Melomacarona- Holiday Cookie of Greece

Christmas is not Christmas without Melomacarona in Greece- these are crumbly syrup drenched cookies with orange and cinnamon and honey (the "Melo" in the name comes from "Μέλι" = honey). I made these once in 1990 and they were perfect. the recipe was written on a scrap of paper I lost, and I never ate one I liked as well, so I never bothered making them again until now. This is a hybrid of several recipes- taking what I liked of each, to make a cake like moist cookie sweet with cinnamon, filled with minced walnuts, and scented with orange and a little liquor. 

This is a project, but not a difficult one, and it makes a mountain of cookies, and the house smells fantastic for days afterwards. A nice plus- in a season of butter and eggs, this is a cookie vegans will love.

Syrup-

Boil together for 4-5 minutes, untilsugar is disolved:

3 C sugar

3 C water

half of an orange with its peel

4 whole cloves

3 cinnamon sticks

pinch salt

then add:

2/3 C honey

Let cool completely.

In a your largest bowl, blend-

1/3 C sugar

zest of 2 oranges

- until the oils are released and the sugar is like bright orange wet sand

then add:

1 C fine semolina

8 C all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 T cinnamon (if you just opened it and it's sweet and fresh. Otherwise 3)

nice pinch ground cloves

a few grinds of fresh nutmeg

In another bowl, blend:

1 2/3 C fresh orange juice

1 C vegetable oil

1 C good olive oil

3-4 tablespoons brandy or whiskey or whatever you like

Pour into the dry mixture and blend quickly and very lightly with your hands. If you over-mix or kneed it, the oil will seep out if the dough. Be quick, decisive, casual.

Chop well:

2 C walnuts

and add:

a little cinnamon, a spoon full of sugar, a little booze to moisten

Now take a piece the size of a walnut, flatten it into a disc, and put a little nut mixture int he middle. Seal the dough around it into an oval, and mark with a cake cutter or fork or anything to make decorative indentations to catch the syrup.

Bake at 180 C/375 F for 22-25 minutes, until deep golden. They will lighten first, then darken again. Hot from the oven, put them into the syrup- bottom side down, then after a minute turn them over and leave them ten minutes. (Most recipes say ten seconds). Then let them drain on a rack.

They will be wet and sticky but still crispy at first, but the syrup will gradually seep into every crumb.

More on holidays:

Kourabiedes are butter rich and light as a snowflake

Christmas in Greece

Read More »

Briam- Roasted Ratatouille a la Greque

Briam is the Greek Ratatouille. Ratatouille is worth standing around and adding things to the pot in their turn. But the first good eggplants and tender zucchini and affordable tomatoes coincide with the first warm spring days- there's urban gardening to see to, balcony furniture to repaint, and long afternoons in the shade on the veranda with stacks of old New Yorker magazines. This is a lunch you set the table for, open a bottle of wine for, as it fills the house with the scent of herbs and tomatoes. 

If it only took you four minutes to get it into the oven, that is nobody's business. 

We will need:

2or 3 eggplants

2 or 3 zucchini

2 or3 potatoes

a dozen or so cherry tomatoes, or 2 or 3 large tomatoes

2 onions

4 or 5 long peppers, any color

2 or 3 cloves of garlic

salt

pepper

fresh herbs- thyme, majoram, or oregano

olive oil- about a wineglass full
A lemon

This makes an enormous pan of food, but it is very good the next day, cold, at room temperature, or warmed. If you still think you need less, make less.

Wash all the vegetables. Cut the eggplant into quarter or half round slices. Salt them heavily and set them in a colander to drain. Cut the zucchini into lengths of about 2 cm (1 "), and cut these into halves only if the zucchini is very wide. Cut the onions into 6 wedges each- we will eat them as a vegetable, not an aromatic. Cut the peppers as you wish, not too small. Cut the potatoes in pieces the size of the eggplants. Leave the cherry tomatoes whole. If you are using large tomatoes, cut them into quarters- like the onions, we will eat them as a vegetable on their own. Leave the garlic cloves with their peel. 

Rinse the eggplant slices and shake them dry. Toss everything in a sheet pan with the oil, herbs, salt and pepper, and roast at 170 C/ 350 F for nearly an hour- All the vegetables should be tender, the tomatoes concentrated, the onions charred on the edges, the garlic mushy in its skin. 

Taste it. If it needs brightening- and it sometimes does in the early season when the vegetables have not hit their peak yet- scrub a lemon, zest it and juice it, and toss this with the vegetables. Even an orange if you like. This is not an element in classic briam, but it makes the dish.

Serve this with feta on the side. If you like it cooled down, try it with yogurt- not the thick kind but simple plain yogurt, as it is, or mixed with chopped fresh mint.

Smear the roasted garlic on bread and add some of the smashed tomato as you linger at the table. The flavors of the dish are so clean and simple you won't be at all tired of it when you have it again in the evening. You may find yourself making it often.

Read More »

Last-Minute Easter Desserts

Happy Easter! It has taken me by surprise entirely. Orthodox Easter is usually later, but rarely five weeks later- we are just barely into Lent. If the Holiday has also come up sooner than you had planned for, there's still no reason to go without dessert, and a very glamorous, festive one.

Austro-Greque Pavlova-

Pavlova dazzles- lofty, creamy and light. Rustic meringue shaped with the back of a spoon, some poached fruit, and Baroque heaps of whipped cream. 4 ingredients (plus a little whiskey or rum?)

Toulouse-Lautrec Chocolate Cake-

Can a cake be a turning point in your life? This one was for me- I have been making it since I was 13 and got a cookbook by Maida Heatter, thereafter my mentor and guardian angel in all things sweet. Toulouse-Lautrec cake is so simple that you can make it on a tv show, mess it up by forgetting 2 of the 5 ingredients, and it will still come out perfect (I did- that's what the photo is from). 

Meringue Mushrooms-

We make these very simple meringue mushrooms to decorate our Bûche de Noël. On their own, they are full of whimsy, perfect for the Holiday, and a delight for children and everyone else. If you have no block chocolate, melt a couple of chocolate eggs to glue them together.

Lenten Chocolate Cake-

Perhaps you've already boiled and dyed all the eggs in the house? Borrow this delicious, moist chocolate sheet cake with a fluffy light texture from lent. Mix dry ingredients straight in the baking pan- no bowl needed. Add water, oil, and vinegar, stir with fork, put the cake in the oven, and the fork in the sink when you're done. And you're done. 

Read More »

The Best Rice Pudding.

People ask me for this recipe more than any other, which is surprising because it's the simplest dish, and everyone has their own version, and they're all delightful. Still, everyone who tries this one says it is the best rice pudding they have ever had. They get excited about it, and rice pudding is honestly not usually an exciting dessert. 

Three easy steps make this so rich and delicate you will want it for lunch boxes and fancy dinner parties both. First, use almost no rice. Give it room to swell, be tender to the bite, and swim around in the milky pudding. Too much rice and it is dense and heavy.  Second- salt the rice while it is swelling in the simmering water- you won't taste the salt, but you'll taste rice, and a balanced flavor with the sweet milk. Third- add heavy cream at very end. It makes all the difference (and there is so much water in the rice that it will not be overwhelmingly rich).

We will need:

4 T/ 40 g short-grain rice- like sushi rice or risotto rice

1/8- 1/4 tsp salt

450 ml/ 2 C water

1 liter/ 4 C whole milk

150-200 g/ 3/4 - 1 C sugar (use the lesser amount if you will be making the syrup)

200 ml/ scant 1 C heavy cream

60 g/ 1/2 C cornstarch

a vanilla bean, or good vanilla extract (easy to make your own!) to taste

Put the rice and the salt in a large pot with the water- it will look like too little rice and way too much water, don't worry- and simmer on low heat until the rice swells and absorbs all the water. The rice should be as full and soft as possible, but without falling apart.

This takes 20 - 30 minutes. Add 3/4 of the milk, and all of the sugar and simmer until it is quite hot. Meanwhile blend the rest of the cold milk with the cornstarch (this is called a "slurry"). Add this to the hot sweet milk and rice, whisking gently all the while, until it comes to a full boil and thickens. Pour in the cream, blending gently:

Add vanilla to taste:

and pout into individual bowls, or one large one. Serve warm, or cool, or chilled, with cinnamon if you like.

But, if you want to turn it into something a little more exotic, Try this:

200 g/ 1 C sugar

1/2 C water

rose water to taste- 1-2 Tablespoons 

a spoonful of corn syrup or glucose if you have it (prevents crystallization)

a drop of red or pink coloring, or a few drops of pomegranate juice

a few pistachios for garnish 

Pour the sugar into the middle of a pot, and surround it with the water (so that no sugar crystals cling to the sides of the pan). Bring to a boil gently, add the corn syrup, and then the rose water, and the faintest toothpick dab (I color a shot of syrup and add it back to control the intensity) of color or a drop of pomegranate juice.

The delicate color of the syrup is beautiful against the snowy cream, and the milky richness of the pudding holds up against the exotic perfume. A couple of green pistachios set it off.

Note: When I am serving the pudding with the rose water syrup, I sometimes flavor it with half a bay leaf rather than vanilla- it gives an elusive masculine perfume, and plays up the distinctly feminine fragrance of the syrup. Some crushed cardamon pods will give this simple pudding some exotic mystery.

Read More »

Torte of Good Fortune for the New Year- Sparkle and Simplicity

The classic New Year's Eve dessert in Greece is called a Vassilopita- named for St. Vassilis (bearer of gifts), celebrated on the first day of the New Year. It's usually a tsoureki (challah)-like sweet raised cake. I love tradition, but a bread, no matter how buttery or delicious, is not a festive dessert in our household. We use the ocassion to make anything grand- usually an experiment- as long as it is round, and has a coin. Last year we did a Swedish Princesstorte with homemade marzipan (green!) blanketing a pillow of whipped cream on top of spongecakes sandwiched together with raspberry jam and brushed with rum syrup. Beautiful. Messy to cut.

This year's Vasilopita is also messy to cut. You won't mind- it is delicious. We made a trial so I could share it with you here. We sometimes have disagreements about tradition- this beautiful cake is showered with pomegranate seeds- bearers of good luck. The fruit is a symbol of good fortune for the New Year, and so this untraditional nod towards tradition makes a delicious and stunningly beautiful compromise. It is also very very simple.

We made a meringue shell. Then from the egg yolks left over- a classic creme patisserie, to be lightened later with whipped cream (this makes something called a creme chibouste- light and rich and a fine in everything and also fine in a goblet all by itself. If quality had a flavor, it would be this.) The top is heaped with the dazzling ruby seeds of good-luck pomegranates. It is several steps, but they are each simple, and can be done whenever it suits you best.

First the meringue- We will need:

4 egg whites

200 g/ 1 C sugar

a dash of vinegar

a pinch of salt

non-stick baking paper

Separate the eggs and set the yolks aside (putting them in a jar, covering them with milk, and storing in the refrigerator).

Beat the whites with an electric mixer until foamy, add the salt and vinegar, and continue beating, adding the sugar spoonful by spoonful, until the meringue s glossy and dense.

Line a baking sheet with the non-stick parchment. Mound the meringue into the middle, and, using your serving tray as a guide, spread it into as large a circle as the tray will accommodate, leaving a well in the middle and deep thick sides to hold in the cream and the fruit. We did not use a pastry bag for formal perfection but rather just a spoon, touching the surface and pulling u sharply to make spikes like a sea anemone- a fanciful Chihuly-inspired form to hold the glassy rubies that will fill the center. This took about 30 seconds, and was quite fun. if it for New Years, slipped a clean and foil-wrapped coin into the thick side and cover any trace it it.

A meringue does not bake so much as simply dry. Put it in the oven at a mere 90 C/ 200 F, or even lower of you have a dry day and plenty of patience. Leave it there until is is entirely dry on the surface and most importantly on the bottom, so it can be safely removed from the paper. This will take more than an hour, and maybe two. use the removable bottom of a tart pan to lift it safely and place it on a tray out of harm's way.

Make a creme patisserie of the yolks, Let chill, then lighten with 200 ml/ C heavy cream, whipped stiff, to make a creme chibouste.

Now we are ready to assemble and need only the pomegranate seeds- probably from two large fruits. They are an intricate fruit- thousands of ruby seeds in in clusters, separated by webs of membranes. 

This easy trick frees them:

Fill a large bowl half full of water. Make a cut in a pomegranate, put it under the water and pull it apart:

Loosen the seeds from the white part with your fingertips; they will sink to the bottom and the membranes and outer shell will float- skim them off, fill the bowl with fresh water, and run your hands gently through the seeds to loosen the rest of the membrane. Skim these from the water's surface also, and drain the seeds in a wire strainer until completely dry.

A few hours before serving, assemble the dessert by piling the creme chibouste into the center, and covering the top thoroughly with a thick layer of the glittering seeds.

Read More »

Creme Patisserie- Makes Everything Fabulous

This is worth learning- not difficult, the most rewarding building block of the pastry world, and delicious on its own.. It is simply a pudding, enriched with egg yolks and finished with butter. If quality had a flavor, this would be it- you can taste everything- creamy, rich, subtle. You will be unable to use packaged substitutes after trying this; it is so simple you will not need to.

We will need:

450 ml/ 2 C whole fresh milk

4 egg yolks

50 g/ 4 T corn starch

130 g/ 2/3 C sugar

pinch salt

vanilla, or better still a plumped bean to steep in the milk

50 g/ 4 tablespoons butter

Heat the milk to simmering in a heavy-bottomed pan, with the vanilla bean if you are using one. Beat the yolks, add the sugar slowly and carefully as you beat, and then the cornstarch and salt. Very slowly spoon warm milk into the yolk mixture, whisking as you do, to bring it slowly up totemperature. When you have added half of the milk ad the mixture is quite hot, you can add it all back into  the pan with the warm (not boiling) milk. Continue to whisk over medium heat- making sure the whisk makes contact with the bottom of the pan all over, until it thickens, which will happen all at once at the end. Keep whisking and let it nearly boil another minute. Remove from the heat, and genty whisk in the butter in small pieces, one at a time. Squeeze the seeds from the vanilla bean into the cream if you are using one, or add a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Pour through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl (even with the most careful whisking) into a dish and cover with a round of non-stick parchment. Cool, then chill, then use as you like for instance in a creme chibouste to fill a meringue.

Read More »

Fabulous Meringue Mushrooms Outshine the Bûche.

Even if you have enough time, stamina, ingredients, and patience to complete a festive holiday table with a grand Bûche de Noël, the one thing you surely do not have enough of is refrigerator space. A Bûche is not complete without this surprisingly simplest ornament. But the ornament without the Bûche? A semi-avante-garde tromp l'oeil delight! A tower of these and a tower of holiday mandarins, some espresso and cordials, and everyone will feel festive, indulged, and light as a feather. And you can make them whenever suits you- they take about 10 minutes of actual work, another hour or so drying in the oven, and 10 minutes of child-friendly kitchen play to assemble.

We will need:

4 egg whites

200 g/ 1 C sugar

pinch salt

tiny dash vinegar

vanilla

a chocolate bar (50 g/2 oz. should be plenty)

non-stick parchment

a zip-lock bag

About egg whites- so many dishes (creme patisserie, eggnog) will call for yolks. Just slip the whites into a jar- 3 or 4 is what you need for most recipes- label how many, and pop them in the freezer. When you need them, put the closed jar in a dish of water- they will be ready to use in about half an hour. You are never far from a beautiful airy dessert (like this pavlova, or these coffee meringues) when you have a jar of whites in the freezer,asI happily did this morning.

Beat the egg whites with the salt and vinegar and when it starts to foam up, start gradually adding the sugar, and keep beating until it is glossy and dense. Turn the top of a lip-lock bag over like you would the neck on a turtleneck sweater and fill with meringue-

This keeps the seal clean. Turn the edge back up, seal the bag, pressing as much air out as possible, and sip off one of the corners to make a small opening. Pipe "stems" by touching the tip to the paper, and squeezing lightly as you pull up. Make caps by squeezing as you hold the bag in place close to the paper. They will all have peaks:

Put some water in a dish, wet your finger, and smooth out the tops:

Dust them randomly with cocoa powder, sifted through a strainer:

Place in a very low oven- 90 C/200F- with a fan if you like. Leave them until they are dry enough to  remove from the paper. 

Melt the chocolate over simmering water or on low power in the microwave. Paint the bottoms of the mushroom caps, and place the stems on. You can make a small indentation with your finger to place the stem upside down, so the flat side is showing. We did half of each.

Smear any drips of chocolate on the carps to look like dirt. Let the chocolate set, and keep in a box wherever you have room until you are ready to put them out.

Read More »

Sugar and... Everything Nice.

Not a sugarplum, but this ethereal looking candied ginger looks kissed by frost and makes the kitchen smell like a holiday.

We had a favorite Indonesian candy we would buy in Chinatown called ting ting jahe- a chewy bon bon so hot your cheeks would flush and eyes would water. Part of the pleasure was the full-flavored stickiness, and part the mild euphoria at gradual ebbing* of the searing heat (a gentler version of how you feel when the sting of tear gas subsides- not uncommon in urban Greek life). These beautiful sugared sticks of candied ginger - not quite so painfully hot- give a nice hit of heat and a lasting glow. They are made with just two ingredients in the simplest proportions, and a vague, flexible cooking time.

We will need:

A hand of fresh ginger

400 g/2 C sugar

450 ml/2 C water

more sugar for coating- we used Demarara on half, granulated on the other half, and liked the rough crunchy demarara best for color and flavor

Peel the ginger, cut it into thin slices with the grain, and stack the slices to cut into matchsticks.

Pour the sugar into the middles of the pan and pour the water around it so no crystals stick to the sides of the pan. Stir gently, cover, and simmer until sugar dissolves completely, stirring occasionally. Bring to a boil, add the ginger, and turn down the heat to let it simmer gently. After about 15 minutes the ginger will look limp, and after another half hour or so it will be translucent, and the thin clear syrup will have thickened and darkened. Check throughout the cooking time every now and then- it may thicken so much you will want to add some water. It's not at all an exact science- cook until the ginger is as tender as you like and the syrup is slightly thinner than honey.

Your house will be filled with the sweet scent of ginger.

Remove the ginger to a fine mesh strainer set over the pan so the syrup drips back in. Shake it a little- we want the ginger as dry as possible before we toss it in sugar.

Put a rack over some baking paper, and some sugar in a wide shallow bowl. Fine white granulated sugar makes delicate fairy-tale sticks, and coarse demerara rough, rustic, and more substantial ones. Try some of each.

Take small handfuls at a time and toss them in the sugar, separating the ginger into individual strands as you do. When each is thoroughly coated with sugar, spread them out on the rack to dry.

For our two ingredients, we have two things- lots of this beautiful confection, and a jar of dark spicy syrup- for adding to tea, or for holiday cocktails another time. We will experiment and pass along any good ideas- please do the same!

*Like some philosophy with your confections? Muse on Burke's thoughts on negative pain.

Read More »

Greece's Classic Holiday Cookie- Rich with Butter, Light as a Snowflake.

Many cultures lay claim to Kourabiedes- Mexican wedding cakes, Russian tea cakes, Swedish tea balls, Viennese crescents. The reason there are so many versions of this cookie is because it is divine. This barely sweet shortbread, rolled while hot and buttery in powdered sugar to make a layer of creamy icing, then dusted with more sugar after cooling so it's white like snow, is everywhere during the holidays here in Greece (along with the moist, syrup-kissed, walnut filled melomakarona). It has just 3 ingredients, so it is also divinely tricky- we are not relying on showy spices or splashy chocolate for impact, but texture. A little care and three simple steps and your buttery Kourabiedes will be rich, crumbly, and ethereal as a snowflake. 

We will need:

250 g/ generous 1 C butter

1/4 tsp/ salt

60 g/ generous 1/2 C powdered sugar

a little vanilla 

300 g/ 2 1/2 C flour

then-

lots more powdered sugar for rolling, at least 400 g/3 1/2 C

The first step to a light texture is beating the butter (together with the salt) to make it as airy as possible. Use an electric mixer, and scrape the sides often (turning off the mixer before you do so). After 5 to 7 minutes, it will be nearly twice the original volume, and have lightened from pale gold to nearly white:

Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla. The second step to keeping them light is to add the flour gently by hand (beating the flour in could toughen and deflate the batter), stopping just as soon as it is smooth.

These are good plain, but most Greek versions have almonds:

Toasting them deepens their flavor- just put them in the oven for about ten minutes as you are heating it up, and chop them roughly with a serrated bread knife. A teacup's worth will be generous enough.

A difference between the Greek version and the many other international versions of this cookie is that Kourabiedes are quite large. This generous batch will yield just 20 - 24 cookies. The advantage of size (apart from the obvious)- they are less likely to dry out, and you can best appreciate the melting crumb of them when you can take a good bite.

Typical shapes are flattened ovals, and crescents:

In this batch, the ovals are plain, the crescents with toasted almond, and the balls with walnuts and cinnamon- a departure altogether (Polverones).

The third step to a light and crumbling kourabie is watchful baking- Bake at 170 C/ 350 F for about 20 minutes- they will have puffed slightly and the surfaces will be entirely dry. But they will have taken on nearly no color at all except for the bottoms, which will be gold. They will yield slightly when you press them, then firm up as they  cool. If you wait until they are firm to come out of the oven, their texture will be dry rather than melting.

Have ready a large bowl of powdered sugar for rolling, and a tray where they can all fit without touching one another. Roll them generously in the sugar one by one while still hot from the oven and place them on the tray- if they touch they will stick together. The powdered sugar draws the warm butter to the surface, clings to it, and forms a layer of icing. You will see them go from white and dry to yellow and moist as the sugar absorbs the butter. Once cool, roll them again generously- the dry sugar will stick to the icing, and look like snow.

Read More »