A Somewhat Exotic Meal

My friend Nancy asked if she could cook with me sometime, and last night we finally did it.

We were only four, so I tried not to go crazy. Just some spreads, soup, a main and dessert.

I love to share the method and quasi-recipe for my ricotta, sun-dried tomato and lemon zest spread, so that was one of the hors d'oeuvres. The other was more exotic, muhammara, a walnut and roasted pepper dip from Claudia Roden's Mediterranean. Both easy and delicious, served on crispy chips that I make from soft wheat tortillas.

Ricotta and sun-dried tomato spread; muhammara

Dinner started with tanabour, an Armenian barley and yogurt soup, using the recipe from Cook's Illustrated, September-October 2021. Tartness supplied by the yogurt and chewiness from the pearled barley, a nice combination.

Tanabour yogurt and barley soup

For the main, I made the same Palestinian upside down chicken, from the Milk Street Cookbook, that I made at Passover (see earlier post). A wonderful confection of chicken thighs, cauliflower florets, eggplant and abundant middle-eastern spices.

Palestinian upside-down chicken

For dessert I made my blueberry (and raspberry) tart from Food52 Genius, but since Nance was interested in working with puff pastry, I made a puff pastry crust rather than the ususal pâte sucrée. It came out great this way, and is even easier to make.

Blueberry and raspberry tart with puff pastry shell

It's fun to cook with friends

Bobby Jay

Passover 2015 - Mostly Sephardic Seder

Last year I totally revamped the menu for our family Seder, moving from traditional Askenazi dishes to Sephardic ones from a variety of countries. The new orientation was interesting and most of the dishes were successful. Planning for this year’s Seder, I confronted the question of which dishes to keep and which to change, and elected to stick with last year’s for the majority. My goal is eventually to arrive at a suite of dishes that everyone is excited to see again, year after year; continuity is, after all, what Passover is all about.

Thus I made artichoke tapenade and burnt eggplant with tahini and pomegranate seeds, as well lemon scented veal meatballs. I suppressed last year’s unsuccessful dried fava bean hummus and substituted pickled mushrooms from the renowned Bar Tartine. The fifth appetizer was gefilte fish from nearby Citarella, cut into bite-size morsels and served with my mother-in-law’s wonderful sinus-clearing horseradish.

Burnt eggplant with tahini and pomegranate seeds on endive leaves

Artichoke tapenade

Gefilte fish with homemade prepared horseradish

The Seder plate contains two prepared elements that I love: horseradish (made by my mother-in-law) and haroset (the one I made -- Joan Nathan's haroset from Bordeaux -- consists of dates, figs and nuts only – ironically, no wine).

For the dinner, I gave up the watercress and chickpea soup I made in 2014 and prevailed on my sister-in-law to make her great matzoh ball soup (not Separdic but why let purity deprive us of something great?). I made Syrian lemon and olive chicken (D'jah 'Limoneh) again and my cousin contributed a Moroccan lamb tagine with figs, ginger, carrots  and Moroccan spices for which I provided the recipe. For last year’s Turkish zucchini pie I substituted grilled asparagus with lemon zest and ricotta sprinkled on top. I repeated the divine Persian rice that was what inspired my “conversion” to Sephardism, with dill and edamame salad that makes an interesting accompaniment.

Persian rice with edamame and dill

Syrian lemon and olive chicken

Lamb tagine with ginger, carrots and Moroccan spices

Grilled asparagus with ricotta and lemon zest

I made a lot of changes for dessert, mostly for the worse I fear. Instead of last year’s wonderful flourless orange cake I made a perfectly good but not sensational nut-free fresh ginger and molasses cake and for last year’s --- I substituted a French style apple tart, the only real flop of the meal: matzoh flour just doesn’t make a good tart dough. My cousin contributed her excellent lemon squares, chocolate covered matzohs and chocolate chip cookies, as well as some store bought items. I jettisoned the sesame halva that I made in 2014: despite numerous attempts I never got the texture right.

Fresh ginger and molasses cake

French apple tart before it fell apart

Now for next year . . . . There would be a mutiny if I didn't make the meatballs, and the burnt eggplant is pretty compelling as I present it. Citarella’s gefilte fish is another definite keeper. But I will not repeat the artichoke tapenade or the picked mushrooms, and will be seeking worthy successors.

The haroset and horseradish are fine; no change needed. Similarly, the matzo ball soup. The Persian rice will stay, although I plan to accompany it with something other than the edamame dill salad. The Syrian chicken will appear again, but not so sure about the lamb tagine. J loved The grilled asparagus so I may repeat the dish but I think I can do better and remain on the hunt for a new vegetable dish.

Desserts will change, but I am not sure to what. A project for the next year.

Here are the sources for the dishes that made up the meal.

• Artichoke tapenade: David Lebovitz, My Paris Kitchen.
• Burnt eggplant with tahini and pomegranate seeds: Yotam Ottolenghi, Plenty.Pickled mushrooms: Nicholas Balla and Courtney Burns: Bar Tartine.
• Lemon scented veal meatballs: Mario Batali, foodnetwork.com.
• Heidi's matzoh ball soup: family reicpe
• Bordeaux style haroset: Joan Nathan, Quiches, Kugels and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France.
• Chicken with lemon and olives (Dja'jeh Zetoon b'Limoneh): Jennifer Abadi, A Fistful of Lentils.
• Lamb Tagine: cooking lesson at Ateliers des Chefs, Paris.
• Persian rice with edamame and dill: cooking lesson with Jennifer Ababi, Institute for Culinary education, for rice; Louisa Shafia, The New Persian Kitchen for edamame and dill (substituting edamame for favas).
• Grilled asparagus with ricotta: Yotam Ottolenghi, Plenty.
• Fresh ginger cake, David Lebovitz, Ready for Dessert.
• French style apple tart: America's Test Kitchen, TV Show Cookbook 2001-15.

Happy Passover!

Bobby Jay

Happy Nowruz! Persian Cooking Lesson

My friend Piglet and I recently took a lesson on Persian cooking at the Institute for Culinary Education (ICE). Our teacher was Jennifer Abadi, who teaches various types of Middle Eastern cooking and has written A Fistful of Lentils, on Syrian Jewish cuisine. (I have ordered a copy but haven't read it.)

I went specifically hoping to learn how to make Persian rice (chelo), which has a wonderful crispy crust and is one of the best dishes in the world. And so that's the dish I chose to make.

First, we washed and rinsed long grained rice (we used Basmati) about 5 times, until the water was absolutely clear. Then we boiled it in lots of salted water for about 7 minutes, and drained it thoroughly. Then we dried the pot and melted a lot of butter in it. Then we placed the rice on the butter, not stirring but poking steam holes in the rice.

We wrapped a towel around the cover and placed it over the pot, and simmered for about 20-25 minutes, until it pulled away from the side of the pot.

Rice pot with towel wrapped cover

Persian rice after simmering, pulling away from pot

Next, we cooked it over high heat for a minute to set the crust. Finally, we turned the pot upside down and there it was: the perfect chelo!

Perfect chelo

We added a sauce made of grated carrots, blanched orange zest, saffron and slice almonds, for a truly fantastic dish. (See picture below.)

Other dishes that the class made were a stupendous chicken soup with chickpea flour meatballs (Nimtaz Rafaelzadeh's Gondi), which Piglet made; red kidney bean dip with tomato paste, lime and angelica powder (Loobia Pokhteh); chopped cucumber salad with coriander, tarragon and mint leaves (Saladeh Serkeh Khlar); chicken stewed in walnuts and pomegranate juice (Fessenjan); cauliflower pie (Kuku-ye God-e Kalam) and pistachio cake with cardamom syrup.

Norwaz (Persian New Year's) feast (note sauced chelo at rear right)

A really fun lesson.

Bobby Jay