Flowers & Spice: Roses, Cardamom and Saffron

Roses, cardamom and saffron are 3 of my favorite scents AND flavors.

Roses, being the queen of flowers, give off a scent of freshness and remind me of early summer mornings. I love to eat plain yogurt drizzled with wildflower honey, pistachios and liberally sprinkled with rose water.

Cardamom, a pod containing seeds with a somewhat minty, aromatic sweet scent, is a spice I enjoy in pilaf or chai.

Saffron, those rare orchid stigmas, give off an earthy, powerful scent in very tiny quantities. And it is in those small quantities that its power is best showcased. I love rice flavored with saffron, the bright yellow rice and the mingling of other added flavors of dried fruit and nuts make the simple staple grain of rice into a festive event.

I have a recipe from Epicurious below that I was directed to by a friend. It contains all three glorious ingredients – roses, cardomom and saffron.

Persian Love Cake

The name, Persian Love Cake, made me feel that no other recipe could say “Valentine’s Day” more to me than to have three ingredients I love all together in a beautiful chiffon cake. (It is by no means “Persian” – rather, the cake and its name are inspired by the ingredients used in Persian, Turkish and Indian cuisines).

Enjoy, and have a lovely Valentine’s day, however you celebrate it.

Recipe for Persian Love Cake

Candied rose petals

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• Petals from 2 organic roses (I buy candied rose petals)

Cake

• 1 cup cake flour
• 14 tablespoons baker’s sugar or superfine sugar, divided
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 6 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1/4 teaspoon whole cardamom seeds (removed from about 5 green cardamom pods)

Frosting

• 2 1/2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream, divided
• Pinch of saffron threads

• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon rose water

• 2 tablespoons natural unsalted pistachios

For candied rose petals:
Whisk egg whites in small bowl until foamy. Using pastry brush, brush rose petals on both sides with egg whites; sprinkle on both sides with sugar. Dry on nonstick rack at least 6 hours or overnight.

For cake:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter two 8-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Line pan bottoms with parchment paper; butter parchment. Sift flour, 7 tablespoons baker’s sugar, baking powder, and salt into large bowl. Whisk yolks and next 4 ingredients in small bowl until smooth. Add yolk mixture to dry ingredients; whisk until smooth. Beat egg whites in medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add 7 tablespoons baker’s sugar; beat until whites resemble thick marshmallow fluff. Fold whites into batter in 3 additions. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake until cakes are golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 15 minutes. Turn out onto racks, peel off parchment, and cool completely. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Wrap and store at room temperature.)

For frosting:
Combine 1/2 cup cream and saffron in small saucepan. Bring to simmer. Remove from heat; let steep 20 minutes. Chill until cold.

Beat remaining 2 cups cream, powdered sugar, and rose water in large bowl until soft peaks form; strain in saffron cream. Beat until peaks form.

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on platter. Spread 1 cup frosting over. Top with second cake layer, flat side down. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Chill at least 1 hour and up to 6 hours. Garnish cake with rose petals and pistachios

Snacking Around the World: Cicchetti in Venice

Tapas… mezze… snacks.

Whatever you want to call them, any small food, eaten with a quick glass of wine or a little glass of strong liquor, is always fun and is definitely the best “fast food” around.

It’s my kind of fast food, anyway. 🙂 This is my first post about snacking around the world… I hope to continue and make it an occasional series as there are too many foods to talk about.

Many countries of the world have turned the simple need of a snack between lunch and dinner into a beautifully civilized and tasty art form!

Who in the world doesn’t love informal socializing, sipping and eating all at the same time?

In Venice there is a great snacking tradition of cicchetti (pronounced chick-etti). The most basic description I can make of cicchetti is that they are basically a round of bread (as though cut from a baguette), and topped with absolutely anything tasty and savory. But it doesn’t end there…

It can be without the bread, simply a large shrimp in a savory olive oil, or tiny meatballs, or balls of cheese in herbs, or whole mushrooms marinated in spices, or deep fried patties – anything like that.

There are little cicchetti and wine bars all over Venice where you can roll up to the counter and order a glass  (or a plastic cup if you plan to eat outside) of wine and a small plate of these treats.

Plus you drink all this deliciousness down with wine that is from the Veneto region such as the rich Valpolicella or the bubbly Prosecco, or many other wines of the area that I had never heard of before my visit. There is usually a HUGE selection at these places. I preferred to let the nice guy behind the counter pour out whatever was going at the time and not worry about it myself, so that I could sooner join the throng of happy eaters and drinkers.

I was never disappointed.

I made whole meals out of cicchetti a few times, simply because the variety of flavors I could get on one plate was truly amazing value – like exploring Italy on one plate. Generally there is no place to sit, as these places are very popular and also meant for standing and eating. So you can either stand at the counters or go outside (my favorite!) and take your food and wine and stand along the walls along the canal and eat and drink and flirt and watch the pretty Venetian world go by.

Here are a couple of cicchetti ideas for you to make at home, and that I have made successfully, based on what I ate in the cicchetti bars.

The single instruction is to get the best flavored ingredients you can get for your cicchetti. Don’t try to top your cicchetti with out of season tomatoes or even use bread you don’t 100%love  to eat on its own.

It doesn’t require expensive ingredients – just a few perfect ones that are in season. If all your fresh ingredients are out of season or you can’t find any that meet your high standards, then try some of the marinated or cooked cicchetti ideas. But do try to serve it with Italian Veneto wines.

In a pinch, prosecco goes with everything 🙂 (This is along the same lines of my philosophy where I think that Champagne goes with everything, but I will save that for another post when I am richer than I am right now).

Cicchetti ideas

Rounds of fresh bread (you can slice a baguette) topped with:

• ricotta mixed with pistachio paste
• salumi (type of dry sausage) and pesto
• octopus or squid, decorated with caviar
• quail egg and mashed artichoke
• creamed zucchini and sundried tomato
• back bacon and chili sauce
• ricotta topped with a fig
• eggplant and hard cheese

ETC!! Make things up – whatever you think will taste good.

Serve with wine or prosecco, from the Veneto region.

Dukkah: Dip like an Egyptian

With all the uproar going on in Egypt these days, I feel sad, particularly because I visited Cairo a long time ago and everything about it, and the Egyptians I met, left an indelible impression on my mind of a culture so old, so passionate, and very warm and welcoming. Everywhere I went I was casually invited for a mint tea and a chat, or offered to share a meal – yes, by people I just met, relative strangers – it was heartwarming.

In keeping with that convivial Egyptian spirit of sharing that I experienced, I want to share one of the delicacies I tried in the company of those friendly Egyptians.

Dukkah (or dukka or duqqa – you get the point) is an Egyptian nut and seed and spice mixture which is served in a bowl in which you dip hard-boiled eggs or bread. It is very simple to make and is a delicious snack or appetizer. All you need are some boiled eggs, some flatbread (Egyptian flatbread is called baladi, but you can use pita if that is more readily available), and some olive oil to accompany this amazing mini meal.

Sometimes this is all I eat for lunch with a glass of mint tea, and it is absolutely perfect.

By the way, the recipe varies widely depending on who makes it and what their tastes are so there is no one “authentic” recipe as far as I can tell, but basically it is a mix of the ingredients I have listed below, though chickpeas can be substituted for hazelnuts. Both ways are good. The recipe below is how I tend to make my dukkah.

Dukkah can be stored in an airtight container for a good bit of time.

Dukkah

Ingredients

~1 cup of hazelnuts (or chickpeas), toasted

1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted

1 tbsp cumin seeds (more or less to taste), toasted

1 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted

salt and pepper

Method:

1 – Grind everything with a mortar and pestle or in a food processor (if using a food processor, make sure not to grind to a paste). Add salt and pepper to taste.

2 – Take your hard-boiled egg, or piece of flatbread, dip it in olive oil, then dip the oily egg or bread in the dukkah.

Enjoy!

Lemongrass, Lime Leaves and Galangal

Some time ago I took a dream trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia to visit the astounding Angkor Wat temple, as well as many surrounding temples, the tops of which were visible at various heights poking out of the dense and damp green Cambodian jungle. A very Indiana Jones/Lara Croft type of experience!

Monkeys scampered around, with a few of the braver ones approaching tourists in the hope of getting something to eat.

As a tourist, I also at some point needed to scamper around looking for food to eat, and I can tell you first hand that Cambodian cuisine is absolutely delicious. Lemongrass, Kaffir lime and Kaffir lime leaves, and galangal (a rhizome related to ginger) are the flavors which I now associate with Cambodian cuisine, though of course these beautiful flavors are enjoyed all over Southeast Asia.

For those unfamiliar, here are the stars:

Galangal:

Kaffir Limes and Lime leaves:

When I travel I like to stay in local hotels so that I can experience as much of the “foreign-ness” as possible – otherwise, why go? Why eat bacon and eggs when I could be dining on whatever it is that locals eat for breakfast? The hotel I stayed at was off the beaten path, very luxurious (for about a quarter of the price of a luxury hotel back home) – and the dining – morning and evening – was fantastic and I felt like I was in a W. Somerset Maugham novel.

One of the dishes I enjoyed most was the Khmer dish, Amok Trei, which is white fish steamed in banana leaves. It uses a spice mixture called Kroeung which, in brief, is a paste of ground up herbs and spices. In the case of Amok Trei, it was Yellow Kroeung (there are Red and Green Kroeungs as well for other dishes).

What a beautiful way to use the flavors of Cambodia – if you have access to these ingredients, which are available in Asian stores, you must make the effort to make this recipe.

Below is the adapted Amok Trei recipe, courtesy of Authentic Cambodian Recipes from Mother to Daughter, by Sorey Long.

Amok Trei

Ingredients:

Topping: 3 Tbsp Coconut milk or cream, pinch of salt, 1 tsp corn starch

Fish mixture:

Yellow Kreoung (Recipe: pound together in a mortar and pestle 7 oz lemongrass, 1 Tbsp galangal, 1 tsp Kaffir lime zest, 1 tsp turmeric, 5 garlic cloves, and 2 shallots)

Firm white fleshed fish

2 beaten eggs

2 Tbsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

5 oz (150 mL) coconut cream or milk

Garnish:

Kaffir lime leaves, julienned

Red pepper, julienned, white pith removed

Method:

1 – Prepare topping by combining all topping ingredients thoroughly until smooth and bring to a boil on medium heat until thickened.

2 – Prepare the fish mixture by combining all fish mixture ingredients in a bowl and mix well until smooth. Put in the fish filets to marinate.

3 – Put the fish mixture into either banana leaf cups (you can find instructions for making banana leaf cups on youtube) or individual ramekins. Spoon topping over the fish. Garnish with the lime leaf and red pepper julienne.

4 – Steam for 5 – 8 minutes or until the amok is cooked through with a firm and moist texture. Serve immediately with white rice.

Time for Thyme

This is my first post so I thought I’d better talk about the fragrant herb, thyme, which inspired the name of this blog.

I like nothing better than cooking with perfect ingredients, preferably home-grown, or if not, then grown by some farmer from whom I can buy directly and cheaply from the local market. I am lucky that I live in a place in which I can do that (not so lucky though, as I can only do that about 6 months of the year, the remaining 6 months being more or less cold or frozen).

Thyme has been one of my favorites because it is so rewarding: Starting in the spring with a tender (but already fragrant) set of tiny sprigs sprouting sprightly from the little starter pot, then transplanting into a larger pot when the days start to get warmer and placing it on my balcony, and like magic more and more sprigs, stronger each day, start sprouting out, getting longer and tanglier with each passing day.

Then running a hand gently over the mass of tangles will waft out the wonderful, warm and herbal fragrance that reminds me of roasted chickens and olive oil potatoes and soups full of summer goodness.

It is a warm, green, happy sort of plant. I feel so sorry for those thyme sprigs packed tightly into little plastic packages and waiting for someone to come buy them at a couple of dollars a pop, all the life and fragrance sucked out of them.

Thyme is easy to grow over spring and summer and can survive quite hardily indoors with minimum care – just be sure to water and provide as much sunlight as is reasonably possible.

Here is a simple thyme stuffing to place under the chicken skin before popping a chicken for roasting in the oven, courtesy of Jacques Pepin:

Thyme Stuffing (for under the chicken skin):

A handful of thyme sprigs

a couple of shallots

salt & pepper

olive oil and butter

1 – Chop the shallots finely. Melt 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter together and saute the shallots until they are soft.

2 – Add thyme leaves that you have slipped off the branches (slide your thumb and index finger along the thyme branches and slide the leaves off). Use as much as you want. Mix them with the shallots not longer than 1 minute.

3 – Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper (be generous).

4 – Slip mixture evenly under the chicken breast skin and leg/thigh skin. Roast the chicken per your normal method.

Tip for saving those poor grocery store thyme sprigs

I always have more in those packets than I actually need and the rest invariably goes bad in the fridge so just dry the leftover herbs in the oven at a very low temperature (less than 180 F) for a couple of hours. Then pack them away in an airtight container – they will be much fuller flavored than the dried versions you get at the grocery store. You can of course do this with almost any herb – the internet offers many other methods of drying as well.