September 13, 2013 by Marios

Pasta Flora / Παστα Φλωρα (Apricot Jam Coffee Cake – Cyprus Version)

There is no better way to experience the inertia of history than through ethnic cuisines. Take the Mediterranean, for example. If you were to take a cruise around the region and sample food from all the countries you visit – Spain, Italy, Morocco, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt – you’ll start to notice that variations of the same dish have a way of popping up in every place.

Talk to the people of each country and they will tell you that the dish originated with them, brandishing its name as proof or the use of a local ingredient as irrefutable evidence. In reality, so much of the “traditional” foods of those countries come from their past, often going back centuries to empires that ruled the region: the Greeks, the Romans, the Venetians, the Ottomans.

It’s both a comforting and frustrating experience. Comforting, in that it confirms the sameness in all of us, the artificiality of our differences, and our shared roots. Frustrating because it seems unable to bridge differences that have led to wars and conflict. If Israelis and Palestinians could all concentrate on their common culinary tradition, would they be more conciliatory towards each other? Would Greeks and Turks? Doubtful.

This recipe is for one of those dishes that spans different countries in the Mediterranean. I knew it as a Greek Cypriot dessert called pasta flora. Growing up, my mom made it regularly and it was one of my favorites. At some point, I found out that it was also made in Greece but somewhat differently, with a short, cookie-like crust, instead of the cake base used in Cyprus. Then a few years back, an Italian friend I invited to dinner brought over a dessert she made. As soon as I saw it, I exclaimed “You made a pasta flora!” She smiled and said “a pasta FROLA,” stressing the reversed r and l.

It turned out, it’s an Italian dessert called pasta frola. And today, doing a little bit of research, I found out it’s also an Argentinian dessert, brought over by Italian immigrants, usually filled with quince paste, instead of the apricot jam used in Cyprus.

Here’s the bottom line: No matter where this comes from, it’s a winner. This recipe is for the Cypriot version. It makes something more like a coffee cake, with a layer of apricot jam and a lattice crust. It’s simple to prepare and makes a wonderful dessert or even breakfast, no matter where you are from or what part of the world you are eating it in.

Pasta Flora / Παστα Φλωρα (Apricot Jam Coffee Cake – Cyprus Version) – Adapted from Μαγειρεύοντας για φίλους Tόμος α

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon brandy or cognac
finely grated zest of one lemon
1 cup apricot jam
6 tablespoons all purpose-flour
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon of water, for eggwash

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 baking pan and line it with parchment paper (alternatively, grease, lightly dust with flour and shake out excess). In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 1/2 cups of flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat 3 eggs well, until they lighten in color, for 2-3 minutes. Add the sugar and continue to beat for another 2-3 minutes until they thicken and increase in volume. Add the oil, brandy, and zest and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture and using a spatula, fold together just until combined and no dry flour streaks are visible.

Take one cup of the batter out of the bowl and put it in a small bowl.

Pour the remaining batter in the prepared baking pan and smooth out the surface with spatula or back of spoon. Stir the apricot jam with a spoon to loosen it up and then carefully spread it on top of the batter in the pan, taking care not to press it into the batter too much. The best way is to just dollop it with a soup spoon and then use the back of the spoon to lightly spread it, leaving about a 0.5-1 inch border around the edge of the pan without jam.

In the small bowl with the 1 cup of batter, add 6 tablespoons of flour. Mix with a spoon until fully combined. The dough will be soft but you should be able to work with it with your hands. If you want, put some flour on your hands to prevent the dough from sticking. Take a piece of the dough and roll it gently between your hands to create a log about half an inch in diameter. Place it on top of the apricot jam diagonally. Continue until you have created a lattice pattern across the whole pan. Don’t worry too much if your lattice isn’t perfect. When it bakes it will puff up and change shape anyway.

Very gently brush the lattice with the beaten egg. Bake for about 40 minutes until the top is golden brown and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let cool for 10 minutes and slice into squares or rectangles. Allow the pasta flora to cool completely before you remove the slices from the pan. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days or wrap slices with plastic wrap and freeze.

August 17, 2013 by Marios

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

With out wedding taking place tomorrow, this week has been a whirlwind of activity. Friends and family started to arrive in New York last Sunday and throughout the week more and more people joined them. People have come from faraway places like France, Sweden, and Cyprus or Los Angeles, San Diego, and Indianapolis.

One of Steve’s colleagues, who recently got married, told him that one of the coolest and strangest things about your wedding is seeing all of your friends and family in one room at the same time. We’re already having that feeling ourselves. The fact that people have made the effort to take planes, trains, and cars to be here with us makes us feel happy and humbled and grateful.

We are so overwhelmed by all this that we almost forget that tomorrow we’ll be married. There is so much riding on that simple word “wedding.” There are the legal implications, the political issues, the social debates, the catering decisions, the flower choices. But in the end there’s really just this: a celebration. A reason to come together and acknowledge and share the love between two people with those who are important in their lives.

And at the end of this celebration is marriage. For all the ways to describe a marriage, a good and happy one, here’s one that already describes ours. A sunny Saturday morning, sitting at the table, still groggy from a good night’s sleep, ready to eat our lemon ricotta pancakes, and then go out, together, to make the day or own.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes – Very slightly adapted from Chow.com

Makes about 16 3.5 inch pancakes

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for coating the frying pan and serving
1 cup whole milk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine salt
3 large eggs, yolks and whites separated
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon packed finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
Powdered sugar, fruit, or maple syrup, for serving (optional)

1. Place butter and milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until butter has melted; remove from heat and let cool slightly.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt; set aside.

3. Place egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of the sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Slowly drizzle ] in a quarter of the milk-butter mixture while whisking constantly (to temper the eggs), then whisk in the remaining milk-butter mixture until smooth.

4. Add the reserved flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined (do not overmix); set aside.

5. In a medium bowl, whisk egg whites to soft peaks. Halfway through whisking them, sprinkle in the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Using the rubber spatula, fold the whites into the reserved batter until just combined.

6. Gently fold the ricotta into the batter, being careful not to break down the texture of the cheese (the batter will be lumpy and streaked with ricotta); set aside.

7. Heat a large nonstick frying pan, griddle, or seasoned cast iron skillet over medium heat until hot, about 4 minutes. Test to see if the pan is hot enough by sprinkling a couple of drops of cold water in it: If the water bounces and sputters, the pan is ready to use.

8. Lightly coat the pan’s surface with butter, then use a 1/4-cup measure to scoop the batter into the pan. Cook until bubbles form on top of the pancakes, about 4 to 5 minutes. Flip and cook the other side until the bottoms are golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes more. Repeat with the remaining batter. Serve immediately with powdered sugar, fruit, butter, or maple syrup.

July 26, 2013 by Marios

Chocolate Orange Granola

The weather in New York has been strange this week. A few days ago it was so hot and humid that walking outside felt like having a dryer vent as a permanent escort. Then yesterday the temperatures suddenly dropped and it got cold enough that I needed a sweatshirt to walk outside in the middle of the day. And today we woke up to a dark and cloudy morning, as if it was the middle of November.

This suddenly cooler and fall-like weather has given me back-to-school anxiety. With only a month left before the end of the summer, it seems like it’s going by too fast. Every summer I go through this, until September comes and I realize that just because it’s no longer officially summer, it doesn’t mean it’s winter. In fact, we can have summer-like weather (or even better, beautiful indian summers) all through the end of October.

So, if you are like me and are already dreading the end of summer, take a deep breath and relax. Reward yourself by making (and eating) this chocolate orange granola. Have it for breakfast with milk or as an afternoon snack. Or eat it for dessert if you want. The summer is the time to bend the rules a little bit.

This is based on a recipe that appeared in the New York Times, called “My Favorite Granola.” Unlike the olive oil and maple granola recipe I posted a little while ago, this produces a sticky, chunky granola that comes out in sweet clusters. The original recipe combined orange and vanilla flavors but I found that too cloying and too reminiscent of a panforte. So, I changed it a bit, toned down the orange and added chocolate.

Chocolate Orange Granola – Adapted from the New York Times

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
2 cups cornflakes
1 cup steel-cut oats
1 cup sliced almonds
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup canola oil
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup of bittersweet or semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (or your favorite dark chocolate chopped into small pieces)

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine rolled oats, cornflakes, steel-cut oats, almonds, salt and cinnamon. Mix until well combined.

2. In a small saucepan, combine honey, maple syrup, canola oil, and orange zest. Place over medium heat and boil for 1 minute. Discard vanilla beans, and pour hot liquid over dry ingredients. Using a rubber spatula, mix until well combined.

3. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, and spread evenly with the granola. Bake until golden brown and evenly toasted, tossing once about halfway through, about 30 minutes. Remove baking sheet from oven and place on a rack to cool; mixture will be soft and sticky while hot, but will dry and become crisp as it cools.

4. When granola is completely cool and dry, break into bite-size pieces and mix with the mini chocolate chips. Store in an airtight container.

May 25, 2013 by Marios

Olive Oil and Maple Granola

I’ve been watching the new season of “Mad Men” and, like most people who watch the show, I’ve been pretty disappointed by it. I’ve been a really big fan of the show since it started. The first season was remarkable simply for the 60s factor and the “remember when [blank] was acceptable” game. Drinking at work, smoking everywhere, sexual harassment in the office. They were all there for us to watch and laugh at, feeling smug in our contemporary,better lives, but also a little nostalgic for our childhoods.

By season too, the show became more than a neat time trick. It started exploring the main characters more deeply by placing them in situations that showed their inner gears. The writing was taut and the direction was beautiful but not showy. Some episodes were like literature. There was the one titled “The Suitcase” that was pure magic. A year or two ago there was an article on “Mad Men” in Entertainment Weekly and they asked the cast members to name their favorite episode. Most of them said it was “The Suitcase.”

But this season has been uneven, at best. There have been what, four, five episodes? And yet it feels like nothing’s happened. Everyone seems to just be going through the motions and each episode is written less about the characters and more about a different important historical event of the late 60s. It’s like a history lesson with actors.

I’ve read a few articles bemoaning this and analyzing the reasons for the show’s slump. But for me the reason is clear: there are just too many characters. As the main ones (Don, Peggy, Joan, Pete, and Roger) started to get married, divorced, remarried, to have lovers and parents and kids, too many people joined the show and the focus was lost. The show never spends enough time on the few important characters because it now has to also cover everyone else, even a little bit. The result is a watered down, overloaded soap opera.

It’s the same with food (I know you were wondering where I was going with the “Mad Men” diatribe). There is such a thing as too many ingredients, one too many techniques, or too many courses. Most of the time, I’d rather have few, good ingredients that come together beautifully and support each other in the final product, than a complicated recipe with fifteen ingredients and thirty steps to make.

This recipe for olive oil and maple granola is somewhere in the middle. It has quite a few ingredients, all easy to find, but very few steps. Mix and bake, stirring a few times along the way. The result is probably the best granola I’ve ever tasted. It’s not too sweet, with a good combination of nuts and seeds, along with toasted coconut flakes to up the ante. The olive oil is all the way in the background, a grassy note to complement the maple syrup’s smoky sweetness. It all comes together perfectly, like an early episode of “Mad Men.”

Olive Oil and Maple Granola – Adapted from Orangette

Makes about 7 cups

300 grams (3 cups) rolled oats (not the quick cooking kind)
125 grams (1 cup) raw hulled pumpkin seeds (aka pepitas)
130 grams (1 cup) raw hulled sunflower seeds
50 grams (1 cup) unsweetened coconut chips (you can substitute unsweetened, grated coconut if you can’t find the chips)
135 grams (1 ¼ cup) raw pecans, whole or chopped (you can also use any combination of nuts; almonds and pistachios work well)
85 grams (packed ½ cup) light brown sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
175 ml (¾ cup) maple syrup
120 ml (½ cup) olive oil

Preheat the oven to 300°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut chips, pecans, light brown sugar, and salt. Stir with a spoon or spatula to mix. Add the olive oil and maple syrup, and stir until everything is well combined. Spread the mixture in an even layer on the prepared sheet pan. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes, until the granola is golden brown and toasted, about 45-55 minutes. If you like your granola more clumpy, stir only once or twice in the beginning and then do not stir anymore.

Remove the granola from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container, where it will keep for about a month.

April 19, 2013 by Marios

Marion Cunningham’s Raised Waffles

A couple of years ago, we visited some friends out west. We arrived in the early evening, so they picked us up at the airport and we drove to a restaurant to eat. After dinner we went to their home where we chatted and caught up until it was time for bed. At that point, they told us what was available for breakfast. I don’t remember exactly what they said but it was something like “There’s some cereal in here. And there’s some milk in the fridge.”

A few minutes later, Steve and I were in the bedroom getting ready for bed, when he turned to me and said “I guess they don’t take breakfast as seriously as we do, do they?” I cocked my head to the side, raised my eyebrows and replied “Nobody takes breakfast as seriously as we do!”

Every morning we sit down and eat breakfast together and it’s not unusual for us to spend 15-20 minutes preparing it. Steve is in charge of the coffee, which on the weekends resembles a Japanese tea ceremony (there’s weighing of beans, grinding them at a specific size, boiling water to a precise temperature, and more) and I am in charge of drinks (fresh fruit smoothies or juiced fruits and veggies). The food is some kind of baked good, oatmeal, toasted home-made bread with butter and honey or jam, or granola. Everything is homemade of course.

So, yes, we take breakfast seriously. And nothing says “serious breakfast” like freshly made waffles. We used to make sourdough waffles with a starter we kept in the fridge, but then we discovered this recipe for yeasted waffles that blew our minds and we never looked back. The batter is prepared the night before and left on the countertop overnight, during which time it rises and then collapses. In the morning, you add two eggs and a touch of baking soda and it’s ready for cooking.

The yeast makes all the difference here. It makes the waffles crispy and filled with tiny bubbles so that when you bite into them, they dissolve in your mouth with a satisfying crunch. It also gives them an addictive malted taste and aroma that fills the house as they cook. We’ve discovered that the best way to eat them is by first pouring maple syrup on them, adding a dollop of freshly whipped cream and topping them with sliced strawberries.

Is this a serious breakfast or what?

Marion Cunningham’s Raised Waffles – Adapted from “The Breakfast Book“

½ cup warm water
1 package (2 ¼ tsp.) active dry yeast or 1 3/4 tsp instant yeast
2 cups whole milk, warmed
1 stick (½ cup or 113g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 tsp. table salt
1 tsp. sugar
2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
¼ tsp. baking soda

– If you are using active dry yeast, pour the water into a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water, and let stand to dissolve for 5 minutes. Add the milk, butter, salt, sugar, and flour, and beat with an electric mixer until well blended and smooth.

– If you are using instant yeast, add the water, milk, butter, salt, sugar, flour, and yeast into a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until well blended and smooth.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it stand overnight at room temperature. We’ve found that when we let the batter sit for 12 hours, the waffles have the most intense, malted flavor, but you can go as low as 7-8 hours.

In the morning, remove the plastic wrap. The batter will look deflated with a pocked surface. It will also look like it separated over night. Don’t worry, that’s how it’s supposed to be! (The first time we tried the recipe, we thought it went bad, so we threw it out and then tried a second batch which was exactly the same, until a little research online revealed that it’s supposed to be exactly like this).

Preheat your waffle maker to a medium-high setting (you’ll have to experiment with your waffle maker because each one is different). Stir the batter with a fork or spoon until it is smooth again. Add the lightly beaten eggs to the batter along with the baking soda. Mix the batter until fully combined. The batter will be very thin.

Cook in your waffle maker until the waffles are golden brown and crisp. As you take the waffles out of the waffle maker, place them on a cooling rack to prevent them from getting soggy on the bottom.

Any leftover waffles, once completely cool, can be wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen. Whenever you want them, just reheat them in a toaster straight from the freezer (no thawing required).

March 27, 2013 by Marios

Cherry Cream Scones

When we lived in midtown, Steve would sometimes stop by Amy’s Bread Bakery on his way home from work and pick up a couple of cherry cream scones. I don’t want to say that I squealed from joy when he entered the apartment carrying the telltale brown bag, but it was pretty close. We loved (and still do) those cherry cream scones. They looked and tasted rustic. They were sweet but with serious tones of something darker. The dried cherries were just tangy enough to counterbalance the richness of the dough and the coarse sugar toping gave a satisfying crunch with every bite.

Well, just like everything else I love to eat, I decided that I just had to figure out how to make them myself. Many tastings had given me clues to the ingredients but they weren’t enough. I had to get the recipe. A quick search online revealed an Amy’s Bread cookbook that was available on Amazon. But I didn’t want to buy it just for this recipe. So, I clicked on the “Click to look inside” link which shows a few pages from a book, so you can sample it before you buy it.

And wouldn’t you know it, there it was: the recipe for cherry cream scones. Except for one problem: Amazon gave me only the first page. That included the ingredients and some of the steps. I decided I could figure out the rest of the steps on my own. Turns out I couldn’t. My first attempt didn’t turn out so good.

So back to Amazon I went and started clicking on “Surprise Me!” which gives you a random page from the book. A good 15 minutes later I landed on the second page of the recipe. Since then, Amazon has changed the pages they show from this book and now the entire recipe is available to anyone that looks at the book on the site.

I have made these scones too many times to count. I have taken them to friends who invited us to their country house for the weekend and I have made them in the middle of nowhere in France where we were spending New Year’s with a group of friends. Every time, they are a hit. And when we moved away from midtown two years ago and had no Amy’s Bread Bakery nearby, we were ok with that. We knew how to make our own.

Cherry Cream Scones – Slightly adapted from The Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread

These aren’t your typical british scones, all round and perfect, dry and crumbly. They are misshapen and soft inside with a crusty exterior. What gives them their unique taste is the use of only cream (no butter) and only brown sugar (no white sugar).

3 1/2 cups (510 gr) all purpose flour
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon (20gr) baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup (200 gr) light brown sugar
1 1/4 (200 gr) cups dried cherries*
2 2/3 cups (630gr) heavy cream
1 egg and 1 tablespoon of water for egg wash
turbinado sugar (or other coarse sugar; if not, you can use regular sugar but you won’t get that nice crunch)

* I buy the apple juice infused dried cherries from Whole Foods. Don’t use dried cherries that have any artificial flavoring in them. If you find dried sour cherries, they would be ideal.

Put racks on top third and bottom third of oven and preheat to 400° F. Line two 12×17 or 13×18 sheet pans with parchment paper.

In large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in brown sugar till evenly distributed (use your fingers to break up any clumps of sugar), then add dried cherries and stir again. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and pour all the cream in the well. Stir carefully with a spatula first and then with your hands until a soft, shaggy, and slightly sticky dough is formed.

Divide dough in 2 pieces. Gently shape each piece into a round disk, about 2 inches thick. It’s ok if the disks aren’t smooth or perfect. Using a knife or dough scraper cut each disk into 6 wedges. Again, don’t worry about the wedges being perfect. As soon as they hit the hot oven, they will start to melt and fall apart anyway (remember, these are rustic scones, not perfect looking ones). Arrange 6 wedges on each pan. Leave space between them because they will spread and rise.

Mix egg and 1 tablespoon of water in a small bowl and brush the tops of the scones. Sprinkle the tops of the scones generously with turbinado sugar. Don’t be timid with the sugar. As the scones spread and rise, the sugar will disperse over their surface. You want lots of it to provide a nice crunch.

Place the two pans on each of the two racks and bake for 7 minutes. Rotate top and bottom pans and reduce to 350° F. Bake for another 10 minutes. Rotate pans again, top to bottom, and bake 15-20 min more. They should be dark golden brown and firm to the touch. If you want, you can test with a toothpick, which should come out clean. If they’re browning too quickly, you can turn the oven down to 325 F. Cool on a wire rack.

These scones freeze beautifully. Once completely cool, place them in ziploc bags and put them in the freezer. To have them for breakfast, take out of the freezer the night before and leave uncovered on the countertop overnight.

Makes: 12 scones