The Sandwich Issue

Have I mentioned how smitten I am with Pear Vanilla Jam? A dollop warmed in the microwave and eaten with ice cream is pure heaven, and I am planning to use a pint of this today to make a pear gingerbread upside down cake (I know, doesn't that sound good!).



But the very best way to eat any jam is on a slice of toast, and that is how I (we, I AM sharing) mostly eat this jam. My favorite bread to eat it with was this oatmeal, raisin and pecan loaf. Jam on toast is the simplest open faced sandwich. I am a big fan of a good sandwich, and have whole heartedly embraced the open faced sandwich.



We Americans have our PBJ (and our iconic hamburger sandwich). The French have Nutella, and of course, a chocolate and hazelnut spread is pretty hard to beat. My kids were pretty impressed when they were first introduced to it (by a French teacher) and it's been in our cupboard ever since -though I did periodically threaten to stop buying this luxury for them when I would catch them with a spoon making a full-meal-deal out of a jar of Nutella -it is a bit expensive for that!



A slice of Irish soda bread with a smear of butter and freshly grated horseradish, alongside corned beef and cabbage pot leftovers, is humble fare, but its taste is out of this world. We grow horseradish, and in both the fall and spring dig up the roots, peel and grate them (the fumes can be quite overpowering), put it in a wide-mouth pint and cover it with white vinegar. It never lasts long, since we all add it to all sorts of sandwiches and sandwich fillings. I could go on and on about sandwiches -from the simple fried egg sandwich (the survival food of farmers everywhere) to the Muffuletta sandwich of New Orleans; from a Banh Mi Vietnamese sandwich (my favorite) on a French roll to a tofu and alfalfa sprout sandwich on whole grain bread- the scope and variety of the world of sandwiches is never ending.



So naturally, I was pretty impressed with the latest issue of Saveur -the Sandwich Issue. It is so fun! Sandwiches from around the country, around the world, humble and hoity, simple and over the top. I had a hard time choosing a sandwich from the many featured in this issue (Cubano, Fried Calamari, ....?) to make first. Instead of following one of the recipes given, its inspired me to make classic Italian-style meatball sandwiches this week -beef and pork meatballs, covered with the just the right amount of spaghetti/tomato sauce, served on a soft (but not too soft) sandwich roll, with a bit of Parmesan sprinkled on top. I know it's going to be really good.

Egyptian Kufta

"The world's most ephemeral art form -even worse than magazine writing. What kind of life would let dinner pass in a tenth the time of its preparation? This kind. The kind we're built for." -Richard Powers, generosity



With the title, My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen -Traditional Dishes Sweet and Savory -how could I not be immediately and completely enchanted by this cookbook? It is the traditional home cooking an Egyptian woman learned by watching her grandmother cook, and she dedicates this book to her three daughters "so that it may be an aid in the preparation of all the foods I made that you loved so much." My son bought this for me for a gift last year, and it is absolutely fascinating. While at college, he got to know an Egyptian student he met in one of his classes there, and he told me he'd never met anyone so incredibly proud of their country as this young man was. On Saturday, the Egyptian people held their first free elections after ousting Mubarak last month. Like all politics, the choices they were given to vote on are far from ideal, but it was a free vote and is one more thing for Egyptians to be proud of. Yesterday, I was thinking about this historic vote in Egypt, which led me to looking through this cookbook (with me, it always comes back to food), which led me to making these Egyptian kuftas for my weekly meatball recipe.



I first made this Yogurt-Tahini Sauce to serve with the meatballs. Very tasty and super easy -the most difficult part was that I was opening a new can of tahini, which has to be stirred forever to re-emulsify the oil which separates out as the tahini sits on the shelf. I found my wand blender to work really good for this -in the past I simply arranged to have a long phone conversation while stirring it with a spoon.

Yogurt-Tahini Sauce
Adapted from Flatbreads and Flavors

Mix:
1/3 - 1/2 c. plain yogurt
3 T. tahini
1/4 - 1/3 c. lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. cayenne
Makes 1 cup and stores in the fridge for one week.



Pita bread is now commonly found in most grocery stores these days, but I made homemade pita breads with half whole wheat and half white flour, using the recipe in Flatbreads and Flavors for this meal. I followed their directions for cooking pitas on a griddle on top of the stove, rather than baking them in the oven, as I usually do. They were good enough, but I think they would have been better if I'd rolled them out a little bit thinner.



Egyptian Kufta
Adapted from My Egyptian Grandmother's Kitchen by Magda Mehdawy

Blend in food processor:
1-2 garlic cloves, pressed
1/2 onion, grated
1/2 c. cooked white rice
1/2 T. each minced parsley and mint, dried -or use double the amount of fresh herbs
1/4 - 1/2 t. each salt and black pepper
1/8 - 1/4 t. each ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and cumin, or 1/2 - 1 t. Buharat or 'mixed spice'
1/2 - 3/4 lb. ground beef ("Note: ground camel meat can be used instead of beef.")

Form 20-25 meatballs. Chill. Deep fry in oil, or brown them in 1-2 T. ghee. I then popped them into the oven alongside the egg dish, Shakshuka, I was also making for dinner. I don't know if an Egyptian home cook would serve these two dishes at the same meal, but I thought they were great together.

Shakshuka is eggs poached in a tomato sauce, either on the stove top or baked in the oven. It is one of those easy comfort dishes that seems to be claimed by multiply groups of various nationalities and ethnicity. I followed Magda's recipe and now understand its universal appeal. It is a quick, satisfying comfort food, the sort of thing to whip up for a quick meal, when the cupboards are almost bare, or when you don't want to make a big production out of cooking.

Shakshuka
Brown in 1-2 T. ghee:
1/2 diced onion
2 minced garlic cloves
Add:
1-2 minced hot chili peppers
14 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 T. minced dried parsley
salt and pepper
Bring to a simmer and cook a few minutes. Pour sauce into a baking dish, make a hollow, and add 3-4 eggs. Bake 15 minutes. Serve with pitas.



Since there were only three of us for dinner, I simply rounded out our meal by putting jars of pickled beets and dilly beans on the table, but if we'd been more, I would have included some couscous, an eggplant dish, and one or more of the simple Egyptian salads in this cookbook. I loved this egg dish -seasonally appropriate with our egg production in full swing and the equinox making it officially Spring. I like the subtle and unique spicing of the kuftas, and how all this came together to make a simple, yet exotic, home cooked meal made from what we had on hand.

Sugar-Frosted Cardamom Braid

"The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight...Suffice it to say, then, that in the truest and least dialect way, good fresh bread and chuckling fountains are soul food." -M. F. K. Fisher

I had been thinking about cardamom bread for the past several days when I saw Nicole's post for the cardamom bread, Nisu at Arctic Garden Studio (click here). Her beautiful loaves were the inspiration for me to finally bake the cardamom braided bread I'd been thinking of. I wish I could remember where this recipe came from, but I have been making this bread for many years now, and I think all the different versions for this bread make a lovely loaf.

Sugar-Frosted Cardamom Braid

In microwave in a Pyrex measuring cup heat:

1 1/3 c. milk

1/2 c. sugar

2 T. butter -cut in pieces

Do not overheat (115 degrees). Stir to dissolve sugar and melt butter.

Place in bread bowl or stand mixer bowl:

4 1/2 c. bread flour

1 T. yeast

1 t. ground cardamom

1/2 t. salt

In a small bowl beat:

1 egg

1/4 - 1/2 t. lemon extract

Add lukewarm milk mixture and egg to flour mix. Beat with dough hook or spoon until it comes together. Continue kneading, adding 1 T. at a time of flour or water as needed, 5-10 minutes to make a smooth dough. Cover bowl with cling wrap and allow to rise until doubled in size. Punch down and divide into three equal balls. Rest 5 minutes. Roll each ball into a long rope (about 20 inches). On lightly greased sheet, braid ropes together, pinching ends and tucking under loaf ends to secure. Let rise until doubled. Mix 1 egg white + 1 T. water and gently brush onto loaf. Sprinkle with 1 T. coarse raw sugar and bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Slices of this cardamom braid with Pear Vanilla Jam for breakfast this morning was a good breakfast for those I love, and definitely food for my own soul. Ruth Reichl's reminder of why food matters (click here), reinforces my own belief of why baking bread is so important to me right now -it is a big yes in a world filled with no.

Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding

When was the last time you had bread pudding? I actually make bread pudding fairly often, but I'm wondering if other home cooks do too, or if it's become an out-dated dessert that no one makes anymore. I like to use up those last bits of bread before baking a new loaf, though what we don't use goes to the chickens so it's not completely wasted. Also, my husband is a big fan of bread pudding -and I like to make him happy. I find it quite cheerful to have bread pudding, made the night before, for breakfast. Not that toasted homemade bread for breakfast, like a slice from the loaf of the Golden Squash and Flax Seed Bread in the picture below, isn't good -it's just that a little bread pudding is a more festive version of my usual toast and jam.



Bread Pudding
Adapted from Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen

2 days before making this, cut up leftover bread into cubes to make 3-4 c. and leave it to get stale. Raisin bread is particularly tasty, as is challah and stollen, but any kind of bread (except maybe a garlicy one) will work. I used a whole wheat yogurt bread to make these puddings.

Butter 6 individual dishes. Place stale bread cubes in buttered dishes. Top with 1/3 c. golden raisins and 1/3 c. chopped nuts, divided evenly between the six dishes.

Using wire whisk attachment, beat 3 eggs for 3 minutes on high speed. Add:
3/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 t. each nutmeg and cinnamon

Melt 2 T. butter, mix with 1 1/4 c. milk (I used almond milk) and add to egg mix. Pour evenly and carefully over bread cubes in dishes. Leave to sit for 30 minutes to allow cubes to absorb the custard. Use the back of a spoon (or hands) to gently push down the bread every so often.



Preheat oven to 350 degrees, then immediately lower to 300 degrees when you put in the puddings. Bake 25 minutes for individual pudding dishes. Increase temperature to 375 degrees for an additional 5 minutes to brown tops. Check to make sure they don't burn and remove when lightly browned on top.



I served these with a covering of the Apricot-Pineapple Jam I made back in August. With a bit of whipped cream on top, this makes a very comforting old-fashioned dessert or breakfast!