Stress-Free Lamb Burgers

Ever have one of those weeks? I've just been a giant ball of stress and anxiety for days now and I can't quite put my finger on any one thing that is triggering it.  PMS, the kidlets, lack of sleep, work? The stupid house alarm going off in the middle of the night two nights in a frickin' row? Anyhow, I've been feeling sleep deprived and extremely stabby. So you can imagine that cooking something uber complicated is not high on my agenda.  One of my fav recipes to make during times like these are lamb burgers. Lamb burgers seem fancier than your everyday hamburger, but take about the same amount of effort. 

Lamb Burgers

Ingredients

2 1/4 lbs. ground lamb

1/2 cup diced red onion

6 oz. crumbled feta

1/2 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

1 tablespoon ground coriander

3/4 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

3 tablespoons oil  (+ extra for oiling the grill)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix the ingredients with your hands until evenly blended.  Form into 6 patties. Make a thumbprint indention on the top, middle of each patty.

2. Cover and place in the fridge for 30-60 minutes

3. Preheat grill.  Grill burgers over medium heat on oiled grill, for about 5-6 minutes on each side (or desired doneness).

4. Remove from grill and serve with your favorite condiments.  We like to top ours with a low-cal Greek yogurt dressing like OPA by Lighthouse Feta Dill Dressing. 

Makes 6 burgers.

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Sunday Funday Baked Hummus Dip

Can you believe October is already almost over? It's been a busy, busy month here at the casa. For one thing, I turned 40! Yep, the big 4-0. Gah!  To celebrate Mr. S. whisked me off for a fun, romantic getaway in SF the weekend before. We had a terrific time. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt, poked around Japantown, hit up the CA Academy of Sciences and even saw the Blue Angels zoom by. We also stocked up on a few bags of our favorite coffee from Philz.  Mmm!

View from our hotel room

 

Claude, the albino alligator at the CA Academy of Sciences

 

Philz, It's the Best!

On my actual birthday day, I woke up to this awesome scene in the dining room:

 

 

...plus a dozen balloons in my car. 

Then for dinner, Mr.S. planned a lovely night out at Mulvaney's with our friends, Michelle and Pete, for me. Followed by the most luscious, delicious salted caramel cake from Freeport Bakery. If you haven't tried this cake, get yourself to Freeport Bakery right now! It'll make your toes curl, it's soooo amazing. Seriously, it's like cake heroin. Sweet, sweet cake heroin. Ummmm yeah, so let's just say there were no leftovers from this cake in our house. ☺

On a healthier note, I've been making this baked hummus dish a lot on Sundays.  Mr.S and the kidlets have been immersed in watching the 9 billion football games that are on TV. So while they're watching that, Pepper and I are usually watching, "The League," on Netflix in the other room.  (If you haven't seen this show, check it out. It's absolutely hilarious...and this comes from somebody who equates watching football to going to the gyno. Neither are fun.)

 Regardless of what we're doing, we all seem to love snacking on this dish.


Sunday Funday Baked Hummus (adapted from Iowa Girl Eats 5 Layer Baked Hummus recipe)

Ingredients

10 oz. Sabra Roasted Garlic Hummus
3 Jennie-O Hot Italian Turkey Sausages (removed from casing)
2 medium leeks, white & green parts only (cut the leeks in half lengthwise, then slice thinly)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
salt & fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon McCormick's onion powder
1 large clove of garlic, minced
6 oz. Trader Joe's Feta with Mediterranean Herbs


Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Stir up the hummus so the roasted garlic bits get incorporated into the hummus. Spread the hummus mixture evenly into the bottom of a 10x7 baking dish.

3. In a large pan, brown your turkey sausage.

4. Add in your sliced leeks and garlic. Season with salt, fresh ground pepper and onion powder. Sauté until softened.

5. Take sausage-leek mixture and layer it over the hummus.

6. Sprinkle with feta.

7. Place in oven for 20 minutes.

8. Serve hot with chips or warm pita bread.

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Heavenly Hummus

You've heard of the Midas Touch, right? Well, my friend Cate has what I like to refer to as the Hummus Touch. She touches plain old garbanzo beans...and "POOF!" they metamorphize  into some mind-blowing, magically delicious hummus. Mr. S.'s eyes glaze over in hummus lust whenever her hummus is mentioned...seriously, it's the best tasting hummus you'll ever have. If you don't believe me, follow this recipe and find out for yourself but don't say I didn't warn you!

Ingredients

3 cups of garbanzo beans (buy dried chickpeas and rehydrate them, they taste so much better than the canned beans...it's worth the hassle.)
1 can of white kidney beans (save the liquid)
1 large lemon
4-6 garlic cloves (pressed)
2-3 T tahini
4-6 T olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Prepping Chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans)

- Place dried chickpeas in a large bowl, pick out any debris or unsavory looking beans.

- Rinse the beans a few times under the tap.

- Place the beans in a large bowl (use a big one because the beans will swell as they absorb the water), cover with plenty of water and leave to soak overnight. You can leave them in the fridge if you wish, but I usually just leave the bowl on the counter.

- The next day, drain the water and place the beans in a pot with clean water.

- Bring the beans to a boil then reduce the heat to low and allow the beans to simmer for about 15 minutes.

- Skim off and discard any foam that appears on the water's surface.

- Remove the pot from heat, drain into a colander and rinse well with cold water.

Hummus Instructions

- Hummus is easiest to make in a food processor, but a blender will also do the trick. However, you might have to halve the recipe to fit (this makes a TON) it in a blender.

- Put beans in blending machine of choice, add pressed garlic, juice of half a lemon, tahini and a little bit of the reserved bean liquid (maybe 2-3 tbls) , enough for it to blend fairly easily, but not so it’s runny. Try adding a little at a time, until it’s running fairly smoothly but there are still little flecks of beans.

- Taste and add more lemon juice, tahini, salt and pepper (to taste).

- When the taste is to your liking, with the machine running pour the olive oil in very slowly in a little stream, this makes the hummus fluff up a bit as the oil is emulsifying the mix and it gives it a nice texture. ( Just make sure you’ve added all the other wet type of ingredients lemon juice, tahini, bean liquid before the oil otherwise it can wind up runny. )

- You can jazz the hummus up by topping it with your favorite accompaniment- a tasty, puree of roasted red peppers, fresh parsley and a drizzle of olive oil or perhaps a sprinkling of za'atar or some cumin and cayenne...the possibilities are endless.

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Nasubi : Eggplant Caviar

I'll be honest, I've never been a huge fan of eggplant. Although the deep royal purple has always captivated me, I've usually found it to be a rather bland vegetable. The only eggplant that had ever peaked my interest up until recently was a strange (now defunct) Japanese reality TV show called "Nasubi" (the Japanese word for eggplant). If you've never heard about it, check out the link...it preceded the United States' "Survivor" series. All I'll say is...it involved a naked guy, an empty room and several contests.

Anyhow, being a fan of David Lebovitz' recipes I thought I'd give his eggplant caviar a try. Surprisingly, this variation on baba ganoush is quite flavorful. Mr. S thought the puree to be a tad spicy but I found it to be a nice change from your typical tamer spreads like hummus and guacamole. I opted to sprinkle a little bit (ok, a lot) of sumac on mine which gave it a nice tangy finish.

Eggplant Caviar  (adapted from David Lebovitz' recipe)
Make about six servings

[If you don't own a grill, just oven-roasting the eggplant for a longer period of time, until they're soft and wilty.]

3 small Japanse eggplants
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus additional for preparing the pan
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon chili pepper powder
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

- Brush a baking sheet with olive oil and sprinkle it with a bit of sea salt. Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

- Poke each eggplant a few times and place them over a gas flame on the stovetop or a grill, turning them every so often, until they get a nice char on the outside and feel soft and wilty. Roast them for five to ten minutes.

- When cool enough to handle, cut the eggplants in half lengthwise, and place them cut side down on the oiled baking sheet.

- Bake the eggplants until the flesh is thoroughly cooked, which should take about twenty minutes.

- Remove the eggplants from oven and scrape the pulp from the skins into the bowl of a food processor.
- Add the tablespoon of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and chili pepper powder.

- Pulse the food processor a few times, until the mixture is almost smooth. Add the basil and pulse a few more times.

-Taste, and add additional salt, lemon, or other seasonings, as desired.

- To serve, spoon into a bowl and make a small hole in the center. Pour a bit of olive oil in the middle and sprinkle with chili powder, sumac, or some chopped fresh herbs.

- Serve with some pita triangles.

- Eggplant caviar can be kept refrigerated for up to five days.

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Stuffed : Dolma

A few weeks ago, Mr. S. and I attended a lovely wedding held by Susan and Dan. The happy couple opted for a Mediterranean food theme and it was delicious. The dinner consisted of a greek salad, falafel, hummus, pita bread, chicken souvlaki, tabblouleh and dolma. Everything was wonderful but we both found ourselves repeatedly reaching for the dolma. So when my friend Elif, who’s Turkish, generously offered to show me how to make vegetarian dolma, I jumped at the chance. On a quiet Saturday morning over Turkish coffee, I learned how to prepare several Turkish dishes from scratch: dolma, kisir, sumac-onion salad and a walnut-garlic-red pepper spread. Elif's dolma recipe blows the store-bought variety out of the water, no contest.


Elif’s Dolma Recipe

Ingredients:

2 jars of grape leaves*
1 large diced or grated white onion
2 cups uncooked white rice
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup pinenuts
½ cup currants or raisins
1 ½ t ground cinnamon
¼ t ground cloves
2 lemons, juiced and sliced
1 t salt (to taste)

* If you live in Sacramento, try the Mediterranean market on Fulton

Filling Instructions:

- 1. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan or medium pot. Sweat the onions until they become soft, about 10 minutes.
- 2. Stir in the pinenuts. Allow the onions to carmelize and the pinenuts to brown.
- 3. Add in the currants, cinnamon, ground cloves and salt (don't forget the salt!). Mix well.
- 4. Add in the uncooked rice and 2 cups of water. Simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is half cooked.
- 5. Remove from heat and set aside.

Rolling Instructions:

- 1. Drain the grape leaves in a colander and then place them in a large bowl. Fill the bowl full of hot water and let the leaves sit for 10-15 minutes. Drain and rinse the leaves under cold water.
- 2. Lay one leaf, vein side up/ glossy side down with the stem end pointing towards you. Carefully remove the stem where it hits the leaf.
- 3. Place a spoonful of filling towards the middle by the stem and then using your fingers, elongate the filling into a “cigarette” shape.
- 4. Fold both sides towards the middle, then fold the stem end up and gently roll towards the top. You want to be firm but not roll too tight; otherwise, the leaf will rip when the rice expands. Repeat.
- 5. Arrange the rolls side by side, seam side down in an oven-safe pan (Pyrex or casserole dishes work well for this). It’s okay to stack them.
- 6. Fill the pan ¾ full of water and cover it tightly with aluminum foil.
- 7. Cook at 375 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, until rice is fully cooked
- 8. Allow dolmas to cool.
- 9. Once cooled, sprinkle with fresh lemon juice and garnish with lemon slices.

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Opa! : Spanakopita

Before life got too hectic, a group of us girls used to have a dinner club. We'd get together from time to time, pick a food theme and then each of us would pick a recipe that fit the theme. We'd bring our ingredients over to the designated host's home and then drink wine and chat while preparing our dishes. The last supper club we held consisted of a Greek / Turkish theme (yes both, since we couldn't decide on just one). Dishes that were prepared were a delicious pastitsio, yummy lamb koftas, a flaky pan of baklava and an overflowing platter of treats (dolmas, pita chips and a range of homemade dipping sauces- hummus, dill, tahini).  For my contribution, I decided to try my hand at spanakopita, a Greek spinach pie. It was the first time I had ever worked with phyllo dough and I ended up loving it. Not only did this recipe make it into my recipe box, but it's now one of Mr.S.'s favorite dishes.

* The recipe I use is from Chubby Hubby's blog with a few modifications. You can find the original recipe here: Chubby Hubby's Greek Spinach Pie. My version is listed below. The picture above is from the batch I made the night of dinner club.

Spanakopita

2 pounds fresh spinach
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese (I like the ones pre-mixed with Mediterranean herbs)
4 ounces large-curd cottage cheese
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup dill, fine chopped
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
salt and pepper
14 sheets phyllo pastry (this can be found in the frozen pastry section of your supermarket)
2 sticks of unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup chopped green onions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

* Wash the spinach thoroughly and pull off any woody stems. Drain, but don't dry.
* Place the spinach in a large pot with about 3-4 T of water.
* Place the pot over a low flame, cover and allow the spinach to wilt, this will take about 5-6 minutes.
* Place spinach in a colander, press and drain off any excess water.
* Then put the leaves in a pan and cook over high heat, drying out the spinach.

* In a bowl, mash the feta and cottage cheeses together with a fork. Add in the eggs, spinach, dill, and nutmeg. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

* Find a baking tray or pan a little smaller than the sheets of pyllo. Brush it with the melted butter. Place half of the phyllo sheets, one on top of the other, at the bottom of the pan, brushing each sheet one at a time with the melted butter, letting the sheets come up along the sides.
* Spread the spinach mix evenly on top.
* Then cover with the remaining sheets, brushing each one individually, including the top one, with the melted butter.
* Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until crisp and golden.

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Formoli's

3260 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95816. (916) 448-5699
Moving to new location end of May 2011- 3839 J Street

While contemplating how to articulate my first experience at Formoli's, a saying of Julia Child's repeatedly popped into my head, "You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces-just good food from fresh ingredients." Formoli's did exactly that and surpassed my expectations for a restaurant that had been open a mere ten days. Now take note, Formoli's is inconspicuously tucked away in the same strip mall as the Raven. The restaurant itself is small and narrow- more conducive for an intimate dinner than a large gathering. Despite the limited amount of room to work with, the owners have thoughtfully taken the time to make sure each painstakingly small detail from floor to ceiling is perfect and lends itself to the overall ambiance. Above you, the fluorescent lighting is masked by billowy swags of fabric and in it's place to illuminate are tasteful sconces. The warm walls are accented with various interesting works of art. Each table is outfitted with a small Moroccanesque candle and a single delicate, green cymbidium orchid floating in the water.

Upon entering, we were greeted quickly and ushered to a nearby open table. I found the staff to be both welcoming and attentive. Our server was quite knowledgeable and eager to ensure a pleasant dining experience. To start with, she recommended an excellent Tempranillo wine. I appreciated that she took the care to listen to what types of qualities I actually like in wines before selecting two that might be of interest to me, as opposed to automatically recommending the most expensive one on the list. She even brought over a sampling to make sure that I liked it before I finalized my decision, a nice touch which was appreciated- in fact, it made my dining companion decide to order a glass of the same.

We were then given the perfect amount of time to peruse the menu; which is broken up into- small plates, salad, burgers/sandwiches and entrees. The entrees section is a bit limited (I think it only listed a duck dish and two specials) but I think that worked out for the better as the small dishes are what really stand out here. Being a typical Libra, choosing what to order has always been a dilemma for me. Luckily my dining companion, Amanda, was game for ordering several small dishes and sharing. Although the stuffed dates and seared scallop dishes both sounded enticing and there was a tasty gazpacho that caught my eye, we opted to go with the calamari, yam frites, the Portabello mushroom and the ahi.

The calamari was sauteed perfectly and served tentacles and all upon a bed of greens and accented with endive leaves. The bite-sized pieces were tender, unbreaded (yum!) and not overly chewy. The yam frites were hands down my favorite dish of the evening. Cut in long thin stalks, the sweet yams were lightly sprinkled with sea salt and ground pepper and accompanied by a scrumptious paprika aioli. The paprika aioli balanced out the sweetness of the yams well and gave it a nice subtle kick of spiciness, only noticeable in the aftertaste. In fact, I contemplated stabbing Amanda with my fork to nab the last few bites of yam frites...luckily, I was able to restrain myself. The Portabello mushroom dish was okay. The Portabello was stacked pancake style and layered with (asiago?) cheese and thinly sliced domestic mushrooms, similar in fashion to a pastry. As for the seared ahi, it was the only dish that didn't wow me. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't awful and we did eat it but it was oversalted and the ahi was very tender. Additionally, the paired sauce resembled guacamole both in color and in taste and did little to enhance anything about the ahi. I ended up scraping off what I could of the seasoning and dipping the ahi in the paprika aioli that came with the yam frites. Yes, paprika aioli makes everything taste good...it's like the ketchup of the Mediterranean.

Anyhow, any regrets in ordering the ahi were soon forgotten with my first bite of dessert- a crema catalana. Our server described it as a Spanish creme brulee and the description was quite accurate, although I found it not to be as rich or as heavy as regular creme brulee and the caramelized sugar topping was slightly softer and not quite as crisp. The crema catalana satiated my sugar craving and I found the slight ginger taste to be refreshing - an excellent after dinner palate cleanser.

As we were finishing up, the chef came by to introduce himself and to check on our dining experience which was a nice touch. In reflection, I feel- the ahi aside, Formoli's definitely has it's flavors dialed in. In addition, I found their service, to be equally friendly and efficient. I'm looking forward to more enjoyable dinners at Formoli's and am curious to see what it evolves into. Hopefully, they'll find their niche in Sacramento and perhaps even push the envelope with some regional dishes that are unfamiliar to the Sac food scene or offer up some innovative creations of their own.

- 2/2011

It's almost 3 years later and I'm still religiously dining at Formoli's. The food they put out continues to wow me and the service never fails to be friendly. The menu has expanded and changes regularly but every dish I've ordered since that first visit has been wonderful. If you can, order the scallops...the accompaniment may vary from a carrot puree to greens depending on the season, but the scallops are always cooked perfectly with a nice seared top. Also, give the whiskey burger a whirl- it's hands down the best burger in Sacramento, without a doubt. The whiskey demi-glace and habanero aioli will have you licking your fingers in an unladylike fashion.

(interior of new location)

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