Using a combination of butter and oil in this one-bowl cake adds wonderful flavor and makes the texture extra moist, and it has become a favorite of ours as a sweet end to dinner on Rosh Hashanah. Be sure to use firm apples that will hold their shape while baking, such as Gala, Cortland, or Braeburn.
Almond flour has been a pantry staple in Paris for as long as anyone can remember. It happens to be less expensive than it is here and, perhaps because of the turnover, usually quite fresh. In the States, it’s still seen primarily as an alternative to flour for people with gluten sensitivity or for the health conscious, who like it for its protein content. Almond flour provides texture and taste, and it keeps a cake moist, as almonds are naturally high in fat. It’s for this reason that I use less oil than in an all-flour yogurt cake. The downside is that almond flour cakes don’t rise quite as high. Made with equal portions of flour and almond flour, however, lets you capture the best of both worlds. This cake is light, tender and moist and lasts for days. Like the classic yogurt cake, it plays well with spices, extracts, liqueur, syrups and floral waters. Here I’ve added sliced almonds to the top, for crunch.
I was in Durango at a small restaurant in which they served a dish of rajas con crema as a condiment with other assorted salsas and chiles en escabeche. I tasted it and was so completely taken, I kept asking them to bring me more. It was creamy and spicy, with a tiny bit of sweetness from the charred chiles and the onion. The poblanos here in the northern states seem to be hotter than those in the US, so it does read a little more like a hot condiment, but I love the extra heat and am crazy for these rajas as a taco filling or as a side dish for grilled meat or fish. But honestly, I could eat this right out of the skillet wrapped in a warm flour tortilla. This to me is pure comfort food.
So, tart strawberries and sweet cream is a yummy- sounding combo, am I right? And when the strawberries are of the freeze- dried variety, and the “cream” is white chocolate, and a buttery, blondie- type bar cookie is the vehicle that brings them together, yes: something delectable is, indeed, happening. Here, I am going to go completely off brand and suggest that an actual bar of white chocolate, chopped, works better than chips, as the chopped chocolate gets a tad meltier when baked. But they both work and give you strawberry-and-cream vibes in the most heavenly of ways possible.
Pyaz ke Pakora Onion Fritters Serves 6-8 / 2 or 3 pakora per person
Expert baker Christina Tosi, of Milk Bar fame, shared with us this recipe for her amazing and world-famous chocolate chip cookies. Find more delicious recipes at Christina's website.
This hearty Southern take on chicken soup features tender shreds of chicken and chewy strips of pastry in an ultra savory stock. Browning the chicken before simmering it in store-bought chicken broth provided a flavorful base. We opted for chicken thighs rather than lean breasts because they stayed tender throughout the long stewing process. Rolling the “pastry”—which we made from just flour, butter, milk, and baking powder—to 1/8 inch thick before adding it to boiling broth made it fluffy and soft. And cutting the dough into diamond shapes rather than squares added just a little flair to this homey dish. Keep the root ends of the onion halves intact so the petals don’t separate during cooking and the onion is easy to remove from the pot.
It was the Blackberry Pie recipe from What a Cook Ought to Know about Corn Starch (1909) that inspired mine. I love the bare-bones filling instructions: “Wash blackberries, drain and fill plate quite full. Sprinkle well with sugar. Sift over all, one generous tablespoon . . . [cornstarch].” Done and done. I added lime juice and zest (for a little zing), a bit of butter atop my filling (for richness), and arrowroot powder instead of cornstarch (for a less cloudy filling), and tucked it all into a tender and flaky cream cheese crust.
Rich and decadent, the recipe for these luxurious cookies was the result of a visit to Café Ilio, an artisan chocolatier in northern Tehran, run by husband and wife team Sahar Hossein-Najari and Mehrdad Aghameeri. The pair spent six years travelling around Belgium, France and Italy, honing their craft, before introducing Iranians to the wonders of fine chocolate, incorporating traditional ingredients – like saffron, pistachio and cardamom – into a whole new world of truffles, macaroons, jams and cakes. Thanks to their winning combination of dark chocolate and sour cherries, these cookies are loved by adults and children alike.
I started thinking about about the waste from coffee because in a restaurant people drink a lot of coffee; you can end up throwing away a lot of coffee grounds. We decided to start cooking with used coffee grounds, and the dishes we came up with tasted just as good - with a rich dark coffee - as they would have using fresh coffee grounds. Just store the ground in the refrigerator in a sealed plastic container with enough space for air circulation.