The Yum Yum Factor

 When I spied this blog post on The Cook Who Knew Nothing, I knew I had to make it. It felt like a great excuse to try out some new ingredients like preserved lemons, pomegranate molasses and baharat spice which are all things that I think about buying but don't because I am not sure what to do with them. North African cuisine is still very unfamiliar to me and I am just really starting to learn about Middle Eastern food this year. There are enough familiar flavours in this food that it feels like something I know but, at the same time, with these kicks of either new tastes or new combinations of spices that I wouldn't normally put together. I can't wait to try this chermoula with some fish and perhaps next time, I will up the chili and make it a bit hotter but otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing at this point. The chicken was just as good over the next couple of days either over rice or in a pita as a sort of shwarma like sandwich with some tahini sauce, pickled ...

I made these incredible toasts from Not Without Salt last night and I ended up with half a baguette's worth of toasted bread left since The Kid didn't come home for dinner. I kept staring at them all day, wondering what to do with them when I thought "fattoush!" I just got myself the cookbook, Jerusalem, and after reading it cover to cover I am mildly obsessed with all things middle eastern right now. I often find myself walking down the street and "fattoush!" will just pop into my head and I have to run home and open Jerusalem and read it a bit to calm myself down.

My son really, really loves tzatziki and can easily go through a huge tub of it in a day or two. I often buy it at my favourite Greek market, where they make the yogurt and the tzatziki themselves but when I can't get there, I make it myself. Greek yogurt isn't always easy to find in the supermarket and it's often really expensive when you do find it so I was pretty thrilled to find out that Loblaws has finally come out with it's own PC brand greek yogurt. I tried to buy it for three days in a row and my local Loblaws was totally sold out but I finally found two containers at another store and bought them both. I ate the first container as my morning breakfast for a week, adding a big dollop to a bowl of fresh fruit with a drizzle of honey and a big spoonful of mixed seeds (chia, flax and pumpkin mostly). It's very good, very thick and tart and although, it's not as fabulous as the stuff I get at the greek market, it is certainly good enough for the times th...