Brik à l'oeuf

When we lived in Tunisia, I discovered a fantastic dish called brik à l'oeuf. It consists of a thin dough, called “malsouka” filled with meat (usually ground lamb or tuna) and an egg (“l'oeuf”). The whole thing is fried in oil until the brik is crisp and the egg is cooked just to sunny-side-up consistency. It takes practice to eat a brik à l'oeuf with dignity because as soon as you bite into it, the egg runs everywhere.

There are a variety of fillings for brik à l'oeuf but I'm partial to ground lamb seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley. Brik à l'oeuf is rather involved to make, they don't make good leftovers, and since you can really only fry up one or two at a time (unless you have a serious production line going in your kitchen) you can't have a group of people sitting down at the same time to eat brik à l'oeuf. Nevertheless, they are so tasty that it is worth the effort every once in awhile.

This is an authentic Tunisian recipe that came from a little recipe booklet my mother got in Tunis.

Brik à l'oeuf (6 servings)

• ½ lb. ground lamb
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp. finely minced parsley
• 7 sheet of malsouka (eggroll or phyllo dough can be used)
• 1 tbsp. (or ½ oz.) butter
• 6 eggs
• salt & pepper to taste
• olive oil for frying
• 2 lemons

1. Sauté the onion and the lamb and season with salt and pepper.
2. When all of the water has evaporated from the pan, add the parsley and butter and simmer over low heat.
3. Take a sheet of pastry (fold in the sides to from a square if necessary) and reinforce the middle with a piece taken from the extra (7th) sheet.
4. Put 2 rounded tbsp. of filling and a whole raw egg in the middle, fold one corner over on top of the other corner to form a triangle and then slide the brik into a frying pan with enough hot oil to deep-fat fry.
5. Spoon the hot oil over the top of the brik to make it swell.
6. Serve with quartered lemons to be squeezed over the brik as they are eaten.

Good Old-Fashioned Popcorn

One of my favorite snacks in the evening – especially when sitting down to watch TV – is popcorn. I remember when microwave popcorn first came out. We all loved it. It was easy, it was fun. At some point, however, I missed the taste of old-fashioned popcorn and the microwave variety started to taste very chemical to me. So I went back to the old way: popping it in oil. I know that’s not the healthiest alternative (Kevin likes to use a hot air popper but the result is just to bland for me) but you really only use a tiny bit of oil. Of course, I don’t stop there. I like to add a little flavoring to my popcorn. Usually I’ll just sprinkle it with Parmesan cheese for a salty, tangy flavor. Sometimes, if I’m feeling really decadent, I’ll go with the classic butter and salt. And every once in awhile, I’ll sprinkle my popcorn with Old Bay seasoning; I just love the celery seed flavor and it gives a little bit of a kick to the snack.

Apples, Apples

I’ve been roasting vegetables for years. The technique is so easy and it concentrates the flavors of the vegetable and makes for really wonderful side dishes. It recently occurred to me that I could use the same technique on granny smith apples. First I debated whether to use olive oil or a more neutral-tasting canola oil. I decided to try the olive oil. I could always rule it out if it didn’t work. But I found I really liked the fruitiness of the olive oil with the tart sweetness of the roasted apple. I often roast a single apple for myself as a simple dessert. Roasted apples are also a very nice addition to salad with apple cider vinaigrette.

Salad with Apple Cider Vinaigrette and Roasted Granny Smith Apples

Roasted Granny Smith Apples

• Granny Smith apples (one apple for every two people)
• Olive oil to drizzle

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. Core and cut apples into wedges. Place apples wedges on a foil-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and toss to coat. Arrange the wedges skin side down and roast for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool.

Apple Cider Vinaigrette (makes 1 ¼ cups)

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 ½ tsp. fresh or ½ tsp. dried thyme
• 3 tbsp. apple cider
• 3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• ¾ cup olive oil

1. Combine the garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme in a bowl. Mix in the cider and vinegar. Whisk the olive oil in a slow stream to form an emulsion.

Toss salad greens with the vinaigrette. Arrange salad on plates and top with the roasted apples.

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

I made cream of cauliflower soup last night with no intention of writing about it. I didn’t think I had anything to say that would be different from what I said about carrot soup. I cooked the soup and ladled it into a bowl and it was so gorgeous that it stopped me in my tracks. Then I ran upstairs to grab my camera. Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t come close to doing it justice. It did, however, taste as good as it looked.

Cream of Cauliflower Soup (six servings)

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• 1 ½ tsp. paprika
• 3 lbs. cauliflower, cut into florets
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup cream

1. Heat the olive oil in a soup pot. Add the onions and sauté until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the nutmeg, paprika, and cauliflower and sauté 3-5 minutes.
2. Add the chicken stock. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the cauliflower is tender, about 20 minutes.
3. Purée the cauliflower and stock in a blender then return to the soup pot. Add the cream and gently heat on low.

Nigella

When we lived in Tunis, we would occasionally eat at the restaurant at the Hilton hotel where they served rolls that we loved. They had black seeds in them that were delicious. We asked what the seed were and were told they were “sinouj.” We learned that the seeds were, in fact, nigella (sinouj is the Arabic name). It is sometimes called black cumin, but that name also refers to another, unrelated, spice.

Nigella is not easy to find. My mother had bought some from a gourmet food store and would make an Armenian-style round bread with the seeds. One day I was in a mini mart in Andover that had half an aisle devoted to imported Indian food. I saw a big bag labeled “kalonji” that looked exactly like nigella. Since it was very inexpensive, I took a chance and bought it. It turns out that kalonji is the Hindi name for nigella, which is used in Indian cooking.

I love nigella, but I realize that I’ve never used it in anything but bread (photo of homemade breadsticks with nigella below). I’m going to have to change that and I welcome any non-bread recipes featuring nigella. Hopefully I’ll have at least one successful dish to share in a future entry.

Japanese Medlars

Writing about the fruits of Thailand reminded me of another fruit from my childhood overseas that I’ve never seen since. My family lived in Tunis when I was in 3rd through 5th grades. We lived in a beautiful house in Carthage that had lemon trees and another fruit tree that bore a fruit I had never heard of before. We discovered they we called medlars (nèfles in French). We would pick the fruit right off the trees and eat it. It is slightly tart but when it’s really ripe it’s sweet and delicious.

I Googled “medlar” and came across this Wikipedia page. But this was definitely not the fruit I remember. All the pages I found about “medlars” did not show the medlars that I remembered. So I did a search on the French word “nèfle” and that set me on the right track. I found information about the Japanese medlar (also called loquat). Yes! This is exactly the fruit we had.

According to the Epicurious food dictionary, “loquats bruise easily so they're not good travelers. For that reason, fresh loquats are usually found only in the regions in which they're grown.” I guess that means I won’t be seeing any Japanese medlars in my New England supermarket.

Fruits that I Miss (and One that I Don’t)

My family lived in Bangkok when I was young (6th and 7th grades) and, as you can imagine, the food was fabulous. What I miss the most about the food in Thailand is the fruit. Amazing, weird, delicious fruits that you just don’t find here. In the past decade or so, American supermarkets have really evolved and I can now get the most amazing imported items. And even there many “exotic” fruits and vegetables are now available in my neighborhood store, these, for the most part, remain out of reach.

Every once in a great while, I do see a couple of sad, dried out lychees for sale in the grocery store. I am never tempted. If you’ve enjoyed the flavor and texture of fresh, crisp apples, would you buy a brown, bruised one even if that was the only one available? The flavor of a fresh lychee is sweet and slightly fragrant. I remember eating a dessert in Thailand consisting of lychee halves served in a simple syrup that was simply delicious.

I’m going to sidetrack for a moment and talk about a fruit that, quite frankly, I’m happy is not stocked at my local Stop & Shop: durian. It’s beloved in Southeast Asia but I have never tried it and there’s a very good reason for that: it stinks. Durian is renown for its pungent odor which, to me, smells like rotting organic matter. I simply cannot get it past my nose. We once took a trip to the Malaysian highlands. We were in a taxi driving up a twisty mountain road and we were behind a truck full of durians. Since we couldn’t pass, we were stuck. I have a slight phobia about driving on twisty mountain roads to begin with; adding the smell of durian made for an excruciating trek.

You can sometimes get pomelo here on rare occasions and it is just as I remember it. It’s similar to a grapefruit but the skin is much thicker and you eat in sections like an orange. The flavor is a little sweet and a little tart, but not quite as sour as grapefruit. It’s wonderful on a hot Southeast Asian day. But then, that’s true about all these fruits.

The mangosteen is an odd little fruit. It has a thick, purple rind and is capped with a green stem and leaves that remind me of artichoke leaves. At the bottom of the fruit, there’s a little piece at the bottom (I don’t know what it’s called) that looks like a flower. The fruit inside looks rather like a clove of garlic and the white flesh (which houses big, brown seeds) have a sweet, mild flavor.

My absolute all-time favorite Thai fruit is rambutan. The size of an egg, it has a red skin and is covered with long, soft, green spines. It’s a very funny looking fruit. Oh but the taste. The translucent white flesh is juicy and sweet and sublime. If I could pick just one of these fruits to have available to me in the U.S., this would be it.

Bison Burger Pizza

Pizza is one of those great foods that had endless varieties. Kevin helped me construct a bison burger pizza that has become one of our favorite staples. I call it a buger pizza because it’s like a burger deconstructed then reorganized into a pizza format.

It starts with poppy seeds in the crust. If that sounds odd to you, think about eating a burger on a poppy seed bun. Spread traditional pizza sauce (tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, basil, oregano) over the poppy seed crust. Cook the bison with chopped onion in a little olive oil and sprinkle on the pizza. (You could, of course, use regular ground beef, but I love ground bison and have used it exclusively instead of ground beef for a couple of years. It’s very lean, but it also has a great flavor.) Then top the pizza off with diced fresh tomato, shredded cheddar and mozzarella, and another sprinkling of poppy seeds. You won’t miss the French fries.

Tastes of Hawaii, part 2

Our second week in Hawaii was spent on the Big Island. A big Mahalo! to my cousin Brian and his wife Amy. They live in Kona and manage a couple of coffee plantations. They showed us some of their properties and we had a fantastic dinner at a local brew pub. And they gave me a pound of their 100% Kona coffee to bring home with me. Now THAT’S a fantastic cup of coffee! And the good news is, you can buy it directly from their Web site at http://www.lehuulafarms.com/.

Since I am a little cheesecake-obsessed right now, I created one inspired by the flavors of the Big Island: Kona coffee and macadamia nuts.


Big Island Cheesecake
(Kona coffee cheesecake with macadamia nut crust)

Crust

• 5 oz. unsalted macadamia nuts
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 3 tbsp. butter, melted

Filling

• 1 cup sugar
• 4 8-oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature (you can use half regular and half fat-free if you wish)
• 1 cup brewed 100% Kona coffee, at room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 1 cup light cream, at room temperature

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°. Grease the sides of a 9” or 10” springform pan.
2. In a food processor, process the macadamia nuts and sugar to fine, even crumbs. Add the butter in a slow, steady stream while pulsing. Pulse until the mixture is evenly moistened and resembles wet sand, about ten 1-second pulses. Press into the springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
3. In a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the coffee and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. At low speed, beat in eggs, one at a time. Add the flour and beat just until incorporated. Add cream and beat just until incorporated. Transfer filling to the cooled crust.
4. Cover the bottom of the springform pan with 3 or 4 layers of aluminum foil and place in a water bath in a roasting pan (water should come about 1 inch up the side of the springform pan). Bake for 1 hour. Turn oven off and let stand for 1 hour. Cool completely. Carefully remove the springform pan. Chill for at least 4 hours.

Tastes of Hawaii, part 1

A recent trip to Hawaii enabled us to get our fill of a tasty dish you can’t get anywhere else: Kalua pig! While we didn’t go to a luau this trip (which is where you get the real Kalua pig that’s been cooked all day in an imu), we did eat lots of Kalua pork: Kalua pork sandwiches, Kalua pork nachos, and Kalua pork pizza. In fact, we Kalua pigged out. (Yes, you knew that was coming. Sorry, but it just couldn’t be helped.)

So I came home thinking about Kalua pork, which is really the Hawaiian version of pulled pork. I did find a Kalua pig recipe in my The Frugal Gourmet on our Immigrant Ancestors cookbook. But there is a pulled pork recipe that I’ve been making for years which is absolutely delicious and very easy to make. It’s a Mexican-style pulled pork called carnitas from The American Table by Ronald Johnson. I’ve used it to make sandwiches, quesadillas, and even eaten it just as is (it’s that good). A particular favorite is pulled pork sandwiches with Worcestershire mayonnaise from a Cooking Light recipe. It isn’t particularly Hawaiian, but it is delicious.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Worcestershire Mayonnaise

Pulled Pork (the carnitas recipe from “The American Table” by Ronald Johnson)

• 1 pork shoulder (4 to 5 pounds)
• Salt
• ½ tsp. ground cumin
• ½ tsp. coriander seeds
• ½ tsp. dried oregano
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, flattened with a knife
• 2 carrots, scraped and chopped

1. Place the pork in a large kettle with water to cover. Add salt to taste, and the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer 2 ½ hours.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°. Take the pork out of the kettle and place in a shallow baking pan. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the meat is browned all over.
3. Remove the meat from the oven, discard as much fat as possible, and shred the meat with a knife and fork.

Worcestershire Mayonnaise (from Cooking Light)

• 2 tbsp. fat-free mayonnaise
• 1 tsp. whole-grain mustard
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 garlic clove, minced

1. Combine ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine.

Spread the Worcestershire mayonnaise on slices of crusty bread and top with the pulled pork. Add arugula leaves for a little extra peppery flavor and green veggie goodness.