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.

Tunisian Tomato and Capsicum spicy relish

This is a rather piquant capsicum and tomato relish, adapted from Joanne Weir's Tunisian Sweet and hot pepper tomato relish.  I always roast my own capsicum with olive oil, oregano and salt.  If it's in season, I tend to have a containerof roasted capsicum in the fridge.  It's excellent with the Moroccan spiced beef and mushroom pastries, and if you can keep a bowl of it in the fridge you'll find yourself slathering it on meatballs, grilled fish, chicken or in a steak sandwich.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 brown onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, sliced finely
1 bay leaf
1 tin of tomatoes (400g) or 4 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon* Harissa
3 large red capsicums, roasted and sliced into strips
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper

Fry the onion, garlic and bay leaf in the oil until softened for about 8 mins, on medium heat.  Add the tomatoes andt spices and cook for 10 mins till thickened.  Then add the rest of the ingredients and cook for a further 2 mins.

* Harissa is a fiery hot condiment made from chillies, especially common in the Magreb.  It's available in tubes and keeps well in the fridge.  Found in Greek and Middle Eastern delis.

Moroccan spiced beef and mushroom pastries

I  do get a little obsessive about food and sometimes I'll attempt to recreate a dish I tried at a restaurant, or celebratory event where obtaining a recipe can be tres difficile.  Last Saturday night, we danced, ate and drank ourselves away at a relative's Engagement party by the sea.  Cocktail - style food was served and it was  absolutely delicious!  Tender, moist beef skewers, salt and pepper calamari with rocket and balsamic reduction served in noodle boxes, pea and saffron arancinis.....Being a Greek event, there was a cornucopia of food.  Interestingly enough, there was one dish I didn't try, only because I ate too many of their pumpkin and pesto wood fired pizzas!  It was the  beef and mushroom pastries served with a tomato salsa that my husband waxed lyrical about the most.  As I hadn't tried them, I asked him to describe the flavours.  Was there any cinnamon, a hint of cardamon perhaps, parsley??  Anyway, he retorted, in his typical fashion, that he just enjoyed them and didn't stop and analyse the components.  Where is DI Henry Crabbe  (from the wholesome BBC1 series 'Pie in the Sky') when you need him?

Anyway, after trawling through some of my precious cook books, I came across a recipe from Joanne Weir's 'From Tapas to Mezze', titled Baked phyllo triangles with lamb and moroccan spices.  I've altered it considerably and this is my version:

500 minced beef
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons dried oregano
3 teaspoons Ras el Hanout blend (if not available, replace with 4 teaspoons ground cumin, 1 teaspoon each of ground ginger, cinnamon, coriander, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper)
300 grams sliced brown mushrooms
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
salt and pepper
24 sheets of fillo pastry
125 grams unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

In a frypan, fry onion and garlic over medium heat until softened, about 8 mins.  Add all the other ingredients and continue cooking for another 10 mins till meat is browned.  Savour the aroma of the spices mingling in the heat!  The moisture should have completely evapourated at this stage.  Set aside.

In meantime, preheat oven to 180 degrees.    With a knife, cut the fillo the long way into 3 strips.  Place the strips on top of each other to form a single pile and cover with a slightly dampened tea towel.   Take one strip and brush with butter. Top with another sheet of fillo and butter again.  Place a heaped teaspoon of filling at one end. Fold 1 corner over the filling to meet the other side and continue to fold as you would a flag, until the whole strip is folded into a small triangular parcel.  Repeat with the rest of the fillo and filling.  Brush remaining butter on the top and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Place on a greased baking sheet  and bake until golden, 15 mins.

Serve immediately, warm or at room temperature.