Rosemary Flatbread

Ulrike from Küchenlatein showcases Rosemary from her garden. Despite it being the hottest summer weather in 30 years, Ostwestwind decided to bake Rosemary flatbread. Her trick to baking in the hot weather? Bake in the evening when it’s cooler. Delicious!

Manathakali Chutney

Indosungod from Daily Musings blogs about Manathakali. Unsure of the English or Botanical name, Indosungod believes it called Black Nightshade. She grows them in her garden every summer and enjoys eating the berries with her daughters. She makes an easy chutney, which she recommends eating with rice. Very nice!

Vanilla Pod

Kitchen Mage of the same named blog writes about vanilla and shares a secret source. How generous! I agree with Kitchen Mage that vanilla is “anything but boring.”

Spice Chard with Pinenuts

Jmom from In Our Kitchen blogged about Spiced Chard and prepared a meal of Spiced Chard with Pinenuts. Lovely!

Roasted Corn and Tarragon Risotto on Fresh Tomato Salsa

Surfindave from The Serendipitous Chef focuses on tarragon. He writes about a tarragon tomato romance and a corn tarragon relationship. Then he shares two recipes for Roasted Corn and Tarragon Risotto with Fresh Tomato Salsa and Roasted Corn and Tarragon Risotto cakes on Fresh Tomato Salsa. Mouth watering! I wanna be a part of this relationship!

Capers

Cyndi from Cookin’ with Cyndi used capers in her dinner and decided to blog about them for WHB. She provides extensive information on these unopened green flower buds, which are grown mainly in Mediterranean countries (southern France, Italy, and Algeria) and also in California. Very informative!

Melon Balls with Fresh Mint

Gabriella from My Life as A Reluctant Housewife spotlights cantaloupes and shares a recipe of Melon balls with Fresh Mint. Very interesting information and very cool recipe, especially for the extremely hot summer weather we’ve been having.

Grape Tomatoes

Genie from The Inadvertent Gardener shares a Caprese pasta meal, which she calls I Wanted to be Airline Food. She made the after not being able to catch a flight to a family reunion. The vegetables come from her garden and include tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, zucchini, Vidalia onion and whole-wheat pasta. It’s a nice meal despite the disappointing airline experience.

Fattoush

Alanna of A Veggie Venture makes Fattoush, a Lebanese Veggie Salad that includes ingredients like chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, mint, lemon juice and olive oil. She highlights Sumac (Sumaq), a spice used in the dressing. It comes from berries that grow in the Middle East and parts of Italy. Another nice meal.

Cherry and Buttermilk Soup

The Chocolate Lady of In Mol Araan makes a Cherry and Buttermilk Soup. Wow! I have a feeling it’s a perfect meal for hot weather.

Chickpeas Feta Coriander Salad

Last but not least, I blogged about cilantro and made a Chickpeas Feta Coriander salad. Perfect for summer weather!

Thanks, Everyone, for participating in the latest WHB. Thanks, Kalyn for starting the event and the opportunity to guest host. It’s been fun!

Don’t forget to check out the individual blogs during the week and read more about the WHB entries and see wonderful photos.

Have a great week!
Paz

Photo from Wikipedia

We’ve been having heat wave weather in my neck of the woods for the past couple of days. It’s simply too hot to stand over a burning stove and try to cook anything. As a result, instead, I’ve been making a lot of salads.

I found a nice, cool salad recipe on Trembom in English blog. Valentina has a wonderful blog in Portuguese and I’m so glad that she decided to make one in English. That way, I’m able to discover a lot of great recipes from her.

The Chickpeas Feta Coriander Salad recipe comes from the cookbook Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros. That’s another cookbook I’m interested in getting in the near future.

Valentina wrote that the ‘chickpeas’ in the title attracted her to the recipe. Interestingly enough, the feta cheese and coriander (cilantro to me) in the title caught my attention. You see, I’m a big fan of those two main ingredients. I love feta cheese and cilantro is one of my all time favorite herbs. I’ve mentioned several times how chopping herbs like cilantro and smelling its fresh aroma rising from the chopping board can lead me to do my happy dance in the kitchen. Yes, seriously. I do the dance (See #9 here). You can ask my dogs.

I’ve learned that cilantro is a love-it or hate-it herb. It seems to inspire intense feelings in many people. I actually came across an online anti cilantro community with over 700 members. I can’t imagine not having this herb as a part of my meal, if a recipe calls for it.

Cilantro may be a controversial herb, but it’s used in several types of cuisines ranging from North African, Indian, Mexican, Tex Mex, Asian, to Caribbean.

A lover of history, I’ve enjoyed reading about the existence of cilantro from time immemorial. It’s been mentioned in Sanskrit texts, the Bible, the Medical Papyrus of Thebes. It’s said to be one of the plants in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks and Romans all used cilantro. It was also one of the first herb plants brought to the North America when the settlers arrived there. Clearly, it’s been around a long time.

The Chickpea Feta Coriander Salad calls for cilantro, mixed with flat-leaf parsley. The herbs acted like the icing on the cake for me. Or in this case, the most delicious garnish on the salad. I really liked the combination. I suppose if you don’t like cilantro, you can eliminate it and use parsley alone.

The chickpeas made the salad very filling. A really good quality feta cheese is the key to making the salad even tastier. My mouth still waters at the thought of the flavorsome feta cheese I bought.

The salad ingredients also call for red chili peppers, which I suppose is optional. The use of peppers also captivated me since I like hot and spicy flavors. I expected a sizzling tasting salad but the recipe pleasantly surprised me when the peppers blended very nicely with the rest of the ingredients to produce a cool tasting salad. Just right for this volcanic atmospheric-like weather we’re having.

By the way Elizabeth makes a different Orange, Red Onion, and Fennel Salad with ingredients that include dried chili peppers. Sounds good! Have a look!

This post is for the upcoming Weekend Herb Blogging (WHB) event started by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen. You can read about WHB and its guidelines below the banner.

This week, I have the honor of being the guest host of Weekend Herb Blogging. If you are interested in participating, send me the link to your blog post by this coming Sunday, 3 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. E-mail your WHB links to: PazCooks AT yahoo DOT com. I will post a line up of the entries the following Monday.

Paz

Click on photo for larger image

Chickpea, Feta & Coriander Salad
Adapted from Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros

250g dried chickpeas(without skins if possible), soaked overnight in cold water; or 400g tinned chickpeas
250ml olive oil
1 large red onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
1 or 2 red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
250g crumbled feta cheese
4 spring onions, green part only, chopped
25g chopped coriander
30g chopped flat-leaf parsley
Juice of 1 lemon

If using dried chickpeas, rinse them and put them in a saucepan, covered with loads of water. Bring to the boil. Lower the heat slightly and cook for 1-1 ½ hours, until they are soft but not falling apart. Add the salt towards the end of the cooking. When cooled, drain them and put the chickpeas in a large bowl, removing all the skin. If using tinned chickpeas, drain and rinse them before transferring to a bowl.

Heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and fry the red onion gently until it is cooked through and lightly golden Add the garlic and chilli and cook for a few more seconds until you can smell the garlic. Take care not to brown the garlic. Leave to cool completely.

Add the feta, spring onion, coriander, parsley and lemon juice to the chickpeas and season with pepper and dash more salt, if needed. Add the cooled garlic oil and the remaining olive oil and mix through very well.