Concubine crescents (kourabiethes)

My friend Anne absolutely loves these traditional Greek shortbread biscuits.   Anne is an artiste who makes the most exquisite mosaic art, using coloured glass, you've ever seen.   My son calls her home 'the house with the broken glass'.  Shimmering images of peacocks (her favourite bird), kookaburras and fish adorn her creations.  Her Chinese water paintings featuring Mongolian themes are marvellous too.  It's not likely you'll see her work because she refuses to exhibit  - quelle dommage!  When asked if there are other talented artistes in her family, apparently there is a famous painter in the U.S. who is her uncle and most interestingly of all, one of her descendents was a renowned poet in China.  He specialised in erotic poetry depicting his exploits with his favourite concubine.   This is my way of paying homage to this style of poetry!

As you'll notice there are few ingredients but the secret is in the technique.  The butter and sugar need to be creamed to within an inch of their life before the vanilla extract is added.  Makes around 30.

250g unsalted butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup of almonds, roasted and chopped coarsely
2cups self raising flour
1 cup of icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180degrees.

Beat butter and sugar until it all becomes white (probably 5 minutes with the mix master).  Beat in the vanilla extract.  Incorporate the flour and almonds.  Once combined into a very bumpy ball shape, pull off small pieces and roll into logs then bend slightly in middle to form a crescent shape.  Place on baking paper lined baking trays and bake in oven for about 10 mins.  Do not let them brown. 

Once baked dust extravagantly with sifted icing sugar (which also serves as an excellent way of concealing any odd shaped biscuits).  They're particularly hard to resist when eaten warm!

Sophisticated Rocky Road

One of my favourite childhood memories was a family holiday to Cyprus over an entire summer visiting multitudes of relatives.  We borrowed my pappou's dilapidated baby blue Volkswagon (beetle) traversing the south of the island from Limassol to Paphos, sometimes with up to 10 people inside.  We sat lap upon lap, faces pressed against the window.  It was a perilous adventure!  Another enduring memory of that trip was the scent of rosewater.  My dear late maternal giagia loved spritzing it on herself before making the ascent to the village church in her Sunday best or taking the 4 a.m. bus into the poli (city).  She used it liberally in her desserts and would drink it as a cordial and serve it to her guests.  It came in a pretty clear glass bottle.  I detested it, thinking it too perfumey.   I would ask for orange cordial instead and refuse her sweets.  Quelle dommage!

But with the passage of time, our palates thankfully change and become more sophisticated (well at least they should!).  And I now love rosewater, particularly in Turkish Delight.  It features in this recipe for Rocky Road.  If you want to give it a yuletide look, use pistachios instead of walnuts.  This is also for Nat, my son's kinder teacher, who has been hankering for it since Christmas last year!

200g milk chocolate, broken up into pieces
100g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken up into pieces
150g combination of marshmallows and Turkish Delight
100g walnuts, roasted and coarsely chopped
100g roasted, shredded coconut
40g glace cherries, chopped

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler.  Remove from heat once melted and add all other ingredients, mixing thoroughly.  Spread onto greased lamington tray smoothing surface with a spatula.  Chill in fridge till set (about an hour).  Once set cut into shapes approximating squares.   Give liberally to the lovely teachers of your children!

Bulgarian cheese pastries

Currently swooning over Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.  A saga about a consuming passion against the backdrop of Belle Epoque Russia.  Images are conjured of grand balls with princesses dancing the mazurka, cuckolded husbands, horse racing,  jealous lovers ...and of course, the ultimate tragic ending.  But one of my favourite lines in the whole book which made me laugh uproariously  was after Count Vronsky had acted as a tour guide for a foreign prince showing him quintessential Russian amusements over the course of a week, "he felt like he was attending a lunatic and afraid for his own reason too'.

So, in the Eastern European spirit, here is a very easy recipe which hails from Bulgaria.   It is adapted from a book called Rilka's Feasts, which has no photos at all but is filled with family anecdotes and simple recipes.  These are a particular hit with children and excellent for adults too served hot with a tipple or two.  Makes 20 -30.

260g plain yoghurt
1tsp bicarb of soda
150g crumbled fetta
200g cheddar cheese
300g plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
10 mint leaves chopped up
1/3 cup vegetable oil
extra 50g of cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 180degrees.  Mix yoghurt with the soda in a large glass bowl.  It will effervesce, such is the effect of the soda when combined with moisture.

Add all the other ingredients (except extra cheese) and mix with your hands till you have a sticky dough (careful not to overwork the dough).  Moisten your hands with a little oil and pull off a pieces to form round 2cm balls.  Flatten the tops slightly and sprinkle with extra cheese and place on greased baking trays.  Bake for 15 - 20 mins till pastries are golden and cheese has melted. 

If I have sesame seeds I combine a handful with the extra cheese and sprinkle over the top for a nice crunch.

Ricotta hotcakes

I bought some ricotta at a very popular Oakleigh Greek deli the other day.  Only because it looked so tantalisingly fresh! The only problem is that it doesn't store well, so it needed to be used within days of purchase.  So I decided to whip up some pancakes using the wedge of ricotta and served these for my children after school.  They're so hard to resist when served hot with a drizzle of golden syrup.  Makes about 10.

300g ricotta
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 cups self raising flour
30g melted butter
1 tsp bicarb of soda
corn oil for smearing the fry pan for frying

Beat the ricotta, egg, bicarb of soda and milk with vigour until light and aerated.  Incorporate the flour and butter until a batter is formed of a pouring consistency.

Heat the frypan over medium to high heat.  Once hot add a smidgeon of oil, just to coat the frying pan.  Then pour in batter to make circles 8cm in diameter.  I could fit 3 in at a time.  Once the top is bubbled and edges are firm, turn over and cook for about 2 mins.  Repeat until all batter is used.   Pile on a plate when cooked and serve with the sweetening unguent of your choice!

Lentil and burghul fritters with yoghurt sauce

I have a slim Family Circle recipe book which looks so unpromising, it's a plain Jane amongst a collection of beauties, and yet is filled with recipes I turn to time and time again.  Back in the day where I was part of the paid working masses I had an Italian colleague who loved to cook and once taught me to make arancinis.  We had very little in common but our shared love of food provided a point of commonality between us.  So we often shared recipes, regaled each other with details of the meals we prepared  the night before or the dishes we served on the occasions we entertained guests.  And sometimes, we'd bring in our favourite books and photocopy recipes.  When she brought in this book, I perused it's pages and realised a photocopy of a recipe or two won't do.  I needed the entire book!  This was before the time of Amazon and Bookworld,  so after relentless searching in various book shops, I located a copy in a newsagency and bought it for a song.

This is one recipe which corroborates why all the effort to source it was worth it.  It's great when you feel you need to add more pulses in your diet.  The accompanying yoghurt sauce is not optional because it really give these fritters a lift.  Makes 35.

3/4 cup brown lentils, rinsed
1/2 cup course burghul
1/3 cup olive oil
1 large brown onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
3 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup plain flour
salt and pepper

Yoghurt sauce
1 small Lebanese cucumber, grated
1 cup or 250g Greek style plain yoghurt
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 sprigs of dill or fennel fronds finely chopped

Place the lentils in a saucepan with 625ml water.  Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 mins till tender. Turn off the heat and pour water to just cover the lentils.  Add the burghul, cover and stand until the burghul has absorbed the moisture and expanded (about 30 mins).  Transfer to a large bowl.

To make the yoghurt sauce, strain the cucumber by placing in the middle of a clean teatowel and wring until the excess moisture has been strained.   Place the semi desiccated cucumber in a small bowl.  Strain the yoghurt (of it's whey!)  in the same way.  Once strained, place in the bowl with the other ingredients and mix well.  Keep in the fridge till needed.

Heat half the oil in a frying pan over medium heat.  Cook the onion and garlic with the bay leaf,  until soft and translucent.  Add the cumin and coriander, as well as salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the bay leaf and add remaining ingredients.  Combine until the mixture is thick enough to drop spoonfuls into the pan.  If the mixture is too wet, add a little extra flour. 

Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over medium heat.  working in batches,drop heaped tablespoons into the pan.  Cook unil browned on both sides.  Drain on paper towels.  Sprinkle with sea salt flakes and serve hot or at room temperature with the yoghurt sauce.

bougatsa (Greek custard pie)

Although I do have a penchant for the complex and the sublime sometimes it is practical, indeed it is necessary, to bow to simplicity.  And this sweet, vanilla custard pie duly pays homage to the very essence of simplicity.  My fellow bibliophiliacs aka the brown paper bag book clubbers enjoyed this pie as we discussed Fforde's Shades of Grey.  As my dear friend Sally knows I didn't enjoy the book but I did the bougatsa!

This recipe is adapted from one given to me by Maria, a family friend from Sydney.

150g unsalted butter
1 packet of  fillo pastry
1 tin of evapourated milk + enough full cream milk to make 2.5 cups
4 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 sachet vanilla sugar from continental delis)
icing sugar
cinnamon powder

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  Line a baking dish (approx 30 x 22 cm) with melted butter.  Scrunch up all the pastry sheets individually and place in one layer on baking dish.  Melt butter and pour it over the pastry.  Place dish in oven and cook till pastry is crisp and golden, about 20 minutes.

Bougatsa is in the background alongside the lilac

In the meantime, use an electric mixer to beat the milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla till light and frothy.  Reduce oven temperature to 180 degrees.  Pour mixture over hot pastry and return to oven.  Bake for 30mins till custard has set.  Sprinkle magnaminiously with icing sugar and cinnamon whilst still hot.  Serve cut into squares warm or cold.

chocolate and walnut tart with salted caramel sauce

It was a night suffused with the vibrancy of young love and tales of adventures to farflung destinations.  In honour of Arthur's niece's recent graduation (bravo Anastasia!) and another's return from medical training in Cape Town and Berlin I hosted a soiree. It consisted of bringing out a range of shared plates.  Anastasia's handsome beau attended too and periodically took time out from his state of ardour to exclaim that it was 'amazing'.  Which was endearing and humbling for moi.  But I suppose I wasn't humble enough not to chronicle it!

Preparing and serving plates of different dishes admittedly is time consuming for the host however I've always adhered to the adage that 'variety is the spice of life'.  And this style of eating is, I've noticed, becoming increasingly popular in Melbourne.  There were a couple of meat dishes like pork and fennel meatballs, Cypriot loukanika and turkey fillets saturated in port, figs and star anise and Bulgarian cheese pastries (recipes of which will be duly posted).   But by far the dish that inspired the most acclaim was this dessert which I composed from various recipes.   The salted caramel sauce is from a free food magazine from Woolworths.  The sweetness of the salted caramel complements the intensity of the chocolate tart.  If I had it my way, I would have used just 85% cocoa rather than a combination of milk and ultra-dark chocolate.  But this combination suits most tastes.....

For the walnut pastry
100g shelled walnuts
55g sugar
150g plain flour
125g chilled unsalted butter, chopped
1 egg yolk

Chocolate filling
150ml thick cream
150ml milk
220g chocolate, chopped (100g dark choc and the rest milk)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract

Salted caramel sauce
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup water
125g unsalted water
1/2 cup thickened cream
2 tsp sea salt flakes

To make pastry, process walnuts, sugar, flour and 1/2 tsp salt until finely ground.  Add butter and process until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.  Combine egg yolk and 2 tbs iced water in a bowl, then add to walnut mixture and process until mixture is just incorporated.  Form into a ball, shape into a disc and cover in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for 30mins.

Preheat oven to 180degrees.  Grease a fluted tart tin and roll pastry disc onto a lightly floured surface till it reaches a diameter where it can line the tin with extra pastry extending over the edge.  Chill the pastry case for at least 20 mins before baking.  If you choose to freeze the pastry, it can still be baked when frozen.  Line the pastry case with foil and fill this with dried beans or chick peas.  Bake for 15 mins then remove the foil and weights and bake for an additional 5 mins.

While pastry case is baking make the chocolate filling.  In a saucepan, bring the cream and milk to the boil.  Remove the pan from the heat, add the chocolate and leave until the chocolate melts, then add the yolks and vanilla and beat until mixed.  Pour into the warm tart shell (according to Stephanie Alexander pouring warm or hot liquid into a warm pastry case prevents liquid seeping).  Bake for a further 20 mins and let rest for at least 1 hour before serving.   It is tres magnifique serve chilled with the hot caramel sauce poured over.  A quenelle of home made vanilla icecream placed artfully on the side is an optional extra!

Concoct caramel sauce by heating sugar and water in a medium saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves.  Add butter and slowly bring to the boil.  Simmer until caramel is  a rich, golden brown.  Remove from heat and carefully stir in cream.  Return to low heat, then add salt.  Whisk until smooth.  Keep warm.