Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Quince Granita

Recipe Source: Batmanglij, Najmieh.  Silk Road Cooking.  Mage Publishers, Washington DC, 2004 p. 267

My in-laws came for a visit over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Of course, they live at some distance from us and therefore stayed a few nights at a nearby hotel.  They were extremely helpful in minding the Fearless Baby while I was preparing for Thanksgiving.  Naturally, they needed something to eat while they were here.  I needed to clear some fridge space, since half my fridge is taken up by quinces at this point.  My in-laws are very abstemious eaters and specifically requested that I serve something extremely light the night before Thanksgiving.  They also believe that eating fruit after a meal aids digestion and prevents the phenomenon known as "food coma."  I figured that I might as well have some fun and use some of my quinces.

As it turns out quinces have a special place in my father-in-law's heart.  He grew up in rural Greece and likes to tell stories about quince orchards stretching as far as the eye could see, where you could just reach out and grab them at will.  (If the owner of said orchard is reading this, I'm pretty sure that the statute of limitations has long since run out.)  I was happy to be able to bring back a few of those memories for him.

I made a few changes to the recipe, as well you might expect.  I used more quinces than originally called for.  Squeezing the quinces as instructed in the recipe did not yield enough juice for the recipe.  Fortunately I had anticipated this and reserved the water in which the quinces were cooked.  I added a little cardamom to the recipe and I replaced the rosewater with orange flower water.  I'm a huge fan of rosewater personally, but I know that not everyone shares my passion.  Orange flower water seems to be perceived as less cloying.  The results were a big hit.  Everyone seems to have enjoyed the granita, which was a refreshing way to end a meal.

Quince Granita (serves 6 generously; approx. $1.54/serving)

2 pounds quinces, washed, cored and sliced

6 cups water

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise and scraped

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 tablespoon orage flower water

Equipment:

• Ice cream maker
• Fine strainer
• Saucepan
• Container with lid
• Cheesecloth
• Colander
• Bowl

1. Tie the quince slices up in the cheesecloth and put them in the saucepan.
2. Add six cups water.  Bring to a boil.
3. Cover, reduce heat and cook 1 hour.
4. Drain the pot, reserving the cooking liquid.
5. Set the colander over the bowl.  Put the quinces in their cheesecloth into the colander and allow them to drip into the bowl until they are cool enough to handle.
6. When they are cool enough to handle, squeeze the bundle with your hands to extract as much juice as possible.  Ultimately you want to end up with 4 cups of juice.  If you cannot get 4 cups of juice out of your quinces, top it off with the reserved cooking liquid.
7. Return the juice to the pan.  Add the vanilla, cardamom and lime juice along with the sugar.
8. Heat gently and stir constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved.
9. Transfer to a container with a lid.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.
10. When you are ready to finish the granita, strain the contents of the container into the bowl of your ice-cream maker.  Add the orange flower water.
11. Churn according to the manufacturer's instructions - mine was 25 minutes.
12. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze until ready to eat.

Recipe: Zucchini and Peach Roast

Recipe Source: Başan, Ghillie. The Complete Book of Turkish Cooking. Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 140

This book has not been in my library for a while. It's been by the side of a bed in another room, one I don't use much lately. I clearly dozed off while preparing a menu one day. At any rate, I came across it while I was in that room after my non-vacation and started flipping through it. I opened up to this page and I knew that I absolutely, positively had to have this. I'm not entirely sure why. I think it was the idea of using peaches in a savory application – I love fruit but don't care for fruity desserts. I made it for our very next Sunday open house.

I did make a few changes as I am wont to do. I omitted the pine nuts, for starters. Our pediatrician wants us to be exceptionally careful about exposing the Fearless Baby to allergens for a while since I have so many food allergies – apparently it's not the allergies themselves that are inherited but the tendency to have a food allergy. Nuts are sufficiently allergenic to be on the list, apparently, so I left them out. I increased the number of peaches because the peaches I had were delicious but tiny and the number of tomatoes on general principles. I increased the garlic slight and used different peppers – peppers that came from my farm share.

This was delicious. I think it could have been more delicious, I'm not entirely sure how, but I still enjoyed this dish and would make it again in a heartbeat.

Zucchini and Peach Roast (serves 12; approx. $1.48/serving)

2 zucchini, semi-peeled (optional) and chopped

2 bell peppers, seeded and sliced

4 tablespoons olive oil

8 plum tomatoes, chopped

3 pounds peaches, chopped and pitted

1 32-oz tub Greek yogurt

5 – 6 garlic cloves, crushed

3 ounces lemon juice

Equipment:

• Roasting pan

1. Preheat your oven to 400 ̊.
2. Combine the peppers and zucchini in your roasting pan. Drizzle with the oil.
3. Bake 20 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes and peaches. Toss to combine, then bake another 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, combine the yogurt with the garlic and lemon juice and set aside.
6. Transfer the vegetables to your serving vessel. Pass the sauce alongside.

Recipe: Goat Cheese Turnovers

Recipe Source: Patent, Greg. A Baker's Odyssey. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, 2007 pp. 130 – 1.

Our Sunday open houses cater to a wide variety of people, but most of them are doing some sort of vigorous exercise before dinner. That can get uncomfortable, especially once the mercury rises. While most of us are trying to reduce the salt in our diets at times like these salt is essential. I wanted to have something ready for our guests as soon as they came in from the field, something that contained carbs and protein and salt for them. These turnovers, which were originally supposed to contain feta instead of regular goat cheese, fit the bill perfectly in my mind.

Unfortunately, sometimes when you're trying to reduce spending you have to make sacrifices. We are trying, like everyone else I think, to reduce our expenditures. I'd been doing pretty well so far this year but May kind of blew my budget out of the water. (We did a LOT of entertaining and cooking in May.) I've found a grocery store that doesn't make me curse but still usually comes in cheaper than Whole Foods. The tradeoff is that they don't always have everything I want. This week they were lacking in good feta. Fortunately I had some goat cheese left over from a previous recipe. It wasn't as salty as I would have liked but that's okay – it used up some of what was in the fridge, and the weather was downright chilly anyway.

The other change I made was to reduce the amount of dill (it had gone bad in the days leading up to this recipe, to my infinite annoyance). I made up for it with some marjoram, which I had on hand and which I like better anyway. As a side note, while this was not intended to be Fearless Baby food, she loved these turnovers and I think she might have eaten the majority of them.

Goat Cheese Turnovers (makes about 35 turnovers, approx. $0.24/serving)

3 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup olive oil

1 stick butter, melted

½ cup Greek yogurt – full-fat works best

1 egg

10 ounces goat cheese

Kosher salt to taste

¼ bunch dill, finely chopped

1 bunch marjoram leaves, finely chopped

2 eggs

2 egg yolks, beaten with 1 teaspoon water

Equipment:

• Two large bowls
• Zip-top plastic bag
• Pastry brush
• Baking sheets

1. Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in one of the bowls.
2. Whisk together the oil, butter, yogurt and egg. Add to the dry ingredients and stir well until the dough gathers into a mass.
3. Knead the dough briefly by hand, then transfer to a zip-top plastic bag. Let it rest 1 – 2 hours at room temperature, or overnight in the refrigerator. If you must refrigerate, let it come back up to approximate room temperature before proceeding.
4. Combine the goat cheese, salt, herbs and 2 eggs in the other bowl.
5. Portion the dough out into 35 roughly equal pieces.
6. Preheat your oven to 350 ̊.
7. Use your hands to flatten out a piece of dough. Fill with a small amount of filling, seal and lay it out on the baking sheets. Repeat until all the dough is used up.
8. Brush with the egg yolk mixture and bake 30 minutes, rotating once.
9. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe: Hazelnut Dip

Recipe Source: Helou, Anissa. Mediterranean Street Food. William Morrow, New York, 2002 p. 70

This is the second of the dips I made for my daughter's birthday a couple weeks ago. Fearless Baby is not yet allowed to eat hazelnuts, but I wanted to provide my guests with something a little unusual and exciting. FB wasn't going to eat the dip anyway; giving any kind of dip to a one-year-old would make cleanup much, much more difficult. I made a few changes of course. I increased the amount of garlic because one clove was simply not going to cut it. I doubled the recipe of course, and I increased the lemon juice ever so slightly. I also used gluten-free breadcrumbs. One of our guests has celiac disease and while the chances of her actually eating hazelnut dip were pretty limited I wanted to eliminate the possibility of cross-contamination. I don't think the gluten-free breadcrumbs had a negative effect on the finished product by any stretch of the imagination, and the dip tasted particularly good with celery.

Hazelnut Dip (serves about 8; approx. cost per serving not available)

3 cups whole shelled hazelnuts

1 ½ cups (approx.) gluten-free breadcrumbs

4 garlic cloves, peeled

1 1/3 cups olive oil

Juice of 3 ½ lemons

Kosher salt to taste

Boiling water

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• Immersion blender

1. Put the hazelnuts in the bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside 1 hour.
2. Drain the hazelnuts and return them to the bowl.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and process to a coarse paste with the immersion blender.
4. Serve.

Recipe: Cauliflower with Yogurt-Garlic Sauce

Recipe Source: Wolfert, Paula. The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, 2003 p. 244

As winter's grip becomes ever more vice-like it becomes harder and harder to find fresh vegetables that have any flavor. While cauliflower is really more of an early-summer vegetable, it's possible to get perfectly good fresh cauliflower during the winter. Indeed, in my head it's really a winter food. We never ate much of it growing up, but now that I'm older I'm learning to enjoy the stuff. I served this when we decorated our Christmas tree as a side dish. I was pleasantly surprised to note that there was really very little left!

I made a few changes as usual. I increased the garlic by quite a lot. I didn't have kasseri or manchego, but I did have pecorino Romano – a different sheep's milk cheese. I used cilantro instead of parsley and added coriander, cumin and white pepper to the mix.

Cauliflower with Yogurt-Garlic Sauce (serves 4; approx. $3.06/serving)

1 cauliflower

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 cup Greek yogurt – I used 2% because that's what I could get

8 garlic cloves, crushed

Kosher salt to taste

3 eggs

6 ounces grated pecorino Romano cheese

4 tablespoons lemon juice

½ tablespoon white pepper

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

½ tablespoon ground cumin

¼ tablespoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons olive oil

Equipment:

• Steamer
• Small bowl
• Larger bowl
• Very large bowl
• Oven-to-table serving dish – I used a pie plate

1. Combine the cauliflower, vinegar and water to cover in the very large bowl. Let soak 5 minutes.
2. Steam the cauliflower – whole – until tender. This will take about 7 minutes. Be very careful not to overcook and make the cauliflower mushy – you will cook it further later.
3. Chill the cauliflower, then cut into florets with a small amount of stem attached.
4. At least 1 hour before serving, combine the yogurt, garlic, salt, cumin and coriander in the small bowl. Let stand at room temperature.
5. Preheat the oven to 425 ̊.
6. Put the eggs in the third bowl and beat until well mixed.
7. Add the cheese, lemon juice, cilantro and white pepper. Mix well.
8. Oil the baking dish.
9. Arrange the florets in the baking dish, dipping each floret into the egg mixture before placing in the dish.
10. When all the florets are arranged as you like them, spread the rest of the egg mixture over the top of them.
11. Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs, drizzle with the oil and bake 20 minutes or until golden.
12. Serve, with the yogurt sauce passed alongside.

Recipe: Yogurt and Cayenne Dip (Acili Esme)

Recipe Source: Wright, Clifford A. Little Foods of the Mediterranean. Harvard Common Press, Boston, 2003 pp. 56-7

I served this dip at our Fourth of July party and I have got to tell you that I have rarely seen such an easy dish to make. Seriously – it just doesn't get any easier than this. You might be thinking, "Oh, cayenne. I can't serve that to guests, their mouths will catch fire, my drapes will ignite, there goes the house." Well, that's not the case. The yogurt really mitigates the heat of the cayenne, leaving only flavor behind. Even my most capsaicin-challenged guests were able to eat this. It was probably the most popular dip I served that day, much to my surprise.

I did make a few changes. I used all Greek yogurt instead of a mix of regular and strained. I omitted the dill and the olive oil. I also served it with crackers and carrots instead of with French bread. The scallions went into the dip instead of as a garnish. And as usual I increased the garlic. Again, this was much, much more popular than the other dips I served that day.

Yogurt and Cayenne Dip (Açili Esme) (Makes about 8 servings; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

12 garlic cloves

2 ¼ cups fat-free Greek yogurt

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 scallions, sliced

Equipment:

• Mini-prep mini food processor
• Bowl

1. Combine the garlic and salt in the mini-prep and process to a coarse paste.
2. Scrape the contents of the mini-prep into a bowl and combine thoroughly with the remaining ingredients. Serve.

Recipe: Artichokes with Beans and Almonds

Recipe Source: Başan, Ghillie. The Complete Book of Turkish Cooking. Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 134

Here we go with another backlogged recipe. This recipe was kind of a different treatment of artichokes. Pretty much the whole top of the artichoke gets discarded. This was great for my compost heap. The frugal shopper in me kind of gasped at the amount of waste, though, and I didn't enjoy this so much that I would make it again. I made a few changes, like reducing the olive oil and omitting the sugar. It wasn't bad, and my husband liked it, but he's an artichoke fan. I'm not sure that I can recommend it, given the amount of waste, but if you happen to really love artichokes and want to do something with them I guess here you go.

Artichokes with Beans and Almonds (serves 4; approx. cost per serving not available)

4 large artichokes

2 cups fava beans, shelled and cooked

2 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of one lemon

¾ cup toasted almonds

1 bunch dill, chopped

14 oz diced canned tomatoes

Equipment:

• Large bowl of acidulated water
• Large sauté pan with lid

1. Prepare your artichokes: Trim the stalk and make it even. Pull off all the leaves. Dig out the choke and cut out the base into a nice neat cup. Drop into a large bowl of acidulated water. Repeat with the remaining artichokes.
2. Put the artichokes in the sauté pan.
3. Combine the oil, lemon juice and ¼ cup water and pour over the artichokes.
4. Cover and gently poach 20 minutes.
5. Add the beans and almonds. Cover and cook another 10 minutes.
6. Add half the dill. Season to taste and turn off the heat.
7. Remove the artichokes from the pan and arrange on a serving platter.
8. Combine the tomatoes with the pan mixture, then heap into the cups. If there is any of the pan mixture that does not fit into the cups, serve it on the side.

Recipe: Saj Borek

Recipe Source: Helou, Anissa. Mediterranean Street Food. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2002 pp. 92-3

I honestly didn't believe this recipe would work. I looked at the recipe for the dough, and then at the instructions, and I said, "There is just no way." Still, it looked delicious, and it looked like it would be good finger food, so I decided to try it. Much to my delight it worked just fine. What's more, I needed to make this ahead of time. I was worried about the dough getting too sticky and disgusting overnight in the refrigerator, but a quick trip to the oven at 400 ̊returned the dough almost to perfect original crispness. I wound up having more people than expected for dinner that Sunday, so I cut the boreks in half and served them that way. They were a real hit.

I did make a few changes. I doubled the recipe and I used frozen spinach for the sake of convenience. I also added some spices to the filling. I did this because the filling just looked a little bland to me. I asked myself, "What can I do here?" and the spices just kind of fell out of the cabinet. Again, people really seem to have enjoyed these, so I guess I did something right.

Saj Borek (serves 16 as an hors d'oeuvre; approx. $0.60/serving)

2 cups flour, plus more for rolling

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup water

1 ½ cups crumbled feta cheese – use high quality feta here, preferably not from a cow

4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

½ pound frozen chopped spinach, thawed

¼ teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Pinch kosher salt

About 10 grinds fresh-ground cubeb

1 stick butter, melted

Equipment:

• Rolling pin
• Stand mixer
• Large bowl
• Large frying pan – I used a nonstick pan I had, and it worked well.

1. Combine the flour, teaspoon of salt and the water in the bowl of your stand mixer. Knead until the dough is firm and smooth.
2. Separate the dough into 8 pieces, roll into balls and let rest 30 minutes.
3. In the large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. I found mixing with my hands worked best.
4. Flour your work surface and roll out a circle of dough as thin as you can. The 12-inch diameter specified in the recipe seems ambitious, but pastry was never my strong suit.
5. Put about 1/8 of the spinach mixture into the center of the dough.
6. Fold two ends of the circle in toward the middle just a bit, then roll the dough to form something that looks a bit like an egg roll. Set aside and repeat with the remaining dough.
7. Heat the frying pan over medium heat. Do NOT grease the pan.
8. Cook about a minute per side, until the dough is crisp. Repeat until all your rolls are finished.
9. I cut them in half, arranged them on the platter and poured melted butter over them just before serving. You can also brush them with the butter as directed in the original, but that's harder to do if you've cut them in half.

Recipe: Lamb Chops in Garlic Tomato Sauce

Recipe Source: Basan, Ghillie.  The Complete Book of Turkish Cooking.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 204

The weather in New England can be kind of weird.  The temperature can go from mild and sunny to stormy and damp to icy and dry in three days (sometimes even less.)  When I made this, early in March, the weather was cold and damp and kind of unpleasant.  A few days later we got a spell of bright warm sunshine, which makes me feel a little silly talking about this hearty, meaty, delicious dish.  To be quite honest I would probably enjoy this just as much in the heat of August as I did in chilly damp March. 

I did make a few changes.  I omitted the butter out of respect for my husband's preferences.  I changed the cut of lamb chop, using shoulder blade chops instead, because they were considerably less expensive.  I increased the number of chiles, omitted the sugar (because if my grandmother caught me putting sugar into anything with tomatoes she'd pinch me), and increased the amount of garlic by a whole lot. 

Lamb Chops in Garlic Tomato Sauce (serves 4; approx. $4.07/serving)

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 lamb shoulder blade chops

1 onion, finely chopped

3 serrano chiles, finely chopped

8 garlic cloves, crushed

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes (use 2-3 fresh in season)

1 green bell pepper, finely chopped

Oregano, kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large, deep saute pan or pot

1. Heat the oil in the pan.  Brown the lamb chops on both sides, then remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Add the onion, serranos and garlic.  Fry gently until the onion begins to brown. 
3. Add the vinegar, bay leaf, green pepper and tomatoes.  Lower the heat and simmer 30 minutes. 
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Return the lamb to the pan.  Make sure it is completely covered in the sauce.  Cook until the meat is tender, about 15 minutes.
6. Transfer to a serving platter, cover in sauce, sprinkle with oregano and serve. 

Recipe: City-Style Artichokes

Recipe Source: Goldstein, Joyce.  Taverna.  Sunset Books, Menlo Park, 1996 p. 61

Artichokes are one of those foods that I always feel guilty about.  I feel guilty because while I should like them - they're very popular in the Mediterranean, they're healthy, they're not cabbage - I just don't.  I've had some preparations, such as the Sauteed Artichoke Hearts with Lemon I did for Easter, that I don't actually dislike, but for the most part it seems like too much work for too little reward.  Just getting the darned things to an edible state is more of a challenge than I'm usually looking for.  Unfortunately for me, artichokes are one of my husband's favorite vegetables.  I'm quite fond of the man - we've been married for five years, after all - so sometimes I get this strange urge to cook artichokes for him.  This dish was born from that sinister urge.

I did make a few changes.  I reduced the amount of oil, for one.  For another, I used frozen peas instead of fava beans (okay, that was suggested by the book, but still).  That was really it.  The flavor was actually pretty decent.  I'm not entirely sure that I understand the purpose of the flour here, but I added it all the same.  It does make quite a lot of food - the book says four to six, but I'd say four to six if you've just survived a year in the jungle with no food but bananas to sustain you.  Otherwise, you can easily get eight to ten servings of this as a side dish.  We did.  We sent the leftovers home with two of our guests, who assured us that they lasted a good two weeks with no loss of taste or quality.  The fact that this is served at room temperature makes this a great make-ahead dish for entertaining.

City-Style Artichokes (serves 8; approx. $1.77/serving)

Juice of two lemons

3 tablespoons flour

6 large artichokes

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

8 scallions

3 carrots, peeled and diced

2 large white boiling potatoes, diced

1 cup frozen peas

1/2 bunch chopped fresh dill

Salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large bowl, and I'm not kidding
• Good sharp paring knife
• Large saute pan

1. Fill the large bowl with cold water and the juice of two lemons.  Add the flour.
2. Snap off the tough outer leaves of the artichoke.
3. Using the paring knife, trim the dark green bits from the base and the stem. 
4. Cut the artichoke into quarters lengthwise and cut out the chokes.
5. Trim off the top 1/3 of the artichoke.
6. Drip the bits into the water.  This prevents discoloration.
7. When you've prepped all the artichokes, heat the olive oil in the saute pan.
8. Add the onion.  Saute until softened.
9. Add the scallions and carrots.  Saute until tender, another 5 minutes.
10. Add the artichokes (sans water), potatoes and enough hot water to cover the vegetables. 
11. Cover and cook over low heat about 15 minutes.
12. Add the peas.  Cover and cook another 10 minutes. 
13. Season to taste.  Remove from heat and serve at room temperature.