Madzoune Telamadj Abour 

(Armenian Yogurt Soup with Pasta)

This recipe is from Claudia Roden's The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. I kept thinking of this soup, but also needed to use up some older milk. I decided to make Paneer (Indian cheese) from the milk, and then to use the leftover liquid (whey) for the base of this soup. I'd heard you could use the liquid in soup, but never tried it before. (Whenever I make Paneer, I have to figure out, How am I going to use that liquid this time?) I thought it would be similar enough, and I wanted to make sure to use up the liquid.

The soup is supposed to be an onion-flavored base of stock and yogurt, with vermicelli, sprinkled with dried mint. Instead, after the Paneer was drained, I reheated the liquid and cooked the vermicelli in that. (This was very thin vermicelli from a Middle Eastern grocery store, which is similar to that found at Indian grocery stores.) On the side, I fried some frozen, chopped onions, in a little oil; when they were done, I added them to the soup. When I served myself some soup, I stirred in some whole-milk yogurt, and sprinkled on some dried mint. The soup was very warm and soothing, especially now that the weather has tuned cold.

I have included here below, links to a few recipes of Armenia yogurt soup, which are similar to the original recipe I used.

Diasporina Website, An Armenian Soup that I Don't Like: Spas Recipes

Tourism Armenia Website, Armenia yogurt & noodle soup (scroll down to find the recipe)

The Armenian Kitchen Website, 'Spas' - Madzoon (Yogurt) Soup with Grains

Heghineh Cooking Show YouTube & Website, Armenian Yogurt Soup video & recipe

Ricotta Pizza

The other day, I felt like having pizza. Then, I thought, Why not top it with some of the ricotta in the fridge? (I don't usually eat ricotta, so this was new to me.) I topped the pizza dough with some ricotta, and baked it until the crust was done. I wasn't sure if it was odd or not, but I liked it. However, I often topped leftovers with a little pizza sauce before putting them in the toaster oven, and then sometimes also topped them with a little more ricotta after the pizza was reheated. After trying all these different ways of having ricotta on pizza, I decided that next time, I would bake the crust more first, and then add the ricotta. However, this was a pretty good result, for an experiment! 

Cheela Taco Shell 

with Pulao (Rice Pilaf) Filling

For the first time, I participated in #tacotuesday on Instagram. This "taco" is made of a protein shell, in the form of a Cheela, and a carb filling, from Pulao. The Cheela is like an Indian crepe, made with a chickpea-flour batter (which I leave to ferment for a few hours so it's lighter). When I'm ready to cook, I add the seasonings, which here were grated fresh ginger, onion powder, turmeric, pav bhaji masala, and salt. I use only a little oil for the Cheelas, and this time, I covered them while cooking. I didn't measure anything except the chickpea flour, but I liked the results, so I guess it turned out okay. 😉 The Pulao is an Indian rice pilaf, with green peas, carrots, and cauliflower, that I made a couple days ago. I was glad to finally be part of this Tuesday special! 

Traditional Rizogalo 

(Greek Rice Pudding)

This is from the recipe of Kouzounas Kitchen. I had some leftover homemade sweetened condensed milk, as well as whole milk, to use up, and decided, What better way, than with Rizogalo? I started out by cooking less rice in more water, until it was really soft. Then, I left out the sugar, as the condensed milk was already sweet. This time, the result was even better than before! It was so creamy, and the ground cinnamon turned into something more than itself. Yummy! 

Kouzounas Kitchen Facebook 

Kouzounas Kitchen Website, Traditional Rizogalo Recipe (Greek Rice Pudding) 

Bigger Bolder Baking Website, How to Make Condensed Milk

Veggie Arayis, or, 

Egg Pita/Baida Roti

This is a half-pita, cut across the diameter, stuffed with leftover Aval/Poha Upma, dipped in beaten egg, and pan-fried. (For more info on the Aval/Poha Upma, or Indian Pounded-rice Pilaf with Veggies, please see my recent post.) This was very quick to make, and very tasty. 

My inspiration was from: 1) Middle Eastern Arayis recipes, of pita bread stuffed with a ground meat mixture, and then grilled; and 2) the Egg Parathas of @theGutlessFoodie on Instagram. Once I realized I had pita bread and a stuffing, I just knew I had to try it!

Here are a couple of examples of Egg Parathas from @theGutlessFoodie Instagram: 20 May 2017 and 25 July 2017.

Baked Samosas (Indian Savory Turnovers)

The shell is a (preservative-free) store-bought tortilla, and the filling is Aval/Poha Upma (Indian pounded-rice with veggies). (For more details on the Upma, please see my recent post.) I used a flour-water paste to seal the folded tortillas, and baked the Samosas at 350 F for about 25 minutes. It's fairly easy to make Samosas like this, with ready-made tortillas and whatever dry leftovers you can find in the fridge.

Aval/Poha Upma 

(Indian Pounded Rice Pilaf)

This is a dish from Maharashtra, India, made with aval/poha (Indian pounded rice), mustard and cumin seeds, frozen peas & carrots, potatoes, turmeric, and salt and seasonings. The recipe is from Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking. It's good for a nice light meal, with yogurt. Instead of adding lemon juice to the complete finished dish, I like to squeeze some fresh lemon juice on the portion I'm about to eat. The 1st pic is the veggies before the grain was added in. Yummy! 

Shorbet Adds 

(Egyptian Spiced Creamy Lentil Soup)

This was from a recipe of Claudia Roden in The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. Although the soup looks somewhat thick here (esp as it was the next day), it was actually fairly creamy in texture. I ground up the dry red lentils, added water to them, covered them, and let them soak for a few hours, before adding them to the soup. (Red lentils don't usually need to be soaked, except by me. )

Aside from the lentils, this also contains onions, olive oil, ground cumin and coriander, and salt. A pinch of Indian pav bhaji masala spice mix stood in for ground red chili pepper. I used frozen chopped mirepoix (onion, carrot, and celery) for the carrot and celery in the recipe, as that's what I had.

The soup is supposed to be served with a garnish of fried onions, but I was too tired to add that. For the toasted pita bread croutons, I toasted half a pita, and then broke it up into irregularly-shaped, crunchy pieces. Instead of adding lemon juice directly to the soup right after it was cooked, I just squeeze a few drops of fresh lemon juice into the bowl, before I eat it.

Vanilla-Chocolate Swirl Pudding & Ice Cream

Throwback: Let's stroll down Memory Lane, all the way back to ... April 2016.

I like to take homemade pudding, and put it in the freezer to make "ice cream." Some varieties of pudding work better for this than others. In this case, I made vanilla pudding (without egg), and wanted to turn it into Vanilla-Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. So, I added some chocolate chips to the cooling/still-very-warm pudding. When I went to mix them in, the chips, of course, melted, and turned into this swirl, on the left. The resulting "ice cream" is on the right. It was cold, sweet, and much like ice cream in some ways, so that was enough for me. 

Apple Galette

This was inspired by a recent post of @crystal_e_rivera on Instagram. (The 2nd pic gives a look at the inside.) The difficult part for me is the pastry, which always seems to require butter ... which at least for now I can't eat (too rich 😐). And when I try oil-based pie-crust pastry, it never comes out quite right. I'm afraid this time, as well, even following a different recipe, the crust was a bit of a "fail": the outside was good, the inside got a little "wet." However, the apple filling was great, and I ate it with the "good crust." So, not too bad. I think next time, I might try a coconut oil-based pastry. Or would a strudel dough work as well? 

I realized, as I was filling the 2 small galettes, that there might be too much apple filling. Then I remembered that (IIRC) Smitten Kitchen, in a galette recipe on her site, mentioned ground almonds (to soak up the juice?). What I already had opened in the fridge, though, was ground hazelnuts ... so I used those, instead, to top the galettes. It occurred to me that maybe she meant that you could mix the almonds into the filling (rather than to top it), but it was too late by then to change what I was doing.  Anyway, I learned a lot from making these galettes, they are mostly pretty good, and the apple filling is great. 

Although I didn't use these actual recipes, I'll give the links here to: 

crystal_e_rivera Instagram, Apple Cheddar n Ham Galette 1 and 2

Smitten Kitchen Website, Nectarine Galette

South Indian Mango Chutney, 

with Noodles & Papadum

Here is Mango Chutney, served with store-bought Ramen (or Chuka Soba Noodles) and Papad(um) (crispy lentil wafer that can be deep-fried, but I heat in the microwave). The Mango Chutney was leftover, from the freezer. I didn't feel like making rice, and these noodles cook in only 3 minutes. (Basically, they're ramen noodles, not fried, and without the spice pack.) Nice, easy, and tasty.

Thai Red Curry 

with Egg & Green Peas

I made this using store-bought red curry paste. It's based on a recipe of Nancie McDermott in Real Vegetarian Thai. Delicious! 

Hummus bit-Tahini, or just Hummus 

(Garbanzo Bean Dip), with Spaghetti

The Hummus, found in the freezer, is from the recipe of Madelain Farah in Lebanese Cuisine. (For more information, you can see my post from June.)

I cooked the spaghetti, and when it was ready, I mixed in the Hummus, and cooked it a little more. At that stage, it looks a lot like macaroni & cheese, or the spaghetti & cheese we also used to enjoy as kids. It thickens up fairly quickly. Here it's pictured with a sprinkling of dried Italian herbs for color, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Easy to make (as long as you already have the Hummus), and warm and comforting. Mmmm... 

Plain Harcha 

(Moroccan galette or biscuit)

The recipe is from My Moroccan Food. She says that this is popular for breakfast, and often eaten with a honey-butter syrup. Unfortunately, butter is too rich for me, but I topped the warm Harchas with some coconut oil (which quickly melted), and then drizzled them with a little honey. Yum! Even the leftovers are tasty that way.

My Moroccan Food Facebook

My Moroccan Food Website, Plain Harcha/Zaatar & Black Olive Harcha

Havuç Çorbasi 

(Turkish Carrot Soup)

This is a lazy version of Havuç Çorbasi, Turkish Carrot Soup. The original recipe, from Claudia Roden's The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, calls for carrots to be cooked very well in stock with salt, sugar, and cinnamon, and put through a blender or food processor. I just cooked it very well in water.  

The next step is to separately make a bit of a white sauce, add egg yolks, and then carefully add it to the soup, to thicken it. However, I tend to just skip all this, and mix in a whole egg, right into the soup (like egg-drop soup). I'd roasted some carrots in the oven a few days ago, so I added in the last few here, along with some cilantro, and a bit of scrambled egg.

Accompanying the soup, are some Plain Harcha (Moroccan Galettes/Biscuits), made from the recipe of My Moroccan Food. The meal was light but with a nice flavor. 

My Moroccan Food Facebook

My Moroccan Food Website, Plain Harcha/Zaatar & Black Olive Harcha

Quick Chocolate Pudding

The recipe is from Bhavna's Kitchen. I really like this pudding recipe, as it's simple, and it really does only take about 10 minutes. Instead of the butter to be added at the end, I usually add honey to thicken it. This time, I also added coconut oil, as well as extra vanilla extract. After the pudding was cool, I wrapped up the coffee cups it was in, and put them in the freezer for . . . ice cream!

Bhavna's Kitchen Facebook

Bhavna's Kitchen Website, Quick Chocolate Pudding

Bhavna's Kitchen YouTube, Quick Chocolate Pudding