CANT GET ENOUGH OF KNAFEH BIL JIBNE!

Mmmm... a bite of crunch combined with creaminess, straight out of the oven, with a drizzle of orange-blossom scented syrup... knafeh bil jibne is a firm favourite here at home when it comes to desserts. Actually, this is not the first time I write about this middle eastern dessert on my blog, but last time I presented it in a fun bite size form- which, I'm pretty sure, you would never find in any Middle Eastern shop or restaurant. They just dont make them like that as the traditional way is really to prepare it in a gigantic round pan that could feed an entire country! I've tried taking lots of photos to show a step-by-step method of making this delicious dessert at home...just incase you get that sudden craving and there is no place nearby to indulge into a ready made slice!

The key ingredient here is knafeh- you can find this in Middle Eastern food shops.

A mixture of the right cheeses explains the creamy inner magic of a knafeh bil jibne. You will need a mixture of akkawi cheese (here on the left, the texture is more goey) and haloumi cheese (on the right, with a firmer texture). These cheeses are salty, so you will need to leave them in a bowl of cold water for 48hours in the fridge to remove saltiness. Make sure to change the water at least twice during the 48hours.

Place your knafeh in a mixer

And shred it. Some shops might sell knafeh that is already shredded- so in that case skip this step.

In a bowl, mix all the shredded knafeh with a generous (and I mean it literally here- you need to be extremely generous) amount of melted butter- or even better, if you have ghee then use that instead. Make sure the knafeh is well coated with the melted butter or ghee and take half of the quantity and spread a layer of it on a baking tray.

Then top on diced akkawi and haloumi cheese

And cover that with the remaining half of the knafeh

Bake at 190C for 20 minutes, then check every 5 minutes. It will be ready when it has a nice golden colour. Once out of the oven, immediately pour over some orange-blossom scented (or rose water if you prefer) syrup

It needs to be well soaked in the syrup, so dont be shy!

If you want, you can sprinkle some pistachio on top

Slice it up and enjoy immediately- eating it cold is a big no-no!

Hopefully the photos make it easy to understand, so I'm not including a recipe, but here is an overview of the ingredients you will need:

Raw knafeh
Akkawi cheese, diced
Haloumi cheese, diced
Butter or ghee, melted
Pistachios- optional

The important thing here is to coat the shredded knafeh very generously with the melted butter or ghee- otherwise the end result is too dry.
I understand these ingredients may not be easily available everywhere, so a cheat method if you cant find akkawi and haloumi cheese is to use mozzarella instead. In that case, you don't need to soak in water as mozzarella tends to be less salty.
For the syrup place equal amounts of sugar and water and boil for a good 10 mins (until it’s texture is rather thick). At the end, add some orange blossom or rose water to the syrup.

FYI-Although they might all be eating the same thing, this name for this scrumptious dessert does vary from country to country!

NOT YOUR USUAL...

...strawberry ice cream that is. Anyone who is a minimum familiar with my blog will notice I am not one for sticking to classics. I guess you could say I'm the anti- vanilla/chocolate/strawberry person (although from time to time a nice scoop of one of those isn't so bad) (oh, and no offense to the vanilla/chocolate/strawberry people...don't want to make myself any enemies out there hehe).

Because of the messed up weather we've had here in Paris, it had been months since I last pulled out the ice cream machine, but I heard it calling my name when we had some nice sunshine the other day (yes my kitchen appliances talk to me from time to time incase you're wondering). And the luxury of having an ice cream machine means you can experiment with flavours- which is indeed what I did this time around. So to inaugurate my ice cream machine for summer of 2010 (i had been waiting for this moment people!!!) I went for a not so common combination of strawberries and...

champagne?

sorry, no

hmm.. ginger?

nope...

vanilla?

definately NO

....

..

.

cardamom...?

YES!

Strawberries and cardamom are a fantastic match, trust me. It's not one you see too often, but my little finger tells me it might be the next big thing...or not... but in anycase it is worth the try, especially if you are one of those cardamom lovers out there.

Just add a pinch of ground cardamom to your ice cream mixture

When heating, the mixture has to reach a temperature of 82C-85C celsius. The fancy term for this is having it cooked ''a la nappe'', which means if you place a spoon in the mixture and swipe your finger on the back of the spoon it should form a visibly clear line.

I like to add the strawberry chunks in the mixture while it's still warm

And then very last minute, I decided to throw in some broken meringue for a bit of crunch...

There you have it, a scoop of strawberry-cardamom ice cream. Enjoy!

Recipe for strawberry-cardamom ice cream with bits of crunchy meringue

Ingredients:

4 egg yolks
125gr sugar
300ml low fat milk
200ml liquid cream
Vanilla
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
A dash of rose water (optional, but it does a little magic)
Strawberries, diced
Meringue, broken into little pieces

How to make it:

Mix the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. In a pot, bring the milk, cream, cardamom and vanilla to boil. Pour the boiling milk mixture over the cold mixture (eggs + sugar) while stirring. Return to heat and continue to stir until the cream starts to thicken. This stage of cooking is known as “la nappe” which is achieved between 82-85C. If the cream is not heated sufficiently, the ice-cream will be thin and watery. Remove the pot from the heat and stop the cooking process by placing it in cold water mixed with ice cubes. Pass the mixture though a strainer and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. Then transfer mixture to your ice-cream machine. Add the broken meringues before churning. Follow manufacturers’ instructions.

FEELS (AND TASTES) LIKE SUMMER....

A perfect summer day is one with a clear blue sky, a warm feeling on your skin, a picnic in the park, flowers in bloom, sugar and spice and everything nice.... you get the picture. But, a perfect summer day also has it's perfect summer food- and to me, an inviting dish of calamari and shrimps enjoyed with a cool glass of white wine (or beer if you prefer) just makes the sunshine even more delicious. Wouldn't you agree? That's my idea of what summer feels and tastes like ...

... and here's what it looks like (in the kitchen) too!

Fresh herbs are a must! My basil pot and fragrant mint leaves came in handy...

I like to just throw calamari rings in a mixture of flour, cornstarch and salt for a crispy result minus the heavy feeling deep-frying can sometimes produce.

Calamari is nice, but with some shrimps it's even better...

And if you want to add an interesting visual twist to your dish, you can serve the calamari rings and shrimps on fried spaghetti! Since you'll be frying in the first place, you can throw in some spaghetti that will become golden strands in just about 10 seconds.

Voila, and there you have it. Fried calamari rings and shrimps bursting in a mixture of basil, mint, garlic and lemon!

This summery dish is really easy to make and a real crowd-pleaser, but I urge you to prepare the calamari rings yourself and not buy the ready-to-fry ones that come in the frozen-products aisles of supermarkets...

Recipe:

Calamari rings- get them from your fish monger

Flour mixed with cornstartch, salt and pepper (ratio 3/4 flour: 1/4 cornstartch)

Shrimps

Onion, chopped finely

Garlic, chopped finely

Fresh basil and mint, chopped

Lemon, juice of

Olive oil

Spaghetti (optional)

Lemon wedges to serve

For the calamari:

In a bowl, place the flour mixed with the cornstartch, salt and pepper. Then add calamari rings and ensure they are well coated with the flour mixture. Heat a deep pan with oil to fry, once ready, throw in the calamari rings and fry for 5-7 minutes. If you wish, at the end, you can fry some spaghetti for presentation (the spaghetti fries very quickly in a matter of seconds- so keep a close eye when doing this)

For the shrimps:

Chop the onion and garlic finely, set aside. Chop a generous amount of fresh mint and basil, set aside. Heat a large pan with some olive oil, add the onions and garlic on med-high heat until golden. Add the shrimps, squirt over some lemon, and cook for 5-8 minutes always on med-high heat. At the last minute, turn off heat and add the basil and mint.

Place the fried spaghetti on your serving dish, and the calamari rings and shrimps on top. Great with avocado and a beer! Enjoy!

THE CHOCOLATE COOKIE RECIPE IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR MY WHOLE LIFE...

Living in France is great because there is a lot of great food- a lot of great French food that is. But when it comes to American specialties things can get a lil' tricky...even dissapointing may I say?

Because the truth is that as much as I love fancy French food, as much as sometimes I just want something a little more ''simple'' (no offense!) like a yummy heartwarming cookie. Who would had ever thought that finding a decent US style cookie is quite mission impossible over here? All I seem to find is crumbly and crunchy cookies when what I really want is a large rich chewy cookie with big chunks of chocolate hidden inside!

And so I decided that it was about time I find a perfect recipe that would result in the dream cookie that could only exist in an ideal world. Maybe my patience has paid off... after years of research, I think I may have just found it- at least for now it beats any other recipe I've ever tried out!

OOEY GOEY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (makes about 8 large cookies)

114gr chocolate (70%) choppped

30 gr butter

40gr flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 large egg

80gr brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

170gr chocolate (70%) chips

Heat chopped chocolat with butter until just melted. In a bowl, beat egg, sugar and vanilla on high speed until fluffy. Then beat in the melted chocolat on low speed. Mix in the flour, baking powder and salt. Finally add the chocolate chips and mix cookie dough well. Place dough in freezer for 20 minutes, and during that time preheat oven to 180C. Line baking tray with parchment paper, form golf ball size balls with cookie dough and place on baking tray keeping enough space between each ball. Bake for 12 minutes- balls will fall flat and shape themselves into a yummy chunky cookie.

P.S: I used only 70% chocolate here, which produces a very grown-up adultish gourmet result. If you're looking for something a bit sweeter feel free to use 52% regular baking chocolate for the melted mixture and keep 70% only for the chips.

CRUMBLY, BUTTERY...THE HIGHLY ADDICTIVE GHRAYBEH

This is the story of a small round buttery & crumbly cookie known as ''ghraybeh'', pronounced 'gh-ray-bay'...just as it reads.

Ghraybeh is a sweet speciality well known in the Middle East, particularly Levant countries such as Syria and Lebanon. But it's one of those cookies I've always bought yet never thought of making at home. They are one of my all time favourites- something highly addictive about their soft almost silky-like angelic outer surface which with the first bite, melts into your mouth and transforms itself into a sensational rich texture which simultaneously just seems to evaporate into sweet crumbleness leaving a dreamy orange-blossom perfume on your tastebuds. It's a magical cookie indeed.

And what's even more magical about it is that it's made of three base ingredients- and can be adapted for vegans too.

Make them, share them... but I dare you to try resisting them!

Recipe for Ghraybeh (makes about 30 pieces)

150gr clarified butter

150gr icing sugar

300gr flour

1 tablespoon orange blossom water

Pistachios, almonds or pinenuts for decoration

Extra icing sugar on the side

Mix the butter, sugar and orange blossom water together until frothy and of a light colour. Add the flour, mix and then mix by hand for 5 minutes. Place dough in fridge for 30 mins. Preheat oven to 180C, shape little balls (about half the size of a golf ball) and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Top each ghraybeh ball with a piece of pistachio, almond or pinenut. Bake for 15-20mins, remove, and roll baked cookies in icing sugar (this is optional, but it adds even more magic!). Otherwise, remove, let cool and enjoy!

I HAD TO CROSS THE POND TO FIND BLACK SESAME SEEDS...

Can you believe it? I have been on a quest for black sesame seeds for ages, and I have not found any place that sells them here in Paris (unless I have serious issues with my eyesight?!) So the other weekend I hopped over to London and while walking through Brick Lane doing my supermarket inspection (yes, I have a thing for visiting supermarkets when I travel- especially asian/foreign type supermarkets) I finally found my black sesame seeds! Goodness, I didn't realize that I had to take the Eurostar to find some...

Anyway, so as usual, once the ingredient has made its way back to my kitchen, the next step is always "well, now what??" Of course I have seen plenty of recipes of black sesame ice cream, cookies and cupcakes coupled with matcha, so on and so forth (all of which I plan on testing out) but the truth is that I'm trying to go on a "sugar break" so I need to make something savoury out of these black sesame seeds...and preferably healthy too (plus I've been reading all the super health benefits black sesame seeds have!)

I am going through something of a vegeterian phase right now and so I love to munch on crackers- but not the buttery salty kinds, the organic-i'm-a-health-nut-kind, made from pumpkin, flax, sunflower seeds, so on and so forth.

It would be nice to try something a bit different though, no? What about healthy (at least I think they are) black sesame crackers? I did a little search on the net to find a recipe, and so I went ahead with Peter Reinhart's Four-Seed Snapper Crackers recipe that I found on Pascale Week's blog. A few variations and my crackers were ready to be crunched away!

Obviously you will need black sesame seeds for this recipe

And a mixture of pumpkin, sunflower, and flax seeds. Hurray for super (healthy) seeds!

Grind all your seeds until they become powdery

On their way to the oven..

And crunch away!

Recipe for Black Sesame Crackers (makes a LOT of crackers- you might want to half the recipe)

90gr mixture of seeds- make sure to include pumpkin seeds though.

60gr black sesame seeds

240gr whole wheat flour

3/4 teaspoon salt (5gr)
2 tablespoons honey (40gr)
2,5 tablespoons vegetable oil
15cl (150ml) water- maybe a bit more if necessary

Finishing:
1 egg whisked with 5cl water - note: I have a bad thing with eggs when they are used this way, so I replaced this with milk and it worked perfectly fine!
Black sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 150C. Grind the seeds mix and black sesame seeds together until it becomes powdery. Then add the flour, salt, honey and vegetable oil and grind again. Finally, add the water, mix, until you get a good doughy texture. Roll out thinly and cut into shapes, transfer cut out shapes on a pachment paper lined baking tray and brush crackers with the egg mix, sprinkle with black sesame seeds. Bake for 15 mins.

FOR ALL THE CHOCOHOLICS OUT THERE!

May I tempt you with a generous slice of what turned out to be an intensely chocolatey cherry cake I made for a recent birthday? I absolutely loved making this as it was a cake for a chocoholic from a chocoholic, and with such similar taste when it comes to desserts between the mr.birthday and myself I knew exactly what he wanted- we literally share a certain telepathy when it comes to sugar coated choices!

I love dusting cakes with cocoa- here it gave an elegant effect over the cherries!

The innards, devine!!

Recipe for Intensely Chocolatey Cherry cake:

200gr dark chocolate, broken down into pieces

200gr butter

200gr sugar
4 eggs
150gr flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons cherry jam, heated until liquidy
Chocolate & liquid cream for the ganache, with portions set at 2 parts chocolate: 1 part cream
Cherries- pits removed.

Preheat oven to 180C. Melt the chocolate & butter together, set aside until it cools down a bit. In a bowl beat the sugar and eggs until mixture whitens, then add the melted chocolate/butter. Add the flour, baking powder and salt- mix well until smooth. Transfer batter to cake mould (fill 3/4 up) lined with parchment paper and bake for 25mins (check with a sharp knife and extend time by 10 mins if needed). Remove from oven, let cool and place cake in freezer for 1 hour- this is to allow easier slicing for later step.

Prepare ganache: in a pot, heat the liquid but do not let it burn. Remove from heat, throw in the chocolate, cover with lid for 5 mins. Remove lid and stir until smooth and silky.

Slice cake in half horizontally. On the bottom half, poke layer with a fork and brush over the liquidy cherry jam. Follow with a layer of the ganache and then some cherries. Cover bottom half with the top half, and coat entire cake with chocolate ganache. If you have leftover cherries, use some on top for decoration and optionally you can dust it all with cocoa. Place in fridge for a few hours until set and then enjoy!

Of course- feel free to use other fruits: raspberries, strawberries, etc!

THE ULTIMATE STRESS BUSTER

Yes so my post title might speak volumes to some of you out there- for those who know how therapeutic baking is to fight away stress, and well it just happened to be that I had one of those stressful days and when upon coming back home the eggs, sugar, butter and flour was just calling my name!

The thing is that sometimes in these situations you don't necessarily have all the ingredients at hand and you have to do with what you have. No-fuss baking is what I like to call it. For some reason, apples is something that resides permanently all year long in the kitchen- and although I'm not a huge fan of apple-based desserts, an image I had come accross not too long ago on the Australian Gourmet Traveller website (and just fyi- I dont live in Australia nor am I from there, but when I see their summery dessert features in this cold month of February, it sure makes me want to bring some of their sunshine over to wintery Paris!) caught my attention and it just happened to contain apples.

I skipped the recipe part and just kept the image in my mind, trying to reproduce my own version of what could ressemble what I saw. Okay okay, so mine might not had turned out as beautiful as on Gourmet Traveller, and yes it did not contain raisins or ginger, and it did contain flour even though the original recipe title contains the word "flourless", but the important thing was that everything turned out sweet and lovely and I guess that's what counts, no?

A blend of apples, almonds (another staple ingredient that we have all year round in the kitchen!) and caramel.


Recipe for Apple, Almond & Caramel cake
(for a 20cm diameter round cake mould)

100gr butter
120gr brown sugar + some kept on the side
2 eggs
4 tablespoons caramel syrup
100gr flour
60gr ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 medium sized apples, thinly sliced
Almonds, chopped
1 tablespoon melted butter

Preheat oven to 180C. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and caramel syrup and mix. Follow with the flour, ground almonds and baking powder- mix well. Transfer batter to cake mould lined with parchment paper (or greased & floured), arrange the apples on top and drizzle over the apples the melted butter and finish by sprinkling some brown sugar and the chopped almonds. Bake for 60mins.

I SWORE I'D NEVER MAKE CUPCAKES...

Yes call me crazy but until recently I swore I'd never bake cupcakes, because well I had a "thing" against them. Actually two things- first of all I hated the whole buttercream thing- eating a layer of butter mixed with sugar and other stuff grossed me out. And second of all, I didnt want to get excited over cupcake cuteness like the rest of the world.

But then one day everything changed. All because of a friend's birthday for whom I decided to make cupcakes for... and I do admit, they are indeed lots of fun to make. But I haven't sold my soul to buttercream yet... if I am going to make cupcakes again I definately need to find a healthier alternative to buttercream!

here they are- naked chocolate cuppies yet to be dressed!


Frosted...


Gold dusted...


And sprinkled in colours and shapes...


So who knows? Maybe one day I'll be writing up a second post on cupcakes...