Dill Potatoes Au Gratin

Again, as part of my "first meal cooked in Turkey" experience, I had to make something nice and simple. These take a long time to bake, but are easy to prepare provided you aren't trying to peel potatoes with an enormous chopping knife (only to later discover that you had a potato peeler in the drawer all along).

Ingredients:

4 large potatoes, cut into 1/4 inch slices
salt and pepper to taste
3 T. butter
2 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. flour
1 bunch fresh dill, chopped
2 cups cheese (cheddar or Gruyere or Swiss, depending on taste; I used some random Turkish cheese that I only later found out doesn't melt. Oops.)


Directions:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (convert to Fahrenheit if you have to, I'm lazy).

1. Butter a baking dish (like a small lasagna pan) and place the sliced potatoes in them. Season with salt and pepper and toss with your hands, then spread evenly.

2. Melt butter in saucepan, then add flour; whisk constantly for a few minutes until it turns golden.

3. Add the milk and salt and pepper to taste. Cook on medium-high, stirring quite a bit, until it thickens.

4. Add the cheese and the dill and cook until the cheese is melted.

5. Pour mixture over the potatoes, then toss it in the sauce until the potatoes are more or less evenly coated and the potatoes are distributed evenly in the pan. At this point I like to add a little more freshly ground pepper (and maybe a little salt).

6. Cook for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until potatoes are nice and soft on the bottom and the top potatoes are nicely browned.

Easy Pepper Steak

This is not the same as "Steak au Poivre". This being my first ever meal cooked in Turkey, I had to make due with what I have, which isn't much. There is no sauce, just a truly yummy, easy to make steak that takes less than 10 minutes and is completely delicious. The ones I used were cut really thin, we're talking about 3/4 of an inch (welcome to Turkey!) Therefore I'm not entirely sure on cooking times.

Ingredients:

4 steaks
Freshly ground black pepper (important that it's freshly ground!)
Salt
Worcester Sauce
2 T. butter
1 T. olive oil

Directions:

1. Take steaks out of fridge at least 30 minutes (preferably about an hour) before you intend to cook them.

2. If they are wet looking, pat them dry with a paper towel.

3. GENEROUSLY crush black pepper over the steaks, then sprinkle with salt (about 3/4 of a teaspoon for 4 or 5 steaks). Press the peppercorns and salt into the steak.

4. Turn the steaks over and repeat step 3 on the other side.

5. In a large frying pan on medium-high heat, place 1 T. of butter and the olive oil until the butter is melted and it's starting to smoke.

6. Place the steaks onto the frying pan and cook until the edges are starting to look done.

7. Before you turn them, sprinkle some Worcester sauce over the steaks and rub the other tablespoon of butter of the top. Then turn them over.

8. Sprinkle some more Worcester sauce on the steaks before you take them off the grill. Cook for another couple of minutes until they are cooked to your likeness! Serve immediately.

Chili

This one is based primarily on Emeril Lagasse's, and then partially on my very talented Aunt Laurie and partially on my own taste/what I had available around my house. It was my first time making chili (and probably my 3rd time eating it) and I thought it was pretty good! I felt better when my mother told me it was hard to screw up chili; I think she was pretty much right. Feel free to add or subtract whatever you feel like.

Ingredients

1 lb. ground beef
olive oil for cooking
1 white or yellow onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. chili powder
2 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (or more, to taste)
1/4 tsp. coriander
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
2 28-oz. cans diced tomatoes, partially drained
2 cups (more or less, depending on desired liquidity) chicken stock, apple cider, or water (or beef stock, or veggie stock)
1 can butternut squash (or 2 cups fresh cut into chunks)
2 bay leaves
1 can red kidney beans
1 can white kidney beans
1 can navy beans
1 can great northern beans
1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can corn (or 1 1/2 cups frozen)


Directions

1. In a very large pot, saute the beef with the olive oil over medium high heat until nicely browned

2. Add in the onions, pepper, garlic, chili powder, salt, cumin, black pepper, cayenne pepper, coriander, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and cook on medium heat until vegetables are soft

3. Add tomatoes, stock/water/cider, butternut squash, and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook on low heat for about 40 minutes (a bit longer if you are working with fresh butternut squash; you want it to be soft).

4. Add beans and corn, stir to combine, and allow to simmer for 20-30 minutes more, stirring occasionally.

5. Apparently this tastes better the next day, or at least after a few hours. Make in advance, then enjoy!

Almond Cake with Strawberry Compote

I found this recipe in a book in a Border's that was closing, but didn't have a pen and paper. Thank god for the internet! This is a slightly modified version of the recipe.

ALMOND CAKE:

8 oz. almond paste (I like Love'n Bake)
1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
4 T. butter
2 T. honey
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup flour
Confectioner's sugar


Preheat oven to 350 and line springform pan with butter and flour (and preferably parchment paper)

1. Mix almond paste and sugar using a pastry cutter or a mixer until it resembles small crumbs

2. Cut the butter into manageable sizes and add it into the almond mixture the same way (pastry cutter or mixer)

3. Add in honey and almond and vanilla extracts, then eggs one at a time; mix with an electric mixer for 3-4 minutes on medium until nice and fluffy

4. Mix in flour with a wooden spoon until just mixed together

5. Pour into springform pan and bake for 25 minutes.

6. Take out and allow to cool

7. Make a glaze out of 2 tsp. honey, 1/4 tsp. almond extract, and 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract; microwave for 20 seconds, then brush onto the slightly cooled cake

8. Sprinkle generously with confectioner's sugar, then serve with strawberry compote


STRAWBERRY COMPOTE:

1 lb. strawberries
1 lemon
3/4 cup sugar

1. Cut berries into bite-sized chunks, and set aside 1/5

2. Add 4/5 berries, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice to a sauce pan and mix well, then cook over medium-high heat until it starts to boil

3. Continue to boil for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, then lower heat and allow to simmer for 3 minutes; take off heat.

4. Add set aside 1/5 of strawberris and stir into compote and allow to cool.

Barberry Rice

This is my own version of the Iranian treat, zereschk polo. It's not much more complicated than regular rice and remarkably tasty considering how easy it is.


Ingredients:

1 cup Basmati rice, cooked according to instructions
1 T. butter
1/4 cup dried barberries (zareshk)
1/8 cup dried cherries (optional; you could also just use 1/3 cup barberries)
2 T. pomegranate syrup
1 small pinch cloves
2 large pinches cinnamon
2 large pinches cumin


Directions:

1. Melt butter in a frying pan, then turn heat to low.

2. Add barberries, cherries, pomegranate syrup, cloves, cinnamon, and cumin, and cook on low, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.

3. Add barberry mixture to cooked rice, cover and let sit until ready to serve.

Cheese Bourekas / Apple Turnovers

Wow, so I guess I haven't updated in awhile. I'd like to say it's because I've been too lazy to update but mostly I've been too lazy to cook! Ah, well.

Anyway, today I made a delicious flaky dough that could conceivably be stuffed with anything; I made apple turnovers and kind of cheese bourekas with it, and it was fabulous with both savory and sweet (based off of a recipe from the King Arthur cookbook). These pastries are serious people pleasers (and with this much butter, no wonder!)

The crust is actually pretty simple, although it has a few steps and looks kind of complicated. Like I said, you can stuff these with just about anything, but the two stuffings I made today were REALLY good, so here they are!


DOUGH:

2 sticks (1/2 lb.) butter, frozen
1 cup flour (for the dough, you'll also need a lot more)
1/2 cup almond meal
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup sour cream
6-8 T. water

1. Whisk together flour, almond meal, salt, and baking powder, and place bowl in the freezer.

2. Coat your fingers and the butter with flour and grate it with a cheese grater (in the larger holes)

3. Toss the flour mixture and butter shavings together until evenly mixed and place back in the freezer

4. Stir together sour cream and 6 T. water

5. Fold the sour cream and flour/butter mixture together using a rubber spatula until a cohesive dough forms (if there are a lot of crumbs left, add more water until it forms together).

6. Divide dough in half. Flour both the dough and your hands well, then form dough into a 6 X 6 inch rectangle. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in the freezer. Do the same to the other half.

7. After about 30 minutes in the freezer, take dough out and heavily flour it on both sides. Roll into a 10 x 12 inch rectangle, then, holding the shorter edges, fold in third into itself like you're stuffing a letter in an envelope. (Obviously you do this and the following steps to both halves of the dough; be sure to keep the one you are not working with in the freezer).

8. Roll the dough out again into a 5 x 12 inch rectangle, then fold again in thirds into itself like a letter.

9. You should now have a 5 x 4 inch rectangle. Wrap in plastic wrap and place back into the freezer while you make your fillings (or about 30 minutes).

10. Preheat the oven to 425.



CHEESE BOUREKAS FILLING (you can make this however you want, feel free to add or omit as you like):

1 cup ricotta cheese
2 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
(any other cheese you have lying around the house, if you like)
1 egg
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
3-4 oz. frozen spinach
salt and pepper to taste
black caraway seeds (optional, but good!)
olive oil for cooking

1. Saute onion in olive oil until becoming slightly transparent.

2. Add frozen spinach and saute until unfrozen; salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together ricotta, feta, egg, and black caraway seeds (and any other cheese you'd like; I added a sprinkle of cheddar and mozarella) until consistent.

4. Add the cooled spinach mixture to the ricotta, and refrigerate until your dough/ the oven is ready.



APPLE FILLING (again, add or omit ingredients as you see fit)

4 small apples, or 3 large ones (I used gala), peeled, cored, and diced
zest of 1 lemon
2 T. butter
1 T. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 pinch cloves, 2 pinches dried ginger (optional)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. almond extract (optional)

1. Saute all ingredients together in a frying pan on medium-high heat until apples are tender but not mushy (about 8-10 minutes).

2. Set aside and allow to cool.



PUTTING IT ALTOGETHER:

You'll need: 1 cup water, sesame seeds/black caraway seeds for sprinkling, cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling

1. Remove 1 square of dough from the freezer, and roll into a 10 x 16 inch rectangle.

2. Divide the dough into 8 squares (you may need to roll each piece out so it actually IS a square!)

3. Place a good-sized dollop of cheese boureka filling in the center of the dough square, then use your finger to wet 2 adjacent edges of the dough (so it will stick) and fold over to form a triangle. Use a fork to press down on the edges.

4. Repeat for the rest of the boureka filling. Place on parchment paper, then brush each boureka with water and sprinkle sesame/black caraway seeds on top. Place in the oven for 20 minutes.

5. Now take the other half of the dough from the freezer and do the same for the apple filling, except when you put it on the parchment paper you will sprinkle it with sugar and a pinch of cinnamon on each turnover, and again cook for 20 minutes.

Shrimp Burritos with Avocado Mango Salsa

Make with Homemade Tortillas and Mango Avocado Salsa (you can stick with only mango, avocado, jalepeno, lime juice, and salt and pepper). Trust me on this!

This takes a little bit of prep work and coordination, but these didn't take too long in the scheme of things and were absolutely divine! Leaving out one element wouldn't make them half as good. I recommend also putting shredded lettuce on the burritos.

SHRIMP MARINADE:

1 lb. raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 T. soy sauce
2 T. lime juice
1 T. brown sugar
1 T. honey
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
salt and pepper taste

1. Mix all ingredients (except shrimp), and fix it to your taste.

2. Place in a large ziploc bag and add the shrimp. Make sure everything is well mixed, then place in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes up to an hour while you make the yogurt sauce and salsa.


YOGURT SAUCE:

1/2 cup yogurt
2 T. olive oil
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. brown sugar
2 scallions, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 T. lime juice
1/4 tsp. coriander
1/4 tsp. cumin
salt and pepper to taste


1. Mix all ingredients together, then place in the fridge while you work on the salsa! Adjust to taste (I confess, I didn't write down exactly how much of everything I put in and might even have left some stuff out!)


PUTTING IT ALTOGETHER:

1. Cook shrimp on medium high heat with the marinade for about 2-3 minutes, then turn over and continue to cook on the other side.

2. When it's basically cooked through, lower heat and allow shrimp to absorb some of the sauce.

3. Serve on warm tortillas by placing shrimp, then yogurt sauce, then lettuce, then salsa. Wrap and enjoy!

Salmon with Yogurt Sauce

3-4 salmon filets
1 large onion
olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper

SAUCE:

1/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup sour cream
1 T. lemon juice
1 bunch dill, chopped
1 T. grainy mustard
2-3 cloves garlic
1-2 tsp. honey
2 green onions, chopped
salt and pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 350

1. Make sauce above by blending everything together

2. Chop onions into large slices and place along a baking sheet

3. Wash and pat dry salmon filets, then rub with olive oil, sprinkle with lemon juice, and add salt and pepper; place salmon on top of the sliced onions in the baking sheet

4. Add a couple tablespoons of water underneath onions (NOT to touch salmon), then bake for 6 minutes.

5. Remove, add a tablespoon of yogurt sauce on each filet, spread a little, then continue to bake until salmon is fully cooked (about 15-20 minutes)

Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze

CAKE:

2 sticks (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
zest from 2 lemons
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
juice from 1 1/2 lemons (about 1/3 cup)
2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350

1. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy

2. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating mixture between each egg, then add lemon zest and vanilla

3. Mix together flour, sugar, and baking powder, then add to egg mixture and stir until consistent

4. Add in milk and lemon juice

5. Place into greased (preferably with butter) springform cake pan, then level the top

6. Place in oven for 50-75 minutes, or until a knife in the center comes out clean. If it starts to brown on top but isn't getting cooked in the middle, place some foil loosely on top

7. Take out of oven to cool while you make the glaze


GLAZE:

1 cup confectioner's sugar
juice from 1/2 a lemon (about 2 T.)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Whisk confectioner's sugar, then add lemon juice and vanilla extract until consistent. You can add more sugar or sugar until it gets to be the consistency you like (ideally runny, but viscous and thick)

2. Spread onto still warm (but not hot cake) and allow to drip down the sides for a nice effect :)

Apple Tart

Okay, so apparently the tart phase is still going strong. Sue me! This one was mighty good, though....

CRUST:

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. water/milk/cream

1. Mix together dry ingredients

2. Incorporate butter into flour mixture using a pastry cutter or by rubbing between your fingers

3. Beat together egg yolk, vanilla and almond extracts, and cream

4. Incorporate egg mixture and flour mixture until consistent, then press into a tart pan

5. Prick all along the bottom with a fork, then place in the fridge while you preheat the oven

6. Preheat oven to 375, then place refrigerated crust into oven for about 15 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden.

7. Remove from oven and allow to cool while you prepare the apples.


BOTTOM LAYER OF APPLES:

3 apples, peeled, cored, and diced
zest from 1/2 lemon
3 T. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
2 T. butter

1. Toss apples with all ingredients except butter

2. Melt butter over skillet, then add apples

3. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until apples are mushy.

4. Squish apples as much as you can (I used a pastry cutter to do this), then set aside while you work on the top layer


TOP LAYER OF APPLES

3 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
juice from 1/2 lemon
3 T. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 T. butter

1. Toss apples in all ingredients except butter

2. Melt butter over skillet, then add apple slices

3. Stir occasionally for about 3-4 minutes, until apples are just started to soften and heat up but well coated

PUTTING IT ALTOGETHER

Preheat oven to 350

1. Spoon the bottom layer of apples evenly into the pie crust

2. Drizzle any liquid in the pan from the top layer of apples over the bottom layer

3. Place apples from top layer concentrically across the pie, forming a nice solid layer

4. Using a spatula, drizzle any remaining liquid over tart

5. Cook for 20-25 minutes, until apples are nice and cooked

Cucumber Dill Salad

1 large cucumber
1 orange pepper (or yellow; red would probably also be fine)
1 handful fresh dill, chopped
1/4 cup feta cheese

Dressing: 2-3 parts olive oil, 1 part balsamic vinegar, 1 part pomegranate syrup, salt to taste

1. Cut cucumber in half, then slice

2. Cut pepper into bite-sized strips; mix peppers, cucumbers, and dill together

3. Sprinkle dressing over salad, toss salad, then top with feta cheese.

Cherry Stuffed Roast Chicken

This is a really delicious and surprisingly easy roast chicken, taught to me by my friend Elham (who is an AMAZING Persian cook) and then slightly modified. It looks very complicated but is very, very easy, making it a great weekend night meal.

The reason there are 2 marinades is because the first one was made at Elham's house by the wonderful chef herself, and the second one was made at home by me. I'm not sure which one made the chicken so delicious, so I'm recreating it here. If you just want to use one marinade to make your life easy, that's fine by me!

All measurements are approximate.

1 whole chicken, rinsed, emptied, and with neck cut.

STUFFING:

1/2 cup onion, finely diced
olive oil
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup dried barberries (an Iranian fruit you can order online; otherwise, can use cranberries)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup pomegranate syrup

1. Saute the onion in olive oil over medium-high heat until it just starts to brown

2. Lower heat, then add the cherries, cranberries, walnuts, and pomegranate syrup to taste; toss around until well coated and slightly sticky, then set aside.

MARINADE 1:

1/8 cup mustard (preferably a good grainy one; my favorite is Maille)
1/8 cup A-1 Steak Sauce
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/8 cup olive oil
1 T. Old Bay seasoning
A little bit of salt and pepper

1. Mix all ingredients together. Set aside.

BASE / PUTTING IT ALTOGETHER (all slices are about 1/2 an inch thick):

1 white or yellow onion, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
1 potato, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 cup water

1. Make shallow (about 1/2 inch deep) slits into the thickest parts of the chicken (breast and thighs). Elham taught me this trick, and it not only gets the marinade inside, but assures more even cooking!

2. Brush the marinade inside the cavity of the chicken, then all over, including into the slits; be sure to use all the marinade to ensure a nice juicy chicken.

3. Stuff the chicken with the stuffing.

4. Place onions along bottom of a baking dish (like the kind you make brownies or lasagna in, but preferably a little smaller), then put the chicken on top of the onions, breast side down.

5. Add the rest of the vegetables (potatoes, celery, and carrots) to the pan.

6. Preheat oven to 375.

7. Before placing the chicken in the oven, add a cup of water to the bottom of the pan, then place in the oven.

8. Every 20 minutes or so, baste the chicken with it's own juices.

9. The second time around (about 40 minutes later), baste with the MARINADE 2 below, then continue to baste it in its own juices (which now include the second marinade) until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh reads 170 degrees.

10. Continue to baste it until served. Absolutely delicious!


MARINADE 2:

1/8 cup grainy mustard
1/8 cup A-1 Steak Sauce
1/8 cup lime juice
1/8 cup olive oil
1 T. pomegranate syrup

Apple Custard Tart

Okay, I swear I will get over my tart phase. Soon :)

CRUST

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. water/milk/cream

1. Mix together flour, sugar, and salt

2. Cut butter into small pieces and rub into flour until it resembles course meal

3. Whisk together egg yolk, vanilla and almond extracts, and water/milk

4. Incorporate into flour mixture until consistent

5. Press into a tart pan and prick all along the bottom with a fork

6. Place in fridge while you preheat the oven to 375

7. Bake for 16 minutes or until very slightly golden



CUSTARD:

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup half and half
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract (optional, but good!)
pinch of salt

1. Mix together flour, sugar, and salt, then add eggs, vanilla and almond extracts until consistent

2. Heat the half and half until it just starts to get foam on top, then VERY SLOWLY incorporate into egg mixture, whisking CONSTANTLY. Continue to whisk occasionally as you prepare your apples



PUTTING IT ALTOGETHER:

3-4 granny smith apples
1 T. butter
2 T. sugar
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350

1. Peel and core 3-4 granny smith apples, then cut into 1/8 inch slices.

2. Arrange apples concentrically along the tart crust, then pour custard on top

3. Mix together sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon, then sprinkle over tart.

4. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until custard is set. For softer apples, halfway through brush or pour 1 T. melted butter onto apples.


then bake for 20-25 minutes.

Fruit Tart

This is the kind of thing that you find in grocery stores, covered in kiwis, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and all that jazz. These always look WAY more tasty than they actually taste, so this was my attempt to recreate my own. I made a pastry cream, or "creme patissiere" if you are trying to show off. I used 4 egg yolks and whipping cream, and to be honest it was a little heavy and eggy. I'm reduced the egg in this recipe and recommending milk instead, although to be honest I haven't tried it.

You can top this with whatever fruit you want! I actually made a blueberry compote because I had some blueberries that were on their last legs and not particularly attractive.


CRUST:

1 1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 stick (8 T.) butter
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. water/milk/half and half


1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Mix together dry ingredients, then cut butter up into pieces and incorporate it into the flour mixture by rubbing the butter between your fingers with the flour until it resembles course meal.

3. Whisk together egg yolk, vanilla, and water/milk, then drizzle over flour mixture; mix together with until consistent

4. Press into a tart pan, prick along the bottom of the tart with a fork, then bake for 15 minutes or until starting to look golden (NOT brown!)

5. Pull out and allow to cool.


PASTRY CREAM / CREME PATISSIERE:

2 cups milk
5/8 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 T. corn starch
2 T. flour
4 egg yolks
lemon zest from 1 lemon
juice from 1/2 lemon
splash orange juice (optional)


1. Put the milk in a saucepan and heat up on medium/medium-low (you're going to want it when it's just starting to boil and looking foamy)

2. Meanwhile, whisk together egg yolks and sugar, then add in vanilla, lemon zest, corn starch and flour.

3. When milk is looking foamy, splash a little (like a quarter cup) into the egg mixture and QUICKLY incorporate it; if you don't whisk immediately it can start to curdle

4. Slowly pour the rest of the milk into egg mixture while whisking constantly

5. When the mixture is looking consistent, place it back in the saucepan

6. Bring mixture up to almost a boil on medium high heat (whisking constantly), then bring heat down to medium/medium-low, continuing to whisk constantly, until it starts to thicken. This is where you will add the lemon juice and splash of orange juice; keep whisking until it gels

7. Pour into the cooled pie crust and chill in the fridge overnight (or for at least a few hours).

8. Top with fruit! (Do this once the cream is cooled, but not necessarily once it's been chilled.) You can make a glaze by microwaving a tablespoon of jam with a splash of water, then brushing or spooning it over the fruit.

Strawberry Frangipane Tart

This was an original idea, but apparently one that had been done before. Oh, well. I use an almond crust for extra-almondyness :)

You will need 1 1/2 lbs. strawberries and possibly some raspberries as well.

Almond Crust

1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
7 T. butter
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. almond extract
2 T. cream/milk/half and half/water

Preheat oven to 375.

1. Mix flour, almond meal, salt and sugar together.

2. Cut butter into small pieces and rub between your fingers into the flour mixture until it resembles course meal

3. Beat together egg yolk, vanilla and almond extracts, and cream

4. Pour egg mixture over flour mixture and mix together until consistent.

5. Press into a tart pan and prick all over with a fork.

6. Bake for 5 minutes then allow to cool as you make your frangipane.


Frangipane

5 T. butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. almond extract
1 cup almond meal

1. Cream butter and sugar

2. Beat in the egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract

3. Add in the almond meal and beat together until smooth and consistent


Putting it together

Preheat the oven to 375

1. Spread the frangipane evenly along the bottom of the crust

2. Cook for 20-25 minutes. The frangipane should puff up and then deflate; once it is deflated the tart should be ready.

3. When it's ready, take it out to cool.

4. Hull and slice strawberries, and place them (and any raspberries) in a circle on top of the frangipane.

5. You can make a glaze if you like by mixing 1 T. jam (any flavor) and a little bit of water, microwaving it, then brushing it over the berries

Mango Avocado Salsa

This made an incredible quesadilla topping, and would probably also be delicious spooned over chicken or fish. This was a kind of "clean out the refrigerator" salsa, so you can add or subtract ingredients as you see fit. It goes really well with black beans, but if you aren't eating black beans you can probably put some directly into the salsa.

If you don't want it too spicy, you can take the seeds out of the jalapeno (how I like it), or if you really don't want it spicy you can leave the jalapeno out altogether.

Kudos to Elizabeth for adding the tomato and jalapeno (and for doing all the grunt work!)


Ingredients

2 ripe mangoes (preferably the yellow variety), peeled and cut into 1 cm. cubes
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 ripe peach (with skin), cut into 1 cm. cubes
1 small tomato (roma or on the vine), cut into 1 cm. cubes
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
2 avocados, peeled and cut into 1 cm. cubes
Lime juice and salt to tastepp=

Tortillas

I'm moving this from the quesadilla recipe to make it easier to find.

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 T. crisco
3/4 cups water

Directions

1. Mix together flour, salt, and baking powder

2. Rub crisco between your fingers with the flour until it resembles course meal

3. Add half cup of water, then more a little bit at a time until dough just comes together

4. Knead until smooth, then divide into 8 or 12 equal pieces (depending on how big you want the tortillas) and roll each piece into a ball

5. Roll dough pieces into thin tortilla, then heat in a medium-hot skillet for a couple minutes on eat side until cooked through

(Cover cooked tortillas as you're cooking the rest so they don't get hard)

Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart with Almond Crust

I found out the hard way (after serving this to very polite guests) that this is about a billion times better if you chill it in the fridge for several hours before serving. In other words, make this the day before; you won't be sorry.

The cream cheese came out a little watery, but was otherwise tasty. When I figure out how to fix it I'll update. Probably I didn't let it chill long enough in the fridge.

Crust

1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1/3 - 1/2 cup sugar (to taste)
1/4 tsp. salt
7 T. butter
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. almond extract
2 T. cream (can use water, milk, or half and half instead)


PREHEAT oven to 375

1. Mix together flour, almond meal, sugar, and salt.

2. Cut cold butter into small pieces and rub between your fingers until it resembles course meal

3. Beat together egg yolk, vanilla, almond extract, and cream/water.

4. Mix egg and flour mixtures until it consistent (won't necessarily form a dough)

5. Press into a removable bottom tart pan, poke all over with a fork, and bake for 15-20 minutes until just starting to turn golden (if it starts to puff in the oven, you can stab it with a fork; or you could save yourself the trouble and buy some pie weights.)

6. Remove and allow to cool completely.


FILLING

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pinch salt

TOPPING: 1 pint hulled and sliced strawberries + 2 tsp. sugar

1. Beat it all together until smooth.

2. Pour into cooled tart crust

3. Toss strawberries in sugar

4. Place strawberries on top of cream cheese, then place in the fridge until ready to serve.

Spanikopita Triangles

I made these because we bought nabulsi cheese from the halal market and I had no idea what it was or what to do with it (but it looked delicious!). If you can't find nabuli cheese, you can, of course, always go with the more traditional feta.

You can make this really easy on yourself by making a sort of spanikopita "pie" instead of making individual triangles. If you want to do that, you should use 10-12 sheets of phyllo dough (butter and layer half, top with filling, then top with the rest of the buttered and layered sheets.)

By the way, if the thought if phyllo dough seems daunting to you, be aware that it is very easy to work with and always looks impressive. The only trick is to keep the phyllo dough from drying out:

Top phyllo dough with waxed paper (most brands come with a sheet) and then top that with a damp kitchen (not terry cloth) towel. Every time you take out some phyllo dough to work with, cover the rest with the towel. Re-wet towel if necessary.

By the way, most recipes throw a handful of parsley into the spinach mix. I'm not a huge fan (plus I didn't have any) and they were fine without them.

This makes about a dozen.

Ingredients

1/2 lb. phyllo sheets
10-12 oz. frozen spinach
1-2 T. olive oil
2 whole shallots
1 1/2 cups nabulsi cheese (can use feta)
1 T. black caraway seeds (optional, but only because they're hard to find)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 stick + (4 T.) butter, melted
Pepper (and maybe salt, but cheese is salty!) to taste

Directions

1. Saute scallions with olive oil for a couple of minutes (until tender).


2. Throw in the spinach and cook until no longer frozen. Add salt and pepper, then cook for a minute or two more. Take off burner to cool.

3. Take cooled spinach and chop a little more if necessary. You can refrigerate this in advance if you want to.

4. Add caraway seeds and cheese to cooled spinach mixture; mix in well.

5. Add beaten egg and stir until spinach is well coated. Set aside.

6. Preheat oven to 350.

7. Cut phyllo dough into strips (I like mine about 3-4 inches wide, but you can make them bigger or smaller depending on how big you want your triangles). Make sure you cover the strips with wax paper and a wet towel!

8. Peel off 3 sheets; brush each with butter and line them up on top of each other

9. Place a dollop (maybe 1/4 cup worth) onto one of the corners, and fold in triangles until you get one triangle.





10. Brush both sides with butter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

11. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and looking cooked!

Shrimp Potato Chowder

You can add a cup of frozen spinach to this for color and health; it won't taste exactly the same, but is also good if you like spinach.

By the way, my sweet potatoes were very large and my red potatoes very small. I would go for a ratio of about 1/3 sweet potato and 2/3 regular potatoes (but you can adjust this according to taste).

Ingredients:

3 T. butter
1 medium-large onion
1 cup shredded or diced carrots
2 T. flour
1 large sweet potato or 2 small ones, peeled and finely diced
8 small-medium red potatoes, finely diced (and peeled, if you like)
8 oz. corn (frozen, fresh, canned, whatever)
1 lb. shrimp
4 cups whole milk
1 boullion cube, dissolved in 1/2 cup warm milk
1 cup half and half (I didn't have, so I used 2 1/2 T. butter and milk up to a cup)
couple dashes of nutmeg
salt and pepper

Directions

1. In a large soup pot, saute 3 T. butter with carrots and onions until slightly tender (about 5 minutes)

2. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute over medium heat

3. Add bullion cube in milk, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and 4 cups milk; cook until potatoes are beginning to get tender

4. Meanwhile, place shrimp in lightly salted, boiling water for 2-3 minutes, until just slightly cook. Drain them and let them cool. Once cooled, peel them if they are unpeeled and cut into pieces (about 4 pieces for a large shrimp).

5. Once potatoes are starting to get tender, add shrimp, corn, half and half, nutmeg, salt and pepper and allow to cook until potatoes are very tender.

French Toast

French people call French toast "pain perdu", or lost bread. The French people I know think that it's kind of a waste to use fresh bread to make French toast. In other words, this is great for stale bread! As long as it isn't mouldy, you can French toast it.

This is very easy to make and pretty much impossible to screw up unless you do something really stupid like use cucumbers instead of eggs (and even then, I'm sure it will be fine).

INGREDIENTS:

Sliced of bread (French bread, brioche, whatever)
3-4 eggs
3/4 cup milk (about)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 T. honey, warmed in microwave for 15 seconds
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla

1 T. butter

Combine ingredients (except butter), then let the bread soak it up. Cook with the butter on medium heat until both sides are nicely brown.

Top with confectioner's sugar, maple syrup, or nutella(!)

Cream cheese frosting

Miraculously, this stuff seems to keep well outside of the fridge for a few days. Who knew sugar was a preservative?

Ingredients:

1 8 oz. cream cheese
5 T. butter
1 T. vanilla
2 cups confectioner's sugar

Key Lime Tart

The filling is the same as for a traditional key lime pie, but rather than a graham cracker crust (yuck!) this one uses a tart crust. Instead of a whipped cream topping, I top with strawberries.


Crust

1 1/4 cup flour (156 g.)
1/4 cup sugar
zest from 2 small limes or 5 key limes
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg yolk
2 tsp. water

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375

1. Combine zest, flour, and sugar

2. Rub with butter between your fingers until it resembles course meal

3. Whisk together egg, water, and vanilla

4. Pour egg mixture oven flour mixture and combine

5. Press into a tart pan; prick all over with a fork

6. Bake for 16-18 minutes, very slightly browning

7. Lower oven temperature to 325 and allow crust to cool while you make your filling


Filling

1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
zest from 4-5 key limes
1/2 cup+ key lime juice

DIRECTIONS

1. Whisk together all ingredients

2. Pour into cooled crust

3. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes

4. Remove and allow to cool before placing in fridge; refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving


I like to top this with fresh strawberries. To make a glaze, combine 1 T. jam (any flavor) with 1 tsp. water; microwave for 15 seconds, then brush or spoon over berries.

Shephard's Pie

A very filling and hearty dinner!

Ingredients

2 lbs. potatoes, peeled
1 package ground beef
1 large onion, chopped (set aside 2 T. and chop very finely)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup shredded or finely diced carrots
1-2 cup peas (frozen)
1-2 cup green beans, cut in half (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, divided
3 T. butter
1/4 - 1/2 cup milk
2 T. tomato paste (can use ketchup)
1/2 cup red wine or chicken stock or water
2 T. flour
6 T. Worcester sauce
3 T. A1 steak sauce
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for cooking

Directions

1. Boil potatoes until they are soft enough to mash. While they are boiling...

2. Saute carrots in olive oil until starting to soften and turn more orange in color; add onion (minus the tablespoon) and continue to cook until onions are soft and just starting to look translucent; add garlic and saute for a minute or so before adding beef

3. Add beef and pepper and cook until browned; drain excess fat

4. Sprinkle flour over the whole thing and mix in well

5. Add in 1 T. butter, peas, and green beans and stir until mixed

6. Add Worcester sauce, steak sauce, tomato paste, and red wine/chicken stock/water, then reduce until it resembles a nice meaty stew

7. Meanwhile, mash the potatoes with 1/4 cup cheddar cheese, finely chopped onion, and the milk (just enough to make it creamy) and salt and pepper to taste.

8. Butter a 9x13 dish, then distribute the beef mixture along the bottom

10. Spoon on the mashed potatoes, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup cheddar

11. Place into an oven preheated at 400 degrees and cook for 20 minutes (stew should be boiling and potatoes just starting to brown).

Ginger Honey Salmon

Ingredients

4 salmon filets
2 T. lime juice
2 T. honey
2 T. soy sauce
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 1 x 2 inch knob ginger, finely chopped
1 T. black carraway seeds (can substitute black sesame seeds)
Salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for cooking

Directions

1. Mix together lime, honey, soy sauce, black carraway seeds, and 1/3 of the shallots and half the ginger; add salt and pepper to taste

2. Cook rest of the shallots and ginger in olive oil over medium heat in a large frying pan until fragrant (about 5 minutes)

3. Place the salmon on the frying pan, and brush the salmon generously with the honey-lime sauce (I was lazy and used a turkey baster

4. Cook on medium-high heat for about 7 minutes, or until cooked through on one side

5. Flip, brush on more sauce, and continue to cook on medium-high heat until cooked through

Lentil Soup

This is an easy and simple soup (other than dicing potatoes, which is sort of a pain) that is perfect for a quick snack or a cold night (just in time for summer!) This recipe makes a LOT of soup, which is okay because it makes good leftovers. Or you could just cut the recipe in half.

I like my soup a little chunky, which means I don't puree it at the end. If you're a pureest (ha!) you can certainly puree it if you feel like it. In that case, you probably won't need to dice the potatoes quite so small.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups red lentils
3 medium-sized potatoes, peeled diced into 1 cm cubes
1 medium white or yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, very finely chopped or put through a press
1/2 cup lemon juice (approximately; to taste)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. oregano
About 8 cups of water, vegetable stock, or chicken stock (or any combination thereof)
salt and pepper to taste (LOTS is good!)

Directions

1. Dump all ingredients into a large pot and cook on medium until it starts to boil

2. Reduce to medium-low heat and continue to boil/simmer for about 40 minutes (the lentils should have split nicely, so the color is not only nice and opaque but it actually starts to taste like lentils and not water); salt and pepper to taste.

Cheesecake (for Passover and otherwise!)

Now, considering the fact that I probably know everybody who reads this blog personally, I'm guessing that nobody made the cheesecake. At least, I hope not.

Confession time: that was my first every cheesecake and it was, frankly, marginal at best. I basically put it up as a starting off point to improve.

THIS, however, is actually a good cheesecake. It almost didn't get baked since I was too busy eating bowl scrapings (salmonella be damned!)

I made this as a passover cheesecake with a walnut crust (a little bitter, to be honest), but if you want a more traditional graham cracker crust then see the bottom of this post. For non-Passover cheesecakes, you can also replace the almond meal with regular flour.

CRUST

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup ground walnuts (these are hard to find when it isn't passover; you can also grind plain walnuts in a coffee grinder)
5 T. butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Mix together the walnuts, butter, and sugar, then press into a spongiform pan as you would a graham cracker crust, making sure they go at least 1 inch up the sides (preferably more)

3. Bake for 8-10 minutes, then remove from over and allow to cool. If you aren't making the filling straightaway, keep it in the fridge.

FILLING

3 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 T. almond meal
Zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1/2 a lemon (optional; this will make it REALLY lemony, too much so without a topping)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 large pinches of salt
4 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325

1. Mix the cream cheese, sugar, and almond meal together with a wooden spoon until well-blended and all the lumps are out (this is done pretty easily at room temperature, and nearly impossible if the cream cheese is cold.)

2. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt, then stir until well-blended

3. Stir in the eggs, then the sour cream, until smooth and not lumpy.

4. Poor into crust, then bake for 45-50 minutes until the edges are set 1 inch from the middle

5. Open the oven door and allow to cool in the oven for an hour

Best if made in advance


Graham cracker crust:

Use 16 graham crackers instead of the walnuts. Rest is the same.

Watermelon-Feta Salad

Just what it sounds like.

This simple salad makes an excellent snack, and you'll be surprised at how well the flavors blend together!

Ingredients:

1 whole watermelon flesh, cut into chunks or rolled into balls
1 bunch of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
1/2 cup (or more) feta cheese, crumbled

Just combine and enjoy!

Sut Muzlu (Turkish Banana Smoothie)

This is a yummy and healthy way to start your day, and surprisingly filling!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups milk
1 whole ripe banana
1 heaping soup spoon of almond meal (crushed almonds)
1 small spoon of honey
(a couple ice cubes if you want it cold)

Directions:

1. Blend together half the milk and the banana in slices

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend on high until well-blended and bubbly at the top. Serve immediately.

"Clean out the refrigerator" quiche

Now, you can't really go wrong with a quiche. A quiche is an excellent and easy way to get rid of any vegetables and/or cheeses that are starting to go bad. Essentially, you just need to add 3-4 eggs and milk or cream or ricotta. That's it. Really. That's why I call quiches the "clean out the refrigerator day" dinner.

This particular quiche, as you could probably tell from the previous post, is using the vegetables from making veggie stock. In addition, I had some ricotta and swiss cheese that would soon be past their primes and 1/3 a bag of frozen spinach, so it was thrown in as well. Completely excellent.

The top three ingredients were cooked from the vegetable stock, but you can cook them in advance any way you want to (except the leek, which can cook with the quiche or be precooked, it doesn't matter). This is so flexible it's not even funny; add or take away whichever vegetables you want.

Ingredients:

8 stalks asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces and cooked
1 sweet potato, cooked and mashed
1 whole leek, chopped into small slices
1 small-medium onion, chopped (I had a red one on hand, but yellow or white is fine)
8-10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1/3 lb. swiss cheese
3/4 cup ricotta
3 eggs, beaten
1 T. grainy mustard
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 375

1. Mix all the ingredients together and toss into a pie crust. Bake for 50-55 minutes until an inserted knife comes out clean and it's not jiggly. The end.



By the way, pretty much any pie crust will do. Here is the one I used:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup crisco
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 tsp. vinegar
ice cold water to hold it together

Mix all the dry ingredients, then incorporate crisco and butter until it resembles course meal. Add wet ingredients until it just holds together, then roll it into a pie pan (if it's too sticky, add flour or leave it in the fridge for awhile).

Vegetable stock

For all the recipes that call for chicken stock but you've got a vegetarian in the house. I made this for the baby, but it was so delicious that I think I will use it in place of chicken stock from now on, and I haven't even salted it yet!

This makes 2-3 cups, and you can freeze it if you want to keep some on hand.

I intend to make a quiche out of the discarded vegetables...I'll let you know how it goes.


Ingredients

1 large leek, chopped into slices
1 sweet potato, peeled cut into chunks
6-8 stalks asparagus, cut into 1 1/2 inch slices
4-5 cups water
(salt)

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a large saucepan, making sure that the water line is above the vegetables.

2. Bring to a boil, then cover and let simmer until soup has a mild flavor and the vegetables are tender (about 45 minutes to 1 hour).

3. Strain to remove the vegetables so all you have left is the stock.

4. Add salt to taste if you want it salted, or whatever herbs you want (I found rosemary to be very good).

Orange Beef

I think this is supposed to be deep-fried, but in addition to being bad for you I find the prospect of deep-frying positively terrifying. If you want to do it at home, more power to you; the beef will probably be much crispier.

Ingredients

1 lb. sirloin steak (or whatever steaky thing you have on hand)

1 egg white
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp. salt and pepper
2 T. soy sauce

2 scallions, chopped
3 T. brown sugar
3-4 T. soy sauce
1 T. sesame oil
2 T. vinegar (white, red wine, or rice wine)
1 knob ginger, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
black or white pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. red chili pepper flakes (more or less, depending on how spicy you want it)
1 orange, zest and juice

Peanut or canola oil for frying
Steamed broccoli

Sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut the steak into chunks (it's easier to do this if you put the beef in the freezer 1 hour prior to cooking)

2. Coat the chunks of steak in the next 4 ingredients (egg white, corn starch, soy sauce, salt and pepper) and set aside while you do the rest (preferably for about 30 minutes)

3. Whisk the rest of the ingredients, except the broccoli and oil, together***. This part is pretty flexible; if you think it needs more soy sauce/sugar/whatever add it now. Keep taste testing it.

4. Add some oil, and cook the coated beef on both sides until brown and crispy.

5. Drain the oil (there should be a little left on the pan), then re-add your beef and the soy sauce mixture.

6. Cook until well-coated; add steamed broccoli and serve over rice. Sprinkle with sesame seeds for garnish.



***If you prefer to cook the garlic and ginger a little first, you could omit them then toss them in before you re-add the beef and the soy sauce mixture, but it's not necessary.

Key Lime Strawberry Crepes

Now, this came about as a result of a complete accident. What I had intended to make was key lime pie; what I didn't realize is that evaporated milk and condensed milk aren't the same thing...oops. This turned out as a thoroughly gloppy mess, which I figured I was going to have to throw away. By chance, however, I tasted the goopy mess and it was delicious! I topped it on top of strawberries and it was amazing. Then, since I had just made some crepe batter anyway, I added the three together and what resulted was a REALLY nice dessert, and certainly much more attractive than its original.

Since this was truly an accident, I will attempt to recreate here in recipe form.

By the way, key limes are almost IMPOSSIBLE to juice, and apparently can also be hard to find in areas without a lot of Latino supermarkets. I recommend the bottled version. (I use a brand called Nellie and Joe's, which is wonderful.) You can find it with the alcoholic drink mixers at your grocery store (like where they keep Pina colada mix). You could also probably use regular limes, but that might take something away from the whole thing.

You could also probably omit the graham cracker crust part, although I really think that that added something extra to it.


Here is the crepe recipe.


Ingredients

GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST (optional)

8 graham cracker squares
3/8 cup sugar (85 g.)
3 T. butter, melted (45 g.)

1. Crush the graham crackers by placing them in a ziploc bag and rolling over until in crumbs

2. Stir with sugar

3. Add butter and mix until consitently moistened; press into the bottom of a an oven safe dish (pie pan, casserole dish, whatever you have, preferably shallow like a pie dish). You don't have to line the bottom like you would a real crust, since this is going to be mixed in with the key lime mixture. Just sort of press in into the bottom, and don't worry about holes.


KEY LIME MIXTURE

Zest of 1 lime or 3 key limes
1/2 cup key lime juice (120 ml)
1 cup sour cream (225 g.)
1 12. can evaporated milk (350 ml)
3 oz. cream cheese (75 g.)
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar** (115 g.)

**taste test to suit your liking, preferably before you add the eggs.

Here are the oven directions, but you could probably just cook this on low over a stovetop and crush some graham crackers into it. I didn't try it, but it sounds easier.

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 (175 C)

1. Whisk it all together for about 3 minutes, until smooth and slightly fluffy

2. Pour mixture over graham cracker mix and cook for about 30 minutes (it will never really gel like key lime pie does; just use your best judgment.

3. Stir together so the graham crackers are mixed in and allow to cool.


Putting it altogether

You'll need: hulled strawberries cut into bit-size pieces, crepes, confectioner's sugar, and the key lime mixture.

Take the crepe out of the pan, place strawberries down the middle of the crepe, spoon on the key lime mixture, then fold your crepe closed over the strawberries like you would a letter going into an envelope. Top generously with confectioner's sugar, and serve!

No Knead Whole Wheat Bread

This is me attempting to make French bread with whole wheat flour instead. My friend, who is trying to eat healthier, attempted this feat and it turned out flat as a pancake and tasting like Russian black bread (not bad, but not what she was going for!) so I thought I would give it a go. This definitely has a distinctive whole wheat taste, but is as chewy and nearly as crusty as French bread, so I'll consider it a success!

I'm still experimenting to work up to 100% whole wheat, but this one, being 2/3 whole wheat, is pretty darn close. (Most whole wheat loaves go up to 1/2 whole wheat, most of the crusty ones only venture a third!)

You could try this without the vital wheat gluten; I only added mine halfway through. I'm not sure how it would turn out, though, so no promises! By the way, you can buy vital wheat gluten in the bulk section at Whole Foods. It took some time, but I did manage to find it in a regular grocery store, but it was twice the price. If there is a natural foods store near you, I would buy it there.

Starter:

1 cup whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur white wheat) (125 g.)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (62.5)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. yeast
almost 1 cup water

1. Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add water. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for about 12 hours.

Rest of dough

All of the starter
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp, yeast
almost 1 cup water
3 T. wheat gluten

2. Mix together all ingredients, re-cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 18-24 hours.

3. When time is up, place the plastic wrap that was covering your dough on a kitchen towel, dough-side up (reduce, reuse, recycle!). Plop the dough on top.

4. Form a ball by folding down the top and bottom of the dough like you were folding a letter, then do the same to the long sides.

5. Turn ball seam-side down and cover with the kitchen towel; let sit for 2 hours

6. 30-45 minutes before dough is ready to go into the oven, place your dutch oven or casserole dish (or any oven safe container with a lid) into the oven and preheat to 475.

7. After 2 hours, place dough into heated container. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. When 20 minutes are up, remove lid and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

Lemon Curd Tart with berries

You can top with almost any fruit that you think would go well with lemons, but I thought the strawberries and blueberries worked extremely well. Honestly, if you just wanted the tart without the berries it would probably be good, too!

Crust

1 1/4 cup flour (156 g.)
1/4 cup sugar
zest from 1 large lemon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg yolk
1+ tsp. water


1. Mix together flour, sugar, salt and zest.

2. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or by rubbing between your fingers until it resembles course meal.

3. Beat together egg yolk, water, and vanilla, then mix together with the flour mixture

4. It will be VERY crumbly! Press into a tart pan, letting it go at least an inch up the sides

5. Pierce the bottom several times with a fork, then place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes



6. Preheat oven to 375. Place refrigerated pie into the oven for 16-18 minutes, until lightly browned; remove and allow to cool, but don't turn off the oven!

Lemon Filling

1 cup sugar
Zest from 1 large lemon
Juice from 2 lemons (presumably one used here and one used for crust!)
1/2 cup sour cream
4 eggs

1. Whisk together sugar, zest, and lemon juice.

2. Add eggs, whisk, then sour cream, whisk.

Putting it together

1. Pour lemon mixture into cooled crust (doesn't have to be cooled completely).

2. Place back into the oven and cook for 18-20 minutes; check to see if it's ready by pulling on the rack. You want it to be "set" but still jiggly in the middle.

3. Pull out of the oven and allow to cool. When it's cool enough to not rot everything in the fridge by increasing the temperature, put it in the fridge.

4. About an hour before serving, put on the topping.

Topping

Glaze: 3 T. Polaner's all fruit (if you don't have it, any jam should work), 1 T. water. Mix together and microwave for 30 seconds.

You can use any fruits you like to go on top, assuming that you think it goes well with lemon. I used strawberries and blueberries, but you could use just one or something else entirely, like raspberries. If you do use strawberries, be sure to hull them and cut them into smaller slices.

You can either mix the fruit with the glaze and place on top of the pie or place the fruit on first and spoon on the glaze.

Once it's glazed, place in the refrigerator until ready to be served.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients

2 medium-sized sweet potatoes
1/2 cup ricotta
1 clove garlic, minced or chopped
2 T. grated Parmasan
1 egg
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 T. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
About 3 cups flour (375 g.)

Directions

1. Steam or cook the sweet potatoes so they're soft and cooked through (I find it easiest to microwave by poking a few holes in the sweet potato, wrapping in plastic wrap, and popping in the microwave for 4 minutes on each side)

2. In a large bowl, mix together the ricotta, garlic, egg, parmasan, nutmeg, salt, and brown sugar and stir until well blended.

3. When sweet potatoes are ready, scoop the flesh into the ricotta mix and blend

4. Add flour 1/2 a cup at a time until it forms a soft dough; cut into 6 pieces

5. Roll each piece into a long snake that's about 1/2 an inch tall, then cut out 1 inch pieces

6. Boil in lightly salted boiling water for about 6 minutes; drain and serve with your favorite pasta toppings!

Galette des Rois

In case you haven't noticed, I've just discovered the delights of almond meal. This cake is essentially an eggy almond croissant cake; can you really go wrong with that?

Galette des rois is a traditional cake for L'Epiphanie. For the holiday, you hide a "feve" in the cake (either a dried bean or a small porcelain figure) and whoever gets the slice with the hidden feve is "king" (or queen) for the day. Just make sure you tell people eating the cake to look out so there are no broken teeth!

I also just discovered, after spending an arm and a leg on almond meal at the grocery store, that you can buy a huge bag for $4 at Trader Joe's! Speaking of epiphanies...

Just make sure you seal it REALLY well, or it will leak. Badly. Not that that ever happened to this domestic goddess, of course...



Ingredients

2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed
7 T. butter
5/8 cup sugar
almost 3/4 cup almond meal
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 eggs (plus 1 egg yolk for egg wash)
great big pinch of salt
confectioner's sugar for dusting
orange zest or drop of orange flower extract (optional)

Directions

1. Make your filling by creaming butter and sugar together (you can let the butter sit at room temperature or be lazy and microwave for 12 seconds. Or you can be REALLY lazy and use a mixer).

2. Once it's a consistent texture, add almond meal, almond extract, 2 eggs, salt, and orange stuff if you've got it and mix until well blended.

3. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 (or whatever the directions on your puff pastry say).

4. Take out puff pastry, being careful not to stretch it and, using a plate or some other round object, cut out 2 equal sized circles of puff pastry.

5. Spread filling onto one pastry, leaving a 1-inch border. If you're going to include a feve, put it in the filling now.

6. Beat together egg yolk with a little bit of milk or water, and brush along the border, being careful not to let it on the sides.

7. Top with second sheet of puff pastry, and press down with your fingers along the edges to seal. Seal it well, my friend! Avoid a baking disaster like mine :(

8. Make shallow slashes along the top of the cake and pierce a few holes to allow it to rise.

9. Cover with the rest of the egg wash.

10. Pop in the oven for about 20 minutes (should get nice and puffy). Pull out and sprinkle with confectioners sugar. Place back into the oven until nicely browned (about another 10 minutes).

Apple Clafoutis

You will need to cook the apples first, so it's not nearly as easy as a berry clafoutis, but still much easier than a pie!

Batter:

1/2 cup flour (62.5 g.)
pinch salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 T. butter
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Whisk batter together for a full 2-3 minutes, then place in the fridge while you prepare the apples. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400.

Apples:

2 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
2 T. butter
pinch salt
almost 1 tsp. cinnamon
dash nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar

2. Cook the apples in the butter until slightly soft, then add the spices, salt, and sugar. Continue to cook until apples are cooked through, but not mushy.

3. Spoon apples out into a lightly buttered pie pan. Give the batter another whisk, then pour batter on top of the apples.

4. Bake for about 20 minutes, until clafoutis is puffy and slightly browned around the edges.

5. (Optional): Pour the rewarmed remains of the pan where you cooked the apples on top of the cooked clafoutis.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Apple Frangipane Tart

CRUST

1 1/4 cup flour (156 g.)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 dashes nutmeg
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, cut into pieces
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 cup ice water (put in a tablespoon at a time, don't put the whole thing in!)

Directions

1. Mix together dry ingredients

2. Rub flour mixture with the butter with your fingers until it resembles course meal

3. Add vanilla extract, almond extract, and water 1 TABLESPOON AT A TIME until crust comes together

4. Shape into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and stick in the fridge until butter is hard again (10 minutes to an hour, depending)


FRANGIPANE:

2 T. butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup almond meal
1 T. flour (15 g.)
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/4+ tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Cream butter and sugar

2. Add egg and vanilla extract and stir (or beat) until smooth

3. Add almond meal and flour and mix until blended; cover and place in the fridge until use


PUTTING IT ALTOGETHER

Preheat oven to 375

1. Peel, core, and slice 3 granny smith apples until 1/2 inch slices

2. Roll out crust and place in a springform pie pan (if you don't have one, a regular pie pan, and if you don't have that, a baking sheet)

3. Spread frangipane along the bottom of the crust (or leave a border if you're using a baking sheet)

4. Place apples on top of frangepane mixture, and curl crust up around the apples

5. Melt 1 T. butter and brush exposed crust; drizzle any leftover butter over the apples

6. Sprinkle whole thing with 2 T. sugar (over crust and apples)

7. Cover apples with a loose piece of tin foil and bake for 50 minutes

8. Remove tin foil and make for another 10 minutes

9. (Optional) To brown it a little and give it a little extra hint of sweetness, take out the oven and dust with confectioner's sugar, then put back into the oven and broil on low for 1 minute. This extra step made it really nice.

Empanadas

My friend Elizabeth came over and made these. Fantastic! The dough can be used for either salty or sweet empanadas.

DOUGH

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup flour (281 g.)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg
1 T. vinegar
1/3 cup cold (preferably ice) water (plus more handy if needed)


Directions


1. Mix together flour and salt

2. Incorporate butter by rubbing butter and flour together between your fingers until it resembles course meal

3. Beat the egg with the vinegar and water and pour into the flour mixture

4. Incorporate wet and dry ingredients by hand or using a wooden spoon, being careful not to work the dough too much, until dough just holds together (if it doesn't, add water a tablespoon at a time to dry parts)

5. Dough is ready when it can be shaped into a cohesive ball (cracks are fine!). Wrap it in plastic wrap and stick in the fridge for at least an hour.

6. When dough it ready, preheat oven to 400. Divide dough into small balls, and roll out each ball with a rolling pin. Put filling in the middle then fold so it resembles a half moon with scrunched up dough on the round side.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.



FILLING:

The beauty is that you can fill these with pretty much anything. Seriously! Dessert or dinner, doesn't matter,.

Elizabeth made two kinds: one with ground beef and one with strawberry jam. The jam one was easy: just jam!

The beef one was made by sauteing onions (and garlic) until soft, then adding beef and cooking until cooked. She also added chopped cubes of boiled potato and carrots, as well as frozen peas (which she mixed into the beef). MMMMMM!!!! Thanks, Elizabeth!

No Knead Bread

I can't take credit for this, not even a little bit. This came from the Minimalist's New York Times post and it is the MOST PERFECT bread I have ever had. It's so perfect it makes that last sentence grammatically incorrect. This not only puts every bread I've ever had to shame, but just about every bakery bread I've ever had in this country to shame, too.

Every attempt at French bread I've made before this has been WAY too dense; not bad as far as bread goes, but definitely not worthy of the French title. The inside of this bread, on the other hand, is perfectly chewy, and the crust perfectly crackly. You can hear the crust crackling and singing when you pull it out of the oven. This is worthy of a real French bakery.

I had said I didn't change a thing, but that's not true. My method has been changed to suit my needs, and here it is :)

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour (375 g.)
1/4 tsp. instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 5/8 cup water

Directions

1. Combine yeast, salt, and flour in a large bowl. Add water (dough will be ugly and shaggy looking), cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for 18 hours (as little as 12; I started it at 2 p.m. then went to the next step at 9 a.m. the next morning). Here it is when just mixed:



18 hours later:



2. Dump dough out onto a generously floured surface (dough will be VERY sticky) and pat down a little; fold lengthwise into thirds like you're folding a letter into an envelope, then do the same width wise.

3. Pull out and shape into a ball (at least that's what the Minimalist says; mine was WAY too sloppy for this, like trying to shape mud into a ball, but I did the best I could and it turned out fine) and place on a VERY generously floured tea towel***, then fold the tea towel over the bread and let sit for 2 hours






4. 30 minutes before bread is ready, place a ceramic pot (or pyrex, or anything else that's at least 4 inches high, has a cover, and can withstand 450 degrees) in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees. (It's important to let it heat for all 30 minutes!)

5. When dough is ready, dump it out into the pot (if it's messy, no worries! Shake it out to make it even if you have to), COVER, and let bake for 30 minutes

6. Take off cover and let cook for another 15-30 minutes (15 was fine for me), until crust is nicely browned.

7. Take out and let cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting

***This totally stuck to the tea towel for me, and I had to scrape it off with my fingernails. The bread wasn't any worse off for it, but maybe if you want you could try to put a silicone baking pad or parchment paper underneath.

Easiest alfredo (ish) sauce ever

This makes for a very quick and easy meal; another one of those meals that's ready before the pasta has finished boiling!

You could make this REALLY easy and omit the mozzarella and parmasan!

I also added steamed broccoli to make it at least marginally nutritious, and I really recommend the addition. Actually, you can sneak pretty much any vegetables in here; I tried it with frozen spinach (excellent!) and peas (a little strong for my taste, but Murat liked it).

Ingredients:

3/4 lb. pasta
1 package (5.2 oz) boursin cheese (or allouette, not partial to brands)
1/2 cup milk (more or less, depending on how creamy you like it)
1 handful mozzarella cheese plus a couple T. parmesan (I used the 4 cheese pre-shredded Italian blend)
Pepper to taste

Crepes (dinner and dessert)

Most "Craperies" in this country use these crepes for dinner as well as dessert. Posh! These are very clearly dessert crepes. If you want to fill your crepes with dinnery things then see recipe below for savory crepes, better known as "galettes".

Ingredients

1 cup flour (125 g.)
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
(1/2 cup water)
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 T. melted butter
Butter for pan



Directions

1. Combine all ingredients except water in a blender; if it doesn't look runny enough, add up to 1/2 cup water



2. Ideally, let the blended ingredients sit in the fridge for an hour (it will tear less easily)

3. Place about a ladle full of batter onto the side of a lightly buttered pan over medium-high heat, then pick up the pan and swirl the batter around the pan until it covers the entire pan



4. When the top looks dry (and maybe a bit bubbly), turn the crepe over and lower the heat to medium (I find it easiest to use a rubber spatula and a burger flipper; if you can flip it in the pan by using the pan handle, more power to you)

Dry looking edges, a bit bubbly:



5. Here is when you should add butter and sugar if you are making butter/sugar crepes



DINNER CREPES (Galettes):

1/2 cup Buckwheat Flour
1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
3/4 - 1 cup Milk
2 Eggs
2 T. melted butter
1 tsp Salt
Water just in case (you want it to look like a runny batter)

You can also try 2/3 Buckwheat and 1/3 All-Purpose. Won't be as easy to work with but will have a stronger flavor.

Fill it with any savory fillings you want, but if you want to go for the classic galette, filling should include ham, egg, sauteed mushrooms (sauteed with say, olive oil, garlic, and white wine), and gruyere, or any combination thereof! Can also use turkey if you're husband is a zealot. *cough*

Don't forget to let it sit for an hour!