Ube or Not Ube-that is the question- Crinkles

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Ube crinkles are magical, purple caky cookies that make your eyes momentarily roll to the back of your head upon first bite.  Imagine the velvetty, pillowy give of a red velvet cake but with the rich moistness of ube. Ube  is a Filipino dessert made of mashed and sweetened purple yam and is often used in other desserts like ice cream and cakes.

 

These cookies are easy to make and are a beautiful shade of purple.

Ube Crinkles, adapted from Bake Happy

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 12-16 cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup ube jam, recipe here or buy at your local Filipino grocery
1 teaspoon ube flavoring
1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

Whisk together dry ingredients.  Cream butter and sugar with your mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg.  Add in ube jam and ube flavoring then gradually add in the dry ingredients.  Cover the bowl with saran wrap and chill for 2-4 hours.

Using a regular ice cream scoop, scoop out about 1/2 a scoop of batter.  Roll the cookie dough into balls and coat with powdered sugar in a bowl to ensure even coverage.  Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes.

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Ube and ube flavoring with creamed butter and sugar mixture

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Batter up

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Chocolate ‘Chia’mporado

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Growing up in the Philippines, I lived on champorado.  My mom made it a lot mostly because it was sweet, filling, cheap and good.  Champorado is a sweet chocolate rice porridge, which Mom usually made from a boxed mix.

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It’s even better when she tops it with tuyo, a salty dried fish.  What.  Don’t judge–Filipinos made that sweet-savory thing before it was a thing.  Tuyo is like bacon–just as crunchy and salty–except it’s fish and smells really bad when you cook it indoors.

I wanted a different take on my favorite childhood merienda and decided that I would make a healthy version with chia seeds.  Chia seeds when soaked in liquid become pudding-like in texture, kind of like a rice pudding.  It’s so easy to make and chances are, you’ll have most of the ingredients on hand.

And the bonus is, it makes a really great pun.

Chocolate Chiamporado

Ingredients

3/4 cup soy milk or almond milk (avoid non-dairy milk to keep low fat)
1/4 cup chia seeds
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1t vanilla extract
4-5 T maple syrup
1/2 t grated orange zest
3T orange juice
*1 packet of Splenda (optional)

Procedure

Whisk all ingredients together and refrigerate overnight. Seeds gel when they come in contact with liquid so you’ll wake up to a creamy pudding with a slightly nutty texture. Top with a sprinkle of grated orange zest, slivered almonds and chocolate chips.

*I happened to have Splenda on hand so I added a packet.  Feel free to omit and instead adjust the amount of maple syrup to your desired sweetness.

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Hummus, where the heart Is

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I used to put a bib on JJ that said “I only cry when ugly people hold me.”  I am lucky that my people understand my snarky sense of humor, at the very least tolerate it, so this did not dissuade them from holding him.  But when he did cry–well, it sent a subtle message–there is something fundamentally unlikable about you because JJ never cries when he’s held by strangers. This of course was not true.  But it was fun to watch the quiet panic and worry set in.

I feel this way about hummus.  If you don’t like hummus, there is something wrong with you and you would benefit from some thoughtful introspection.  But don’t blame the hummus.  I mean who doesn’t like the nutritious value of chickpeas, its creamy texture once pureed and the blank canvas you now have to work and get creative with, with whatever flavor you desire.

I recently found my hummus mojo with my own experimental creation , the spicy sun dried tomato hummus.  It had the tangy zip from the sun dried tomatoes and the pungent bite, but in a good way, from the garlic.  All that was smoothed out though by the creamy nuttiness of the pureed garbanzo beans mixed with some tahini.

Spicy Sun Dried Tomato Hummus

Ingredients

1 can of garbanzo beans washed and drained, 15 oz*
4T sun dried tomatoes packed in oil
4T tahini paste**
3T oil from sun dried tomatoes
3T lemon juice
1 t spicy pepper flakes, adjust based on your preference
salt to taste

Procedure

Drain and rinse your canned garbanzo beans before using to rid it of that gloppy gel-like thing it’s been sitting in.  Put all but 1 1/2 T of the sun dried tomatoes in a food processor.  Puree till smooth.  Take 1 T of sun dried tomatoes and mix in with the pureed mixture–the whole bits of sun dried tomato is a nice texture contrast to the creamy hummus.  Top the hummus with the remaining sundried tomatoes, oil and a dusting of paprika and spicy pepper flakes.

*Some say that garbanzo beans need to be peeled in order to get that ultra creamy mixture.  I say, ain’t no body got time for that.  And it’s not necessary.

**Tahini paste is essentially toasted sesame seeds ground up and mixed with oil to create a paste.  You’ll find it in the Middle Eastern section of your market, Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods.   You can omit the tahini paste but your hummus will not be as creamy or complex in flavor.

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December to Remember

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One can only say so much about food without sounding as if one has issues with food (I may, in fact, have food issues in that I love pork belly a little too much but that’s for another blog post) so I will focus instead on what I did and learned during my Christmas vacation.

A couple of years ago, I made a pact with myself to do no shopping for a 2-month period. It was spurred by a purging episode, an episode which yielded about about 12 very full trash bags of clothes-I’m ashamed to admit, some still with tags on them-shoes, unread books.  It was difficult at first but eventually I became cutthroat in my approach and tossed/donated things I hadn’t touched or worn in the last 90 days.  Because I do a lot of online shopping, I received and resisted the temptation to open countless emails everyday beckoning me to a sale or special discount.  But I would not falter.  I survived 60 days of not buying anything but it was a very purposeful (read: difficult) effort.

So this past Christmas, we decided that instead of buying each other more stuff, we would share experiences.  We began December with a lecture at Nourse Theater in San Francisco by one of my favorite coaches of all time, Steve Kerr.  He’s a true leader with a strength, humility and intellect that have earned him commitment from  his team.  He also admitted that winning helped.

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Tiny guy on the left with a big message about teamwork, joy, mindfulness

We continued our experience-sharing with a family activity at Roy’s in San Francisco, a restaurant specializing in Hawaiian fusion and occasionally opens during midday for activities such as sushi making, cooking demos and in December, decorating gingerbread houses.  Lunch was included in the package and we were given supplies, one gingerbread house which came from a kit, which by the way, boo Roy’s–last year, their gingerbread houses were baked and created in house.  As a result, our finished product looked like a condemned property, but it was fun nonetheless.

 

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Gingerbread house in foreclosure

 

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It wasn’t all bad though; check out those smiles

My favorite was family date night at the San Francisco Symphony followed by dinner at the House of Prime Rib.  Each year, the SF Symphony puts on a holiday concert series geared towards families and children.  We treated ourselves to the Charlie Brown Christmas concert at the beautiful Davies Symphony Hall and even though we skipped the long lines for hot chocolate (remember it’s not about buying stuff; yes, hot chocolate counts as stuff), this is a memory we won’t soon forget. I mean, how can you outdo playing Schroeder’s piano alongside that humble, albeit sad, Christmas tree.

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We ended the evening with dinner at JJs favorite restaurant House of Prime Rib, which he declared as the best restaurant ever–even better than In ‘n Out.

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When asked what he liked most about the prime rib, he simply replied, “The texture.”  I’m not sure he knows what that means.

Best Christmas presents ever–and I didn’t even have to wrap anything.

Ooh (Dutch) Baby, Baby

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A Dutch baby is way better than a real baby. It smells just as good, it’s just as soft and sweet and it really is cute coming out of the oven. Plus it takes way less work, energy and money. It will never criticize your cooking when that baby grows up to be a 7-year old boy and grades it as C+ (the vegetables lower the grade) and compares it to Grandma’s A+ rated Spam, eggs and rice (the processed, canned luncheon meat raises the grade).

Like a real baby, the Dutch Baby is also a miracle in itself for impatient, non-bakers like myself. You take 4 ingredients that you should already have in your pantry: flour, eggs, milk, sugar–and if you don’t, you are not yet a fully evolved adult and probably only have Ikea furniture and a hot plate in your dorm room. Then you mix all the ingredients together and stick everything in a 425 degree over, 20 minutes later you’ve got yourself a Dutch baby.

I suppose the proper way to end this post is to identify one last comparison that once and for all pronounces the real baby superior to the Dutch Baby, because after all, I am a mom.

Enjoy.

Dutch Baby recipe, adapted from NYT Cooking:

INGREDIENTS
* 3 eggs
* ½ cup flour
* ½ cup milk
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* Pinch of nutmeg (optional)
* 4-5 tablespoons butter
* Syrup, preserves, confectioners’ sugar or cinnamon sugar

PROCEDURE
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Combine eggs, flour, milk, sugar and nutmeg in a blender jar and blend until smooth. Batter may also be mixed by hand.
3. Place butter in a heavy 10-inch cast iron pan, preferably one with a non-stick surface like Le Creuset. As soon as the butter has melted (watch it so it does not burn) add the batter to the pan, return pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the pancake is puffed and golden. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake five minutes longer.
4. Remove pancake from oven, cut into wedges and serve at once topped with syrup, preserves, confectioners’ sugar or cinnamon sugar.

The baby’s best profile

 

Friends with Benedicts

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Whenever I go to a new brunch place, my go to menu favorite is either corned beef hash or smoked salmon eggs Benedict.  Why?  Because I have a serious addiction to salty food.  And because I’m hypertensive and not supposed to indulge in salty food I enjoy them that much more.  Salt is the apple to my Eve.

The best smoked salmon eggs Benedict I’ve ever had is in Sacramento, Fox & Goose.  The hollandaise was creamy, thick and…well, cheesy.  Hollandaise is not made with cheese–lots and lots of butter but no cheese.  I haven’t recreated it at home yet but it was a perfectly executed hollandaise, so I licked that little sauce cup clean.  My other fave spot for eggs Benedict is in San Francisco’s SOMA district, Butler & the Chef Bistro with their creamy, rich hollandaise sauce served by a French Asian waitress, so charming and adorable I wanted to go all Pepe le Pew on her every time she came by.  Their variation is to use a crusty baguette as the vehicle for the creamy sauce, poached eggs and smoked salmon which was a great balance of textures.

Allow me to deconstruct the eggs Benedict:

Poached egg

The egg portion of eggs Benedict is hard for most to make because of the poached eggs.  Getting it to the right softness and achieving that perfectly round shape without shards of poached egg hanging off to the side were my Everest.  I tried for years with using vinegar and timers and I got maybe one or two good poached eggs out of 8.  So I wised up and consulted food geek Alton Brown for this awesome pro tip that never occurred to me because I never took Physics in high school, plus I cut class a lot.  The keys to perfectly poached eggs are:

  • Creating a whirlpool bath in which they  leisurely poach
  • Drop some white vinegar in there to minimize frayed edges
  • Don’t drop the egg in the whirlpool bath; use a custard cup and gently slide it out
  • After a minute, turn off the heat and leave it alone to poach for five minutes; don’t peek!

Hollandaise sauce

This is the other task I dread about eggs Benedict.  I tried it once and it didn’t go well.  Let’s just say the clean up from the blender accident and the resulting buttery counters and cabinet door surfaces drove me to hollandaise made from those sauce packets.  Thankfully, I’ve found an alternative.

Bread and protein choices

Customize and get creative with your Benedict right here.  I’ve seen protein choices ranging from the sublime (smoked salmon) to the ridiculous (kalua pork).  For your  bread, I recommend a crusty  variety like a baguette or ciabatta.  I’d stay away from soggy breads that can’t hold up to all that saucy, eggy, meaty goodness like white bread or rolls cut in half.  Traditional eggs Benedict is made with muffins but meh, you can do better.

Recipe:

  • *Trader Joe’s hollandaise sauce found in the egg section
  • Toasted sourdough baguette or ciabatta bread
  • Poached egg
  • Protein of your choice (smoked salmon, Canadian bacon, ham, etc)
    Capers and Italian parsley for garnish

*This is by far my favorite TJs find.  You know how some TJs items are just offered seasonally?  I got paranoid about that one day and decided to stock up and bought 10 tubs and froze them.  Thaw a tub the night before you feel like a Benedict binge and either heat said tub in the microwave or gently simmer in a small pot of boiling water.  Although, don’t put the plastic tub directly on the pot or melting might ensue.  Instead do it double boiler style with the tub in a bowl placed over but not touching the boiling water in the pot.

Procedure:

Poach your eggs using aforementioned tips. Reheat your TJs hollandaise while your poached eggs are resting in their whirlpool bath. Finally, toast your bread and assemble with your chosen protein, topped with your poached egg and drizzled with your hollandaise. Garnish with capers and parsley.

The hollandaise will separate into buttery globs after the microwave but don’t panic and just pour out to a bowl and stir to return to its creamy state.

Your kitchen might look like this

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But in the end, it will be worth it

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Maui, The Valley Isle

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We started to discuss vacation in June as soon as the kid finished first grade because, you know, first grade is such a harrowing experience to endure so you get rewarded with an all-expenses-paid vacation.  When we initially checked out Disneyland as a possible destination, we did in fact cost it out and a 3-night stay at the Grand Californian, 4-day park hopper passes, food and gas would come out to about as much as a weeklong vacation in Maui.  So yeah, you do the math.

We just got back last week and I’m still jonesing for that aloha spirit.  So I’m going to spend some time on this post telling you about our favorite tours, accommodations and restaurants and include links.  Support these local island businesses!

Star Noodle: When I was dating Pru, I thought no one can be that awesome past the first date.  Like baked cookies, fed me french toast while I was so sick that I managed to infect him with pinkeye–awesome.  Here we are together more than 20 years and still awesome… solid, consistent performance with bold flavors and great service that never disappoints.  Wait, I switched to Star Noodle just then–but yes, perfect analogy for this eatery with very reasonable prices–I keep waiting for them to stop living up to the hype and still they do.  Try the Vietnamese crepe and the deconstructed sisig. Thanks Rose for the pro tip!

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Malasadas with trio of dipping sauces/nuts at Star Noodle

Hali’imaile General Store: Bev Gannon’s restaurant is elegant yet still manages to be homey at the same time.  I think they do it with the well executed food and fantastic service that makes you feel like you’re the only one in the joint.  The sashimi napoleon is truly one of my favorite things on earth and I found myself eating slowly on purpose so that I can savor every bite and enjoy all the textures that explode in your mouth–the crackle of the fried wonton, the creaminess of the wasabi dressing, the salty bite of the smoked salmon, the spiciness of the ahi tuna tartare.  It’s too much.  But then it isn’t.

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Sashimi Napoleon at Hali’imaile General Store

Sansei Sushi: If you haven’t found religion, you’ll find the next best thing in the panko crusted ahi.  When you take the first bite, your eyes will momentarily roll back in your head and you might even utter “God is good,” when really you meant, “God, this is good.”  The sushi is wrapped in arugula and spinach and served on a bed of soy butter sauce.  Pru and I share less important things like mortgage payments, debt and raising our son.  We do not share the panko crusted ahi.  I even tried to recreate it once but sadly, I overcooked the fish.  There are lines out the door which sometimes results in an hourlong wait when they first open because of their 25% off early bird special.  Time is at a premium while I’m on vacation so I don’t waste mine with meager discounts.  Call for reservations.

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Tempura fried ice cream at Sansei because we polished off the ahi before we were able to take a picture

Ululani Shave Ice: OK, li hing powder is a little weird.  It’s like eating tamarind for the first time but in powder form.  It’s salty, sweet and sour and it makes you pucker partly from shock of all those flavors at once and then the realization that you just put all that in your mouth.  But sprinkle it on one quadrant of your shave ice so that way, you only have a small area on which to ponder your regret.  But you won’t because it’s goo-ood.  There are 6 branches on Maui…Front St is the busiest and Dairy Road is the least.

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No li hing powder on this shave ice, Ululani’s in Kahului

Trilogy Excursions: Twice we’ve gone sailing with them and again an amazing experience from the crew to the breathtaking sights and great apps served on board.  Go for the sunset sail and be amazed by the sights and sounds of the open ocean and the sun setting in the horizon.  The crew serves mai tais, beers, pineapple juice as well as heavy apps like purple taro rolls with shredded pork, shrimp rolls, chicken satay skewers.  You will enjoy all this with a gentle rocking of the boat and background of soft Hawaiian music.  The cruise is about two hours long and yes, you’ll get a little wet, kissed really, by the gentle ocean breeze and splashing waves below the hammock.  Heed Captain Kevin’s advice: fix your eyes on the horizon and you will not get seasick.

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Laying on the hammock gives you a new perspective

Kapalua Golf Villas: Hotels and I have a very important relationship.  People say that you won’t spend much time in a hotel room anyway, why bother spending inordinate amounts of money on something you’ll see for no more than 8-10 hours a day.  I don’t buy this rationale because 1) that’s at least 1/3 of my vacation 2) this is the place I lay my head on, cleanse in and 3) entrust with my family’s safety and shelter in an unfamiliar place.  So yeah, this is arguably the most important expense of my vacation and therefore bear no shame in saying I spare no expense on my living quarters–within reason.  Enter: VRBO.  When using VRBO, look at not only the home/condo but also the neighborhood in which said house/condo is situated.  If there’s video and most reputable places do, even better.  We were not disappointed in this beautifully appointed 1 br/1.5 ba condo that overlooks the 10th hole on a world class golf course in Kapalua, home of the Ritz Carlton and 1700$/night Montage Resort.  And by the way, I won’t be staying at the Montage; I do draw the line somewhere.

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The views, walking along the paths at Kapalua Golf Villas

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Breakfast at our lanai every morning was a treat with this view

Surfing Goat Dairy: If you have small kids, immediately take them to feed goats, milk goats and do goat cheese tastings.  Located in upcountry Kula, the drive from Lahaina is about an hour and you’ll think you’re lost about 2/3 of the way in because you’re looking at nothing but open fields and dirt country roads.  It also seems hotter and drier on this part of the island but when you hear the story of how German expats–former computer programmer and teacher–moved here after falling in love with Maui you’ll start to envision doing the same thing.  Then you’ll brush away that thought, distracted by the fantastic varieties of goat cheese you’ll eventually sample and bring home with you.

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Goat milk?  Then love each udder.

Kapalua Coastal Trail: Best thing I did on this vacation was hiking this trail almost everyday.  When I researched this on Yelp and Tripadvisor, some reviewers said this isn’t really a trail.  To those buzzkilling naysayers, I argue that just because you didn’t almost die or get bit by a snake or wore flip flops while hiking it–get over your Patagonia-loving, Teva-wearing, granola-eating selves and just appreciate its many sights and wonders.  It’s a TRAIL that takes you along some fantastic views of the ocean, horizon and remnants of a land born from volcanoes.  It is mostly paved paths but also some gravelly and rocky terrain that my Merrells can handle (see, I can be granola too) and what rewards you at the end will be some misty rain that will gently hit you while you stand in awe of the waves crashing against the rocks below.  Kapalua is the wetter side of Maui so be prepared to wear close toed shoes when you hike this TRAIL.

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Start your hike by 8am to get the trail to yourself; about 3.5 miles round trip

Maui Zipline: When I was younger I thought I wanted to go skydiving.  Then I had a kid.  That and Pru once said “I’ll need to explain to your parents how you talked me into letting you do this asinine thing.”  Picturing such a conversation taking place at the morgue, I reconsidered this poorly hatched idea and opted for the zipline.  Kainoa, Miles, Eddie and Jessie were our very chill guides–deceptively chill because they are also very safety conscious, did harness checks with every zipline–there are 5–all the while sporting that aloha vibe throughout our experience.  I suppose it doesn’t inspire much confidence if your guide is more nervous than you so the chill factor is very important.  We zipped through a tropical plantation amidst fields of pineapple, coconut trees, starfruit and despite the 7-year old getting stuck halfway through on 3 out of the 5 ziplines, he maintained a cheery optimism after the initial reaction that hovered near panic.

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Safety first; Maui Ziplines is good for kids under 10

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Nearing the end of this particular zipline, he stuck the landing on that platform

 

Mahalo, Maui for your gracious hospitality, unrivaled beauty and for letting us share in your aloha each time we visit.

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Poke, Mon

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I’m officially addicted to poke.   I’ve had so much poke that you need only to stand next to me to get an accurate reading of your body temperature, that’s probably how much mercury I’ve ingested from all the tuna I’ve eaten.  Let’s have a brief tutorial on the magic that is ‘poke.’

‘Poke’ pronounced ‘poe kay’, is generally now known as raw fish marinated in various spices and sauces over a bowl of hot rice or salad or on its own.  Ok, maybe not so generally–by ‘generally’ I mean in Hawaii and parts of the Bay Area and SoCal where palates for raw fish are more inherent than earned. In Hawaii, poke is sold like ham at your grocery’s deli counter.  Foodland is the Hawaiian version of Safeway but so much better because you can procure so many varieties:

My all time favorite poke place is on the Big Island, home to Da Poke Shack, a small nondescript shop in the middle of a no name condo complex and is arguably one the best restaurants (loose term) in America according to Yelp.

Thankfully, poke bowl places are all the rage in the Bay Area and poke eateries like Sunfish Poke, Poke Bowl, Limu & Shoyu have been popping up everywhere.  But lately I’ve been getting creative with my semi-homemade version which I get from–of all places–Costco.  Costco’s ahi wasabi poke is premade with seaweed, wasabi, soy sauce and it’s pretty good already.  But like Steve Kerr who upon taking over the Golden State Warriors said, “You’re good, but we’ll make you better,” I take the Costco poke to new heights by adding sriracha, sesame oil, furikake and sambal oelek.  Sambal oelek is this wonderfully spicy garlic paste you get in Chinese restaurant with your soy sauce.

If you want to make your own poke, you can go to your trusted fish monger–I go to Whole Foods for mine–and get a pound of ahi tuna that’s sushi grade.  At WF, they run about 27$ a pound and yes, that’s pricey and the answer to your other question, so worth it.

Ingredients:

1 lb sushi grade tuna
Sambal oelek
Sesame oil
Furikake seasoning
Low sodium soy sauce
Ponzu sauce
Sesame seeds (optional)
Macadamia nuts (optional)

Procedure:

Cut tuna into small cubes and set aside.  In a mixing bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients to suit your taste. You can adjust for spiciness or more citrus by adding more or less of the ponzu and sriracha. Once you’ve achieved the desired flavor of your poke–which should fall somewhere between fresh, salty and spicy–mix your sauce mixture with the cubed ahi tuna.

Not All Gyros Wear Capes

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Pru says that when I’m on a mission, it’s best to stay out of my way.  He has become adept at recognizing all the telltale signs: I stop talking mid-sentence, then get this faraway look in my eyes right before I launch into a series of non sequiturs, muttering to no one in particular.  It happened recently while working on an intense work project with someone I’m lucky enough to have as my friend and self-proclaimed bossy big sister.  This one’s for you Sally.  ‘Cause you’re my gyro.

My Middle Eastern menu consists of beef gyros with tzatziki sauce and tahini dressing.  The tzatziki  is easy to make and requires very little effort beyond procuring the ingredients and slicing the cucumber paper thin, a task made easier with the use of a mandoline.  For the tahini sauce, tahini paste comes in a jar, found in Middle Eastern grocery stores or Whole Foods.  Or you can make your own.

The beef gyro was a little intimidating at first, but use the food processor to ground your meat to the pasty texture it’s intended to be and you will make this part of your regular dinner repertoire.

Beef Gyro

INGREDIENTS
Ground beef, 1 lb
Salt and pepper to taste
Oregano, 1 tsp
1/2 onion
garlic, 3 cloves
bacon, 3 strips

DIRECTIONS

Combine ground beef, salt, pepper, and oregano in medium bowl. Mix with hands until homogeneous. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to over night.  Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 300°F. Place cold mixture in bowl of food processor with onion, garlic, and bacon. Process until smooth puree is formed, about 1 minute total, scraping down sides with rubber spatula as necessary.

Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. With moist hands, form meat mixture into rectangle.  Pat it tightly to avoid air pockets in your meatloaf-like brick.  Bake until center of loaf reads 155°F on an instant read thermometer, about 30 minutes. Allow loaf to rest at room temperature for fifteen minutes.  Then refrigerate for a couple of hours as this makes it easier to slice thinly.

Adjust broiler rack to highest position (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches from broiler element) and preheat broiler. Slice loaf crosswise into 1/8th to 1/4-inch strips. Lay strips on rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and broil until edges are brown and crispy, about 2 minutes. Tent with aluminum foil.

Tzatziki

1 c Greek yogurt
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
dill

Mix all ingredients and allow flavors to blend together for a couple of hours.

Tahini sauce

Tahini is ground sesame paste and you can find it at Whole Foods or Middle Eastern markets.   It’s like peanut butter but without the sweet nutty taste.  You can probably get away with omitting it but you’ve come this far, you might as well take another tahini step. Sorry I’ll stop punning now.

Finely mince or 2 cloves of garlic and mix with 1/2 cup of tahini paste, some lemon juice and olive oil to taste.  The mixture should be something like very runny peanut better.  When you first crack open your jar of tahini, you will find a layer of oil on top which is not only normal but awesome because of all that rich and creamy goodness.  Just stir it well before using.

Stuff pita pockets with beef gyro and spoon tahini sauce and tzatziki over the beef, serve with cucumber and tomato salad.

 

He’s Such a Crepe

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So…well…umm there are no excuses.  I’ve missed this blog.  There have been times when my cursor hovered over my favorites toolbar and I came close to clicking on it but the discomfort of seeing my last post from almost five months ago was too much to bear.  So I’ve kept my distance.  No, that is not a metaphor for how I deal with issues; not always, anyway.  But like a homing pigeon, I will always have an instinct to come back home to keeping it eel.

OK.  Enough therapy.

A couple of weeks ago during Easter week-end, I epitomized the adage ‘those who can’t do, teach.’  I had this awesome idea of hosting a cooking class and making crepes, inspired by our recent cooking class at Sur La Table.

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Greek pistachio cigars

 

The planning was fun and here are some tips to get you started:

  • Plan a menu fitting for the occasion you’re hosting.  Easter brunch may call for a variety of crepes; a dinner party is more suited for 3 courses of appetizer, main with side dish and dessert.
  • Assign courses and ingredients so you are not saddled with the responsibility and cost of trying to take care of everything.  For someone who has a hard time asking for help I’ve learned over the years that guests are most satisfied when they contribute something–their time, effort or a dish–to the meal.  It gives the party a sense of community that you don’t otherwise get when you do everything yourself.  No one’s trying to be Joan of Arc here and you’ll wind up looking just as haggard as her if not more.
  • If you don’t have a big stove, invest in these single hot plates  so your students have ample room to maneuver on their own personal stove.
  • Have snacks available for guests to nosh on.  Depending on your students’ cooking chops and how many cooking disasters you’ll have to struggle through, you may not eat for hours.  No judgments here just being realistic.

Our crepe making party was actually a success.  But–and here’s a big but–just because you know how to make something and cook it well does not mean you can teach others how to do it.  Por ejemplo, when your student asks, “How do I know when my crepe is done?”  The answer should never be “I don’t know, I usually just use the force.”  People who don’t cook need clarity, step-by-step instructions, actual answers that don’t invoke Star Wars references or tea leaves or magic.  What really helps is a printed copy of recipes that your students can follow along on their own and your role as a teacher is to guide, answer and course correct, say, when there is an unmanageable open flame that has risen to distressing heights.  Our clean up crew–actually, clean up Pru–wound up taking over and the students turned out technically perfect crepes.  Whatever.

Lastly, invite people who you actually like, people who love you and people you know won’t get mad or dissolve the relationship when they get yelled at or ridiculed, “You call that a crepe?  It’s as thick as a manhole!”  or “How much is one table spoon in your world?  In the end, when you partake of your creations together, you’ll remember why you invited these people in the first place.  And why you love cooking.

 

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The Shalissa: Crepes with nutella, strawberries, bananas and almonds

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The MissyMark: Cheese blintzes with blueberry sauce

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The JayGo: Savory crepes with chicken, feta, pesto and provolone