I certainly can't travel anywhere when there's a stay-at-home order. But I can think about it, can't I? A quick zippy trip to the Middle East would spice up the monotonous quarantine existence.
The Boston Globe's May 27, 2020 issue caught my eye with the exotic-sounding word "Za'atar." Fun to say out loud. "Zah" - pause - "ah-tar," with the last part rhyming with guitar. Its author, Christopher Kimball called it an "easy" recipe for a light Middle Eastern mid-week meal.
Za'atar is a mix of spices that includes seeds from coriander, cumin and sesame, as well as dried oregano, sumac and kosher salt. I amazed myself that I had all the items. (Thank my sister-in-law for leaving sumac behind last time she visited). I could have easily bought a jar of za'atar in the spice aisle of my neighborhood Stop and Shop. But I made my own instead.
For the Za'atar Chicken Cutlets and Lemon-Parsley Salad, most of the ingredients are pretty basic and I had them anyway: chicken, flour, walnuts, kosher salt, parsley and lemon. It called for two other ingredients not typical basics in anyone's pantry. One is Aleppo pepper, but I learned from the internet (thank you google) to substitute a combo of paprika and cayenne. The other item that I didn't have was pomegranate molasses. It's a sweetener used in middle eastern dishes; sort of like cranberry juice concentrate. Fortunately, our organic market carried pomegranate molasses so I didn't have to figure out a substitution project.
The side vegetable had another fun-to-say name: "Harissa". Kind of like Melissa, except it's a red pepper paste from North Africa---specifically Tunisia. (Brief digression: I've been to Tunisia but didn't know about harissa. Bummer. I'll have to go back). The Boston Globe's menu called for Spicy Egyptian Eggplant roasted and tossed in harissa, with fresh mint and dill.
The dinner came out as promised. Easy. Delicious. Tune into YouTube Bellydance Channel Radio and crank up the shaabi music. Almost as good as traveling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNL_h56sZts