Pickled Quail Eggs

Pickled eggs are a fun snack and delicious treat that will brighten up any table. The rich magenta color and bright tangy flavor make them a welcome addition to a brunch spread, cocktail party or an accompaniment to a festive holiday dinner.

My first experience with pickled eggs was through a friend of mine from Belarus who brings pickled chicken eggs to an annual crab feed that we attend. It's a fun dish that I look forward to every year. Quail eggs make the dish even more enjoyable. Let's face it, anything miniature is just more fun to eat, and guests are more willing to try something bite size, than commit to trying a large unknown food!

To make these delightful bites, you will need:

Grated beet

24 quail eggs
1/2 cup cider vinegar (I prefer raw cider vinegar. The flavor is much smoother)
1 small beet, peeled and grated
1/2 cup water
4 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
2 teaspoons pickling spice (this can be found at most stores. I buy mine from Bazaar Spices in DC. It has allspice, bay leaves, cinnamon, chiles, dill seed, mustard seed, cloves and coriander)

How cute are these?

Total time saver!

You can use raw quail eggs, hard boil them for three minutes, followed by an ice bath, peel, and let cool to room temperature. However, I prefer not avoid the hassle of boiling and peeling 24 tiny

eggs. I buy mine pre-boiled and peeled at my local Asian food market. They are kept in brine, so if you use these, just give them a good rinse first.



Mix the vinegar, water, sugar, grated beet, salt, and pickling spice in a small pan. Bring to a boil, stirring throughout to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Beet mixture in saucepan

When eggs and beet mixture are cooled, place the eggs into a glass jar. Strain the liquid from the beet mixture into the jar. Really squeeze the grate beet to get out every drop of liquid and cover the eggs completely.

Keep the jar in the refrigerator. It will be done in 24 hours, but I think 48 hours is the right amount of time to let the flavors settle and the color deepen.


Serve with a sprinkle of course salt. I think they look prettier cut in half. Enjoy!

Little jewels of flavor!

Japanese Pickled Cucumber

It's funny. I usually make middle eastern food and middle eastern pickles. It's what I know. It's what I come from. But when I go out to eat or order in, all I crave is Asian flavors. Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese... I just love it all.

I've started experimenting more with Asian cooking at home. Vietnamese spring rolls, Chinese dumplings, Japanese pickles. It's fun, tasty and saves me a lot of money on delivery!

Japanese pickles are so easy and so delicious! All you need is:

About 4-5 mini cucumbers
2 teaspoons of salt
3 Tablespoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of dried mustard*

*Use powdered Chinese or Japanese mustard if you have it. I didn't. I used just plain mustard powder and it tasted great.

Put the cucumbers in a ziplock bag. Add the salt, sugar and mustard powder and rub it all into the cucumbers. Refrigerate for 2 days.

When done, they will be wrinkled looking.

Slice and enjoy!

Fun for the whole family. 

Small batch sun tea

When I was a girl growing up in Northern California, we had intensely hot summers. Temps ran up to 110
My mom always took advantage of the heat to make refreshing sun tea.

Sun tea lets the sun do all the work. No electricity needed. 

I had bought myself a sun tea jar at Target that was a steal at $5.00. Of course, when I boiled it in hot water to sterilize it, it cracked and broke. So, I figured it was a chance to make smaller batches in jars. 

Sun tea can be whatever you want. Use tea bags, fresh herbs, spices... Play with flavor combinations. For a big sun tea container, I recommend 5 teabags, but for the small jars, I used 2 tea bags each. 

First step is to sterilize your vessel. Any liquid sitting out in hot sun can be a good host for bacteria, so you need to be safe, like all room temperature preserved foods. (You can boil the jars in water or run them through the dishwasher on the extra hot cycle)

I like a nice spicy kick to my sun tea. For each jar I used one bag of decaf black tea and one bag of orange spice. (I use decaf only because my kids will be drinking it too.) 

To each jar I added a cinnamon stick and a star anise, which has a bit of a spicy black licorice flavor. 

Add water to the jars and cover. Find a spot that will remain sunny for the duration of 2-4 hours. Don't leave tea out longer than that, to avoid bacterial growth. Bring the jars inside, and drink warm or cool in the fridge and serve with ice for a cool summer treat! 

You can sweeten if you like with sugar, sweetener, honey or sugar water. I prefer unsweetened. Enjoy! 

Fridge and pantry pesto

My three year old, like most toddlers, is crazy picky and totally random about what she will and will not consume. She opposes the very existence of any kind of  sauce or dressing. However, in a moment of bravery, she tried pesto at a friend's house and decided it was not only palatable, but delicious. So now pesto is a staple at our house. 

Today my in-laws are coming for dinner and we are grilling. I thought I'd make a pesto pasta salad so there would be something for my daughter to eat. (Not into burgers...)

I didn't have any pesto on-hand, so I decided to raid my fridge and pantry and make my own. The nice thing about pesto is you can be creative, using a basic outline of: flavorful green, fatty nut/seed, oil, garlic, salty component. I used:

- Fresh basil leaves

- Thin sliced almonds

- Parmesan cheese (salty component)

- Olive oil

- Garlic 

(In the past I've used fresh arugula, parsley or beet greens, and pine nuts, walnuts or sunflower seeds, Romano cheese or Asiago) 

Blend them all together in a blender until creamy, adding the olive oil slowly until the consistency looks right. It should be pretty oily. Taste and adjust ingredients. 

A little pesto goes a long way for pasta, so save the rest in a jar in the fridge. Like most things in jars, it will taste even better the next day.

You can use it on sandwiches, on chicken, fish... The possibilities are endless. And delicious.

Here is my finished salad. Chock full of things my picky eater likes. Whole wheat penne, red bell pepper, cucumber, chopped up salami, and yummy pesto!

Sumac Onions

Is it really a recipe if it's just combining two things together? When the combination is this good, I think so. At least it's a combo that's a shame to keep to myself! Anyone who has been to an authentic falafel bar and stared at the dozens of fixings and sauces has definitely come face to face with these lovely onions, sliced thin and dotted with a fragrant violet spice. Did you try them? Do you remember that lovely flavor? Sour, vibrant, fresh.

Photo from Wikipedia

What is sumac?

Sumac is a spice made by crushing the berries of a middle eastern bush (Rhus coriaria) and making it into a powder. Its sour flavor made it a great substitute for fresh lemons when they were off season. Today it's a great option for adding a fresh sour flavor to a dish without adding acid. Middle Eastern cuisine uses it mostly as a flavoring on fish, chicken and vegetables. However, its use is most often associated with thinly sliced red onions.





To make this great condiment, take a sweet red onion and slice as thin as you can. If the onion is too spicy, soak the slices in warm water for a while to take the edge off.  Liberally sprinkle on the sumac and let it soak into the onions overnight. The fresh onion flavor mixed with the sour sumac creates a new, zesty flavor that adds a kick to any of your favorite recipes. You can find sumac at most Middle Eastern markets. I get mine from Bazaar Spices in Union Market.

Personally, I love to put sumac onions on my morning bagels and lox.

More traditional uses include:

Onion and Parsley Salad: A great side dish for lamb or fish. Finely chop parsely and mix together with sumac onions, a little lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Chickpea Salad: Chop up the sumac onions and mix together with canned chickpeas, fresh mint, parsley, crushed garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. (If you like, you can include a little pomegranate syrup or fresh pomegranate seeds for sweetness.)

But feel free to get creative! If you have a favorite recipe using sumac onions, please leave a comment! I'm always looking for new things to eat. ;)

Spicy Eggplant "Jam"

Eggplant "jam" is a savory topping for toast, bagels, crackers, or for eating out of a jar with a spoon.  I put "jam" on quotes because a true jam is a fruit reduction mixed with pectin and sugar. However, foodies and such are now all about the savory "jams" like onion "jam," bacon "jam" and so on... So why not hop on the bandwagon?

This dish is actually a north African dish mostly found in Morocco and Algeria.  Some people roast the eggplant first and puree it. Some fry it first to get that rich olive oil flavor. I prefer to leave mine diced in chunky pieces to differentiate it from a baba ghanoush or eggplant dip.

To make a small jar, I start with one eggplant, peeled and diced small.  I put the eggplant in a colander and salt it, letting it sit and sweat for about 30 minutes.  With a paper towel, I squeeze the eggplant and try to get out the moisture, which is where the eggplant's bitterness is stored.

Over medium heat, I sauté the eggplant in enough olive oil to keep it from sticking to the pan. Make sure the heat is not too high, so the eggplant doesn't crisp up.  You want to cook it until the eggplant is translucent. About 20-30 minutes.

Add in a little water to make sure the eggplant isn't sticking, and your spices. I put in about 1/4 tsp of baharat spice (a mix of cumin, black pepper, paprika, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom and red pepper).  If you don't have this mix ready to go, pick your favorite warm, earthy spices from this family. In addition, I added extra cumin because I love it, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Eggplant really absorbs heat well, so a little hot pepper goes a long way.

Cook the eggplant on low heat an additional 20 minutes, letting the spices absorb. Add water if necessary.

Finally, squeeze 1/2 lemon into the pan and cook one more minute to get it nicely incorporated. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Let the "jam" cool and refrigerate it. Serve garnished with fresh parsley and lemon wedges. Enjoy!

Zhug (or Skhug)

Just pronouncing the name of this fabulous condiment brings you to the Middle East, with the harsh "kh" sound that sounds like you are clearing your throat. It originated in Yemen and is said to have great medicinal qualities.

Zhug comes in both red and green varieties and is the essential hot sauce for adding heat to falafel, meat dishes, fish dishes, well...pretty much anything. I am partial to the green variety, mostly because it's the one my mom made for us when I was growing up, so it tastes like home.  The cilantro and cumin add an earthiness that gives the heat an added dimension.

It keeps for a really long time in the fridge, which is great because a little bit of this stuff goes a very long way.  A fun gift idea is to put zhug into small glass spice jars as a fun holiday treat.  You can bring both red and green zhug together as a fun Christmas gift.

For today, we will focus on green zhug.  You will need:

2 whole heads of garlic, separated into individual cloves and peeled
1/2 cup of chopped hot pepper (I used red this time because I didn't have really hot green ones on hand, but you can use either, depending on how strikingly green  you want it and the level of heat you can handle)
2 cups of chopped, fresh cilantro leaves
1 TBS salt
1/2 lemon
Spice mix (grind together 10 cardamom seeds, 10 garlic cloves, 1 TB peppercorns, 1 TBS cumin seeds - for best results toast the spices first and then grind)






Using either a food processor or mortar and pestle, mix the pepper flakes, garlic and cilantro until well combined.  Add the spice mix to the cilantro mix and finish with salt.

Pour into a jar with a tight seal and top with lemon juice to seal in the flavor.