Specifically, a sweet and chewy morsel of bulgar wheat which has been transformed into the most delicious tabbouleh I have probably ever tasted in my short but sexy life. We snagged some at my sister's friend Jim's crib, who's known her since high school at least and they both went to Texas for college, so here I was preparing for a weekend of a BBQ onslaught, which is a tough thing for me a recovering pork fanatic and currently a fairly pious pescatarian. But no, he was dead cool even after she gave him only a couple hours notice that we'd need to crash at his place after driving 12 hours or more straight and arriving in Austin at 4am last Friday morning. Who knew we'd arrive to find the most bad azz tabbouleh sitting in the fridge just waiting for us and we were too tired to eat when we got in, so we just passed out and then woke up around eleven and ate some of it for breakfast cause we are just those kinds of people with no food limits. I would have eaten it at 7am if I had woken then. You know that kind. That's us!
Anyway, I hope this isn't something his mom was planning on publishing cause I am sharing it now for all the world to see. I can't hold it in. Like I used to learn in Sunday School as a kid, you can't hide your light under a bushel. And neither can Jim and his amazing cook of a mom hide this fantastic secret to deliciousness and great health. It must shine for all people to see and enjoy. Or something like that.
So here it is. Eat and Enjoy. Thanks again Jim!!! And all respects go out to Jim's mom.
Jim Surface's mom's Tabbouleh recipe (as interpreted by Jim, the youth of tomorrow)
1 cup dry bulgar wheat
1/2 Cup boiling water
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 good olive oil (as a mom of 2 boys I foresee myself using "good"before a number of products when trying to drive it home, but olive oil is definitely a given. Go mom~)
1/4 lemon juice (Jim lets it flow over the cup a bit....the rebel.)
2 teaspoons crushed minced garlic (or in Jim's translation, 1 tablespoon.) Hope this isn't a date night, ladies! But if it was, cancel on him/her cause this recipe is gonna be so worth it. Or just serve it up so both of you can have garlic breath and each cancels the other out.
3 Tablespoons mint, chopped
1/2 Cup chopped green onions or scallions.
1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 Cup chopped, packed parsley (Flat leaf), chopped
Put Bulgar wheat and salt in a bowl and add the boiling water and cover and let it sit for 15 minutes. Add olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and mint to the bulgar. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Add green onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and parsley just before serving. Prepare to have your gaskets blown.
The pic doesn't do it justice, but this is going to end up being the most amazing taboulleh ever.I know because I ate it. All of it. (a double recipe, at that.)
No regrets....
The next one is not so easy, but its even more astounding in its accomplishment. My childhood friend Dr. Sarah Passino (whoa, wait, she wasn't a doctor when we were children. She's my age, but clearly got further in school) was kind enough to let me tag along with her and her foodie friends (and I say that with ultimate respect and affection) on their Friday night (a couple weeks ago) get together to make chevre. Yeah, thats Sarah for ya. This is a feat I had previously thought could only be accomplished by huge machines in some romantic part of southern France or northern Italy or wherever goat cheese is made, but no, apparently it can be made, and made quite well in fact, in East Friggin' Nashville. Wow. I was absolutely inspired by the set up and all the hard work she had gone to in order to gather the materials and have the product ready at multiple stages for us to see and enjoy. Amazing. I got to take a huge portion with me and even though it was a bit strange to have to harvest it straight out of the cheesecloth, I went to town on that chevre. Dayum. It was amazing and I am sure I'll pay for it later cause it had to have some caloric consequences owning to the delicious taste and texture. I can't even think of it without getting a little eager again. It was soooo good and no, I will not bother to try and get the recipe cause I am sure at that level it's not even called a simple "recipe" anymore. Its like a lifestyle. I can't wait to adopt it and Lord knows both Sarah and I (along with countless chicks and dudes) have fantasized about tending goats and all that. ...But yeah, it was rad cheese and I def want to learn how to make some of that again. I was literally squeezing and straining the goat cheese whey and fragments out of the cheese cloth onto my cracker when I had sadly gotten to the last remnants of that curd of the gods. It did not end well. But hey, Bravo Dr. Passino!
Please check her out this Tuesday at her dinner she is organizing downtown called "Soup Up! Another Dinner is Possible" to help show solidarity with the Immokalee workers that will be visiting Nashville next week.
Check it out!! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=141115759268436
Sarah was the one who opened my mind to the concept of cleaning out your fridge before you put a bunch of new groceries in there. Think about it. I guess its just biz as usual at your house but it was mind blowing to a slob and time-pressed mom like myself, so I finally went to town on my 2 fridges and that was the most liberating thing I could have done! Exhausting but Liberating. Thanks Sarah! More on that later....for now just check out the massive quantities of flat leaf parsley I had hunted down and of course who can't love a good Napa cabbage or two just sitting there waiting to become something delectable. I'm baaaack!!
My fridge after being inspired again to cook!Or really, to just do anything in the kitchen save making black bean and cheese nachos in the microwave.
More zombie housewifery to come so keep checking me out!
And definitely more homages to those that inspire me like these rad human beings have.
And definitely more homages to those that inspire me like these rad human beings have.
luyu,
~rr
~rr
