Avocado Open Sandwich/Toast

Avocado has become an essential ingredient of my diet now (2-3 per week) and I feel very good eating it considering its mono-saturated fat content.  My love affair with avocados first started with Guacamole. When we moved to California, it become part of my weekday salads. Soon, I was eating it for weekend brunches with omelets. Then I found this great recipe about avocado toasts which I started enjoying for weekday breakfast.  You can call it avocado open sandwich or avocado bruschetta.  Here is my version of this recipe.

Ingredients:
2 slices of  multi-grain or whole wheat or sourdough bread
1 medium size ripe avocado (chunky pieces)
3 teaspoon extravirgin olive oil (or more based on taste)
1 clove of garlic
 salt to taste (~1/4 -1/2 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon sumac (for sourness)
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes

- Toast two slices of bread in a toaster
-  Rub the garlic clove on each slice and apply about 1/2 teaspoon oil on each slice
-  Place chunky pieces of half of the avocado on each bread slice
- In a small bowl, mix 2 teaspoon oil, salt, and chilli flakes (or you can directly sprinkle them on the avocado as well)
-Drizzle the mixture over the bread slices
- Sprinkle sumac over the slices

Enjoy this super yummy toast. Sometime when I am in hurry, I use garlic flavored olive or avocado oil and avoid garlic clove.

Almond tart with caramel filling and shortbread crust

This is yet another egg less yummy tart particularly good in fall or spring as the base is like a rich shortbread. This won the Food52 contest for "your best late winter tart". Other than caramel making (which I am kind of getting comfortable with after many many failures in the past), I would say it is quite easy to put together.  If it is not already clear from my last three posts, I love baking tarts and trying out different flavors.

Serving: 20 small pieces

Ingredients:

Shortbread Crust:
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup confectioners sugar (preferably buy confectioner's sugar which are sold in plastic bags)
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoon (3/4 cup) unsalted butter (cold, chopped in small cubes)
zest of one orange (or two tangerines)
~ 3 tablespoon fresh orange juice

Filling:
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 orange blossom honey/blue agave
1 cup extra heavy whipping cream
3 cups sliced almonds (toasted, I used 8oz pack of sliced almonds from Trader Joe's)
 2 teaspoon fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon fresh orange juice + 1 tea spoon warm water for brushing the tart base

Procedure:

1) Line a 9.5 inch tart pan with a parchment paper
2) In a stand mixer, pulse flour, confectioner sugar, salt, butter, orange zest. Slowly add one tablespoon of orange juice at a time and pulse again. You will need about 3 tablespoon of juice to bring everything together in form of a ball. Pulse slightly and carefully until the mixture starts to form a ball.
3) With your hands, spread the dough in the tart pan and on the side of the pan working with you palm and fingers
4) Chill the pan for  1 to 4 hours ( 1 hour minimum)
5) Heat the oven to 375 degree F
6) In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, add superfine sugar, brown sugar, honey, two teaspoon orange juice and mix everything gently.  Turn the heat to medium low and allow the mixture to melt while stirring gently.  Cook for 5-7 minutes until the mixture darkens and caramelizes. Make sure you don't over cook (burnt taste) or under cook (not a liquid form and you can still see crystals)
7) Add heavy cream and increase heat to medium. Cook the mixture for another 8-10 minutes until it thickens. Most of the time mixture will be boiling so decrease the heat setting little bit if the mixture wants to come out of the pan :)
8) Mix one teaspoon orange juice and one teaspoon warm water, apply this mixture to the chilled tart base with a brush
9) Stir in sliced almonds into the caramel mixture and spread the mixture into the chilled tart pan.
10) Bake for 30 minutes and lower the temperature to 350 F and continue baking for another 15 minutes
11) Remove from oven and let is cool completely and serve with whipped cream or as is. Make sure to cut a very small slice as a small slice goes a long way for this tart.
12) If you end up storing some in refrigerator, warm the slice for 10 seconds in microwave or for 1-2 minutes in oven at 350 F.

Easy and Tasty Egg less Peach Tart

Tarts are one of my favorite desserts comprising of layers of deliciousness with crusty base, smooth filling and a distinctive topping. Endless combinations exist which closely change seasons in terms of filling and toppings.

Peaches are in full swing at farmer's market now. I wanted to try this recipe that I had bookmarked for a while waiting for peaches to show up in the farmer's market. Tasty peaches make all the difference in this tart.  It is an eggless tart  and is quite easy to put together because of the minimal ingredients it contains.

Ingredients:
(Adapted from the winning recipe for "your best peach pie or tart" in Food52 contest)

Crust:
3/4 cup spelt flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour (or u can use 1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour and omit spelt flour)
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tea spoon salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup olive oil (extravirgin or light olive oil)
1/2 tea spoon almond extract
2 table spoon milk

Filling:
3 peaches
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 table spoon cold unsalted butter (pea size pieces)
1/4 tea spoon salt
2 table spoon all purpose flour

- Mix all the dry ingredients for crust  (flour, sugar, and salt) and all the liquid ingredients (oil, almond extract, milk) separately. Combine them together while mixing slightly and not overworking the dough
- Grease a 9.5 inch tart pan or 10 inch tart pan (line with a parchment paper if you don't want to sctrach the bottom of the pan)
- Transfer the crust mixture to tart pan and spread it evenly and firmly with your plam and fingers throughout the pan and along the sides (no rolling required for this crust)
-Preheat oven to 425 F
- Now cut 1/2 inch pieces of peach and arrange them in circle from outside to inside and in the middle while covering maximum area on the crust
- For the filling, mix sugar, butter, salt, all purpose flour with your fingers until crumbly and sprinkle over the peaches evenly
- Bake for 35 minutes to 40 minutes based on your oven settings
- Carefully remove from oven and at this point you will see a lot of bubbles in the pan and let it rest for half an hour.
- Slice and eat :) . This tastes great when slightly warm so in case you endup referigerating the tart (if you are fortunate enough to have any left) warm a slice in microwave for 15 seconds before eating it (you can serve it with whipped cream or eat without it)
- Enjoy this fresh and light treat.

Multilayer date tart (Ranginak)

This is a popular dish from southern part of the Iran where date trees are in exuberance and is usually eaten with a hot cup of tea. What got me interested in the recipe was the familiarity with the ingredients and yet novelty in the way they are combined. Each ingredient in the every layer of this dessert is my all time favorite including dates, walnuts, wheat flour roasted in ghee, pistachio and cardamom powder. Naturally,  I couldn't resist this super high calorie dessert.  Very little use of sugar and natural sweetening with dates gives it a character especially in comparison to my favorite aata ke ladoo where we add a lot of sugar to ghee and aata mixture. It is a no bake tart/dessert however a baked version do exits for this dessert. Also, it reminds me of date crumble or aata/date shortbread and even classic aata ke  laddo.

I am paying some attention to dates these days at the local farmer's market. One of the farmers only brings dates of 5-6 different varieties and is among one of the most popular vendors. My favorite are majool dates (soft and chewy), then there are Bahri (eaten during Ramadan as told by the farmer, also soft and smaller than majool, people in middle east eat them with tea as a sugar substitute)  Farmers also have 2-3 other varieties which are relatively dry and perhaps could be used for chutney/baking.  Soft and fresh dates are recommended for making this dessert. Many variations exist for this dessert, some of which I will discuss at the end of the recipe.

This recipe was adapted from  Food of life ancient Persian and modern Irani cooking and ceremonies by Najmeih Batmangij.   In addition to small changes in the quantities of ingredients, I substituted ghee for butter and wheat flour for all purpose flour as I knew I would like this taste better and I remember reading it somewhere else that it used to be made with wheat flour also. This is the first recipe that I am trying from this book. It is one of my favorite cookbooks these days and I eagerly wait for trying new recipes from this book. Since Persian cuisine had so much influence on Indian cuisine, many recipes sound familiar yet they are so different in the preparation. 

Ingredients:

Layer1:

3 cups of pitted dates (preferably soft and fresh, Bahri or majool)

1 cup roasted walnuts (chopped into small pieces)

Layer 2:

1 cup ghee (clarified butter)

1 and 1/2  cup wheat flour (shifted)

Layer 3:

1/2 cup confectioners sugar (shifted)

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Layer 4:

Garnishing

3/4 cup pistachio (ground)

Procedure:

1.  Lightly toast raw walnuts for about 5 minutes on a skillet on medium heat.
2. Chop them or grind them into big pieces for stuffing in dates after cooling them for little bit.
3. In a thick bottom pan, mix the ghee and wheat flour on low-medium heat and cook the mixture. It took about 40 minutes for me to cook it. (Since there is enough ghee in the mixture, it was sufficient to mix it every couple of minutes to avoid sticking at the bottom. Original recipe called for cooking it on medium heat for 15-20 minutes. I usually like things on slightly more cooked side especially halwa and ladoo so decided to toast it for 40 minutes. Make sure that you don't burn this. When you start smelling beautiful aroma of ghee flour mixture you will know that its ready and also it will change color similar to caramel sauce or little darker than that)
4. Slit one side of date (remove the pit) and stuff with chopped walnuts
5. Grease a 9.5 inch tart pan or a 9 inch pie pan and arrange stuffed walnuts from inside to outside covering maximum space on the pan
6. Once your ghee flour mixture is ready, evenly pour it over the dates and cover them completely. Level it to make a even surface
7. Now mix confectioners sugar with cardamom powder and cinnamon powder and evenly sprinkle over the flour mixture and tap it little bit from the back of a spoon. Soon this will be submerged into the flour mixture and you won't see sugar as prominently
8. Now ground some pistachio and distribute those evenly over the sugar mixture 
9. Let it cool for an hour (put it in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours) and then cut a small triangular piece and warm it slightly for 30 seconds in microwave. Enjoy with hot tea (Note that it will be little soft and crumbly before putting it in the refrigerator so be careful in taking out the pieces if you do not want to put it in the refrigerator . If you do put it in the refrigerator, make sure to microwave it to heat up the flour ghee mixture a bit)

 Variations:

*  You could also just put the flour ghee sugar mixture in the pan and arrange the date (stuffed or without stuffed) on the mixture

** You could put half of the flour mixture at the bottom, sprinkle sugar mixture, arrange the dates and put remaining half of the mixture on the top and use your own artistic idea for garnishing

*** You could just serve the stuffed dates with little sprinkle of pistachios or even add feta cheese or a savory/sweet combination for stuffing to make your own date delights

Persian Almond Baklava

Out of millions of recipes that are floating on the Internet, its always tough to select the ones which I want to try in my kitchen. Since it is a significant time investment to try a new recipe (and a depressing state if it doesn't come out well), I have created a safe zone for myself i.e. try recipes, which have won some sort of award. One website that I frequently visit is FOOD52 as it announces contest winners and wild card winners in different categories each week. I have a good number of recipes on "to be tried list" from their contests. One of them was almond baklava, which I made this weekend. I am proud to say that this is one of the prettiest desserts I have ever baked (not that I have baked a lot) and it also tastes pretty good. This blog entry is inspired by the “almond baklava wild card entry winner” in food52 contest.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1+1/8 cup all purpose flour

8 tablespoon (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/8 cup very cold water

Filling:

3 cups almond meal/flour (blanched)

1 cup powdered confectioners sugar (shifted)

1 teaspoon cardamom powder

2 tablespoon water

1/2 tablespoon rose water

Glazing:

2 tablespoon water

1/2 teaspoon flour

Syrup topping:

1/2 cup sugar

3/8 cup water

1 tablespoon rose water

Final decoration:

1.5 tablespoon pistachios (chopped)

2 teaspoon dried rose petals (available at Persian grocery stores)

Procedure:

1. Cut butter into eight equal pieces. Add that to the flour and mix them together (either with hand or stand mixer) until the combination is crumbly and pea size pieces are formed. Now drizzle water to this and knead the dough to bring everything together and wrap this in a plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes

2. Now in a bowl (or in stand mixer), add almond meal, confectioner sugar (shifted), cardamom powder and mix slightly. Mix rose water and water separately. Then drizzle water/rose water mixture to the almond mixture so that the mixture is moist (don't over mix otherwise almonds may leave butter)

3. Now take a 9x9 size pan and apply little oil on the inside.

4. Divide the dough into two equal parts and roll the first part into a 9x9 inch size (I flipped my pan and then used the plastic to cover it and then rolled the dough on the back of the pan to basically get the 9x9 shape without having to cut any thing. You can also roll it on kitchen slab and then fit it into the pan. Also, I find it helpful to roll with the large rolling pins for even rolling without any mess)

5. Now cut a parchment paper and transfer the rolled part on it and cut it to fit the size of the dough (9x9 inch)

6. Now roll the second part of the dough in a similar fashion and remove it from the pan along with the plastic

7. Flip the pan and transfer parchment paper with the dough into it (if some sides of the dough are smaller than the pan, work with you hands to stretch the dough to fit the whole pan)

8. Transfer the filling on the dough and press it to make an even surface

9. Now transfer the second part of rolled dough on top of the filling (of course without the plastic:)

10. Now transfer the pan into freezer for 20 minutes (this helps in not crumpling the top part while baking)

11. Preheat oven to 350 F

 12. Take out the pain from freezer and cut the dough into 8 equal parallel parts horizontally and then cut at 45 degree angles in eight equal parts to get the diagonal shape. Make sure to cut it all the way to the bottom

13. Mix 2 tablespoon water and 1/2 teaspoon of flour. Heat it in microwave for 20 seconds. Mix again and heat for 20 seconds.

14. Now using a brush, glaze/coat the top part with the water/flour mixer. This will give the baklava a nice golden finish

15. Transfer the pan into oven and bake for 15 minutes

16. Take the pan out from the oven and run the knife through all the cuts because some of them may have diffused into each other

17. Transfer the pan back to oven and bake for 20 minutes

18. Increase the temperature to 375F and bake for another 10 minutes (until crust turns golden)

19. When you increase the temperature to 375 F, start preparing the syrup. 

20. Heat the sugar and water into a pan until the sugar is melted and bring to a low boil

21. Add rose water and let the mixture boil

22. Once its starts to boil, switch off the gas and let it cool down a bit (still warm)

23. Take out the pan from oven and let it cool to that its warm (~10 minutes)

24. Now pour the warm syrup evenly through the pan

25. Sprinkle chopped pistachio and rose leaves on the pan for decorations 

26.Cover it with plastic wrap once the pan has cooled completely and let it  rest for at least 2 hours. The taste will improve in day so you can even make it ahead of time.

Mausiji's UP Estyle Khichadi and Indian Food Palooza

Have you heard the famous saying: "Khichadi ke char yaar: Dahi, ghee, papad, and aachar". A simple khichadi (lentil risotto) can taste so delicious when its eaten with its four best friends: Yogurt, ghee (clarified butter), papadum, and aachar (pickle).

Khichadi is "Indian fast food" in some ways. Indians eat a wide variety of khichdi's namely Bisi bele bhath (a southern favorite), simple moong daal/lentil khichdi, arhar daal khichadi etc. The kichadi I am going to share is eaten in western UP. Believe me this khichari is in a different league altogether !

I ate this Urad daal khichadi for the first time when my mausiji-in-law visited us in Princeton. This royal khichdi is made with minimal ingredients.  Mausiji told us that it was one of the first dishes that she learnt from her sister-in-law/mother-in-law when she got married as it was a favorite dish in their joint family. Mausiji is an awesome cook and always ready to adapt to latest technology in cooking. Having eaten a bunch of meals made by her, I can testify that she is a great cook!

This khichadi is a bit thicker than other khichadi that you may have eaten and is usually served with lots of ghee and hing ka aachar. When I first ate it, it was a privilege to also eat mausiji's hand-made hing ka aachar which I haven't found in the Indian grocery stores in US.  I would have to either learn how to make it from her (too ambitious plan) or figure out a place from where I can buy it as we make this khichadi often at home and I always remember her pickle while eating it.

Recipe:
Serves 3-4 for dinner or lunch

Ingredients:

1 cup basmati rice

1 cup split urad daal (with skin)

2 tea spoon salt

2 tea spoon red chilli powder

1/4-1/2 teaspoon hing

2 inch grated ginger

and "char yaar of khichadi"
3-4 table spoon Clarified butter
Hing ka aachar or any pickle
Papadum
yogurt

- Soak rice and daal separately for 1/2 - 1 hour ( I have soaked them for 5-6 hours and that works too)

- Put a heavy bottom pan on medium heat settings
- Add two and half cup water to it. Add salt, chilli, hing, and ginger to the water

- Once the water starts boiling, add rice (drained) and daal (drained) to the boiling water and mix.

- Cook for 10-15 minutes until most of the water is absorbed by the rice and lentils

- Reduce flame to low and cook for another 5 minutes, At this point the mixture will be very dry.

- Switch off the gas, and cover the pan with lid for ten minutes

- Serve warm with Pickle (hing ka pickle preferred), Ghee, Dahi and Papadum

I am linking this post to the Indian food palooza hosted by Indian Simmer, The colors of Indian Cooking and Creative Culinary. 

Cardamom, Pistachio and Saffron Pound Cake

Preparing brunch is one of my favorite things as there are no set rules. I usually try pound cakes of different types. While browsing through recipes, I stumbled upon a pound cake by Suvir Saran. Originally this was a pistachio pound cake with Lebanese origin which he tweaked a little by adding cardamom.  While reading the recipe, I was convinced that adding saffron might also add to the taste. Soon, I tried this on a Saturday morning and it was delicious. You have to try this flavorful cake!

Recipe:
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cardamom powder (freshly ground for best results)
1/4 teaspoon salt

One and half sticks unsalted butter at room temperature (12 tablespoon butter)
1 cup brown sugar

3 large eggs (room temperature)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk
1/4-1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron

1 cup roasted pistachios

- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Grind one cup of roasted (unsalted) pistachios ( I usually get mine from Trader Joe's). Make sure you do not over grind them.
- In a stand mixer or in a big bowl, cream butter and sugar together
- In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and vanilla extract
- Slowly mix butter mixture and the egg mixture
- Slightly warm 1/4 cup of milk and add crushed saffron and let it sit for 2-3 minutes and then add this to the remaining 1/4 cup milk.
- In a separate bowl mix all purpose flour, baking powder, ground cardamom and salt
- Add half of the flour mixture to the butter/egg mixture and then add half of the milk and mix together
- Add remaining flour mixture and milk and mix everything to make sure that the batter is free of  lumps
- Add pistachios into the mixture and mix very gently
- Now grease a 8x4 pan and transfer the batter to the pan
- Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean
- Let is cool in the pan for ten minutes and then on a cooking rack for another 20 minutes
- Enjoy this flavorful Lebanese pound cake with an Indian and Persian touch!