Using My New Recipe Books

We had this recipe from one of my new Mother's Day cookbooks for dinner last night with some lamb. It was really tasty and a nice change from the boring everyday bowl of salad that we seem to have had an awful lot lately. Fattoush is a Middle Eastern salad that is traditionally garnished with toasted Arab or Lebanese bread. We used split toasted hamburger buns instead - isn't that called fusion? LOL This recipe serves 4, I halved it and we had heaps.

Fattoush

from Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection, Salads

4 ripe tomatoes

1 small cos or romaine lettuce

1 small cucumber

1 green pepper

2 French shallots (didn't have any)

4 spring onions, finely sliced

4 tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped

4 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

2 pita breads or other similar flat breads

Dressing

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon salt

60ml (2 fl oz) lemon juice

125 mil (4 fl oz) olive oil

few drops of Tabasco sauce

1. Bring a small pan of water to the boil. With the point of a small sharp knife, score a small cross in the skin at the base of the tomatoes. Drop the tomatoes into the boiling water for 10 seconds, then plunge into a bowl of cold water. Peel the skin away from the tomatoes. Slice the tomatoes into quarters, remove and discard the seeds and finely dice the flesh. Place in bowl (okay, I admit, I didn't do any of this stuff. I cut them into eight wedges and then diced them up and it turned out fine).

2. Shred the lettuce into 1cm strips and add to the tomatoes. Peel the cucumber, slice it into quarters lengthways and remove the seeds with a teaspoon. Cut the flesh into cubes and place int he bowl. Cut the capsicum into similar sized cubes. Add to the bowl with the shallots, spring onion, mint and parsley. Stir the salad gently to combine.

3. To make the dressing, crush the garlic and mix with the salt to form a paste. Use a fork to whisk the lemon juice, olive oil and Tabasco into the garlic, then season with black pepper to taste.

4. Finally, toast the pitta bread on both sides until it is golden brown and crisp., Using a sharp knife, cut the bread into 1 cm squares and add to the salad. Pour in the dressing, toss together until evenly combined and serve immediately. This salad is wonderful with grilled meats and kebabs.

We added the dressing individually. I had only the teensiest drop on mine due to my 'issues' with citrus (and I'm only mildly itchy this morning rather than puffy and welt-y! Big yay!!) but it was delicious. Hubby had rather more dressing and declared the whole meal "Fabulous". Offspring #1 was also enthusiastic in his response but #2 was in a "I don't think I'll eat dinner, I might just throw it around a bit" kind of mood so I'm not counting hers!

Aaaarrrgghhh: It appears that the blogger gremlins are at work. The spelling and grammar errors are all mine, the weird layout is not!