my jerusalem kitchen

How To De-Seed A Pomegranate (without transforming your kitchen into a war zone)

myjerusalemkitchen

July 15, 2011

A couple of years ago, when all the people I knew in Jerusalem were eating pomegranates like it was their first time, all the facebook statuses seemed to be comments likening their kitchens to battlegrounds. I kept thinking, “Why are you getting juice everywhere? How could you possibly be cutting this thing in such a way that you’ve ruined two shirts, a cutting board and lost half of your fruit in the process?” And obviously, “Why is this your facebook status?”

This year, the pomegranate season in Jerusalem felt like it came and left as fast as Birthright. But in glorious North America, you don’t have to shop seasonally. So I thought it would be a perfect occasion to quickly post one method of properly de-seeding a pomegranate so that I won’t ever have to read any more inane facebook statuses about pomegranates. And to help you, of course.

First, core your pomegranate.

Then cut the pomegranate into quarts without fully separating each quart from the fruit.

Fill a large bowl with water, immerse the pomegranate into the water and fully separate each quart. Underneath the water, skin side up and with hands on either side, remove the seeds with your fingers like they are dancing across the beads, letting the seeds fall into the water.

Pour the water and seeds through a strainer, remove any white chunks and enjoy your pomegranate seeds without a bloody-looking counter top!!

Cranberry & Lemon Zest Scones

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July 12, 2011

The old me didn’t understand the fuss about scones. The old me would have force fed myself bran, flax and buckwheat before pretending to be happy consuming something I knew would certainly make me fat. But the new me….oh the new me. I’m so much better for all of you, now. I have perspective. If I want to eat a scone with my family during Sunday brunch, now I do so without feeling like I need to eat edamame and brown rice for the next month to bring my world back into balance. And these scones are that perfect little breakfast splurge. And you know what? You can use a smaller glass to make the rounds more “calorie friendly.”

These are perfectly soft, not dense like many scones are. The cranberries pack a sour punch against the only slightly sweet biscuit and the lemon zest adds a fresh flavor that at least made me feel like even if I decided to indulge, I wasn’t going overboard. These are definitely worth trying, and if you find a way to make them healthier, holler at me.

Recipe lightly adapted from here

Makes 14 scones

What you need:

4 tblsp lemon zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons additional if using fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse, or frozen cranberries
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream

How to do it:

Preheat your oven to 375 F. In a bowl, combine flour, butter, lemon zest, salt, and baking powder. Combine until the mixture forms a coarse meal. In a small bowl, mix together the cranberries and 3 tblsp of sugar. In another small bowl, whisk the egg and egg yolk and remaining ½ c sugar until just combined, and then stir in the cream. Pour this “small bowl” into the flour mixture and combine well.

Grab a glass or round shaped cookie-cutter and dip it into some flour. Then empty your batter onto a well-floured surface, and get some flour on your hands. Flatten and shape the batter so that it is 1” in thickness and about 8 inches in diameter. Take your glass or cookie cutter and make rounds out of the dough, reusing the scraps and cutting more and more rounds until it’s all used up.

Place on a parchment-lined baking tray on the middle rack for 15-20 minutes or until the sides have goldened. Let cool for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Note** You can flash freeze the scones and then cook them straight as long as you add a few minutes to the cooking time.

Healthy Omelette Wrap with Pistachio Pesto, Feta & Greens

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July 7, 2011

In Jerusalem, everyone’s apartments have leaks. In Canada everyone goes on vacation to a cottage. Some things in life are this straight forward. News to me!

After a few days spent tanning, canoeing and BBQing ribs, lamb chops and burgers with my fiance’s family “at the cottage,” none of us wanted to see meat when we finally returned to their home. So, DAIRY IT WAS! We had an enormous brunch, all of which has been and will be making up many recent and upcoming posts, if they haven’t already nabbed a spot: shakshuka; spinach, pomegranate and strawberry salad with maple vinaigrette; cranberry, lemon zest scones; peach, granola crisp; camembert cheese with pita chips; these omelette wraps; watermelon with mint; fruit salad and fennel ice cream with dark chocolate flakes. What a mouth full. Literally.

We had some dill left over from when we made garlic, dill-roasted potatoes and dozens of eggs left over from scrambles that never saw the light of day. So, Adam’s mom and I cracked the eggs, dropped dill into the mixture, lathered these guys in pistachio pesto, crumbled feta and placed some lettuce into a beautiful, meat-less, bread-less, pro-bikini weather omelette wrap. Simply delicious. The dill is subtle and the pistachio pesto shines like a homecoming queen. Honestly, you could fill this wrap with anything you wanted: make them sweet with jam and powdered sugar, make them spicy with harissa, guacamole and cheese—oh the possibilities! The possibilities! When I landed in California and made them for my own family, I stuffed them with hummus, feta and spinach. It’s just a really fun new way to eat an omelette. Enjoy!

Adapted from here

Makes 10 wraps

What you need:

8 whole eggs

250 g egg whites (about 10 egg whites)

pinch of sea salt

3 tblsp of fresh dill; chopped

olive oil for frying

pistachio pesto

about 1 ¼ c crumbled feta cheese (this will depend on your preference)

lettuce, spinach, kale or any assortment of greens you love (washed and dried)

pomegranate seeds for garnish (totally optional)

How to do it:

Whisk together the eggs, egg whites and salt until combined well and then add the dill and give it another quick whisking.

Over low-high heat, place about 1/2 tsp of olive oil into a medium-sized frying pan. If you do two frying pans at once, you’ll save a lot of time. If you’re using olive oil though, take a paper towel and give the oil a quick spread all around the edges of the pan. Pour about ¼ c of the egg mixture (less is more because we want these thin and crepe-like!) into the frying pan and swirl it around the pan so that it spreads out evenly. Look how thin these get:

It could take anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute for the eggs to set, but once the edges of the omelette separate from the pan you’ll want to flip it over carefully with a spatula.

Give it another 30 seconds or so on the other side and gently transfer the omelette to a cutting board, silicon baking sheet or large plate.

Once you’ve passed that test, place an omelette onto a plate (pretty side down), spread about ¾ tblsp of pistachio pesto down the center and then sprinkle or crumble some feta down the center. If your pesto isn’t spreading well, you can add a tiny bit of water to it, starting tsp by tsp (but I didn’t have any problems). Then place your leaves down the center, leaving a little bit of green peaking out of the opening and saying hello to the world.

From the top, tightly roll the omelette and cut it in half on a diagonal. Garnish with pomegranate seeds or something else that looks nice. Enjoy!

Pistachio Pesto

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July 6, 2011

I have to seek out a lot of recipes I that I try in my kitchen. Sometimes I’ve eaten them in a restaurant and tried to reproduce them at home or sometimes I’ve eaten them in a restaurant and insisted the chefs let me come cook it with them to learn how to make it. But sometimes, the recipes find me.

When we lived in Jerusalem, I used to buy 150 g of ground pistachios every week because we’d use them in everything: desserts, pasta, and for our favorite dinner: pistachio-crusted chicken with lemon (which I’ll post soon). So, when I say that recipes find me, I’m referring to those days where you are down to your “last person to be picked for the team” ingredients and all you can do is roll your eyes, reach into the fridge listlessly and hope that whatever you make won’t give you heart burn.

I didn’t know, however, how lethal combining pistachio, garlic, basil and parmesan could be. The second I tasted this pesto, my eyes did that thing cartoon characters’ eyes do when they pop out of their sockets, make a bwoing-oing sound and slam back into their heads. This dip is unstoppable. Kind of like I think Muhammara and Harissa are unstoppable, if you tried either one yet.

Spread it on bread, use it as a pizza sauce (although you’ll need to add a lot more oil), dunk some pita chips into it, or spread it onto a thin, eggy, dill-spiced crepe of sorts, add some feta and greens and roll it up for breakfast!

What you need:

How to do it:

Place your pistachios in a grinder (food processor, coffee grinder, whatever you have available to you) until they become a powder. If you don’t have one, and don’t mind a nuttier pesto, you could probably just put them in a plastic bag and smash it with a pan a few times. Chop your basil finely and add it to the ground pistachios. Add the garlic and Parmesan cheese and give the mix a few stirs. Add the olive oil and stir until there are no visible dry globs and until it reaches a spreadable consistency. Taste the mixture and if it needs salt, add accordingly—some Parmesan cheeses are incredibly salty. Personally, I like it best after it has sat in the fridge overnight, but you can eat it right away. Enjoy!

Fennel Ice Cream with Dark Chocolate Flakes (Without a Machine)

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July 4, 2011

First of all, thanks for being patient with me during this last week or so of transition. I’m so sorry that I’ve neglected my blog, but I am back and full force with a bunch of new recipes that I am really excited to post! Because I’m shifting gears now and getting ready to begin law school, I want to encourage you to subscribe to my blog so you will receive emails each time I make a new post. This way, if the frequency of my posts change, which they likely will, you will always be in the loop. To subscribe by email, scroll down on the homepage and look to the right side bar. I promise, however, that I will always post at least once a week when school begins. Now, on to the food!

Adam and I went to Sicily a few months ago and in Ragusa we found a gourmet gelato shop known for daring flavors. We tried beet root (gross), red wine, white wine, carob, pomegranate and, WOW, fennel ice cream. One of the things I already miss most about living in Jerusalem is that you can buy a kilogram of fennel bulbs (about eight bulbs) for roughly $2.00. It’s $4 for ONE BULB at Whole Foods! And $3 for two bulbs at Trader Joes! I have been seriously craving fennel since landing in North America, so I decided that it was time to seek out a fennel ice cream recipe and enjoy the flavor of fennel like its flowing from the faucet gurrrrrrrl.

First, a disclosure: I’m not crazy about ice cream. I don’t ever buy it at the grocery store. I’ll eat it probably once a year, and only if someone paired it with blackberry pie, everyone’s eating it and I feel forced. Frozen yogurt is my bag, baby. On top of that, I was initially scared of making ice cream because it’s…well, ice cream, for crying out loud. It’s like hearing someone picked flour stalk and ground it into poweder for their muffins! But because I’ve begun watching The Next Food Network Star and Masterchef, where everyone makes ice cream as a last-stitch effort when their tarts come out liquidy or they drop their cakes, I thought, “how hard could it be?”

And I have to tell you: it ain’t!

I made Adam take the first bite and when I saw his “focused face” turn to his “oh my god!” face, I knew I had succeeded. And not just succeeded—I had arrived. I shoveled a spoonful into my mouth and HALLELUJAH, HALLELUJAH!

Bells were chiming!

Birds were singing!

The bees were pollinating!

And I just hit my exclamation mark quota for the year.

This ice cream is unbearably delicious, as the Smitten Kitchen describes it. It is surprisingly thick and creamy, resembling dulche de leche or sweetened condensed milk, but it is not overwhelmingly sweet at all. And just when you have processed that what you are tasting is, in fact, thick and creamy, the fennel rises up the sides of your mouth like Moses parting the Red Sea and BAM! dives down your throat like an Olympic swimmer. The flavor! Ohhhhh, the flavor… Dear lord, this is fantastic. Make this. Now. Return to it with a teaspoon every day this week. Give it to your step children to make them love you. Make it for your boyfriend so he’ll finally propose. Spoon feed it to your grandparents so they’ll include you in their wills. Eat it with….WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?

Adapted from here, with help from here

Makes about 2 cups; Takes about 40 minutes of actual work and the rest is just freezing time

What you need:

2 tsp fennel seeds; crushed

1 2/3 c heavy cream

1 c whole milk

¾ c sugar; divided

4 large egg yolks

¼ c dark chocolate; melted

How to do it:

Crush your fennel seeds with a mortar and pestle or with a few pulses of a coffee grinder. Alternatively, put them in a zip lock bag and smash them with something. They do not need to be a powder. Just broken so their aromas are released.

*A quick note before starting: try and keep your bowl in the freezer for as long as possible without removing it from the cold too much or for too long. The colder the better texture.

Start by placing a large metal or plastic bowl into the freezer. Bring cream and fennel seeds to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan, then cover and let steep OFF of the heat for 30 minutes. This will be our ice cream flavor.

MEANWHILE, bring milk, 1/2 c of sugar and a pinch of salt to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring continuously until it reaches a simmer. Remove from the heat. This will be our milk mixture.

In a bowl, whisk together the yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Then add the milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking all the while. Return this new mixture (custard mixture) to the saucepan and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the mixture coats the back of the spoon and registers 175 F on an instant-read thermometer. I didn’t have a thermometer, so I did this just until it looked like it was about to boil and everything turned out fine. Do not let it boil though.

Immediately strain the custard mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into the bowl that has been chilling in the freezer, then quick-chill it by setting the bowl in an ice bath for 20 minutes (uncovered) or until the custard mixture is cool. To make an ice bath, just fill a larger bowl with ice and place the custard-filled bowl into the large bowl, surrounded by ice.

Then, strain the ice cream flavor through a fine-mesh sieve into the custard mixture. Continue to chill it in the ice bath for 45 minutes. As it starts to freeze near the edges, remove it from the freezer and stir vigorously. If you have one, use a hand-held mixer for the best results. I just used a spatula. Place back into the freezer and keep checking every 45 minutes or so, stirring as it freezes until the ice cream is frozen (it’s uncovered this whole time). This will likely take at least 4-5 hrs, or maybe even need as long as overnight to completely harden.

To make Stracciatella ice cream, melt some dark chocolate in the microwave, drizzle it over nearly frozen ice cream and then stir it once it has hardened, breaking up the stripes of chocolate into flakes. Transfer the ice cream to a covered container and store in freezer. Enjoy!

Roasted Feta & Mint Stuffed Tomatoes + Bonus Appetizer (Persian Herbs & Feta Platter)

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June 24, 2011

Friday after Friday after Friday, I became used to a consistent routine: an hour at the market, a few hours for the challah, a few more hours for cooking & setting up Shabbat dinner followed by 25 minutes of scarfing down food. Great. Done. See you guys next week. Adam cleans up.

A couple of weeks ago though, I finally figured out how to

slow

all

down,

drag out the meal, and bask in the enjoyment of spending more time eating and relaxing with close friends than it spent to prepare the food.

Now, to many of you this may seem obvious and you’ve been cooking like this for ages. But it has really been a challenge for me to learn how to pair light beginnings with complete and filling endings while keeping people at my table eating and talking for more than an hour. Plus, I actually find it offensive when people feed me food that makes me want to die of fullness on my walk home. And that feeling is essentially synonymous with Shabbat, if you ask me, so I took this endeavor very seriously.

This is one of the light appetizers that I made on what I am going to call “My First Successful Shabbat Dinner Who-Knows-How-Many Shabbat Dinners Too Late.” It helped that my friend Tamar asked for a Persian-themed meal, so we started out slowly with traditional Persian appetizers of herbs, feta, radishes and lavash bread (I actually used lafa bread because I couldn’t find lavash at the shuk); dolmeh (dolmas), several dips, a pistachio-cranberry-fennel salad with a lemon-mint dressing, hummus and hamutzim. I guess the trick was only providing enough to get your stomach gurgling and not enough to actually feel satiated. That does sound obvious…

Traditionally, the herb & cheese platter is comprised of: tarragon (tarkhoon), mint (nawnaw), persian basil (reyhan), cilantro (geeshneez), watercress (shawhi), green onion (peeazcheh), chive (tareh) and radish (torobcheh); a block of feta cheese cut into bite-sized pieces and some lavash (which is a soft, thin flatbread bread that is used to make wraps or with kebabs) for wrapping. I had to make do with less, plus some herbs I didn’t even recognize. Nevertheless, you place your favorite herbs and cheese on a small square of lavash, roll it up and eat! It’s tremendously refreshing, delicious and simple.

Back to the tomatoes. I really enjoyed these because the flavor wasn’t overpowering and although they aren’t a “traditional Iranian dish” that I’ve ever had (though maybe they are!), they were made in the spirit of the herb and cheese platter above and were fun to eat and beautiful to look at.

Serves 5 as an appetizer

What you need:

100 grams of feta cheese (or one container like you can buy at any Persian grocer or the same size of the Trader Joe’s feta that comes in the plastic container, although I wouldn’t go with the crumbled variety)

5 tomatoes

about 3 tblsp olive oil (just keep it out because you’ll want it for drizzling)

1 tsp table salt or a large pinch of kosher salt

pinch of ground black pepper

2 garlic cloves; minced

1/4 c bread crumbs

2 tblsp fresh mint; chopped

How to do it:

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Halve the tomatoes and remove the seeds and wetness from the inside. Place the tomato halves juice-side-down on paper towels to drain for about 5 minutes.

In a bowl, mix together two tblsp of the olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Gently toss the drained tomato halves in the oil mixture until nicely coated. Let them sit and “marinate” in this mixture for 15 minutes.

While that’s happening, in a small bowl, mix together the bread crumbs and feta cheese.

Place the marinated tomato halves, open-side-up, on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Fill each tomato half with the bread crumb & cheese filling. Drizzle about 1 tblsp of olive oil over the tomatoes. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the tomatoes have slightly softened and the underside of the tomatoes are brown. If you notice that the tops of the tomatoes are starting to look very brown (like the bread crumbs are burning), bring the tray out slightly and just move a little bit of the mixture around. No worries. Top with the chopped mint (I would do more than I showed in this picture), and serve warm. Enjoy!

From the Gate: Gluten & Dairy-Free Chocolate, Orange & Pistachio Cake

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June 22, 2011

I am writing to you now from Ben Gurion airport, all packed up and with one final bag of trail mix put together from my favorite spice shop in the shuk. When I go through Israeli airport security, my fiance, Adam, knows how much I usually love the interrogation and level of detail the security people demand. Sure! I’ll tell them why I went to Morocco and who I traveled with in Jordan, and why I interviewed Iranians in Israel–even if it means an additional 45 minutes of waiting in lines, being escorted to different lines and counters, answering the same questions over and over.

“Where did you live in Israel?”

“Well, first we lived in the German Colony, then we moved to Nachlaot, which was much better because it’s younger, there’s more to do, more stimulation, the shuk, more–“Do you have family here?”

“Well, no, not yet. I hope one day my family will move here because I love living here but I really miss them a lot when–Why were you in Morocco and Jordan?”

This time though, choking back tears while alone at the airport, the questions felt taunting, like a playground bully who whispers the wrong answer into your ear after the teacher has asked you to perform quick arithmetic on the spot.

“How do you pronounce your last name?” “Wilner.” “Do you have an additional photograph ID?” “Yes.” “Why were you in Israel?” “I was just visiting a bit.” Inside I was screaming, “It’s me, friend! What’s with the formality? We’re mish-puh-chuh (family, as my dad would say) now!” Yet she kept fighting me! “What did you do here exactly?” Would you please show me your signature?”

I’ve made it to the gate now. And I am avoiding eye contact with everyone (especially the one person I know whose sitting nearby me) so I don’t have to face where I’m going, why I’m leaving, how I feel about leaving or whether I will be coming back. I’m about to board the plane, and then it will all actually be real. I will really have left behind my apartment, friends and glorious little kitchen where all this cooking magic began. New people will move in, open my fridge, fill up my cabinets, and bake in my oven without knowing me or the laughter that surrounded our dining table. But I still have all my buddies at the shuk who gave me warm goodbyes: Nahit, Noam, Shabbtai, Yosef, Shalom, Coby and Uzi. The red bell pepper man, the two guys who let us take some engagement photos in their vegetable stall and Roni, my generous Hamutzim friend. These are very special things I am taking with me.

So, you’ll have to forgive me if I’m slow on the posting this next week. It’s because I will be in transit. But I have something really wonderful to tide you over. This is a delciously dark chocolate cake, moist, smooth and very intense. There is no special significance why this recipe is today’s posting, other than it is a representation of my kitchen the last few days living in Israel: half-empty spice jars, several half-eaten chocolate bars and a lone orange. So I bring you a delicious recipe, missing some of the “normal” cake ingredients but unique and flavorful on it’s own. And maybe it’s a little bit like my life right now, too: missing some things that have become “normal” in it but still coming together just fine…maybe just as good.

What you need:

4 oz bittersweet chocolate

1/2 c canola oil

3/4 c date honey (or you can use sugar)

3 large eggs

1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tblsp orange zest

1 tsp vanilla extract

ground pistachio for garnish

How to do it:

Preheat oven to 375 F and butter a 9-in round baking pan. Line the bottom with a round of wax paper and butter it.

Chop chocolate into small pieces. Create a double boiler and melt the chocolate with the butter, stirring, until it’s all smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk the date honey/sugar into the chocolate mixture. Add the eggs, orange zest and vanilla and combine well. Pour 1/2 cup cocoa powder over chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Pour batter into pan and bake in middle of oven 25 minutes, or until top has formed a thin crust. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes and invert onto a serving plate. Cover with your favorite frosting. I did a chocolate-honey-cinnamon frosting. Enjoy! (For the frosting, I just made it up, but it was about: 1 c powdered sugar, 3 tblsp vegetable oil, 3 tsp cinnamon, and 2/3 c cocoa powder–you’ll have some left over).

Whole Wheat, Spiced Up Zucchini Bread

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June 18, 2011

Whenever something breaks in my apartment, I feel really bad calling my landlord and asking him to come down to fix it. Despite being jolly, helpful and never making me feel bad, I always feel guilty for disturbing him. When I dropped 10+ cups of dry rolled-oats behind my fridge the other day, and they fell into the container of water that sits under the fridge, I didn’t know how to explain to my landlord that the fridge was making oatmeal! I was so embarrassed, shocked and grossed out from picking out all the oatmeal by hand. When he came downstairs and heard what happened, he laughed in disbelief, until he got close enough to the bottom of the fridge and got a whiff…As a peace offering, I cut him a huge slice of my favorite zucchini bread. It’s good for an on-the-run breakfast, as a gift for your neighbors, as a snack, dessert or even a peace offering. Maybe I’ll write Netanyahu an email…

So, this is healthy, right? It has vegetables in it! It has whole wheat flour! It’s dairy-free! Well, I’ve at least tried to make it a little healthier, though this recipe is much more like a cake than a bread. I’ve had zucchini bread before that was really dry and dense but this recipe is nothing like that. It is moist, light, sweet and almost creams into a batter inside of your mouth.I brought this to a party the other day, and within minutes everyone had ripped off chunks (by hand!) and were on their way back for seconds and thirds. I know there are probably a lot of great zucchini bread recipes out there, but give this one a shot because it’s the best one I have ever tasted. Plus, it looks beautiful when it comes out of the oven because the center splits open and you can see all the delicious treats inside. You really can’t fail with this recipe either–just make sure you follow the order of mixing the ingredients because one time I forgot to do the eggs and added them at the end which left me with two cement blocks that I had to throw out.

Makes two bread loaves, or you can turn them into muffins, though admittedly, I don’t know how many it will make–maybe 20.

Majorly adapted from here

What you need:

2 large zucchinis; grated (or you can do one large zucchini and one large carrot for some variation)

1 1/2 c sugar (you can go as low as 1 c here, too)

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 c vegetable oil (you can go as low as 3/4 c, but this is where the moisture comes from)

3 heaping teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 tsp baharat spice (if you can’t get a hold of it, just go with nutmeg)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 c chocolate chips (or cranberries, raisins, or nuts…your choice)

How to do it:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Beat the eggs in a large bowl and add the oil, sugar, vanilla and zucchini.

Combine the flour, cinnamon, baharat (or nutmeg), baking soda, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips (or nuts/dried fruit). Stir this into the egg mixture and divide the batter into two loaf pans. Bake for 50-60 (but check on it around 45 min) minutes or until the center no longer looks wet and you can give the pan a slight shake without the cake wobbling like belly fat. Enjoy!

This one was just with cranberries and raisins

Upside Down Apple Honey Cake

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June 14, 2011

These days, I’m really suspicious of dessert recipes. The last two cakes I made were really disappointing and I feel like people lie all over the internet about the goodness of their recipes. It really upsets me when I put faith in a recipe and buy all the ingredients only to end up with a disappointing result. Well, not today. Today, I took dessert into my own hands and have something truly remarkable for you.

I never thought I’d see the day when I couldn’t put down a non-chocolate dessert, but it is here. I’ve been cutting my slices bigger an bigger each time I open the fridge as if the extra calories don’t exist. Aside from feeling totally impressed by the appearance of an upside down cake, this cake tastes simply sweet, light, and has the perfect amount of chewy on the edges.

You won’t be disappointed when you make this. That’s for sure. There’s also some wiggle room here: using peaches or nectarines instead of apples, or maybe figs, or pears, or pineapple…what about pitted cherry halves or plums?? Oooh yes, I want to do this with plums. And play with the spices. Go light on the cinnamon and try some ground cloves or go crazy with the figs and add some rosemary! (I saw a fig & rosemary jam recipe for this on Katherin Martinelli’s website that looks divine.) In other words, there is a lot of room for interpretation here because the actual cake batter tastes great and the fruit just becomes a matter of preference.

Recipe adapted from here

What you need:

3/4 c date honey (regular honey will work fine, too)

1 1/4 apple; sliced

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c butter; softened BUT you can cut this in half and replace half with vegetable oil, which I did and it was delightful)

1/2 c sugar

2 eggs

almond flakes for garnish

How to do it:

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line a 9 inch round cake pan with parchment paper and cut it to fit inside. Make sure you have the right size tin here because I’ve done it with different shaped ones and if that cake batter gets too thin then the apples will sink into the cake! Lightly butter the parchment paper. Pour 1/4 c of your honey onto the parchment and then arrange your apple slices. Sprinkle cinnamon evenly over all the apple slices.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, cream together the butter (or butter & oil if you have divided the amount), remaining honey and sugar. Blend in the eggs. Add the dry ingredients until the batter is smooth and pour the batter over the apples, trying to pour it all over, evenly, so you don’t have to spread it too much and risk messing up your beautifully arranged fruit.

Bake for 30-40 minutes (depends on your oven) until you can stick a knife or toothpick into the center and it comes out clean. While this is baking, the center will look wobbly while the edges look like they are crisping. Do not worry! Let it cook for another five minutes or so, keeping a close eye on the cake until that center hardens like the rest of the cake. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes.

Once the cake is cool enough to touch, put a serving plate over the cake wrong-side up, and while holding both the cake and the plate, place both hands on either side and give the cake a quick flip. Now look at those beautiful apples! Sprinkle with some almond flakes and enjoy!

Khoresht Fesenjan (Persian Pomegranate & Walnut Stew) Pizza With Pears

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3 comments

June 9, 2011

I hope my grandma isn’t following my blog. I’m scared what might happen if she finds out that after finally learning how to make khoresht fesenjan, a Persian delicacy, I went and turned it into a pizza sauce.

When my fiance, Adam, first met my dad’s family at a Hannukah party, my uncle brought out 12-year-old whisky. When Adam poured his portion into a cup of hot coffee, my aunt locked eyes with him and, in front of everyone as only true Wilner embarrassment can be achieved, said disapprovingly, “Did you just pour 12-year-old whiskey into your coffee?” Well, that is a little bit how I felt pouring this sauce onto my whole wheat dough: like I was wearing Manolo Blahniks with a bright red OLD NAVY sweatshirt. But I was very, very wrong. This was fantastic pairing of flavors and cuisines.

Now, there is no way around one thing: this is a dessert pizza through and through. But the chewy, whole wheat dough really compliments the nuttiness of the walnuts and the tang of the pomegranate syrup is mitigated by the warmth and sweetness of the pear slivers and softened by a pinch of cinnamon.

What you need:

This recipe for no-knead pizza dough

This recipe for khoresht fesenjan (exclude the meat, salt, onion and turmeric, and divide the proportions in half)

1 pear; sliced into slivers

1 pinch of cinnamon

olive oil for drizzling

How to do it:

**Quick Note: if you want your sauce to have a nuttier taste to it, you do not have to cook the sauce until the oils from the walnuts are visible. Though it definitely tastes less bitter to do so, there is still a very nutty flavor that can be achieved in a shorter period of time. But taste as you go, by all means. This is pizza, after all.

Prepare your dough as described in the recipe link above. Once you have rolled it out, put it into a 500 F oven on the bottom for 5-6 minutes or until the bottom has become golden and the dough has a few bubbles. Remove from the oven and pop any bubbles. With the dough still atop the parchment paper, spread about 3-4 tblsp of the sauce onto your dough (sauce recipe provided in link above), being careful not to overload the center of the dough or it will get too soggy. You may have some sauce left over. Place your pear slices around the perimeter of the dough, forming concentric circles of pear slices. Put back into the oven on the middle rack for another 7 minutes or so, or until the dough feels stiff and not flimsy. Enjoy!