Okay, this is the most recent Recipe Thread

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Cardamom Rusks

Cream 1/2 Cup Butter w/ 1.5 cups sugar
Add 3 Eggs and beat.
Crush 1 dozen cardamom seeds (ha ha or: 1Tablespoon Ground cardamom)
Stir in 3 Cups Flour mixed with 2 teaspoons baking powder
pat out to about 3/4" thick.
Bake at 350f for 30 minutes, cut into diamonds and re-toast.

UG adds: cardamom pods or seeds may be whopped into submission in a coffee grinder, and you needn't clean it out before you make the next batch of coffee, as a hint of cardamom goes very well in coffee. Makes it coffee Arabic style.

I wonder how this recipe would go using the variety of cardamom called grains of paradise?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

The first time I ate this in Sinop, Turkey, I wasn't too taken with it.

A week later, I was back at that same restaurant, ordering it for breakfast, with fried eggs to go with. Maybe potatoes too; I forget.

Pastirma

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

I just banged together a crude Ayran using one of those powerful little hand blenders that try and suck down onto the bottom of the container if you let them. Some yoghurt we'd had to put on ice in a picnic cooler ended up with a great deal of water in it because of that. I poured a little yoghurt whey off the top as I usually do when it shows up and saw the yoghurt was pretty thoroughly diluted with water all the way down but was otherwise good. I cast my mind back to a summer's day during my sojourn among the Turks and having gotten a glass of ayran. It's a yoghurt-based drink.

Enough yoghurt to fill a glass
About half that much water
Large pinch of salt, to taste
Optional sugar or other sweetening

Blend all ingredients with plenty of power, buzzing it up until water and yoghurt are thoroughly incorporated. The result is like mild buttermilk, with a slight overlay of salt and sweet. It might, like buttermilk, be good with black pepper included or sprinkled on top. Serves one.

Memory fail -- this is called Kaymak.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Chris, if you'd like to make your own curry powder all fresh, and perfumey (fresh ground coriander and cardamom are zingy, but that doesn't last forever) see earlier in this thread -- p. 6, two-thirds down.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

This is another one that smells wonderful, and may also use the curry powder recipe on p. 6 of the thread. This is the most stained and spotted page of our copy of Geraldine Duncann's Some Like It Hotter. This is not the only way to make this stuff. I often speak of "a bobotie." A casserole of meat -- any meat -- and eggs. Great way to use up leftover meats and chicken -- the and is used advisedly. This is said to be a hunting-camp dish good for using up odds and ends that don't quite amount by themselves to enough for hungry hunters.

Bobotie

4 Eggs
1 c Milk
2 slices Bread, white or whole wheat, anything you like for French toast
2 TBSP Butter
1 TBSP Corn Oil/Cooking Oil
2 TBSP Madras Curry Powder, turmeric included/added if using the Madras on p. 6
1 large Onion, diced
4 teeth of Garlic, minced
2 lb (900g-1kg) ground Beef
1 lb (450g-500g) lean boneless Beef, diced bite size -- optional
3 Chicken breasts, diced bite size
2 tart cooking Apples, such as Granny Smiths, cored and diced. Avoid peeling them -- the peel is where most of the nutrition is in this type of fruit
1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 scant tsp Cinnamon, ground
1 TBSP grated fresh Ginger
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper, or to taste
1/2 tsp coarse Black Pepper
3 TBSP Brown Sugar, dark, or add a trifle of molasses to the regular stuff
1/3 c fresh Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp grated Lemon Rind
1/2 cup Raisins
1/2 c slivered Almonds
Salt to taste
6 hard-cooked Eggs, halved, optional -- makes this already robust dish really so
a few blanched Almond halves, optional

[1 tsp = 5ml, 1 TBSP = 15ml]

0. Preheat oven, 350 F.
1. Beat eggs with milk, crumble bread into mixture and set aside to soak.
2. Melt butter and oil together over medium-high heat in large skillet (frying pan). Add curry powder and singe lightly, stirring rapidly, for 2 minutes or less. It really doesn't take much. Add onion and garlic, saute until onions are translucent but not browned.
3. Add ground meat, sauteing until just done, stirring to break up chunks. Add chunks of beef, sear on all sides. Add chicken chunks, tossing with all other ingredients in pan, coating and lightly sauteing. Add all remaining ingredients except cooked eggs and almonds, stir together and simmer 5 min. If mixture seems a bit dry, add a little water, just enough to make a little gravy.
4. Shell and halve the eggs lengthwise.
5. Transfer meat mixture to casserole dish (4 quart will do, sometimes I've had to dragoon my small casserole dish into the job to handle the extra) and press egg halves down into meat mixture cut side down, then smooth the mixture's surface with the back of a large spoon.
6. Stir up and pour egg and bread mixture over top of meat. Strew top with almond halves into preheated 350 F oven for 30 minutes, or until top custard is set and golden brown.

Serve hot from baking dish, accompanied with rice.

This is a forgiving recipe; you can play with the proportions of everything. I've never even used the hard boiled eggs, though they'd be nice for a company dish. If you're out of anything but the curry powder, you can still bring off a successful bobotie casserole. The essentials are several kinds of meat, curry the heck out of 'em, raisins and a custard.

Another Bobotie, also set up as a company dish with thin slices of orange and lemon -- Googling "bobotie" gets you hundreds if not thousands of hits, so knock yourself out.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Chili Powder

1 part dried ground Cayenne or other hot pepper: Piquin, Chile de Arbol, Habanero for the brave...
1 part dried ground Pasilla or Ancho or other mild pepper
5 parts dried ground red New Mexico chiles -- these are of course also mild, but really the backbone of the chili powder, along w/the cumin.
2 parts Garlic Powder
1.5 parts ground cumin (grind it yourself if possible, ground from the store okay)
1.5 parts Oregano (powdered if desired)

If you've gotten the peppers whole, reduce to powder as much as you can; a blender or a coffee grinder work well.

Mix powdered ingredients thoroughly and store in a tight container.

The advantage of making your own chili powder is you control just how vigorous it is. If you mix everything except the hot pepper into it, then you can have a quiet chili flavor while somebody after flamin' hot chili can stir in the cayenne to taste.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Am I right in remembering that "Imam" is a specifically Shi'ite title?

Turkish food is Middle Eastern food, plus frequent garlic and hot peppers. A good zingy pastirma is not to be passed up; it's got zowie with fried eggs and fresh bread for breakfast. But I digress.

No one's sure if the Imam fainted at the richness of the dish or at his wife's extravagance with the olive oil used making it!

Eggplant with Oil and Garlic or Imam Bayildi

6 long Eggplants (aubergines)
3 large Onions
6 large Tomatoes for the stuffing, plus some tomato sliced
6 to 10 cloves Garlic, the essence and backbone of this dish
Juice of 1 Lemon
Sprigs fresh Parsley
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 pint (yes) Olive Oil, optionally, less than that
1/2 pint mild Stock, like chicken broth
Salt and Pepper to taste

Long eggplants suit this dish best. Step 1) Wash eggplants and slit lengthwise deeply but not completely and not cutting open the ends; you're making canoes of the eggplants to hold the stuffing in. Open eggplants by pushing inwards at the closed ends. If eggplants need salting to draw bitterness, salt down the insides well and let sit 15 minutes.

2) Slice onions very thin, fry in tablespoon of olive oil until soft. Chop tomatoes and parsley, crush garlic; mix all together in a mixing bowl. Reserve any remaining oil in skillet for the next step.

3) If you salted the eggplants, rinse out and pat them dry. Heating some more of the olive oil in a large skillet, fry eggplants carefully all over, medium heat, taking care not to spoil their shape; you want them still stuffing-tight. Reserve oil, it'll be used a bit later. Arrange eggplants in a baking dish and fill the slits up with the tomato/parsley/garlic mixture, using the sliced tomatoes to cover the stuffing over. Pour over them all the remaining oil and all the oil you'd fried them in also, and enough stock to come halfway up the sides of the eggplants. Pour on the lemon juice, sprinkle the sugar and the salt and pepper.

4) Bake in moderate oven, 350F, about one hour, leave to cool. It's usually eaten cold, and makes a fine vegetable meal-starter. If this is too oily, simply use less in the dish.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Well, there are about a half bazillion variations on Imam Bayildi, and my cookbook shelf has about a quarter of them.

At the least, it's hearty stuff. We made a batch. Somewhere between a supper vegetable and a salad -- it would do nicely for either.

[bluecuracao]

You know, it just might be worth sitting at your dinner table and being verbally insulted, while enjoying one of your home-cooked feasts.

[BigV]

Only if this was on the menu.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Before today's Food section, I had no idea what went into making bagels -- I was raised in the mountain states in the seventies, and it was a New Jersey buddy who introduced me to the Jewish toroid. Toroid, not Torah; you stop that. This recipe is for a high-gluten white flour, the writers note that this one isn't so hot for whole-wheat while retaining the true bagel ethnicity:

Bagels

Start to finish, 15 hours clock time, 1:15 active.

Servings: 12 regular or 24 small bagels

The Sponge:
1 tsp Instant Yeast
4 cups Unbleached White Bread Flour
2 1/2 cups Water @ room temperature

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine yeast and flour. Add water and mix together with a spoon until it forms a sticky batter. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature about two hours, or until foamy and bubbly. Mixture should nearly double in size and collapse when bowl is tapped on the counter.

The Dough:
1/2 tsp Instant Yeast
3 3/4 cups Unbleached white bread Flour
2 3/4 tsp Salt
1 TBSP Barley Malt Syrup, or Honey

Set the bowl with the raised sponge in the mixer with a dough hook attachment on. Turn mixer on Low, add the yeast, then the 3 cups of the flour, all of the salt and the syrup/honey. Mix on Low speed until ingredients form a ball, slowly adding in the remaining 3/4 cup flour. Let mixer knead dough for six minutes. Dough should be pliable and smooth, feeling satiny but not tacky. Add a few drops of water or a sift of flour as needed to get the desired texture.

The Finishing Touches:
1 TBSP Baking Soda for the boiling water
Cornmeal or Semolina Flour, for dusting
Kosher Salt, Sesame Seeds, Poppy Seeds, or other bagel toppings, for sprinkles

Form the Bagels:

Wipe down your worksurface with a damp cloth. Transfer dough onto work surface and divide into 12 to 24 portions. One at a time, cup each portion in your hand and firmly press it into the counter. Move your hand circularly while pressing. In a short time, the dough should form a tight ball. Cover dough balls with damp towel, let rise 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line 2 baking pans with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray.

To shape bagels, pick up each piece and push your thumb through the center. Gently rotate your thumb around in the hole to stretch it to about 2 1/2 inches (somewhat less for smaller bagels). Keep bagel evenly shaped all the way around, no thick or thin parts.

Arrange bagels 2" apart on baking sheets, and spray lightly overall with cooking spray, loosely cover with plastic wrap and let sit another 20 minutes at room temp.

This is important: then refrigerate bagels overnight, or even over two nights. Rest, therefore, from your labors. Under refrigeration, the bagel dough slowly ferments, releasing enzymes essential to true bagel-ness and savor.

To cook Bagels:
Arrange oven racks in the middle of the oven and preheat to 500 degrees F. Bring a large pot of water to boil with the 1 TBSP baking soda added. Have a slotted spoon ready to turn bagels with.

Remove bagels from refrigerator and gently place a few of them into the boiling water. After 1 minute, flip bagels over for 1 minute on the other side. If you want chewy bagels, boil 2 minutes each side.

While bagels get boiled, sprinkle the parchment papered baking sheets with the cornmeal or semolina flour. As bagels finish their boiling, return bagels to the baking sheets. If topping is desired, sprinkle toppings as soon as the bagels come out of the boiling water, while they're still wet.

When all bagels have been boiled, place pans in oven and bake at 500 degrees F for 5 minutes. Rotate the pans 180 degrees for evenness of cooking, switching shelves too, and lower heat to 450 degrees F for an additional baking time of 5 minutes, or until bagels are golden brown.

Cool on rack for 15 minutes.

Note: Bagel dough is stiff stuff. You want a powerful stand mixer to do the mixing. Commercial bakeries have those big Hobarts -- Kitchenaids on steroids and growth hormone -- but look to your mixer's directions for stiff doughs: it will likely be either to only use low speed or to give your mixer motor a rest every couple of minutes mixing time to avoid serious heat buildup. Some people start with a mixer and finish kneading by hand to "get a feel for the dough." Maybe they do.

Find barley malt syrup at natural-foods grocers. Malt powder isn't a good substitute as it messes with the dough texture.

There are special high-gluten white flours milled for bagel making, and bagel bakeries can be persuaded to part with some for a consideration. Failing that, unbleached white bread flour works. Mr. Reinhart is researching on a recipe for whole wheat flour -- and it seems to me every W/W bagel I've ever eaten more nearly resembled a Freckle-Face roll than a whole grain slice of bread...

--From Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Drying Figs -- I searched on that term and got numerous hits.

Drying and Freezing Figs

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Anyone notice how much she looks like Lily Tomlin?

"(Honk!) Gracious, good afternoon..."

But seriously, folks, verbal insults only after dinner and dessert, puhleeze...

[Urbane Guerrilla]

I made the Lemon Meringue Pie recipe last weekend for a cast party, to general acclaim. I didn't mention I'd stirred vitamin C crystals from Trader Joe's into the filling, nor about a teaspoon of psyllium husk into the double-batch graham cracker crust. Those people actually ate a decadent, meringued dessert that was good for their health.

[jester]

my recipes are pretty simple - just the basics - some of you may already have this

PEACH COBBLER - (easy)

1 c flour (self rising)
1 c sugar
1 c milk
1 stick butter (softened)
1 can peaches w/juice (if double, use a large can)

mix together (will be runny) bake 1 hour 350

(i double - cause my boys love it & lots of v. ice cream)