"Dangerous Liaisons" Lemon Tart

I was a theater major in high-school, and for our final exam we mounted a rather ambitious production of "Dangerous Liaisons". Putting on this production was months of work, and at one point all of the cast and crew met up for a fancy picnic to work on the play (we were all kind of foodies as well as theater people). I don't remember all of the details, but I remember that we stayed up half the night preparing goodies for this picnic, and the queen of the goodies was this beautiful, summery lemon tart.

I seem to recall that we got the original recipe from a newspaper clipping which I no longer have. What I do still have is the recipe itself, which still appears in my notebook as the "Dangerous Liaisons Lemon Tart". It consists of a delicate and crispy tart shell, filled with a tangy lemon custard - a very different experience to the sweeter and more assertive lemon meringue pie.

As always, I made mine GF using a good flour mix (any mix will do), and in fact, using GF flour with short pastry means not having to worry so much about over-mixing, because there's no gluten to develop.

A Note on Eggs: the pie is not baked after the custard is put in, so the only heat the eggs get are by mixing over the double boiler. For food safety reasons, you want to make sure that your mixture reach a temperature of at least 72 C/160 F. It's best to use a food/candy thermometer for this, but if you don't have one then at least make sure that when you touch the mixture in the middle of the bowl it is uncomfortable hot to the touch. For me this coincided with the time the custard reached the correct consistency.

This recipe uses several egg yolks. If you don't want to waste the whites, why not try this recipe for chocolate-filled meringue cookies? 

"Dangerous Liaisons" Lemon Tart

Ingredients (for 28 cm/11 inch tart tin):

For the Crust: 

- 2 cups all purpose flour (gf is fine) 

- 1/3 cup sugar 

- grated zest from one lemon 

- 175 grams/6 oz cold butter, cubed 

- 1 egg yolk 

- 3 tbsp ice water 

For the Filling: 

- 4 eggs 

- 4 egg yolks 

- 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (this is about 4 small lemons or 3 large ones, but may be more or less depending on how juice the lemons are)

- 3/4 cup white sugar 

- grated zest from two lemons 

- 100 grams/3.5 oz butter, room temperature and cut into small cubes 

Preparation: 

1. Dough: Put the flour, sugar and zest in a food processor bowl and mix briefly to combine . Add the cold butter and process until the mixture resembles little dough crumbs. (If you don't have  a food processor, you can do this by hand by cutting the butter into small cubes and then rubbing them into the flour with your fingers) Add the yolk and the cold water and mix just until the dough forms big clumps. Do NOT over mix. Combine a bit by hand, flatten to a round disc, wrap and chill for 30 minutes in the fridge. 

2. Preheat oven to 175 c/350 f. Lightly grease a 28 inch tart/pie tin.  On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to about a 30 cm/12 inch round, then flip onto the prepared tin. Press gently into the tin and trim any edged. Pierce the dough with a fork, then freeze, covered, for 15 minutes. (The cooling and freezing stages ensure that the butter is cold, ensuring a flaky, crispy shell)

3. Remove the dough from the freezer, cover with a sheet of baking parchment and top with dried beans or a baking weight. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden-brown. Remove the parchment and cool completely. 

4. Prepare the filling: in a medium metal or heat-proof glass bowl whisk together the eggs and the yolks using a wire whisk. Gradually add the lemon juice, whisking as you go. Then add the sugar and lemon zest and whisk until you have an even mixture. 

5. Take a medium pot sized so that the bowl can comfortably sit atop it without touching the bottom. Fill with a little bit of water and bring the water to a boil. With the pot still on the stove, place the bowl onto the pot and whisk, constantly, until the mixture reaches a thick custard consistency and is very warm to the touch (or measures 72 c/160 f with a food thermometer). 

6. Remove from heat, and begin whisking in the butter cubes, one by one, until each is completely incorporated into the mixture. Pour the filling into the cold shell. Gently tilt the pie to either side to smooth the custard and make sure if fully fills the tin. Refrigerate until the filling is set, about 4-5 hours. 

Rich Persian Soup with Spinach, Legumes and Herbs

I first fell in love with Ash Reshteh - a thick soup with herbs,legumes and noodles - as a teen. My family briefly lived in Southern California, and we regularly ate this stunning dish at our local Persian restaurant. Over the years I've found lots of recipes for it, but I've never tried them, in part because I couldn't get my hands on Reshteh - Persian noodles - and wasn't sure if other types of noodles would have the same fabulous texture.

It's been cold and rainy out here, so a few days ago I found myself googling "vegetarian winter recipes", and came across this list, which has lots of interesting ideas. Among them was this recipe
which is based on Ash Reshteh, but has no noodles in it. With the lentils, beans, and chickpeas, it's still incredibly filling and satisfying, with a nice sour undertone that cuts through the richness.  My version is a bit simpler with the garnishes, but otherwise much the same as the original.

 If you still want the extra comforting texture of noodles, I would throw them in a bit before adding the greens, and let them cook with the lentils and beans for a few minutes.

This soup is naturally GF. If you want it to be vegan, just skip the yogurt/buttermilk at the end. If you prefer a thinner texture, or if the soup thickens up after being in the fridge, just add some more water at the end.

Note: The dried beans need to be soaked overnight, or for at least 8 hours, before making this soup, so plan ahead. You can soak the beans and chickpeas together.

Rich Persian Soup with Spinach, Legumes, and Herbs 

Ingredients: 
For the Soup: 
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil (sunflower, canola, or other neutral flavor)
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated
-  1/2 cup dried beans (the original recipe calls for navy  beans. I used a multi-colored bean mix, soaked overnight and drained
- 1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and drained
- 1/2 cup green lentils, rinsed
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 8 cups cold water
- 5 oz (about 140 grams) fresh baby spinach, chopped
- 1 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
- 1 cup parsley, chopped
- 1/2 cup dill, chopped
-  2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- Salt and Pepper

For the Garnish (optional):
 - 3 tbsp vegetable oil (do NOT skimp on the oil here, or the onions will burn rather than fry)
- 1 large onion, sliced into thin rings
- Greek yogurt or Buttermilk or a mixture of both.

Preparation:
Soup

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft and golden. Do not over-heat, as the onion will burn.

2. Add the garlic, beans, and chickpeas (but not the lentils!) and season with the turmeric. Stir for a minute or two until you can start to smell the garlic cooking. Add the water, mix, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat so the soup is simmering, and cook, uncovered, for about 35 minutes.

3. Add the lentils, and continue to cook, uncovered, for another 25-35 minutes, or until the lentils are tender and the beans are creamy-soft but don't lose their shape.  I found it helpful to add some salt and pepper at this point, as it was unpleasant to taste the beans unseasoned. At this point you should have a very thick mixture, closer to stew than soup. 

4. Add in the spinach and the herbs, and cook for 4-6 minutes, until the greens have wilted. The water released from the greens should bring the whole thing back to the texture of a thick soup. Add in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

Onion Garnish: 
5. In a pan, heat up the oil over medium-high heat, and add in the onion rings. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion turns golden, then lower the heat to a medium, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is lightly charred and crispy.

To serve: 6. Plate each portion of soup in a bowl, drizzle some yogurt or buttermilk into the bowl, and top with the crispy onions.

Enjoy!

Scones with Home-Made Clotted Cream

I admit, I love a good British high tea. Finger sandwiches and elegant little cakes make me happy, but above all I can't resist a perfect scone, served with strawberry jam and fresh clotted cream.

For those who don't know it, clotted cream tastes like something of a hybrid between butter and whipped cream. It's rich, creamy, spreadable, but not sweet (hence the jam). In some places you can get store-bought packaged versions of it, but those are usually much less creamy and quite disappointing. I've tried making it at home before, but without success. So when a colleague recently posted about her luck making clotted cream at home using a method I hadn't tried before, I knew I had to try it, and it came out perfect!

Since I had clotted cream, I also had to make scones. I used this recipe as my guideline.  The ones you see in the picture are gluten free, made with a good quality all purpose GF flour. If you have one you can trust, give it a try.

Note: the clotted cream takes at least 20 hours to make, so make sure you plan ahead with it!

Scones with Home-Made Clotted Cream 

Clotted Cream (makes about 3/4 cup): 

Ingredient: 
-1.5 cup of heavy cream (try to find one that is not ultra-pasteurized, if you can)

Preparation: 
1.  Preheat your oven to a high temperature, about 190 C/374 F. When the oven is fully heated TURN IT OFF. We will be using the residual heat from the oven to make the cream.

2. Pour the heavy cream into a flat oven-safe dish. You want to have as much surface area as possible. Place the cream into the (turned-off!) oven, and leave it there for 12 hours (overnight is easiest). The cream should develop a weird-looking skin, and you may notice some separation of liquid. This is good.

3.  Carefully remove the dish from the oven, cover (e.g with cling wrap), and place in the refrigerator for 8 hours.

4.  Carefully skim the cream into a bowl. You essentially want to separate the harder, buttery top from the liquid in the bottom. Stir well until the skin is mixed into the cream.

5. At this point you will have clotted cream, but it may have some slightly harder bits in it because of the leftover skin. You can use the cream like this, if you like it. However, if you want to be a really perfect creamy texture, take a very fine sieve, and push the cream through the sieve to get rid of the chunkier bits. It's a bit of work to get all of the cream through, but well worth it!

Scones (makes 9 good-size scones):

Ingredients: 

 - 2 cups / 225 grams self-raising flour, or all purpose flour + 2 tsp of baking powder (if you have good all-purpose GF flour, you can use that).  
 
- pinch of salt

-  3.5 tbsp/ 55 grams  cold butter

-  2 tbsp/ 25 grams white sugar

- 3/4 cup / 150 ml milk

- 1 egg, beaten 


Preparation: 

1. Preheat oven to 220c/425 f. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease it.

2. Pour the flour into a large bowl and combine with the salt. Dice the butter into small dice, and add to the bowl. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour. The mixture should start to become crumbly and look a bit like sand.

3. Stir in the sugar and the milk until the mixture is just combined into a dough. It's very important not to over-work scones, or they won't rise properly.  You should get a dough that is soft and a little bit sticky. If it's too dry and crumbly, add a bit more milk, 1 tsp at a time. If it's too sticky then add a bit more flour, but be careful not to add to much flour or the dough will become hard.

4. Lightly flour a surface and turn the dough onto it. Knead very lightly (again, do not overwork!), and form a round, about 2 cm/ 3/4 inch thick.  Use a 5 cm/2 in cookie cutter (or a round glass) to cut out the scones and place on the lined baking sheet. It's best to use a sharp cutter and to cut firmly in one quick movement ,as too much messing around with the edges tends to seal them, which prevents rising. Take any left-over dough and gently knead it back into a round to cut some more scones.

5. Brush the tops of the scones with the beaten egg, and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until risen and golden.  Allow to cool on a wire rack, and serve with clotted cream and good jam.

Enjoy!

Creamy Pasta with Roasted Peppers and Tomatoes

This great recipe happens to be vegan, but still has an immensely satisfying rich creaminess that would please even the hardiest dairy-lover. This is achieved by drizzling the olive oil in while the food processor is running, as well as by the nuts.

Creamy Pasta with Roasted Peppers and Tomatoes

Ingredients (for 3-4 portions): 

- 250 grams/1/2 lb dried pasta of your choice (or the equivalent in fresh pasta)
- 3 medium tomatoes
- 2 red bell peppers
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 cup nuts (almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts will work)
- 1/4 cup good quality olive oil, plus extra for roasting
- Salt and pepper
- Grated Parmesan (optional) 

Preparation:

1. Heat an oven to 200 C/400 F.  Slice tomatoes in half and place them round side down in a baking dish. Cut the peppers and remove the seeds and "ribs". place them, skin side up, in the same baking dish. Add the garlic cloves as well. Drizzle olive oil over all of the vegetables and lightly season with salt. Place the baking dish in the oven and roast the vegetables until the skin of the peppers is blackened and puffy. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

2. Set a pot of salted water to boil for the pasta.

3. When the vegetables have cooled enough to touch, carefully remove the skins from the tomatoes and the peppers (it's okay if you can't get every last bit of skin off), and place them in a food processor. Peel the garlic cloves and add them as well.

4. Add the nuts into the food processor, and begin to process. Once the vegetables have begun to form a pasta, drizzle in the olive oil while the food processor is running. As you do this, you'll start to see the color become pinkish and creamy. Continue to run until you have a fairly smooth pasta (there may be a bit of chunkiness from the nuts left over. That's fine). Season the sauce with salt and pepper, to taste.

5. Cook the pasta according to instructions and drain. Return the pasta to the pot, add in the sauce, and toss together. Check seasoning. Serve warm, with a sprinkling of Parmesan (if desired).

Enjoy!

Gentle Mint-Chip Ice Cream

Mint-chip has always been my favorite ice cream, but I know many people don't love it. As my husband put it "I don't feel the need to eat toothpaste."
This mint-chip recipe, taken from SeriousEats, is a different story. Rather than having an aggressive, tooth-pasty flavor, it has a delicate, gentle minty freshness, with hints of something sweet and herbal. It is also, you will note, not a bright green. The chocolate chips are crunchy delicious nuggets of goodness.

Note: This recipe requires an ice cream maker, and of course you do need to make sure your maker container is pre-frozen. You also need to take into account time to steep the mint leaves, and allow the mixture to cool. So if you're planning to serve it in the evening, you need to start in the morning, or preferably make it a day in advance. 

Gentle Mint-Chip Ice Cream

Ingredients (for about 1 qt/1 liter of ice cream): 

- 2 cups heavy cream

- 1 cup whole milk

- 1 large or two small bunches fresh mint (or na'na) leaves

- 6 egg yolks

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 4 oz/ 110 grams dark chocolate 

- 2 tbsp neutral oil such as vegetable or canola 

Preparation: 

1. Heat the cream and milk in a medium saucepan until just simmering. Remove from heat, stir in the mint leaves, cover, and allow to steep for two hours. 

2. When the leaves are ready, put the yolks and sugar in another saucepan, and stir until combined. Using a fine sieve, strain the minty cream/milk mixture into the egg/sugar mixture, and then press on the mint leaves to get as much of the flavor as possible. Discard the leaves. 

3. Put the saucepan on medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until you get a smooth custurd-like texture, that coats the back of a spoon. You know it's ready when you can draw a line through the custard on the spoon with your finger and have it stay there, without having the custard flow back together. Note that the custard will not be very thick. 

4. Pour the custard through a fine sieve into an airtight container. Place in the fridge for at least several hours, and up to overnight, until it is quite cold. 

5. Place the ice cream into your ice cream maker and churn per instructions. While it's churning, place the chocolate and the oil into a microwave-safe bowl, and melt carefully (put in for 30 seconds, sit, then again, until the chocolate is fully melted, but not burnt). 

6. When the ice-cream is almost fully churned, but not quite, pour the chocolate into the ice cream maker and allow to churn with the ice cream, creating ribbons of chocolate bits in the ice cream. If your ice cream is already too hard to turn at this point, just turn off the maker, and vigorously stir in the chocolate by hand. 

7. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and allow to harden for a few hours before serving.

Enjoy!

 

Drunken Noodles

I sometimes find making Asian recipes at home a bit frustrating, because they never seem to get the same depth of flavor that they have in a good restaurant. So this particular recipe blew my mind, because it really had that complexity you want from a satisfying noodle dish.

The source of the recipe was a surprise in itself: the cookbook "Cravings", by Chrissy Teigen. I got this book on a whim, and it has proven to be one of the best cookbooks I've seen in a long time. I've already made five or six recipes from it, and they were all a smashing success. The book does have one disadvantage, which is that it has almost no vegetarian recipes. This recipe is no exception, using chicken and oyster sauce in the original version. But here I give you my own vegetarian twist on Chrissy's recipe. Since the original recipe included egg, I decided to just leave it there as my source of protein. But you can also use some tofu seasoned with salt and sesame oil and stir fried in oil until crispy, and either use it with the egg for a vegetarian recipe, or without it for a vegan version.

A Note for the Gluten Free about Whisky: 
Grain alcohols and gluten are a tricky thing. In theory, distilled grain alcohol (like vodka) shouldn't contain any gluten (or at least less than the requisite 20 ppm), due to the distillation process. Nonetheless, some celiacs still say they have reactions to such alcohol. Whisky is even more complicated, because some whisky producers add a bit of the mash back into the product after distillation. For our version of this recipe, we used Jack Daniels bourbon, because they have a very clear and unequivocal Gluten Free statement on their website. However, if you're still concerned about using a grain-based drink, you can replace it with rum or brandy, or just skip the booze altogether.

Drunken Noodles 

Ingredients (for 5-6 satisfying portions): 

 Sauce: 
- 6 tbsp light brown sugar
-  1/2 cup soy sauce (make sure to use GF for a gluten free version)
- 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce (again, make sure to use GF)
- 2 tbsp of whisky (see note above)
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp sriracha sauce
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped

For dish: 
- 350 grams/12 oz of rice noodles, preferably the wide kind, softened according to the package instructions 
- 3 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 4 scallions (green onions), chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
- 4 cups broccoli florets
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth

Preparation: 
1. Combine all of the sauce ingredients in one bowl.

2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large wok, add the eggs, and cook, stirring, until just cooked. Set aside in a bowl, and give the wok a quick wipe to clean some of the egg residue.

3.  Heat the remaining 2 tbsp of oil in the wok, and when it begins to smoke, add in the scallions, ginger and garlic. Cook, stirring, for about 20 seconds. Add the broccoli and broth and cook, stirring, until the broccoli turns a bright green and the broth is mostly gone, about 3-4 minutes.

4. Add the softened noodles and the egg back into the wok, and add the sauce. Cook for another 4-5 minutes, stirring or tossing the mixture, until the noodles are fully cooked, everything is warm, and the sauce thickens.

5. Served, optionally topped with some more scallions.

Enjoy!

Knish (Onion and Potato Pastries)

A curious fact about Israel is that a lot of the foods typically associated with Jewish cuisine in the US, are virtually unknown to Israelis. For example, until a few years ago, you couldn't get a bagel in Israel to save your life, and even now supermarkets rarely sell them. Knishes are a similar deal. You can find Burkeas in every store, but I can't remember the last time I saw a knish anywhere.
So when a recurrences of pop-culture references to Knish made me crave some, there was no choice but to make them myself.

I opted for a version in which the potatoes and onion are mashed together to make a smooth filling, because I have a kid who will happily eat these just as long as there are no visible oniony-bits. If you prefer a bit more texture, add the onions in after you mash the potatoes.

The knishes can be made gluten free (the ones in the picture are!), but it does require having an excellent gluten free all purpose flour that you trust, as you do need to make a dough that is flexible enough to roll and delicious enough to eat.

Knish

 Ingredients (for 20-30 small knishes): 
For filling: 
- 3-4 potatoes (about 500 grams/1 lb), peeled and chopped into medium chunks.
- 1 large onion, diced.
- 3 tbsp oil, for frying.
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar (optional, although it gives a nice richness of flavor)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper 

For dough:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/2 tsp salt

For finishing: 
- 1 egg yolk beaten with a bit of milk

Preparation: 
1. Put the potatoes in a medium pot, cover with salted water, and cook on medium heat until the potatoes are soft. Drain.

2. While you wait, put frying oil in a pan, add the onions and cover. Sautee over medium-low heat until the onions are soft and translucent, then remove the lid and allow the onions to become golden-brown. Remove from heat.

3. Mash together the potatoes, onions, salt, sugar and pepper, either in a food processor, using a stick-blender, or using a masher, until very smooth. Remember: if you want to keep the onion texture, add the onions after the mashing process. Check for taste. The seasoning should be quite strong (stronger than you would want in mashed potatoes that you eat straight up), because there's only a bit of filling in each knish.

4. Prepare the dough: Preheat oven to 175 C/350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  In a large bowl, beat the egg and water together, then add the oil and the salt and mix. Gradually add the flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, and mix thoroughly. When it starts to come together as a dough, start kneading, first in the bowl, then out on a well floured surface. The dough should feel smooth, not sticky, and elastic. If it's too sticky to knead comfortably, add some more flour. Knead for a few minutes to develop the gluten (or just until you have a usable nice dough, if you're making this GF).

5. Divide the dough into two balls. On a well floured surface, shape the first ball into a flat rectangle, and roll until very thin and quite large (about 30X20 cm, or 13X9 inches). Do the same with the other ball of dough.

6. Cut each rectangle into two, lengthwise (so you have two long and narrow pieces). Place about a quarter of the filling lengthwise along the center of each piece, then roll the dough (like a swiss roll) around the filling. Repeat for all the pieces.

7. Using a sharp knife, slice each roll into pieces, about 2.5 cm/1 inch long. Carefully lift each piece and place it, cut side down, in the baking tin, then gently push together the top section over the potato filling to slightly "close" the knish. This is a bit messy, and don't worry if it doesn't close altogether. The results are meant to be rustic.

8. When all of the knishes are placed on the baking tin, with a bit of distance between each one, brush them with the egg/milk mixture. Place in the over and bake for about 35-40 minutes, until the knishes are golden and fully baked.

Enjoy!