Traditional Mediterranean Dishes
The Mediterranean region has given us many popular dishes including:
Ratatouille -- a medley of tomatoes, eggplant, onion, zukini and tomato, sometimes topped with cheese.
Paella – rice, simmered with onions, green beans and seafood or lentils or chicken
Greek salad -- tomato, cucumber, green pepper, black olives, red onion, flat leaf parsley and cubes of feta cheese with an olive oil and vinegar dressing flavored with oregano
Chick pea hummus with pita bread served
Gazpacho – one of Bernie's favorites, this is a cold tomato soup.
Here's one of The Skanner's favorite dishes.
Potato Tortilla
1-2 lbs of potatoes, sliced to ¼ inch or cubed
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
2 medium yellow onions
8 eggs
Heat the olive oil in a non-stick skillet on medium high heat. When oil is hot add the garlic and cook for two minutes. Remove garlic with a slotted spoon (you can leave it if you like very crisp garlic) Add the onions, then the potatoes -- a little at a time so they don't stick together. Cover and cook. Turn the potatoes and onion from time to time to prevent from sticking to the pan. When potatoes are cooked, remove them from the pan, with a slotted spoon.
Beat the eggs in a large bowl with a little salt and pepper. Add the potatoes and onion. Stir. (At this point, once you have tried the recipe, you can add anything else you think would go well with the dish. Leftover greens, work well or try a sliced tomato or chopped chives.
Make sure there is no onion or potato stuck to the skillet or your tortilla will stick. Add more olive oil to the pan if necessary and heat. Once the oil is hot enough add the tortilla mixture and cook over a low medium heat.
Serve with salad or a steamed green vegetable like broccoli or green beans.
Find More Recipes:
- Kaiser Permanente has a great recipes blog here.
- The Mayo Clinic publishes healthy Mediterranean recipes.
- The American Institute for Cancer Research serves up great recipes.
