For the milk pudding:

4      tablespoons cornstarch

4      cups milk

4      tablespoons sugar

1      tablespoons orange blossom water

For the orange pudding:

2      cups orange juice

2      tablespoons cornstarch

2      tablespoons sugar

1/2  teaspoons orange blossom water

For topping, optional

1/4  cup chopped unsalted pistachio nuts

-For the milk pudding, dissolve the cornstarch in cold water.  Pour the milk, the cornstarch mixture and the sugar into heavy pot and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon.  When you feel a slight resistance while stirring, and the mixture coats the back of the spoon, it has thickened sufficiently.  Add orange blossom water, stir and cook for 1 minute.  Remove from the pan from the heat.  Allow to cool slightly, then pour the pudding into ice cream dishes.  Leave at least a 1 inch space at the top to make room for the orange pudding.  Place the dishes in the refrigerator while you are making the orange pudding.

-For the orange pudding: Follow the same steps as milk pudding, replacing the milk with the orange juice.  When the orange juice thicken.  Remove from the heat,  allow it to cool slightly.  Take the milk pudding from the refrigerator and spoon the orange pudding on top the milk pudding making sure it cover the top.  Chill until ready to serve.

-To serve: Sprinkle with the pistachio and enjoy.

Rice and Vegetable Pilaf

serves 8

1/4       cup olive oil

1            small onion, chopped

1            clove garlic, mashed

2            cups frozen sweet peas, thawed

1            cup diced carrots

1            cup dried cranberries

1            cup boiled wild rice

2            cups Basmati rice

1            teaspoon allspice

1/4        teaspoon ginger

salt and pepper to taste

1/2        cup slivered almonds, toasted

1/2        cup pine nuts, toasted

-In a large heavy pot, heat the olive oil and saute the onion over medium heat for couple of minutes.  Add the garlic, the carrots and the dried cranberries.  Stir and add four and half cups of water to the vegetables.  Add the allspice, the ginger, the salt and the pepper and bring water to boil.

-Add the sweet peas, the wild rice and the Basmati rice.  Stir and bring back to a boil.  Cover and cook over very low heat for 15 minutes.  Turn off the heat.

-Allow the rice to rest for five minutes, and then spoon into large serving platter.  Sprinkle with the toasted almonds and pine nuts.

Vegan and Gluten Free Mac and “Cheese”

serves 6-8

4        tablespoons olive oil

1        medium red onion, finely chopped

1        cup chopped carrot

1/2   cup chopped celery

2       cloves garlic, sliced

1/2   teaspoon chopped fresh sage

1       teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon

1/2   cup short grain rice

1/2   teaspoon turmeric

2       cups water

salt and pepper to taste

6      ounce silken tofu

1       pound gluten free short pasta

-In a heavy post, heat the olive oil and saute the onion for couple of minutes.  Add the celery and the carrots and continue to saute for five minutes.

-Add the garlic, the sage and the tarragon.  Saute for couple minutes and add the rice and the turmeric.  Stir until the rice is well coated.

-Add the water, the salt and the pepper.  Bring to a boil and simmer over medium heat, stirring often, for 10 minutes or until the rice is cooked and smell and taste done.  Remove from the heat.

-Place the cooked rice in a food processor with the tofu and puree until you have smooth yellow paste. THIS IS YOUR VEGAN CHEESE.

-In a pasta pot, bring salted water to boil, and drop the pasta. Stir and boil for 6 minutes or until the pasta is al-dente.  Remove from the heat and drain well.

-Place the pasta in a bowl, add the vegan cheese and toss well.  Spoon the pasta in a baking dish and bake in a 375 degree F.oven for 25 minutes.  You can sprinkle ground toasted almonds on the top if you like.

serves 8

2        Large Eggplants

1/4    cup olive oil

1        medium onion, chopped

1        16-ounce diced tomato with juice

1        clove garlic

1 1/2  cup Basmati Rice

salt and pepper to taste

1/4    cup toasted pine nuts, optional

-Dice one eggplant into 1/2 inch cubes and place in a bowl.  Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of olive, toss and place on a cookie sheet.  Broil the eggplant until golden.  Take out of the oven and set aside.

-Slice the other eggplant  lengthwise into 1/2 inch thick slices.  Place on a cookie sheet, brush with olive oil and broil until golden.  Remove from the oven and set aside.

-In a medium heavy cooking pot, heat the rest of the olive oil and saute the onion until transparent.  Drain the diced tomato and add them to the onion.  Measure the tomato juice and add more water until you have 3 and 1/4 cup of liquid.  Add the tomato juice water to the pot, the garlic, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.

-Add the cubed eggplant and the rice.  Stir and bring back to a boil.  Cover and cook over very low heat for 15 minutes.  Turn off the heat and allow the rise to rest, covered, for 10 minutes.

-Line a bundet cake with the eggplant slices, spoon the rice pilaf into the lined bundet cake and press gently.

-Place shallow serving platter over the bundet cake and gently but fast turn the dish up-side down.

-Remove the cake pan, sprinkle with pine nuts and serve.

Tomato Cucumber Salad

serves 4

2        medium tomato, diced

4        small cucumber, diecd

6        scallion, diced

1/2   fresh fennel, diced

1       cup cooked garbanzo beans

1/4   cup lemon juice

4      tablespoons, olive oil

salt to taste

-In a salad bowl, toss all the vegetables gently. Whisk the lemon juice with olive oil and the salt. Drizzle over the vegetable and toss until well coated.

This salad will excite any discriminating taste bud. It is vegan and gluten free. It can be used as spread, as salad or as side dish.

Ingredients

2       cups coarsely chopped walnuts

1/2  medium red onion, chopped

1       red bell pepper, chopped

1       yellow bell pepper, chopped

1       jalapeno pepper, chopped

1/2  cup finely chopped fresh fennel, optional

1/2  cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2   teaspoon crushed red pepper

1        cup pomegranate juice

1        clove garlic, pierced with fork

1/4    cup walnut oil

1/4    cup lemon juice

zest of one lemon

3         tablespoons pomegranate molasses

salt to taste

-Place the pomegranate juice, the clove of garlic, the crushed red pepper in a class bowl.  Add the walnuts and allow them to marinate for 30 minutes.

-Drain the walnuts, place in a salad bowl and discard the pomegranate juice and the garlic.

-Add the onion, the chopped peppers and the fennel.  Toss the walnuts with the vegetables gently.

-In a separate bowl, whisk walnut oil with the lemon juice, the pomegranate molasses, the lemon zest and the salt.  Pour this dressing over the walnut mixture and toss until well coated.

-Sprinkle the cilantro over the walnuts mixture and serve.

make 6-8 serving

3              cups almond milk

4              tablespoons corn starch

1  1/2      cups sugar

1/2        candied orange peels, or orange mamalade*

12            ounces firm lite tofu

8 ramekin cups

-Preheat the oven to 375 F.

-In a heavy saucepan bring 1 cup of water with 1 cup of sugar to a boil.  Stirring until sugar is dissoleved. Boil syrup, without stirring, washin down any sugar crystals that cling to side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water, until it begins to turn golden.  Swirl pan untilsyrup is a deep golden caramel.  Divide caramel among ramekins, coatin bottoms.  Set ramekins in a roasting pan.

-In a chilled bowl, dissolve the corn starch in 1/2 cup of the almond milk. Add the rest of the almond milk and the rest of the sugar and mix well.

-In a food processor, place the candied orange peels or the orange marmalade and processes until smooth.

-Add the tofu to the food processor and continue to puree until you have smooth paste.

-Fold the tofu orange paste into the almond milk .

-Pour almond milk tofu custard among ramekins and add enough hot water to pan to reach halfway up sides of ramekins.

-Bake in middle of the oven until they are just set but still tremble slightly, about 40 minutes.

-Remove from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a rack.

-Refrigerate for couple hours or overnight.

*I prefer candied orange peels, the flavor is much stronger.

In Italy, various vegetable colors are used to color pasta—spinach for green, tomatoes for red, and even octopus ink for black pasta.

But all such colors are available in the stores here in America so there’s no need to use vegetables or other natural products with which to color eggs.  I think that’s unfortunate, because I would suppose that using natural colors would be of some interest to children during Easter time.

Research  tells us that beets originally came from plants in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.  The first mention of these sea plants appeared in an Assyrian text describing their planting in the hanging gardens of Babylon around 800 B.C.  Babylon.  The ancient Greeks presented beets as one of their offerings to the sun god Apollo.  The earliest Greek name for beets was “teutlon,” most likely because their foliage resembled squid tentacles.   Roman writers noted a variety of different colors in the leaves of beets.  Until the 3^rd century, people concentrated on the leaves of beets and left the root alone.  Then, the Romans began using the roots for medicinal purposes.  They were used as a curative broth to treat fevers and other ailments.  The first mention of using beet roots in cooking was in a cookbook in the fifth century A.D. written by Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman gourmet.

One supposes that while boiling the entire beet plant so the leaves could be used, someone tasted the broth, which came mostly from the root.  Accidents abound in history, and we can imagine that is how beet roots as food came about.

One also imagines that the Romans took the beet plant to every corner of their empire, which resulted in the spread of beets throughout Europe, which were then referred to as, “Roman beets.” 

While Europeans used the root during the Middle Ages, the leaf, called “selg,” or “silq,” began being used in the Middle East in dishes that featured the leaves cooked in various ways.  There are dishes in Lebanon and Syria that still use either beet leaves or swiss chard, a relative,–mixed with black-eyed peas or bulgur wheat– and which are called, “silq.”

The beet fell into obscurity for a time in the Middle Ages until an Italian physician and gourmand, Bartolomeo Sacchi, wrote a book entitled, “On Right Pleasure and Good Health.”  It was the first modern Italian diet and cookbook.  He described using the leaves of the beet for sauce, and the root for sweetening one’s breath after eating garlic.  From that time onward, agronomists began experimenting with beet roots to improve the variety.  German gardeners were credited with developing beets which are the closest to their present form.  From Germany, the use of beets in cooking spread to Poland, Russia and the Baltic countries.  Borscht soup is famous for the use of beets.

A Russian chemist, Andreas Marggraf, discovered that crystals from syrup extracted from Silesian beets were identical to crystals obtained from sugar cane.  But the German were the first to plant and process beet specifically to produce sugar.  From there, sugar beets were developed, replacing sugar cane which grew only in the tropics. 

Sugar beet cultivation started in the America in the 1830s, when German and French immigrants arrived bringing the necessary technology with them.

In the Levant (Lebanon, Syria and Jordan), pickled white turnips and cabbage are turned pink with the addition of a partial beet root in the jar.  Here couple recipes for turnips that I hope you will try and enjoy.

Beet Spread

Serves 4

Two    beets, boiled and grated

Two    tablespoons tahini*

Two    cloves garlic, mashed

One fourth     cup lemon juice

Salt to taste

-In a chilled salad bowl, whisk tahini, garlic, yogurt, lemon juice and salt.

-Fold the grated beets and adjust the seasonings.  If the mixture is too thick add a little water or lemon juice. 

*Tahini is pureed sesame seeds.  Tahini is available in most grocery stores.

Cabbage and Beet Salad

Serves 4

One     pound beet, boiled and peeled

Two    cups shredded white cabbage

One     cup chopped white part of the fennel

Four    tablespoons olive oil

Three  tablespoons lemon juice

One     cloves garlic, mashed

One fourth     tablespoon crushed anise seeds

Salt to taste

-Slice the beets into thin round.

-In a large salad bowl, toss cabbage and fennels.  Add the sliced beets.

-Whisk olive oil with lemon juice, garlic, anise and salt. 

-Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss gently.