30 Minutes or Less

Serve with a green tossed salad.

We love the complex flavors of this puree. We like to serve it with the Twice-Cooked Scallops (page 25). It also goes well with salmon, turkey, corned beef, and the Root Beer–Braised Short Ribs (page 226). The smokiness gives the mixture a rich meaty taste and enhances the sweetness of the dried fruits. Rest assured, though—even if you don’t have smoked fruits, you can use the regular dried version and still enjoy something special.

Nothing tastes so good to me as the intense flavor of a fresh tomato, picked at the height of summer, cooked down and seasoned with fresh parsley, garlic, and olive oil. This recipe exemplifies southern-French vegetable cooking at its best. I have served these tomatoes as an accompaniment to roast lamb (see page 234) or, in the summer, as a scrumptious first course. They are also great with lox, bagels, and cream cheese to break the fast of Yom Kippur.

This is best made when good fresh mangoes are in season. When they are not, very good-quality canned pulp from India’s excellent Alphonso mangoes may be used instead. Most Indian grocers sell this.

Here is a dish that takes about 10 minutes to prepare. It is ideally made when tomatoes are in season, but even second-rate, out-of-season tomatoes are given a new life by this very Gujarati mixture of seasonings. It may be served at a meal with rice, a bean or split-pea dish, vegetables, and relishes. I also love a meal of this curry, Shrimp Biryani, and Spinach with Garlic and Cumin. If you are cooking Western-style grilled pork chops or chicken pieces, just slather this over the top. The combination is marvelous.

Goa, on India’s west coast, is tropical, by the sea, and a haven for tourists from Israel, Germany, the United Kingdom, and, indeed, the entire affluent world, which cannot get enough of its easy ways, its sun and sand. Some of the best food in Goa is not in its expensive resorts but in thatched shacks right on the sea. The fish is always fresh, and usually nothing can beat the fiery shrimp (called prawns here) curry, served with a mound of short-grained local rice. Serve with Plain Jasmine Rice and a green or salad of your choice.

People used to make 1-inch-long vermicelli by rolling tiny pieces of dough between their fingers. Make it by breaking dry vermicelli in your hand.

In Egypt, little “bird’s tongues” pasta that looks like large grains of rice (called orzo in the U.S.) is used. An alternative is broken vermicelli. The pasta is fried or toasted before being cooked in stock. Be sure the walnuts are fresh.

This is one of very few traditional couscous dishes using one vegetable alone. Another is with fava beans. You can also mix peas and very young, tender fava beans together. As there is no broth, the grain needs plenty of butter (you could use vegetable or olive oil instead). Tiny young fresh peas are sold podded in packages in some supermarkets. Otherwise, frozen petits pois will do.

Ferik (also spelled frika), or green wheat, which is very common in the Egyptian countryside, makes a good side dish. It has a wonderful earthy texture and an unusual smoky flavor. (See the introduction to the preceding recipe.)

This grand bulgur pilaf spread throughout the countries that were part of the Ottoman Empire. It is used as a side dish and a stuffing.

Tomatoes give this pilaf a wonderful fresh flavor. It can be eaten hot as a side dish or cold as a mezze. If it is to be eaten cold, you might like to use a mild-tasting olive oil.

This is filling comfort food which fits easily with other dishes. You find it in Turkey and in Arab countries.

An exquisite specialty of Damascus in Syria to serve over 1 1/2 cups rice, cooked by any method for plain rice (pages 337–339).

The traditional Arab rice for fish is pale yellow with saffron and garnished with pine nuts. Turmeric, the “Oriental saffron,” sometimes replaces the expensive spice. Here the grains become softer and less separate with more water than in other rice dishes, and olive oil is often used.