Bakk in the Day 2

The Bakkich’s are of no more exotic descent than Scandinavian and Eastern European, but Mom Bakkich had a flair for out-of-the-ordinary meals.  We grew up on dinners of keema (an Indian spiced ground meat/tofu & veggie dish), Asian glass-noodle & fish soup, home-made hot & sour soup, and things of the sort.  (Dad Bakkich stuck with the classics when it was his turn to cook; eggplant parmesan, American chop-suey, smothered pork chops and New England style fish chowder.)  Mom also experimented often with vegetarian substitutes, the most memorable being textured vegetable protein sneakily substituted into my favorite meatball dish.  I’m still scarred from the shock of biting into what I thought was ground beef and am wary of any meatball Mom serves to this day.  I’m not bitter, I swear. 

My favorite dish, bakk in the day and to THIS day, is Mom’s Tabouli.  I have loved it my entire life.  This is my comfort food.  Can you imagine a kid in the mid-80’s craving bulgur wheat?  It's a cookout staple.  People request, nay, demand it. 

Well true to form, the tabouli craving snuck up and hit me in the stomach around 10:30 this morning as I innocently sat at my desk at work.  I knew I had olives, onions, tomato, and dressing ingredients…but bulgur and parsley?  Wasn’t sure, and I wasn’t taking any chances, so I picked them up on the way home.  There is no messing with Mom’s recipe (as Grandma will tell you after accidentally using dried cilantro in place of dried parsley when Mom asked her to help out and make the tabouli…once) BUT I use fresh parsley instead of dried.  (I let black pepper sit in on the shoot; note, he's in the photo but not the recipe.  He felt left out.  I felt bad.)

Mom Bakkich's Tabouli
(bonus, it's vegan friendly!)

• 2 cups bulgur
• 2 cups water, boiling
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 - 3 tomatoes, diced (I find roma/plum work best)
• black olives, chopped
• 1 cup dried parsley (or 1 bunch fresh, finely chopped)
• 1/4 cup fresh mint, finely choopped

Dressing:

• 1 C lemon juice
• 1/2 C olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• dash of cayenne
• 2 tsp dried oregano

Soak bulgur in water about 1/2 hour, or until water is absorbed. Add onion, tomato, olives, parsley & mint. Add dressing. Mix thoroughly.

You can serve this immediately at room temp, or chilled, or ever better...the next day. I mix the batch right in a plastic container, then cover and stick it right in the fridge.

(there's an ongoing tabouli/taboule/tabouleh debate...I just go phonetically, and I am likely wrong-o.)

My master plan was for the tabouli to be part of an epic dinner salad, buuuuut....I just shoveled a bowl full and chased it with a piece of GTL Cake. 

And a margarita.

Ole.