Hiyashi Chuka 冷やし中華 (Hiyashi=cold, Chuka=Chinese) can be enjoyed year-round but in Japan it is said that when restaurants start serving Hiyashi Chuka, summer has officially arrived. To fully appreciate Hiyashi Chuka in the hot summer months, the colder the ingredients the better. This noodle dish is refreshing, colorful and easy to make!

Ingredients:

Main:

• 8 ounces dry Chinese egg noodles (that look like spaghetti
• 2 eggs to make omelette
• 1 ripe tomato
• 1 Japanese cucumber
• 4 slices of ham
• Red ginger (beni shoga 紅しょうが) (optional)
• Plain or toasted sesame seeds (optional)

(Note: the sesame oil, rice vinegar, ginger and sesame seeds can be found in Japanese grocery stores
such as Mitsuwa or 99 Ranch Market)

Sauce (tare たれ):

• 1/4 cup white or rice vinegar
• 1/8 cup water
• 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Preparation:

1. Put all sauce ingredients in a microwavable bowl and heat for 30-45 seconds until sugar disolves. Mix well and refrigerate to chill
2. Cook egg noodles until done and then strain in colander. Rinse cooked noodles in cold water until cool. Set aside.
3. Beat eggs and make a thin omelette. Set aside to cool.
4. Slice the tomato into small wedges
5. Slice the cooled omelette and the ham in to thin strips
6. Slice the cucumber, into thin strips.
7. Serve the Hiyashi Chuka on plates or in shallow bowls. Cover the plate with noodles and then top tomato, cucumber, omelette and ham in an esthetically pleasing manner.
8. Pour the sauce over the dish and sprinkle with sesame seeds. For a final touch, garnish sparingly with red ginger.

Recipe and photos: Asako Suzuki

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Eggplant rolls stuffed with cheese (Baklajan S Sirom) are a very popular appetizer in Russia and post-Soviet republics in Europe and Asia. Eggplant recipes come from South-Eastern Europe countries such as Ukraine, Moldavia, and those located in the Caucuses mountains. the essential ingredients for this dish are lightly salted soft or curd cheese mixed with herbs and flavorings like parsley and cilantro, garlic and shredded walnuts. in Bulgaria goat cheese is usually used as an ingredient for eggplant rolls. One exotic variation of this recipe comes from Georgia. There, it is very common to add bits of pomegranate and crashed nuts in the cheese paste. Sometimes paste is handmade in order to squeeze the juice from pomegranate bits and add exclusive taste to the dish. Eggplant rolls stuffed with cheese are a perfect appetizer for any occasion. This recipe calls for Edam cheese but you can also make it with Russian-style Tvorag cheese (directions below).

Ingredients:

• 1-2 American eggplants
• 1 pound of semi-soft cheese (like Edam)
• 5-6 cloves of garlic grated or finely chopped
• 3-4 sprigs of fresh parsley and dill(to add into the cheese paste)
• 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise
• 1 hard boiled egg chopped fine
• Salt and pepper
• Olive Oil for frying

Preparation:

1. Wash eggplants and cut lengthwise into strips the length of the eggplant, 2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick
2. You need to disgorge the eggplant. Apply salt on each slice, put all slices on big wide plate, wrap with plastic or cover with another plate and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
3. Shred the cheese with grater into a deep dish
4. Peel and grate garlic
5. Finely chop hard boiled egg
6. Chop parsley and dill
7. Mix all of the ingredients* above with mayonnaise, salt and pepper
8. After the eggplant strips have chilled for 30 minutes, remove them from the refrigerator and pour off the accumulated liquid and rinse strips in cold water.
9. Fry eggplant strips in the frying pan with a little bit of olive oil until lightly browned
10. Let eggplant cool
11. Place a dollop of cheese mixture at the end of a strip and roll it.

*You can also add crushed walnuts or almonds.

Tvorog (Russian Curd Cheese)

If you are interested in expanding your gastronomical tastes and up to try something new, you can make these rolls with a curd cheese based on Russian recipe that only has two ingredients, whole milk and yoghurt.

Ingredients:

• 1 quart of whole milk
• 6 ounces of Greek-style yoghurt

Preparation:

1. Combine the milk with the yoghurt in a lidded container (a yoghurt maker is perfect)
2. Stand in a very warm place until the mixture resembles yoghurt. the temperature and length of time to form the yoghurt stage will effect the taste. This part of the process (essentially you are making more yoghurt) will take several days. Tvorog should have a 'bite' to it, but if you keep it too long at this stage it can become bitter.
3. Reserve around half a cup of the yoghurt mix and keep in the fridge to start your next batch of tvorog.
4. Pour the remaining yoghurt into a saucepan and heat on low
5. Allow the mix to come to a gentle bubble, do not stir.
7. Keep heating the yoghurt until it separates into curds, resembling the texture of cottage cheese
8. Line a colander with 3 layers of cheesecloth or muslin and place the colander into a larger bowl or in the sink.
9. Pour the mixture into the colander and allow the watery whey to drain.
10. When most of the liquid has drained out, draw the ends of the muslin together at the top and secure with a rubber band or knot to form a bag.
11. Hang the muslin bag over a sink to drain thoroughly. the tvorog should be very dry - much drier than cottage cheese
12. Remove the tvorog from the muslin and store in a container in the fridge.

Note: When using tvorog as a filling for the eggplant rolls, the flavor will be enhanced with the addition of a bit more salt.

Recipe by Olga Kolpakova. Tvorog recipe adapted from www.russianrecipes.co.nz

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Gỏi Cuốn Vietnamese Summer Rolls are a refreshing summer treat. In American restaurants they are often sold as appetizers but in Vietnam they are typically eaten as a snack. Popular among students, Gỏi cuốn are usually sold by the piece in Vietnam. Gỏi cuốn literally means "salad roll." Basic ingredients are shrimp, pork, lettuce, Asian basil, rice noodles and rice paper wraps, Variations abound. Gỏi cuốn are not fried and are served cold or room temperature with Nuoc Leo dipping sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound medium shell-on shrimp (36/40 size) de-veined
• 1/2 pound. pork loin (in an Asian grocery you might find julienned pork)
• 1 bunch of Thai basil
• 1 bunch of Asian mint
• 1 bunch of cilantro (the Vietnamese version is called rau ram)
• 1 head of green leaf lettuce shredded or chopped medium fine
• Package of 8 inch Rice Paper Rounds (banh trang)
• 4 ounces cooked rice vermicelli (bun) noodles
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

1. If using frozen shrimp, first completely thaw in cold water
2. In a small sauce pan boil the pork with the salt and sugar until it is fully cooked. Completely cover the pork with water but not much, you will use the broth for the sauce
3. When done remove pork from pan and set aside to cool
4. Cook the shrimp in boiling salted water.
5. Remove shrimp from pot and set aside to cool.
6. Julienne the cooled pork
7. Remove from the shells from the shrimp and discard shells
8. Slice shrimp in half lengthwise. It is best to do this by laying a shrimp on a cutting board with the outside bend towards the hand you cut with. Press down lightly on the shrimp with your finger tips and with a sharp knife slice through the shrimp (needless to say, exercise all due caution!). If the shrimp was not de-veined to start with, remove the vein with the knife
9. Cook the rice noodles according to the package directions. Typically you have to soak the noodles in water for 5 minutes or so and then cook them for another 5 minutes
10. After rice noodles are finished cooking, immediately strain them and run cold water over them to stop them from cooking.

Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Leo) Ingredients.

• garlic chili sauce (to taste, start with one teaspoon)
• 1/4 cup broth from cooking pork
• ¼ cup tương (or Chinese hoisin) sauce
• ¼ cup roasted peanuts, chopped fine
• 1 fresh Thai red chili, seeded and thinly sliced (for garnish)

* Note: For more authentic Nuoc Leo, you can add a small amount of fried ground pork and pork liver. Optionally you can add smaill amounts peanut butter, sugar, tomato paste and finely chopped garlic.

Sauce Preparation:

Mix all the ingredients except the peanuts and fresh chilies. If the optional ingredients are used, fry the ground pork and liver first and add the remaining sauce ingredients (except peanuts and chilies) mix thoroughly over medium high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Cool sauce before serving.

After the sauce is done sprinkle the top with the crushed/chopped peanuts and for color and zest top with a few thin slices of the red chilies. Assembling the Gỏi Cuốn

Note: The rice paper needs to be wetted in a large bowl (or deep plate) of water. It is best to prepare the summer rolls one at a time; soak, fill and roll. It only takes a few moments to sufficiently wet the rice paper, it will still be slightly stiff when removed from the water, but it will soften quickly, so don't over soak.

1. Arrange all the ingredients around a clean cutting board.
2. Completely dunk a sheet of rice paper into a large bowl of fresh water, let water run off and then lay flat on cutting board
3. In the lower third of the rice paper sheet add layers of the ingredients above in a long mound parallel to your body. Layering order is up to personal preference, but to make them look like what you find in restaurants, put the halved shrimp (cut side facing down) on the top
4. wrap ingredients like you are wrapping a burrito. Fold the bottom of the rice paper over the mound, fold in the sides and then roll everything forward to close the top. Some restaurants use two layers of rice paper, placing the halved shrimp in between the two layers so that the are clearly visible through the outermost layer of rice paper. Using two layers allows one to create a tighter neater wrap, but this is optional. Experiment until you get it right!

To serve, divide the sauce into as many dipping bowls (ramikins work great) as there are eaters. Sprinkle a goodly amount of crushed peanuts on the top of the Nuoc Leo sauce. For color and zest, sprinkle the top of the sauce with a few slices of the red chilies.

Gỏi cuốn is eaten with the hands. This is the easy part, just dip the end of the gỏi cuốn in the sauce and then take a bite! You will be surprised by the blend of flavors and the sensation of freshness provided by the mint, basil and the clean taste of the rice noodles. Enjoy!

Based on a recipe submitted by Colleen Nguyen.

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Hummus and falafel are both quite popular (particularly hummus) in America, but we would imagine most people buy them preprepared. But you can make your own and you will be delighted by the results.

In May of last year 300 chefs in Lebanon set the Guinness World Record for the largest plate of hummus. The previous record was set a few months earlier by 50 chefs in the Arab-Israeli village of Abu Ghosh near Jerusalem The Abu Ghosh chefs whipped up over four tons of the garbanzo-tahini concoction. In May of 2010, Lebanese cooks smashed this record with a staggering 11.5 tons of the savory dip. Seemingly every Eastern Mediterranean country has tried to lay claim to the best tasting hummus in the world. In the often fiercely partisan climate of the Middle East, hummus is a contested symbol of ethnic and national pride.

Hummus dates back to at least the 14th century in the Southeastern Mediterranean Levant. Hummus starts with two ingredients, boiled puréed garbanzo bean (aka chick peas) and puréed seasame seed paste (tahini). Any number of flavorings (most commonly lemon juice and salt) are added. Olive oil is also a common addition to the dip. Hummus is garnished or mixed with a variety of ingredients such as marinaded artichokes, carmelized onions, cilantro, chopped hard boiled eggs, garlic, chillies, ground cumin, cucumbers, mint leaves, olives, paprika, parsley, pine nuts, roasted red peppers, sumac (a lemony power made from sumac fruit), chopped tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, and whole cooked garbonzo beans. We urge you to experiment with such options. In the Middle-East hummus is also sometimes topped with a layer of ful (boiled and chrushed fava beans). Palestinians, Israili Arabs and Mizrahi Jews (Jews from Arab and/or Muslim-majority countries) often eat hummus warm or even hot. Most typically hummus is eaten with a flat bread such as pita, but in America it is sometimes scooped up with celery or carrot sticks and sometimes even tortilla chips.

The sources for the recipe below refer to it as "Israeli Hummus" but as the Isareli authors of The Hummus Blog note, "Israeli hummus is pretty much derived from the Palestinian hummus." Indeed the ingredients in the recipe below are widely shared by most hummus makers regardless of nationality. Variations tend to revolve not around the basic indredients but the proportions of the ingredients,flavorings used, particularities of serving and consuming.

The secret to making very smooth hummus is to remove the skins from the garbanzo beans by gently pinching the beans between your index finger and your thumb. For canned garbanzo beans you do this right after you remove them from the can. If you are using dry garbanzos, soak, cook and then let them cool before doing this.

Hummus Ingredients:

• 1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed*
• 4 large garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 cup tahini, at room temperature (stir paste before measuring)
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
• Salt
• Paprika and 1/4 cup of chopped parsley, for garnish

Preparation:

1. Set aside 2 tablespoons of the garbanzo beans and add the remaining bean to a food processor.
2. Puree with water, half (1/4 cup) the olive oil, half (1/4 cup) the tahini, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 3 of the garlic cloves, cumin and salt. Process until smooth and creamy. Transfer to a serving bowl.
3. Clean the food processor and add the remaining olive oil, tahini, 1 tablespoon water, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and garlic clove.
4. Process the lemon/tahini mixture until smooth.
5. Before serving, make an indent in the center of the hummus and poor the tahini-lemon mixture inside.
6. Garnish with paprika, parsley and the whole garbanzo beans and serve with pita bread.

Notes:

* The original recipe (from www.foodandwine.com for this hummus uses 1/2 pound of dried garbanzo beans. To prepare, the beans are soaked in water (along with 1 tablespoon of baking soda) overnight. The next day they are simmered with 7 cloves of garlic (note: cooked garlic is milder than raw garlic, so you need more of it) for 40 minutes. After the beans are tender, pour off and reserve the liquid. Then remove and peel the garlic. Puree the cooked garbanzo beans with 1/2 cup of olive oil, 1/2 cup of the reserved liquid, 1/4 cup of lemon juce, 1/4 cup of tahini 6 cloves of boiled garlic, and the ground cumin. Follow the directions above for making the tahini/lemon topping.

This recipe was adapted from a recipe submitted by Jessica Yoon, the sister of our associate editor, Michelle Yoon. Jessica is currently attending the who is currently resides in Paris, France and is enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu's culinary program. Jessica maintains a food blog called www.jessicasdinnerparty.com

About Falafal:

Just like hummus, Falafel in the Middle East is subject to a lot of partisan debate. Israelis claim it as one of their national dishes and Christian Copts eat it during lent as a meat replacement. Originally a street food in many countries it is also a part of the the Arabian "Mezz" which has many different small dishes served together on one table. While garbonzo beans are the bean of choice for falafels in most countries, fava beans are often used in Egypt and some recipes call for the use of both beans. Falafel dry mix is widely availible (much cheaper if bought in bulk from Henry's Market), just add water mixes tend to make a much drier falafel. Reportedly McDonalds sell falafel burgers in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East and calls them "McFalafels." Too bad they are not sold here!

Falafel Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried chickpeas or 16 oz. can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans.
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons flour
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oil for frying

Preparation:

1. Place dried chickpeas in a bowl, covering with cold water. Allow to soak overnight. Omit this step if using canned beans.
2. Drain chickpeas, and place in pan with fresh water, and bring to a boil.
3. Allow to boil for 5 minutes, then let simmer on low for about an hour.
4. Drain and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
5. Combine chickpeas, garlic, onion, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper (to taste) in medium bowl. Add flour.
6. Mash chickpeas, ensuring to mix ingredients together. You can also combine ingredients in a food processor. You want the result to be a thick paste.
7. Form the mixture into small balls, about the size of a ping pong ball. Slightly flatten.
8. Fry in 2 inches of oil at 350 degrees until golden brown (5-7 minutes).
9. Serve while still warm

Additional notes: This recipe was adapted from www.mideastfood.about.com Falafels can take the form of balls or pattys. Falafel can be served as an appetizer with hummus and tahini, or as a main course. You can make a falafel "sandwich" (a common way they are consumed in Egypt) by stuffing pita bread with falafel, lettuce, tomatoes, tahini, salt and pepper. Falafel can also be used as a veggie burger, I think it tastes much better than store bought veggie burgers. I should note that I myself have experimented with falafel to make a great tasting veggie burger and the closest I got was with the addition of sautéed mushrooms (cooked until dry and nearly crispy).

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