Pattzukis and basil argan oil zucchini

A 2 dish casual lunch : pattzukis (azuki bean patties) and zucchini.

Boiled azuki beans are the base.

I mashed them with a fork, added ajowan, cumin, dochi (Chinese fermented beans), garlic, hot chili, salt, fresh thyme and potato starch. Pan-fried.

Served them topped with cumin, with grated cabbage as a side, and a dressing :

Dressing : basil, sesame seeds, a little garlic, salt, argan oil, sudachi lime juice, water.

Grated a zucchini, patted with sea salt, added cut basil leaves and ground coriander seeds. I’ve let about 1/2 hour.

Then added argan oil.

Easy mudardara

Today a delicious Lebanese dish, that takes only a few minutes of your time to prepare. It’s freely inspire from this recipe from the blog OneArabVegan. Thanks for the inspiration.

That’s basically rice and lentils.

And usually I cook these in my rice-cooker, not on the same day. Well, I mixed them, rinsed, added water and switched :

Ping ! Already ? I grabbed a red onion, garlic, some leftover of leek that I stir-fried with chili and lots of grated coriander seed. I made a lot of topping to compensate the lack of seasoning of the base.

With a salad of cabbage in lemon dressing.

Mmm… a delicious meal. I’ll do it again. I read you could also serve it cold, but maybe I’ll wait for another season.

The turban of Hassan Pasha, veg’ baked keftas

Let’s go to old Orient for a funny yummy dinner…

hassan pasha
Photo borrowed here.

This guy is Hassan Pasha, a 17th century Turkish prince. His hat inspired this recipe.

You recognize him ? Yes ? So next week, we’ll bake a lion…

It’s usually made with meat, and cheese, but my version is plant based, but I kept the base of 3 elements, a meatball (beanball), mashed potatoes and tomato sauce..

I made my keftas of cooked azuki red beans, minced onion, powdered sesame seeds, Chinese dark miso and a little potato starch as a binder. The spices are : lots of coriander seeds, paprika, a little cumin, black pepper and cinnamon.
Cooked potatoes are mashed, colored with turmeric, flavored with a little nutmeg and olive oil.
The sauce is tomato paste, water, olive oil, thyme, grated garlic and onion, salt.
Shape the keftas like nests, make a turban of potato, pour the sauce around and bake.

Baked ! I should have put more sauce.

As a side, avocado with wasabina tsukemono green pickle (see here).

Sakekasu spinach pide

Leafy skies, leafy dinner :

Do you know pide the boat shaped Turkish “pizza” ? It’s often made with feta cheese and spinach. I made one step afar from it…

I’ve used this sakekasu paste instead of cheese. It’s not faux cheese. Click here if you want to know more.
I have seen many people were grilling it and I wanted to try. So why not on a pide.

I mixed the sakekasu with salt and a little olive oil as it’s not salted at all, and not fat and I feared it could burn too easily.

It’s a quite classic one, flavored with olive oil, garlic, onion, coriander seed…

Shaping balls was not the best idea. Next time, I’ll make crumbles or flat layers as they didn’t cook so well in the middle. Except that, that was perfect.

The grilled sakekasu is really good. It doesn’t get the texture but it sure has a strong taste like an old cheese. And you get the sake taste. Try it someday.

Drop dead aubergine

Imam bayildi. The legend says the Imam fainted of pleasure after eating this.
I’m posting less. I have a photo problem now…

Baked aubergine, opened in 2, carved, oiled, baked, filled, baked…
That avoids the traditional deep frying. I still used quite a lot of olive oil.

The filling is stir-fried onion, tomato, aubergine, garlic with tons of coriander seed and a little cinammon. Then I added “mashed” tomato for velvety and less dry texture.