SAVORING FOLEGANDROS

Last August, we found out my mom had breast cancer. Before her surgery and final prognosis, we didn’t know how bad things were, and even if she’d survive. Deep fear grabbed us. As mom and I went from one doctor’s appointment to another, we made a pact to go on a real trip together when she got well. Spending time in an exotic land sounded much more appealing than our stressful adventures in the world of cancer. With this future plan, we declared our optimism.

Mom has been heroic in her healing over the past 11 months and we all feel damned lucky to now find ourselves here in Greece together. Today as she lay on the shore of our favorite rocky cove, she said “This is good for the soul.” I know. The water, air, sun, peace, family time, and simplicity of it all.

We are back on our favorite island in the Aegean, Folegandros. This is the same quiet spot P and I first visited on our honeymoon, and some of you might remember these photos from the time we spent here last year. In Folegandros, people smile and say hello as they stroll through the car-less narrow streets of the old town, which teeters along the edge of an epic cliff. There are no big ads or much commercialism here. Signs are hand painted wood. Tiny bars serve delectable ice cappuccinos. Kids sell rocks in the town square.



Every day we walk an hour to the beach (Mom's health routine motivates those us with lazier tendencies.) We wander past stone walls and thistles, donkeys and sporadic fig trees. Then a plunge into the salty sea. The kids, and P too, hurl themselves off high rocks into the cool water. We all ooh and ahh about the beauty of each stripy pebble on the beach as we find our Northern California pallor being deeply warmed by the Mediterranean sun.



Our lunch spot is always the same -we are the kind of travelers who stick with a good thing when they find it. Our feet are sandy, and our swimsuits wet as we take a seat at our favorite taverna. Lilah’s carnivorous tendencies seem to be at their height here in Greece and she always orders a heaping plate of lamb stewed in olive oil, tomatoes, and onions. The rest of us devour Greek Salads loaded with ripe tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, tangy onion slivers, sunny yellow peppers, the creamiest local goat cheese, and a generous dousing of olive oil. I’m sure there could be new deliciousness to discover, but these Greek Salads feel just right. And this time is all about simple pleasures, right?

GREEK SALAD

• 3 ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into bite-sided wedges
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled and sliced
• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, cored and sliced
• 6 Kalamata olives
• 1/2- 1 cup creamy feta
• a good pinch of dried oregano
• nice quality olive oil
• sea salt 
• optional: a teaspoon of capers 

Place all chopped veggies in a bowl. Top with olives, a big heap of feta, and a drizzle of olive oil. Pass a jar of extra olive oil and some salt around the table so everyone can season to her liking.



makes 2 generous servings

LIMONCELLO ON CAPRI

On a hot summer day, who doesn't crave a cocktail that is cold, fresh, and lemony? Well, it is damned hot here in Capri, and this island is covered with hearty citrus dripping with huge lemons so Limoncello it is!

Capri dons its fair share of sunburned tourists, mega yachts, bejeweled sandals, and bad dance music blasting into the night. Beneath the glitz, there is a heartwarming undercurrent of luscious gardens producing not decorative flowers to please the tourists, but loads of happy fruits and veggies. If you step away from the piazzetta and wander the narrow walking paths, you find nestled amongst the hotels and luxury villas humble, country-style gardens bursting with food - kiwis, squash, grapes, tomatoes, green beans, arugula, figs, rosemary, kumquats, olives. Glamour isn't the only priority on Capri, clearly the folks here care about the homegrown food as well. I dig that.

I wanted to share a little taste of the island with you guys and many claim that Limoncello finds its origins on Capri. The chilled sweet citrusy liquor is a nice end to dinner on a summer's evening. It takes a bit of patience to make your own (curing takes 2-4 weeks), but I think it's worth the wait.

Note: Use organic lemons, if you can. The drink gets its flavor not from the juice of the lemon, but from its peel, and that's where most of the pesticides reside in non-organic lemons.

INGREDIENTS adapted from "Lemon Zest" by Lori Longbotham featured in the NY Times
(printable recipe)

• 6 lemons (Sorrento Lemons are used in Italy. Meyers are a nice American substitute.)
• 1 750 ml bottle vodka
• 1 1/2 cup sugar

Wash all lemons. Use a vegetable peeler to peel each lemon (try to avoid getting much pith, the white underbelly of the peel). Place the peels in a jar large enough to hold both the peels and the entire bottle of vodka. Cover peels with the vodka. Cover the jar and place in a cool spot for 2 weeks allowing the vodka to become infused with the lemon flavor. (Use the now-peeled lemons to make a nice lemonade to enjoy right now, because your Limoncello will take a while to cure.)

After two weeks of curing, make a simple syrup by combining 3 cups of water and 1 1/2 cups of sugar in a medium saucepan on the stove top. Heat and stir until all sugar is dissolved. Set aside simple syrup until cool. In the meantime, strain lemon peels from the vodka and discard the peels. When the simple syrup has cooled, add it to the lemony vodka. Cover again and let cure for at least another 5 days and up to two weeks before drinking. If you can remember, agitate the bottle once a day.

Keep your liquor in the freezer so that it's nice and cold whenever you are ready to serve it up.

Do you make your own Limoncello? P recently made Limoncello at home in Berkeley. It was delicious, but a little too sweet and without enough of a kick for me. We have yet to make this NY Times recipe, but it looks pretty darned good. When we get home, we'll experiment with some new batches. Maybe add some herbs. If you have any delicious tips to share with the rest of us, we'd love to hear...

DREAMING OF CORFU

Even as a Californian, for me winter feels like the time of hibernation, nights by the fire, reading novels, being cozy. In this internal time, I find my thoughts wandering to far away places, the summer light, balmy evenings, and the late setting sun. With our family's year away as an almost graspable memory, my wanderlust has taken a specific shape - I yearn for Bali, and I dream of Greece.

I'm slowing wading through the 25 thousand photos I took during my family's 11 months away. I have found plenty of garbage to toss out, but I am also uncovering all sorts of treasures that I didn't quite realize I had. There are pictures of Otis and Lilah gleefully enjoying the freedom of being out of school for the year that are personally precious to us. And I have discovered a trove of abstract photographs that inspire me in a whole new way.

But what I want to share with you today is a glimpse of Corfu. Think of sea side tavernas with tables in the sand, of drinking rosé and eating freshly-caught fish at lunches so long and late, that they creep into the dinner hour. An island with cobblestone streets and architecture in beautiful decay. Markets packed with plump stone fruit. Sunsets that seem impossibly vibrant.

When I told P that I was putting this post together, he said "It's like buying a bikini in winter."

If you dream of travel this time of year, where do you go?

THANK YOU ISTANBUL

I've had a lifelong craving for Turkey. Not the winged Thanksgiving bird, but the faraway place. I've been to Greece many times and have toyed with a stop in neighboring Turkey, but never could make it happen until now. Paul, the kids, and I found ourselves spending 9 days in Istanbul as an end to our epic eleven-month travel adventure. Despite having always wanted to go to Turkey and having heard  so many friends rave about the place, I was nervous about taking our travel-weary selves to a new city (with 17 millions people!) at this twilight moment in our trip.

Istanbul couldn't have been a better place to end to our travels. We stayed in Beyoglu, a charming part of the city, filled with cobblestone streets and old-school fruits cart right outside our apartment door. We would wake in the morning to the hauntingly beautiful sounds of the call to prayer mixed with the shouts of various street vendors enthusiastically hawking their wares. I don't speak Turkish, so imagine these guys were singing something like "Cherries for sale. Sweet ripe cherries for sale...." ( Or maybe peas?)

There is so much I loved about Istanbul: the stunning architecture and breathtaking skyline; the kind, kid-friendly people; and the food. Oh the food! There were so many wonderful places to eat in that city.  The kids couldn't get enough Turkish Delight, but I think the most remarkable thing for me about the Istanbul food culture is the fresh abundance and variety of treats we saw for sale on the streets. For someone ingredient obsessed like myself, Istanbul was endlessly inspiring....from pistachios to apricots to fresh fish - all good. Here's a little taste...

One day a man (a total stranger) bought orange juice for me and the kids - the sort of kindness that happens in this town.

Corn on the cob roasted for a snack - brilliantly simple...

And when I  saw popcorn popped over an open flame I was giddy.

I have to thank the generosity of Cent from Cafe Fernando, a fantastic blog, for his amazing suggestions of places to eat in Istanbul. His tips were spot on and having his insider perspective on the city was priceless. Thank you Cent!

We made it around the world. We are bleary-eyed, jet lagged, but damned happy to be home. Eleven months is a long time to be on the road. It feels so good to be back in our community with all of the people we love. And the food here at home... ahhh magic!  I cannot wait to start cooking up some good California summer recipes to share with you.

MEDITERRANEAN DAYS

After nearly a year exploring South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and that part of the globe we made our way to the Mediterranean a couple weeks ago. The lush, green, wet heat of Bali became the arid white breeze of Folegandros. P and I first went to Folegandros, a sleepy island in the Greek Cyclades, on our honeymoon years ago and we fell for this island with its steep cliffs crashing into dark Mediterranean waters. Not much has changed. In the evenings people still stroll around the whitewashed old town square, then eat delicious suppers under almond trees strewn with lights. I didn't think I could love a place as much as Bali, but Folegandros is equally dreamy for me. This may sound silly, but I think my half-Greek blood has me feel instantly at home in the Mediterranean. The smell of grapevines toasting in the sun, the stunning light, the flavors at the table. I love it here.

Every day last week, Paul, Otis, Lilah, and I took the funky white and blue striped public bus to a little pebbled cove a few miles from town. Paul taught the kids to skip rocks while I devoured Keith Richard's autobiography. 

I apologize for not having a recipe to share with you today. I haven't cooked since we left our Bali house, though we have eaten like royalty - actually more like happy peasants. My favorite Greek food is the rustic, grandma-style cooking that still seems to dominate taverna menus. We scarfed succulent meats, long stewed in local tomatoes, olive oil, and herbs. Greek salads filled with tangy local feta, juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, and fragrant red onion, and a generous drizzle of olive oil were a daily necessity at our table. Sweet stuffed tomatoes with rice and oregano and thyme were perfect, as were the tatziki and fava spreads. We snacked on local almonds, firm red cherries, and plump apricots with plenty of creamy yogurt drizzled with honey.




I am itching to get back to my Berkeley kitchen, bust out my grandmother's old dogeared Greek cookbooks and get cooking.

Do any of you have any Greek recipes or cookbooks you adore? Please share with us if you do! For a while now, I've been eying Vefa's Kitchen. I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried it.

We are heading to Istanbul in a few days - more to come soon...

I LOVE OMELETS

Ever since I started Yummy Supper, I have wanted to do a post on my love of omelets, which may just be my favorite meal for lunch, breakfast, or dinner for that matter.  You can stuff them with greens, mushrooms, asparagus, crab, cheese, or keep it light and simple with just a bit of herbs. My mom has always made incredible omelets and she taught me her ways when I was a teenager. People can be quite opinionated about the "right" way to make an omelet.  I'm not so sure I buy into dogmas, but I do know that this is an omelet I love - the eggs are nice and fluffy, while the inside is tender and filled with goodies.



SPINACH + FETA OMELET (makes two)
(printable recipe)

• large bunch spinach, leaves removed and cleaned
• 1 small hot chili (optional), finely chopped
• 4 small or 2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 3 tablespoon butter (1 for cooking the spinach + 2 more tablespoons for cooking the eggs)
• 4 tablespoons crumbled feta
• 4 large or 6 small eggs
• salt 
• pepper

First, prep all of your ingredients for filling.  In a large saute pan, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil with 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat until bubbling. Add chili, garlic, and shallots. Cook a minute or two until everything starts to soften. Add the washed spinach leaves (we used beautiful water spinach - an ubiquitous ingredient in Bali - but any spinach would be wonderful.) Stir to coat. Saute until tender. Remove cooked spinach from heat and set aside to cool a bit. When the spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze out any excess water. (If you don't, you'll end up with a sad, watery omelet.) Rough chop spinach and separate into 2 piles. Set aside.

Crumble feta. Set up two equal sized piles of cheese (2 tablespoons each).

Most people who regularly cook omelets have a pan they use just for this purpose. A little well-seasoned cast iron pan with rounded sides is my favorite at home in California. In Bali, where we made omelets at least once a week for lunch, we used a non-stick pan and it worked just fine.

In a small mixing bowl, thoroughly whisk 2 large, or 3 small, eggs. Add a pinch of salt (you may not need any salt at all if your feta is really salty), a few grinds from the pepper mill, and a splash of water. Whisk to integrate.

Here's the way my mom taught me, and this is the method I will pass on to my kids. I hope you like it too!

All of the cooking happens in a number of minutes so be patient with yourself if you are new to cooking omelets.....

Warm pan over medium heat. Plop in a tablespoon of butter. Tilt pan to coat all sides with the butter. When butter is hot and the bubbling has slowed, pour in eggs. Again, tilt the pan to spread the eggs evenly over the bottom of the pan.

When the eggs begin to cook, and big bubbles form, start the technique I show in the photos below: Use a wooden spoon to pull back the eggs from the side of the pan, then tilt the pan letting the runny egg fill the void....

Do this in three or four places until you have a nice, rumpled surface....

 Then add cheese....

Then spinach....

Then flip that omelet out of the pan and you are ready to eat.

Enjoy!

Makes 2 omelets.  

Travel note: We made it to the Greek Islands - so dreamy, yet completely different from Bali. Will have photos to share soon...

GILI ISLAND DELIGHT

The Gilis Islands are a dreamy paradise, just a boat ride away from Bali. On this little Indonesian archipelago, there is not a motorized vehicle in sight, only cidomo - funky horse-drawn buggies.  Yes, on Gili Trawangan you can find backpackers smoking weed, flirting, and hanging out. Or like us, you can escape to the sleepy side of the island where there is nothing to do but snorkel with sea turtles, read novels, have bonfires on the beach, and watch epic sunsets. I think Gili T is my new happy place.

I've noticed that travel to remote spots often means sacrificing good eats. But at the whitewashed and stylish Gili Eco Villas, we lucked out with a gem of a cook - Pip a la Supiana, whose food wasn't just decent island fare, it was fantastic. Pip has that magic touch: with simplicity, respect of ingredients, love, and the subtlety of perfect preparation that looks effortless. Everything Pip makes is full of freshness and flavor. My kind of food. (2012: An update on Pip.... sadly, he is no longer at Gili Eco Villas.)

Pip let me join him in his kitchen one afternoon and I had so much fun.  We made fragrant yellow rice, prawn skewers on lemongrass, and this delectable squid dish. One of the best things about cooking with Pip was learning more about his palate of spices that are so different from my typical pantry staples. In my Berkeley kitchen, I tend to favor garlic, rosemary, parsley, thyme, lemon, and mint - where Pip tosses in lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, sesame, chilies, lots of lime, and honey. There is no reason why the rest of us cannot try to cook like Pip: all of his "exotic" ingredients are actually easy to find. I know I will take his cooking home with me to California.

I so enjoyed eating Pip's squid that I ordered it every night we stayed in the Gilis. I won't have the opportunity to cook this squid dish myself until we are back in California later this summer, but I couldn't wait that long to share Pip's recipe with you.

I can imagine 10 years from now coming back to Indonesia and finding Pip with a slew of successful restaurants of his own. He is that good.



PIP'S GILI ISLAND SQUID
(printable recipe)

• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1 teaspoon peeled and chopped fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 
• 1/2 lime
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 large pieces of squid
• 1- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 more lime

For the Sauce:

• 1 teaspoon peeled and finely chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped spring onion
• 1 teaspoon peeled and finely chopped ginger
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped chilies (green and or red chilies of your choice)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• garnish: sprinkling of sesame seeds

Grind garlic, ginger, and sea salt in a mortar and pestle until you have a well-blended paste. Transfer this mixture to a bowl large enough to marinate the squid. Add juice of 1/2 lime and toss the already squeezed lime into the bowl. (I love that Peep puts already juiced citrus into the marinade - a rustic alternative to adding zest.)  Add the olive oil. Stir the marinade and set aside.

Cut squid tubes open so that you have large flat pieces. Cut squid into smaller pieces (maybe 2x4 inches each) then score the squid by making shallow cuts in a grid-like pattern. Add squid to the marinade bowl, and rub marinade all over the squid especially into the scored grooves. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Chop and prep all ingredients for the sauce. Set aside.

After the squid has marinated for an hour or so, heat up a large skillet over medium high heat. Add a tablespoon or two of sesame oil, enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the squid. Squeeze in the juice of another lime over the top of the squid while it is cooking. Cook squid pieces for a few minutes on each side until done. ( I would love to try cooking this squid on our grill at home. I think the smokey flavor would be delish.)

Set aside the cooked squid. Toss all of the sauce ingredients into the already hot pan that still has the cooking juices from the squid. Stir sauce and cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until the flavors are released. Pour sauce over the squid, sprinkle sesame seeds over the top and serve. Yum!

SWEET POTATO FRIES

I cannot believe we are leaving Bali next week! I keep having dreams about Berkeley and I already feel part of myself transitioning to that other life of ours. Even though we have another month of travel before we step foot in California, I feel in limbo. I am totally excited to see Bangkok, Greece, and Turkey, but after ten months on the road, I am also happy to be coming home.

I am putting together a few more posts from Indonesia to share with you in the coming weeks. These Sweet Potato Fries are the first...

As I have mentioned before, we are always trying to get creative about snacks for Otis and Lilah, who seem to be having continual growth spurts accompanied by insatiable appetites. A while back, our friend Johnny loaned us this little, light-weight box of an oven that rests on top of our two-burner stove. I thought you might get a kick out of this clever invention.



As you might imagine, we were thrilled to have an oven. We baked many batches of cookies and started regularly roasting veggies for supper.  The temp gauge wasn't exactly accurate and some corners of the oven were way hotter than others, so we've had to be pretty flexible about the whole affair. But who cares - we had an oven!

Recently The Notorious Experiments posted gorgeous sweet potato fries, which totally inspired me. Then I saw more yummy fries at A Chow Life.  I thought, why can't we make some of those here in Bali? Always a sucker for dishes using only 3 ingredients, I ended up doing a very simplified version of the fries. I hope you'll give coconut oil a try. It gives such a subtle sweetness that works beautifully with the sweet potatoes.


INGREDIENTS
(Printable Recipe)

• a few tablespoons of coconut oil (or olive oil would work here)
  
• 2 large sweet potatoes
• plenty of sea salt

Preheat oven to 425-450 degrees.

Peel sweet potatoes and cut into french fry-style sticks. Place potato pieces in a bowl and toss with coconut oil and a few pinches of salt to coat.

Scatter fries on a baking sheet (I did some batches using tin foil to cover the baking sheet, but finally gave up on the foil finding it unnecessary.) Place fries in the hot oven. After about 7 or 8 minutes, remove fries and turn them over to insure even cooking on all sides. Bake for a total of 15-20 minutes (depending on thickness of fries) until potatoes are tender and cooked through.

Sprinkle with additional sea salt. Serve. Enjoy!

Okay. Some of my fries are a little burnt, but I am doing the best I can with this funky oven! Otis and Lilah didn't complain at bit.

LEMONGRASS + GINGER GRANITA

Happy Mother's Day to all my favorite mamas out there, and especially to my own mom!

There are no Hallmark Cards or tear-jerking commercials to remind the Balinese that this is a day to celebrate mothers - I can only imagine how completely strange they would find this entire holiday. In Bali there are daily rituals and countless elaborate ceremonies to honor ancestors, nature, and spirits, but no Mother's Day. I am not complaining. In so many ways, the past eight months of travel have felt like one long Mother's Day for me; all this family time has been a dream, and every day I am grateful to be Otis and Lilah's mom. Okay, now I'm getting all sappy on you!

Let's get to a recipe that is easy enough for kids to make for/or with their moms....

Granitas make me happy - I love recipes that leave room for improvisation while still being reliable in their deliciousness. P, the kids, and I are devotees of this always-refreshing and easy-to-make dessert.

Since we hit the road last August and haven't always had the best equipped kitchens, granitas have become our favorite after dinner treat: we made ruby red grapefruit in Northern Australia; pineapple in Fiji; elderflower in New Zealand; and now, lemongrass granita here in Bali. Always curious to see food at its source, P and I took a shady walk along the rice fields just north of Ubud to visit Mr. Nomad's organic veggie farm. There was plenty of lemongrass sprouting and P remarked that maybe we could try growing this fragrant herb at home in Berkeley this fall.

Continuing our granita making tradition, I wonder what flavor we will make next month in Corfu when celebrate Abby's birthday. What delights will a Greek Island farmer's market have in June? I cannot wait to find out.

Note: Be sure to make your granita at least a few hours before you want to serve it. The freezing process takes a while.