The four-hour meal

Yes, it actually took me four hours, start to finish, to prepare this meal. Had I some experience (and/or a sous chef), it would have taken about an hour, but I'm a novice, you know.

The first thing I made was the element that I was most unsure of--because all I had was a suggestion from Claudia, but no recipe to follow. I poked around on the internet and then came up with a fairly tasty yogurt-garlic-cumin sauce. This process took about 30-45 minutes. I zested a lemon. I combined ingredients slowly. But then I had it. And I didn't measure a thing. So, this is about as good as I can do for a recipe:

Mediterranean-style yogurt cumin sauce
About 1/2 cup of plain yogurt
About half the zest of one small lemon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 or 2 teaspoons minced garlic
A few drops of extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

After that, I started preparing my onion. Half the onion was cut into long-ish pieces to be caramelized, the other half chopped. I started caramelizing the onions (which can take a while) and then set about peeling and chopping the sweet potatoes (while trying to keep an eye on the caramelizing onions). At least I was smart this time and got small sweet potatoes at the grocery. I spent more time peeling, but it was worth it not to kill myself chopping them up into bits.

At some point, I started preparing the Israeli couscous, which I cooked with a mix of half water and half vegetable broth for a little extra flavor. How are those onions doing? Still caramelizing. Okay.

Once the onions were done, I set them aside and started cooking the sweet potato hashbrowns. Nothing much to this recipe--I just saute the chopped sweet potatoes and onions in some olive oil and sprinkle them with salt, fresh ground pepper and a little ground red pepper while they're cooking. Very good and fairly healthy. I usually cook them until they're cooked, but still have some resistance. Unfortunately, I cooked them too far in advance this time and they were a little mushy.

Next up, I had to chop some red bell peppers to roast in the toaster oven. And prepare the broccoli for roasting. By this time, I was about an hour and a half into the process, thanks to this very labor-intensive meal I'd planned. Once the red peppers had roasted, I added them, along with the caramelized onions and some capers to the Israeli couscous.

Then came the fun part. That is sarcasm, by the way.

I've always been willing to pay whatever amount of money I needed to pay for baklava. I love the stuff, but you couldn't pay me to make it. I don't have the patience. Now, why I thought that this wouldn't be that big a deal, I don't know. Anyhoo, I first had to convince the fillo dough to thaw by sitting it on the heating vent. So about 8 of the outside sheets were rendered unusable. Once separated off and disposed of, I began the arduous task of preparing the fillo pockets. I melted some butter and went to it. I laid out the dough, I brushed and then I melted more butter. And then brushed and melted and brushed and melted and brushed. I'm not sure of the final count of sheets. I just kept going until I got to the end. I think I went through at least half a stick of butter.

When I finally finished preparing the dough, I plopped down the Israeli couscous mixture and set about folding it up into a pocket. This sounds much easier than it was. Apparently, I did not use enough butter, so instead of a pocket, I got a double-open-ended burrito. No matter. Looks don't count at home, right?

So I stuck the "pocket" in the oven at 400 degrees, with the broccoli. And then the broccoli came out. And the hash browns were getting cold, but that fillo pastry was nowhere near brown. When it did get brown, I had to flip it. And wait some more. I turned on the eye and re-heated the hash browns. I stuck the broccoli back in and lo, just before the fifth hour was about to turn, I was finished.

So, here it is: fillo pockets stuffed with Israeli couscous, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, and capers topped with a yogurt cumin sauce and served with sweet potato hash browns and roasted broccoli. Also known as the four-hour meal. Also known as one of the tastiest meals I've ever made...that I will never make again.

Many thanks to Claudia for her tips and suggestions.

I'm putting "sous chef" on my Christmas list.