Toning things down and UP
 

Hi Karen,

Just wanted to let you know that I tried my very first recipe in your book (finally!) and it was Fa-bu-lous! I made the Feta and Olive meatballs for supper last night. I was lucky enough to be able to have some Katahdin sheep on hand, and boy was it tasty.

I had tried this recipe before on your website, but the one in your book included baking the whole thing in some tomato sauce and that made all the difference. That and the wonderful organic lamb :)

I do have a question. I notice that in your book you do tone down the spices, especially the "hotness". I understand that, as you try to appeal to a mass market. I also understand that it's not your personal preference. How much was it generally toned down from your original recipes?

That recipe is one of my favourites!

The spicing of dishes is at a level that I like, but as for hotness I do tone it down. :) I always have a bag of Thai chilis in my crisper.

It depends on the origin of the dish. If I was making the Chinese style cauli-flied rice for myself, I would fry a chopped thai chili with it. Something like the chicken wih prosciutto and olives doesn't need heat.

Karen

I did increase the peppers in your tunisian spice mixture from 1 to 3 (they were small) and added some dried chili peppers (the kind you put in spaghetti) in the tomato sauce. The disk had a very slight residual heat which was quite pleasant.

Anyway, thanks for a great recipe!