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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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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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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 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. [...]
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 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. [...]
On my list of life’s wonderful things is freshly made bread. I have been baking bread since I was a child. I find the process relaxing, the finished product healthier for my family. I figured it out recently that it cost me about 30 cents to make a loaf of bread, wow! When I am at home, I just start some dough and go about my business, a bit later I pan it and we have fresh bread for the next few days.
Fresh bread just feels good. Sterling and I are bread lovers but Mia is not, however when I bake bread she magically becomes a fan of the stuff. [...]
There is an absolutely wonderful sauce served with Schwarma in Lebanese Restaurants. I love it! Lebanese Yogurt Garlic Sauce is not only a must on Shwarma but makes an exceptional dip with vegetables and flat bread. Garlicky and satisfying this dip is based in healthy yogurt and is very easy to make.
I usually use fat free, Greek Style Yogurt because it is creamy, delicious and very good for you. Yogurt Vegetable sticks such as red peppers, celery, carrots and snap peas are each equally at home with this wonderful dip. [...]
The ideal meal, in my opinion, is one that you can pick up with your hands, is full of flavor, satisfies compliment wine and make my guest say “Yum Yum”. Piquillo Rellano Crostoni meet all of my criteria!
Piquillo Peppers “Little Beaks” are grown in Northern Spain and provide a mildly piquant unique taste. These little peppers are roasted over open coals and are both deliciously sweet and savory. Piquillo Peppers have a thin flesh which is perfect for stuffing. I love to make Piquillo Rellano with a variety of different fillings but the little peppers are especially good with Chevre.
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 Fresh beets are a delicious, naturally sweet, and very good for you vegetable that should be a part of any diet. High in folates and betacyanin, the stuff that give them their intense color, beets are powerful for fighting cancers, reducing cholesterol levels and fighting heart disease and reducing inflammation. Anyone of these benefits should make them a must have part of a healthy diet. [...]
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