A night at The Nile

One of the things I look forward to when I come back to Madison for a visit is dinner with the Madison Area Veg Meetup Group. Dave, the group's organizational genius, plans the best dinners and events. The dinners are so popular that they always sell out very fast, no matter if there are 50 available spots or 80. As soon as I knew the dates I would be here, I signed up for two events. Dave finds great restaurants that agree to prepare a completely vegan meal for $15 per person. Besides great food, other things I like about the group are, it's very friendly, and very age-diverse. There are singles, young families, older folks — a real range of attendees. And you never know who might turn up; I and each of the four people I went with, all unexpectedly ran into someone they knew.


My friend, Claudia

The dinner I just attended was held at The Nile, a new restaurant run by the former manager of Lulu's, a beloved Middle Eastern restaurant that fell victim to the redevelopment of the neighborhood in which it was located. While the food at the event was excellent, I think the number of diners overwhelmed the kitchen, and the quantity was a little slim. I had just enough to eat without feeling full, but there were a couple of things I didn't get to taste, and at least one dish that never made it to our table. We were at a very large table and received the same size platters as the smaller tables did, resulting in the five of us at the end of the table scraping out the remaining dregs on the plate. I was at the wrong end of the table for taking photos, that's for sure. I never got to photograph the lovely platters, just the little I managed to get on my plate — no zucchini on the couscous for me.


Friends, Donna and George. Claire was there, too, but somehow didn't make it into a photo. :(

The meal started with hummus, falafel and fresh pita. The flavors and textures were excellent, even if the quantity was scarce. The pita was perfectly warm and chewy.



The yellow split pea soup that followed was amazing. Perfectly spiced and creamy, it was the soup I can never seem to get right at home. We each got our own little cup, so no shortages for this course!



Salad with lemon and olive oil dressing followed the soup, and it was fresh and crisp.



There were several entrées, the first of which was spinach pie, theoretically served with tabbouleh, but our table didn't receive tabbouleh. The delicious pastry contained spinach, chopped onions and walnuts layered in thin dough and baked.



Couscous with vegetable stew came next. I often used to order the couscous at Lulu's, one of our favorite restaurants when we lived in Madison. The wonderfully fragrant stew with carrots, zucchini, potatoes and tomato sauce, was delicious as always, but my portion was mostly sauce, as most of the vegetables had disappeared long before the plate reached our end of the table. I never did get to try the zucchini, but I still enjoyed my portion, even though the couscous was a little too salty, in my opinion.



What you're seeing here is a little take-out container of Egyptian kushari. It's pasta and rice tossed with brown lentils and fried onions, served with a light, spicy, garlic tomato sauce. It looked and smelled great but I can't tell you how it tasted because our poor, neglected table didn't get any. The staff brought little to-go packs of leftovers from the kitchen, and gave them to our table — not enough for everyone, though. At that point, I'd already had dessert, and passed up an offered taste from one of the lucky recipients.



Dessert, of course, was baklava, and it was really good. Really good. I'd already dug into it when I remembered to take a picture. The entire dinner was delicious, and I definitely want to go back and enjoy another meal there. Although some people at the dinner were still hungry, I was happy to leave without the over-stuffed feeling I sometimes have at restaurants if I over-indulge. But I'm a somewhat light eater, so I can certainly see where my fellow diner's complaints were valid.

Middle Eastern mezze cooking class / veganmofo 2009 / cookbook winner

Spiced olives

On Tuesday night my husband and I took another cooking class at PCC Natural Markets, and I can't say enough good things about it. Please excuse me if I blabber on and on about how wonderful the food was. The class was taught by Sureyya Gokeri, originally from Turkey, who taught us the Turkish versions of several well-known dishes. Sureyya teaches classes at PCC as well as at her family's business, Istanbul Imports, and if you live in the Seattle area I highly recommend taking one of her classes. Although the class syllabus (baba ghannouj, taboulleh salad, spiced olives, Turkish artichokes, flatbread from Jordan, stuffed dates from Iraq, and tahini sauce with bean salad) sounded very familiar, Sureyya's versions of these dishes were a revelation.

Mezze refers to food that comes to the table before the main course — Middle Eastern hors d'oeuvre. The main meal usually contains meat, but mezze consists of fresh vegetables, bread and olive oil. We started with zaytun musabbeh — spiced olives from Lebanon. In my mind you can hardly go wrong with olives - I always gravitate to the olive tray at parties — and this salad was an olive-lovers dream. Sureyya used marinated olives bought from the olive bar at PCC. The recipe contains pomegranate juice, and Sureyya also added fresh pomegranate arils. She showed us how to open the pomegranate by removing both ends and peeling carefully like an apple.

Taboulleh

We learned a few cooking tricks to make the food more flavorful. For example, Sureyya always adds each dried herb to a small amount of olive oil to more thoroughly release its flavor. She then adds the oil and herb to the dish. She also told us her mother stored fresh herbs wrapped in tissue paper rather than in plastic. She said this keeps the herbs fresher longer.

When she made the taboulleh, she added paprika to color it, as well as ground cumin and crushed red pepper. It was served Turkish style in crisp leaves of romaine lettuce. (Do you see the pomegranate seeds in there?)

Bean salad with tahini sauce

Our teacher made a simple bean salad with lemon juice, olive oil, cumin and Italian parsley, to go on top of a thick and creamy tahini dressing. It was so good, just thinking about it makes me hungry.

baba ghannouj and khoubiz

I was most impressed with the baba ghannouj. Traditionally, eggplant for this dish is grilled over charcoal, imparting a smoky flavor. Sureyya roasted one eggplant in the oven, and grilled the other eggplant on the gas stove burner over very low heat until it was black and completely soft. She peeled off the blackened skin and chopped the eggplants by hand. The result was a smoky and fabulous dip. To go with the dip she made Khoubiz, flatbread from Jordan. The bread was very simple to make, and tasted amazing.

The enginar, or Turkish artichokes, was something I've never eaten before, but am sure to eat again now that I know how to make it. I've never seen a better use for peas and carrots!

I'm sorry to say the photos of our dessert, holwah tamar or stuffed date sweetmeats from Iraq, were too blurry to use. This was simply dates pureed in a food processor, mixed with chopped blanched almonds, rolled into balls and rolled in either toasted sesame seeds or shredded coconut. Very simple and delicious.

Sureyya has graciously allowed me to share her recipe for olive salad.

Zaytun Musabbeh (Spiced olives from Lebanon) serves 6 to 8

• 1 lb. pitted green olives or marinated olives
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
• 3/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons pomegranate juice (or more to taste)
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 2 firm tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup fresh red or green pepper, chopped

1. Place olives in a bowl (rinsing the brine is optional) and chop into small pieces.
2. Add the dried spices to olive oil and then rub into the olives by hand.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the tomatoes and peppers.
4. Add the tomatoes and peppers just before serving.

Variations

1. Instead of olives you can use one of the following: potatoes, cucumbers, roasted eggplant, beans such as chickpeas or kidney beans, or mushrooms.
2. Add chopped walnuts to the salad.
5. Add fresh pomegranate arils.
6. If tomatoes are out of season, use 1 tablespoon of tomato paste or red pepper paste.

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The winner of the cookbook giveaway is Courtney. Courtney, please send me your address and I'll send the book to you. Congrats!