Chayote Squash Slivered and Pan-cooked

Chayote squash is quite watery and almost bland, so, it lends itself to a variety of treatments. I like it cooked up as a spicy side, or a blandish koottu, either way, it is great with rice and roti.

Mandolin slicer is one of my favorite kitchen tools, as long as I can make sure bits of my fingers don't end up with the sliced vegetables :) This recipe again just came about as I had Ras al Hanout handy and was getting addicted to its flavor...

Ingredients
2 chayote squash, peeled, julienned
1 small yellow onion, sliced thinly
½ to 1 Tbsp Ras al Hanout, adjust to taste
salt to taste
1 Tbsp canola oil

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a pan, add the chayote squash matchsticks, sprinkle some salt and Ras al Hanout, stir well, cover and cook for a bit till chayote squash softens
2. Since chayote squash is full of water, no extra water is needed to cook this; remove lid and pan fry to desired dryness

Home-garden Radish Tops Dal

We harvested the white radishes from our garden. I didn't have the heart to throw away the radish tops/greens, so, decided to make a soupy dal out of it.

These are fairly bitter greens, so, adjust flavors to taste - I added lemon juice and brown sugar to balance and round out the bitterness, and some tomatoes. Plus, Ras al Hanout was handy, so, I added a generous amount of it to give this dal a unique flavor.

The dal recipe is not very different from my Kohlrabi dal recipe, except, I was low on moong dal, so, I used just a cup of dal for about 6 cups of chopped radish greens.

Mock Kibbeh with Ras al Hanout

This recipe is again inspired by Kibbeh recipe in Moorish by Lucy and Greg Malouf. Kibbeh is traditionally made with lamb, but since we don't eat lamb, I decided to make it with chickpeas. In that sense this is more of a glorified falafel than a kibbeh :)

Essentially, this is an ordinary pan-fried patty. However, I had made a batch of Ras al Hanout, a Moroccan spice mix from the same book, and liked it a lot, so, was looking for ways to incorporate it in my cooking.

Ras al Hanout is sort of like Indian Garam masala blend of spices, sometimes having up to 30 ingredients some of which are exotic and hard to find. But, this recipe in the book presented a humbler version and I had all the ingredients needed for it. I did adjust the flavors a bit after the first batch which turned out a bit overpowering for my taste, so this is not an authentic spice blend.

Ingredients for Ras al Hanout:
4 Tbsp cumin seeds
4 Tbsp coriander seeds
2 Tbsp whole black pepper
6 cardamom pods
1 Tbsp fennel seeds
2 Tbsp sweet paprika powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 Tbsp cayenne pepper powder
1 Tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp allspice powder

Preparation

1. Toast the first five ingredients lightly till aromatic, allow to cool a bit
2. Combine all the ingredients and grind to a fine powder, allow to cool completely and store in an air tight container

For mock kibbeh, the texture of the mixture makes it retain its structural integrity, else it falls apart easily or gets dense. I've varied the ingredients a bit each time I've made it and it has all turned out okay so far. Adjust the ingredients below to suit your tastes.

Ingredients
½ cup cooked chick peas, drained and crushed to paste
3-4 Tbsp fine cornmeal, or tabbouleh mix if handy
1-2 shallots minced finely
1 Tbsp Ras al Hanout
salt to taste
2 Tbsp olive oil
water as needed
some buckwheat flour or all-purpose flour, as needed, to bind

4-8 Tbsp canola oil for pan-cooking the patty

Preparation

1. Combine the ingredients for the patty, knead it well so it can hold its shape; if not, refrigerate for about 30-45 minutes before pan-frying
2. Heat some oil in a pan, cook the patties on both sides till well done on the inside; I usually "sacrifice" one patty - cut it open to see if it is done
3. Allow to cool a bit before serving
4. Drawing inspiration from Lucy & Greg's recipe, I serve it here with some salad made with mesclun greens from our garden

cous cous with eggplant-squash tagine

Cous Cous accompanied by some spicy tagine (vegetable stew, no meat here) is a favorite meal at home. My wee one seems to like cous cous a lot, except she likes to call it cous cous rice, as rice happens to one of her favorites.

If handy, I sometimes add wheat-meat cut up into bite-sized chunks to the tagine.

To add to the series on Various Ways To Use Up Squash From Last Year, this tagine recipe uses eggplant, squash and tomatoes as the main vegetables. But, any other favorite vegetable combination can be used for the tagine/stew.

Ingredients

flavoring spices:
1 Tbsp cumin powder
2 Tbsp coriander powder
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp all-spice powder
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

for the tagine:
4-6 cups veggies:
eggplant, squash, tomatoes, diced
4-6 garlic cloves minced
2 Tbsp grated ginger
4 Tbsp tomato paste
cilantro for garnish


1 cup whole wheat cous cous, cooked and fluffed

Preparation

heat oil in a pan, add the onions, ginger, garlic, tomato paste and a pinch of salt, and sauté a bit; then add the spice powders and allow them to bloom

add the diced squash, eggplant, and tomatoes, cover and let it cook, adding a little water if needed; let it simmer till veggies are cooked through but not mushy; taste and adjust spices if needed

off heat, garnish with cilantro and serve warm with cous cous.