a touch of the exotic - maamouls cookies

I love running into something I've never eaten, let alone heard of - so I was delighted when my sister gifted me a box of these cookies from a small bakery in NH. (Betz Baking in Chesterfield, NH)
These are traditional cookies from the MidEast : popular in Syria, Lebanon, and Armenia. The dough is ( I think) made up and pressed into traditional wooden molds, then filled and topped. The dough is delicious : made up of butter , flour, farina, sugar, rose water, and mahlab (ground sour cherry pits); the fillings range from apricot puree, pistachio, date puree with cloves and whiskey, or a date puree with walnuts, cloves, and whiskey.
Wish I could get my hands on one of those molds - I would love to make a sweet potato pastry, or...hummm....marmalade with something like ricotta.
The heavy sprinkling of confectioner's sugar brings out that great detail from the mold - and whoever thought up ground sour cherry pits for part of the dough just astounds me.....

safe and warm at last! ( the ice storm)

What a long haul it's been - almost a week to the hour since the ice coated trees began crashing down across every road and highway across New Hampshire. Even days later, when I ventured out for candles and drinking water, the huge, 3 story trees lay across the road, resting on curls of wires and transformers. To pass, you waited, eyeing the wires, then the trees. You rolled your window down so you'd hear the crack as the wires and trees went down, and then gunned the car, just barely sneaking under the fallen trees, hearing the car antenna boing when it was just too close.

It's been tough, but all I can say to the hordes of public service workers, the guest volunteers from Florida, Oregon, and other states so far away who drove up to help, to the firemen and women, the Rescue departments - all volunteers, and gracious and hardworking. - THANK YOU! Now - off to wash dishes in WARM water and finally , maybe, get a good nights sleep.

Thank you all for sending good thoughts my way.

Katrina

An Update for Katrina

Hi everyone, Kelci Hedrick here, posting a quick note on behalf of Katrina.  If you've heard anything about the weather in New England lately, you're probably aware that Southern New Hampshire got hit hard by a major ice storm. It's expected that many residents in this area will have no power for several days, and Katrina is unfortunately one of those. 

She is told that she should have power to her home on Tuesday - in the meantime, she wanted her loyal readers to know why she's not creating any new posts or responding to your comments. 

I hope you are all warm and safe during this icy time of year. Sending best wishes to you all,

          - Kelci   

potato soup with crunchy scallions

I posted this back in summer, but this one has a slight variation for winter. As you know, I love anything potato, and with all the cookie and candy making going on for Christmas, this soup is just the right thing to be eating after "tasting" all those sweets - soothing, smooth, with a surprise of crunchy fresh scallions and the sweetness of dill.

To make:

2 cups large dice potatoes - red or white

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1/1/2 T. unsalted butter

3 cups water/chicken stock - I like it half to half, but you may prefer just stock.

1 t. dried dill

1/2 t. dried thyme

1/2 cup light cream

salt and freshly cracked pepper

2 T. sliced, very fresh scallions, trimmed - include both green and white parts

Serves two.

Melt butter in a pot and add the chopped onions.

Turn heat to low and cook, covered, for about ten minutes, or until soft.

Uncover and add the water and chicken stock, the thyme, potatoes, and salt and pepper.

Let cook uncovered until potatoes are soft.

Turn off heat and add the dill.

Using a blender or immersion blender, puree soup.

Add the cream and stir.

Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with sliced scallions.

Enjoy!

southern breakfast: silky collards and cornmeal cakes

I made a real Southern style lunch yesterday - with silky collards, cornmeal mush cakes - and even pralines - and ate it happily as I watched the snowflakes fall.

I spent several years in the South, and it remains part of my cooking ( and eating) history.

I never used to cook collards right. I'd rinse them, slice them up, and then briefly parboil them, wondering why they were a little too tough. Then I ate at Redbones BBQ in Cambridge, and tasted their silky collards flecked with hot pepper flakes and fatback and realized my mistake. You have to cook them a long time - about an hour is right, with plenty of fat - I use smoky bacon and salt pork or fatback.

My side was simply cornmeal mush cakes with fresh scallions and rosemary, cut into a disc.

To make:

A bunch of collards, rinsed and trimmed of stems ( I cut off the stems, then tear the collard leaves off the center stem on each leaf)

Up to 2 cups diced salt port and thick, smoky bacon

salt

hot pepper flakes

Place trimmed collards in a large pot.

Add water to just below the top of the collards.

Add the salt pork and bacon. hot pepper flakes, and some salt

Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cook for about an hour, covered, checking often and stirring the collards.

Pick out the diced fatback ( or some of it) place in microwave-safe dish, and cover with a paper towel. Microwave for 2 or 3 minutes and it will brown up.

Scoop the collards into bowls or mugs, add some of the cooking liquid, and top with some of the browned fatback.

Serve with hot sauce.

For cornmeal cakes:

2 cups water

3/4 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup chopped scallions and fresh rosemary

salt and pepper

parmesan cheese (optional)

Bring water to a boil in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Add salt , pepper, and herbs to boiling water, then slowly whisk in the cornmeal ( and cheese, if using).

Turn down heat and continue to stir until cornmeal is thick.

Pour onto a plate and cool.

When cool, cut cornmeal into discs and briefly reheat in microwave.

You can also skip the herbs and make plain cornmeal mush and serve the cakes with syrup - kids love it!

nick's christmas eve focaccia

This is Nick Malgieri's Christmas Eve focaccia - with a few changes, of course. I'll have to post the recipe later, since I'm running late and the computer is running sloooooow. Isn't it gorgeous?! Enjoy your day!

OK, I'm back. I found this post of Nick's here, and instantly went into the kitchen to try it out.

The dough was incredibly easy to make, and got to say, it's the best focaccia dough I've ever tasted. It's a keeper, for sure.

The topping was another matter. The recipe is based on an old Italian recipe from Bari, in Italy, and called for anchovies, onions, and olives. The anchovies I had were not those sweet little curls of little fishies, but more a mush when I turned them into the onion topping. Next time, I would not add the anchovies at all.

As I sauteed and tasted, I kept adding things that I felt honored the earthy taste of the topping - mushrooms ( not sauteed, but sliced in raw), then some scallions, then a little oil, then some rosemary and fresh pepper. Next time I might even add some bits of tomato and cheese - just a little.

I think this would be wonderful party food, as well as a brunch - or, well, breakfast? You make it in a jellyroll pan, so, cut up, that's lots of apps!

To make:

The dough:

4 cups King Arthur flour

a little salt

1 envelope dry yeast ( I use Rapid Rise)

1 2/3 cups warm water

3 T. olive oil

More olive oil for the jellyroll pan

One jellyroll pan or similar 11x17 inch pan, oiled with olive oil

Toppings:

1/3 cup olive oil

2 large onions, peeled, halved, and sliced thinly from stem to root end

fresh pepper

a little salt

1/2 cup oil or brine cured black olives, in halves or pieces

3 scallions, sliced thinly

6 or so raw white mushrooms, sliced medium

1 T. fresh rosemary

(1 tomato, diced - optional)

1/2 cup grated mozzarella - optional)

1 t. basil, dry, sprinkled over all

To make the dough:

Combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir.

Measure water into a small bowl.

Using a fork, mix yeast in warm water and olive oil and briskly whisk.

Make a well in the center of the flour and add the water/oil/yeast mixture.

Using a rubber spatula, scoop the flour into the wet mix until incorporated.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in barely warm oven ( I do this by turning on the oven for a minute, then turning off. Feel the rack to make sure it isn't too hot.)

Let dough rise to double - about an hour or so, depending on temperature.

Oil the baking pan, if you haven't yet.

Scoop dough into pan and spread out with your hands, until the dough covers the pan. This is a soft, easy to press, dough.

Place dough in turned off oven and let rise about a half hour.

While it's rising, prepare the topping.

Topping:

Pour half the olive oil into a large skillet and heat. Add the onions and cook slowly, but turn often. They should look golden to slightly charred, about 20 minutes or more.

Add the mushrooms and cook five minutes. Add the olives.

Add the scallions, rosemary, and pepper and turn off heat.

Take out the risen dough and dimple with your fingers. Spoon the topping over the dough and spread out evenly. Add the tomatoes, if using, and the cheese, if using. Drizzle with the rest of the olive oil. Sprinkle with the basil and a little salt.

Place in preheated 425F oven and cook for 30 minutes.

Absolutely the best! Enjoy!

fresh apple pancakes - dairy free!

These pancakes have always been our special breakfast - or even sometimes dinner on a snowy evening. They're loaded with fresh, diced apples, a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg, and are deliciously thick and fairly small, just the way we like them. I usually serve them with a blueberry sauce ( for my son, who didn't like maple syrup) and warm maple syrup for the rest of us. So when I started to make them this morning, a little bell started banging in my head. Why not try soymilk instead of milk? The same son recently discovered he had painful reactions to dairy suddenly - I had never tried an alternative, but what the heck. So I did. Imagine my surprise when they tasted exactly the same!

So here you go - a fantastic pancake recipe that will work both ways.

To make:

about 3 apples, peeled and diced small

1 egg

1 cup milk or soymilk ( I used Silk Plain)

3 T. unsalted butter, melted in skillet ( or vegetable oil or butter substitute)

1 1/2 cups King Arthur flour

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. cinnamon

1/8 t. nutmeg

2 T. sugar

Beat the egg, butter or oil, and milk or soymilk together in a bowl.

Add the diced apples.

Add the flour, sugar, spices, and baking powder and stir well.

In skillet or griddle set on medium low, add a teaspoon of butter or oil to pan.

Let pan heat evenly, then scoop out batter with a ladle - mine holds about 3/4 cup of batter - and make two medium pancakes.

Allow pancakes to cook for about 4 minutes, or until you see little bubbles on the sides and top of the pancakes, then flip and let cook another 4 minutes. Because of the apple, they need to cook at a lower temperature than regular pancakes. Check to make sure they're not charring.

Remove pancakes to a platter, then add a little more butter or oil, then more batter - and so on.

This should be enough for 8 fat pancakes.

If you have a griddle that will cook more pancakes than two at a time evenly, by all means try.

Serve with warm maple syrup, honey, jam, or blueberry sauce.

Blueberry Sauce:

1 cup frozen blueberries

squeeze lemon juice

2 T. orange juice

1 T. honey or sugar

Simmer until it makes a thin, fruity sauce.

Enjoy the snow!

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