Baklava

If  love is directly proportional to the degree of effort required to produce a dish, then making baklava for someone is akin  to telling them you love them madly!  To make a fabulous baklava, it takes time.  For me, the secret is using whole nuts and roasting and grinding them myself.  I always buy walnuts in their shells, because they do go rancid tres vite, once shelled.   I've used only walnuts and almonds but pistachios are wonderful too, speckling the baklava with vivid green.  And in the spirit of the dalliance, why not use other whole spices like cardamon pods and star anise in the syrup??  Makes 30 pieces.
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2 cups shelled walnuts
1 cup almonds
3 tsp cinnamon powder
375 g filo pastry
180 g melted unsalted butter

Syrup
2 cups  sugar
1.5 cups water
3 thinly peeled strips of orange rind
6 cloves
1 cinnamon quill

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.  Place nuts on baking tray and roast till golden, about 10 mins.

Reduce heat to 170 degrees.  Finely chop nuts using a food processor.  Be careful not not to grind them to a powder though.  Combine with cinnamon in a bowl.

Butter base and sides of a 33x23x5 cm baking tray.  Cover base with a single layer of filo and brush lightly with the melted butter.  Continue to layer the filo, brushing with butter between each new layer until 10 sheets have been used.  Keep the rest of the filo pastry under a damp tea towel to prevent it from drying out.

Sprinkle half of the nut mixture over the pastry and pat down evenly.  Repeat the layering and buttering of  five more filo sheets and then sprinkle with the rest of the nuts, keeping the layer relatively even.  Layer and butter remaining filo sheets and finish by brushing top layer with butter. 

Cut the top layers of the baklava with a sharp knife into diamond shapes.  Flick a little  water onto the top layers to prevent them from curling upwards,  Pour any remaining butter evenly over the top.   Bake for one hour.  If it is browining too quickly, cover loosely with foil.  Pastry must be allowed to cook thoroughly.

Once cooked, immediately cut through the original diamond markings and let cool.

In the meantime, make the syrup.  Place all ingredients into a medium saucepan, bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and let simmer for 10 mins.  By this time the syrup will have thickened slightly.  Pour hot syrup uniformly over cooled baklava.    Step back and inhale the ambrosial aromas of the East!

Chicken Stock

Winter heralds ruminations of risottos, soups, hearty pies, tagines, stews....And all these wintry dishes require the addition of  a flavoursome stock.  I make chicken stock right throughout winter and keep freezer bags of it in my freezer.  Some recipes call for the chicken bones and vegies to be roasted first, for a deeper flavour.  I find this recipe with everything thrown in with aplomb, produces a decent stock.  Regardless, however you make it, home made stock is always going to taste infinitely better than the stock powder or the vacuum sealed liquid packs from the supermarket.  So pick up your favourite book, a glass of wine and inhale the delicious aroma as your stockpot of liquid magic bubbles away for the next couple of hours. Makes about 2 litres


2 kilos of chicken carcasses
500 grams of chicken necks
about 10 stalks of parsley
2 bay leaves
1 onion, quartered
1 carrot, chopped up roughly
2 celery stalks, cut up
10 peppercorns

Put all ingredients into a large saucepan or stockpot and cover by up to 7 cm with water.  And just let it simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. I don't skim or worry about the fat whilst it's cooking as according to my guru, Maggie Beer, it removes the flavour.  After this period of simmering, strain the stock through a sieve into a bowl.  Let cool before placing in the fridge.  Once cold, you'll notice a fatty layer has collected at the top.  Remove with a spoon and pour the liquid into a measuring jug.  I usually measure out 500 ml and put into 4 labelled freezer bags.

Lentil and Spinach soup

Being in the dead of winter, a homemade, nourishing soup is just what the doctor ordered, I believe.  And having your own home made stock makes it extra wholesome.  I was lucky enough to have secured some fresh English spinach from a neighbour, so this only multiplies it's nutritional allure!

I came across this recipe from the fabulous food blog, Love Bites, who in turn sourced it from Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food. This makes enough soup for 6 people.

- 2 carrots, sliced
- 2 sticks of celery, sliced
- 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1.8 litres vegetable/ chicken stock
- 300g red lentils
- 1 thumbsize piece of fresh root ginger, sliced
- 10 cherry tomatoes halved
- 200g spinach leaves
- salt and pepper, to taste

Saute carrots, celery, onions and garlic in oil for 10 mins on medium heat, or till softened and golden. Then add stock.  At this point, add the lentils, ginger and tomatoes and cook for another 10 mins by which time the lentils should be cooked. Finally, add the spinach and cook for a short  while, till wilted. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with a thick dollop of Greek yoghurt and some crusty bread.