Mediterranean Chicken

Tonight's meal plan said 'Mediterranean Chicken' - but I wasn't exactly sure what to make. I thought about getting in touch with a certain Greek friend who sometimes reads this blog for ideas - then remembered I was recently given a copy of Michael Psilakis' oxymoronically titled cookbook, How to Roast a Lamb: New Greek Classic Cooking. From it, I used the marinade ingredients for a pan roasted chicken dish to inform my own ingredients choices.

Pairing it with a store bought saffron rice and oven roasted zucchini, I cooked shallots, garlic and thyme in olive oil, then added the chicken breasts and seared them on one side. Then I added lemon juice and capers and let it cook (covered) for about 10 minutes - tossing in chopped tomatoes about half-way through.

Dim Sum for Dinner

Tonight, we didn't feel like any serious cooking, so Dan picked up a variety of appetizers at PCC for me to heat up, including some gyoza/potstickers and a couple types of seafood croquettes made by SoJo foods (Mediterranean shrimp and spicy Thai tuna).



I preferred the gyoza and Thai tuna croquettes.

Falafel Bar

Shrimp with Cucumber-Yogurt Salad and Cous Cous

Frugal Fridays: Cherry Street Coffee House Redux

I previously wrote a Frugal Friday about Cherry Street Coffee House titled 'Is This Cheating?', because my lunch was largely paid for by a friend. And that's not really in the spirit of Frugal Friday... but it was all I had for you that week.



But this time around, my lunch buddy Leah and I met up at Cherry Street again, and I scanned the menu more thoroughly for something under the Frugal Friday $5 after tax price point. And I spotted the Hummus Platter at $4.25 pre-tax.

It includes a generous portion of hummus topped with a couple kalamata olives, along with some pita bread, carrots, mint and a small orange wedge. It was no Chicken Salad Sandwich, but it was pretty filling, very flavorful, and certainly well rounded.



(Frugal Fridays is a weekly series dedicated to finding Seattle lunch spots where you can walk in with a $5 bill and walk out with a fulfilling, preferably healthy, lunch. If you have suggestions of places in the Seattle area with a great lunch for under $5 after tax, post a comment - I'd love the help.)

Falafel Bar

Falafel, pita, lettuce, olives, feta, cucumbers, hummus, and a spicy yogurt sauce made by adding chopped cucumber and lots of cayenne & paprika to a Greek honey yogurt.

Frugal Fridays: Kabab House

I catch the bus home across from the County Courthouse in Downtown Seattle. When we first moved, I actually walked a little further, risking missing my bus, to avoid standing at this bus stop. Despite being across from such a symbol of the law, the West side of Third between James and Yesler is a pretty rough block. I've learned how to board buses that can't actually pull up to the curb due to ambulances or police cars lining the block, because it happens with some frequency. I've seen more than a couple arrests, and have learned to keep my wits about me and avoid waiting at the stop alone, particularly if it's after dark.

It's (well deserved) reputation perhaps explains why the one little restaurant space on the block changes hands so often. As I've walked by it over the past couple years, I think I've seen it change 3 times or more, and have never seen it full of customers (though I'm usually not walking by at lunch time). I've never done it any favors myself, having not tried the food served by any of the previous tenants. And when the newest tenant took over the space and put up their signs, I was disappointed to see all the menu items were above my Frugal Friday threshold*, with curries and dals ranging from $5.95 to 7.95 before tax - a risky move given the comparable menu items at competitive pricing up the street.



It would appear other people were disappointed, too, because in the past few weeks some hand written signs have been posted advertising some new menu items - including a $3.99 (+ tax) Falafel Sandwich that I just couldn't pass up.



Despite the sometimes scary, usually dirty street outside, my experience was that Kabab House Indian Cuisine (at 521 Third Ave) is a spotlessly clean establishment, with lots of booth seating. At just $3.99, I was worried that the Falafel Sandwich would be small and I'd be left hungry. But I was pleasantly surprised when, after about a 3-5 minute wait, I was handed a bag containing a big, heavy sandwich. And was even more delighted when I opened it up back at my office and found a 9" roll long of pita bursting with around freshly made falafel, tomatoes, lettuce, and onion, and seasoned with a yogurt sauce and a spicy sauce (an option afforded to me when ordering). Besides being huge, the sandwich was really good, and the apparent quality of the ingredients perhaps explains the pricing structure on the other menu items. The thick cut slices of tomato were bright red, juicy, and seemed incredibly fresh, and the falafel was really pretty yellows and greens and browns from the mix of seasonings.

So do me a favor, and go grab a falafel sandwich from Kabab House, so maybe it'll stick around. Given that their menu describes them as "Seattle's Best Dining Experience", how could you not? They're also 100% Halal, in case that's a criteria relevant to your dining choices.



(*excluding a $2.50 soup, and sides like Naan and samosas.)

(Frugal Fridays is a weekly series dedicated to finding Seattle lunch spots where you can walk in with a $5 bill and walk out with a fulfilling, preferably healthy, lunch. If you have suggestions of places in the Seattle area with a great lunch for under $5 after tax, post a comment - I'd love the help.)

Lamb Kebabs & Couscous

They make a mean potato, and are incredibly friendly, but one of the other things we love about Olsen Farms is their Lamb Kebab meat.



Lamb seems like the perfect carnivorous celebration of the start of Spring, so we picked some up from Olsen Farms and put together a Moroccan inspired dinner tonight. I mixed up equal parts of cumin, coriander, fennel, mint, cloves, cinnamon, salt, and black pepper, and then rubbed it into the lamb meat before threading them onto skewers with chunks of yellow & red bell pepper and some red onion. I put that all on our indoor grill, and then got started on the couscous. I love that couscous takes just 5 minutes to prepare - but seem to forget about it as a quick and simply starch to add to any dish. I tossed the cooked couscous with some chopped tomato, cucumber, and yellow pepper before serving.

I loved how bright and colorful the plate was - perfect for our Spring celebration - and loved how juicy and flavorful the lamb was. I think we'll be eating lamb a lot while the season continues.

Baked Falafel Sandwiches

My office mate Marta shared with me a baked falafel recipe she found online, and Dan & I decided to try it out. She warned that the tahini sauce could use a little more flavor, so I added the zest of one lemon (a trick I read about in Ina Garten's latest cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics), and replaced most of the water with more lemon juice (a suggestion Marta gave me), with good results.

Although the falafel patties don't hold together as well as the ones we've made by frying patties made with a 'Fantastic Foods' brand falafel mix, they still brown up nicely and the flavor was noticably better. Plus, making the patties was actually faster, since there's no need to wait for a mix to rehydrate. The baking process (20 minutes on each side) does add time, but part of that is spent prepping the salad and tahini sauce, and I'll take waiting for something to bake over standing over a pan of hot oil any day.

Baked Falafel Sandwiches
Falafel:
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, preferably low-sodium, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tspn ground cumin
1/2 tspn ground coriander
1/2 tspn salt
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
1/4 cup parsley leaves
2 Tbspn olive oil

Tahini Sauce:
1/2 cup pure tahini paste (sesame paste)
3 Tbspn lemon juice
3 to 4 Tbspn water, plus more if necessary

Salad:
1 cup chopped romaine lettuce
2 (4-ounce) tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 1 cup)
1/2 medium cucumber, seeded, peeled and chopped (about 1 cup)
4 whole-wheat pita pocket breads, sliced open

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Combine all falafel ingredients except 1 tablespoon olive oil in the bowl of a food processor. Process for 10 seconds. Stop motor and scrape down sides of bowl, then pulse for another 10 seconds, until all ingredients are well incorporated but mixture is still slightly coarse and grainy. Form mixture into 16 falafel balls and brush with remaining tablespoon olive oil. Bake on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes, flip falafel balls and bake an additional 20 minutes, until falafel balls are crisp and browned.

Combine tahini, lemon juice and water and stir to incorporate, adding more water to achieve desired consistency. Reserve.

Toss together lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers in a bowl. Warm pita breads for 2 minutes in oven. Fill each pita with 3/4 cup salad, 4 falafel balls and 1/4 cup tahini sauce.

Falafel

Tonight was another quick meal we do pretty often: Falafel. Dan picked up pita, and hummus and falafel mixes at the store. He joked that the pita surely wasn't local... but when I checked it was made at a place in the Seattle area. Buying local without even trying.



To go with the pita, falafel and hummus, I cut up half of the cucumber from the salad the other night, opened a container of feta, a jar of kalamata olives, and a tub of tahini we had in the fridge, and paired it all with thin slices of the very first roma tomato from our garden - which was gorgeous and delicious.

Falafel & Hummus

The weather is still nice, but a little cooler, so we went ahead with Falafel tonight. I had a frustrating day at work where it seemed like I accomplished nothing, so it felt good to work in the kitchen and make something successful. I got a little silly with the plating, but it gave me a sense of accomplishment I lacked today. I served the falafel with cucumber slices, feta cubes, and a drizzle of tahini (along with pita pockets, of course), and paired it with some hummus and bagel chips.

Falafel

Tonight was another quick dinner - just some falafel & hummus made from mixes (just add water), some veggies (carrots, red & yellow bell peppers) to dip in the hummus, a cucumber/yogurt sauce with tomatoes, and pitas.

Krab Melts and Carrot Salad

Tonight it's Dan's turn to be under the weather, so I'm glad tonight's meal was another quick one, and something that he loves.

Last night, we made up the Moroccan Carrot Salad and put it in the fridge to marinate overnight. We couldn't find our usual ciabatta rolls at the store this time around, so we used hoagies. In light of that, I decided to forego the usual crumbling of the fake crab, and instead I just cut it into hot dog sized pieces, and layed them in the buns before loading on the jalapenos and cheese. I also used some leftover black olives on mine, to try something new. After that, I just threw it all under the broiler for a few minutes and served it up.

I also spent some time working on a little baking project, but I can't reveal what until Friday. It's a surprise!

(See previous post for recipes.)

Mediterranean Night!

In the same vein as Taco Night earlier in the week, tonight we had a 'mediterranean night'. We made up some falafel, and paired it with saffron cous cous, hummous, pita, cucumber, feta, tahini, and kalamata olives. It was a fairly low impact, but high flavor dinner. Though we ended up with WAY more food than we could eat.

Krab Melts and Carrot Salad

One of the joys of moving to our new house on Beacon Hill last fall is that we've been motivated to explore restaurants in the South end. Even when we were trying to find a new place, we used it as an excuse to try new restaurants in the areas we were thinking of moving to. One of the neighborhoods on our short list was Columbia City, and when we went to check it out, we ate at the Columbia City Ale House.

I can't recall what my fiance had that first time, but I ordered the delicious tuna melt (and have every time since). I liked it so much, we were inspired to do a melt of our own soon after. Instead of tuna, we decided to go with crab... or more accurately, krab. Oddly enough, I prefer fake crab to real crab. The brand we get is actually a mix of both whitefish meat and a bit of real crab, but it's at least 98% whitefish, so it hardly counts as real crab.

We've made these melts several ways (different breads, different cheeses, different cooking methods), but this was our most recent version. We paired it with a morroccan carrot salad that's quick and easy to make (another of our favorites). The salad keeps well, and is even better if you let it sit in the fridge overnight. It also makes a good dip or spread, if you blend it in the food processor.

Krab Melts
2 ciabatta rolls, sliced into buns
8 oz krab, crab, or a combination of both
4 slices Provolone cheese
Pickled Jalapenos
Butter spray

Set all four ciabatta roll pieces (2 tops and 2 bottoms) on a baking sheet with the cut side up. Place one slice of provolone on each bottom piece of ciabatta, then cover with crab meat, another slice of provolone, and then jalapenos. Spray the cut side of the ciabatta roll tops with butter spray. Place under broiler for a few minutes, until cheese is melted and bread is golden brown.

Morroccan Carrot Salad
6-7 carrots, sliced into rounds
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Bring water, with salt, to a boil. Add the carrot rounds to the pot. Boil for 8 minutes. Drain. Rinse under cold water. In a small bowl, mix lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, cumin and paprika.



(carrot salad from About.com)