Authentic Flavors from a Mediterranean Kitchen
Ines Zahraoui
Close your eyes and imagine this: a tiny kitchen in Chania, late July, windows open to let in the salt-kissed breeze rolling off the sea. My yiayia is standing at the stove humming to herself, squeezing lemons over a bowl of snowy-white ricotta — a cheese she brought back from a small dairy in the … Read more
February 2022, a Wednesday—I remember because I’d promised my sister Nadia we’d have dinner at 7 and it was already 5:45 and I had done nothing. So I did what any reasonable person does: threw chicken thighs, a jar of artichoke hearts, and some optimism into my slow cooker. The result? Rubber. Genuinely terrible. The … Read more
I need to confess something: I used to think Instant Pots were a scam. Like, a very elaborate infomercial-level scam. Then my coworker Priya brought her Instant Pot Mediterranean chickpea curry to the office potluck in March 2021 and I had three bowls. Three. At a work event. Where people could see me. I went … Read more
7 Secrets: Best Mediterranean Baked Cod with Tomatoes I am not — and I want to be upfront about this — a patient cook. Ask my friend Layla, who watched me attempt this Mediterranean baked cod with tomatoes for the third time on a Tuesday in March and produce what could charitably be called “hot … Read more
The smell hits you before you even open the oven door. That intoxicating wave of smoky harissa, caramelized honey, and sweet charred peppers — it’s the kind of aroma that brings everyone to the kitchen doorway, spoon already in hand, asking: “How long?” I still remember the first time something like this came out of … Read more
February 14th, 2019. Valentine’s dinner was in ninety minutes, and I had nothing planned except panic (classic move, honestly). My husband was on his way home from work, expecting something special, and I was staring at a package of chicken breasts like they might spontaneously turn into dinner. Then I remembered a technique my Italian … Read more
I’m going to be honest with you — the first time I made stuffed dates with goat cheese and pistachios was Thanksgiving 2022, and they looked like tiny edible crime scenes. Goat cheese was oozing everywhere, pistachios had rolled under the fridge (I found three of them in March), and my friend Diane took one … Read more
March 2023. Sunday brunch for eight. I’m standing in my kitchen with a pan full of what was supposed to be a labneh & herb omelette but instead looked like scrambled eggs had gotten into a fight with a jar of yogurt. My cousin Nadia — who, for the record, never misses an opportunity to … Read more
I can still hear the sound of my yiayia’s wooden spoon scraping the bottom of her big copper pot on a Saturday afternoon in Chania. The kitchen smelled of bay leaves and slow-cooked onions — a smell that still makes me close my eyes and exhale. She would stand at that old gas stove for … Read more
So let me tell you about the time I fried goat cheese and it literally exploded in the pan. February 2022. Dinner party for eight. I’d skipped the freezing step because I was, you know, impatient (shocker), and what I got was a skillet full of melted cheese soup with breadcrumb confetti floating in it. … Read more