Muhammara- Roasted Red Bell Pepper Dip

         

Think you like hummus? Wait until you try Muhammara, a decadent dip originating from Syria that will make your world explode with creamy, comforting goodness.

Prior to the nightmare that has been Covid-19, I loved frequenting the Peacock Lounge at the Proper Hotel here in Austin, where I first discovered this outstanding treat. Served with warm pita and a zesty cocktail or shrub, this is hands down my favorite appetizer or mezze to enjoy while lounging in the colorful middle eastern inspired lounge lobby with friends. And then, just like that, the entire world was turned upside down due to a virus that literally made society come to a screeching halt, and along with it, entertaining, dining out, bountiful grocery store visits. The pandemic proved the terrifying reality that these great United States was woefully under-prepared to handle the wave of illness headed its way. And so we all did our part and took shelter for what we thought would be a fortnight and stretched in to two months. I was blessed to be able to work from home, despite my worries for my team who stayed working the front lines with the public at my office. They adapted beautifully, and I did my best to pray for them and send food to nourish them and send them my love from afar. It has been the strangest and most unsettling and surreal of times. Not a war, but in a way still a battle, only with an invisible killer.

My anxieties hit a peak when we had to take one of our beloved pugs and put him to sleep- socially distanced as I tearfully soothed him with my voice. I lost my appetite and with it, five pounds shed from worry. And then I began to learn and practice daily meditation and slowly felt my limbs and my breath relax and return to life, and with it, my love of cooking. We made some tremendous meals throughout the sheltering and I was thankful I have learned to be resourceful and stock a pantry, as supplies were at one point very limited in our formerly abundant stores. There are just the two of us, so we have no back up freezer as the majority in our area have. They were the fortunate and dare I say, greedy ones, who stockpiled all the shelves at our local store. They ate well, so did we, but with much planning and frugality. My Depression era father thankfully taught me how to stretch out a meal and get creative.

I was craving my favorite treat from the Peacock, so I googled muhammara recipes and with the staples I had on hand, made a rather good knock off which was a huge hit with my husband. He could dip handfuls of homemade pita into the creamy dip. Being gluten free, I enjoyed it with crudites or Simple Mills almond flour Rosemary and sea salt crackers. The recipe calls for Pomegranate molasses, of which I did not have, so I made due with pomegranate juice in the back of the fridge. I scored some fresh seeds from a Whole Foods delivery on the rare, and lucky day they had a slot open after weeks of none. They even had some chicken that day! I realize I still had many blessings to count as so many around the globe have lost their jobs and all sense of normality and security.

Things were looking up, until our refrigerator and freezer broke. The Russian repairman who spoke but a few words of broken English, typed in his google translator that our fridge was beyond repair. We hurriedly went to the home improvement store to find another one. A rush delivery would be six days out. I felt deflated and despaired that the small amount of food we managed to procure would all go to waste. Somehow, by a miracle, the freezer held it's temps until the new fridge came. It was quite the relief and I was so grateful my prayers were answered. This dip, while not quite as good as the one I enjoy at the Peacock, will always hold a bittersweet memory for me as we embrace the new way of life.

INGREDIENTS

1 12 oz jar of Roasted Red Bell Peppers, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup creamy almond butter

2 roasted cloves of garlic (I smoked mine in the Big Green Egg)

2 teaspoons allepo or cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons sea salt

4 tablespoons or pomegranate juice and 1 pinch of sugar

Olive oil, pistachios and pomegranate seeds to garnish

Blend all the ingredients except for the garnish until smooth and creamy. Add a little water if it is too thick.

Drizzle with olive oil, garnish and serve at room temperature with crudites, warm pita or crackers.

Stays sealed in a container in fridge for a week.

Ricotta and Graham Crackers with Fig and Honey Drizzle

So I made some ricotta cheese a few weekends ago HERE and just fell in love with the whole process and the fresh, creamy taste. I made another, smaller batch and this time let it drain in the fridge for 3 hours and it yielded a much denser ricotta which I think may work better for cannelloni or lasagna.

So for a nice little Holiday hors d'oeuvres I simply smeared some organic Cinnamon graham crackers with ricotta, dolloped some fig jam and topped with chopped Spanish marcona almonds and fresh herbs such as chopped basil, lemon thyme and lavender from the window herb garden. I also made one with ricotta, local honey, marcona almonds and herbs. A little crack of fresh ground sea salt. This would be great also drizzled with some good ages balsamic vinaigrette or lemon curds and lavendar. The graham cracker really is a terrific little medium for these sweet and salty little bites. Serve with your fave wine and enjoy the season of indulgence! When not using homemade ricotta, I really, really like Bel Gioioso brand as it tastes the freshest.

Dr. Pepper Baby Back Ribs on Big Green Egg

It's not even summer yet, but the heat has been brutal with triple digit temperatures. I'm praying we don't have a repeat of last summer, which was the hottest and driest on record. One of the drawbacks of living in Austin is either it's boiling hot, or during the cool season, we are fighting horrific cedar allergies. But we love our city nonetheless! It's beautiful, the people are the best in Texas and our food scene is exploding. This heat means I need to spend as much time in the pool as possible, and less time inside the hot kitchen. Last weekend we were perusing our new Whole Foods and found a beautiful rack of Baby backs. That means it's time to grill up some Dr. Pepper Baby backs poolside with the Big Green Egg!! I think these may even be better than the ribs at Houston's/Bartletts restaurant. They have just a subtle hint of Dr. Pepper, and a great kick from the dry rub and bbq sauce. Serve with baked beans (Bush's Grillin' Beans are delish), homemade corn bread and you've got yourself a mouthwatering southern Sunday BBQ.

Here's How it's done:
Get a rack of baby backs, remove the membrane from the bottom of the ribs with a knife, or ask the butcher to do it for you. This will ensure your ribs will be very tender as the membrane does not break down. (We prefer Berkshire pork as they have terrific flavor BTW).

In a baking dish or foil pan, pour two bottles of Dublin Dr. Pepper (Sadly, they are no longer in business, but we like that they used cane sugar and now use the HEB brand Dr. B with pure cane sugar. The plain old cane sugar kind will work too though. I'm just kind of a snob). Throw in a couple of whole garlic cloves, sprinkle the tops of the ribs with dry rub, cover with foil and refrigerate overnight or 48 hours for a good soak. I've also fallen in love with Dizzy Dust brand Pineapple dizzy dust as a rub. AMAZING!!!

Dry Rub:
- 4tbs salt
- 2/3 cup granulated brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
- 1 tablespoon granulated onion
- 2 tablespoons paprik
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon dried mustard powder
- 2 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons cayenne
- 1 tablespoon thyme leaves
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
-2tbs yellow mustard 
You will likely have plenty of rub left over to store in the pantry for future use. Great on chicken too!!

On the day of grilling, fire up the Green Egg and raise the temp to about 500 degrees. Then close the bottom and leave it open just a tiny bit. To prepare the ribs, slather with mustard and dry rub until thickly coated.

Close the top vents until barely open and close the bottom vent until there is just a tiny peek open and lower the temperature to 225 degrees. We also add a big chunk of Pecan wood once the temperature is down that has been soaked for a few hours in water. We cook the ribs indirectly and have the plate placed over the coals, with the legs facing up. We place a pan of water over the plate, then cover with the grill grate. I don't use a rib rack, but simply place the ribs directly on the grill, meat side up, sprinkle liberally with more rub and smoke them for 2 hours, spritzing them each hour with DP.

Then it's time to make these ribs meltingly tender. We fill a foil pan with a fresh bottle of Dr. Pepper, place the ribs meat up and baste with DP. Sprinkle a bit more rub if you'd like, cover tightly with foil and cook 3 hours more.

 

Ribs just before covering & cooking for another 3 hours.

Then after three hours are up, we baste again with DP, then paint on our favorite BBQ Sauce, and cook uncovered for one more hour, being sure to baste every 20 minutes with BBQ sauce. We LOVE Rufus Teague's Honey Sweet. I'm from North Texas originally, so we like our BBQ sweet, FYI. The more south you head, the more they like a vinegary style BBQ. No thanks, not for me :-) This recipe also works really well with coca cola- as long as it's made with real sugar and not the corn syrup junk.

Best BBQ Sauce EVER!! Especially if you stir in a little bourbon reduction. I love how the bottle looks like a whiskey flask!

 These babies are ready to eat!! See how the bones are sticking out a bit? That's when you know they are perfect and fork tender.

Smoked Tomato and Burrata Caprese Salad

I managed to salvage some tomatoes from my plant that the silly squirrels didn't harvest for themselves and found a nice ball of burrata cheese at Whole Foods. Burrata is much like fresh mozzarella, but is filled with the creamiest most sinful curd that it may just be my favorite cheese in the world.

The other night a friend and I had a fabulous tapas style meal at 11 Plates & Wine in Westlake and the waiter brought over some chilled, smoked tomatoes for us to try. This inspired me to smoke my tomatoes for a caprese salad. So we fired up the Big Green Egg to make some kabobs, I lightly coated them with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt, wrapped them in foil and let them smoke for about 30 minutes at 250 degrees until they were tender. I dunked them in ice water to let them cool, slipped of their skins, sliced and served with the cheese and a nice 25 year old balsamic vinegar and drizzle of truffle oil. Sprinkle on some cypress salt and basil chiffonade and I may have found me favorite summer treat!