• About
  • Blogs and Sites I Like
  • Buy my book-Makes a great gift!
  • Cooking Classes
  • Favorite Cookbooks–A Work in Progress
  • Favorite Quotes–Old and New
  • Recipes I Wish I’d Written
  • Things to Read, Study, Know, Or See
  • Wine

More Time at the Table

~ Cooking with Alyce Morgan

More Time at the Table

Monthly Archives: July 2014

Israeli Couscous Salad

28 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by More Time at the Table in Couscous, Greek Salad, Israeli Couscous, Salads

≈ 4 Comments

In the heat of the summer when tomatoes are lush and warm and cucumbers are cheap and numerous, I make a lot of Greek salads.  Sometimes there are lovely smoky hot peppers  and other times a few clean, green bell peppers suffice.  Feta makes an appearance if I have it.  Leftover salmon or chicken might get thrown in.

The other day I saw something somewhere about Israeli salad and, while it’s similar to traditional “Greek” salad, it has lots of lemon and often includes mint and/or other fresh herbs.  When I read the words, “Israeli salad,” I just had to have some.  I like mine with cheese, but many people also add nuts or seeds. Some never add cheese so that the salad is pareve–doesn’t contain dairy or meat– or so that it’s vegan.   Whichever way you choose, I think you’ll be happy and full.

My favorite little bit about Israeli salad (which is served at many meals in Israel including breakfast) comes from legendary blogger David Lebovitz, who had Israeli food writer Maya Marom write a guest post about the salad after his return to Paris from a trip to Israel.  Maya tells us there just aren’t any rules about making the salad as far as ingredients go:

The very bare essentials – which are, just like everything else in Israel, up for discussion – are cucumbers, tomatoes, and onion. The rest is up to your liking, and the amount of chopping patience you have. Just a handful of raw vegetables, finely chopped (“dak dak”) and well-dressed (just olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice), will make a tasty bowlful of goodness. Great as a side, or on its own as a light meal.
The only rule of chopped salad is this: There are no rules. Use whatever vegetables you can find. It doesn’t really matter which kinds you put in, as long as they’re fresh, well chopped, and at room temperature. (Vegetables straight from the fridge tend to taste a little dull).
.

You can also look at–the photos are great– (or read if you read Hebrew) Maya’s blog here.

My own version of the salad, which often is made larger or fuller with the addition of fresh greens like spinach or arugula, includes Israeli couscous (pearl couscous), which is a very quick cooking small, round pasta that looks a bit like large tapioca.  If I have fresh fish like tuna (see cook’s notes), I grill it, slice it, and add  it on top with another big spritz of lemon.  For a dinner party, a large platter of the salad with a few sliced grilled fish fillets (or poached shrimp if, like me, you don’t keep kosher) is an easy main that can mostly be made ahead.  Serving it at room temperature means you can sit and have a glass of wine with your friends instead of standing at the stove or grill.   The leftover salad makes for great, healthy lunches or is perfect stuffed in pita.  Do taste and re-season if you serve it the next day as you would any refrigerated dish.  This particular bowlful contained fresh oregano as well as parsley only because it was that or sage, which didn’t scan for me.

Since this makes a significant amount of food, remember you can halve it.  My advice, however, is to invite a few friends and share this meal.

ISRAELI COUSCOUS SALAD
6-8 servings   See notes for GF and vegan versions, as well as an idea for adding grilled tuna.

  • 1 cup uncooked Israeli (pearl) couscous
  • 1 1/4 cups boiling water
  • Olive oil
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
  • 2 English cucumbers, diced
  • 3 small tomatoes, seeded and diced (cut in half and squeeze seeds out; chop rest)
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, reserve a bit for garnish
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
  • 4 green onions, minced (green and white parts)
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
  • 1/3 cup chopped feta cheese, reserve a bit for garnish
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
  • Juice of one lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
  • Crushed red pepper
Into a medium pan, pour the boiling water over the Israeli (or pearl) couscous and bring to a boil.  Lower heat, cover, and simmer about eight minutes or until tender.  Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Leave uncovered and set aside to cool a bit.
..
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together the cucumbers, tomatoes, fresh herbs, peppers, onions, garlic, feta, and lemon peel.  Add the couscous and mix.   Drizzle lemon juice over everything, season well with a generous pinch crushed red pepper, kosher salt and pepper, and stir well.  (Begin with about 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper and add more if needed.)  Drizzle with about 3 tablespoons olive oil and mix thoroughly.  Taste, re-season, and serve at room temperature.  Good cold for the next day or two for a leftover lunch.
..
Cook’s Notes: GF? Make rice instead of couscous  VEGAN? Leave out feta for vegan version.  ADD TUNA? To quickly grill tuna, heat stove-top grill or heavy skillet over high heat. Firmly place canola oiled, salted and peppered tuna fillets in hot pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on one side.  Turn and cook another 2-3 minutes on the other side.  They should still be quite pink in the center.  Let them rest a few minutes and then slice thinly at an angle.  4 ounces of fish, along with a big serving of the salad should be plenty for each person.
..
WINE:  I liked an Oregon chardonnay with this; it stood up to the tuna, if making. Try Chehelam or Bethel Heights.  If you make your salad quite spicy, see about an off-dry Riesling (the higher the alcohol %, the drier the Riesling–) from Washington, New York, or Germany.
..
{printable recipe}
…
Have fun cooking and taking care of yourself,
Alyce

Steak and Blue Cheese Chopped Salad on the Deck with the Dogs

23 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by More Time at the Table in Beef, Salads

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Gabby and Tucker

IMG_6369Perhaps you have no leftover steak from grilling a night or two before.  But I hope you do.
IMG_6373Perhaps you don’t have dogs, but I hope you do.

IMG_6363If by chance you have both, and even if you’re a cat person, you should make a Steak and Blue Cheese Chopped Salad.  For 2. Or double it for 4. Continue reading →

Grilled Eggplant-Potato Salad with Homemade Spicy Basil Mayonnaise a la Daniel Boulud

17 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by More Time at the Table in Gluten-Free, Potato Salad, Salads

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Daniel Boulud, Eggplant, Mayonnaise

IMG_6308

If it’s past our anniversary, which for 40 years has appeared each Bastille Day, it’s past the middle of July. That’s pretty late in the season to have not yet had one bite of potato salad.  Late yesterday afternoon, opening and closing the fridge door like a teenager hoping to find something new since the last time I looked, I couldn’t think of something to have with leftover burgers.  (I like leftover burgers nearly better than fresh.) The weather was not helpful:  60 degrees and 60 mph winds with hard rain and hail did away with idea of grilling anything.  I knew I needed to use a quickly aging eggplant and of course there were eggs.  In the vegetable basket were onions and naturally potatoes.  A big bunch of basil drooped unhappily on the counter.  I drooped, too.  Our youngest had been home for a few days for a family wedding and for our anniversary.  She had left that morning.

IMG_6255

Continue reading →

Cook the Book — Last Week — Tomato-Carrot Soup with Feta

15 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by More Time at the Table in Gluten-Free, Soups, Soups & Sides for Every Season, Tomato Soup, Tomatoes

≈ 1 Comment

100_4556

(Above:  Soup is easily vegan without the feta garnish.)

This is the last week I’ll  feature a recipe from my new book, Soups & Sides for Every Season (click HERE to order).   Make the recipe, photograph it, email the pic to me:  soupsandsides@gmail.com.   If yours is the first email with a recipe photo I receive, I’ll mail you a book!  Don’t forget to include your snail mail address in the email as well as any adjustments you made to the recipe.  Now get “cooking!”  I can’t wait to hear from you.

My first for-real book signing is Saturday, July 19 (11am – 1 pm) at Aspen Kitchens and Design Studio here in Colorado Springs:  5134 North Nevada Ave. Colorado Springs, 80918 –University Village Complex. I’ll have a few books with me, but you still have time to buy one and bring it!  There may even be some soup or something else to taste.  Come see!  Next up is Shouse Appliances at Academy and Austin Bluffs; date tba.  There’ll be some cooking going on at Shouse, of course.

Soup Book-Cover final

Continue reading →

Cook the Book — Two More Weeks — Grilled Peaches or Figs with Cheese, Honey, Thyme, and Black Pepper

10 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by More Time at the Table in Dessert, Desserts, Gluten-Free, Soups & Sides for Every Season

≈ 2 Comments

d88b0383e611500352445f7838e44875

For the next two weeks, I’ll at some time during each week feature one recipe from my new book, Soups & Sides for Every Season (click HERE to order).   Make the recipe, photograph it, email the pic to me:  soupsandsides@gmail.com.   If yours is the first email with a recipe photo I receive, I’ll mail you a book!  Don’t forget to include your snail mail address in the email as well as any adjustments you made to the recipe.  Now get “cooking!”  I can’t wait to hear from you.

My first for-real book signing is Saturday, July 19 (11am – 1 pm) at Aspen Kitchens and Design Studio here in Colorado Springs:  5134 North Nevada Ave. Colorado Springs, 80918 –University Village Complex. I’ll have a few books with me, but you still have time to buy one and bring it!  There may even be some soup or something else to taste.  Come see!

If you haven’t had a chance to look at the book yet, it’s a soft covered paperback, 174 pages, and was a more than two-year effort that included a wonderful team:  Patricia Miller, editor; Amanda Weber, designer; Daniel Craig, artist; and Drew Robinson, CS, sommelier.  I had a dedicated team of testers and they’re all listed in the acknowledgment section. Continue reading →

Ina Fridays — Desserts — Classic Cheesecake for the Fourth of July

04 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by More Time at the Table in Uncategorized

≈ 11 Comments


IMG_6084

The first Friday of the month, I group-blog Ina Garten recipes with a great group of writer cooks. Scroll down for more info and to click on the links for more desserts.  Come back August 1 for Ina Fridays appetizers!

I’m a glutton for making cheesecake.  One cheesecake, actually.  If your husband was as crazy about one particular cheesecake as is mine, you’d make it, too.  If you were crazy about your husband, that is.  And I am.  That’s not to say he doesn’t drive me out of my mind occasionally; he does.  Did this last Monday, in fact. (Insert huge scream and multiple #$*%7## words.)  But if God is good — and God is good, for us, anyway — I always seem to get past the odd supremely irritated moment (hour, week) and fall back in love with him.  Or at least stay in the house.

621f4-img_02081 Here’s the sweet couple loving it up on vacation last year.  We never fight on vacation, though there’s the occasional morning where I say, “I’m going to pool.  I’ll see you at lunch.”  I don’t swim.  (Not anymore, anyway.) Continue reading →

Cook the Book — Three More Weeks! + Alyce’s Blueberry Muffins

01 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by More Time at the Table in Blueberry Muffins, Muffins, Soups & Sides for Every Season

≈ 5 Comments


IMG_5670
For the next three weeks, I’ll at some time during each week feature one recipe from my new book, Soups & Sides for Every Season (click HERE to order).   Make the recipe, photograph it, email the pic to me:  soupsandsides@gmail.com.   If yours is the first email with a recipe photo I receive, I’ll mail you a book!  Don’t forget to include your snail mail address in the email as well as any adjustments you made to the recipe.  Now get “cooking!”  I can’t wait to hear from you.

If you haven’t had a chance to look at the book yet, it’s a soft covered paperback, 174 pages, and was a more than two-year effort that included a wonderful team:  Patricia Miller, editor; Amanda Weber, designer; Daniel Craig, artist; and Drew Robinson, CS, sommelier.  I had a dedicated team of testers and they’re all listed in the acknowledgment section.

The book itself is divided into seven chapters:  one soup chapter for each season, and then one each for Breads and Spreads, Salads and Fast Sides, and, saving the last for best, Desserts.  Today’s recipe comes from the Breads and Spreads chapter and is an original blueberry muffin recipe that was developed literally at the last minute before publication when the recipe planned just didn’t work out.  It was a mad scramble to work out another muffin recipe and to test it at altitude, at sea level, and in between.  Great thanks to Mary Ellen Harm (Boston), who tested and reported back via Facebook, Continue reading →

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Tags

Addie Asparagus Barley Beef Black Beans blueberries Cherries Cherry Pie Chicken Christmas Cinco de Mayo Colcannon Darina Allen Easter Eggs fennel Fish Fridays France French Style Friday Fish Gluten-Free Gluten-Free and Vegan Thanksgiving Grilling Kids Labor Day Leeks Leftovers Lent Lentils Meatless Mondays Memorial Day Olathe Sweet Corn Festival Potatoes Pot Roast Rosie Rosie and Tucker salmon Sheet Pan Meals Soups Sue Hall Super Bowl Tacos Thanksgiving Tortellini Tuna Valentine's Day Vegan Vegetarian wild rice Wine Group
Follow More Time at the Table on WordPress.com

Alyce’s Cookbook–Click on book to order!

Like this blog on Facebook!

Like this blog on Facebook!

Recent Posts

  • Italian-Style Braised Leg of Lamb
  • Spring Elk Stew
  • Chicken-Cauliflower Chowder
  • Friday Fish: More Time’s Top 10 Salmon Recipes
  • Friday Fish: Instant Pot Salmon and Asparagus Risotto with Lemon

Most popular categories

38 Healthiest Ingredients apples Beef Breads Breakfast Brunch Cheese Chicken Christmas Cookies Cooking for 1 or 2 Desserts Eggs Fall Fish and Seafood Fruit Gluten-Free Ina Fridays Main course Pasta Pork Potatoes Salad dressings Salads Salmon Soup Soups Soups/Stews St. Patrick's Day Summer Thanksgiving Tomatoes Uncategorized Vegan Vegan and Gluten-Free Vegetables Vegetable Soup Vegetarian Vegetarian Soups Winter

Archives

  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009

A few favorite quotes:

“There he got out the luncheon-basket and packed a simple meal, in which, remembering the stranger's origin and preferences, he took care to include a yard of long French bread, a sausage out of which the garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and cried, and a long-necked straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled sunshine shed and garnered on far Southern slopes.”
― Kenneth Grahame, THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
~~~~~~
The Sacred by Marilyn Sewell

The sacred is not in the sky, the place of transcendent, abstract principle, but rather is based on this earth, in the ordinary dwelling places of our lives, in our gardens and kitchens and bedrooms. And it is no less present in our places of protest, the streets and public halls and institutions where we express our outrage at the reckless squandering of the life that is one. The sacred is fueled by eros, by desire. It is about passion. And compassion. And love. Always love. Love over and over and over again, love.

Source- CRIES OF THE SPIRIT
-----

"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone's soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.
― Rumi
------

"The secret sauce is the right mix of friends,” Mr. Buettner said.

And as each course arrived (the Icarian stew claiming its rich, flavor-deep place as an obvious showstopper), Mr. Buettner called attention to a last point about the Blue Zones: that in longevity idylls like Icaria, it’s not just about what you eat, but how you eat, and how much you and your friends enjoy a meal together.

“Dan, do any of the Blue Zones people eat kale salad?” Mr. Solomon asked.

“No,” Mr. Buettner replied. “They eat food that they enjoy.”

--My Dinner With Longevity Expert Dan Buettner (No Kale Required) By JEFF GORDINIER NYT: AUG. 1, 2015

Pages

  • About
  • Blogs and Sites I Like
  • Buy my book-Makes a great gift!
  • Cooking Classes
  • Favorite Cookbooks–A Work in Progress
  • Favorite Quotes–Old and New
  • Recipes I Wish I’d Written
  • Things to Read, Study, Know, Or See
  • Wine

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel