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Fresh Guava Salsa

Fresh Guava Salsa

Guava is definitely what is called "an acquired taste", but I think that's not true. You either like it or you don't. And I happened to love it!
That's why I've planted two trees in my orchard. And when both of them decide to bear fruit, it's overwhelming even for me. I try to make everything that I possibly can from guavas, and still have more left that I don't get around to eat. I eat one or two straight from the tree for a pre-breakfast, a couple more for snacks throughout the day, I put them in smoothies (so delicious with strawberry, banana, mango, coconut milk, etc.); I put them in fresh salsa to go with our breakfast (along with fresh green chili, tomatoes, cilantro and lime juice). This is something that does not seem to need a recipe but here it goes - and feel free to substitute guava for any fresh fruit you love! i.e. mango, pineapple, peach, and whatever else you have in season. Succulent fruits are the best, but guavas, being creamy and all, work just fine with a little help from the tomato and that also makes for a fresh salsa that keeps in the fridge for a few days without becoming too soggy. 

1 large guava 

1 large size tomato, with the stem "naval" removed

1 small sweet onion (white)

juice from half a lime

a pinch of salt

a handful of chopped fresh cilantro (spearmint will also go well here)

one small green chilli (i.e.: jalapeño, or a hotter chilli if you like your food hotter), seeded and sliced 

- Wash and dry all the vegetable and fruits

- Seed the guava by removing its core with a table spoon or a grapefruit spoon (you really don't want to accidentally bite into one of those seeds while trying to chew on all your other food, it would hurt). Mince the guava flesh thinly, or grate it on a coarse grater 

- Remove the stem and "naval" from the tomato and mince it

- Remove the seeds from the green chili pepper, and slice it thinly

- Mince the sweet onion

- Mix all that you've chopped so far, sprinkle with salt and add a squeeze of a half a lime

- Chop the cilantro very thinly

- Add the cilantro and mix well just before serving 

- This fresh fruit salsa is fantastic with quesadillas, tacos and as a "dip" for nachos. It's also good as a small side salad or condiment with other dishes, such as white fish, rice and beans, etc.   

Harvest Tamales

Harvest Tamales

Tamales are an ancient Mesoamerican steamed dumplings, made from masa harina wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves, and usually stuffed with either meat, beans or vegetables. It is not only an easy to carry provision, but also has significant ritual meaning. It was served as offering to the gods, and copal incense shaped as tamales were placed in the mouth of the dead before burying, and is to this day served as an offering to the ancestors on Dia de Los Muertos in Mexico.  

Tamales can be stuffed with anything really, but here I bring you a fall favourite: tamales with sweet potato and chestnut filling. They have a savoury and sweet taste and are a treat all around. They can be steamed in both corn husks and banana leaves (although each wrapper requires a different kind of prep and a slightly different wrapping technique). 

For the masa, I'm giving you my recipe for one that is based on store-bought dried up masa harina. It's a very similar dough to that used for making corn tortillas, only a bit softer and with the addition of baking powder and more oil or fat (your choice which kind). 

The filling can be made with either orange or purple yams, with an equally delightful flavour. 

Masa:
2 cups masa harina (specialty corn flour that was processed with lime)
1-1/2 to 2 cups warm water
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2-4 Tbs grapeseed oil, sunflower oil or another nutritious and neutral tasting oil; or butter if you wish
- Measure the masa harina, salt and baking powder together, and mix with a fork
- Gradually add 1-1/2 cups of water, not all at once, and the oil, and knead with hands. Add up to another 1/2 cup if needed. The dough should be soft but not sticky (if too sticky add more masa harina)
- Divide the dough into 20 even sized balls and set aside, covered with a towel to prevent drying. If you're using corn husks, you may need to make more smaller balls. 

Filling:
2 medium sized yams (or 4 small sized), either purple or orange 
1/2 cup pre-boiled and shelled chestnuts (I used the entire content of a vacuum package) 
1 medium purple or sweet onion, chopped
1/4 tsp chipotle chilli pepper, powdered, or chipotle pepper paste
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cocoa powder
a pinch of cinnamon
Salt to taste
Oil for sautéing 
- Wash and steam the yams until soft. I like to keep the peel on (that's where all the vitamins are, and it adds a nice texture and flavour)
- Sauté the onions, stirring occasionally, until caramelized and are golden-brown and significantly shrank in size but not burnt
- Chop the chestnuts
- Cut the steamed yams into cubes and mix with the spices, onions, and chestnuts

Now it's time to start forming the tamales!
If your'e using corn husks, blanch them in boiling water to soften them. Flatten the masa ball into a small flat disk on the palm of you rhand, place a teaspoon or so of filling, close with your fist and place inside the corn husk, folding the bottom to close it. 

If you're using banana leaves, run the leaf briefly over an open flame to shrivel it, wipe clean with a wet cloth, then remove the leave's spine and cut each side into appropriate size pieces. Best way to go about that is try one for size, make sure it is wide enough to encase a tamale, and then use that as a guide for cutting all the other parts. 
For forming the tamales, place the leaf on a tortilla press, place a masa ball on top, layer it overtop with a plastic sheet (to prevent sticking to the top of the press), then place a spoonful of filling, and wrap the tamale from all sides, using the banana leaf to shape it and fold and then close it in. 

In both cases, the tamales should arranged in a steam, with the open side up, a. d steamed for about an hour. To make sure there is always enough water at the bottom of the pot, and prevent scorching, place a couple of coins in the bottom of the pot. If you don't hear it rattling, it means the water run out and you need to add more. 

Serve hot or room temperature, these are delicious on their own but even better with a spicy salsa to balance the sweetness. Or with a homemade molé amarillo. 

Rose Petal Jam

Rose Petal Jam

Happy Mother's Day!

Making rose petal jam has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. My first taste of that was at my friend Zohar's kitchen. Her maternal grandmother is Turkish, and would make it every year. The texture was syrupy, with wilted, dusty-pink petals floating around. The aroma pure rose. I waited for that recipe for many years but even if I had it I wouldn't be able to make it, having no rose garden to harvest from. 


This year is a Sabbatical year, and I haven't pruned any of my roses. And they are growing especially wild and abundant. Every year I try making something else from them, rose beads, rose enfleurage, etc. This year it was really time I try to jam them at long last. I tried two different recipes, first one required a small amount of roses (about 60g, which is roughly one cup), and no curing time. I used dark, red and fragrant roses from my mom's Chrysler Imperial bush and some of my Oklahoma roses. Both are very similar - velvety, voluptuous red and darkly fragrant. The technique called for adding the lemon juice after cooking the roses in the water and softening the petals a bit. This takes away the colour. But once lemon juice is added, the colour returns. The recipe asked for commercial pectin, but I used a bag of quince seeds instead, with stunning results and very nice, thick syrupy consistency. The most spectacular part about that jam is the colour of course! 

The petals remain very chewy though, and I may actually opt for filleting them out next time when I use these roses, and make a rose petal syrup instead. This would be so lovely on a Malabi desert, panna cotta or vanilla ice cream. 


The second recipe I tried requires curing the roses for 48hrs covered in sugar. I used the more delicately petalled roses I grow: Kazalnik, William Shakespeare, and even a couple of Golden Celebration (these have a gorgeous lemony aroma). Again I used my own pectin (this time from Volkamer lemon seeds). The petals were still chewy. The aroma is lighter than the previous roses. I didn't expect to have such a huge difference because of the rose varieties used. And only wish I had more of the Kazanlik (which is the Rosa damascene used for perfume) to make a jam purely out of them. This was certainly fun! And out of the whole 4 jars I made, one is already gone. So I better make more while they're still in season. 

Recipe:
2 cups rose petals (around 60g), pesticide-free, organically grown or wildcrafted See note for preparation of the petals * 

1 1/2 cup water

2  cups sugar 

juice from half a lemon (about 3 Tbs) 

Reusable tea bag filled with pectin source (i.e.: quince seeds, apple cores or citrus fruit seeds)

* All rose petals are technically edible, but the varieties that are fragrant and with delicate petals are the most suitable for this purpose. If using thick-petalled roses such as hybrid tea roses, you may want to remove the white base of each petal. Also, be sure to allow all the flower's previous inhabitants to crawl out before you cook them up! I like to leave mine on a sieve for a couple of hours before I remove the petals from the calyx and begin jamming. 

Process: 
- Cover the petals with water

- Simmer until the rose petals and pectin tea-bag become soft and seem to lose their colour

- Add the sugar and simmer until completely dissolved

- Add the lemon juice and continue cooking, on low heat, until it reaches the right consistency. I like to test mine in the same way I test marmalade - place ceramic spoons or little plates in the freezer, place a few drops of jam on them and return to the freezer. If the jam crinkles when I pass my finger through it after a few minutes, then it is ready

- Transfer into pre-sterilized jars, seal and cool off

These are delicious as it is, eaten as an accompaniment to tea, or on hot scones or biscuits with clotted cream or sour cream. And of course, amazing on panna cotta or vanilla gelato, and as a drizzle of Pavlova and many other fancy desserts as your imagination desires.  

Persian Carrot Jam

Carrot Jam

Carrot jam is a traditional Persian jam made for the holiday of Nowruz. I always like to find new recipes for using carrots - to me they are like magical golden roots, and their existence is surprising especially if you know the wild carrot (Daucus carrota), AKA Queen Anne's Lace. Although this is an impressive plant - its root is thin and colourless. How it became to be the plump orangey sweet thing that it is today is nothing short of amazing!

The recipe below is a spin off on Yasmin Khan's recipe from her book The Saffron Tales, with small adjustments of my own - because I can't follow a recipe straight as it is without adding my own "flavours". Also, I would advise using pectin for this jam as it is very runny and syrupy even after exceeding the cooking time. 

I intend to serve it at Vashti's High Tea this Thursday, an event I planned to coincide with the Vernal equinox. However, due to Purim happening that same night, we'll celebrate it a week early. It is not going to be as lavish as my tea parties in Vancouver, because Israelis don't understand half a thing about tea... To them "tea" means any bunch of herbs picked from the garden and thrown in a glass of water. Which is charming and delicious but not "tea" in the proper way as it is known in Asia and many other parts of the world that truly appreciate tea!



Nevertheless, it is going to be fun and flavourful. And most importantly - this is going to commemorate 18 years of my brand's existence. If you can't make it to the event can still enjoy an 18% off your online purchases with code Chai18 throughout the month of March. Chai is not so much for the type of tea but the word in Hebrew meaning life, and which is also the number 18, numerically speaking. If you're jewish you know exactly what I mean... If you're not then look it up






Now, let's cook some jam!

Ingredients:

500g carrots, grated 

5 green cardamom pods

A few strands of saffron

Zest of one small Seville orange (you may substitute with another citrus rind to your liking, i.e. sweet orange, blood orange, lemon or lime)
500ml water
250g granulated sugar
3 Tbs Seville orange juice
1 Tbsp rosewater
- Wash and grate the carrots (peel if they are not as fresh and the skin is bruised etc.) 
- Peel the cardamom pods. Crush the seeds in a mortar and pestle.

- Add the seeds and the cardamom shells in a medium sized pot, as well as the saffron strands and citrus zest, water and sugar.

- Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, allowing the sugar to dissolve completely and the water to reduce.
- Add the grated carrots and bring to a rolling boil. Cook for 20 minutes until the carrots are soft and the water is syrupy. 
- Meanwhile, sterilize your jam jars:  Preheat the oven to 140C/ 225F, wash the jars and lids in hot soapy water and put them in the oven for about 10 minutes. When they have dried completely remove them from the oven and leave to cool.
- Once the carrots have cooked for 20 minutes, and are completely soft,  lower the heat, add the citrus  juice and rosewater and cook for another 5 minutes or more, until the syrup has thickened a bit. Remove from the heat, transfer the jam to the sterilized jars and seal.

- Leave to cool completely, store in the fridge and eat within a month.

Christmas in the Middle East

Despite globalization and Santa's great commercial success (and global take over) - Christmas in the Middle East (where it originated, let me remind you) has very different vibe than in Europe and North America. That's not to say that Santa and his reindeer do not make appearances here despite the alarming lack of snow (and sometimes no rainfall either). But it looks, sounds and smells different here, nevertheless.

Last week we went to the Christmas Market in Kfar Yassif (one of the largest Christian communities north of Haifa), with full-on expectations to have my Canadian standards of Christmas markets to be blown to bits. And to my delight, they did. First there is the reckless parking culture of the villages up north (parking is always a conundrum in big events, but we survived it quite heroically), and then there is the winter atmosphere of an Arab-Christian village in wintertime: lights everywhere, little children carrying light toys they purchased at the market, and street vendors selling boiled lupin and fava beans doused with cumin and lemon-salt (Middle Eastern street food is quite healthy), and sahleb (a warm, thickened milk beverage perfumed with rosewater, mastic resin and topped with spices and nuts).

Before you get into the market, you'll have security at the entrance (because any event of large crowds, especially that of a minority group, requires security in Israel, to remind you that something bad could happen at any moment but the army and police is there to protect you). And then there was lively and upbeat music - dumbak drums on the stage were performing Baladi beats by the town's square and the largest Christmas tree, later on succeeded by other performances such as a Middle Eastern violin musician, and more. And this pre-Christmas party was going to last till at least midnight, by the way. Proceeding to the market area, an overwhelming smell of barbecue filled the air - thick smoke of charcoals grilling meats of any kind (except perhaps turkey), including shrimps skewers. There were shawarma (aka donair) and felafel booths, and I think I've spotted some ma'amouls (fragrant and buttery semolina shortbread cookies filled with dates or nuts). There was absolutely none of the "Holiday Smells" such as eggnog or hot apple cider etc.

We circumvented the very crowded lineups and that's were we found the artisan stalls (there is a lovely new carpenter/woodworker in town that sold the most adorable ornaments, carved out of olive tree, some shaped like little guitars or oud - the musical instrument, not the incense tree); charity sales, and also those selling German-style mulled wine and green and red donuts (that look like they're made of plastic so of course we didn't eat them), and even something that looked like Japanese-style octopus pancakes next to stalls of chocolate syringes for chocaholics shooting up during Midnight Mass.

And speaking of mass - religious artifacts were offered as well lots and lots of incense was burnt. I don't think I've ever been to a Christmas market in Canada where frankincense and myrrh is openly burnt in cross-bearing copper censers! And keeping up with the syringe theme, there was the customary street-perfume-vendor stall, where perfume knock-off were sold out of large vats that make them give the illusion of precious cargo. The lady at that stall was advertising her wares by squirting cheap jus out of a large syringe (that is normally used to decant her merchandize into bottles for sale).

Around that time, we figured it would be a good moment to call it a night and go home with the loot we found - a little crocheted doily made by the local employment centre for adults with special needs, a bit clear helium bubble wrapped in lights, and the cheesiest Christmasy tiered tea tray, which for two years I've managed to avoid purchasing and always regretting I didn't...

And with this we'll close, but not before I'll give you recipes for a couple of regional sweets that are unique to the region around these holidays:

Ma'amoul Cookies Recipe
Ma'amoul
Ma'amoul are stuffed shortbread cookies from unsweetened dough, stuffed with dates or slightly sweetened nut fillings. The cookies originate in Jerusalem, but are popular all over the Middle East and each region has slightly different variation on the spices and dough recipe. For example: The nut fillings are usually walnut, but in Syria, where pistachios are abundant this is also a very popular and very elegant filling. The dough may be made from either fine semolina (cream of wheat), or from flour, or a mixture of both. Of course, the semolina ones are the best! They provide a rich, nutty and interesting texture to the cookie. In the Galilee, ma'amoul cookie dough is often flavoured with malepi (black cherry kernels), which give them a peculiar, inimitable aroma that goes especially well with the date filling (which, in turn, is likely to be spiced with cinnamon and cloves rather than the  nutmeg in the recipe to follow).

The ma'amouls are shaped in multiple ways, in order to be able to differentiate between different stuffings. The shapes can also have other religious meanings, especially in the Christian communities - where this was originally an Easter pastry. The round ones are stuffed with dates, and signify the crown of thorns and Christ's suffering, and and the nut filled ma'amouls are oval-shaped, and said to symbolize Jesus' tomb.

The following recipe is adapted from May S. Bsisu's excellent book The Arab Table, p. 303-304; and some improvements based on Dokhol Safadi and Michal Waxman's book "Baladi: Four Seasons and Nazareth" (in Hebrew), p. 288-289. Naturally, I've added my own perfumey touch to the filling flavours and also my tips from many hours of rolling ma'amoul cookies with my adopted Syrian family.

Aside from the usual kitchen and baking equipment (large mixing bowl, chopping board, knife and large cookie sheets and baking paper), you'll also need one special piece of equipment, which is very easy to find in the Middle East but not so easy to come by outside of it: little metal clips that are made especially for pinching the decorations and marking the ma'amoul. Some books will also recommend specialty cookie molds. These are very pretty and make for great (and impressive) kitchen decoration, but I found them to be way more difficult to work with (the cookies get stuck in the molds).

But most importantly - this is not a task for one person. It is best to make ma'amoul (or any large amounts of hand-shaped pastries, especially stuffed ones) with company. I sometimes wonder if it's not the cooking together rather than the eating together that keeps people together.

Semolina dough: 
4 cups fine semolina from Durum wheat, or regular sized semolina (AKA cream of wheat)
1.5 cups (3 sticks, or 375g)  unsalted butter, melted 
0.25 cup orange flower water
0.25 cup rosewater
0.5 cup unbleached all-purpose wheat flour 
1 tsp freshly ground malepi (optional)

- Melt the butter and add the floral waters. 
- Stir in the semolina until a dough is formed.
- Place in the fridge overnight, in order for the semolina to absorb all the moisture. 
- The next day, mix the flour with the ground malepi (if desired). 
- Knead the semolina dough with the flour mixture
- Roll into small balls (about the size of a golf-ball) and flatten them between your index finger and thumb. Place a small but significant amount of filling (about 1tsp) and close the dough in (it will look like a money pouch where all the dough gathers, this is the place you will place on the pan. The top will get the metal clips treatment, with decorations as imaginative as yourself. 
- Bake in pre-heated oven (to 350F or 180c) for about 15min, or until slightly golden on the bottom. 
- Let the cookies cool on a wire rack. Once cooled completely, sprinkle icing sugar on top. Keep as many as you're planning to eat within 2-3 days in a jar, so they don't turn stale. The rest are best to keep frozen. They will taste fresh once thawed again. 

Date filling:
1lb pitted and mashed dates (see note below)
1.5 Tbs unsalted butter
 1Tbs rosewater
1/4tsp grated nutmeg
* If you can't find pre-mashed dates, finely chop Barhi dates - the ones that are sold in small carton boxes and often mistakenly referred to as "fresh dates" in Persian and other Middle Eastern shops). If using pre-mashed dates (in vacuums package) be sure to remove any calyx or stem or occasional pit that were left behind).

Walnut filling:
2 cups walnuts
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted
1 Tbs orange flower water
1 tsp cinnamon, ground 

Pistachio & Orange Blossom (Ma'amoul filling)

Pistachio filling:
0.75 cups raw pistachios (unshelled)
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted
1 Tbs orange flower water
0.5 tsp cardamom, freshly ground 

Stay tuned for additional Middle Eastern Christmas specialty from my region, including Pumpkin Jam!

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