tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52626285584383463512024-03-18T04:47:46.180-05:00Desert Candy حلويات الصحراءMercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.comBlogger532125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-45611243912627850012015-08-15T09:14:00.002-05:002015-08-15T09:14:51.641-05:00Pea and Mint Tart<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I'll admit, these last few weeks have me in some sort of crabby baby-land funk. It's 117 degrees outside, I'm six months pregnant, and I live in Egypt. What I wouldn't give to be able to wear a pair of shorts right now, or breathe clean air, or see a proper beach, I can't even tell you. We are also over due for a vacation -- we've had a few side trips here and there, most of them packed with things like long flights or freezing cold walks across England -- but I haven't had a proper relax and hang-out vacation since last summer (I even worked over Christmas) and I'm starting to feel the effects. But shining like a big bright light on the horizon: three weeks off in September to hang out at home in Chicago, get the house ready for baby, and see a couple dear friends get married. I can't wait!<br /><br />My cooking has been in a similar sort of funk. There have been a lot of taco nights, ie the best way to use up odds and ends in the fridge, pasta with pesto, and snacking on Egyptian mangos with vanilla ice cream. So far we've counted at least five varieties of local mangos. Maybe I should do a taste test of mangos for the blog? That might be fun.<br /><br />Still, there have been some highlights: a sweet friend in DC telling me she has our due date on her calendar, the traffic cops that always stop traffic immediately for me as I approach an intersection. A colleague of mine kindly told me that buying baby things is one of the most exciting things in the world, and that it sucks that the mail system here is so frustrating. (I was complaining about the mail we get from the U.S., which only comes about once randomly in a month, and it can take up to 6 weeks for things to arrive.) I'm making curtains for the nursery and a little blanket. Despite my cooking funk, I made zucchini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for the office. Paul has been awesome, finding a local place for prenatal massage, or pointing me towards a good yoga video, agreeing to paint the super intricate stencils I want on the nursery wall, and smartly ignoring me when I freak out about which bassinet we should get.<br /><br />I've been trying to pack healthy lunches for myself, since one can't live on koshary alone and I already have the Lebanese place on speed dial. This pea and mint tart was something I came up with that could be healthy and portable, and also use up the half bag of peas that are always lurking in the freezer. It's vibrantly green and delicate in texture and keeps nicely for a few days in the fridge.<br /><br /><i><u>Pregnancy corner:</u> <span style="font-size: small;">I don't want this blog to be taken over by pregnancy stuff, but a couple of you wrote to me saying you are also pregnant (congrats!) and I thought I'd keep this little bottom corner for things I've found useful. Right now, this <a href="https://www.doyogawithme.com/content/prenatal-power-flow">prenatal yoga video</a> is great -- I've been surprised at how many are super boring and I even found a few online that the yoga instructor in me thought were unsafe. Also, <a href="http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/pdp/detail.jsp?&id=4130221332001&color=093#/">flowy Anthropologie dresses</a> are great for maternity clothes that aren't actually maternity. I started making a <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/desertcandy/make-and-freeze-recipes-for-new-moms/">list of recipes to make ahead and freeze over here</a>. Besides the usual casserole type things, I'm thinking things like little baked meat pies with roasted tomato soup are both freezer friendly, healthy, and make one-hand meals.</span></i><br />
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<b>Pea and Mint Tart</b><br />tart crust for a 10" tart pan*<br />2 cups peas<br />3 eggs<br />2 tablespoons heavy cream<br />leaves from 1 sprig of mint<br />1/4 cup grated parmesan<br />2 ounces goat cheese<br />2 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled<br />salt, pepper<br /><br />1. Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare and roll out tart dough and fit it into the pan. Refrigerate tart dough.<br />2. Place peas, eggs, cream into the bowl of a food processor. Process until well combined. Season well with salt and pepper, and add the cream, mint and parmesan. Pulse a few time to combine the mixture and break up the mint slightly.<br />3. Place tart crust on a baking sheet. Crumble the bacon in the bottom of the tart crust. Pour the filling in. Crumble the goat cheese over top. <br />4. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until top is lightly browned. Let cool slightly before serving.<br />
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* I used <a href="http://www.chow.com/recipes/30213-easy-tart-dough">this recipe</a>, doubled, without the vege oil or sugar and with half whole wheat flour.</div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com124tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-76472398782257765972015-07-23T13:14:00.000-05:002015-07-24T05:12:37.646-05:00Baking with Einkorn Flour + Homemade Pizza<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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If you've been reading here for a while then you'll know that I like to experiment in baking with different flours. That sometimes results in things like <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2012/02/amaranth-almond-cookies.html">amaranth cookies</a>, <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2013/11/pauls-plum-pandowdy.html">rye pie crusts</a>, <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2007/11/kamut-caramelized-pumpkin-and-hazelnut.html">kamut cake</a>, or <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2014/08/summer-blueberry-cake.html">semolina cakes</a>, and also a myriad of failures with teff. Recently, I spied some einkorn flour online and did a bit of research about it and decided to experiment a bit with it. So of course I ordered about 10 pounds!<br />
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<a href="http://www.einkorn.com/tips-for-baking-with-einkorn-flour/">Einkorn </a>berries, and the resulting flour, are essentially a wild wheat. That is, they are a cousin to the same grain your regular all purpose flour is made with, so they're not gluten free or anything, but they have not been cultivated and developed for years like a lot of modern commercial wheat and are supposedly more dense in protein and nutrients. I'm not an expert, but you can read some more <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einkorn_wheat">here</a> and <a href="https://jovialfoods.com/einkorn/einkorn-genetics/">here</a>. Frankly, for all I know einkorn could be some marketing hoax, but since we make pretty much all of our own baked goods in house, I'm very conscious of just how much flour we consume and I'm always looking for more ways to get variety in our diet. <br />
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Einkorn is easier to work with than some exotic flours since it is not unsimilar to regular flour. The key difference is that einkorn is a much softer flour, so it needs less liquid. The texture is a little like cake flour. One of the advantages to this is that you can combine einkorn flour with stronger flours, like dark rye or whole wheat without the resulting dough being heavy or coarse. In the above photo, you can see the Ottolenghi kranz cakes (aka chocolate babka) where I made the dough with half rye/half einkorn mix, which came out wonderfully.<br />
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Another thing I really like is making pizza with part einkorn flour. In my quest to find appealing foods during pregnancy, I thought this was a great opportunity to work on my homemade pizza technique. My resulting pizza is based off a recipe from theKitchn, tweaked to work with a part einkorn flour mixture and increased in volume. As homemade pizza goes, we think it's pretty awesome. Some toppings we've enjoyed include roasted kale and mozzarella, salami and red pepper, homemade pesto, and fig and blue cheese. Have any of you tried einkorn flour yet? Let me know!<br />
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<b>Homemade Pizza</b><br />
<i>Makes 2 large or 3 medium pizzas. I use parchment paper to transfer my pizzas to the oven. This makes it very easy, but keep in mind that the paper does start to brown/burn around the edges while your pizza is baking. It won't affect the pizza or flavor, but it just looks a little disconcerting. When the pizza is done, it slides right off the parchment and you can just discard it.</i><br />
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1 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast (such as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Saf-Instant-Yeast-Pound-Pouch/dp/B0001CXUHW">SAF</a>)<br />
1 1/2 cups einkorn flour, plus more for kneading and rolling<br />
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour)<br />
1 1/2 teaspoons salt<br />
3/4 cup warm water, plus more as needed <br />
toppings of choice <br />
parchment paper<br />
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1. Place the yeast in a large bowl. Add the salt and the flours and stir with a rubber spatula to combine. Make a well in center of the flour, add in the water, and then gently mix the mixture by stirring with the rubber spatula. If the mixture is dry, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, it should not need more than 4 tablespoons additional liquid. (It probably won't be too wet, but if it is, you can add additional einkorn flour.) Once the mixture has come together, turn it onto a surface lightly floured with einkorn flour and knead the mixture until it forms a smooth dough ball. Lightly coat the ball with olive oil, place it back in the bowl, and cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled, about 70-90 minutes.<br />
2. Preheat oven as high as it will go. Place a pizza stone in the oven if using. Prep toppings.<br />
3. Press down the dough and divide it into 2 or 3 pieces, depending on how many pizzas you want. On the same lightly floured surface, press out your dough into a disk and then lay the dough on a piece of parchment paper. Repeat with remaining dough. Top dough with desired toppings.<br />
4. Slide a baking sheet under the parchment paper, transport it to the oven, then slide the pizza on parchment paper onto the pizza stone. Bake pizza for 8-11 minutes, until crust is lightly browned and cheese is bubbling. Remove pizza, slide pizza onto cutting board, discard parchment. Repeat with remaining pizzas.</div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com74tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-68146749159872642932015-07-16T07:32:00.001-05:002015-07-18T08:45:31.000-05:00Lime Cordial + News!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Whew, it really is the dog days of summer around here, if you're allowed to say that when it isn't even August yet. It's hot and muggy out and it seems like everyone is just sitting around waiting for the last few hours of Ramadan to end. Oh wait, didn't I say last time that I something to share today? I hinted at the fact that I'd been hit with more of my fair share of the Egyptian stomach revenge these past few months, which is certainly true, but I've also been growing this tiny person inside me, who seems to have a lot of opinions about food, most of which seem to be negative.<br />
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(And, yes, if you found that paragraph at all ambiguous, we are expecting a baby the first week of December! One of you commenters even guessed it last time, you spoil sports.) I could not be more thrilled, but I've also been faced, for the first time in my life, with a complete and total disinterest in food. It was surprising to me how little food, nevermind even walking into the kitchen, became unappealing to me. Just finding something palatable became a challenge, and there were a few weeks where I had a repeated "sad pregnancy dinner" of peanut butter toast and a sliced apple.<br />
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To make matters worse, just when I rounded the end of the first trimester, I was hit by a bad virus followed by an Egyptian stomach bug. I am extraordinarily lucky that my mother-in-law is an OB and so even though I was sick and half way around the world from home I was always in good hands. For a while there my concern become just eating anything, so a lot of juices, smoothies, and milkshakes were on the menu. I'm still working on perfecting my avocado, yogurt and honey smoothie, stay tuned.<br />
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Luckily, as I round the corner into my fifth month (!!!!) I'm feeling great and even back to making dinner again. I can't tell you how good that feels. For the first time this week a few people in our building even noticed my belly, prompting quite a few "Allah ynowar" and "from the waters of the Nile" blessings and jokes.<br />
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I have so much to say about pregnancy, especially as someone who's been a dancer/pilates/yoga person for their entire life, and even more to say about maternity and workplace issues around pregnancy and all of that. I did want to add that I also WALKED ACROSS ENGLAND in my eighth week of pregnancy, a fact that I will probably be telling people for the rest of my life with great pride. It was actually great fun, if exhausting, and I was lucky to have two great moms by my side.<br />
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When I was still in my first trimester and trying to find more exciting ways to stay hydrated I remembered the lemon cordial that we used to make in the summer in Damascus to drink mixed with tonic water. I can still see the glass bottle of cordial and the Arabic Schweppes logo sitting out on the porch now. I made it instead with Egyptian desert limes, which are like American key limes. It's wonderfully tart-sweet and refreshing when it's hot out. Just this week a made another batch with lemon and ginger, in an effort to tamp down some occasional persistent nausea.<br />
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<i>Before I go, while I'm no pregnancy expert, I thought I'd share a few things that have been helpful to me. This <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCSFobwvQTg">yoga video</a> is just right, gentle enough for your most tiring days, or paired with other weight exercises on other days. Preferably while wearing <a href="http://www.apeainthepod.com/Product.asp?Product_Id=16510920105&MasterCategory_Id=MC11">the most comfortable</a> top ever. I had lists from several friends from their baby registries, but <a href="http://cupofjo.com/2011/08/motherhood-mondays-what-to-register-for-your-new-baby/">this one</a> from Cup of Jo is great. Also <a href="http://cupofjo.com/2011/06/motherhood-mondays-8-confessions-of-a-new-dad/">advice for dads</a>, and a <a href="http://eatwineblog.com/2014/04/02/wine-during-pregnancy/">sommelier on pregnancy</a> (even if you aren't drinking, her tips about taste bud changes were interesting).</i><br />
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<b>Lime Cordial</b><br />
<i>This recipe makes enough to last a long time, or enough for one giant summer cocktail party.</i><br />
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2 cups sugar<br />
2 cups freshly squeezed lime juice<br />
1 cup water<br />
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1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until thickened slightly. Pour into clean jars and store in the fridge.<br />
2. Serve a splash of cordial in a glass of sparkling water or tonic water, or use for cocktails. I imagine it would make an excellent variation on gin and tonic.<br />
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<i>Variation: </i>For <b>lemon ginger cordial,</b> use lemon juice plus a 2-inch knob of ginger, peeled and chopped. Strain out the ginger before bottling.</div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-78255365082658763702015-07-05T04:27:00.003-05:002015-07-05T04:27:46.408-05:00Seedlicious Bread<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hi there! I can't believe it's been so long since we've seen each other! What have you been up to? How is your summer going? We have SO MUCH to talk about.<br /><br />The life of an expat is full of entrances and exits. People coming and going, moving on to work assignments in other countries, fleeing the heat of whatever tropical or desert location we've been assigned to to go back home to the cool winds of England or Colorado for the summer. But I'm still here, plugging away, enjoying the Ramadan lights and crazy nights of Cairo.<br /><br />This blog though, has been an empty space for a while, and I'm going to dive more deeply into the reason for that in my next post. Suffice it to say, I've been going through a few stomach issues lately that have taken the wind completely out of my cooking sails. I've also done quite a bit of traveling that has kept me out of the kitchen: to England and Scotland, to spend a week walking Hadrian's Wall with some friends, to Vienna for wine tasting and the great Egon Schiele tour, and to watch my husband celebrity spot cellists (like these guys) on the street. And finally we had a whirlwind tour to the States to see some dear friends get married in their backyard and spend a few days in our house in Chicago doing fun things like going to the dentist and doing some home repairs.<br />
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As usual, our suitcase on our return flight from America looked like a bizarre hodgepodge that I'm sure TSA got a good laugh out of. We had: a small kilim carpet that I thought would look better in the Cairo apartment, a metal file (for my husband's cello endpin), a few bottles of wine, bags of millet and flax seed, Angostura bitters, and some strange odds and ends I wanted for the apartment here like a small metal coat rack and a framed picture. Also, a whole lotta bubble wrap.<br /><br />The millet and flax were mainly because I wanted to make an imitation of a bread they sell at Whole Foods called seedlicious bread (actually it's called seeduction, but I always get it mixed up and call it seedlicious). Cairo bread is mainly centered around the local bran-coated flatbread (aish) and a few other flatbreads and spongy sandwich breads. Darker breads are very difficult to find (just like in Algiers) and I'm already in the habit of making my own. (For any Cairenes, the Bread Basket, a German bakery in Ma'adi, does make good laugen rolls and a dark bread called dinkel that I like, they will also deliver to other parts of the city.)<br /><br />So, I looked up a recipe for imitation seedlicious bread, ignored about half of the directions, and voila. It's a pretty easy bread to make, and since I make my own granola regularly, I always have a bunch of seeds and grains on hand anyway. My goal is to back to regular posting from here on out, so let's talk soon, okay?!<br />
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<b>Seedlicious Bread</b><br />
<i>This is one of the better uses of millet that I know of, an otherwise dull grain in my opinion. I liked the combination of whole wheat and rye, but you could play around with other flours or use all of one or the other if you prefer.</i><br />
<br />1 1/4 cups warm water<br />2 tablespoons molasses (I used date molasses because it's easiest to get here)<br />2 tablespoons honey<br />1 package active dry yeast or 1 tablespoon instant yeast (like SAF)<br />1 cup whole all purpose flour<br />1 cup whole wheat flour<br />1 cup dark rye flour, plus more for sprinkling<br />1 1/2 teaspoons salt<br />2 tablespoons sunflower seeds<br />1 tablespoon poppy seeds<br />1 tablespoon flax seeds<br />2 tablespoons millet<br />vegetable oil<br /><br />1. Place the warm water, molasses, and honey in the bowl and sprinkle over the yeast. Wait a few minutes for the yeast to bloom. Meanwhile, combine the three flours and the salt in a bowl and mix to combine. Add the flour mixture to the water and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. The dough should be a little more damp than a normal bread dough, but if it looks like it is too damp to knead, then sprinkle in some more flour. Add all the seeds and millet to the bowl, and begin to knead the bread dough in the bowl. Knead until the seeds are well worked into the dough and the dough becomes smoother, adding flour as needed, about 5 minutes. Form the dough into a round, coat the round with vegetable oil to prevent sticking. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rise for about 1 hour. It will not fully double in volume, but it should grow by about 2/3rds.<br />2. Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease a loaf pan. Press down the dough, transfer it to the baking sheet or pan, gently patting it into shape. Again cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let the bread rise until nearly doubled, about another 40 minutes. Bake the bread until darkened on the outside and it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, 40-45 minutes. Cool on a rack. Makes good toast. </div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-4181409909217625522015-05-09T11:48:00.000-05:002015-05-10T11:44:43.795-05:00Josephine's Spicy Fish (Samke Harra)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Ah-he-he-hem. Hello there. Did the month of April just pass by completely unobserved on this blog? Well, let's not dwell on that shall we? Hopefully later we can catch up about trips to Vienna and lost luggage and stomach bugs and trekking in England and the five days of nice weather in Cairo before it turned hot. But for now, let's talk about delicious spicy fish, okay? Deal? Deal.<br />
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I have had this recipe for Lebanese spicy fish, which was published in Lucky Peach back in 2013, and comes from the renowned Lebanese establishment Tawlet, tacked up on our fridge since, um, 2013. It's 2015 (sometimes I need a reminder). That means this recipe was stuck up on our fridge in Algiers, and then stuck on our fridge in Chicago, and then stuck on our fridge...... you get the idea.<br />
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Back in December I had the great pleasure of eating at <a href="http://www.soukeltayeb.com/tawlet/beirut/weekly-menu/">Tawlet</a>, which is a food cooperative in Beirut aimed at preserving and sharing Lebanon's food traditions, and I can tell you it lived up to expectations. There was natef! arak! a tasting of local wines! If you go, I can recommend the Armenian menu and any day they serve kibbe nayyeh, which is raw minced beef.<br />
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But, I still needed to make the spicy fish recipe, which comes from Tawlet cook Josephine Ghaleb, a Tripoli native, a town famous for their seafood recipes. I've made samke harra many times, and almost all recipes call for roasting or grilling some fish, and then topping the fillet with the tahini-chili sauce and toasted nuts. What intrigued me about this recipe was that Jospehine, breaks up the fish and mixes it with the cilantro-lemon-onion sauce before the tahini topping. This, my friends, is the genius of this recipe. Each bit of fish is coated with lemon and cilantro, spicy chile, and sweet onion. There's no "fishy-ness" to the dish at all, and I imagine it would be a good dish for even the most fish averse. The creamy tahini and crunchy nuts, lots of them, add just the right amount of texture. Worth the wait? You bet. (But I promise to be back with more before the month of July!)<br />
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<br />
<b>Josephine's Spicy Fish (Samke Harra)</b><br />
<i>Adapted from Tawlet via Lucky Peach.</i><br />
<br />
2 fillets sea bass or similar white fish (about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds)<br />
1 cup finely diced yellow onion<br />
1 green bell pepper, finely diced<br />
1 jalapeno chile, seeds removed and finely diced<br />
2 whole bunches cilantro, washed and dried<br />
1/4 cup olive oil<br />
2 lemons<br />
1/2 cup tahini<br />
1 cup mixed pine nuts and chopped walnuts<br />
salt, white pepper<br />
<br />
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Place the fish fillets on a baking sheet lined with foil. Rub a bit of olive oil over the fillets and sprinkle liberally with salt and with a pinch of white pepper. Bake the fish fillets for about 15 minutes, or until firm and cooked through. Set aside the fish but turn the oven up to broil.<br />
2. Meanwhile, juice the lemons, removing any seeds. Slice the cilantro leaves (it's okay to get some of the stems in there) into a big pile. Place the tahini in a bowl with one tablespoon lemon juice and two pinches of salt and stir together. Add enough water (1-3 tablespoons) to the tahini to make it a thick pourable consistency.<br />
3. Heat the 1/4 cup olive oil in a saute pan. Add the onions, bell pepper, and jalapeno and cook gently until the onions are translucent and everything is soft. Remove from the heat.<br />
4. Add the remaining lemon juice to the onion mixture, then gently fold in the cilantro. Gently break up the fish fillets into large pieces, discarding any skin or bones, then place the fish fillets into the pan with the onion-lemon mixture, and fold everything very gently to coat the fish with the sauce.<br />
5. Pile the fish mixture onto a serving platter. Pour the tahini over the whole thing. Place the walnuts and pine nuts on a baking and slide under the broiler, watching closely, for only about a minute until well toasted. Top the fish mixture with the nuts and serve immediately.<br />
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Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-21798595056887862252015-03-27T05:57:00.001-05:002015-03-27T05:57:42.365-05:00Orange-Scented Cream Triangles (Sha'abiyat bil Portuqal)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16757688719" title="photo by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo" height="500" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7595/16757688719_347f03cabb.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
One of the "problems" of living with someone who conducts food research as a serious hobby is that we almost never make anything more than twice. Oh that chickpea curry thing you really liked? Don't worry, I might make it again in about five years. Oh you wanted pizza for dinner? But I've been experimenting with curing my own basterma and I thought I'd try this new vegetable I've never heard of that I found at the market. Oh you didn't want carrot soup for the third time this week? But I'm perfecting the recipe! Welcome to life with yours truly.<br />
<br />
Which means that poor Paul has been asking me to make cream-filled baklava (<a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2007/10/baklava-worth-searching-for.html">baklava muhallabiya</a>) again for about the last 4 years. Searching for something to bring to my office one day, I finally caved and picked up the ingredients at the market. But of course my mind, which seems to never stop churning over different permutations of what I can make with things in the refrigerator, remembered that another type of cream-filled baklava, called sha'abiyat (شعبيات), is made with the same ingredients as baklava muhallabiya. Like the baklava, sha'abiyat are a specialty of Syria, in particular popular in Aleppo, and are often found at Ramadan. Sha'abiyat are triangles of baklava filled with a simple cream filling and baked and then covered in syrup.<br />
<br />
In somewhat of a comedy of errors (although sometimes I think living in Egypt in general is a comedy of errors) I went to three different grocery stores to try and find orange blossom water, which was sold out or absent at all three. I ended up making the baklava syrup with fresh orange zest, and everyone loved it, so much so that when I made the same recipe the following week to re-test it, I stuck with the orange water. It adds a brightness and clean taste that I find is so often missing from baklava.<br />
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Before I let you go, let's have a quick review of baklava technique. (1) Baklava is not that hard to make. (2) Use some form of clarified butter, the water in un-clarified butter makes the baklava have burnt spots. (3) Cold syrup + hot baklava from the oven = crispy baklava. (4) Fresh baklava is infinitely better than pre-packed baklava.<br />
<br />
Final food-nerd notes:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Lonely photo of sha'abiyat taken on the car seat next to me on the commute to work, because living in Egypt means endless time commuting and not enough time for photos.</li>
<li>Sha'abiyat are also sometimes made with a softer homemade dough instead of fillo dough, and are sometimes made with a semolina custard instead of clotted cream. (See <a href="http://en.aleppofood.com/recipe/shaabiyat/">picture here</a>.)</li>
<li>Like the idea of having more routine in your dinner life? I loved <a href="http://glutenfreegirl.com/2015/02/gluten-free-pizza-dough/?nl=cooking&em_pos=large&emc=edit_ck_20150216">Shauna's post about that here</a>. </li>
<li>A rare piece of good news from Syria: the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/19/syrian-seedbank-wins-award-for-continuing-work-despite-civil-war">Icarda genebank</a> is preserving seeds for traditional food stuffs and plants.</li>
<li>Poor Paul is still waiting for his baklava muhallabiya.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Orange-Scented Cream Triangles (Sha'abiyat bil Portuqal)</b><br />
<i>Using only two fillo sheets will initially seem like a thin dough, but trust me, once you've done the folding of the triangles it's just the right amount. Ghee can be purchased at most grocery stores these days, samneh is the Middle Eastern equivalent, and can be found at Middle Eastern shops. If you can get your hands on clotted cream it is worth it, as it makes this recipe both faster and tastier.</i><br />
<br />
1 box fillo dough, fully defrosted<br />
1 1/2 cups samneh, ghee, or <a href="http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/03/how-to-clarify-butter-recipe/">clarified butter </a><br />
<i>filling: </i><br />
1 pint clotted cream or 'ashta, if you can get it, or heavy cream<br />
1 tablespoon cornstarch, if using heavy cream<br />
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) honey<br />
zest of half an orange, or 1 mandarin<br />
1/4 teaspoon salt <br />
<i>syrup:</i><br />
2 cups sugar<br />
1 cup water<br />
zest of half an orange, or 1 mandarin, plus 1 tablespoon of juice<br />
<br />
1. <i>Make the syrup: </i>Place the sugar and water together in the saucepan and place over medium heat. Heat the mixture, stirring occasionally, until the mixture starts to bubble and the sugar is dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat, then grate the orange zest directly into the syrup and add the tablespoon of juice. Set aside and let syrup cool completely. (This can be done several days ahead and kept in a sealed jar in the fridge.)<br />
2. <i>Make the filling:</i> If using clotted cream simply stir together the cream, honey, zest and salt. If using heavy cream, place the cream and flour in a saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and bubbly slightly. Remove the pan from the heat and add the zest, honey, and salt. Taste for sweetness, it may need a touch more honey. Set aside to cool. (This can be done one day ahead and stored in the fridge.)<br />
3. <i>Make the baklava: </i>Preheat the oven to 350F. Get out a large rectangular rimmed baking tray. Melt your samneh or butter in a bowl and have a pastry brush ready. <br />
4. Remove the fillo dough from the box, place it on the counter with plastic sheets both underneath and on top of the dough. Place a damp kitchen towel on top of the top plastic sheet over the fillo dough. Working either directly on your counter, or on a large marble board, lightly butter your counter or board. Place one sheet of fillo dough down, lightly butter it with you pastry brush, then place another sheet of fillo on top and lightly butter that sheet. Slice the fillo dough into four strips lengthwise (so you''ll make 3 cuts to create 4 strips). Place a spoonful of the cream filling at the top corner of one strip of fillo, then fold the fillo over on itself in a triangle, and keep folding up, as if you were folding a flag, until the whole fillo strip is used up. Use a bit of butter the secure the ends of the fillo strip to the triangle. Place on the baking sheet seam-side down. Continue with the remaining strips, then continue making triangles until you've used up all your fillo dough. Crowd the triangles into the pan as close together as necessary.<br />
5. Brush the tops of the triangles with a bit more butter. Bake the triangles until a medium brown (not too dark, not too light), about 30-35 minutes.<br />
6. Remove from the oven and immediately pour 1 cup of cold syrup over the hot triangles. Let absorb for 10 minutes. Then drizzle another 1/2 cup of syrup over the triangles. Let the triangles cool completely. Serve with additional syrup on the side, for people to add as they like. <br />
<br />
<i>Want more like this? Try the (easy!) regular <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2008/03/baklava-easier-way.html">baklava recipe</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-27818435454133793802015-03-20T05:31:00.002-05:002015-03-28T15:17:38.724-05:00Nile Nachos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16742907362" title="DSC_0098 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0098" height="333" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7642/16742907362_af18ceb433.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Since my last post on here was all into nitty-gritty food philosophies and things otherwise known as <i>deep thoughts</i>, I thought we should do something fun and irreverent for a change. Sound good? I thought so. And so was born the idea for a Middle Eastern fetteh meets Mexican-American snack food love child: the Nile Nacho.<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16557865399" title="DSC_0094 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0094" height="333" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8580/16557865399_877e62b969.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
I know, I know, sacrilege you say! But this idea actually came about because nachos, a food I almost never eat, are surprisingly popular in Cairo. One of our favorite local restaurants, Tabla Luna, does a rendition of them so good it could transform even the most nacho-averse eater. And it got me thinking, layering tasty gooey things with tortilla chips isn't really that far from layering tasty things with pita chips, right? Plus, putting tahini on said pita chips can only make them better. Then I started thinking about substituting the usual black beans from some spicy roasted chickpeas, and how pickled jalapenos are surprisingly common in Cairo, and the whole idea just made sense.<br />
<br />
The Nile Nacho consists of pita triangles layered with a tahini-yogurt sauce, spicy roast chickpeas, smashed chickpeas, tomatoes, radishes, herbs, and sumac. If you think it's heretical to have nachos without cheese, then by all means add some feta or Middle Eastern-style string cheese (I'm lactose intolerant, and wanted to save myself the stomach cramps). These are surprisingly delicious, fun, and a great way to introduce people to new ingredients like tahini and sumac in a familiar format. Also: NILE NACHOS!<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16743969445" title="DSC_0102 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0102" height="333" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8601/16743969445_9e13d720bf.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<b>Nile Nachos</b><br />
<i>When I made these the first time, I roasted the pita triangles in the oven. While the nachos were still delicious, the pita got soggy, so I switched to frying the pita triangles so they stay crispy. The roasted chickpeas are so good they are worth making on their own. I like to use canned chickpeas here since they are crispier than freshly cooked from scratch chickpeas. Whatever you do, rinse and dry your chickpeas before using. Feel free to experiment with your own toppings, my friend Nick recommended some crispy roast schwarma meat would be a good addition, and I agree.</i><br />
<br />
3 large thin pita breads, preferably stale, cut into triangles<br />
neutral oil for frying <br />
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (1 can)<br />
2 tablespoons tahini<br />
1 lemon<br />
1 teaspoon cumin<br />
1/4 teaspoon paprika<br />
1 tomato, seeds removed and discarded, flesh cubed <br />
2 radishes, halved and sliced<br />
4 sprigs mint, leaves sliced<br />
<i>optional: </i>1 pickled chili or jalapeno, sliced (or you could use chile flakes)<br />
<i>optional: </i>creamy feta cheese or Middle Eastern string cheese <br />
sumac, for serving<br />
<br />
<i>sauce:</i><br />
1 cup thick Greek-style yogurt<br />
3 tablespoons tahini<br />
1 teaspoon salt<br />
<br />
1. Prep all your ingredients. Set up a draining/cooling rack over some paper towels on your counter. <br />
2. Heat about 1-2 inches of oil in a wide deep-sided skillet or saute pan. When the oil is hot (test by splashing a teeny drizzle of water in it) add a few of your pita triangles. Cook the triangles, turning frequently, until they are lightly browned and crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon or spider to the cooling rack and repeat until you've fried all your pita.<br />
3. Preheat your broiler on high. Divide your chickpeas in half, place half in a small bowl. Place the other half on a baking sheet, add the cumin, paprika, two pinches of salt and a glug of olive oil and roll everything around to coat. Place the chickpeas under the broiler. Broil the chickpeas, stirring occasionally, until they are deep brown and crispy on the outside, about 10-15 minutes. When done, switch the oven to 350F.<br />
4. Meanwhile, add the 2 tablespoons tahini and the juice from the lemon, along with a pinch of salt, to the chickpeas in the bowl. Using a fork or a pestle, smash up the remaining chickpeas into a rough smash.<br />
5. Mix together the sauce ingredients. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the sauce is a thick but pourable consistency. If you accidentally make it too watery, add more tahini.<br />
6. Place half the pita triangles on an oven-proof platter. Dab half the chickpea smash over the pita, sprinkle half the roast chickpeas and half the tomato over top. Add a few of the radishes, mint, and chile and cheese if using. Drizzle the whole thing with some of the yogurt sauce. Repeat layering the pita chips, toppings, and yogurt sauce. Set aside some of the mint and radishes for the final serving. Sprinkle sumac over the whole thing. Slide the dish into the oven and let heat just for 5-8 minutes or so, you want to heat the dish not cook it. Remove from the oven, finish with the mint and radishes and serve warm.<br />
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<i>Want more irreverent untraditional takes on Middle Eastern food? Try the <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2014/01/brussel-sprout-fattoush.html">brussel sprout fattoush</a>. </i></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-41526380552993652752015-03-07T09:54:00.000-05:002015-03-07T09:54:17.324-05:00Filed Under Deep Thoughts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16716733526" title="photo 1 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 1" height="361" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7598/16716733526_22ecd427f0.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
I made <a href="https://instagram.com/p/yUpBFhpSgs/?modal=true">a comment </a>on Instagram recently about a cookbook I had received, very kindly, as a gift. The whole pan-Arab Mediterranean Israeli cooking thing has become extremely popular in the wake of the Ottolenghi boom, and I receive and read a lot of those cookbooks. I commented that this book in particular, a sort of Middle Eastern Iranian Ottoman mish-mash, had some lovely looking recipes, but that I felt by lumping all of the Levant, North Africa, Turkey, the Gulf and Persia together, something really got lost in the middle. It probably helped that I thought the book badly needed a copy editor, as there were numerous seemingly strange observations in the book. (My favorite of which, the statement that "potatoes aren't very common in Middle Eastern dishes," made me laugh out loud for its bizarreness. These are the same people who invented the french fry sandwich, but I digress.)<br /><br />This is not meant to be a criticism of any one cook or cookbook, and I should add that I have tried a few recipes from this cookbook that came out wonderfully. Part of my criticism comes from a frustration that the approach to the Middle Eastern cooking trend is all about cherry-picking. Everyone talks about harissa, preserved lemons, za'atar, dukkah, and labne. No one talks about jameed, ashta, qawarma, malawach, or home-made couscous. Those are all great ingredients, wonderful things, but each one comes from a unique tradition and a different style of cooking. And yes I know, some things will always be more popular than others. But, would you call something an Asian dish just because it involved a bit of soy sauce?<br /><br />Of course, I don't expect anyone to be as nerdily excited as me in studying Middle Eastern food traditions, nor should they be. But, I do think there is the responsibility on the part of the cookbook writers who write about these foods, and their editors, to dig a little deeper. I expect more than just some pretty pictures and four sentences about sour cherries. Maybe I'm asking too much. Maybe 90% of your readers just want to look at the pictures, but what about the 10% who bought your book because they actually wanted to learn something. It takes a lot for someone to buy a real hard-copy cookbook these days, and I want the author to make it worth my while.<br /><br />The thing is, it's sad if people only know about harissa sold in jars. If someone has gone far enough to buy your book about Middle Eastern foods, then they deserve to learn about hand-rolled barley flour couscous and cooking with argan oil and salty creamy ijben cheese (all those are Moroccan, but you get my drift). I think you should explain to them that good labne and good preserved lemons, one from North Africa and one from the Levant, would not historically have found their way into the same dish. Innovate with knowledge of tradition.<br />
<br />
There is a lot of pressure on cookbook writers, Instagrammers,
bloggers, chefs, to produce food that is PRETTY. The NYTimes Pete Wells
has talked about <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/dining/dishes-worthy-of-instagram-but-not-your-appetite.html">that here</a>, and I loved Tim's recent thoughts about <a href="http://www.lottieanddoof.com/2015/03/youre-boring/">the boringness of pretty things</a>
here. I don't want food to only be pretty, I want it to taste good and
if it's a really good meal or a good cookbook, it should be food that
makes me think. My recent meal at Lokanta Yeni in Istanbul was an
example of that, modern food rooted in Turkish tradition, with a carrot
dip that made you rethink everything you knew about carrots. If you're a
chef that's using the traditional spice blend dukkah on your menu, but
that's the only thing you know about Egyptian food, then I think there's
something wrong with that. Maybe that makes me obnoxious, or a snob, or
maybe just someone with really high standards. I'm okay with that.<br /><br />I read <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Life/Lubnan/2014/Sep-24/271726-anissa-helou-the-elegant-chef.ashx">an interview</a> with Anissa Helou recently, where she was asked if anyone was doing really truly innovative modern Middle Eastern cuisine, and she answered honestly, no she could not think of anyone. There are plenty of Middle Eastern influences in restaurant food these days, especially with some well-known chefs, but I'm inclined to agree with her opinion. Because there is very little understanding of the depth and history of these food traditions, there cannot be real innovation. Your food cannot make someone think if you do not know what you are saying, and if you do not know how the ingredients you are using are traditionally used, then how do you know what you are saying with them? I think often of a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/04/post-modena">profile of the Italian chef Massimo Bottura</a> that ran in the New Yorker last year.<br /><br />However, all is not lost when it comes to this (endlessly long rant by yours truly). Greg Malouf's books always ring true to me, as someone who has traveled and researched the food he writes about, but takes the flavors in a new direction. (His salmon samkeh harra recipe is a classic example of this.) <a href="http://www.gazamom.com/about/">Leila's Haddad'</a>s wonderful <a href="https://instagram.com/p/yy4fvHJStE/?modal=true">Gaza Kitchen</a> book, that introduced the world to roast baby watermelon fetteh, is another example. I love reading Joumana's <a href="http://www.tasteofbeirut.com/">Taste of Beirut</a>, which highlights both traditional and contemporary Lebanese foods, and I'm looking forward to Felicia Campbell's <a href="http://www.feliciacampbell.com/book-projects/">Taste of Oman</a> coming out this year.<br /><br />This is all just a long winded way of saying that all these articles, these books that arrive in my mail box, the food I eat in restaurants, have gotten me thinking about demanding higher standards for myself, and for this blog. I write this unpopular food blog out of love and joy and occasionally out of frustration and a sense of duty to my six readers. But mainly, I write it to keep track of things I've liked and things I've learned. I work full time, commute battling donkey carts in the streets, spend an inordinate amount of time scrubbing vegetables, and don't have time to photograph perfectly styled shots of what I cook in my late night dimly lit kitchen. I routinely search twitter to find out if the explosion I just heard was an IED, a transformer exploding, or fireworks (all are regular occurrences). In between all that, I hope that I can write something meaningful for a few people in this tiny corner of the internet. <br />
<br />
back soon with something tasty.....<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16555078678" title="photo 2 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 2" height="500" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8594/16555078678_377c1f8cab.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<i>Photos from Wadi Degla, Cairo, Egypt.</i></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-57616460751275098862015-02-15T05:53:00.000-05:002015-02-15T05:53:54.755-05:00The Laziest Breakfast<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15915902063" title="photo 2 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 2" height="500" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8561/15915902063_fc1bf7ccec.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
My mother always said February was the worst month. Certainly the dreariest and bleakest, weather wise, and with a holiday most people profess to hate. In Cairo, a dense cloud of pollution hangs above the city, and last week a dust storm left our houses and lungs coated with a dense layer of yellow dust. It is a month to burrow indoors and start spring seedlings, to dream of spring gardens, to make soups and bake breads and start long books.<br />
<br />
I have been doing a lot of at least one of those things, cooking that is, but my results have been about as dreary as this month usually is. First, there was <a href="http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2014-11-25/recipe-daniel-boulud-stuffed-cheese-pumpkin">Daniel Boulud's stuffed pumpkin</a>, a massive affair of pumpkin and cheese and bread and cream, mushrooms and bacon, all baked inside a pumpkin. We had people over, and while it was festive, something about the recipe fell flat to me. It's never a good sign when no one wants to eat the leftovers.<br />
<br />
Then there was a stuffed cabbage (malfouf mahshi) which was fine, but I packed the rolls a bit too tightly and we pretended it was still okay by smothering them in yogurt. There was the terrible mistake of trying to make <a href="http://www.thewednesdaychef.com/the_wednesday_chef/2011/03/alice-medrichs-kamut-pound-cake.html">Alice Medrich's kamut poundcake</a> with half coconut oil for the butter, which needless to say turned out miserably. I redeemed myself a bit with a riff on my usual soba noodles, topping them with a gingery stir-fry of edamame and cucumber ribbons alongside thinly sliced rare flank steak. <br />
<br />
It shouldn't surprise you then that the best thing I made in weeks was something that took no more than five minutes to put together and was devoured nearly as quickly. It is possibly the laziest breakfast I can think of making, but surprisingly delicious. Someone recently told me that their mom used to beat eggs in the concave side of pita bread, then slide them into the oven to bake. It's totally a simple mom-on-the-run trick (no messy bowls! protein!) that kids remember fondly, and obviously I had to try it. I made ours using local baladi bread, which is a fluffier sort of pita, and topped the eggs with chunks of local soft creamy feta cheese and chili flakes. It may just be the best discovery of February. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15913525164" title="photo 1 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 1" height="500" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8669/15913525164_de3b464a3c.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<b>The Laziest Breakfast</b><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>pita bread -- I think a slightly puffy variety is best, although it doesn't really matter as long as it has a concave side</li>
<li>eggs, 1 per bread</li>
<li>salt</li>
<li>toppings such as feta cheese, chili flakes, herbs, avocado, etc.</li>
</ul>
1. Preheat oven with the broiler on high. Place pita bread, concave side up, on a baking sheet. Break 1 egg into each pita and swirl around with a fork. Sprinkle cheese, salt, and chili flakes over bread.<br />
2. Slide the breads into the oven. Watch the breads closely, until the eggs are just set and the cheese is melty, but be careful the edges of the bread don't get too brown. It should only take a few minutes. Transfer to a serving plate, cut into wedges, serve warm.</div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-69956959152616970632015-01-26T13:25:00.004-05:002015-01-26T13:28:38.038-05:00Syrian Stuffed Onions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16373313002" title="photo 1-8 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 1-8" height="500" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7350/16373313002_cd71f72854.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Well then. 2015! What does 2015 have in store for you? Last year, we came into the year knowing roughly how the year was going to play out. I started 2014 knowing that we'd be moving several times, and we did, a total of four times, which is why I dubbed it the Year of the Nomad. I also knew that we'd most likely be buying our first home, which we did (!), and which I couldn't be more than thrilled with. We went from Algiers to Chicago to Cairo, and just last week all of our possessions finally caught up with us in Cairo. You can see a few of them up there, in that picture that is cropped so that it does not picture the mountain of boxes and tissue paper behind me. <br />
<br />
So 2014 kind of played out roughly how we expected, but 2015? I really don't know. We'll continue to settle in here in Cairo, hopefully squeeze in some fun vacations (ever since I read <a href="http://ww.adamgollner.com/file_download/47/crete.pdf">this piece</a> I am dying to go to Crete). I have a new pile of cookbooks, as well as my old favorites, that I'd like to keep working my way through. Which brings me to todays recipe for stuffed onions, Syrian style.<br />
<br />
I have been wanting to make these stuffed onions, which consist of a meat filling rolled inside onion skins and braised in a tomato-y sauce, for years (years!), but I was always intimidated by separating the onion layers. Somehow in my mind this dish seemed more difficult than the other stuffed dishes, like stuffed zucchini or eggplant. And, <i>I know what you're thinking</i>, you're thinking if <i>SHE</i> thinks this dish is complicated then there's no way I'm going to make it!<br />
<br />
But hear me out here folks. These stuffed onions are actually surprisingly easy to make! Really, separating the onions is really easy, they basically fall apart on their own, and stuffing them with the meat mixture is super simple. It takes no more time than making meatballs, and is certainly easier than coring zucchini. You simmer the stuffed onions in a tomato and molasses-y mixture for a longtime, until the onions are as sweet and supple as caramelized onions. Caramelized onions stuffed with a flavorsome meat mixture is my idea of a good dinner. Despite my paltry kitchen photo below, the end result looks far more impressive than the amount of effort put into it. It's a good start to a what I hope is a good year!<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16372456841" title="photo-2 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo-2" height="500" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7286/16372456841_584aa9c858.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<b>Syrian Stuffed Onions</b><br />
<i>This is one of those classic dishes that's all about making something luxurious with very little. The stew cooks for a very longtime, a total of nearly 2 hours, which really draws out the best caramel-y flavor of the onions. Serves 2-4, you could easily double this for more people.</i><br />
<br />
<i>for the stuffing:</i><br />
olive oil<br />
1 shallot, diced<br />
6 cloves garlic, sliced<br />
1 tablespoon tomato paste<br />
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon<br />
1 teaspoon cumin<br />
1 teaspoon salt<br />
1/2 cup golden raisins<br />
3 tablespoons water<br />
1 handful parsley, chopped<br />
1/2 lb ground beef<br />
2 tablespoons rice <br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>for the stew:</i><br />
7 very large shallots or 5 small onions<br />
1 tablespoon tomato paste<br />
2 tablespoons carob molasses or date or regular molasses<br />
1 teaspoon lemon juice<br />
1 cup boiling water<br />
1 tomato (optional)<br />
<br />
1. <i>Make the filling: </i>Heat some olive oil in a wide deep skillet. When hot, add the shallot and stir over medium heat until starting to become translucent. Add in the garlic, cinnamon, cumin, and the tomato paste and stir to combine. Let cook another minute or so. Add in the salt, water, and golden raisins and stir everything together to combine. Let cook for a minute, stir in the parsley, and then pour the mixture into a mixing bowl. Set aside the skillet<br />
2. Add the ground beef and rice to the mixing bowl, and stir the filling mixture together to combine. (Use a metal spoon to mix, or knead together with your hands.)<br />
3. <i>Prep the onions: </i>Meanwhile, heat a large pot of water to boiling. Remove the ends of the shallot or onions and peel off the papery skins. Cut a slit lengthwise through the onion only to the middle. Plunge the onions in the boiling water and let cook for 7-12 minutes, or until the onions are soft enough to be pliable. Drain the onions and set aside to cool.<br />
4. <i>Prep the pan: </i>When cool enough to handle, separate the onion layers. Take the very center bits of the onion, with the smallest layers, and use those to line the bottom of your skillet. If using the tomato, use the slices to line the skillet over top the onion bits.<br />
5. <i>Stuff: </i>Place a tablespoon of filling on one of the onion layers and roll up tightly. If desired, roll the stuffed onion in another onion layer. (I like two onion layers best, but sometimes you have to do one if you start to run low on onions.) Depending on the size of the onions, and the amount of onion/filling I have left, I roll the filling in anywhere from 1 to 3 layers of onion skins. Lay the stuffed onions in the prepared pan on their sides. Continue until you've used up all filling or onions, whichever comes first.<br />
6.<i> Cook:</i> Preheat the oven to 350F. Dot the tomato paste in between the onion rolls. Drizzle the molasses over top the onions. Pour the lemon juice and the boiling water over top. Sprinkle the whole thing with salt. Bring the pan to a simmer on the stove, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for 1 hour, covered. Uncover the pan and cook for another 20-30 minutes, or until the sauce around the onions is reduced and caramelized. Serve warm with rice.</div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-52933578105401422352015-01-17T08:10:00.000-05:002015-01-17T08:10:16.173-05:00A Narrow Place Can Contain a Thousand Friends<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>On Eating Syrian Food in Istanbul</i><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16114027017" title="photo 1-7 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 1-7" height="500" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7501/16114027017_95fa736a80.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
I have never been to Istanbul in the summer. The first time I went was right after my husband and I were engaged, deep in November when cold air and clouds blew over the Bosphorus. It rained nearly every day but we didn't care, happily lost in the Bazaar, waiting in line to tour the mosques with a scarf tied closely over my head. The cisterns beckoned with their steamy underground warmth. On that trip I dragged my now-husband along to find a famous roast chicken at a local Syrian restaurant, three hours tromping around in the cold and rain, all of which was quickly forgotten over a menu written in Arabic script and a <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/6768217437/">flamingly delicious chicken</a>.<br /><br />On my most recent trip I am back again, this time in the cold first week of January. I am in town for vacation, having worked over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, and I have always loved taking vacations when everyone else is going back to work. Tourists are fewer, shopkeepers are more relaxed, more willing to chat and more generous with bargaining. The presence of Syrian restaurants in Istanbul has a new meaning, providing sustenance and warmth to those who have made it out of the war-torn country. It is a topic of discussion all over the city, the rising rents, the begging on the street. <br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16299112522" title="photo 2-9 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 2-9" height="500" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8652/16299112522_b53cf452a5.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />We walk and walk and walk until our toes and fingers are unbearably cold, the air crisp and heavy like it gets right before it's going to snow. Up and down Istiklal, the main pedestrian drag, I hear Syrian Arabic everywhere, those long stretched out vowels, the slightly nasal intonation. We look at ikat fabrics in the bazaar, I buy gloves at a leather shop to help my frozen fingers, we eat steaming spicy kebaps and sticky chicken pudding bundled in our coats. <br /><br />My husband has developed a taste for salep, a steaming milky drink thickened with powdered orchid root that is popular all over the Eastern Mediterranean. Steamed milk has always had a disturbingly putrid sour smell to me, but I indulge him in repeated coffee shop stops, ordering apple tea and fiddling with our phones. One afternoon, a small Syrian boy comes in to the tea shop where we sit, hand out stretched, and the owners generously empty their tip jar into his small hand. A Turkish customer nearby grumbles angrily, the shop suddenly turning quiet. I watch the boy go back to his two friends waiting outside and their faces light up, shrieking at their new found wealth, none of them could be older than seven or eight. <br /><br />Ten minutes later the smallest boy comes back to the shop, marching up to the counter and speaking excitedly in a mix of broken Turkish and Arabic. He is showing off the new wool hat he has bought with their tip money, strutting about, pulling the hat up and down to cover his ears. The young men at the counter are exceedingly kind, ruffling his hair, trying to joke with him despite the language barrier. I ask the little boy what his name is and he points at himself in surprise, then says 'Abd-al-Salam, from Aleppo. As we talk I notice how small his waist is, I tell him it's going to snow tomorrow and he should stay inside. When we leave, I put a large bill in the tip jar.<br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16113743699" title="photo 2-8 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 2-8" height="500" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7500/16113743699_7c070b16df.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />That night, over Turkish wines and cheese at <a href="http://www.sensuswine.com/">Sensus</a> we talk about the problems of refugees, about aid distribution and displaced persons policies, about the logistic problems of how to get the right things to the right people. It is starting to snow and I wonder if 'Abd-al-Salam has gloves. I feel silly for being such a sad sap, and remind myself of all the places that I've been and worked that were full of poverty and refugees and malnutrition. But Syria, of course, is different. As my husband says, paraphrasing a quote we once heard about New York, "you lived in Syria and never really got over it." <br /><br />The next morning we wake up to a beautiful blanket of snow over the city. We abandon plans to go the Asian side to see a <a href="http://www.soy.com.tr/">copper pot showroom</a>, and instead take refuge inside the Pera Museum where we are the only visitors to see an exhibit on Polish Orientalist paintings, the sounds of wind whipping harshly around the buildings. Over the next few days we walk in the snow, shop, attempt to see a movie that ends up being in Turkish, and eat delicious meals at <a href="http://www.miklarestaurant.com/en">Mikla</a> and <a href="http://www.lokantayeni.com/">Yeni Lokanta</a>. <br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16273935046" title="photo 4-4 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 4-4" height="500" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8634/16273935046_057f498221.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />On our final morning I tell my husband, who luckily travels on his stomach, that we're going to a <a href="http://www.culinarybackstreets.com/istanbul/2014/farooj-al-zaeem/">Syrian place</a> I've heard about and we tromp through the freezing snow. The corner shop is clearly marketing their chicken and schwarma, but it is early and I see that they have fetteh on the menu, both with fetteh with olive oil and fetteh with clarified butter, which is a good sign that these guys know what they're doing. I order a large bowl and we take a seat in the corner. <br /><br />The restaurant is immaculately clean and several young Syrian men stand behind the counter alternately prepping things for the day and snapping pictures of the snow on their phones and talking about the virtues of Instagram vs Twitter vs WhatsApp. I learn that they are all from different parts of Damascus, which I chide them is evident from their menu, and we talk about Damascus's neighborhoods, about the felafel stand in Muhajireen and the best way to make hummus musabaha. One of the young men shows me a picture of my old neighborhood from that morning, its cars covered in a foot of snow from the freak storm that's covering the region. Like every conversation I have with Syrians, there is that lull in the conversation that happens right after you've talked about the old days, the pause where you are both remembering what has happened since.<br /><br />The fetteh, a steaming bowl of hot chickpeas, yogurt, tahini, and fried bread, is the best I've had in years. It reminds me of the difficulty of recipe writing, those simple dishes like my mother's Thanksgiving stuffing that hinge delicately on technique and proportion. Several other Syrian men also come in and sit down to bowls of fetteh and hummus and tea, but of course that's not really what this restaurant is about. They show me proudly the copies of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/souriatna">Souriatna</a>, an <a href="http://syriadirect.org/main/36-interviews/1410-syrian-paper-aims-for-neutrality-as-journalists-living-in-hiding">independent newspaper,</a> and it's clear that the restaurant doubles as a place where like-minded Syrians can meet and organize. When we leave, the cashier seems confused when I insist on giving him an extra large tip. Somehow the concept of Western liberal guilt doesn't translate well, but I go back out into the snow happy and encouraged to see people working to make the best of their situation. And well, that fetteh was really good.<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16299032422" title="photo 3-5 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 3-5" height="500" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7558/16299032422_73fd27b6a7.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<i>Recipes:</i> <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2008/06/fetteh-and-friends.html">Fetteh (plain)</a> and <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2008/07/eggplant-fetteh.html">Fatteh (with Eggplant)</a><br />
<i>See Also: </i><a href="http://www.smallprojectsistanbul.com/">Small Projects Istanbul</a></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-52321031274771364302015-01-02T15:48:00.001-05:002015-01-02T15:48:02.319-05:00Currently<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
conducting key research.....<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16151980956" title="photo 1-5 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 1-5" height="500" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7475/16151980956_c281466198.jpg" width="500" /></a><br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/16177008882" title="photo 2-6 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 2-6" height="500" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7488/16177008882_d4260df3f7.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
back with stories and adventures soon, until then, I hope you had a lovely holiday and wish you all the best in 2015!<br />
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<br /></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-10921091431889524752014-12-14T06:40:00.000-05:002014-12-14T06:40:00.110-05:00Holiday Gift List<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>I don't usually do a gift round-up on the blog, but as we are headed to Beirut for the next few weeks, I don't think we'll be doing much cooking over the holidays - just plenty of eating! Living overseas we have to order gifts far in advance, but if you are looking for some last minute ideas, here are a few!</i><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15811035377" title="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 12.26.59 PM by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 12.26.59 PM" height="362" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8669/15811035377_aa9362cbb4.jpg" width="405" /></a><br />
<b><a href="http://www.fromtheearthstore.com/collections/home-items/products/hand-carved-olive-wood-angled-spatula-small-28-cm" target="_blank">Hand-carved olive wood utensils.</a> </b>I love my olive wood kitchen spoons, they are beautiful and useful. These are made by From the Earth, a fair trade organization based in Amman, Jordan. They have several different spoons, spatulas, wood bowls, and cutting boards. Ships from the U.S. <i>$12-$18</i><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15978662426" title="Screen Shot 2014-12-12 at 3.41.40 PM by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="Screen Shot 2014-12-12 at 3.41.40 PM" height="238" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7478/15978662426_92cccb5710_m.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15978661986" title="Screen Shot 2014-12-12 at 3.42.27 PM by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="Screen Shot 2014-12-12 at 3.42.27 PM" height="237" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7565/15978661986_93b7764502_m.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
<b><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/blue-monk-live-from-salle/id723847443?i=723847519" target="_blank">Thelonius Monk</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/11/11/244528394/no-need-to-cook-the-books-booker-ervins-debut-lp-reissued" target="_blank">Booker Ervin</a> recordings. </b>These two recordings reissued last year have become my standard dinner party background music. They have just the right amount of pep without being too loud or distracting. Although recommending jazz albums does make me feel like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZjV_mrHyWs" target="_blank">this clip. </a><br />
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<i><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15996097372" title="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 12.49.36 PM by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 12.49.36 PM" height="219" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8652/15996097372_a7106a349a.jpg" width="500" /></a> </i><br />
<b><a href="http://www.theanou.com/" target="_blank">Moroccan rugs and crafts from The Anou.</a> </b>Moroccan rugs are all the rage these days, selling for thousands of dollars in the U.S. Very little of this money goes to the Moroccan women who weave these rugs, who often get only $100-$300 per rug. A project called The Anou, started by Peace Corps workers, aims to fix this problem by letting you buy directly from the weavers and craftsmen themselves. The prices are ridiculously low ($200 for a handmade rug) and include shipping. I also like that the website tells you about the techniques used to make the crafts, and has small profiles on the craftspeople. On my personal wishlist are this <a href="http://www.theanou.com/product/1165-pink-green-pile-knot-rug" target="_blank">cool green rug</a>, this <a href="http://www.theanou.com/product/2240-colored-handmade-carpet" target="_blank">plush carpet,</a> this <a href="http://www.theanou.com/product/2166-colored-handira" target="_blank">handira </a>blanket, and these <a href="http://www.theanou.com/product/2207-blue-yellow--tiznit-silver-earrings" target="_blank">earrings</a>. The <a href="http://www.theanou.com/product/2322-colored-hanbel" target="_blank">Hanbal rug </a>shown above is $172.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15377151653" title="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 12.27.45 PM by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 12.27.45 PM" height="476" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7484/15377151653_b02d992daf.jpg" width="278" /></a><br />
<b><a href="https://www.canaanusa.com/shop/olive-oils/" target="_blank">Canaan Fair Trade Olive Oils</a>.</b>
I think olive oil is a great gift because it's something that people
use frequently, but it's also a chance to give someone something nicer
than what they would have bought for themselves. Canaan,
a Palestinian fair trade cooperative, sells olive oils, za'atar and a kind of
couscous called maftoul, which would also make great gifts. You can choose olive oil from two types of trees, Rumi or Nabali, and they also sell raw unfiltered
olive oil (my personal favorite). Currently they only come in cases of
6, but you can give a few as gifts and keep a few for yourself. Ships from the U.S. $<i>94 for 6 bottles</i><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15811033447" title="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 1.11.27 PM by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 1.11.27 PM" height="329" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8653/15811033447_514ba65bf7.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<b><a href="http://www.quitokeeto.com/products/k-sabatier-antique-carbon-chef-s-knife" target="_blank">Quitoquito Antique K Sabatier Carbon Steel Chef's Knife</a>.</b> My mother insisted on using only Sabatier carbon steel knives. We have a range of knives at home, but my Sabatier's are the ones I always reach for first. If you've never used carbon steel before, be aware that they will change color naturally. <i>$165</i><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15971000986" title="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 1.17.12 PM by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 1.17.12 PM" height="357" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7560/15971000986_aeb72aa924.jpg" width="459" /></a><br />
<b><a href="https://food52.com/provisions/products/1870-fruit-veggie-felt-finger-puppets" target="_blank">Fruit and Veggie Finger Puppets.</a></b> I'd be happy with pretty much any gifts from Food52's store Provisions, but these are adorable for your littlest family members. <i>$18</i><br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15817370100" title="Screen Shot 2014-12-12 at 4.12.55 PM by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="Screen Shot 2014-12-12 at 4.12.55 PM" height="358" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8668/15817370100_791f4df1ae.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<b><a href="http://www.brahmsmount.com/" target="_blank">Brahms Mount blankets and throws.</a></b> I am a total sucker for a good blanket or throw (or tablecloth, napkin, bedspread, scarf). Textiles, man. Brahms Mount blankets are all made in Maine and gorgeous quality and texture. The <a href="http://www.brahmsmount.com/wool-ombre-throw.html" target="_blank">wool ombre blanket</a> (above) is perfect for colder climes, whereas their <a href="http://www.brahmsmount.com/linen-leno-stripe-throw.html" target="_blank">linen leno stripe</a> is light enough for somewhere like Egypt. $200-$300<br />
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<b><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15996857745" title="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 1.39.28 PM by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 1.39.28 PM" height="271" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8572/15996857745_b5cdf0041c.jpg" width="500" /></a></b><br />
<b>Charitable donations</b>, for that person who has everything on your list. I have both given and received donations from <a href="http://www.heifer.org/gift-catalog/index.html">Heifer International </a>as a gift, and enjoyed the experience every time. They're a great organization and do a particularly good job of of make the gift giving experience fun. However, I also want to recommend a donation to an organization that is very near and dear to me personally, which is a donation to the <a href="https://give.wfp.org/629/?step=country">World Food Programme Syria</a>. WFP is a United Nations organization, like UNICEF, so you can feel assured that the donation is safe and secure and going to the right place. To learn more about their work in Syria, please read this <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/getting-help-syria">Dexter Filkins piece</a> and watch this <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/war-and-hunger-world-food-programme-and-syrian-refugees-in-jordan/"><i>60 Minutes</i> segment</a>. <br />
<br />
And, as always, homemade cookies, jams, liquers, and preserves make great gifts! <br />
<br />
What are you giving for Christmas this year?!</div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-20156104639085427062014-12-10T11:29:00.001-05:002014-12-10T11:31:26.923-05:00Hummus Musabaha<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15990607742" title="IMG_3251 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="IMG_3251" height="500" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7537/15990607742_c02c40cdaf.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
I started to write a long-ish post about starting to settle in here in Cairo, and what it's like being an expat in a Muslim country over Christmas, but then I started to get long-winded about advent calendars, and I remembered that what I really wanted to talk about was not those little chocolates behind paper doors but hummus. HUMMUS. Oh wait, none of you are surprised?<br />
<br />
I couldn't really figure out how hummus and the holidays went together, so I figured just screw it, let's talk about the hummus. As I've mentioned probably a bazillion times before there's a LOT of ways to serve and eat hummus, way more than you probably know about. But one of my favorite ways is called hummus musabaha. Hummus musabaha is basically warm hummus with chickpeas and a bit of hot water stirred into it until it becomes a sort of spoonable concoction. It's not the sort of thing you find in a fancy restaurant, but it's one of those things you might find at a corner shop or in your mom's kitchen.<br />
<br />
I often make hummus musabaha right after I've made fresh hummus. I take the still warm hummus, thin it with some of the hot chickpea cooking water, and stir in a handful of fresh cooked chickpeas. You stir the whole soupy delicious mass together like a thick stew, and then you top it with lemon juice and tomatoes and herbs. It's warm and smooth and nicely lemony, and total comfort food. Which I guess does make it right for the holidays after all.<br />
<br />
<b>Hummus Musabaha</b><br />
<i>Though I may lose my cooking bonafides for saying this, you can make hummus musabaha from purchased hummus and canned chickpeas, which makes it a snap to whip together. The hummus needs to be very good quality though - I find most US grocery store brands taste disturbingly of citric acid and preservative. Try to find one that doesn't (Oasis is a decent brand), or buy your hummus from a local Middle Eastern grocery or take out place that makes their own. </i><br />
<br />
<i>for hummus:</i><br />
2 cups prepared hummus, room temperature<br />
2/3 cup boiling water<br />
1 cup warm cooked chickpeas (I prefer the Whole Foods no salt brand for canned chickpeas, or cook chickpeas from scratch)<br />
sea salt <br />
<br />
<i>for topping: </i><br />
1 lemon<br />
olive oil <br />
chopped tomatoes<br />
chopped herbs (parsley or scallions or mint, or a mix)<br />
Aleppo pepper or sumac for sprinkling <br />
<br />
1. Place your hummus in a very large bowl. If our hummus is cold from the refrigerator, you can microwave it or place the bowl over boiling water to take the chill off.<br />
2. Pour in the hot water. Very carefully and slowly mix the hot water into the hummus until smooth. Adjust the consistency with more hot water or more hummus as desired. You want it soupy but not runny. Fold in the chickpeas. Squeeze half a lemon into bowl, add salt to taste, and mix together.<br />
3. Top the hummus with your choice of tomatoes, herbs, and spices. Eat warm, with a large spoon. <br />
<br />
** <i>Please excuse the paltry photos, my camera and phone are on the fritz, and we have yet to set up home internet in Cairo, so my apologies if posting are a little slim.</i>**<br />
<br /></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-34956061147272578712014-11-30T19:40:00.000-05:002014-11-30T19:40:00.304-05:00Egyptian Meat Pies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15378843257" title="DSC_0027 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0027" height="333" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3931/15378843257_7faa9d1524.jpg" width="500" /></a> <br />
Hello from warm, sunny, smoggy, crowded Cairo! I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving. We are just settling in here, but are lucky to have some great neighbors and colleagues who adopted us and made sure we had turkey and stuffing and pie on the holiday. Anyone who makes sure that you have pie is a pretty good friend to have if you ask me. <br />
<br />Before we left for Cairo, I wanted a bit of exposure to Egyptian
dialect (though every native Arabic speaker understands Egyptian dialect
because of all the movies and TV shows from there, I am not a native,
and Egyptian is very different from my comfort level in the Levant. And
certainly two years in Algiers did very little for my Arabic at all,
outside of understanding Souad Massi songs.)<br />
<br /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15378235869" title="DSC_0028 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0028" height="333" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3938/15378235869_687f8ab284.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Anyway,
this was basically an excuse to watch some Egyptian TV shows on YouTube,
which obviously deteriorated into me watching Egyptian cooking shows. I
watched a lady making homemade <i>hawawshi</i> <span lang="arz">حواوشى</span>,
or stuffed meat pies which are considered one of the national dishes of
Egypt. Hawashi is usually made by stuffing leftover bread with a bunch
of spiced ground meat and baking it, and is a way to use up slightly
stale bread. The meat can be already cooked or raw, and the pies can be
made in the oven or on a griddle. The lady on the cooking show, however,
was making her hawawshi with freshly made dough, and explained that the
filling was "Alexandria-style," which as far as I could tell just meant
that it involved chile peppers. <br />
<br />
Now that we've arrived I spotted a few hawawshis at <a href="http://www.zoobaeats.com/" target="_blank">Zooba</a> and around on the street, but I haven't tried any to see how they compare to my homemade version. I've been too busy eating<i> ta'amiya</i> (Egyptian falafel) and <i>fuul</i> (broad beans), trying to figure out how to get to and from work, how to get groceries, unpacking our suitcases, and generally not getting lost. I hope you all are enjoying those turkey-day leftovers!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/14944687163" title="DSC_0029 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0029" height="333" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5610/14944687163_6e82c05088.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<b>Egyptian Meat Pies (Hawawshi) </b><br />
<br />
<i>filling: </i><br />
1/2 an onion, diced<br />
1 large tomato, diced<br />
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, diced<br />
2 cloves garlic, sliced<br />
1 lb ground beef<br />
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander<br />
1/4 teaspoon paprika<br />
salt, pepper, olive oil <br />
<br />
<i>dough:</i><br />
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast<br />
1 cup warm water, plus 2-3 tablespoons more if needed <br />
2 cups flour<br />
1 teaspoon salt<br />
1 teaspoon sugar<br />
2 tablespoons olive oil<br />
<br />
1. <i>Make the dough: </i>Mix the yeast and the water in a bowl. Add the flour, sugar, salt, and olive oil, and mix thoroughly. Knead the dough in the bowl until it comes together and becomes smooth. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a damp towel and leave to rise.<br />
2. <i>Make the filling: </i>Heat a splash of olive oil in a wide pan. Saute the onion until soft and translucent. Add the jalapenos, tomatoes, and garlic. Let the mixture cook over medium heat until the tomatoes have lost most of their liquid and everything is soft. Add the beef, paprika, coriander, salt, and pepper to the pan. Saute the mixture, breaking up the beef, until the beef is cooked through.<br />
3. Preheat the oven to 425F. Prepare a baking sheet.<br />
4. Form the dough into 8 balls and set aside. Sprinkle a work surface with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll out two dough balls into rounds. Place a heaping amount of the filling onto one round. Remember the dough will expand, so you really want to pile the filling on there. Top the meat pie with the second round of dough and pinch the edges closed. Cut a small X in the top of the meat pie. Transfer the pie to the baking sheet and repeat with the remaining dough and filling. If desired, you can brush the pie with olive oil before baking.<br />
5. Bake the meat pies in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the dough becomes golden brown. Remove and serve warm. <br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-71411657154423222632014-11-19T11:38:00.000-05:002014-11-19T11:38:00.041-05:00How To Make Your Own Harissa (and Why You Should)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15378653548" title="DSC_0037 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0037" height="333" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5616/15378653548_7b3650b97f.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
Harissa is all over the place in America these days, everywhere we turn there's the North African chili paste on menus and condiment lists and every cooking magazine you open. I find this extremely frustrating. After spending two years in Algiers, while I may not have learned much, I definitely learned about harissa. I learned that there is bad harissa and good harissa, and the reason the harissa craze in America is so frustrating is that most of the harissa in America is over-priced and mediocre.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15378169509" title="DSC_0031 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0031" height="333" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3943/15378169509_5e80da9582.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15564790385" title="DSC_0034 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0034" height="333" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3930/15564790385_08d363d5bf.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
I suppose I should be happy that people are actually learning about what harissa is in the first place, but it wouldn't be me if I didn't have higher standards than that. However, there is an easy cure to this problem, the problem of the $8 a jar sub-par harissa, and that is to make your own harissa! It is surprisingly easy and doesn't even necessitate a trip to a special grocery store.<br />
<br />
Now, a bit of background, harissa is made in North Africa, primarily Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Most connoisseurs will tell you that the Tunisians make the best harissa, Algerians the spiciest, and the Moroccan version is often simpler and milder. The primary principle of harissa is that it is an oil-based chile paste, basically all you need is oil + chiles for the most basic version. There are about as many recipes for harissa as there are cooks in North Africa or salsas in Mexico, there is even a famous version of harissa from southern Tunisia that involves rose petals. However, most harissas are based on a simple equation of chiles (fresh or dried), a few spices, salt, and oil. For a basic harissa, there's no need to add red bell peppers, fresh herbs, tomatoes or any other detractors.<br />
<br />
My harissa recipe is based on my efforts to recreate the harissa from my favorite vendor in Algiers' Premier Mai market. While I can no longer buy a big bag of harissa from him, it's surprisingly easy to recreate at home, and we use it to top just about everything (eggs, pizza, <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2013/12/freekia-squash-and-apple-salad-with.html" target="_blank">grain salads</a>, <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2012/07/nectarine-plum-and-chicken-tagine.html" target="_blank">tagines</a>, <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2012/08/dog-days-of-august.html" target="_blank">harissa-roasted potatoes</a>). <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/14944042184" title="DSC_0036 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0036" height="333" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5601/14944042184_5466f40d7a.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<b>Harissa</b><br />
<i>For the chile peppers you want thin red chile peppers about 3-5 inches in length, the best substitute I have found are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile_de_%C3%A1rbol" target="_blank">chile de arbol</a> and <a href="http://www.spicesinc.com/p-1936-japones-chiles.aspx" target="_blank">chile japones</a>, available in most groceries. Generally, they should be very very spicy chiles. I strongly recommend wearing gloves when preparing the harissa, my hands burned for two days after making this, and the chiles were so strong I also sneezed a lot while handling the peppers. If it's not strong, than it's not really harissa. Despite all this, our harissa mellowed after two days of sitting, and was pleasantly strong but definitely not mouth-burning.</i><br />
<br />
200 grams (7 ounces) dried red chile peppers, see headnote<br />
3 cloves of garlic<br />
1 teaspoon ground caraway (freshly toasted and ground is best, but it's not the end of the world if you use pre-ground)<br />
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed<br />
2 teaspoons salt, kosher salt or sea salt is best<br />
1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for covering<br />
<br />
1. Snip the ends of the peppers and shake out any seeds. Try to get all the seeds out of the peppers and then discard them, otherwise your harissa paste will be unbearably hot.<br />
2. Heat a wide skillet to medium heat and add the dried peppers, allowing them to just warm up in the dry skillet, stirring them to distribute the heat. Do not allow the peppers to toast or brown!<br />
3. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover with warm, but not boiling, water. Let the peppers soak for 20-30 minutes, pressing them down after the first five minutes to make sure they submerge in the liquid.<br />
4. After the peppers have softened (they should be pretty soft but don't worry if there are still some firmer bits to the peppers), drain them, and then working in the sink, peel open the peppers to discard any remaining seeds. I run the peppers under running water to remove any remaining seeds. If you sneeze during this point, just remember to rinse off the affected pepper.<br />
5. Transfer the peppers to a cutting board (preferably plastic, as wood will stain). With a knife, very finely chop the peppers, and continue going back over the peppers with your knife until you start getting an almost paste like mixture.<br />
6. Scrape the peppers into a bowl. Press the garlic through a garlic press and add to the bowl. Add the caraway, coriander, and salt. Using the pestle from a mortar and pestle (or any large round thing you can use for smashing), smash the whole mixture together. Add half the olive oil and continue smashing with the pestle so that the oil starts to emulsify in the peppers. Add the remaining oil and continue smashing until you have a nice paste. Taste for seasoning.<br />
7. Transfer the harissa to multiple small jars. Cover each jar with a little olive oil to cover. Harissa will keep about 1 month in the fridge, but be aware that it definitely will go bad. I like to keep small jars of harissa in the freezer, and just pull one out at a time when I need it. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15541079186" title="DSC_0038 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0038" height="333" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3929/15541079186_1accdc81e8.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-83677289915503709892014-11-12T21:50:00.001-05:002014-11-12T21:50:35.452-05:00Moving, Reading, Flying, Sighing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15591645318" title="photo 1-5 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 1-5" height="500" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5616/15591645318_fc45a679c4.jpg" width="500" /></a> <br />
Now is the time (finally!!), the time when we pick up our lives and move it half way around the world again. We are Cairo bound, with four suitcases, a cello, a yoga mat, and more handbags than one girl should admit to carrying.<br />
<br />
I've been living in the Middle East for the larger part of 10 years now, and overall I love it. Normally, I'd be tearing at the door to be on the plane and on my way. But this trip, for the first time ever, I'm actually a little sad to leave America. We have a home here now, and friends, family to have lunch with, yoga friends to see, and weddings to miss, and suddenly I find it very hard to leave.<br />
<br />
I've always said I wanted to do this moving around gig while I'm young, before there are school-age kids to worry about and all that, but I guess the truth is that I'm rounding the edge of that curve. I'm no longer the 21 year old who hitchhiked from Beirut, and the idea of a home is more appealing than it used to be. But I know we will hit the ground in Cairo and I'll hear the sound of the call to prayer and eat some fuul and be happy as a clam.<br />
<br />
As usual, at least half the things I wanted to do before we left didn't get done, most importantly the redesign of this blog. I imagine that we won't have internet right away in Cairo, so there may be a bit of silence on this end. In the meantime, here are some things I am reading:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15157144354" title="photo-3 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo-3" height="500" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7480/15157144354_5efac80206.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/yelp-vs-restaurant-food-critics#" target="_blank">A lovely piece</a> about the shortcomings of starred reviews.<br />
<br />
Elissa's writing always makes me want to live in a cozy farmhouse which I imagine is full of good smells and creaky floors and fireplaces, <a href="http://www.poormansfeast.com/archives/food-in-bowls.html" target="_blank">especially this piece</a>. <br />
<br />
Did you see <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/its-time-to-try-nutty-sour-trahana/" target="_blank">this article about trahana</a>, which is the cousin to Middle Eastern kishik? I definitely want to try her homemade version, and then maybe bust out some mana'eesh bi kishik.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/garden/a-rain-garden-that-even-the-neighbors-seem-to-like.html?ref=garden" target="_blank">Things that make m</a>e dream about having a garden again, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/garden/bill-henderson-of-pushcart-press-builds-a-personal-cathedral.html?ref=garden" target="_blank">this article</a> which made me excited that in a few short months I can order my annual copy of the Pushcart Press's yearly anthology. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/sopa-verde-de-elote-recipe.html" target="_blank">This green soup</a>!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/brown-butter-walnut-pie-with-sour-whipped-cream?dom=SAV&loc=recent&lnk=2&con=brown-butter-walnut-pie-with-sour-whipped-cream" target="_blank">This pie</a>! <br />
<br />
Many years ago I had the privilege of taking a graduate class in comparative Israeli-Palestinian literature with the esteemed Lebanese writer Elias Khoury. (This experience in itself was a riot, he only ever referred to the Israelis as "the cousins," peppered every sentence with at least three expressions of "yannni," and assigned Arabic texts not translated into English or available for print in America.) Nonetheless, the class has a big impact on me, and though I general shy away (run away) from any Israeli-Palestinian politics, I have been enjoying <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/tell-story-happy-ending-exchange-etgar-keret-sayed-kashua-part-ii?int-cid=mod-latest" target="_blank">the New Yorker's dialogues</a> between two writers from said backgrounds. See also, <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/weekend/.premium-1.608222" target="_blank">Kashua on moving to Chicago</a>.<br />
<br />
I have an on-again off-again relationship with Zadie Smith, but this piece was great: <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/oct/23/find-your-beach/" target="_blank">Find Your Beach.</a><br />
<br />
Long live t<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/endangered-bookstores-new-york" target="_blank">he bookstore</a>!!!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2013/11/thanksgiving-ideas.html" target="_blank">Thanksgiving Ideas</a>! The cornbread dressing recipe is also up on the site now.</div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-72544285220552226392014-10-27T16:48:00.002-05:002014-10-27T16:48:45.281-05:00Pumpkin Hummus with Mushroom, Date, and Chile Topping<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/14931970974" title="DSC_0053 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0053" height="333" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3956/14931970974_429ca6ac01.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
If you are like me, you make dinner most nights. Some nights it's good, some nights you are lucky to hit the mediocre mark and comfort yourself with the thought that at least dinner was homemade and relatively healthy. Other nights dinner might be very simple but very good -- recently we made a pureed soup with leeks, butternut squash, celeriac, broth, cream, and apple cider, which definitely fell into this category.<br />
<br />
And then, every once in a while, you make something and go WOAH, let's definitely make that again! Which was the case, for me at least, with this version of pumpkin hummus. First of all, we talked about <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2007/11/nutty-pumpkin-dip.html" target="_blank">pumpkin dip </a>, or <i>mouttabal bi yaqteen</i> (متبل <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">يقطين</span></span>) many moons ago on this blog, and it continues to be a favorite of mine. Syrians love pumpkin and tahini together, whether in <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2007/11/nutty-pumpkin-dip.html" target="_blank">a dip</a>, in <a href="http://syrianfoodie.blogspot.com/2009/10/halloween-special-tahini-pumpkin.html" target="_blank">a stew</a>, or <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2012/12/pumpkin-and-chickpea-salad-with-tahini.html" target="_blank">in a salad</a>, though admittedly the latter is not traditional. The traditional dip does not involve chickpeas, but at some point I seem to have forgotten this and instead of making <i>mouttabal bi yaqteen</i> I started making <i>hummus bi yakteen</i> and I never looked back.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15550039391" title="DSC_0040 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0040" height="333" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5599/15550039391_ed11777eec.jpg" width="500" /></a> <br />
<br />
If you are currently in the midst of lovely North American fall, full of crisp leaves and pretty squashes, then you know that pumpkin hummus is a phenomenal idea. It is also a delicious idea. For dinner, I wanted something heartier, so I topped it with a topping of sauteed mushrooms, dates, and pine nuts. The topping adds just the right amount of meaty-ness, with sweet and spicy notes. The following day we ate the pumpkin hummus topped with a topping of ground beef, jalepenos, and tomatoes, which was also great. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15366093419" title="DSC_0048 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0048" height="333" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3945/15366093419_79aff06439.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Pumpkin Hummus with Mushroom, Date, and Chile Topping</b><br />
<i>This would be a great dish for a vegetarian dinner party or as an offering for a vegetarian at Thanksgiving.</i><br />
<br />
1 recipe pumpkin hummus, follows<br />
<br />
<i>topping:</i><br />
1 box (8 oz) button mushrooms, sliced<br />
5 large medjool dates, pitted and cut into small cubes<br />
1 clove garlic, minced<br />
1 handful flat leaf parsley leaves, sliced<br />
salt, olive oil <br />
<br />
<i>for serving:</i><br />
chile flakes (Aleppo pepper, Urfa biber, or your preferred mild red pepper flakes)<br />
extra tahini<br />
1/4 cup pine nuts <br />
<br />
1. Prepare hummus, scoop into serving bowl. Set aside.<br />
2. Heat a generous splashing of olive oil in a medium sized heavy bottomed pot. Add the mushrooms to the pot and sprinkle with salt. Allow the mushrooms to saute, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have expelled their juices and deep brown and soft. Add the dates and garlic, stir, and let cook for another 3-5 minutes, stirring periodically, until the garlic is cooked through and the dates are soft and there are charred spots on the mushrooms. Season again with salt. Stir in the parsley, remove the pot from the heat, and set aside.<br />
3. Drizzle extra tahini and chile flakes over the hummus. Pile the warm mushroom over top and sprinkle with more chile flakes if desired.<br />
4. Wipe out the pot, toast the pine nuts in the pan over high heat, being careful they don't burn. Pour pine nuts over the dish and serve.<br />
<br />
<b>Pumpkin Hummus</b><br />
<br />
1 mediumish butternut squash, about 1 1/2 lbs<br />
2 cups cooked chickpeas, plus a little of their cooking liquid or water<br />
juice from half a lemon<br />
1 teaspoon salt<br />
1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon, allspice <br />
1/2 cup tahini<br />
<br />
1. Preheat oven to 425F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and place on a baking sheet. (I don't bother rubbing the squash with olive oil, but feel free to if this suits you.) Place the squash in the oven and roast for 45 minutes, or until browned on the outside and completely tender when pierced with a knife. Set aside.<br />
2. Scoop the squash flesh into the bowl of a food processor. Add all remaining ingredients. If it is very thick add a bit of the liquid or water, no more than 3-4 tablespoons though. Blend the mixture thoroughly in the food processor, letting it run for several minutes to mix thoroughly. Taste for seasoning and set aside. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/14931965904" title="DSC_0051 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0051" height="333" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3940/14931965904_05b3100c1d.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-18411908600214271562014-10-19T12:31:00.000-05:002014-10-19T17:50:25.143-05:00Diners and Chocolate Crispy Treats<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15353108030" title="DSC_0630 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0630" height="333" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3948/15353108030_1ee001f898.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Right before we closed on our apartment, I watched a sweet
little video about the dying (extinct?) art of neon sign making in New
York City. Which is why, shortly after moving into our new Chicago
apartment, I couldn't help but noticing the classic neon signs that
seemed to be everywhere in this town. There are at least five within a
short radius of our home, and one of my favorites is the neon flower
sign on LaSalle Flowers, which sticks out at a funny catty-corner angle
to the street. The flower shop sits not far from an original Howard
Johnsons, the kind with the sweet peaked roofs, which is itself home to
the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/LaSalle-Cafe-Luna/116292855124185?rf=208052965899146" target="_blank">Cafe Luna</a>.
The Cafe Luna is exactly what I want a diner to be: a no frills place
with endless coffee refills, eggs prepared a thousand ways, pancake
combo platters, and a great grilled cheese.<br />
<br />
Given its
proximity to our home, Paul and I spend many Sunday mornings at the Cafe
Luna, where our conversation often circles back to the things we love
about Chicago. You see, those things like the neon signs and the diners
symbolize something that cities like New York and Washington DC have
managed to price themselves out of. In Manhattan or D.C. you would be
hard-pressed to find a diner that doesn't charge $15 for pancakes and
offer an array of cocktails, an ironic theme, and expect you to vacate
your table as soon as you have finished eating. And, in those cities,
the neon signs are gone because corporations and businesses have bought
up the majority of the real estate, and no one bothers to fix neon
anymore. Which is why the LaSalle flower sign always makes me smile.<br />
<br />
Thus, we were very sad to hear a few months ago that the Howard Johnsons has been sold to <a href="http://www.chicagobusiness.com/realestate/20140402/CRED03/140409950/developers-mojo-could-bring-down-river-north-hojos" target="_blank">a real estate developer to be demolished.</a>
The Cafe Luna can stay open for another year, until the demolition
happens, though the owner's son recently told me he wasn't sure they
would have enough business now that the hotel has closed.<br />
<br />
I
want to be clear that there was nothing write-home worthy about the
cafe, it's not a gastropub, nor a Shopsin's, it's just a small
family-run place where I can walk in and get coffee and waffles, which
is exactly as it should be. Cities need places like the Luna Cafe, where
a cabbie can stop and get a omelet to go, or someone hard up for cash
can come in and count out their exact change next to an (admittedly more
well off) local home owner like myself.<br />
<br />
I've been
thinking a lot about why I'm drawn to places like this. Many of my
friends would probably tell you, not unjustifiably, that I'm a food
snob, and I've been known to be a harsh critic of restaurants on
occasion. So what makes me love a place that has no issue with putting
whipped cream out of can onto its pancakes? Diners and breakfast cafes
are a huge part of the American experience to me, not just the food
culture but the culture-culture. A diner is in many ways like the first <i>hamsani</i>
(local hummus place) I wandered into as a twenty-year-old in Beirut,
alone, where I sat and had a meal of hummus and chatted with locals and
where my eyes were opened to a whole culture for the first time. I had
spent three years studying Middle Eastern studies, but it wasn't until I
sat in that cafe and talked to people that I really got it.<br />
<br />
These
places are also places where people of all social strata not only cross
paths, but might actually sit and eat together in some tangential way.
And in our society these days, I fear there aren't many places where
that happens often anymore. <br />
<br />
*** <i>In other news, our
move to Cairo is impending shortly, where I hope to find my local
koshari place (and whatever the Cairene equivalent of hamsani/ful vendor
there is). If you readers have suggestions please do send them this
way. Also, though it would probably be most appropriate to follow this
post by a recipe for pancakes, the truth is I buy all my pancakes at
diners, and so instead you get this recipe which I make every once in a
while for a twist on rice krispie treats. They are guaranteed to
disappear from your office in under 10 minutes. </i>***<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15352113989" title="DSC_0634 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0634" height="333" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5613/15352113989_6a7220e95f.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15515041196" title="DSC_0635 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0635" height="333" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5613/15515041196_752722a7cd.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<b>Nutty Chocolate Crispy Treats</b><br />
<i>This recipe was inspired by something I found online, deep in the internets, when I was trying to use up a bunch of things in our pantry like agave and coconut oil. You can also try topping the treats with a schmearing of melted chocolate and sea salt.</i><br />
<br />
6 cups rice crisp cereal<br />
1 cup agave syrup<br />
1/3 cup maple syrup<br />
1/2 cup nutella<br />
1/2 cup almond butter, peanut butter, or soynut butter<br />
1/3 cup chocolate chips or chopped chocolate<br />
3 tablespoons coconut oil or butter<br />
2 pinches (about 1/2 teaspoon) sea salt<br />
<br />
1. Measure out your cereal and have it at the ready. Line a 9x12 inch pan with parchment paper.<br />
2. Get out a large deep pot (a small stock pot works nicely). Place the agave and maple syrup in the pot and bring the mixture to a roiling boil. Watch the mixture so it doesn't boil over, but luckily you're using a deep pot! Let the mixture boil for one minute. Turn off the heat and immediately stir in the nutella, nut butter, chocolate, oil, and salt. Stir well to combine. Fold in the rice crisp cereal, working quickly to mix everything together.<br />
3. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan and press down using a nonstick spatula or damp fingers. Let the treats rest for at least 3 hours before slicing. Cut into bars using a knife or sharp-edged spatula. </div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-73587520788373191932014-10-12T12:28:00.003-05:002014-10-14T17:40:36.283-05:00Roast Broccoli Salad with Pomegranates, Walnuts, and Creamy Dressing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15304841298" title="photo 2-4 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 2-4" height="375" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3940/15304841298_ae9a348a7c.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Remember back a couple weeks ago when we talked about broccoli? Maybe you thought I was kidding, that only a crazy person would OD on broccoli before moving to Egypt? Ah, well! Clearly you would be wrong, because for several nights last week I ate multiple whole heads of broccoli in one sitting. What? Is that weird? It really shrinks down when you roast it.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15468375136" title="photo 2-5 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 2-5" height="180" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2948/15468375136_1a287b631c_m.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15488344601" title="photo 3-4 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 3-4" height="180" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3928/15488344601_0fa5ca7c8e_m.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15488347341" title="photo 3-3 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 3-3" height="375" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2950/15488347341_165cb67ff8.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
Have we ever talked about how one of my favorite childhood snacks was raw cauliflower, followed closely by raw broccoli? Also known as "trees," in classic childhood parlance. It is unclear to me as an adult what exactly about raw broccoli would have been appealing to me, but it was a great source of frustration to my mother, who had difficulty getting her underweight to child to eat anything more substantial.<br />
<br />
Broccoli, now preferably in cooked form, continues to be a favorite of mine, which is why I was surprised to realize that there are almost no broccoli recipes on this blog. Perhaps it's because broccoli is not available in the Middle East, where I spend most of my time living and writing about food cultures therein. However, there are plenty of Middle Eastern cauliflower recipes, for which you can try swapping broccoli (though I'm sure someone would call this heretical, frankly I'm not that much of a traditionalist). This broccoli salad is basically a play on <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2010/11/difference-between-roasting-and-frying.html" target="_blank">my favorite roast cauliflower salad</a>. Instead of my usual tahini-yogurt dressing, I reached for some leftover sour cream which goes very nicely with the broccoli. Pomegranates and walnuts make this perfect for the fall dinner table. Or, so that you can eat multiple heads of broccoli all by yourself.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15304585099" title="photo 1-4 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 1-4" height="375" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5610/15304585099_2b9a04dd4d.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
<b>Roast Broccoli Salad with Pomegranates, Walnuts, and Creamy Dressing</b><br />
<i>Broccoli really shrinks down a lot when you roast it, so though four heads seems like a lot, this dish really only serves 2-4 as a side. This would also be good with a few dried currants or using pine nuts instead of walnuts. I save my broccoli stems and use them to make a potage-type soup, pureed with some turnips, onions, stock, and cream.</i><br />
<br />
4 medium-smallish sized heads of broccoli<br />
1/2 a red onion<br />
pomegranate seeds from about 1/3 of a pomegranate<br />
1/2 cup sour cream (or thick yogurt)<br />
a squeeze of lemon juice <br />
1/2 cup walnuts<br />
Urfa Biber or Aleppo pepper chile flakes, for sprinkling<br />
salt, olive oil<br />
<br />
1. Preheat oven to 425F. Line a large baking sheet with foil or silpat. Stir the sour cream together with the lemon and a pinch of salt and set aside.<br />
2. Place the first head of broccoli on your cutting board parallel to you, so that the stem end is at your left hand and the floret end at your right hand. Slice the broccoli heads cross wise, as seen in this diagram: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15513441311" title="YouDoodleDrawing by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="YouDoodleDrawing" height="223" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5603/15513441311_0b544cb3fa_n.jpg" width="320" /></a> <br />
You'll get some teeny tiny florets and some larger florets, which gives a nice texture variety to the roasted broccoli. Take any particularly large florets and cut them down to smaller pieces. Repeat with all broccoli heads. Discard or set aside the broccoli stems. <br />
3. Place all the broccoli on your baking sheet and toss with a generous amount of olive oil so that the broccoli is nicely coated with oil. Spread the broccoli out on the baking sheet, and sprinkle all the broccoli with salt and two pinches of the chile flakes. Place the broccoli in the oven and allow to roast for 20-25 minutes. Keep a close eye on the broccoli, if it seems to be cooking unevenly then stir it around and redistribute it. When the broccoli is cooked through and the ends of the broccoli are dark and crispy, remove the broccoli and set aside.<br />
4. Meanwhile, slice the red onion into thin slices. Heat some olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Saute the onions slowly, stirring occasionally, for about twenty minutes, until softened, translucent, and beginning to caramelize. After about 20 minutes, turn up the heat to high and saute the onions, stirring frequently, so that you get a nice brown crisp edge on some of the onions. Set aside.<br />
5. Place half the broccoli and half the onions on a serving dish. Dollop half of the sour cream over the broccoli. Place the remaining broccoli and onions in the dish, and dollop with the remaining sour cream.<br />
6. Wipe out the saute pan you used for the onions, place it over high heat, and toast the walnuts in the pan for a few minutes, watching carefully so the don't burn. Pour the toasted walnuts over the broccoli, top with the pomegranates, and sprinkle the whole dish with some more salt and chile flakes. Serve warm or at room temperature.<br />
<br /></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-91598175680899604312014-10-05T10:44:00.000-05:002014-10-05T10:47:56.043-05:00Za'atar Cured Salmon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15425135096" title="photo 3-2 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 3-2" height="500" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5598/15425135096_6ceb89dce2.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
I hate saying that we've been busy. It's one of those American things that has come to annoy me the more I live outside the country, in the same way that I try to avoid asking people what they do for a living at cocktail parties. It always results in far more interesting conversations. <br />
<br />
So instead we've been pleasantly occupied, traveling here and there to visit family and friends, working, doing a lot of yoga, trying to organize our life so that half of it ends up in Chicago and half ends up in Cairo. I'm on a first name basis with the people at Maersk shipping. My spare moments have been filled with painting and fixing up our apartment and the bare bit of cooking I have done consists mainly of buying a nice piece of fish at the market, seasoning it, and sticking it under the broiler until it is just barely done, and then eating it with some simple vegetables. Also a lot of toast. You can never go wrong with toast.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15447852182" title="photo 4-1 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 4-1" height="375" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3935/15447852182_b48b1a2043.jpg" width="500" /></a> <br />
I have also been playing around with home cured salmon, which has the great benefit of taking up almost no time at all. I had no idea cured salmon was so easy, slap a sugar/salt mix on your salmon, leave it for a few days, and voila! The perfect bagel-and-schmear topper, salad addition, or light lunch. <br />
<br />
The curing mix is a simple ratio of 2 parts salt to 1 part sugar, and then any spices you add to the mix penetrate the salmon surprisingly well. When I first made the cured salmon with <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-is-zaatar.html" target="_blank">za'atar</a>, the Lebanese herb mix, I wasn't sure if the flavor would translate through to the final product, but I was pleasantly surprised that it did. The herby-ness is a bit like the Middle Eastern twist on your classic dill and salmon pairing.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15445030671" title="photo 1-3 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 1-3" height="240" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5601/15445030671_43d6a9e80a_m.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15447857722" title="photo 2-3 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 2-3" height="240" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3935/15447857722_860c68f23e_m.jpg" width="180" /></a><br />
<b>Za'atar Cured Salmon</b><br />
<i>I keep several types of <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-is-zaatar.html" target="_blank">za'atar</a> in the cabinet, some higher and lesser quality, for this dish I recommend using average grocery-store quality za'atar. I imagine this would also work really well with the Egyptian spice mix dukkah. </i><br />
<br />
3 cups salt<br />
1 1/2 cups sugar<br />
1/2 cup za'atar (available from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zaatar-Spice-Blend-Palestine-ounce/dp/B00CL5XP1S/ref=sr_1_6?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1412524031&sr=1-6" target="_blank">mail order sources </a>or Middle Eastern groceries)<br />
zest of 1 lemon<br />
1 tablespoon fresh black pepper<br />
1 large fillet of salmon (1 1/2 to 2 pounds)<br />
<br />
1. In a bowl, mix the salt, sugar, za'atar, lemon zest, and pepper.<br />
2. Place several sheets of plastic wrap on a working surface. Pour about 1/3 of the curing mix over the plastic wrap and spread it into a rectangle. Place the salmon fillet over top the curing mix. Pack the remaining curing mix around the salmon (you may not use all of it).<br />
3. Wrap the plastic wrap up around the fish, then wrap some more plastic wrap tightly around the fillet. Then wrap the fillet in a layer of aluminum foil and place in a rimmed baking dish. Place a smaller plate or baking sheet over top the fillet and weigh it down with heavy items cuch as a few large cans of tomatoes.<br />
4. Place the whole thing in the fridge to cure for 3 days. About halfway through, flip the fillet over to the other side. After about a day liquid will begin to release from the salmon.<br />
5. After 3 days, unwrap the fillet, brush off and discard the salt. Rinse the salmon under running water to remove any excess salt. Thinly slice the salmon on an angle and serve as desired.</div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-27625608897320900802014-09-29T21:49:00.000-05:002014-09-29T21:49:00.260-05:00Reading the Headlines<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/2044433825" title="aleppo by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="aleppo" height="374" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2080/2044433825_4e0a608587.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<i>I wrote this piece last week and originally decided not to publish it here. I felt it was too serious for something that is a cooking blog, and that readers might rather hear about blueberry crumble bars and smiley happy things. However, it continued to nag at me, and then I read about Herve Gourdel's tragic terrible death, and I read Matthieu Aikens' <a href="https://medium.com/matter/whoever-saves-a-life-1aaea20b782" target="_blank">truly extraordinary piece of reporting here</a>, and well, here you are: </i><br />
<br />
I do not scan pages of the news for familiar faces anymore. When the conflict in Syria first broke out I, like many who once lived in Syria, looked obsessively through the photos in news reports, the online videos, trying to find familiar places, familiar faces. Is that the corner of Baghdad road there, where the sweets shop always had a huge line during Ramadan? We'd peer into grainy photos, pause on stills of videos. <br />
<br />
Now I sit in my apartment in Chicago and read headlines about Deir al-Zour, Raqqa, Idlib and Hasake. All places I have passed through, stopping to get gasoline and packages of biscuits as the only way points between the interminably empty and dusty landscape of the Syrian desert. Deir al-Zour and Raqqa were always terrible places, though I remember once a decent rotisserie chicken eaten in Deir. Even the Syrians I knew hated them, dry dusty outposts of nothing, filled with terrible memories of their one year of mandatory military service.<br />
<br />
What all these places had in common was that they were poor, which is why I, doing relief work and canvasing, knew them well. Hasake had good spicy food and fun Kurdish music, but overall these were places that no one had heard of. Places, I wrongly assumed, would continue to be forgotten dreary towns.<br />
<br />
Now I cannot read the pages of the news reports too closely. Most Syrians I knew have left if they had the means, and those that remain have drifted away in my mind, as if to another planet. Syrians I speak to in America say the same, that the thought of people still there is almost too hard to bear.<br />
<br />
I think of the people of Algeria, all those who left, who fled the civil war to France and Canada, and all those who stayed behind. How different those two psyches are, the fear the implants itself so deeply. Yesterday a French tourist was taken hostage in Kabylie, he was captured not far from an area that I drove through only three months ago, albeit I was with a security detail. He was an alpiniste, and I can picture how beautiful those mountains are, the fields of wheat below them undulating down to the sea. I cannot help but thinking, the Algerian people deserve better.<br />
<br />
All those place names dot the news articles: Tizi Ouzou, Raqqa, Idlib. I cannot read them too closely because each one has meaning, each one has a memory, a picture in my mind, so instead I make coffee and get ready for another day. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15146873649" title="DSC_0535 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="DSC_0535" height="333" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3867/15146873649_e3ec044cf5.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<i>A tiny tree grows amidst the lava path on Mount Etna, Sicily. Top photo of Aleppo taken by yours truly circa 2006.</i></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-63002922507550100612014-09-24T10:44:00.000-05:002014-09-24T10:47:22.597-05:00Fall News + Blueberry Custard Crumble Bars<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15155692357" title="photo 3-1 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 3-1" height="375" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2943/15155692357_db10722712.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Weren't you supposed to be somewhere else by now? That's the phrase I keep hearing from friends and colleagues whenever I see them. Yes, I sigh with an annoyance all too familiar, we were hoping to leave in early October. The good news is that we are moving to Cairo, Egypt shortly! The bad news is that it probably won't be as soon as we would like. However, I am definitely making the best of this situation. More time to visit family? Check. Friends coming to visit us in Chicago? Check, check, check. More time to eat blueberries and broccoli and apples that have actual crunch, none of which are available in the Middle East? YOU BET.<br />
<br />
After three years of spending the months of August-September outside of the country, I apparently forgot that fall was a) a season, b) starts a whole lot earlier in Chicago, and c) is cold!! Although, if I'm being totally honest, I did cave and buy a fleece at the Columbia sportswear in Amman three years ago because I was freezing on those cool desert evenings.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15155692907" title="photo 2-2 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 2-2" height="500" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3921/15155692907_ae8a31c240.jpg" width="500" /></a> <br />
<br />
Anyway, back to the blueberries. Do you ever make a giant portion of something, intending to give half of it your nice neighbors and then, "oh, oops, guess they're out of town this week, and we're just going to have to eat ALL these blueberry bars ourselves." So that's what happened here. It was really terrible, Paul was really suffering eating these bars for breakfast and after-dinner dessert.<br />
<br />
I don't usually make this type of pastry because I tend to shy away from richer American desserts, but seriously this recipe is awesome. A small slice has just the right amount of crunch, ooze, and sweet-sour-salty tang to be imminently satisfying. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15155460639" title="photo 1-2 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 1-2" height="375" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3875/15155460639_ce848f77c0.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<b>Blueberry Custard Crumble Bars</b><br />
This recipe comes together quickly and feeds quite a few. It would be great for a casual dinner party, a picnic, or in your lunchbox. It also freezes very well after it is baked. Inspired by <a href="http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2014/08/blueberry-custard-pie.html" target="_blank">this recipe</a> for a similar blueberry custard pie. (You can also <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15339155241/" target="_blank">top it with ice cream</a> if you want to go all out.)<br />
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<i>crust:</i></div>
12 tablespoons butter, cold</div>
1/4 cup brown sugar</div>
1/2 tsp salt</div>
2 cups flour<br />
</div>
<i>filling:</i></div>
1 cup sour cream</div>
1 tbl lemon zest</div>
<div>
1 egg</div>
<div>
1 tbl flour</div>
2/3 cup brown sugar</div>
4 cups blueberries<br />
</div>
<i>crumble:</i></div>
1 cup brown sugar</div>
2 cups chopped walnut pieces</div>
3/4 cup flour</div>
1 teaspoon sea salt</div>
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Get out a 9x12 inch baking pan.</div>
<div>
2. <i>Make the crust: </i>in a large bowl, rub the butter together with the sugar with your finger tips. Add in the salt and the flour and rub everything together until the mixture is crumbly. Press the crumbly mixture into the bottom of the baking pan, trying to cover it evenly.</div>
<div>
3. <i>Make the filling: </i>Using the same bowl, place the sour cream, lemon, egg, flour, and brown sugar in the bowl and mix well. Gently fold in the blueberries until coated with the sour cream mixture. Spread the blueberry mixture over the crust.</div>
<div>
4. <i>Make the crumble: </i>In a bowl, mix the brown sugar, salt, walnuts, and flour. Slowly pour in the melted butter, stirring simultaneously, until you've added all the butter. Stir a few more times to make sure all the butter is spread around. Gently spread the crumble topping over the blueberries.</div>
<div>
5. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes, until the topping is browned and the blueberry juices are bubbling slightly underneath. Remove, let cool completely before slicing.</div>
</div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-45722656692165242592014-09-16T15:17:00.000-05:002014-09-16T15:56:14.362-05:00In Praise of the Arab Breakfast<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Jl5b7IzGVTw/VBijy6wNk1I/AAAAAAAABQw/g0Cl8h1Yxx8/s640/blogger-image-1921880895.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Jl5b7IzGVTw/VBijy6wNk1I/AAAAAAAABQw/g0Cl8h1Yxx8/s640/blogger-image-1921880895.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I wanted to take a moment to write in praise of the Arab breakfast. On those mornings when I'm not running out the door juggling coffee and keys, I like having a proper home-cooked breakfast. I used to never eat breakfast, but more and more I find breakfast a centering part of my day, even if it's just 10 minutes to sit down and pause before rushing forward again. Some mornings it's oatmeal, others it might be toast and eggs (always with plenty of hot sauce). But especially in the summer, I love having sliced tomatoes and cucumbers as part of the breakfast table, preferably with some yogurt and bread and steaming hot coffee, and if I'm really dreaming, to be eaten outside in the shade with chirping cicadas and time to linger over the newspaper or a good book.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I'm not sure where what most people think of as the Arab breakfast came from, but most Arabs I know don't really eat breakfast to begin with, unless strong tea or coffee counts. I've always assumed the concept of a solid breakfast was imported from the west, and that the Lebanese or Syrians or Egyptians just started to put out simple light things they had around anyway: bread, olives, yogurt, cucumbers, and so the Arab breakfast was born. I particularly love having tomatoes at breakfast, with a bit of salt and olive oil. If you've never thought of tomatoes as a breakfast food I highly recommend you try it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This kind of breakfast is very easy to throw together, and involves almost no cooking or baking, which I find makes it great for hosting brunch or house guests, or simply lazy summer Sunday mornings.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>I<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">deas for an Arab-style breakfast:</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Sliced tomatoes</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Sliced cucumbers (preferably Persian or very small thin skinned types)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Thick yogurt (labne)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Feta or ricotta type cheese</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Pita bread</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Olives</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Eggs (fried, frittata, omelet, etc)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Za'atar flatbreads</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Honey</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Fruit (fresh, poached, or in syrup)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Other types of bread or pastries</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Pickles</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>For the table</i>: chopped herbs, salt, olive oil</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">** special credit for the delicious homegrown tomatoes in the photo goes to our friends Lauren and Andy, who let us steal from their prolific backyard crop while visiting them this summer</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><br></div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5262628558438346351.post-32859723003725904522014-08-31T19:41:00.001-05:002014-09-01T09:23:18.626-05:00Sour Cherry Galette with Almond-Mahlab Filling<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15096896721" title="photo 2 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 2" height="375" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3914/15096896721_865c112064.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
It is the last weekend in August and, if social media is any clue, everyone I know is lounging on a beach, or sailing around an island, or hiking somewhere scenic, while I'm pounding the paths of the concrete jungle. Thankfully, in Chicago, I can wander over to the lakefront on a cloudy Friday afternoon, where you can sit and read a book with the seagulls and the cyclists and almost forget that you're in a city altogether.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/14913346987" title="photo 1 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 1" height="500" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5561/14913346987_7d88d484a7.jpg" width="500" /></a> <br />
I also got to have brunch with a really cute 2 month-old baby and have the most amazing <a href="http://www.eatatkaizan.com/" target="_blank">sushi meal</a> I've had in a long time (ever?). We have been painting and fixing up around our apartment, a seemingly never-ending task of sanding and caulking and repeated trips to the hardware store. We have listened to a LOT of podcasts in the meantime, and, having exhausted my usual suspects, I found a new podcast called the <a href="http://www.dinnerpartydownload.org/" target="_blank">Dinner Party Download</a>. It is awesome and you should add it to you regular rotation.<br />
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<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/14913410817" title="photo 1-1 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 1-1" height="375" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5560/14913410817_db3c3e468d.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<br />
Also on the list this week:<br />
-- <a href="http://www.radiodiaries.org/a-cello-a-guitar-and-the-day-that-changed-music/" target="_blank">Radio Diaries: A Guitar and Cellist </a><br />
-- <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2014/05/cookery-palestine?zid=304&ah=e5690753dc78ce91909083042ad12e30" target="_blank">A moloukhiya schism</a>?!<br />
-- You should be cooking to the latest <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgqAmZHkkTg" target="_blank">Kishi Bashi</a> album. Preferably while drinking a <a href="http://www.kentuckyale.com/kentucky-peach-barrel-wheat-ale" target="_blank">Kentucky Peach Barrel Wheat Ale</a>.<br />
-- <a href="http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/good-food" target="_blank">Good Food</a> had a great interview with the Bautista Date Farm. Learn more about date varieties, like my favorite barhi dates, and order some, at <a href="http://7hotdates.com/" target="_blank">their website</a>.<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/14913429467" title="photo 2-1 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 2-1" height="375" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5555/14913429467_3e8429f8dc.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
Today we're talking about this sour cherry galette that I made back when sour cherries were in the farmer's market for their brief two-week run. If you're like me, you bought a gallon of those sour cherries and pitted and froze them to use year round. If not, well, I'm terribly terribly sorry. <br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/15099617782" title="photo 3 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 3" height="375" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3863/15099617782_fc00cd5e31.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
For the sour cherries that I did not freeze, I made a galette with them. (I was just about to write "simple galette," but who am I kidding, we've got a mahlab scented layer and a rye crust!) Cherries and almonds are botanically related, and the Middle Eastern spice <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahlab" target="_blank">mahlab</a> is made form a variety of sour cherry pit. Based on the old adage, "what grows together goes together," I thought I'd play around with these flavors in the galette - sour cherries, almonds, mahlab. They are almost always a winning combination.<br />
<br />
Despite the seemingly complex title, this recipe is actually really simple. Really! If you don't have any mahlab on hand, don't sweat it. You can substitute some cinnamon or simply omit it. Did you get any sour cherries this year? If so, what are you making? Happy long weekend everyone!<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertcandy/14913418878" title="photo 4 by mercedes l., on Flickr"><img alt="photo 4" height="500" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3864/14913418878_eb31a2e7fa.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
<b>Sour Cherry Galette with Almond-Mahlab Filling</b><br />
<i>You can make this with regular cherries, it just won't have that tart tang to it. If using regular cherries reduce the sugar to 1/3 cup. For extra credit, you can always brush a beaten egg over the crust before baking.</i><br />
<br />
1 regular pie crust or 1 rye pie crust (I used half of <a href="http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2013/11/pauls-plum-pandowdy.html" target="_blank">this recipe</a>)<br />
<br />
<i>cherries:</i><br />
2 heaping cups sour cherries<br />
2/3 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling<br />
1 tablespoon cornstarch<br />
<br />
<i>almond layer:</i><br />
5 mahlab pits<br />
1/2 a tube almond paste (4 oz)<br />
1 egg<br />
pinch of salt <br />
<br />
1. Prepare your pie crust and chill it.<br />
2. Preheat oven to 350 F.<br />
3. Toss the cherries with sugar and cornstarch in a bowl. Let macerate.<br />
4. Crush the mahlab pits in a mortar and pestle. In a bowl, smash up the almond paste with a fork. Add the egg and mahlab and salt and mix into the almond paste until the mix is relatively homogenous.<br />
5. Roll out your pie crust and place on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Spread the almond paste in a circle in the center of your crust. <br />
4. Spoon the cherries over the almond layer. If there is a lot of accumulated juice in the bowl, leave it behind and discard it. I add a little of the juice to the galette, but you don't want to drown it.<br />
5. Fold up the edges of the dough around the filling to form a galette. Sprinkle sugar all over the top.<br />
6. Transfer to the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until bubbly and the crust is firm and hollow-sounding when tapped. Let cool slightly before eating.</div>
Mercedeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00097330009175643958noreply@blogger.com0