wonderful...it would be good with our extra thick and crinkly winter spinach too. Almost good enough for me to derail our plans for lunch!

[bloviatrix]

When i was a student in Jerusalem about a thousand years ago, I used to buy bagelah's, round pretzl-like things, sold on a hanging string. they were so chewy, i loved them! there was something to dip them in, maybe it was sesame, or salt, or perhaps it was za-atar, is that possible?

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I love begelahs. We used to have an Israeli market up the block that carried them -- they were almost as good as the ones I used to get when I lived in Jerusalem.

Edited January 8, 2006 by bloviatrix (log)

[mochihead]

Bagelahs? Something new I'll have to try at some point! Unlike those Weight Watcher's puddings, which I'm not sure of. Not that I'd find them here in Hawai'i.

Mmmm... Mediterranean food. Can you believe that I couldn't find eggplant anywhere this weekend? I didn't think anything went out of season here. How are you pickling your olives and sauerkraut?

[marlena spieler]

Bagelahs?  Something new I'll have to try at some point!  Unlike those Weight Watcher's puddings, which I'm not sure of.  Not that I'd find them here in Hawai'i.

Mmmm... Mediterranean food.  Can you believe that I couldn't find eggplant anywhere this weekend? I didn't think anything went out of season here. How are you pickling your olives and sauerkraut?

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Bagelahs really are wonderful as biovatrix so enthusiastically agreed: doubly as chewy as bagels. and you don't eat them with cream cheese or anything, just chew chew chew (happy chewing memories) as i walked through the streets of jerusalem en route to classes, though i think sesame seeds, and probably coarse salt, were involved. i remember some spice mixture in a paper cone; perhaps it was za'atar. i was young and not specific about those things yet.

Za-atar, for those of you who don't know it, is a spice and seed mixture for sprinkling on bread, especially lovely fresh pita bread, with olive oil. za-atar means wild thyme, and its a mixture of this thyme, with some sumac, sometimes cumin, sesame seeds, salt. its a traditional breakfast of middle eastern folk. olives go well with it, as does feta type cheeses. i always think of this as sandy's breakfast though, as she makes it for breakfast each and every day, and if you stay with her, this is what she'll make for you, too. (ask her niece, ally waks, who is an egulleteer!). i love this breakfast and almost hate eating it without sandy as i miss her a whole lot with every bite i take. so i usually reserve it for being with her.

but this morning, as i have a nice stock of flatbreads from the athens central market, in my bread-freezer right now as well as feta, i thought i would make this breakfast. (sandy uses the middle eastern flatbreads from trader joes and they are delish). place a flatbread (frozen is fine) on a baking pan, top with bits of feta cheese as desired, leaving a space inbetween the cheese for naked bread. Sprinkle the za-atar generously across the top so it blankets both the cheese and the flatbread, then drizzle extra virgin (and i used the freshly pressed oil from my friend, sotiris kitrilakis of Mt Vikos cheese. he did the pressing when we were there, and sent us home with a bottle of the most fragrant, wonderful oil. alas its not for sale.). When the flatbread kinda sizzles, the edges are a little toasty, and the cheese a bit soft, your breakfast is ready! i ate mine this morning with a nice big raw green onion. it think it was the best green onion i've ever eaten! (the za-atar enhanced its sweet flavour, i think).

my husband, who is the most reluctant of breakfast eaters, didn't do the toast-cheese-za-atar thing. he ate three bananas and two apples. he says he is never sure what he wants to eat until it dawns on him. neither of us are big creatures of habit.

onwards to the sauerkraut and olives!

throughout my stay in greece we went on many many walks. walking in greece is probably my favourite thing to do, unless its eating and cooking. but the thing is that greece is such a garden of eden, that whatever time of year it is, wherever you walk will yield up abundance of things to eat. and no one minds if you pick a little bit of this, a little bit of that. so it was olive season and each time i went for a walk i picked a few BIG pocket-fulls of olives. I got some green tiny ones, and some big fat black ones. and some small blackish ones.

i put the green and blackish small olives up about three days worth of changing plain water, then into a salt water brine (10%). The black fatter olives i put up in salt, and pressed down with a plate and a weight (the brine olives are pressed down under the brine, too). after about 2 weeks i added some mountain herbs to the salt which i'm not sure is a great thing to do but so far so good. none of the olives is ready yet, but they are on their way.

the sauerkraut--i BOUGHT the cabbage for those of you who might have been worried about my scrambling in other peoples gardens, i wouldn't do that.........anyhow, the first batch i simply layered the whole leaves with salt then pressed with a plate and weight, sort of like Helen did with the Napa cabbage in her blog; after a day or so the liquid just extruded, and after about 3 days the cabbage had a silky texture though still tasted salty rather than sour. the flavour was good, though, so i soaked it in water to remove the excess saltiness and added it to our greek island........wait for it........borsht. yes, the villagers were shocked, they were confused, they didn't know what to make of this soup even those they eat beetroot, cabbage, carrots, and meat, but put together they found it quite provacative (didn't stop them from having second bowlfuls though, and that was nice!) anyhow, the silky half pickled cabbage was a great addition.

so then i put up another batch of sauerkraut and since i was having trouble getting a fermentation going no doubt due to the cold weather on the island (we didn't have electricity so it was consistently quite cool, as in freezing) sotiris recommended that i add a few chickpeas to the brew. when i came home i packed my olives and sauerkraut all up, and i'm telling you, the sauerkraut is looking a bit brownish (but that is the fate of sauerkraut isn't it), i mean, it looks like sauerkraut rather than cabbage, and it smells s o u r !!!! in a good way.

and the olives are progressing nicely. am i the only one out there who goes on vacation and cures olives, makes sauerkraut? (i made pickles with my friend kamala once, too. and then there was the time i went on a cactus rampage on the island of ibiza, picking masses of cactus that looked just like the stuff in mexico, and putting it up in jars of escabeche for all to enjoy once i left. i'm not sure if it was the right cactus, though, as some complained of hallucinations, but i'm not sure that was related to the cactus). last summer was my summer of torshi making, too, and i packed jars of it to bring back to the usa. alas, customs put an end to that. but they didn't get my lemoncello which i put up on a visit to lemon groves in sorrento. we enjoyed it in san francisco!

as for eggplant--dear mochihead--i feel too sad if i don't have an eggplant close by, just to look at. an eggplant always holds out the promise of mediterranean flavours and feelings, even if the day is grey and frigid as this one, in the English countryside, is.

x Marlena

Edited January 8, 2006 by marlena spieler (log)

[marlena spieler]

Good gracious, you people have been eating all night while I've been asleep!

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This is definately the funniest line in this blog!!!

x m

[Swisskaese]

I thought these were bagelach:

Bagelach

[marlena spieler]

I thought these were bagelach:

Bagelach

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well, sorta, but the ones i bought on the street were bigger, about as big as a bracelet, and very fresh and chewy, rather artisanal rather than from a bag. it was a whole invigorating chewing experience, in addition to the lovely salty-sesame taste.

x m

[Swisskaese]

I thought these were bagelach:

Bagelach

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well, sorta, but the ones i bought on the street were bigger, about as big as a bracelet, and very fresh and chewy, rather artisanal rather than from a bag. it was a whole invigorating chewing experience, in addition to the lovely salty-sesame taste.

x m

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I know which ones you are talking about. The crackers above are actually called Kaak.

I think you are referring to Simit

[marlena spieler]

I know which ones you are talking about. The crackers above are actually called Kaak.

I think you are referring to Simit

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You're totally right, Michelle, definitely simit! but the lady who sold them to me always called them bagelahs. i remember how beautiful the word sounded, because i was in a state of total pleasurable anticipation, and all my senses were heightened as i awaited that first chew!

On to lunch. Thanks to Artisan02 I roasted up a pan of diced red, yellow and green peppers, added some tomatoes (actually tinned, as its winter), evoo, coarse pieces of garlic, lots of crushed thyme, a pinch of sugar and salt to taste. When the peppers were all tender and the tomatoes had reduced down to a near essense with chunks of flesh here and there and the oil that remained ws reddish in hue, it was ready to serve. i added a dash of balsamico, and served it on top of thinly sliced baguette roasted with olive oil and garlic.

i also had a bit of simmered chicken and shiitakes left from the other evening--about half a chicken breast and 4 shiitakes. I cut the chicken breast up and browned it in a nonstick pan with olive oil and garlic, then added the halved shiitakes, and when there was a crispy thing going on with bits of the chicken, i added about 8 ounces raw baby spinach leaves. Tossed it and turned it until the leaves just wilted, and served with a sprinkle of salt.

cup of very english tea, pg tips, strong enough for the builders!, drunk with milk for both of us, sugar for the hubby. (pg is an abbreviation from the original pre-gest-tee; it was shortened by grocers to PG. the company adopted PG and added tips, to highlight the fact that PG takes the top two leaves plus a bud to make its tea).

and we had apples for dessert. i'm still eating mine, and am heading into a nice warm bath to warm up.

I've made my deadline, hoorah! my brain has now been returned to me!

Marlena

[Swisskaese]

Mazel Tov on meeting your deadline!!

You should have another dram tonight.

[marlena spieler]

Mazel Tov on meeting your deadline!!

You should have another dram tonight.

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and perhaps not so 'wee' as last night, and maybe i should just start right now!

x m

ps: My Alan (inspired by you, so tender, my husband has requested that i refer to him as My Alan from now on )--he just sat down and read your blog start to finish and really enjoyed it, and esp the olive oil wheel press thingie (his words). he really enjoyed reading it. how is life after your blog, i'm going to miss doing this so much. how do you cope with a blog-less life and without all these wonderful (and hungry) egulleteer by your side? do you still have the urge to tell everyone what you ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner? i know i will!

[marlena spieler]

Sunday night 7 pm

Since we've been making up for Christmas since we've been back from greece, eatin' that pudding, getting ready for burns night with the haggis, and so forth, tonight we just had a light dinner: fruit salad.

let me say that when i was growing up fruit salad was, in my mind, a wasted eating opportunity. i think that probably is because it was pedestrian.

our fruit salad these days is a total garden of eden experience. we're sitting here hunched over in the freezing english countryside with the heating up full blast and big bowls of fruit salad with big spoons to eat it with. we're saying, in between bites: we can feel this doing us good! all the fruit and freshness!

The fruit salad was a result of My Alan's (Swisskaese! ) shopping extravaganza yesterday. since its the middle of winter not all of the fruit were in tip top shape, so i needed to add a little sugar and lots of fresh lime juice for added zest. Here is what was in our salad: pineapple (a really brilliant, sweet juicy flavourful one), peach (bland, but still, peach), kiwi, red apple, orange, clementine, dried montmorcy cherries soaked in boiling water to soften them. while i was thinking of seconds, and typing this up, My Alan went into the kitchen and finished it off!

x marlena

ps: When we ate the fruit salad we both thought that it needed one thing: bananas! 'I wish i hadn't eaten all three this morning' said My Alan. still, the fruit salad was utterly refreshing. i still have half a pineapple too for tomorrow. i always have big plans for such things, such as the gratineed pineapple carpaccio (or something that sounded like that and was deeeeelicious) at san francisco's Iluna Basque. I always think to do it, then i eat all the pineapple up while i'm thinking about it.

Edited January 8, 2006 by marlena spieler (log)

[Swisskaese]

Mazel Tov on meeting your deadline!!

You should have another dram tonight.

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and perhaps not so 'wee' as last night, and maybe i should just start right now!

x m

ps: My Alan (inspired by you, so tender, my husband has requested that i refer to him as My Alan from now on )--he just sat down and read your blog start to finish and really enjoyed it, and esp the olive oil wheel press thingie (his words). he really enjoyed reading it. how is life after your blog, i'm going to miss doing this so much. how do you cope with a blog-less life and without all these wonderful (and hungry) egulleteer by your side? do you still have the urge to tell everyone what you ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner? i know i will!

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I do, but starting tomorrow I have my own deadline at work and I won't have much time to write for a couple of weeks.

Tell your Alan that we will be happy to take both of you to see the olive oil press in person. I am glad he enjoyed it. We had a lot of fun doing it.

[Swisskaese]

If you come in the Spring, we can take you to the Artichoke Festival.

[aliwaks]

Marlena,

SO pleased that you let me in on your blog.. just wonderful. I miss you and Alan!. ARRGH one of these days our vivts toSan fran will co-incide though Sandy will most likely have an aneuyrism with both of us in the kitchen splashing olive oil about in copoious amounts.

I had a enourmous rush of food memories, memories of your kitchen, of duck breasts with physalis aka cape gooseberries. They just showed up in the markets here this week...so excited will be using them to dress the set of a food demo next week at Dibrunos for Katy Sparks along with tangerines and bowls of brown eggs..they are just so lovely and would never have known of them had we not found them at Tesco...anyhow.

Also should let everyone know that in my Aunt Sandy's kitchen is the most wonderful photo of Marlena in full Marlena red lipstick standing amidst a herd of lovely sheep holding a microphone and a purse.

On to food are begelah similar to pletzls? Pletzls area round flat-ish chewy breads covered in everything you would ever want (onions poppy seeds, sesame seeds, salt, soomething caraway seeds) and are one of my most favorite foods.esp when slathered in sweet butter. I get them at Russ N Daughters when in in NYC, along with bialys, my second favorite bread product. My maternal great grandmother was from Bialystock and they have been a fixture of that side of the family for as long as I can remember--the paternal side is much more bagel oriented

You have inspired me to make chicken tonight with perserved lemons and olives..I wish i had thyme so i could make some fresh zaatar, actully there probably is some deep in the recesses of my scary freezer..pseudo fresh zaatar is better than none

[marlena spieler]

If you come in the Spring, we can take you to the Artichoke Festival.

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have I mentioned here how I feel about artichokes?????? (I LOVE em!). once had a whole artichoke meal, and wish i could do that here where i live. but most of the people i know here are afraid of or have never eaten, artichokes. when i had a radio programme on LBC i did a whole programme once feeding artichokes (with a fabulous garlicky skorthalia to which i added a little yogurt) to the whole staff of producers etc. most of them--dare i say all of them?--had never eaten an artichoke before!!!!!

did you know that marilyn monroe was miss artichoke (watsonville california) in 1947. it was noted that she loved to eat artichokes too, or that was what she said. and i read.

ate some good artichokes last week in greece. wild artichokes are sooooooo the best. have you ever eaten them wild? actually each and every type of artichoke i've ever eaten has been my favourite.

i want to come to your artichoke festival!

x marlena

[mochihead]

Artichokes? Did someone mention artichokes?!!! That's my all-time favorite vegetable (as is eggplant)!!! When I lived in California, I used to go to the local farms and pick artichokes. All those big beautiful globes, the sweet baby artichokes. The first time I saw an artichoke plant in person, I just about cracked up laughing!

Swisskaese, please please please may I come visit you too? Olive oils, eggplants, all sorts of fresh produce and cheeses.... I'll bring my cat's weight in macadamias in trade!

Pineapples are something that I can still only eat raw and fresh picked. Actually, I'm like that about most fruits. Your talk of fruit salad is making my mouth water and I want some now!

Edited January 8, 2006 by mochihead (log)

[hathor]

please stop.....I have to work....and all I want to do is eat an artichoke, with a bialy on the side........

I know... I could just not look at the blog, but I have no self control........

P.S. I could easily eat an artichoke at every meal. Can't you just imagine crispy artichoke flakes for breakfast???

On a more practical note: Marelena, with a bi-continental lifestyle...how do you keep track of recipes, cookbooks, or that new kitchen tool that you just started using and now cannot live without? I never seem to have what I need in the right place. I know. I get very little sympathy here...oh, you left your chinois in Italy??

[marlena spieler]

hathor and Mochihead:

artichoke flakes for breakfast sound very sensible. i don't see a time of day that artichokes wouldn't be perfection--i spent a whole week in barcelona once eating fried artichokes for breakfast from a tapas bar in la boqueria (el quim de la boqueria). i had to 'wash it down' (oh how i hate that expression!) with a good strong shot of something good and strong. its gotta be paint-thinner-strong, otherwise all the fried stuff just gets you sluggish, and can clog your spirit for the entire day. once the drink gets you cleared out, you can proceed on to the next meal!

artichokes are meant to be very good for the whole system. and as my disgruntled reader who complained because i didn't use enough butter, says, butter is a health food! so perhaps a little melted butter swimming in that artichoke's heart would be even healthier!

i was just visiting my family and they were dipping artichoke hearts into melted margarine. i wanted to weep. i ate it with plain lemon juice instead, and a little coarse sea salt that i had to smuggle to the table in my pocket.

my dad has the most lovable trait you can imagine: he adores eating the artichokes leaves, but doesn't like the heart. is he the best person to eat a whole artichoke with or what!

x marlena

ps: Hathor you are so right about not knowing where stuff is. just this morning i was in a snit over a book that i thought was on my shelf, and now i think its in san francisco. i tend to keep my work stuff together by emailing stuff in progress to myself, and then finishing up the work and sending it off, or working on it, as is needed.

Edited January 8, 2006 by marlena spieler (log)

[Swisskaese]

Artichokes? Did someone mention artichokes?!!! That's my all-time favorite vegetable (as is eggplant)!!!  When I lived in California, I used to go to the local farms and pick artichokes.  All those big beautiful globes, the sweet baby artichokes.  The first time I saw an artichoke plant in person, I just about cracked up laughing!

Swisskaese, please please please may I come visit you too?  Olive oils, eggplants, all sorts of fresh produce and cheeses.... I'll bring my cat's weight in macadamias in trade!

Pineapples are something that I can still only eat raw and fresh picked.  Actually, I'm like that about most fruits.  Your talk of fruit salad is making my mouth water and I want some now!

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Mochihead you are most welcome. Come any time.

I also adore artichokes. Last year was the first time I went to the artichoke festival and I all I wanted to do was get naked and roll around in the field, except it would have really hurt and I probably would have scared the masses.

We could also eat them three times a day. They are so cheap here. At the height of the season I pay .80USD for a kilo. I went home to visit my parents and artichokes were selling for 1.98USD each!

The only thing I don't like that is made from artichokes is the Italian digestivo called Cynar. It is really disgusting.

Edited January 8, 2006 by Swisskaese (log)

[mochihead]

Swissakaese, I'm not sure what's more pornographic - the visual of you rolling naked in the artichoke patch or the amazing cost for artichokes where you live!!!

That's the first time I've heard of that particular liquer. I'm not sure I could do Cynar. Artichokes are for eating, damn it. All the time, anytime.