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!