Avissar Dalia - Cookbook: Healthy Mediterranean Gourmet: Mediterranean Recipes For Everyday Cooking: Eat Healthy Gourmet Food

Healthy Mediterranean Gourmet

Dalia Avissar, Shelly Inbar

Photography Ariel Shafran

Editing of recipes Naama Abramovitz

English editing Diana Rubanenko

Graphic design Yana Yelman

Styling Sally Chifrak

Production Yoad Avissar

All rights reserve to the publisher

Published by Yoad Avissar.

P.O.Box 24132, Tel-Aviv, Israel.

Tel: 972-50-5233360

For feedback or comments about the book or its contents you can contact us at

Quality and health are the name of the game in our kitchen. Our recipes aim to show that flavorful, subtle cooking doesnt have to be rich in fat. All of them are based on fresh raw ingredients, most of them available at the neighborhood supermarket. Some recipes are updated versions of familiar dishes, alongside food ideas we created in our kitchen.

The book is divided into the usual chapters, by the types of dishes and main groups of ingredients. Many recipes can be mixed and matched, to create a wide variety of meals and styles - depending on your mood and whats in the pantry. Spontaneity and the ability to combine and improvise are key for us. But for less inventive days weve provided a list of suggestions for several planned meals for the holidays, for winter, for the kids, and for a gourmet fish meal. Like everyone else, we have to turn out basic everyday meals, as well as fancy dinners

You can find a list of basic products that should always be in the pantry . Using fresh ingredients with those products results in satisfying, healthful meals, fast and easy to prepare.

Over the years, weve adopted some principles that define our kitchen.

First, freshness.

Its easy to forget, but the flavor of fresh ingredients bought, cooked and eaten at the peak of their freshness is simply unbeatable. When vegetables and fish are truly fresh, complicated recipes are unnecessary. All they need is to be cooked quickly and simply, and lightly seasoned to enhance the flavor.

A touch of butter and cream

In every kitchen, the quality of the sauces is vital. And in sophisticated cuisine, butter and cream often play a crucial role in a sauces ultimate texture and flavor. Some of our recipes are richly flavored and smoothly textured thanks to a teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in milk, or low-fat ricotta that marries the flavors of the soup or sauce. Adding cornstarch or cheese is a more healthful option than butter or cream, now that we are aware of the risks in saturated fat. On occasion, though, we do add a teaspoon of butter or two teaspoons of low-fat cream to a sauce, for added flavor.

Desserts are the exception. We believe that either you eat the real thing, or not at all. For special occasions, we both believe that the dessert should be prepared and savored as it was meant to be with cream, butter and whatevers needed to make it festive and unforgettable.

Go easy on the red meat

Most of our main-course recipes are for chicken, and we rarely serve red meat. Like many people, weve heeded the warnings about over-indulging in red meat. A juicy steak is delicious, but our cuisine has a different focus.

and indulge with olive oil

We use good-quality extra virgin olive oil generously in almost every dish. Its healthful, and enriches every food with its distinctive flavor. In many recipes it acts as seasoning, drizzled over the dish when its ready for the table.

Nonstick cooking spray instead of frying oil

Instead of using oil to fry vegetables, fish or chicken, we use spraying oil exclusively. Weve thrown the old method - in which fried food absorbed excessive amounts of fat - out the kitchen door. The spray coats the pan or the pot with a thin layer of oil that prevents the food from sticking to the pan.

Simplicity and speed

Is there really everyday home cooking thats fast and easy to prepare but still creative and surprising? Well, this book features recipes that are on the table in no more than half an hourand often less. In the Poultry & Beef chapter youll find casserole dishes that are whipped up in twenty minutes and then simmered gently in the oven for three hours. Once the casserole is in the oven, turn down the heat a little, and you can leave the house for 3-4 hours. When you return, your meal is ready in the oven.

Our mother-and-daughter team created this cuisine slowly, over the years. The mother, naturally, laid down the foundations, and her daughter came on board because shed grown up on tasty food. Years later, when the daughter became a mother in her turn, we decided to share our family traditions and cooking credo with you.

Gourmet cooking can be healthful too. This book is more than a collection of our recipes. For us, Mediterranean Gourmet recipes are a way of life and we hope you find them attractive options - and enjoy them as much as we do.

All the recipes here require fresh, crisp vegetables that are perfect with the distinctive flavor of fine olive oil.

Salad can be a side dish for a meal (see the recipes for lettuce salad and fresh root-vegetable salad), fabulous first courses (roasted bell-peppers, roasted eggplant in tahini sauce, or tomato salad with red onions) or a stand-alone light meal (stir-fried chicken salad). Cream of eggplant salad, as well as rocket and fig salad, are great for brunch, and likewise the potato salad - our mayo-free take on the classic salad.

Arugula goes by many names - rocket, Italian cress, and Mediterranean rocket. All of them define the rather sharp, peppery leaves that are so popular. Whatever you call it, it makes a great salad-green. We use two types in the recipes that follow - the kind with small pointed leaves, and the other with larger, thicker leaves and a sharper flavor.

Recipes

4-6 servings

Ingredients

Preparation

Grate the carrots, radishes and celeriac on a coarse grater or in a food processor and transfer to a salad bowl.

Add the chives, oil and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Mix well and refrigerate for an hour or two before serving.

1 cup

Ingredients

Preparation

Halves the chilies lengthwise and soak in cold water for 30 minutes to tone down some of the spiciness. Discard the stalks, fibers and seeds, then transfer the chilies to a food processor. Add the cilantro, cumin, and garlic. Process, gradually adding the olive oil, until a coarse sauce is obtained. Refrigerate in a closed container for up to two weeks.

Wear gloves when preparing this sauce, because the odor (and impact!) of the chilies persists for hours.