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Recipes Page 

Hot Brussel Sprout Salad | Stoned Flatbread | Hot Swiss Chard Soup | Cauliflower Schmedley Cream Soup Concentrate | Hot Carrot Salad | Peasant Vichysoisse |  Hearty Bean with Unbacon Soup |  Ultra Herb Bread | Spanakopita in Filo Pastry | (Hold the Rum) Rose Fudge | Herb Teas | Exceptionally Tangy Herbed Sauce for Stuffed Grapevine Leaves | Nutty Banana Cranberry Cake


Hot Brussel Sprout Salad

For the salad, trim and boil about 15 Brussel Sprouts

You'll need:

  • Small jar of pickled artichokes
  • two ounces of feta cheese
  • a handful of walnuts or crushed, oven-roasted almonds
  • a one inch slice of watermelon, cubed
  • a medium sized cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 tbsp Balsam vinegar
  • capful to 1 1/2 of Orange Flower Water (Neroli)
  • Kosh salt, black pepper


how to:

Make ready, separately, all of the other ingredients while you boil the brussel sprouts, making sure to trim the stem end of each sprout with a cross, and to peel any blemished leaves away.
While the brussel sprouts are boiling, prepare the salad dressing.Mix 4 tbsp olive oil with 4 tbsp of Balsam vinegar, season and stir or shake.

When the sprouts are tender but not mushy and still bright green, drain and slice each in half. Place these, while hot, into a salad bowl and toss with cheese, fruit, nuts, vegetables and artichokes.

Coat and toss the salad with the dressing, then sprinkle the orange flower water over this and toss for a moment. Serve immediately!

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Nutty Banana - Cranberry Cake

First, you need Leftover Cranberry Sauce

  • 1/2 a bag of cranberries
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar, heaped
  • 1 tablespoon butter or non-cholesterol margarine
  • 1/2 cap natural Vanilla extract
  • zest of half a fresh lemon or orange
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon
  • spring water to cover

Clean cranberries and place into a medium saucepan. Add all other ingredients, and barely cover with spring water. Bring to a brisk boil and keep boiling for five minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool. It will gel into a conserve textured sauce. What is important now is that you enjoy this sauce fresh with your main meal. But you might have leftovers. Instead of tossing the rest, try adding the sauce to a cake. It makes the texture very moist and the flavour is very enriched. When I added only three or four tablespoons of cranberry sauce to my nutty cake, it was so good that I thought I would pass it on...

For the Cake you will need:

  • 2 overripe bananas
  • 1/4 cup of prepared fresh cranberry sauce
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup Canola Oil or Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • about two cups of pastry flour, unbleached
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
  • Kosher baking powder, barely one flat teaspoon
  • Baking Soda, barely one flat teaspoon
  • pinch of Kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1/4 cup sliced almonds
  • A tiny bit of milk or orange juice to moisten, if necessary



To Prepare:

Mash and then whisk the overripe bananas very well with 1/4 cup of fresh cranberry sauce. Add the oil and sugar, and beat with a large spoon, about one minute.
In a separate bowl, mix the baking powder, soda and spices together with the flour. Add the 2 cups of flour mixture bit by bit, taking care to not add so much that the batter becomes a tough dough. If the batter seems a bit sticky, just add a tiny amount like a teaspoon of milk or juice, until you have a regular cake consistency.
Add the chopped walnuts and mix in well. To the top of the cake, add the sliced almonds. Spread these consistently all over the top, but don't press them in.
You can make this cake (and it will rise nicely) without any eggs, milk, salt, or bad cholesterol, if you want. It will rise perfectly and stay very moist.
Oil or spray Pam your cake pan, and set the stove temperature to 300 degrees Fahreheit. I used a loaf pan for this one.
It seems like a little too long, but wait 20 minutes while your cake is baking at 300 degrees. Testing it after this time, you will find that a toothpick or clean knife will come out a bit sticky with cake.

Raise the temperature at this point to the regular 350 degrees, bake for five minutes more and test the cake again. If the knife comes out cleanly, the cake should be done, but you might have to try again in a few minutes, depending upon the size of your bananas and the amount of liquids in your leftover cranberry sauce. Baking at a surprisingly low temperature (at first) assures you that you will not have burned almond slices on the top of your cake, and it conserves the moist quality of its fruits. As well, the texture of this cake is very firm, but moist, making it easy to slice and storeable at room temperature for some days.




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Stoned Flatbread

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Try not to munch through this whole recipe by yourself, when it is fresh from the oven. It is a whole pie pastry recipe, converted with oil , fruit and spices to a quick snack pita cracker. You could use this for a savoury pie crust.

I am adding this flatbread recipe because it cleared my head and gave me a lot of instant energy. Stoned!


  • 1 1/2 to 1 2/3 cups of Nutri Flour Blend (finely ground wheat flour and wheat bran)
  • 1 tsp powdered cumin
  • 4 tbsp Kikkoman Ponzu (Citron-seasoned soya sauce)
  • 1/3 cup Canola or Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1/4 tsp Louisiana hot sauce
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 3 tbsp golden raisins, chopped finely


Set oven heat to 425 F.
Pour oil, hot sauce and Ponzu into a medium sized bowl, and add the flour, cumin and salt.
Chop together with a pastry cutter or a fork. Add some water until the dough is a soft, pliable round.
Spread the pastry onto a floured board. If you use a pastry sheet, which is flexible, you will have less trouble making very thin crackers, and in lifting the frail pastry onto the cookie sheet.
Roll the pastry until very thin, as thin as possible.
Melt a rounded tablespoon of margarine or butter and add about one flat teaspoon of garlic salt. Mix together well
Turn onto a cookie sheet and carefully brush the top of the cracker pastry, covering most of the pastry.
Sprinkle more garlic salt over the top of all of the flatbread pastry.
Bake at 450 until the edges start to brown (about 8 minutes) and then reduce oven heat to 350 F.
Bake the crackers until they are well-browned and hard.
Cool the crackers and break into irregular pieces.

Very nice spread with margarine or butter, cool party fare with a sour cream dip.


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Hot Swiss Chard Soup

Add 2 tea eggs, packed with fresh herbs: Rosemary and Lemon Thyme, to the vegetables listed below, then Season with a little black pepper and/or kosher salt to taste.

Bring briefly to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium low.

Simmer in a bubbling state for an hour and a half, to reduce the ingredients.

Sieve all ingredients after this through a large size coarse sieve, to extract peels, skins and strings.

Place the slightly textured mash back onto the heat for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil 5 - 6 small new potatoes, partly peeled for any imperfections, but leave some of the good nourishing potato skin.

Add 2 ounces of shredded skim milk Mozzarella,making sure that it melts in, or use, alternatively, a cup to 1 1/2 cups of light cream (5%)to the vegetable puree.

  • 2 12 inch swiss chard plants
  • 1 handful of fresh raspberries
  • 1 tbsp of Rasberry vinaigrette
  • 2 medium carrots
  • 1 medium yellow onion
  • 3-10 garlic cloves
  • 2/3 cup Roasted Red Pepper dip (a Cedar product, canned in glass jars)
  • 1/2 cup cauliflower
  • 1 very large scarlet runner bean (or, about ten green beans)
  • 1 tbsp lima beans
  • 3 tablespoons green peas
  • 1/2 cup golden cherry tomatoes (or one large yellow burpless tomato; nb: cherry tomates are sweeter)
  • 1 medium red tomato (a sandwich tomato, like Early Girl)
  • 1 heaped tbsp of chili pepper sauce
  • 5-6 dashes of Louisiana hot sauce

Then, after you have removed both potatos and soup puree from the heat, add half the potatoes and half of the cream soup together into a blender (food processor). Whiz these together on puree setting, pour back into a saucepan, and repeat with the next half of the soup.


Add half to one tin of black beans and heat for a couple of minutes. Serve.


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Make Cauliflower Schmedley!


A Home Made Cream Soup Concentrate!

Definition of Schmedley:
A medley of vegetables that is not just shcrumptious, but schmushed.

<Now is the time to purchase enormous, perfect, creamy Cauliflowers, and at a reasonable cost!  To make some really good use of these, and other plentiful Harvest time vegetables, why not pack away some smaller containers of condensed soup in your freezer?

Ingredients:

  1. 3 or 4 cups Spring water
  2. 1/4 of a large, fresh Cauliflower, including its' greens
  3. 1 medium carrot, peeled
  4. 1/2 Spanish onion, chopped
  5. 1 small Elephant garlic clove, and its greens, chopped (about the size of a plump shallot)
  6. 1/2 cup Broccoli tops
  7. 2 tbsp baby Lima Beans (frozen)
  8. 3/4 cup frozen green peas
  9. 1 medium red tomato, seeded and chopped.
  10. 10 golden Cherry Tomatos, or a large burpless golden tomato
  11. 1/2 cup squash (about one quarter of a squash) chopped, leaving the skin on (If you like, blanch the squash skin briefly, before adding this to the soup base,by dropping the pieces into boiling water for 30 seconds.)
  12. 4-5 dashes of Lousiana hot sauce
  13. Black pepper, to taste
  14. 3 (or more) small potatos, about three inches round.
  15. 1/2 cup of Half and Half cream
Preparation:

Blanch the squash pieces, and prepare the cauliflower, broccoli and carrot.
Bring about four cups of Spring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce the heat to low medium, and boil the first four ingredients for ten minutes, then add peas, onion, garlic, lima beans and tomatoes .
 Let this simmer (a softly bubbling boil) on medium low heat for one hour.

 In the meantime, just before you remove the pan from the stove, peel and chop the potatoes.You can leave some of the new potato skin on, if you like it.
When the vegetables are very soft, pour the soup through a wide, coarse sieve, and press all vegetable material through it. The tough parts or skins of the squash, garlic and tomatoes will be left. About half a cup of vegetable matter gets thrown out, when you are finished).
 
Pour all of the vegetable broth back into the saucepan, on medium low. Add the Louisiana hot sauce and black pepper. Add the chopped potatoes, and let this simmer until the potato is soft enough to mash.
 Turn off the stove element, and pour half of the vegetable broth, plus cooked potato into a blender.
 Add 1/4 cup of half and half cream. You can sub with almond cream if you do not like Dairy.
Blend on the lowest setting for 20 seconds, click the blender off, and blend for 20 seconds more on the highest setting. Pour into a lidded plastic container, and repeat, pouring the second half of the soup and potatos into the blender, adding another quarter cup of cream.

 Depending upon how many potatoes you have cooked in the vegetable broth, you have made an extendable vegetable-cream concentrate, which you can store in the freezer, two servings at a time.


I use the four inch square tubs that are about one and a half inches deep.

 With three potatoes, your concentrate will be perfect for two large soup servings (per tub) if you add a half cup of 2% milk to the concentrate, before heating.

 Take care, as you would with any cream soup, to stir often, and not to use too high a temperature for your element. If you have added five potatoes, you will need to simmer these for longer, on lower heat, and stir fairly often, since the potatoes might stick.

 I would add 3/4 cup of milk to one tub of 5 spud soup, before heating and serving.

Whatever thickness you wish to make, save one tub in the fridge for two full bowls of fresh soup and freeze the other.

 To pack away more for winter months, expand the recipe to a whole Cauliflower, four garlic stems, forty cherry tomatoes,  ...etc, and add to a giant pot.
 This recipe makes a mild but very comfortable Cauliflower cream soup, with the schmedliest blend of fine vegetable taste. It is rich and satisfying, while remaining complementary to the entree. It is a whole meal for lunch with toast- delicious! For some variety (and extra protein necessary for a highly digestible whole meal) melt a cup of shredded Cheddar cheese into the soup when the potatoes are nearly done,and then blend with the cream.

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Hot Carrot Salad

A Coleslaw Salad


  • One large, wide, nine inch carrot,or two medium
  • A one inch wedge of purple onion
  • Four medium radishes, trimmed.
  • an inch, peeled, of fresh ginger root
  • One peeled golden apple
  • Two dried, pitted dates, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
  • Half a teaspoon of Tomato Ranch dip mix
  • Sour cream
  • Dash of Balsamic Vinegar


Add the fresh vegetables, including the ginger root into a food processor, using the shred mechanism, or grate all ingredients.
Chop the dates individually; they will not shred in the processor.
When the mixture of vegetables is prepared (under two minutes time) add the tomato ranch dried herb ingredients, and also the dates. Then toss this all with a dash of Balsamic vinegar. Add a good amount (1/3 of a cup, or to taste, of sour cream and blend very well, by hand. Chill and serve.

The next day, you will be delighted if you add a good heaped serving of your salad to a sandwich. Mine had vegitarian deli slices, and I added slices of yellow and red pepper to snap it up. Spicey, and yummy, I mean it!


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Peasant Vichysoisse

Cold or Hot Soup

  • bunch of leeks
  • 5 large russet potatoes
  • 3 medium carrots, diced finely
  • about a cupful of snow peas and sugar snap peas (both keep their pods)
  • 6 cloves of elephant garlic
  • one wholeparsnip, cut finely
  • 2 or more whole stems of lemongrass, cut in a few pieces
  • kosher salt and cracked black pepper
  • 16% cream


I have always enjoyed making vichysoisse, but I have never explored the recipe for the good tastes it can evoke. When I found that I had a good bunch of leeks and potatoes in the fridge one day, I had decided to make my fave soup, but it was the end of the month, and I had a number of veggies to use up. I had lemongrass roots and stems,parsnips, carrots and a mixture of snow peas and sugar-snap peas. If you have not enjoyed sugar snap peas by now, try them- they can be eaten (pod and all) raw or cooked. Nothing but the top,string or tail is wasted.
Here is how to make a rich version of vichysoisse which can be eaten hot or cold:

Start a large pot of water set to boil. Into the water, add the garlic, lemongrass and peas. For depth of taste,you can also add rosemary and lemon thyme, fresh. When the water has boiled for five minutes, set the temperature on medium low, lid the pot and keep at a mildly rolling boil for an hour. You may want to top up the liquid, as the three condiments simmer to a mush.
When the three vegetables have boiled sufficiently, the peas and garlic will simply dissolve through a sieve. Remove the mush , pouring the stock through a sieve.
Trim, and clean the leeks by removing the outer leaves, tops, and by cutting them lengthwise. Peel, and cut the potoatoes into small chunks. You can leave a tenth of potato peel intact, if it is clean, for nutrition and taste, but this is a more refined version of peasant vichysoisse.
Process all of the vegetables and add them- leeks,potatoes,carrots, etc. plus salt,pepper to the scented stock.
Bring the leeks and potato to a boil, and cook on medium for about 20 minutes.
Vichysoisse is a smooth, pureed soup. When the potatoes are done, scoop enough of the vegetables and some of the stock into a blender, up to an inch and a half below the lid. Cover the soup with 16% table cream, up to half an inch below the lid.
Make sure the lid is on firmly.Blend on low, and then on puree. Repeat until only a little stock is left in the pan. Throw about a cup of stock away,placing the pureed soup back into the saucepan, and add a bit more cream, until the thick puree is manageable, but not runny.
This peasant vichysoisse will be richly delicious, without adding oil or margarine. Since it is casual, I enjoy it drunk from a mug, but you can cool or freeze the soup. When the soup is cool but not frozen, if you want cold summer soup, mix the soup with a little milk to separate it, and top with very thinly sliced cucumber, pepper to taste.




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Hearty Bean With UnBacon (and now, Italian Sausage!!) Vegetarian Soup

Bet you didn't think of this wonderful taste sensation as a vegetarian dish, before!

When I was a young Mom, I always had Bean with Bacon soup handy, so hearty and warm on those fall , or winter nights. My son and I loved it, and there was no substitute for its rich flavour, stew-like, hearty texture, or for its nutritious value. The cost was minimal. I added a can of water and stirred, and - instant (almost satisfaction was ours.
Since about the same time that my son was born, though, I had started experimenting with health foods, and also, with actual vegan cuisine.
The first health food stores yielded very dull protein subs, and I subsisted, mainly on egg with rice and a well-thumbed book by Adele Davis, entitled "Eat Right to Keep Fit".  Adele Davis studied combining proteins, to assure vegetarians that, if they combined several (at least two protein) sources, their protein needs would synthesize exactly what the body would be missing from meat products.
Works like "Country Commune Cooking" ( really fun!) and then Anna Thomases "Vegetarian Epicure" came my way, later in the eighties.
After years of exploration into my own style of veggie cooking (much appreciated by guests, always) I evolved some really nice recipes. I am sharing some of these with readers, because utilizing some of the studies, and also the newer products for vegan dining, can, if not convert meat-loving munchers, at least balance out a persons' health with a few meals that involve way less cholesterol and very few of the toxins and hazards that can be found in meat products.
A good example is the use of Italian Sausage. Sure, everyone loves pickled meats, but we have all been warned of the dangers of sodium nitrite, used as a preservative for ground meats, made into cold-cuts or specialties.

At first, I made my veggie version of Bean with Bacon soup using large textured protein soya bacon bits. I simply added them to my bean soup. They boiled, and offered bacon meat texture, plus the flavouring (maple, hickory et al) to the soup.
Recently, I discovered a new product in the deli section where I get my veggie cold-cuts. Yves Textured Protein manufacturers had done it again. They perfected, and I mean perfected, a pack of Italian Veggie Sausages. You might find many brand names- this is the product I can get, locally.
Of course, I purchased these, and set out to add them to tons of interesting recipes.

So this is my first attempt, and  you can make this soup while adding either bacon bits, or this interesting, hearty garnish. Just try it. The recipe is free!


INGREDIENTS



  • 1 can of baked beans in tomato sauce
  • half a sweet onion
  • two medium potatoes
  • one medium carrot, diced, or a handful of baby carrots
  • one or two vegetable bouillon cubes
  • a large handful of fresh thyme, rosemary and parsley.(I use Lemon Thyme, which is exquisite while it cooks, for scent, and excellent flavouring)
  • salt and black pepper to taste.
  • about five tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil




EITHER/OR

  1. half a cup of bacon bits
  2. a whole Vegetarian Italian Sausage, sliced into 1/8th inch rounds.
  3. a tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.


In a large saucepan, bring slightly less than half a pan of water to boil, while adding the crumbled bouillon cubes. Toss in well-chopped onion, cubed potatoes and diced carrots. When these have boiled for five minutes, add the herbs, salt and pepper, and also the can of baked beans. At this point, you can add a half-cup of bacon bits. (Don't add them, if you plan on using sausage!)
Sprinkle with your salt and pepper, and add the olive oil. Just stir, and bring to a boil, again. When the pot has come to a boil, reduce the heat to low temperature, lid the pot, and simmer for at least half an hour.


Now, for the super interest.  Instead of using bacon bits, slice your Vegetarian Italian Sausage. 
In a small pan, gently heat the tablespoon of Olive Oil (or Canola, if you wish). Add the slices, and stir over low to medium heat, leaving the sausage long enough to crisp it on both sides. Instead of adding to a simmering soup, to soften up, ladle the luscious bean soup into bowls, and top each with the hearty Veggie Italian Sausage. The result is unique, and absolutely delicious!


You will discover that vegetarian soya proteins are zero cholesterol. So are Extra Virgin Olive, and also Canola oils. Baked Beans are a great protein sub, along with the sausage for any meat product. This makes a great meal along with crusty bread. If you are a big eater try broiled cheese on toast along with the soup.


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Ultra Herb Bread

Sue Risks' Down - Home- Dang  - Busted
I Got the 'Ron Smith's "Out of Work" Blues 

A two pound loaf



  • 1 and 1/3 cups of water.
  • 1/4 cup skim milk powder (I didn't have any, but who cares)
  • 1 and 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 3 tbsp of honey
  • 3 and 1/2 cups of white or unbleached flour for bread baking
  • 1/2 cup fresh, well chopped mint leaves
  • 1/2 cup fresh, well-chopped chives
  • 1/4 cup fresh, well-chopped oregano
  • 1/4 cup fresh well-chopped marjoram.
  • 1 and 3/4 tsp of yeast



Melt the honey in the warm water and add the yeast. Leave for ten minutes and add all the ingredients, plopping them into the bread baker. You really need lots of herbs for Ultra Herb Bread to really taste herbed. Just super mince them.Add more chives and less Oregano to taste.I like to add a little white pepper to this.

Even if there is no margarine, the taste of this bread when fresh and hot is incredible.Try an impromptu spread of mayonnaise mixed with the Parmesan the guys didn't know you still had and add Black Pepper and a little Dijon mustard, then broil it golden in the oven.



( with thanks to Reggie and Kristien for the nourishing gift of Forfar Farm Goat cheese. At least, some respite! And, I knew you weren't Ron! )


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Spanakopita with Filo Pastry

Spanakopita Recipe

'Get rid of Newts Without Bothering' - Spanakopita.

During more lucrative days when I was an apartment super as well as an illustrator, I made sumptuous Spinach Spanakopita when Ron visited (and practically with a rose!)here it is:

I noticed that Spinach and Blueberries attract the lil' rascals who slick in and out of we country folk. They are not much of a nuisance, but they answer in quite loud squeaks when they are investigating the throat. Use Spinach anything. I add blueberries to spinach salad in the summer. Quiet and clean.

Buy a box of mille-feuille (filo) pastry from the freezer department of the supermarket.Defrost the pastry roll.

Get six eggs, margarine, a litre of 5% cream,a tub of feta cheese,spinach, salt, and pepper.

Take three whole sheets of mille - feuille (filo)pastry one at a time, and spread into a large casserole dish. Spread each side of the leaves with melted margarine, and place one on top of the other slightly kitty corner, so all of the corners show.

Wash, trim and boil a bag of spinach( or, a large culender full from the garden) briefly  until it turns limp and shrinks.Drain well.

Whisk the six eggs until smooth and add to three cups of the cream plus 1/4 tsp of salt which you have heated until bubbles form around the saucepan. Immediately remove from the heat.

Place the spinach into the pastry-lined casserole and sprinkle with half or three quarters of a pound of crumbled feta cheese. Shake black pepper over this to taste, and then pour the egg and cream custard over both. Top with  two margarined leaves of pastry, then bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes and then at 350 'til golden brown. Serve hot or cold.


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Rose Fudge

Ever noticed that living in the country helps you see through things, like your friends' chest? Periodically, someone snaps and pomps away to the point where something sneaky must be done, since you can see a stray frog clinging to your former friends' heart.

Here is a Jamaican trick which I adapted, and which is heavenly, anyway.

Stomp Out Angina (but Hold the Rum)Rose Fudge



  • 1 and 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup light cream (or Carnation Condensed milk)
  • 1/3 cup milk or Carnation
  • 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla.
  • 1 lime
  • Rose syrup





Combine sugars, cream and butter in a heavy three quart saucepan. Add the lime, cut in half. Cook on medium, stiring constantly, bringing this to a boil. Let it cook (to 238 F) until it forms a soft ball in a glass of cold water. Remove from heat and cool, adding 1/4 cup Syrup of Roses and the vanilla while constantly beating the fudge with a wooden spoon, until the candy thickens and becomes dull in texture.

Pat into forms for fudge or  small cream cheese containers and cool.

This is a sneaky way to get frogs to follow the rainbow (Roses) and to find their way out.




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Herb Teas

Herb Teas

Take two ten inch stems St. Johns Wort and one perfect head of Goldenrod, and wash well. Boil them in water ( fill a juice jug with water to measure) into a soup sized saucepan.Chill  and serve over ice with fresh lemon slices and optional  honey or sugar. This tea is wonderful made into ice cubes for other drinks.

Refreshing Motherwort and  Peppermint Tea

Pick and wash two or three Motherwort leaves and one bloom, a couple of Yarrow leaves and one bloom, and three stems of Peppermint. Place in a teapot and add several slices of lemon and also lime. Pour boiling water over the tea and steep for ten minutes. Chill with slices of the rest of the  lemon and the lime. To serve four.

Serve over ice with lemon and lime slices, or freeze into ice cubes for regular Club Soda or iced tea.Quite a pick me up on the humid, lazy summer days.



Northern herb Tea freaks: Check out this great idea!

Grow Your Own Lemongrass

 and make your own Lemongrass Tea.


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Exceptionally Tangy Herbed Sauce for Stuffed Grapevine Leaves

This holiday season, I happened to buy a tin of stuffed grapevine leaves from Turkey. The vegetarian ingredients are simple- leaves, stuffed with rice and seasoned with spices and mint.
I decided to heat these (easily done for a magnificent side dish) in the microwave for five minutes.
I made a new and heavenly type of sauce for this, and I am passing this on, because it was so worthwhile to the taste.

Lemon_Lime Sour Cream Sauce

Into a small mixing bowl, squeeze about three heaping tablespooons of Hellmans Lemon Mayonnaise. (I found that I could add fresh citrus juice to sour cream by bonding the sauce with this new mayo, and other ingredients). To this, I added about two tablespoons of lime juice (you can use RealLime or fresh).
Add to this about two level tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, plus half a cup of whole sour cream. The cream will not curdle. At this point, add a teaspoon of non-cholesterol Sesame oil, and two heaping tablespoons of Tzaziki herb mix for dips. (There is a kosher brand from Epicure Selections ®.) Mix this nicely, adding the juice of half a fresh lemon I met someone from China who turned me on to cooking with Sesame. On top of nicely spiced soup and vermicelli, she would add a drizzle of sesame oil. So I topped the quite firm sauce with a visible drizzle of the sesame oil. The flavour and loook of this new sauce was supreme. Leave theoil on the top, and add a tiny set of mint leaves, or a tassel of dill for garnish. Served over the hot stuffed grapevine leaves, the dish serves six easily as a side dish, is extremely rich, and takes seven minutes to prepare.





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