YaDa Chef Private and Personal Chefs

Translated literally this means the Imam (a holy man) Fainted. I guess lying on their sides the stuffed eggplants look like a passed out Imam. Many included fresh tomato and cinnamon. This one does not. It was on the Isle of Crete that I learned the Turkish recipe. One year I decided to go to Greece early. A friend owned a resort. I ended up hooking up with a native of Crete that happened to be in the army and two tourist girls. He had extra bedrooms so we became “locals” for a while. Serves 4 4 eggplants 1/2 cup/125ml olive oil 2 onions, diced 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 teaspoon sea salt 1 teaspoon black pepper 2 tablespoons/30ml tomato paste handful parsley chopped Preheat oven to 400F/204C/Gas Mark 6 Cut the eggplant in half. Scoop out the center leaving about 1/2 inch/1.27cm around the skin. Chop up the insides. Heat half of the oil in a large stove top/oven proof pan. Fry the eggplant for 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove to paper towels to drain. Add r

Recently we found ourselves with a glut of field greens.  Lovely, green and deep purple, and eggplant with no one to eat them. We believe in using and eating food, not throwing it away.  So what could be done to preserve the goodness at hand?  Soup came to mind, but you can eat only so much soup and it has a tendency to get “grainy” when frozen.  Juicing was another option, but our illustrious leader (Chef Ya) decided to go a different route.  PESTO.   The sauce pesto originated in the northern region of Italy, Liguria, Genoa.  According to Wikipedia, the name is the contracted past participle of the Genoese word pestâ (Italian: pestare), which means to pound, to crush, in reference to the original method of preparation, with marble  mortar and wooden pestle . The ingredients in a traditionally made pesto are ground with a circular motion of the pestle in the mortar. This same Latin root through Old French also gave rise to the English word  pestle . Traditionally the sauce is ma

Baked or fried this are sure to please even the carnivores.  Freekeh gives the mouth feel of meat and mushrooms the meaty taste. Makes 8-10 burgers or about 20 “meatballs” 4 ounces/116g uncooked freekah 3 shallots, minced 2 cloves garlic, minced and mashed into a paste 4 ounces/116g mixed mushrooms (we used baby bella, white, and shiitake) small bunch parsley, chopped 1 15 ounces/425 can of chickpeas drained 1 teaspoon/5ml olive oil 1 tablespoon flax with 3 tablespoons  water  OR 1 egg 1/4 cup/59ml/43g potato flour (sub rice or almond flour or 1/2 cup/118ml/60g dried bread crumbs) 1 teaspoon/5ml sea salt 1/2 teaspoon/2ml ground black pepper In a medium sauce pan on medium high heat add the freekah and spritz with oil.  Toast for 30-45 seconds.  Add enough water to come the width of 2 fingers above the  freekeh.  Turn the  heat up to high and cook until the water reaches  the top of the freekeh.  Stir, cover and turn the heat down to low.  Cook for 16 mi

Unhealthy you say? How can that be? Whether you are already eating a vegetarian or vegan diet or just considering it, you can still eat unhealthy. Potato chips (crisps) and French fries (chips) are vegan. Coca Cola and Sprite are vegan. Eating a surfeit of these foods is definitely not healthy. We have all seen and heard the outspoken person harping on how much more healthy they are because they switched to a vegetarian diet, yet some are either obese or sickly thin with an unhealthy pallor. So why eat a non-meat diet you ask? Some people are vegetarians because of animal rights, some are vegetarians for religious reasons, and some do it for health reasons. There are different categories of the vegetarian diet.  Lacto vegetarians are vegetarians that eat dairy products; however they do not eat eggs. Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat dairy products and include eggs in their diet. Pesco vegetarians eat everything that lacto-ovo vegetarians eat plus fish. Vegans eat only plant based foods and