You’re a fabulous foodie. But every now and then, you crave an offering from the food court – something you can hold in both hands and tear into without shame, or napkins. The mall gyro, with its salty feta, tangy tzatziki and pillowy pita, calls to me. I decided to create a vegetarian version at home, away from the scary mall meat.

Traditional gyros are made with piles of spicy lamb. Would piles of sauteed mushrooms satisfy? Nope. Shiitake mushrooms were too rubbery. Portobellos have a better texture but a ho-hum flavor. Perhaps using the same spices that season gyro meat would help. Problem solved. Marinating the portobellos in olive oil plus cumin, oregano, smoked paprika, salt and pepper gave my mushrooms an intriguing, snarf-worthy flavor.

I then wondered if my favorite meze, saganaki (aka fried cheese), could be just as tasty. Kasseri is a Greek sheep’s milk cheese that browns and melts beautifully, so I figured I’d start there. The steps for frying cheese are pretty basic: Heat oil. Coat cheese in flour and beaten egg. Sear cheese in oil. On my first try, the hot olive oil smoked up the kitchen and triggered the smoke alarm. More tragically, the eggs didn’t coat the cheese evenly. And the uncoated bits of cheese dissolved into lumpy, flour-packed puddles.

I’d been using olive oil, but canola oil has a higher smoke point, which significantly reduces your chances of a visit from the fire department. That was an easy fix, but what could I do about the uneven coating? Since I had watched streaks of egg white literally slide off the frying cheese, the fault laid in my slap-dash egg beating. For the second trial, I beat the eggs with a hand mixer, so the yolks and whites were fully blended. And instead of flour, I took a cue from Mai Lee chef Qui Tran, who dredges his tofu in cornstarch. Finally, I had foolproof fried cheese perfection. But I still used the  stove-top exhaust.

The last head-scratcher was the tzatziki. Most recipes require de-seeding cucumbers and draining the sour cream/yogurt over cheesecloth. Who has time for that? Instead, I sliced a seedless cucumber and gave the slices a cursory pat with paper towels. As for the sour cream and yogurt, I just drained the liquid from the containers. The resulting tzatziki was slightly more watery than restaurant tzatziki but totally passable. To satisfy a texture purist, thicken it with whipped feta. Yes, feta tzatziki on top of fried Kasseri is too much of a good thing. But isn’t that what the food court is all about?

Veggie Gyros
4 Servings

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 oz. plus ¼ cup feta crumbles, divided*
½ cup sour cream, liquid poured off the top
½ cup non-fat Greek yogurt, liquid poured off the top
¼ tsp. freshly minced garlic
1 large seedless cucumber, peeled, thinly sliced and set on paper towels to dry
4 white-flour pitas
1 head romaine hearts, chopped
Portobello Filling (recipe follows)
2 Roma tomatoes, sliced
Half of a large red onion, thinly sliced

• Add the lemon juice and 2 ounces of feta to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the chopping blade. Pulse until the feta is creamy, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add the sour cream, yogurt, garlic and half of the cucumber slices, and pulse 3 or 4 times, until the tzatziki is barely blended. Pour into a bowl and stir in the remaining cucumber slices. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
• Divide the pitas between 4 plates. Divide the romaine and filling of your choice evenly among them. Top with the tomatoes, onions, tzatziki and remaining ¼ cup of feta.
• Serve immediately.

* Don’t want feta in your tzatziki? Just add ¼ teaspoon of salt to the sauce.

Portobello Filling

¼ tsp. white pepper
¼ tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. smoked paprika
6 oz. (2 to 3 large) portobello mushroom caps
½ cup olive oil
1 tsp. freshly minced garlic

• Mix the first 6 ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
• Rinse, but don’t de-gill, the portobellos. Pat dry, and cut into ½-inch-thick slices.
• Place the mushrooms, oil, garlic and 1 teaspoon of the spice mixture in a quart-size Ziploc bag. Seal and let the mushrooms marinate at room temperature for 20 minutes.
• Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. When the skillet is very hot, add the mushrooms (with their marinade). Reduce heat to medium and saute until the mushrooms are soft and slightly browned on both sides, about 5 minutes.

Kasseri Cheese Filling

2 large eggs
½ cup cornstarch
6 oz. cold Kasseri cheese*
¼ cup canola oil

• Using a hand-held mixer, beat the eggs on medium speed until they are foamy and the whites are fully incorporated.
• Pour the cornstarch into a Ziploc bag.
• Remove the Kasseri cheese from the refrigerator and cut into ½-inch thick slices. Place the cheese in the Ziploc bag with the cornstarch and shake until it’s well coated.
• Heat the oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until a drop of water splatters. Working in batches if necessary, dip the cheese slices into the beaten egg, then carefully drop them into the oil. Cook until golden brown, 60 to 90 seconds per side. Carefully remove the cheese from the oil with a heat-proof slotted spoon.

* Available at Dierbergs, 8450 Eager Road, Brentwood, 314.962.9009, dierbergs.com

— photo by Carmen Troesser

The mint julep is all about tradition. And booze.

Authentic mint juleps are served in silver cups and made with fresh mint leaves, Kentucky bourbon and Dixie Crystals sugar. (That’s southern sugar, y’all.)

Now, I only have Yankee sugar in the pantry, but I do have a hound dog in the kitchen. I reckon that evens things out. For a step-by-step guide to making an easy, yet excellent, mint julep, click here.

Right now your favorite Hollywood starlet and your favorite dry cleaner are singing the praises of the Paleo diet, a plan based on what cavemen hunted and gathered. And apparently those fur-gathering folk didn’t grocery shop at Target like the rest of us.

Those who follow a Paleo regimen eat lots of meat, fruits and veggies. The list of what they don’t eat is daunting: gluten, dairy, casein (a milk protein), grains and soy. And that’s where it gets confusing. Didn’t our ancient ancestors eat whole grains? Or drink mammoth milk? We chatted with the co-owners of The Organic Cave Paleo Bakery to better understand the philosophy behind this of-the-moment diet.

Nichole DiGiuseppi and her wife, Angel, discovered the Paleo diet when a friend who was a nurse suggested it could help Nichole’s migraines. After 30 days, Nichole was headache-free. Angel’s asthma had improved. Both women felt fewer stomachaches and less bloated. “Our bodies can’t process gluten, grains, soy and dairy,” Nichole said. “When we eat them, our bodies react. Our intestines become inflamed. People don’t know how bad they feel until they cut those things out.”

As for the grains and dairy question, Nichole explained that, due to modern-day agriculture, those foods are not what they once were. Grains and soybeans are genetically modified. Milk is pasteurized and homogenized. So really, Paleo is about avoiding foods that have been processed beyond our body’s recognition. Which is why the gluten-free bread found at the grocery store isn’t Paleo – it’s made with xanthan gum and rice flour. Which is also why the DiGiuseppis started The Organic Cave in the first place. “I can give up bread,” Nichole said, “but Angel missed sandwiches.” Since Nichole enjoys baking, she decided to make Paleo-friendly rolls and sweets. “Through trial and error, I just started substituting foods I knew we could use that wouldn’t affect our bodies in a negative way,” she said.

The results were so tasty, friends and family encouraged the women to sell their goods at a local farmers market. Less than a year later, demand is so high that they’ve moved into a commercial baking space. “We started baking for ourselves, and then we found out that other people needed it, too,” Angel explained. “We couldn’t say no.”

{Chocolate Cake in a Jar}

Super-cute and yummy too. Technically it’s big enough to share, but one bite of this rich, pure cocoa and coconut flour cake, and you’ll keep it all to yourself. $8.

{Drew Drops}

Quite possibly the best chewy drop cookie you’ll ever have. Liberated from soy and made with dairy-free chocolate chips, these taste better than the real thing. $9 for 6.

{Iced Scones} 

There is nothing dry about these salty-sweet goodies. Coconut oil and almond flours make these scones moist and delicious. $4 for 3.

Want to try the Paleo diet for yourself?

Stop by The Organic Cave Bakery at 3323-1 Domain St., St. Charles, 636.541.7321, theorganiccave.com. Or pick up the bakery’s items at Local Harvest Grocery’s Kirkwood and Tower Grove locations, and through the Feed Your Vitality meal delivery service, feedyourvitality.com.

— photos by Laura Miller

My mother-in-law’s chicken broth is the pretty, translucent color of warm sunshine. My homemade vegetarian stock has a russet tone better suited to heavy stews. The color comes from slowly simmered vegetables, which also give it a hearty taste. Could I make a lighter-looking broth that wasn’t light on flavor?

First, I diced all of my vegetables into ¼-inch bits. The smaller the piece, the more flavor extracted. Then I sauteed the vegetables until they were soft, but not brown. I added some cold water and brought it to a boil.

Here’s what they don’t tell you on cooking shows: If you have a boiling pot of broth, and you add pepper to it, and you lean into the aromatic steam and inhale gloriously, you will get a snoot full of pepper. And if you have just used pungent white pepper instead of black because hey, that might taste good, you will cough so much that your abs hurt and it counts as your workout for the week. To add insult to eye-watering injury, a brief simmer yielded a light-colored, but weak-tasting broth. For flavor’s sake, browner was better.

Perhaps I’d have better luck duplicating my mother-in-law’s fluffy matzo balls. A little research suggested two tricks. One is to whip the egg whites before folding in the dry ingredients. The second is to use carbonated water instead of tap. Whipping the egg whites was easy, but my seltzer was flat (another thing that never happens on TV). Improvising, I used lime-flavored sparkling water – and it worked. The matzo balls were fluffy! Slightly tropical tasting, but fluffy!

I don’t really recommend lime-flavored matzo balls. But I do recommend facing your cooking disasters. It’s a marvelously heady feeling to overcome whatever obstacles a dish throws at your feet. Or up your nose.

Find Kellie’s recipe for Fearless Matzo Ball Soup here.

Find Kellie’s recipe for Fluffy Matzo Balls here.

— photo by Carmen Troesser

So you’ve danced the night away, and you’re hungry. Before you ruin a week’s worth of diet and exercise in a pepperoni-pizza binge, feast on shakshuka (shahk-SHOO-kah), a popular eggy Israeli dinner and the world’s most perfect drunk food. It’s fabulously fun to say, doesn’t require precise measuring and hits the spot when you’re craving some savory sustenance after a long, martini-laden night out. Traditional recipes call for sauteed chiles, but a teaspoon of Sriracha does the job with no extra effort. You can also simplify the entire dish by substituting jarred pasta sauce for the tomatoes and spices. Sober enough to really cook? Add chiles, diced red peppers, capers, olives or spinach. No matter how you prepare it, shakshuka is so good for you, you’ll have no regrets in the morning.

Get the recipe for shakshuka here.

Boozy Bonus: One skillet and one bowl means you won’t be cursing a sink full of dishes in the morning. Because who are you kidding? Clean up is so not happening tonight.

In decades past, uncoated cast iron stayed in the kitchen while its prettier, enameled cousin got to take the esteemed trip out to the dining room. But chef Justin Haifley likes the rustic look of the skillets on his tables at The Tavern Kitchen and Bar, where cozy, comfort food is given a contemporary bent. In fact, individually sized cast-iron dishes replace shiny white plates for all of the side dishes and most of the desserts at the Valley Park restaurant. Like Haifley’s truffle mushroom mac-n-cheese – a rich combination of a basic roux to which Haifley stirs in half-and-half and a little Parmesan, followed by cremini mushrooms, sharp green onions, a little fresh thyme and a glug of Madeira wine. This ultimate carb indulgence gets capped with an ode to the decadent: deeply earthy, garlicky truffle oil.

Click here to read the rest of March’s feature “The Iron Lady: When it comes to kitchen affairs, this grande dame rules.”

Get the recipe for Haifley’s Truffle Mushroom Mac-N-Cheese here.

— photo by Carmen Troesser

You swore you’d start your holiday shopping sooner. But you didn’t. And now you’ve got a knot in your stomach and a whole lot of VIPs who require something more thoughtful than a re-gifted bottle of merlot. Fortunately, we put together this list of gifts you have to have for the folks you have to schmooze. The best part: They’re all less than $25. So you can save the big bucks to spend on yourself.

For instance, at Sign of the Arrow, you can buy one of these Witty Tea Towels. Tuck one of these wickedly fun tea towels in a basket with some brownies, and you have a sweet gift with a touch of sass. Good for your hard-working letter carrier, life-saving carpool driver and the barista who starts your latte the second you stumble through the door.

For four more compulsory gift ideas, check out our slideshow.

The only thing better than fresh and healthy is fresh and healthy in a pretty package. Click here to learn the secrets to making good-looking, good-for-you spring rolls in this week’s Cook Wise.

Risotto is rice’s Italian cousin with the difficult reputation. Never fear, this flavorful, creamy dish is actually easy to make. This week’s Cook Wise explains how to cook risotto, both in the oven and on the stove, and helps you determine which method is best for you. Click here to get started.

What’s better than pie? Pie you can eat with your hands. Click here to learn how to make this super-yummy, highly portable dessert.