Kate's Kitchen: March 2015

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Tchertma - Zucchini and Eggs

Every once in a while someone comes into your life whose taste is so very similar to yours that it's almost eerie. Connie is one of those people. He says he knew he'd found the right one when he opened the meat drawer in my fridge and it was filled with about 20 kinds of cheese. LOL, we do love our cheese. Christiane from Taking On Magazines, aka The Mom Chef, is another of those. Over the years I must have tried a dozen recipes from her blog. Every last one has been wonderful. Our very favorite (and one of our top five salads) is her cucumber/herb/feta salad. In fact, as I type this all the ingredients are happily nestled in my fridge awaiting their preparation. During the summer it's a wonderful way to use our cucumber harvest. During the winter I can close my eyes and imagine summer!

Because I know our taste is so similar, I knew I'd have a terrible time choosing a recipe. I did. I decided that I'd go to family favorites first. Christiane is of French and Armenian descent so I figured I'd find some fun Armenian recipes in her family recipes section. I did. But, I also found too many to count others that I wanted to try. The old saying your eyes are bigger than your stomach? Well, my file folder was bigger than my time or energy OR my stomach. Such wonderful choices. Lasagna D'Italia. Made with béchamel the way I remember the best lasagna I've ever had. Side note - it was at a pub in Cork, Ireland. I know, last place you'd expect but it was magnificent. Four chicken recipes called my name. One with a juniper berry/gin/cream sauce. My goodness but that sounded magnificent. Cognac glazed. Honey ginger glazed. Hubby Doug's favorite chicken rolls - his mom's recipe. Then, there was the moussaka. Eggplant is one of our favorites so that was a strong contender. Pickled beets with star anise. I can taste that one! Finally, I came down to two choices. Spiced lentils with poached eggs and Tchertma
- zucchini and onions with an egg on top. I'll admit I was hungry for an egg. And, both of these recipes had eggs on top...

What did we think? Connie's exact word was unexpected. I know. Not a word you normally associate with tasting a dish for the first time. At least I don't. But, I felt the same way. This is pure comfort food. The zucchini is wonderfully soft. The onions add a lovely subtle flavor. And, the eggs are perfect. This is the kind of dish that you get home from the office bone tired and wander out to the garden and pick a couple of zucchinis and dinner is ready in a few minutes. Of course, this time of year the garden is not quite producing and a trip to the grocery is in order - lol. I think I need to go to Christiane's for about a week for Armenian cooking lessons!

Now, along with the Tchertama, Connie decided we needed a cocktail. An Armenian martini, no less:

Since it's once again time for the Blogger C.L.U.E. Society, that means all the wonderful bloggers below have hunted for other fabulous recipes on their assigned sites. We're trying to do something with potatoes. So, I served this with a lovely dish of rosemary potatoes:

Here's where you can see Christiane's blog: Tchertma

And, here's how you make it

Ingredients:

1 T butter
1 small - medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 zucchinis, cut into coins
4 eggs

Directions:

Melt the butter in a medium skillet on medium heat.