Your Dreams Coming True In The Kitchen

Happened to fall on a couple of chicken breasts which appealed to my eye.This is what I did with them.

S ometimes you have left over rice and don't know what to with it. Asians usually use it for fried rice. I used it to make a nice mix which we enjoyed very much.

T oday I will have the pleasure to share with you a normal white rice made with dried porcini mushrooms.   Please do not mistake this for a risotto with porcini.  I don't like risotto for the only reason that it looks like  porridge which puts me off.

I guess we are trying to continue our special eating habits by putting a bit of "sex" in it. By that I mean, chicken livers/hearts with ouzo. Braise till all the alcohol is out. Leeks and carrots with rice....veggies with rice. Cheating?? maybe not. So here we go.

I love stuffed tomatoes and bell peppers! It is not an easy dish to make so it should be made on a Sunday when we have no plans to go out or have nothing to do. This dish is international.  Every country makes it, but...in its own style. This is the Greek house-wife recipe.

A utumn is the time for mushrooms so we will be proposing lots of mushroom ideas. One of these is the following where I have chosen to separate the porcini mushrooms, once boiled,  from their juice and by using the juice to prepare the rice, and the mushrooms themselves to make the sauce for the boiled chicken and rice. I would like to emphasize the fact that one whole chicken has been boiled in water in a pressure cooker first and then used the broth to make the sauce and to cook the rice in.

T his is the second time I make a risotto in my life. The first was about 30 years ago and it was a disaster. Since then I never ate it even in Italian restaurants. This time my risotto with dried Porcini mushrooms was a masterpiece! (At least Maria and I thought so!). Here's what happened while we enjoyed some 1998 Cabernet Reserve...

F ried rice with sugar snaps is an easy dish you make when you are tired of cooking fancy.

R ice is always a fine side dish which works with everything. I would like to share with you a new taste I discovered today: Saffron, Orange rind, Garlic and Ginger.

A curried rice is always welcome whether you are having beef stew, lentils, or chicken. It is very easy and it goes like this....

O k the day has finally arrived when M is going to share with you her recipe for stuffed tomatoes and green bell peppers with rice etc. Λαδερά This dish is international.  Every country makes them, but...in their own style.  M is going to share with you the Greek house-wife recipe.

P ine nuts are expensive but delicious when only slightly fried with good quality fresh butter. It gives a whole new dimension to a dish.

O k yesterday we had Sikander's Kima for lunch and we shared the recipe. By the way it was very good. Today we had some of yesterday's meal leftover, and because we never throw anything away I thought of transforming yesterday's meal into a flied lice dish sorry I mean fried rice with egg foo yung .

Ready Cooked "Kima". S ikander is a good friend of mine and is from Pakistan. We met in Egypt while I was stationed there. The excellent assistant I had, Salwa, a woman, and he, hit it off, fell in love and got married. So I was left without. About 30 years later we met again through Facebook. He continues to live in Egypt, still married to her, and I ended up in Athens (God knows why).  We talk and exchange recipes on Skype. Today's recipe is his "Kima" . For those who know Greek will guess what it is...but for everybody else...

T his article is only for your information, it is very interesting. You can find Molokhiya already picked, washed,  finely chopped and  frozen in 1 kg sachets in Middle Eastern, or Egyptian groceries.The recipe is after this article.

S pinach with rice is a very common everyday dish for Greeks.  It is cheap, quick, healthy and can be eaten hot or cold with feta and/or olives on the side.

 S eafood is very light especially for summer. Cuttlefish can be made in different ways.

L entils are good for you and therefore you should try to find any way to eat them.  Today I thought of  something I don't think I wrote before.

To make this interesting vegetable the Middle Eastern way you will need:

O ne last way I know how to cook rice is the Middle Eastern way