Tuesdays With Dorie : Pizza Rustica

During the month of April, we will bake two recipes for Tuesdays With Dorie: Pizza Rustica for the first half of the month and Lemon Loaf Cake for the second.. Below is my experience with Pizza Rustica..

Contrary to its name, Pizza Rustica is not actually a pizza.. It is a pie with a slightly sweet crust and a ricotta based filling.. Original recipe from Baking with Julia makes the filling with 3 types of cheese (ricotta, pecorino romano, and mozarella), eggs, prosciutto, chopped parsley and freshly ground black pepper.. I wanted to make a vegetarian version of it and replaced prosciutto with kalamata olives and sun-dried tomatoes, 1/4 cup of each.. Thankfully, the substitutions worked out well.. One thing to say about filling making process is I put ricotta on a strainer with paper towel on, for 1-2 hours, and kept it in the fridge to drain the excess liquid in it.. I believe otherwise the filling can get watery.. 

To be honest, I was not very excited to try this recipe, due to my scare of pie crust preparation and rolling.. One of the great things about baking with a group is that it forces me to try new recipes that I wouldn't have the courage by myself.. Pizza Rustica is one of those for me..

Instagram by Ferda : My pie crust

My dough making started a bit problematic.. Instructions in the book explains how to make the dough in a food processor and I have a very small one.. Since I did not want to risk failing to do it by hand, I used my tiny processor anyways.. When I put all the dough ingredients listed, it got full to the top.. The book says pulse the mixture until the dough makes a ball around the blade.. And, this did not happen in my case due to over-crowded food processor..

So, I had to put the crumbly mass on to a floured surface and kneaded it (or try to knead it) until it resembled a smooth pie dough.. I chilled the wrapped dough in the fridge for couple of hours before rolling.. It was very easy to roll - unlike what i expected :) - and I was very proud of myself when I pushed my pie crust into the pan.. It was the first time I made a full pie :)

Then came putting the filling over the crust, and rolling the remaining dough to make crisscross decoration strips.. This part went well other than my stripes not being identical and failure to make basket design :)     

Instagram by Ferda : Ready to be baked
                  

And the rest is baking it until the top is golden brown, which became golden very quickly and the edges got a bit darker, but did not burn.. It was difficult for my husband and I to wait until the next morning to taste it because I wanted to take pictures of it using daylight before eating into it.. We ate it both on Saturday and Sunday for breakfast.. The verdict is we "liked" it..

Conclusion: The recipe was easier than it seems, and the end product is good-looking and tasty.. It makes a great brunch or lunch dish with a side salad.. The crust is beautifully flaky and slightly sweet.. It can be used with sweet fillings or variation of savory fillings.. I enjoyed the combination of the sweet crust and saltier filling, but it was too much ricotta blandness for my taste.. I am not sure if I will go back to this recipe anytime soon when there are so many new ones to try, it was tasty but not out of this world tasty for me.. 

For the recipe please visit blogs of this week's hosts, Emily and Raelynn : Capital Region Dining Blog and The Place They Call Home, or buy the book: Baking with Julia..

Looking forward to meeting you in two weeks with the next recipe for TWD: Lemon Loaf Cake..

Korova Cookies...

Here is another recipe that I tried last weekend... The original recipe is from Dorie Greenspan like the French Apple Cake recipe I posted today... I found this one at Cafe Fernando, and had my eyes on it for a while now...

These cookies are sent from heaven for those who love chocolate and especially bitter chocolate... I personally am not a big fan of chocolate desserts or bitter chocolate, but still liked a lot the cruncy texture of these cookies and also the salt after taste due to some sea salt in the recipe (The recipe recommends fleur de sel, but tells that can be substituted for sea salt)... I guess I should buy one of Dorie Greenspan's books - if all of her recipes are this straight forward and end results are this good it will worth the purchase...

Below is the original recipe from Cafe Fernando, with my comments in parentheses and italic... Another good thing about the recipe is that you can freeze half of the dough and use later... It can be kept frozen for a month...


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KOROVA COOKIES RECIPE
recipe from “Paris Sweets: Great Desserts from the City’s Best Pastry Shops” by Dorie Greenspan
Ingredients
Yields 28 cookies (half of my dough made 11 cookies, a bit less than what Cafe Fernando says, I might have cut my cookies bigger than his)

1+1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (30 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I used ordinary cocoa powder)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (150 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (120 grams) packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (I used sea salt)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 ounces (150 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small bits (I used 70% chocolate)
Method

1- Sift the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together and keep close at hand.
2- Put the butter in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until the butter is soft and creamy. (I don't have a KitchenAid stand mixer, so I used the dough hook of the hand mixer for the stages 2,3 and 4)
3- Add both sugars, the salt, and vanilla extract and beat for another minute or two.
4- Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the sifted dry ingredients. Mix only until the dry ingredients are incorporated. For the best texture, you want to work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added.
5- Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.
6- Turn the dough out onto a smooth work surface and squeeze it so that it sticks together in large clumps. Gather the dough into a ball, divide it in half, and working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1-1/2 inches (4 cm) in diameter.
7- Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and chill them for at least 2 hours. (Wrapped airtight, the logs can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for 1 month.)
8- Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and keep them close at hand.
9- Working with a sharp thin-bladed knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) thick.
10- Place the cookies on parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch (2.5 cm) spread space between them.
11- Bake only one sheet of cookies at a time, and bake each sheet for 12 minutes. The cookies will not look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be.
12- Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies stand until they are only just warm or until they reach room temperature.
13- Repeat with the second sheet of cookies.
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Bon Appetit! Enjoy!

French Apple Cake...

I am happy to introduce you to this very french, super moist, rustic, and easy to make apple cake :)

I came across this recipe while I was searching what to bake for a party in one of our friends' house, and there were a couple of specifications about what can be cooked... Firstly, the house we were going was kosher, and the dessert should have to be non-dairy... And secondly, it should not have nuts in it since one of our friends has nut allergy... Difficult for the dessert topic, since almost all desserts have some type of dairy in it and personally I love the crunch of nuts in them... I found this French Apple Cake recipe in David Lebovitz's blog as an option and loved the simplicity of it... Although it has butter in it, butter can be easily substituted with margarine... At the end, I ended up not baking this cake for that occasion, instead baked my carrot cake without the walnuts, but the apple cake was in my mind as a to do since then... I tried the recipe yesterday for our guests who came for brunch, and I am very happy with the result and that I saved it for a good-butter day :)...

Original recipe is Dorie Greenspan's... And according to David Lebovitz, this is a very typique recipe of hers: "not a lot of ingredients, relying on no special techniques or hard-to-find equipment but producing simply spectacular results. The cake is easily mixed up in a bowl, scraped into a cake pan, and in less than the time it takes to run to the pâtisserie for a store-bought cake you can have an authentic French cake right from your own oven."


Here is the original recipe, I did not see any reason to revise the recipe since it works perfectly... And my comments in italic and paranthesis...

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French Apple Cake
One 9-inch (23 cm) cake

Adapted from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan

3/4 cup (110g) flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
4 large apples (a mix of varieties)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
3 tablespoons dark rum (I used artificial rum extract that is sold at baking section in grocery stores. David says rum is "really vital for the taste, and the cake would be not as interesting without it. If you’re avoiding alcohol, you could double to triple up on the vanilla to compensate.")
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (115g) butter, salted or unsalted, melted and cooled to room temperature (I used unsalted butter)

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven.

2. Heavily butter an 8- or 9-inch (20-23cm) springform pan and place it on a baking sheet. (The springform pan I used is 22cm)

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Peel and core the apples, then dice them into 1-inch (3cm) pieces.

5. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until foamy then whisk in the sugar, then rum and vanilla. Whisk in half of the flour mixture, then gently stir in half of the melted butter. (When he says whisk, I used a hand mixer. When he says "stir", I used a spatula)

6. Stir in the remaining flour mixture, then the rest of the butter.

7. Fold in the apple cubes until they’re well-coated with the batter and scrape them into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top a little with a spatula.

8. Bake the cake for 50 minute to 1 hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. (I took mine out at 50 minutes) Let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan and carefully remove the sides of the cake pan, making sure no apples are stuck to it.

Serving: Serve wedges of the cake just by itself, or with crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream. (We ate with crème fraîche, and it really works well with the cake)

Storage: The cake will keep for up to three days covered. Since the top is very moist, it’s best to store it under a cake dome or overturned bowl. (I covered with plastic wrap, it worked)
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Bon Appetit! I hope you will enjoy it as much as we did...

Muhlama - a.k.a. Turkish Cheese Fondue, Black Sea Style

Muhlama is simply corn meal cooked in butter, then made to a pudding like consistency by the addition of water and lots of melting cheese... The last step is to pour melted, browned butter on top... This is one of the main dishes of Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey... It showcases some of the main produce of the region: cheese, butter and corn; and does it well. The simplicity and easy preparation of this dish made Muhlama one of the most cooked dishes because in the past hard-working Black Sea women do not have time to cook dishes with long preparation time since they work in the agricultural lands over the mountain slopes and also take care of their cattles... It is eaten together with Corn Bread, which is another staple of the region, and Corn Bread gives the crunchy texture you will need with this oozing dish and also accentuates the corn meal in the dish ... I will post a Blacksea style Corn Bread recipe one of the coming days...

This is the perfect comfort food for me, and also one of my favorite dishes among food I have tasted so far... And no Swiss cheese fondue makes me as happy as Muhlama - although I named the title Turkish cheese fondue... It is veeeeerrrry tasty, give it a try (did I emphasize enough :)). If you love cheese there is no way you will not like this - just look at the ratio of cheese to corn meal...

Ingredients:
(will make enough Muhlama for 2 to 4 people)

1/2 cup corn meal
2 cups water
2/3 stick of unsalted butter (1 stick is 125 gr)
+250gr mozarella* (cheese will be a bit less than 2 cups, I used 265 gr to be exact, but really does not matter, use 250, 260, 270... more cheese, more oozing...)
1,5tsp salt (start with 1/2 tsp and taste, salt amount should change according the the cheese you use)

Recipe:

1 - Cut the mozarella into small pieces and put aside...
2 - I use bigger size sauce pan to make this dish... Traditionally you would use a frying pan, but I feel safer with the deeper sauce pan...
3 - Melt 1/3 unsalted butter stick (half of the above amount) over medium heat, and when melted, cook the corn meal in it until corn meal starts to change color to darker shade of yellow...


4 - Once the color starts getting darker, add 2 cups of warm water, and salt... and mix and continue cooking... It should be simmering over medium heat...
5 - Add mozarella and mix... Continue mixing and cooking until all of the cheese melts...
6 - When all cheese is melted, put the pan aside...
7 - Before serving, melt other half of the butter (1/3 of the butter stick) in another pan... When the butter is slightly browned, pour it over the muhlama pan...


8 - Enjoy with corn bread for the best taste or if you don't have corn bread with any other type of bread. It won't dissappoint you either the case. Afiyet Olsun! (Turkish version of Bon Appetit!)


* You can use any type of mild melting cheese... After my trials&errors, I found out that the best result (closer to traditional taste) is obtained with mozarella... If you like the cheese taste to be sharper, add some (couple of tbsp) shredded parmesan into it...

Note: If you have left over, you can heat it and enjoy the next 1-2 days...

Red Lentil Pate... (Mercimek Koftesi)

Although I am not a vegetarian, I can easily go on with a vegetarian diet (except when I go to kebap restaurants in Turkey :)). One of the main vegetarian ingredients that I love are lentils, I love any kind of them red, green, split, etc... If I have to tell my favorite lentil recipe, I think that would be Turkish Style Red Lentil Soup, which is my all time favorite soup... The recipe I am posting today is not the soup (easiest, healthiest, and one of the tastiest soup, I should post that too), but my second favorite and that is Turkish style Red Lentil Pate... My husband, who is a Canadian, tasted this dish first time couple of months ago, and he loves it since then... He even prepared it for our guests once, and it was a success... Everyone asked for the recipe...

This recipe is from the blog called "Binnur's Turkish Cookbook" (http://www.turkishcookbook.com). I tried her recipe and did couple of changes to my taste after the first trial...

So, here you go... The recipe works everytime, so do not hesitate to try if you like red lentils, vegeterian starters or looking for a new healthy dish for your diet... We serve this dish as an appetizer or meze in our home...


Ingredients:
(makes approximately 20 pieces)

1 cup fine bulgur wheat - washed and drained (I buy mine from Whole Foods' organic section, could not find it anywhere else yet, other than Turkish grocery store)
1 cup red lentils - washed and drained
1 large onion or 2 small onions - cut into small cubes
1/2 cup canola oil (or sunflower oil)
2,5 tbsp tomato paste
1 lemon's juice
1,5 tbsp cumin
1,5 tsp salt (more or less to your taste)
1 tsp red pepper flakes (if you like spicy you can increase the amount, or eliminate if you dont like)
1/2 cup parsley - chopped
1/4 cup green onion - chopped
lettuce leaves

Recipe:

1- Put lentils and 2,5 cups of water into a pot, and cook over low heat until there is a little amount of water left.
2- Then, add bulgur wheat to the pot, and cook until all water evaporates. Cover the pot with a lid and put aside.
3- In a pan, saute the onions with canola oil until they just change color (no need to brown the onions, i like that they still have a bite in the finished dish).
4- Decrease the heat to low, and first add the tomato paste, then lemon juice, then the spices and salt...
5- Mix it well, and add the lentil and bulgur mixture. Continue cooking over low heat... Make sure the bulgur-lentil paste is mixed well with the rest. (If the paste seems too dry or the liquid in the pan does not seem enough to cover all of the paste, you can add 1/2 cup hot water, and cook until you have a homogenous mixture).
6- Cook until the mixture gets doughy and starts to leave edges of the pan.
7- Take off from the heat, cover with a lid and put aside for 1 hour or so, until it gets cold.
8- When cold, add chopped parsley and green onions and mix well.
9- Using your hands, take walnut size pieces from the mixture and shape as photographed above... Serve on lettuce leaves... (I use romaine leaves) Keep refrigerated.
10- You eat these balls rolled in a lettuce leave, which gives it a crunchy texture and a refreshing taste, at room temperature... You can squeeze lemon on top if you like more acidity. Afiyet olsun! (Turkish for Bon appetit!)

Asparagus with Vinaigrette...

This recipe is from orangette.blogspot.com. I discovered Molly Wizenberg, the writer of the blog, when I found her book - "A Homemade Life" - in a book store in New York last August... As soon as I started reading, I liked her style of writing, her stories, and also the simplicity of most of the recipes... I read that book as if it was a novel, because of her addictive storytelling ability, and I follow her blog since then...

Yesterday, for the first time I tried one of her recipes. My husband has became a fan of asparagus recently, so I was searching online to see an easy and potentially tasty recipe, and found this one in Orangette - calls it Asparagus Vinaigrette... I changed the presentation and ate it on top of a slice of toasted baguette, and enjoyed it very much... I also eliminated the sprinkling lemon zest option, and used sliced hard-boiled eggs rather than chopped.


Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

1 bunch asparagus
Salt
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
5 tablespoon olive oil
Half of medium size garlic
2 hard-boiled eggs (to be sliced and used on top of the crostini)
Freshly grounded black pepper
Approx. 8 slices of french baguette (diagonally sliced)

Recipe:

1- Boil 2 hard-boiled eggs (the amount of egg may change according to the size of asparagus bunch you use). I boiled the eggs the same way as recommended by Orangette: Put 2 eggs in a saucepan filled with cold water. Wait until the water boils over medium-high heat. When it starts boiling, remove the pan from the stove, and cover it. Wait for 12 minutes. Then rinse them in cold water. Peel them when they are cold and slice the eggs.

2- Break or cut off the woody ends of the asparagus and wash them. Fill a big skillet with water and put some salt into the water. When the water boils, add the asparagus and cook them for one and a half to two minutes. The asparagus should look bright green and still be crunchy. Drain the asparagus and run cool water over to stop the cooking process.

3- In a small jar, mix the ingredients of the vinaigrette: lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, oil, garlic and salt. Shake the jar to emulsify. Taste, and if necessary, add a bit more oil and/or salt. This makes as much as half a cup of vinaigrete.

4- Cut each asparagus into 2 and mix them with some of the vinaigrette.


5- Toast slices of baguette... On each slice of baguette, place 3 asparagus pieces next to each other, spoon some more vinaigrette on top, and top it with a slice of boiled egg. Sprinkle some salt and freshly grounded black pepper above all. (If you prefer, instead of my crostini presentation, you can eliminate the bread put chopped eggs on top of the asparagus and eat it as salad. Your choice, I like fancier presentations :))

Bon appetit! Enjoy this refreshing and tasty dish!

Celery Root Salad... (Yogurtlu Kereviz Salatasi)

I am Turkish, and I like the tastes and flavors of Turkish cuisine... This celery root recipe is not a traditional Turkish recipe but a recipe that has been prepared in my family's home in Turkey for years. It is usually served next to other savory dishes (pastries, salads) with Turkish tea when you have guests in between meal times...

I usually prepare this dish as meze (small platters - mediterrenean, middle eastern version of tapas) or as a starter next to stuffed philo triangles... It is a really easy, very tasty and surprisingly healthy dish... The recipe will be enough for 6 people as starter and more as meze...

Ingredients:

- 2 medium size celery roots (when peeled will weigh 800 gr)
- 500 gr Mediterranean yoghurt (it is thicker and creamier than the standard yoghurt in North America)
- 3 medium size garlic cloves
- 3/4 cup chopped walnut
- juice of half a lemon
- salt


Recipe:

1- Pick a medium to big size mixing bowl for the recipe, and squeeze half lemon's juice to the bowl.

2- Peel the celery root until you remove all the brown (brownish) colored outer covering. You need a strong knife for this.

3- Grate the celery roots with a grater, and immediately mix the grated celery root with the lemon juice in the bowl (because peeled celery roots can get dark very quickly).

4- In another mixing bowl, mix the yoghurt, 3 garlic cloves (minced or crushed into small pieces) and salt (to your taste - if you have no idea I recommend 1,5 teaspoon).

5- Chop 3/4 cup walnuts into small pieces (you can increase or decrease the walnut amount to your taste).

6- Mix celery root with walnuts and yoghurt mixture.

7- Put into your serving plate or bowl. I sprinkle some crushed red peppers and top with chopped walnuts.

8- Enjoy with crackers, pita, bread or by itself! Afiyet Olsun! (Turkish for Bon Appetit!)