Olive Oil Cornmeal Cakes

Over and over again, I'm drawn to crunch. That corner of the brownie pan with its crusty bits? I have my eye on it. The crackly top of baked lasagna? Oh yeah, it's mine. Crispy crunchy baked potato skins with crackling cheese on top? Pass them this way. Do I have a problem? Cornmeal is a great way to add crunch to a baked good, so naturally I'm particularly fond of it.

I made these cakes late one night when I was home alone, futzing around the kitchen, looking for something sweet. I picked out the cornmeal for crunch, chose olive oil for the unique flavor and how easy it is to use during baking, some egg yolks leftover from another project, sugar and a splash of booze because, why the hell not? And voila, a cake recipe was born. I used these great non-stick molds I bought at E. Dehilirin in Paris, which makes them perfect snack cake size. Happy midnight snacking!

Olive Oil Cornmeal Cakes
Being the daughter of Southerners, I'm kind of picky about my cornmeal. Too coarse a grind of cornmeal and these would be unpleasant too eat, too fine a grind and they lose some of their characteristic crunch. I'm partial to Anson Mills brand. If you use Bob's Red Mill their standard cornmeal is too coarse, I would pulse it a few times in a coffee grinder.

6 egg yolks (or 3 whole eggs)
1 cup sugar
1 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons amaretto
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup flour
1 cup medium-grind cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon each baking powder and baking soda
pinch salt
powdered sugar, for dusting
equipment: silicone cake mold pan

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease molds with a neutral oil.
2. Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, soda, and salt in a small bowl.
3. In a large bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar until they are thick, lightened in color, and form ribbons when drizzled from the whisk. Beat in the olive oil and the amaretto. Zest the lemon into the bowl. Stir in the flour in a few swift strokes, combining just so that no white streaks remain, but do not overbeat.
4. Pour batter into the molds, filling about 2/3 of the way full. Bake 25-35 minutes, until golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Baking time can vary greatly depending on the size of your cakes and material of your pan, so keep an eye on them and use your judgment.
5. Let cakes cool for 5-10 minutes before gently removing them from the molds. Cool on a cooling rack. When cool, dust with powdered sugar if desired.

Ottolenghi's Green Gazpacho

The past few summers I've been really into making gazapachos - classic ones, and variations like salmorejo or ajo blanco. My gazpacho season really gets going around August, when tomatoes and peppers are abundant and it's too hot to do any real cooking. This summer, I spotted a recipe for a green gazpacho from the Ottolenghi Cookbook (shamefully I had never seen this recipe even though I actually own this cookbook -- it's at my uncle's house in America -- but you are in luck because it's just been issued for the first time in the States!)



The recipe caught my eye because it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to get dark leafy greens into my diet here in Algeria. Who knew you could crave arugula? The spinach here is sold in leaves at least 2 feet tall and tough as nails, and the only other green option is the occasional Swiss chard bunch, or the copious amount of parsley and herbs that I already eat. A big green puree sounded right up my alley. The lovely thing about this gazpacho is that it has enough other things going on -- spicy green peppers, toasty walnuts, basil -- to make sure it doesn't come across as health food. Even my tough spinach blended in as a complimentary color, playing off the other flavors. I really love the addition of nuts to gazpacho, and the walnuts here add a depth and meatiness to the soup, though I bet almonds would also be great.

We had this as a main course for dinner, but I think it would make a lovely and unique starter for a dinner party or a side dish in little soup shooters. You can fancy up the toppings with Greek yogurt or toasted walnuts or spices like red pepper flakes or freshly grated nutmeg.



Ottolenghi's Green Gazpacho
Depending on how much water content is in your cucumbers and peppers, you may need a touch more water to get this to blend smoothly. Use a good fruity olive oil, as the flavor will come through.

2 small ribs celery
1 medium-sized poblano pepper (or green bell pepper)
2 small cucumbers
3-4 cups spinach, chopped if leaves are large (I used 3 cups)
1/2 cup basil leaves, or a mix of basil/parsley/cilantro/mint
1 scallion, white and green parts
1 small green chile pepper, stemmed and seeded and minced
1 slice stale bread, torn
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
3/4 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon honey
sea salt and white pepper to taste
1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for serving

1. You'll probably have to do this in two batches so I find it's best to get a big bowl and as you chop just add things to the bowl. Roughly chop the celery, poblano pepper, cucumbers, scallion, and chile pepper and add to the bowl. Add the spinach, basil or herbs, torn bread, garlic, and walnuts to the bowl, and toss everything with your hands to distribute.
2. In a bowl or large Pyrex measuring cup, combine the water, honey, and vinegar.
3. Add in half of the water mixture to your blender. Add half of the vegetable/nut mix to the blender. Season with salt and pepper. Blend the mixture until well combined and smooth. With the blender running, drizzle in 1/4 cup of olive oil slowly so that it emulsifies into the soup. Taste for seasoning and salt/pepper to taste. Transfer to a storage container.
4. Repeat the process with the remaining water, vegetables, salt/pepper, and olive oil. Transfer the remaining mix to your storage container.
5. Chill the gazpacho for at least 4 hours before serving. If the gazpacho gets too thick add a bit more water. Stir well, serve with a bit of olive oil drizzled on top.

Local Food Spotlight: Garantita

I was going to explain to you about the classic Algerian street food, garantita, but then I found this great little YouTube video, and I think they do a pretty good job of explaining it themselves!

Garantita is a simple mixture of chickpea flour, water or milk, and an egg, baked to create a quivering loaf. Sandwich it in a baguette and top with harissa and mayonnaise. Like a lot of Algerian food, it's carb-centric and filling! You can see how garantita is the Mediterranean cousin of other chickpea-flour street foods like socca and farinata.

Double Cauliflower

Paul was out of town a few weeks ago, and as anyone with a significant other knows, that can be a bit of a double-edged sword. Usually I start off excited at the prospect of an empty house, not having to make dinner or do dishes, and just eating watermelon for dinner and having time to read and organize my closet, and finally clean out my desk. (Really, I have the most boring ideas of fun, don't I?)

But inevitably what happens is I get home from work, stare at my empty home, and wonder why on earth I thought this alone time was going to be so great after all? Then I usually rustle up some vegetable to eat and try and find something to watch on Netflix and count how many days it is until Paul comes home.

When I'm not eating hunks of watermelon for dinner, a couple of my favorite home-alone meals are a quick and easy red lentil dal, and some kind of just-vegetables dish. A baked sweet potato say, or a big pile of braised cabbage. In this iteration, I was playing around with the idea of using only a head of cauliflower to make dinner. I came up with sort of cauliflower two ways - a soft, creamy, lemony cauliflower puree, topped with a crunchy roasted cauliflower topping. It's quite delicious, and an entertaining way to tell someone you ate a whole head of cauliflower for dinner. What do you cook when you're home alone?

 
Double Cauliflower
You can mix this up however you'd like, I imagine the topping would take nicely to a few olives or capers, or you can add in a 1/2 cup of white beans to the puree, etc. Serves 1-2 people. 

1 large head cauliflower
2 tablespoons butter
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan or pecorino romano
salt, pepper, olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
chopped parsley and paprika, for serving

1. Set a pot of salted water to boil. Preheat the oven to 425F. Line a small baking sheet with foil. Get out a food processor and put the butter in the food processor bowl.
2. Remove any green leaves from the cauliflower. Cut away the florets and stems of your cauliflower until only the thick center core remains, discard the center core. Now, take any large florets and stem pieces and move them to one side of your cutting board, and take all the small little floret pieces and bits and move them to the other side of the cutting board. If you find you have not many small pieces, slice some little small floret pieces off the bigger pieces so you have about 1-1 1/2 cups small florets.
3. Place the small florets in the foil-lined baking sheet and toss with olive oil and salt to coat. Place in the oven to roast. Toss the florets occasionally to ensure they cook evenly. It should take about 20 minutes for the cauliflower to roast In the last five minutes before the cauliflower is done, toss in the pine nuts so that they toast. Remove from the oven when browned and tender when pierced with a knife.
4. Meanwhile, place all the large florets and stem pieces and put them in the boiling water. Boil until just tender. Remove the cauliflower with a slotted spoon, being sure to drain well, and transfer the cauliflower to the processor. Season with salt and run the food processor until the cauliflower is a smooth puree. Zest the lemon directly into the food processor bowl, add in the cheese and a bit of black pepper. Pulse food processor to combine. Taste for seasoning.
5. Scoop the cauliflower puree into a bowl. Pile the roasted cauliflower and pine nuts on top. Top with parsley and a sprinkling of paprika and serve warm.

Spinach and Roasted Pepper Phyllo Pie

I have always been a bring-your-lunch to work kind of person. It's cheaper, sure, but I find that overall I like it because it's healthier and the portions are more my size, and everything's usually fresher. Not that there are so many (okay any) lunch options in Algiers, unless meat between bread counts.



This quick phyllo pie is the sort of thing I make often for lunches. Sometimes it's a tart, or a frittata, something that keeps well and slices easily and is a bit more substantial to my other rotating lunch item, salad. Honestly, I usually make these things slapdash with whatever I have on hand, but this time I've bothered to take some measurements.

As I've discussed many times before (see: baklava), phyllo is not nearly as hard to work with as you think. I don't bother to brush every single layer with butter, but the crust here is really just a lovely vehicle for the salty sweet filling with peppers and olives. You can make this with or without cheese - since I'm lactose intolerant I skip the cheese most time and find that it's just as good. Happy lunching!



Spinach and Roasted Pepper Phyllo Pie

1 package phyllo
4 tablespoons butter, melted
3 eggs
4 ounces plain yogurt
1 large bunch spinach, stems trimmed and chopped
4 roasted red peppers, diced
1/2 cup black/purple olives, pitted and chopped
1 sprig of mint, leaves removed and sliced
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, optional
salt, red pepper flakes

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Heat a splash of olive oil in a pan. Add the spinach and let cook over medium-low heat until very dark and cooked through. Scrape the spinach into a large bowl.
2. Place the diced roasted red peppers, olives, and mint into the bowl. Break in the 3 eggs and add in the yogurt and stir well with a fork to combine. Sprinkle in the feta, if using, and season very well with salt and red pepper flakes.
3. Brush the bottom of an 8-inch square baking pan with butter. Keep your phyllo dough covered with some plastic wrap and a damp towel while you're working. Cut your phyllo into 10-12 inch squares (ie, slightly larger than your baking pan). Place about 3-5 sheets of phyllo into the pan, fitting them up the sides. Brush the phyllo well with butter. Repeat this two more times for the bottom phyllo layer. Scoop in the filling. Trim the phyllo to 8-inch square, and repeat with three layers of 3-4 sheets each, brushing each well with butter.
4. Bake the pie in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until nicely browned.

Cilbir - Turkish Poached Eggs

I've been traveling in the Middle East, and in Lebanon/Syria/Turkey for almost 10 years now, and where did I discover this simple Turkish breakfast dish? In London, my friends. Last Christmas, in London, we stopped into one of the few open places in Seven Dials, Kopapa, the sort of bustling warm inviting restaurant that I dream about when in Algiers. I will admit what really sold me on this dish was the menu description, especially the whipped yogurt and spice butter. Whipped yogurt? That's more of a siren song to me than any poached egg ever will be.

Since then, I've learned that poached eggs in yogurt with spiced butter is actually a classic Turkish breakfast dish called Çilbir. And there are naturally tons of ways to make these dish, but really it's fairly simple. Poach some eggs, place in a bowl, top with good quality yogurt and some paprika-tinged butter, and there you have it. Even people in Montana are making it.

I've come up my own variation on this classic dish, which is simply to serve the whole thing over toast and eat it with a knife and fork. I know, it's terribly British, isn't it? But the toast lends a much needed crunch and oomph to the dish. I bet you could even arrange them on a platter at a brunch. (Of course, in the pictures here you don't see the toast version because if I wanted toastable bread I would have had to make it.) If you want a more classic version of the dish, a few sauteed pine nuts are also nice for some crunch.



Çilbir - Turkish Poached Eggs with Yogurt
You want a thick not runny yogurt here, but I don't think you have to go full on Greek yogurt or labane here unless you want to. Really, whatever you like that's rich and tangy. Serves 2.

For the eggs:
2 eggs
water, vinegar

Assembly:
2 slices good toast
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt, the best quality you can find and preferably not fat free
4 tablespoons butter
one pinch of smoked paprika
a bit of dill or chives, optional, for serving

1. Beat the yogurt with a pinch of salt until smooth. Place the toast in the bottom of two shallow serving bowls.
2. Bring water in a medium-large pot to a low boil. Add in a splash of vinegar. Crack your eggs into ramekins or a bowl. With the handle of a wooden spoon, swirl the water to make a whirlpool. Drop one egg into the whirlpool to poach. When the egg white is solid but the yolk is still runny, scoop out the egg with a slotted spoon, let drain, and place on top of a piece of toast. Repeat with the second egg.
3. Spoon the yogurt over each egg. Heat the butter and paprika in a small pan and pour some spiced butter over each serving. If, desired, top with some dill/chives.

Revisiting Hummus

Oh yes. It's time to talk hummus. Again. It's September -- time for back to school, new jobs, more traffic, and half your office is no longer on vacation. And it's time to get serious, with hummus. For long time readers, you know I was pretty serious about hummus when I first posted about it here over five years ago. But I think it's time we talked about it again.

Some of the things I talked about many years ago have not changed - I still think you have to peel the chickpeas, I will still have a coniption if you call something with white beans "hummus." But a lot of things about my method have changed, and I'll explain why.

 
First of all, I have made hummus over a dozen times in the last two months. Luckily, you already knew I was a crazy person. When Paul sees another bowl of chickpeas soaking on the counter he now groans with dread. But all that cooking, testing this method vs that, soaking chickpeas, peeling them, not peeling them, all led me to a new and improved recipe.


So what's changed? Well, you still have to cook your chickpeas from scratch to make good hummus, that has not changed. And yes, you still have to peel the chickpeas. But what has changed is baking soda. Yes, baking soda.

You see, a while back, I was eating at a Lebanese restaurant and noticed how soft, tender, and deeply yellow their chickpeas were. And I started thinking how a better technique for cooking chickpeas could lead to better hummus. Baking soda is a well-documented way to make chickpeas soft, tender, and yellow in color. So why didn't I use baking soda before? Well, before my recipe called for using some of the chickpea cooking water to thin the hummus, but chickpea cooking water with baking soda has an off taste. So, I've swapped that out with some cold water. I've also updated my recipe a bit to incorporate my own laziness, doing the whole thing in the food processor, instead of making the tahini sauce separately.

So go forth my friends, make some hummus!

P.S. Notice how the hummus in the top photo looks smoother than the hummus in the bottom photo? Well, the bottom photo is form one of my experiments with unpeeled chickpeas. The difference in visible folks!

Hummus bi-Tahini
The quality of your tahini makes a difference here, so try to find the best quality and freshest tahini (sesame seed paste) available. Baking soda does not interact well with pots with non-stick linings, so avoid using them here. This recipe makes more chickpeas than you may need.

2 cups dried chickpeas
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 very small clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt (preferably sea salt or other good quality salt)
juice of 1 small lemon
scant 1/2 cup tahini paste (6-7 tablespoons)
for serving: olive oil, cayenne and/or cumin

1. Soak the chickpeas in plenty of water overnight, or for as long as 24 hours.
2. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Add the chickpeas to a large pot, preferably a heavy-bottomed clay or ceramic pot, add the baking soda, and plenty of water to cover. Bring the pot to a boil, watching it closely because the baking soda may cause it to foam and overflow. When the water boils, lower the heat so that your chickpeas are just at a simmer. Skim off the baking soda foam.
3. Simmer the chickpeas until they are golden, the skins are loosened, and they are tender when squished with your finger, but don't totally turn to mush. For me this usually takes 40 minutes, but it could take up to 50-70 minutes.
4. Drain the chickpeas and give them a quick rinse with cool water. Now peel your chickpeas by simply pinching the skins off them. Transfer the peeled chickpeas to a bowl and discard the skins. You can choose to refrigerate of freeze your chickpeas here, or proceed immediately.
6. Measure out two lightly-packed cups of chickpeas into your food processor, reserving the rest for later. Add in the garlic and salt and run the food processor to create a coarse paste.
7. Add in the tahini and lemon juice. Turn on the food processor and process for 2-3 minutes, letting the mixture come together. Check how thick your hummus is, and taste for seasoning. You may want more salt. With your food processor running, add 2-4 tablespoons of very cold water, depending how thick/thin you want your hummus. Remember that your hummus will thicken as it cools so I tend to err on the side of a little looser mixture. Run your food processor for 2-3 more minutes so that the hummus is very smooth. Check for seasoning, it may need more salt.
9. Scoop your hummus into a serving container and let rest for 10-15 minutes for the flavors to meld. Place some of the reserved cooked chickpeas over your hummus. Drizzle olive oil over the top and sprinkle with cayenne and/or cumin as desired.

Ideas for hummus variations here.

Tips: 
1. If you plan to serve your hummus the next day, you can store it covered in the food processor bowl. That way, if it gets too thick, you can easily whiz it with a touch of water.
2. If you make your hummus too thin, you can add in some of your extra reserved chickpeas.
3. If you only have a blender (not recommended, but sometimes your only option), place the lemon juice in the bottom of your blender before the chickpeas. This will help the blender get going.