Mediterranean and Easy

What is the Mediterranean Diet? Is it a prescribed menu for each day of the week? Is it taking certain supplements or removing bread from the table? Is it lean meats? Sorry, I don't believe that it's any of these things. It isn't anything complicated. What, then, is it that binds so many cultures and foodways into what we call the Mediterranean Diet? It isn't one thing. It is many things together. Click here for today's recipe.

Here's the easy-peasy recipe for this gorgeous dinner.

It's like Yoga.  It's a way of life. It is not a series of poses designed to stretch your body. Yes, that stretching and strengthening is one part of yoga, but yoga is also a mind practice and a way of eating and doing. They all come together as Yoga. And so it is with the Mediterranean Diet. It's a mindset of giving and living for the moment. It's a social workout that brings joy to life in many moments throughout the day--playing backgammon, boules, or soccer with young people. It's taking your time to enjoy a meal with family and friends. It's gratitude, prayer, meditation. It's movement like walking everywhere, going for a daily morning swim in saltwater, it's working in the yard and it's dancing. Yes, like my 95-year-old aunt in the video below.

Blue Zones are areas around the world where people have a long and healthy life span. Sardinia and Ikaria are two of the five regions. They are both in the Mediterranean. Food is simple. Usually, ingredients are grown in small gardens behind people's homes. All ingredients are sourced whole and minimally processed in the home kitchen. Dishes are not interfered with too much. Most seasonings are salt, pepper, onion, garlic, herbs and good butter or olive oil. Herbs are added, but not too many. Lemon may be used at the end of cooking or at the dinner table to enhance and brighten natural flavors. That's it. No furikake, no chili crisp, no tajin. Simple. The Mediterranean countries keep it simple. And they don't follow trends! (That's my aunt showing off her garden in Sparta last year.)

Today's recipe may appear to be too fancy, too much trouble, too difficult to master, too much time! Fortunately for you, if the photos are appealing, you will see that the cooking and prep are not. Fish and shrimp are patted dry and seasoned. You prep the salad. Ingredients are eyeballed. Dressing is mixed right in the bowl. Thn the pan is heated, oil is added, fish is cooked and removed. Shrimp are added to the same pan, cooked rapidly and removed. Really, once everything is ready for cooking, you can sit down to eat in 30 minutes...or less! Here's a printable version of my recipe.