Pistachio Biscotti with Dried Cherries

PISTACHIO BISCOTTI

That first bite into biscotti is sublime.  These are just sweet enough, with a blend of flavors subtle enough not to interfere with your demitasse of espresso and crisp enough to stand up to dunking in hot tea.  I had an idea to use pistachios, dried cherries, and orange rind.  It is a great taste combination.  If you like pistachio and biscotti, you will love these.
4 extra large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons fresh orange zest
2 and ½ cups ground pistachios
6-7 cups all purpose unbleached flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered anise
1 cup tart dried cherries chopped into medium pieces
3/4 cup whole pistachios
Preheat oven to 350º.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.  I prefer half sheet aluminum pans.  Dark colored or non stick coated baking sheets lead to different results.
Combine 6 cups of the flour with the baking powder, orange zest, and salt in a bowl and set aside.  Reserve the last cup of flour separately.  Crack the eggs in a glass cup and after checking them for shells or blood spots place them in the bowl of your stand mixer, add the sugar, and beat on medium speed until light in color and thick.  Add the oil to the eggs.  Beat the mixture, starting at the slowest speed, until well combined.  Add the orange juice.  Add the ground nuts and mix.  Next, add your pre-measured flour containing the baking powder salt and orange zest to the mixer.  Start the mixer on the slowest speed.  Lastly add the chopped dried cherries and whole pistachios and mix a little more.  Remove the dough from the mixer.  It may be slightly sticky.  Add some or the entire last cup of flour as you kneed the dough lightly with your hands until it is smooth.  Roll it into a smooth log and separate the dough into 4 equal pieces.  Form four logs about 2 inches in diameter and 10 inches in length.  Place the logs carefully on the silpat lined baking sheet.
Bake until golden in color 25-30 minutes.  Remove the baking sheet from the oven.  Carefully place your rolls on a cutting board without breaking them.  Cut immediately on a sharp diagonal with a long serrated knife or very sharp Santoku knife.  Return the sliced biscotti to clean cookie sheets lined with silpats or parchment paper, being careful not to break them, and spread them so air can circulate all around them.  Toast the biscotti in a 200º oven for two hours.  After you turn the oven off, leave them in the oven another 45 minutes or even overnight.  They should be crisp.  One recipe makes 60 to 80 depending on how thick you slice the biscotti.
These are wonderful for serving with tea, coffee or with fruit as a light desert.  They are also great as part of a desert buffet. 

Sukkot Entertaining

I can breathe a sigh of relief, until next year, Sukkot, Simhat Torah and all the rest of it is finally over with. The New Year has begun, counting down the days yet again.
Every year I approach the building of our Sukkah and the entertaining we do in it with renewed enthusiasm. The Los Angeles area, with its mild climate, lends itself to dining al fresco at night even in September, October. Today I must confess, with impending rain clouds above (strange for this time of year), my helpers and I rushed to take it all down and store it away until next year. The saris hung across the roof, the tacky clustered grape lights that created atmosphere when the sun went down, the wall tapestries, candles, the tables and chairs, finally the palm fronds, and extension cords all dispatched to their cupboards to wait out another four seasons until next September or the trash. I will share a few pictures and the menus for two of the evening’s parties.

Garnet Yam Cake With Brown Sugar Icing

This recipe is an Oldie but Goodie. My son Mitchell’s favorite, this moist bundt cake covered in a thickly drizzled maple flavor icing is beautiful on the cake plate and delicious. It is the perfect dairy-free desert for autumn occasions, from Rosh Hashanah, to Thanksgiving, to Chanukah.

Cake

2 cups of mashed Garnet yam

2 & 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 & 3/4 teaspoons powdered ginger

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

4 extra large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Margarine or non stick spray for greasing the pan                                                 

12 cup Bundt pan

Icing

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup Rich’s dairy-free whip

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted margarine

1/2 teaspoon vanilla  extract

Wash the Garnet yams and bake in a preheated 400º oven for 2 hours. I choose the fattest, unblemished yams I can find and place them in an aluminum foil tin to catch the oozing sugar droppings from the yams as they bake.  2 to 4 large yams will yield the 2 cups of yam needed for the recipe. You can just eat any left over with dinner. Cool the yams and scoop out the bright orange pulp. Measure the yam and mash with your gloved hands or a potato masher. Place the yams in the bowl of your mixer.

Preheat oven to 325º and place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Combine the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.  Place the mixing bowl in the mixer and beat yams until smooth on medium low speed. Next, add the sugar and oil to the yams, and starting on the lowest setting, beat until smooth.  Add the eggs 2 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and blend on low speed until just combined. Stir in the vanilla.

Grease a 12-cup Bundt pan, making sure to get the grease into every nook and cranny of the design for an easy release. Fill the prepared pan only 2/3 full. If your Bundt pan is less than 12 cups, (many of the newer designs are not 12 cups) and you have left over batter, you can grease and fill individual small loaf pans with the extra batter. Bake cake until a tester comes out clean, about 1 hour and 5 minutes or less if your pan is smaller. Cool cake in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Invert and turn cake out onto the rack to finish cooling.

At this point, you can wrap the cake well and freeze it for up to two weeks, then defrost and ice just before your occasion. For the icing, sift the powdered sugar into medium bowl. Stir the brown sugar, Riche’s Whip, and margarine in a small heavy bottomed saucepan over medium low heat until margarine melts and the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium high and bring brown sugar mix to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer 3 minutes, occasionally stirring and swirling pan. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour the brown sugar syrup over the powdered sugar. Whisk icing until smooth and lightened in color. It will be very liquid. Cool the icing until luke warm, whisking occasionally. It will thicken as it cools. When the icing is not quite cold and  falls like thick ribbons from a spoon,  slowly pour it over the top of the cake very thickly. The icing will drip down the sides in thick rivers. I pour directly from the mixing bowl in a back and forth motion slowly rotating the cake as I go. Let the iced cake stand for at least one hour before serving.  It keeps refrigerated for two days.

Dateline: Two Days Before Rosh Hashanah

Every year as soon as the days start getting shorter, my instinct to start preparing for Rosh Hashanah kicks in.  Three weeks ago I placed an order with the kosher butcher and wrote out my menu plans for several dinners.  I started baking as well.  I am not preparing for one evenings celebration, but for a whole month of holiday dinners and lunches.  So far I have extended invitations to guests for 5 different occasions.
Restocking cupboards, rearranging furniture, and making sure to lay in a supply of aluminum foil and dishwasher soap is part of the preparation.  Last Wednesday, I turned on my back up refrigerator and freezer in anticipation of filling it soon.  I am so glad it still works!

Pumpkin Borekas

PETITE PUMPKIN BOREKAS

Borekas are the Sephardic Jewish version of the turnover or empanada.  Turkish in origin, the Sephardic Jews adopted these pastries as their own.  I make borekas with homemade dough, the way my mom and my grandmother did, and bake them until crisp and golden.  Once a year for Jewish New Year, I make smaller versions filled with cinnamon-scented pumpkin.  The kids at the table think of them as mini pumpkin pies, and they can easily eat five.
Make these up to 1 month ahead and freeze in an airtight container.  To reheat, defrost, and heat on a baking sheet in a 300º oven for 10 minutes
Filling
1 28 ounce can pure pumpkin
1 and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
Dough
4 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup safflower oil
1 cup ice water
Topping
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sesame seeds
Stir the filling ingredients together in a medium bowl.  The filling should not be runny and should retain its shape if mounded.
To make the dough, measure 4 cups of flour into a mixing bowl.  Add the salt and blend.  Whisk the oil and water together in a small bowl.  Stir the liquid into the flour with a fork.  Using your hands, gently gather the dough into a ball.  Squeeze the dough together but do not knead it like bread.
Divide the dough into pieces a little larger then an unshelled walnut.  Roll each piece in your hands to make a smooth ball.  Place the ball on a wood or stone surface and using a rolling pin, flatten it out into an even circle about 3 inches in diameter.  Do not flour or grease the countertop.  Take care not to roll over the edges of the circles, as this will thin out the edges.

I roll out 2 sets 24 at a time.  This number fits onto a baking sheet perfectly if you make three columns of 8.  After you have your first 24 circles, place a small teaspoon or so of filling in the center of each.  Fold the circles in half and seal the edges of the resulting half moon shapes by pressing down and then by twisting them into a rope like edge.  This signature edge (repulgo in Ladino, Judeo Spanish) takes a little practice.  Or use the tines of a fork to seal the edges.  Make sure no pumpkin is oozing out, or the borekas will leak when baking.  Repeat the rolling and filling with the rest of the balls.

Brush the top of each boreka with beaten egg and dip it in sesame seeds.  Place on the baking sheet.  I use a silicone baking sheet liner for easy clean up.

Bake borekas at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until light golden.  Remove from the oven and place each one gently on a cooling rack.

Spinach Bulemas

SPINACH BULEMAS

Bulemas or Boyus, depending on what town your grandparents came from, are spirals of stuffed dough, baked in the oven until crisp.  Spinach and cheese filling is my favorite.  Yeast dough is stretched until, it is a long rectangle, then filled, rolled into a cylinder, sealed at the ends, and coiled into a nest.  They are traditionally served as part of a Sabbath or Holiday lunch. They freeze and reheat very well.

Leek and Ground Beef Patties

Kufte de Prassa

KUFTE DE PRASSA

Leek and Ground Beef Patties 

Somewhere between a meatball and patty is a kufte.  Made with ground beef, they are light and fluffy with a delicate crisp exterior, and redolent with the taste of autumn leeks.  Serve this recipe as one of the starters for a traditional Jewish New Years celebration.  They can be part of an appetizer buffet, or individually plated with a lemon wedge garnish and perhaps a dollop of hummus.
You can make the kufte that morning, refrigerate, and then reheat in a 350ºoven for 15 minutes before serving.  Kufte may also be made a week ahead and frozen in an airtight container.  Defrost in the refrigerator the night before and reheat as indicated.  Serve hot.
This makes about 48 kufte, two, or three per person.  Leftovers are delicious the next day.  Serve with rice and salad.