I was inspired a couple of weekends ago by the most delicious taboulé I ate at a friend’s house!  In fact, I was inspired all that I ate there.

I am not sure that I was the best of guests, however. I must admit that I strategically placed myself rather near to the food buffet-where I spent a great portion of evening -quietly-and (hopefully) inconspicuously taking a bit of food here and there happily eating my way through the evening!

Of course this experience served as the inspiration for one of my meals last week. It is a meal richly marinated in exotic, fresh, herbs and spices. It is a meal which combines the flavours of Persian cuisine influenced by Turkish with a- I would say Lebonese touch? Hm—-does that make sense!!

Yes, I think it does!

OK-so here it is or rather was:

·         Persian-inspired-marinated goat shoulder with a kumquat- cinnamon sauce, which I swear is one of the most succulent meats I have ever had!

·         Quinoa Tabloule with parsley and fresh coriander (, I had no bulgar in the house. So, I decided to try Quinoa instead. Great and healthy alternative-

·         Hummus-and because I soaked way to many chickpeas to make enough hummus for an army- I used the rest to make

·         Home-made Falafel.

Before I go into the recipe, this meal reminded me of-yet another taxi experience I had recently. Driving home one evening, I was taken home b a lovely man.  As soon as I stepped into the car he asked me where I was from-and I asked him to guess. I told him where I was born-and this did not satisfy him. He wanted to know where my ethnic roots were?

Well, I paused and began to talk about where my family comes from and the various regions in the world from which my ethnic roots are be found.  I saw his face in the rear view mirror-and he looked noting less but confused. He then responded by saying that he comes from Iran-“I am Persian” he told me-proudly-“only that and nothing more”.

And at that, we began to talk about his Persian culture and of course, the best part of it! Its food!!!! He gave me some great tips as to where I can find the best Persian food in Berlin and then invited me to him home, where he swore the best would be found there! “My wife makes the best Persian food” he said twice, as if I did not believe him. And I saw in his smile, the manner in which his face lit when he spoke about his wife’s great cooking-that the old saying must indeed be true-

The best way to a man’s’ heart is through his stomach!!

For the goat you will need:

• 1 kilo or 2 pounds of boneless goat shoulder

You will need 2 days at best to prepare: Marinate the goat in the following marinade for about 2 days to really get the lovely flavours of the marinade soaked in-

For the marinade you will need:

• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ cups of lemon oil
• ¼ cup of white wine Vinegar
• ¼ cup of finely chopped onion
• ¼ cup tablespoons of finely chopped fresh coriander
• ¼ cup Tablespoons of fresh parsley
• 1/8 cup of freshly chopped mint leaves
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 garlic clove chopped

For the kumquat sauce you will need

• ½ cup of kumquats-cut into small pieces

Put all of the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour over the goat and let is just sit and ready for a couple of days in the refrigerator.

Once marinated, you are ready to go-most of the work is already done!

Pre-heat the oven to 200 Celsius-or about 400 Fahrenheit, and place the marinated lamb into a roasting try and turn down the oven to 160 degrees Celsius or 320 degrees Fahrenheit. I covered the goat with a bit of foil to avoid overbrowning and then let mine cook slowly for 2 hours, at which point is was perfectly done! Save the juices.

Once done, wrap in foil and now you can begin to prepare the sauce.

For the kumquat sauce-use about ½ cup of the juices which would have the come from the lamb as the base and add about ½ cup of red-wine. Cook this mixture at middle temperature for about 10 minutes to reduce the liquid down to about half the amount. Then add ½ cup of kumquats. Cook for about 15 minutes stirring constantly-adding salt or pepper to taste. You will end up with an almost marmalade-like-looking sauce-not quite as thick, but with a nice gloss and slightly thick and lush consistency.

Finish with a dash of cinnamon and serve over the meat! You can garnish the entire dish with a tiny bit of freshly cut coriander and or parsley!

4 veal cutlets
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons of salt mixed with 1 teaspoon of seasonings of choice
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 whisked eggs with a pinch of salt
1 cup of fine dry bread crumbs
up to 8 tablespoons of  vegetable oil or Ghee
lemon wedges

3 plates

Non-stick frying plan

Oven-proof platter

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F or slightly less than 100 degrees C. Place an ovenproof platter in the oven to warm.

Pound each cutlet between 2 sheets of plastic wrap to as thin as 1/8-inch thickness with flat side of a meat pounder.

Note: This really is a great stress release I can tell you!!

In plate 1 put in the flour and mix it with the salt seasoning mixture and pepper.

In plate 2, put in the whisked eggs.

In plate 3, put in the bread crumbs.

Pat the veal dry and dredge it into the flour mixture. Shake off any excess flour.

Dip the flour-covered veal, into the egg mixture. Shake off any excess eggs.

Then finally, dredge in into the plate with the bread crumbs, making sure that the veal is completely coated. Put aside and complete the process until all for the veal pieces are ready.

I find the name itself most unattractive. Because of that actually, I remained very distant to the schnitzel for a very very long time. A piece of breaded pan-fried meat? Yea, and then what?  It just sounded boring to me and in restaurants I always saw it served as just huge slabs, and I was never tempted to take a bite. The few times I did take a bite, because my partner may have ordered it, I found it oily and over-salted for my taste!

It took a 4 year old little girl to change my opinion.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine and her 4-year old daughter came over to visit me for a few days. I was really excited as I had not seen my friend in years and had spent the week prior to her visit, planning the menu. Everything was planned-the breakfasts, lunches, dinners and of course, the desserts!

I knew that my friend enjoyed cooking and thought that we would spend evening together in the kitchen cooking and chatting as we did years back when! I went to the airport to meet my friend and as I saw her walk through the customs, I was filled with excitement and anticipation for the upcoming days. I watched her and reminisced-I was taken back to the good-old days!

And it ended right then and there!

I gave my friend a hug, and within what felt like 2 seconds, I was taken back by a screechingly loud scream. The loud scream came from her daughter. She was clearly tired and cranky and did not want anyone near her mother. A transatlantic flight can do that to anyone. I figured that once she got some sleep and a nice home-cooked meal, she would be fine.

No.

We arrived home to breakfast, which I had prepared before heading out. I proudly explained what I had prepared and got ready to sit down and eat when the daughter asked me for her cereal. I gave her the “cereal” I had purchased for her. She took one good look at it and said that this was not her cereal-it looked funny.

The crying resumed.

I tried everything to appease her. I had purchased gummy bears and all sorts of goodies, thinking that she would be immediately captured. Nothing was like that which she was used to at home. The gummy bears were too hard and small, the Smarties were not her beloved M&Ms, and she cried for things I could not possibly get in Germany. She was experiencing a serous cultural shock here!

After I was about to loos my nerves, I thought of offering her some hot chocolate. I told her that this hot chocolate would be the absolute best that she would ever have.

The crying stopped.

I made her some Lindt hot chocolate and handed it to her. She took a sip and…

The crying began again. She only drinks hot chocolate with marshmallow hearts. Marshmallow hearts? I had never even heard of that before!!!

This scenario continued for a day and a half and all of my efforts were completely futile. She was not at all happy with I was serving her. We went out for lunch in the hope that we would be able to order something she liked and to spare me of further frustration.

The same thing occurred. Nothing was right.

The second night, I prepared some pasta with a veal sauce. She dislikes sauce, so her mother and I decided that she may enjoy the pasta with some oil or butter. Surprise surprise-this clearly was a no-go for her. She pushed her plate away from her and shouted out “swirlies!!!”. Swirly pasta, which I did not have. I felt horrible and was beginning to dread the next few days. I finished eating my meal in silence and watched my friend trying desperately to please her daughter, not being able to eat herself. Then it occurred to me that I had an extra piece of veal left over. Since this little girl seems to only eat things in shapes of hearts and swirls, perhaps I could cut the veal into a heart for her, I thought. I did just that. I cut it, shaped it, breaded it and pan fried it.

As I served it to her, I felt as if I was serving a meal to my greatest-ever critic-and indeed I was. This was the moment of truth. And what a moment it was because there was sheer silence (which I had so dearly missed since the day before).

My friend and I looked at the plate and then at my friend’s daughter to se her reaction. She asked me what it was and before I could answer her, she picked it up with her cute little fingers and took a bite. Yummy..was what I heard. Within a few minutes the entire heart had disappeared. Her mother jokingly asked me what sort of magic pills I put into it. I do not know if it was my utter desperation to please this girl or my nerves which were about to explore, but something worked!  My friend asked for us to make some more together the next evening. She had never seen her daughter eat so well.

I felt such a great sense of relief! And guess what?

I did not hear her cry again.

The following evening, we all made veal schnitzel together and I really enjoyed it! The schnitzel now plays a regular role in my culinary repertoire, especially during the winter months (for some reason), and this was my dinner tonight.

Guten Appetit!