Saturday, September 10, 2005

Cookbooks #2 - Moosewood #1

I have a precious but completely fucked original edition of the Moosewood Kitchen by Mollie Katzen. This is my version of the tabouli (tabbouleh) recipe: 1 cup = 1 ordinary (ie half pint) mug, in my kitchen anyway: whatever you use, be consistent. Serves a bunch of people.

Combine 1 cup dry bulghar wheat, 1½ cups boiling water, and 1 level teaspoon salt in a bowl, cover or clingfilm, leave for 20 minutes. Stir (there shouldn't be much or any liquid left)

Add ¼ cup olive oil, ¼ cup lemon &/or lime juice (more lemon results in a sharper dish), garlic as you wish (please see the comments) and half a teaspoon of dried mint. Mix, and cover again. Pop in the fridge for at least a few hours: overnight is fine.

A while before serving, add a bunch of spring onions, chopped with some of the green included, some finely chopped tomatoes, and as much parsley as you can manage. Katzen suggests 1 packed cup of chopped parsley.. If you've used a lot of garlic you need to use lots of parsley. Add black pepper, and more salt of needed.

You can add all sorts of other things: chopped peppers, grated carrot, chopped olives (yuk), cubed cucumber. My favourite addition is feta cheese, though. Mmm.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am middle-eastern & I have never heard or tasted garlic in tabouli but you don't have to put boiling water in the burghul, just soak it for a little while in water & you can add salt when you are mixing all the ingredients....make sure u drain the water though. I usually use 3 bunches of green onions sliced even the whites, 3 bunches of parsley destemmed & chopped, approx 2 chopped tomatoes, salt, equal amounts of olive oil & lemon juice. I like it nice & wet so it all depends & mix all together

stuartd said...

No garlic, you say.. i'll give that a try next time, thanks for the tip.

I wonder - would you mix up and eat or leave it to stand?

Thanks for your comment: nice to hear from a real person after all these spammers!

stuart

Anonymous said...

no problem, you can refrigerate it for a little while before eating, it nice to eat it cold.. you can serve it with romaine lettuce, take a single leaf & put the tabuli in it like a sandwich. it looks nice in a presentation as well as being healthy........am glad you didn't feel insulted by my input. have you ever tried baba ghanoush (eggplant dip) or hummous (garbanzo dip)?