The Greek cousin of nachos. Photo courtesy Chobani Greek Yogurt.

Today’s tip looks at adapting popular recipes to other cultures. As an example, we’re giving Tex-Mex nachos a Greek makeover—a fresh spin on a party classic that uses feta and naan or pita crisps instead of Cheddar or Jack cheese and tortilla chips. It also adds some heartiness with ground lamb.

This recipe, from Chobani Greek Yogurt, makes 6 servings. Enjoy it with beer, wine or iced mint tea.

GREEK NACHOS RECIPE

Ingredients

For The Yogurt Salsa

For The Nachos

A delight for feta fans. Photo courtesy Chobani Greek Yogurt.

Preparation

1. PREHEAT oven to 400°F.

2. BROWN ground lamb in olive oil over medium heat until fully cooked; then drain oil.

3. RUB naan bread with small amount of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, cut into triangle wedges with pizza cutter and place on baking sheet. Bake for 5-10 minutes to desired crispness.

5. COMBINE yogurt, cucumber, onion, feta cheese, salt, and cumin in a food processor; process to desired smoothness. Add more onion, cucumber, and/or feta cheese as desired.

6. ASSEMBLE nachos by placing triangle wedges of naan on a plate, then fresh spinach, then ground lamb, yogurt salsa, olives, tomatoes, more feta cheese and italian herb seasoning on top as desired.

Find more recipes at Chobani.com.

How bland would the fish and asparagus
look without the tomatoes? Photo courtesy
Galli Restaurant | New York City.

Did you ever wonder why some restaurants throw slices of hard, tasteless tomatoes into a salad? The simple answer is: to add color, which makes the dish look more appetizing.

No matter how delicious a dish may be, the presentation needs a hit of color—green, red, yellow—to give it a lift.

That’s the rationale for the ubiquitous sprig of parsley and the red berry and/or mint leaf atop rice pudding and vanilla ice cream.

Much of the food we eat is beige or otherwise earth-toned. So do a color check on everything you serve.

If it’s a sweetened food—from cereal to apple pie—add some color with raspberries or sliced strawberries, or fan a large strawberry to top a piece of pie or pound cake.

RED GARNISHES ROCK

For savory dishes, use cherry tomatoes, sundried tomatoes or diced red bell pepper. Sliced red jalapeño works if you like the heat. All can be marinated first, in a vinaigrette or flavored olive oil. In essence, the garnish becomes a mini salad.

If you buy sundried tomatoes, look for a bright red color and use them up relatively quickly. They oxidize to a blackish red over time.

Other red garnish options: radish slices (or the retro radish rose) or a sprinkling of red spice (paprika, chili flakes, pink peppercorns) along the rim of the plate.

Shredded red cabbage, with or without a vinaigrette, and shredded radicchio leaves are other options. If you’re near a good farmers market, look for amaranth and red chard.

 
MORE GARNISH IDEAS

There are dozens and dozens of everyday ingredients that can be used to garnish. Check out our article, Garnish Glamour.

And beyond nutrition, color is another reason to add brightly colored vegetables to your meals.

People regularly top plain Greek yogurt with fruit, granola and other sweet ingredients to create yogurt sundaes or parfaits.

But what about savory toppings?

When Pinkberry recently added conventional Greek yogurt to its frozen yogurt shops, among the fruit flavors were two savory yogurt sundaes:

 
We liked them, and they inspired us to use vegetables and other savory toppings on our plain Greek yogurt, as well as vegetable-fruit mixes. An ingredients template follows so you can do the same.

Pinkberry’s Tomato-Basil Yogurt Sundae. Photo courtesy Pinkberry.

Vegetables

 
Fruits

 
Sauces

Pinkberry’s Sunflower Cucumber Sundae.
Photo © The Wandering Eater | Flickr.

Toppings

 
SWEET YOGURT SUNDAES

We’d be remiss if we didn’t supply the recipes to Pinkberry’s sweet yogurt sundaes with Greek yogurt:

 
*Giardinera is a mixture of pickled vegetables, Italian in origin, that can include carrots, cauliflower, celery, onions, red bell pepper and zucchini, carrots and cauliflower, pickled vegetables in red- or white-wine vinegar. It is typically eaten as an antipasto, and is also delicious on sandwiches.

Since it was invented in the 1860s, Eggs Benedict has been a posh addition to the breakfast-lunch-brunch menu. It was created by the chef at a tony New York restaurant, Delmonico’s, for a wealthy customer, Mrs. LeGrand Benedict (here’s the history of Eggs Benedict).

The original recipe topped two toasted English muffin halves with round-cut slices of ham, poached eggs; and Hollandaise sauce. Over the years, the more conveniently-shaped Canadian bacon replaced the trimmed ham.

The ham substitutions continued, gaining momentum among creative chefs in modern times. Why not create your own reinvention of Eggs Benedict for Mother’s Day or other special occasion? Select your options from these categories of ingredients:

English Muffin Substitute

Classic Eggs Benedict. Photo courtesy American Egg Board.

Note: You need a type of bread that will soak up the egg yolk. Pita, for example, doesn’t work here. Steer clear of regular pancakes and waffles. They take what should be an elegant dish to McGriddles territory.

Ham/Bacon Substitute

 
What about everyday bacon strips? Eggs Benedict should be a special dish. By all means serve poached eggs with bacon—just not on an English muffin with Hollandaise sauce.

Similarly, fried eggs, sausage and gravy should remain their fine casual selves, and not be adapted into a Benedict-style variation.

Portabella Eggs Benedict, a vegetarian
option. Photo courtesy Mushroom Council.

Hollandaise Sauce Substitute

 
Consider how you can flavor a basic béchamel to match the ham substitute. For example, add dill to the sauce for lobster, horseradish and lemon zest for crab cakes.
 
Garnish

FOOD TRIVIA: THE HISTORY OF BRUNCH

The term, a combination of breakfast and lunch, was coined in the U.K. in 1895 to describe “a Sunday meal for Saturday-night carousers.” This first reference in print was an article in Hunter’s Weekly (source).

Brunch eliminated the need to rise early for breakfast. Instead of the conventional post-church early Sunday dinner, the new meal, served around noon, started with a course of toast, marmalade, tea. coffee and other breakfast foods before moving on to some heartier fare.

And the rest is delicious history.

Typically, if you get any garnish with a scoop of sorbet, it’s a mint leaf, berry, lemon peel curl or other variation of the fruit used to make the sorbet.

But how about preserves? We were inspired by this photo from Vivoli, a gelateria in Florence, Italy, of pineapple sorbet with pineapple preserves. Yum!

So for Mother’s Day, we’re loading a large lazy susan with different sorbet toppings (see the list below) so guests can choose their own. We’re adding enough toppings to create a super sorbet sundae.

BENEFITS OF SORBET OVER ICE CREAM

Compared to ice cream, sorbet it is naturally fat free, lactose free and has fewer calories. Because it’s generally made of fruit, it has fruit’s vitamins, minerals and antioxidants—although it does add sugar to them.

Another benefit: Even after the biggest, heaviest meal, there’s room for a few spoons of sweet sorbet. And although it‘s not science, we find that it helps to settle a stuffed tummy.

Lemon sorbet crowned with a dab of pineapple preserves. Photo courtesy Vivoli.it.

And if you’re concerned about the environment, sorbet is a better choice: No animal methane is required for its manufacture, no water tables are polluted.

MAKE OR BUY SORBET

You can buy the sorbet (we’re purchasing lemon, mango and raspberry for Mother’s Day). But it’s easy to make. The recipe couldn’t be simpler: one part sugar, two parts water, four parts puréed fruit. You can add a tablespoon of lemon juice, lime juice or liqueur for extra flavor, or replace some of the water with juice or tea.

After you get the hang of it, add herbs or spices. Lemon-basil and mango-chile are terrific; cilantro, mint and rosemary pair beautifully with fruits.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can place the mix in a flat pan in the freezer and scrap the forming crystals with a fork: That’s granita! (Check out the different types of frozen desserts in our Ice Cream Glossary.)

A fully loaded watermelon sorbet sundae,
garnished with cubed watermelon, roasted
pistachios, marshmallow sauce and fresh
apple. Here’s the recipe from the National
Watermelon Promotion Board. We’d throw in
some pomegranate arils, too.

EASY SORBET RECIPE

1. MAKE simple syrup by combining the water and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. If you want to infuse herbs or spices, add them at this stage (lightly crush the leaves in your hands to release the oils). Allow the mixture to cool; remove any herbs/spices† and set the pan aside.

2. PREPARE the fruit. Small berries don’t need to be cut, but large strawberries and other fruits should be diced into small cubes, place it in a blender or food processor along with the simple syrup and lemon or lime juice to taste (about 1/8 of a cup for every cup of fruit), and purée until smooth.

3. PROCESS in your ice cream maker or turn into a granita.
 

OTHER SORBET GARNISHES & TOPPINGS

 
Or go back to basics with plain berries and/or fresh mint leaves.

FIND MORE OF OUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM & SORBET RECIPES.
 
*Instead of fruit, flavors such as chocolate, coffee and hibiscus are popular.

*You can leave inclusions such as red chili pepper flakes or pink peppercorns.
  

Photo courtesy Jimador Tequila.

Today’s tip concerns thinking outside the box.

Have you ever had ice cream and hot sauce? If it sounds strange, try this cocktail from El Jimador Tequila.

Ratchet up the heat on Cinco de Mayo with a “hot” ice cream cocktail.

The recipe includes ice cream, coffee liqueur, tequila, mango nectar and a few dashes of hot sauce. It’s an unlikely combination of ingredients that will delight your guests.

It uses reposado tequila, which is aged for at least six months until it mellows and achieves a light yellow hue. Aging takes the edge off and makes the tequila more compatible with ice cream.

This “hot ice cream shake” recipe will fill a large Martini glass. Have it for dessert with your choice of garnishes: chocolate shavings or a chocolate rim.

Ingredients Per Cocktail

Preparation

1. PREPARE optional chocolate rim: Shave chocolate OR grind chocolate wafer cookies or chocolate shavings into a coarse powder OR use cocoa mix (with sugar). Place ground chocolate in a shallow bowl. If you’ve opted for chocolate shavings, reserve to sprinkle on the finished cocktail.

2. DIP the rim of a Martini glass in a bowl of water 1/4 inch deep. Place the rim in the chocolate powder and twist to coat.

3. PLACE all ingredients in a blender; blend until smooth and creamy.

4. POUR into glass and garnish with chocolate shavings.

 
FIND MORE OF OUR FAVORITE COCKTAIL RECIPES & ICE CREAM RECIPES.

Make agua fresca for Cinco de Mayo. Photo
© Raptor Captor | Fotolia.

In Spanish, agua fresca means fresh water. In culinary terms, it refers to a variety of refreshing cold drinks that are sold by street vendors and at cafés throughout Latin America; they’re also sold bottled and are whipped up at home.

A traditional agua fresca is an infused, sweetened water, flavored with fruits and/or vegetables—often a more complex layering of flavors than lemonade and limeade. It is nonalcoholic and noncarbonated.

The recipes can include a combination of fruits or veggies, flowers (like hibiscus), herbs and/or spices, cereals (barley, oats, rice), seeds (chia), even almond flour. Agua de horchata, a very popular recipe, is made of rice spiced with cinnamon.

While some look forward to Margaritas and other alcoholic libations to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, kids and adults who refrain from drinking should indulge in an agua fresca or two. Of course, you can add a shot of rum, tequila or other spirit for those who want to celebrate with it.

Three of our favorite combinations:

They’re as easy to make as lemonade. Try different recipes and develop your own signature. You’ll be certain to have people dropping by through the warm spring and summer months.

TIP: To ensure that the sugar dissolves, use simple syrup or ultrafine sugar (which you can make by pulsing regular sugar in the food processor or spice mill). You can infuse the simple sugar with herbs (we like basil or rosemary). Here’s the simple syrup recipe.

And here’s the agua fresca recipe we had recently at Tres Carnes, a wonderful new Texican smoked meat spot in New York City (more about it below). The house agua fresca, a combination of apple, cucumber and lime, was so refreshing that we had a second. Thanks to executive chef Sasha Shor for sharing her recipe.

TRES CARNES AGUA FRESCA RECIPE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MAKE a basic simple syrup by boiling water and dissolving sugar in it. Reduce by 1/3 until a syrup forms. Cool completely.

2. TRIM ends from cucumbers and chop into large chunks.

3. CORE apples and remove stems, discard cores and seeds.

Smoked pork shoulder, our favorite among three delicious smoked meats at Tres Carnes restaurant. Photo © Chris Gardiner | Fotolia.

4. PURÉE cucumbers and apples with lime juice in a blender or food processor until all is incorporated and you have a thick purée. The consistency should be similar to thinned applesauce.

5. STRAIN the purée mixture through a fine mesh strainer, removing all fruit and vegetable pulp. You may have to strain twice depending on your strainer.

6. ADD simple syrup and water and stir well. You may have some sediment but that’s ok!

7. CHILL the agua fresca and serve over ice. Garnish and serve.
 

TRES CARNES RESTAURANT: TEXICAN SMOKED MEATS IN A FAST FOOD VENUE

Tres Carnes is the newest best thing to happen to fast food. The first outpost launched recently in New York City (at Sixth Avenue and 22nd Street). If the great food and lines snaked out the door are any indication, it’s a smash hit.

You move through a line past the hot table, where personable counter staff put whatever you want in a bowl, in a burrito wrap or onto a plate with two soft tortillas. You choose from three kinds of smoked meat (the “tres carnes”) prepared by Mike Rodriguez, an award-winning pitmaster—smoked brisket, chicken adobo and BBQ pork shoulder—and revel in the delicious sides of beans, corn, greens, guacamole and squash. Chili is Texas-style: all meat, no beans.

There are so many delicious sides that vegetarians can have as wonderful a meal as carnivores. Everything is seasoned with great finesse, and the food is of a quality that doesn’t get any better at far fancier, white tablecloth restaurants. In fact, we can’t think of any other Tex-Mex restaurant we’d rather return to.

The eatery is so new that there are no photos of the fab food on the website, no place to sign up for information, not even a Facebook page or Twitter. But keep checking at TresCarnes.com, and hope that a Tres Carnes comes to you, soon.

Fried rice is a favorite use for leftover rice.
Here, it’s made with brown rice. Photo

After we published uses for leftover pasta, we received requests for uses for leftover rice.

Any of these recipe ideas works for white or brown rice.

It’s easy to turn leftover rice into rice pudding. Photo courtesy UNK.

EASY FRIED RICE RECIPE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. BEAT the eggs with the salt and pepper.

2. HEAT the oil in a frying pan or wok and add the eggs, stirring, until they are lightly scrambled. Remove, set aside and clean pan with a paper towel.

3. ADD 2 tablespoons oil, heat and add the rice. Stir-fry for a few minutes; then add the soy sauce.

4. ADD the scrambled eggs, combining thoroughly. Stir in the green onion and any other ingredients. Heat through and serve.

Get everyone to eat more vegetables—
French fried! Photo courtesy Arch Rock
restaurant | Santa Barbara.

A few weeks ago we published a recipe for truffle fries from Arch Rock Fish restaurant in Santa Barbara. This luxurious comfort food seasons French fries with truffle oil and shaved Parmesan cheese.

Few people turn down French fries. But in the name of getting your family to eat more veggies—and because they’re delicious—how about veggie fries? Arch Rock Fish has supplied its recipe:

VEGGIE FRIES RECIPE

Ingredients

Preparation

1. CUT vegetables into fry-shaped pieces (baton, a thicker julienne), about ½ inch wide. If a particular vegetable doesn’t lend itself to a julienne shape, cut into small florets (e.g., broccoli, cauliflower) or circles (e.g., broccoli stalks).

2. MIX seasonings into flour.

3. DIP vegetables into buttermilk to coat, then dredge in seasoned flour.

4. FRY until golden.
 
CUTTING THE FAT FROM FRIED FOODS

If you’re concerned about fried foods, here’s another great tip: the T-Fal Actifry low fat fryer.

The T-Fal Actifry cooks an entire batch of fries or fried veggies with just one tablespoon of oil. Photo courtesy T-Fal.

This wonderful appliance lets you fry an entire batch of veggies in just one tablespoon of oil. It’s a great Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift for people who love their fried foods.

SOME FAT IS GOOD FOR YOU

Contrary to what many people believe, fat/oil is not bad for you: You need two tablespoons of it a day for healthy functioning of organs (more from the Mayo Clinic). It’s saturated fats, including cholesterol, that you need to avoid.

So grab the monounsaturated “good” fats—avocado oil, canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil—and an Actifry and feel good about eating fried foods.

Second-choice oils include the polyunsaturated fats, such as corn oil, flaxseed oil, grapeseed oil, olive oil, soybean oil and sunflower oil.

Here’s more about good fats and bad fats.

Drinking club soda is just for starters. Photo
courtesy Schweppes.

You may enjoy it as a refreshing drink or a mixer, or sprinkle it on tablecloth spills. But here are other uses for that bottle of club soda, seltzer or sparkling water (see the differences below).

IN RECIPES

1. Make Fluffier Pancakes. Instead of adding milk or water as the recipe directs, use club soda. The carbonation will help make the pancakes lighter and airier.

2. Make Fluffier Matzoh Balls. As Jewish grandmothers know, seltzer does the same for matzoh balls.

3. Make Fluffier Scrambled Eggs. Our mom used a few splashes of milk to make her scrambled eggs fluffy. Mom’s eggs were great, but carbonated water produces the same results.

4. Make Tempura Batter. The magic of tempura coating is helped by substituting club soda for the water.

AFTER EATING

5. As A Digestif. Club soda and bitters are a time honored, non-alcoholic digestif, (A digestif is an alcoholic beverage served after a meal to aid digestion). Similarly, sipping on club soda can soothe an upset stomach; feel free to add the bitters, an herbal distillation.

There are numerous non-culinary uses for club soda, from cleaning porcelain and stainless steel to preserving newspaper clippings. Check out 10 of them in the original article on Care2.com.

CLUB SODA, SELTZER & SPARKLING WATER: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE

The overall category is carbonated water, also called soda water: water into which carbon dioxide gas under pressure has been dissolved, causing the water to become effervescent.

Carbonated Water: In the U.S., carbonated water was known as soda water until after World War II, due to the sodium salts it contained. While today we think of “soda” as a carbonated beverage, the word originally refers to a chemical salts, also called carbonate of soda (sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, sodium monoxide).

The salts were added as flavoring and acidity regulator, to mimic the taste of a natural mineral water. After the war, terms such as sparkling water and seltzer water gained favor. Except for sparkling mineral water, all carbonated water/soda water is made from municipal water supplies (tap water).

Carbonated water was invented in Leeds, England in 1767 by British chemist Joseph Priestley, who discovered how to infuse water with carbon dioxide by suspending a bowl of water above a beer vat at a local brewery. Carbonated water changed the way people drank liquor, which had been neat, providing a “mixer” to dilute the alcohol.

Club soda makes scrambled eggs fluffier. Photo courtesy American Egg Board.