Eight Ball and Corn Fritters

I have these images of 'Indianized' zucchini and corn fritters for awhile now. I have experimented with them for Passover, back in March, with Matza (unleavened bread) which proved to be a disaster. The nagging of the images and the fantasy of the flavor kept me unsettled so I went to Whole Foods to pick up some fresh corn and zucchini where I bumped into Eight Ball and Baby Boo (see recipe for Baby Boo from previous post here).

Stuffed Baby Boo!!

Please see a story to this Baby Boo in the next post (coming soon)  but for now I would like to introduce to you to the white baby squash named Baby Boo.  It does not have much flesh which makes it perfect for roasting and stuffing without much wasting. It's edible and if you want to impress your guests and family when you have them over or just make your everyday meal at home more festive it makes for a beautiful and elegant presentation. 

Curried Wheat Berry Salad

This salad seems sort of like a wheat berry twist to Indian (rice) Biryani. It's easier to prepare and keeps for a few days for a healthy snack or lunch on the run.  I also like to make a large batch so when a friend drops by I give them a tasting as we chat. At this moment the wheat berry is my favorite of all the grains who made a comeback. This particular recipe reminds me of Indian fare but also North African wheat berry Hamin and Eastern European Cholent dishes, cooked on low heat oven, overnight, with chuck meat, beans or chickpeas and eggs in their shells. 

Quinoa - An Ancient Grain from the Andeans to the Mediterranean

From what started as a Mediterranean BBQ somehow I ended up with Quinoa.  Something about the ancient grain like felt right to fit right in with the Mediterranean fare. With added halved grapes, after all, the grapevine was domesticated in Turkey and is one of the seven fruits and grains of the Holy Land. It gave the salad a Mediterranean twist. To accentuate its Andean mountains, South American origin I used Agave instead of Maple syrup or honey for the vinaigrette and lime. Although I had both Agave and Quinoa while dining out, both were firsts in my kitchen this past weekend.  For a natural sweetener Agave is just different from Maple syrup or honey, probably a matter of a habit and an acquired taste.

In Season: Airy Apricot Cake and GO-GO-EEM

Jacks, remember that game?! Well in Israel we have, not quite the same, but similar game, with five small metal cubes called five stones HA-MESH-AVANIM חמש אבנים.  When we didn't have the five metal cubes or lost one, we would use the pits of the apricot for the game.  We called the pits and the game GO-GO-EEM גוגואים.  I was very good at it, but my aunt who was only a couple of years older than I was the best at it.  When we visited my grandmother, after few miles of walking in the heat, in a neighborhood known to house the town's cemetery, we would go downstairs, to the yard outside, for a tourney and championship rounds.  When I say yard, these were tiny government apartments, the yard is not your private landscaped yard just a piece of barren dirt outside the building with maybe some surviving grass patches, but mostly sand. Nurit my aunt always outlasted us all. She was the undeclared champion. Just imagine an immigrant neighborhood of three story buildings mostly comprised of Moroccans and Indian Jews and sporadic Romanian Jew here and there. I remember because one of the Romanian Jewish boys had a crush on another aunt of mine and was chased quickly and swiftly away with a broom by my grandmother.