Mediterranean & Middle East | Cocineira - Food, Family and Friends - eat when you drink and drink when you eat!

Fresh Ricotta Cheese

Delicious, fresh Ricotta Cheese is extremely easy to make and taste much, much better than premade cheese. Fresh Ricotta is a wonderful treat; pile atop pasta with red sauce, stuff canneloni or serve with pistachios and a drizzle of vanilla syrup. Fresh Ricotta is mild and smooth and can be served in many of the same ways cottage cheese can be served. [...]

Armenian Tahini Bread

Freshly Baked Tahini Bread

I was in San Luis Obispo recently and my friends Barkev and Tzolig gave me a package of Tahini Bread to try. It was delicious! Of course, this carbaholic loves anything bread so it was almost a slam dunk but the fact that the bread had both a familiar taste and feel and yet was mysteriously unlike any bread I had ever tasted made it all the better. Mia said it kinda reminded her of Rugelach and I thought it reminded me of Palmiers but I think that was only because they loosely resembled them. A cross between the flaky Palmier and the chewiness of the Rugelach and add tahina and we are close. A delicate bread wrapped around a rich, nutty filling would be great but the texture of this treat was of a laminated pastry and for me all the better.

I decided to hit the net and found several entries for tahini bread from the middle east, some Turkish and others Armenian. The recipes resembled one another but the manner in which the bread were finished varied somewhat. For example the Turkish bread used almost the same ingredients as the Armenian bread but the Turkish resembled more of a roll than the “cookie like” flat bread I had eaten. [...]

Fresh Tomato Sauce

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Oh the treasure of vine-ripened tomatoes! I get so excited when tomato season arrives and we get to enjoy these wonderful treasures in salads, sauces, as a side dish, on sandwiches and so much more. Incredibly, in our wonderful Mediterranean climate we are fortunate to enjoy fresh tomatoes from as early as March and sometimes all the way through January.

I love tomatoes nearly anyway I eat them. One of my favorite ways to use tomatoes is to make Fresh Tomato Sauce. Juicy tomatoes, simmered for just a bit with herbs and spooned over tender pasta. [...]

Spanish Tortas de Aceite

A couple of years ago I purchase Tortas de Aceite from an online purveyor of Spanish Food and they were wonderful! I thought the tortas would arrive stale and dry as they were imported from Spain. I was wonderfully surprised by the and unique and delicious crump and the combination of savory and sweet. Sterling was immediately enamored of these wonderful treats.

Tortas de Aceite or Oil Cakes are from Spain or more closely Seville. Because tortas are made with Olive Oil instead of other types of fats they are a very healthy, light alternative dessert; the ingredients are simply flour, water, yeast, olive oil and the crispy cakes are finished with sugar and a variety of seeds or herbs. I like a sweet and salty combination that wraps its way around the tongue in a complex way that a singular flavor set could not.
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Shrimp Salad with Pickled Onions

Shrimp Salad with Pickled Onions

Summer is in full swing and that means it is salad season. This salad is full of fresh Summer ingredients like tomatoes, basil and oregano and hearty with shrimp. Chilled and served with warm, crusty bread this salad makes a satisfying lunch or dinner entree.

As the flavors are dependent upon the fresh ingredients it is important to use only the best and only the freshest ingredients you can find. Vibrant lemons, minty basil and earthy oregano come together in a Mediterranean inspired salad and surprise the taste buds with sweet shrimp; top it off with salty onion pickles for a unique flavor sensation. [...]

Vegetable and Hummus Pizza on Pita Bread

Petra Mediterranean Restaurant has amazing pita bread! Really, the food is great but the bread is incredible! Of course, hot, freshly baked bread is always delicious and this is Petra’s calling card. I almost always stop by Petra’s when I’m in San Luis and have a grilled vegetable sandwich on a freshly baked pide. Very often I also buy a stack of bread to take home to scoop up Hummus or Labneh or to make Vegetable and Hummus Pizza on Pita Bread.

This is a seriously delicious, easy to prepare, healthy and delicious light meal or snack. Adjust ingredients or swap vegetables to your liking and enjoy.
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Insalata Caprese

I drove to SLO today and decided to drive the scenic route through the Nipomo Mesa, wind my way along the coast through Arroyo Grande and then through the Edna Valley. The drive is beautiful and peaceful and one always encounters roadside produce vendors.

My tomatoes aren’t quite ripe yet so I purchased a couple of pounds of delicious, vine ripened and sweet tomatoes along Los Berros. I love to visit this little stand in the small, warm valley below the mesa where juicy, ripe, tomatoes are piled in baskets for one to choose and pay on the “honor system”.

Caprese is a remarkably easy to prepare salad and should be made of only the very freshest ingredients! Vine ripened tomatoes, Mozzarella Bufala, fragrant Basil Leaves and copious amounts of the best olive oil are the foundation for one of the tastiest salads available!
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Souvlaki Kebab

Souvlaki is a wonderful food that is made with cubes of meat. Depending upon the local it can be very small bits of meat up to 1″ cubes. The meat, traditionally lamb, it marinated in lemon and olive oil and Mediterranean herbs and spices and finely skewered on wooden sticks and cooked over coals.

Souvlaki can be a hand food or plated for dinner. As a sandwich it is usually served wrapped in a pita with a salad like a Gyro and served with sauces and fried potatoes. When plated as a dinner the Souvlaki are served with rice and a Greek Salad.

Today, as taste change pork, beef and chicken are commonly used to create the Souvlaki. The skewers of meat are served with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and Tzatziki sauce and very often with fried potatoes and rice. The marinade will vary with the cook and can range from lemony to garlicky, heavy on the oregano and sometimes thyme. Once cooked the Souvlaki are seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

The first time I enjoyed Souvlaki was at a Greek Festival in Southern California and the tender lemony chunks of chicken were served wrapped in bread with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and hommos. It was delicious!

My Souvlaki are marinated in a combination of olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice to which I have added a mixture of ground garlic and fresh oregano. I like to use chicken and so I only marinate for a couple of hours, if using lamb I would marinate over night.

Souvlaki is a wonderfully easy and deeply satisfying meal to make. The high satiety value is achieved by the liberal use of garlic, black and red peppers and finally by using a finishing salt which clings to the tongue a bit. [...]

Stuffed Artichokes

When I was a kid, artichokes were a regular part of our diet. One of the wonderful things about living on the Central Coast is the bounty of fresh produce available to us and artichokes grow well in the valley. I just naturally assumed that these wonderful thistles were a part of every diet.

Years later, soon after I met Mia, the very first meal I cooked for her was pork chops and artichokes stuffed with stove top stuffing. Mia admitted that she had never eaten the heart because her mother told her she wouldn’t like them. It was then that I learned artichokes were considered a “special treat” unlike in my home. [...]

Tzatziki Sauce

Tzatziki sauce is a wonderfully fresh, crisp yogurt based sauce. Crisp cucumbers combine with yogurt. Tzatziki varies with the cook and locality and while the name might change a bit, Tzatziki is a mainstay of Mediterranean Cuisine. Tzatziki is a great way to enjoy the healthy benefits of yogurt and fresh cucumbers. [...]