Posts Tagged ‘honey’

How do you choose the recipe of the dish you mean to prepare?
For me it can be in one of three ways - either I see a wonderful dish on a food blog or forum, and I can’t help myself and make it immediately (immediately can take even 2 months..), or there’s such a buzz around a recipe on food blogs, that I add it to my to-do list straight away. And finally there’s me wanting to make a specific dish, and then I go looking for it on all the food blogs I trust. And what do all these 3 described ways have in common? Yes, you’re right - the reliable source! After all, no one, love to cook as they may, would like to face a situation where they went through all the trouble choosing a recipe, buy the ingredients, make it and then.. the disappointment.

Yossi, a good friend of mine, and a blogger himself, wrote a post in which he gave the readers some tips about how to save some money in the upcoming Holidays season (those of you who read Hebrew can read it here). My favorite tip was giving home made presents to your loved ones. Several people I know create their own presents to give away, and I really love this concept of more personal gifts.

Yossi’s idea was to give a cookie jar filled with home made cookies as a Holiday present to your loved ones. Now that’s my kind of present! Your friends are gonna receive a useful present - the cookie jar, and they also get a taste of home - your home! How cool is that? So of course I took the challenge of giving you ideas to fill your cookie jars with some delicious sweets. The first one is a classic recipe for Rosh HaShana - honey cookies. Avi and myself love them so much that we couldn’t resist waiting, and sneaked one of them to our mouth right as they came out of the oven. And how great these cookies are! With a slightly firm outside and a wonderfully chewy inside - their deep and spiced taste is simply wonderful.
Before making them, I was determined to also succeed in making the tasty icing of the original cookies, so I tried several versions for the icing - some of the cookies I rolled in powdered sugar before baking, some of them after baking. On top of some of the cookies I’ve spread some beaten egg-white, but the one that was the real deal was a topping very similar to a donuts topping, only a bit more liquid.

If honey isn’t your cup of tea, I have another recipe for you - these are the favorite cookies in our house. The classic honey is replaced with maple, so you can’t say that they’re completely unrelated to Rosh HaShana, and then there are the pecan nuts, that add that great crunchiness. You can find their recipe here.

Whichever present you decide to give your family and friends, I wish you all a very happy new year!

Some notes and tips about these honey cookies:

* Having hard time measuring honey cause it’s sticking to the measuring cup? Sprinkle a little vegetable oil into the cup and spread it evenly. Now place the honey in the measuring cup and watch it give in, and transfer it smoothly to its destination.

* Make sure to leave 4-5 cm space between the cookies when you arrange them on the baking sheet, as they almost double their size while baking.

* As I told you a few lines earlier, I’ve made a few versions of the icing for these cookies.  The best one, that tastes just like the original, is made with powdered sugar and milk. The good news about this icing is that you can fix it at any given time - is it too thick? Add a little more milk to the mixture. Too liquid? Add some more powdered sugar. I suggest beginning with 100 gr powdered sugar and 2.5 Tbsps of milk, and fix it according to taste.

Honey Cookies / Adapted from the shef at Lilith, an Israeli restaurant
For about 50 medium sized cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
5 gr baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger

For the icing:
100 gr powdered sugar
about 3 Tbsp milk (see tips)

Directions:
1. Place the honey in a sauce pan and warm it until the honey becomes liquid.
2. Add in, while stirring, oil, sugar and spices.
3. Add in the baking soda, while stirring. The batter will become a lot lighter in color, and the oil will seem to separate from the rest of the ingredients. Don’t worry, it’s ok, keep going. Cool the batter for about 20 mins.
4. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, and add them to the batter.
5. Gently fold the flour and baking powder into the batter, using a wooden spoon, until the batter is uniform.
6. Chill the batter in the refrigerator for an hour.
7. 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
8. Shape small balls out of the batter, and place them in the oven pan, lined with a baking sheet. Leave a 4-5 cm space between each 2 cookies.
9. Bake for 15 minutes, or until they raise nicely and get a nice shine. Keep a close eye on them cause their perfect texture is lost when overbaked.
10. Let the cookies cool for a while. Meanwhile prepare the icing by mixing the ingredients in a bowl.
11. Dip each cookie in the icing, and place back on the baking sheet, allow the icing to dry.
12. Place in a beautiful cookie jar, decorate it nicely and give away to your loved ones.

Even before publishing my previous post I’ve decided that this post is going to be dedicated to Rosh HaShana - the Jewish New Year’s Eve. After all, all of us (ok, let’s be honest, some of us) are looking for the best dessert recipe, one that will be a wonderful ending to the holiday dinner, and will make your guests ask for seconds. I thought really hard about an interesting dessert, one that will be a bit more exciting than the regular honey cake, classic as it may be, but I’m all for innovation. How about you?

It was really hard for me to make up my mind between two ideas I had - one of them was a Mille Feuille - adapted to Rosh HaShana using a honey pastry cream instead of the classic version. Man, this pastry cream was one of the worst things I’ve ever made. Really tried to like it. Honest. Impossible. Which led me to make my second idea - an apple and honey crumble.

The 45 minutes it spent in the oven, I spent on the other side, staring at it and hoping it will turn out fine. I even resisted the 10 minutes after it got out of the oven, letting it cool slightly. And then I attacked it with a teaspoon. What was supposed to be “merely a taste” turned into me eating like a fifth of the whole thing! Those apples, swimming peacefully in an exciting honey-maple-caramel and spiced up just right made me wonder how did I ever prefer the Mille Feuille in the first place. One note, though - as opposed to the classic crispy crumble texture, this one is somewhat softer, a fact that in my opinion only does good to this wonderful pastry. But if you want to be precise - you can call it apple-pastry-over-honey-caramel

Two other benefits for this dessert are that it’s quite light, so it’s a great finale to a big holiday dinner, and also it’s very easy to make, so it won’t take a lot of your time and attention while preparing the rest of the meal.

Some notes and tips about this dessert:

* Apples (and pears, for that matter) tend to change their color and get darker almost as soon as you peel them. For that reason, make sure you’re peeling them just before using them. If you still need to peel them a little earlier, put them in a bowl with 2 Tbsp of lemon juice, stir well, and it will keep them from changing their color.

* Coring the apples (and pears, for that matter) can be quite an unpleasant chore when you don’t have an apple corer. I thereby admit that I’m such a kitchen-gadgets kind of gal, but this one folks, I don’t consider a gadget at all. This is a very useful appliance, and even a must-have if you have to or choose to deal with apples and pears coring quite often.

* When using apples in baked desserts, it’s usually recommended to use the green tart apples - such as Granny Smiths. The reason for that is that their tartness blends wonderfully in sweet desserts (other sweet apples can cause your dessert to turn out too sweet), and also because they keep their shape very well during baking, and don’t get all mooshy.

* If you’re in the mood for a variation - you could substitute half or all the honey with maple syrup. If you’re doing so but are not such a great fan of sweetness, you can reduce the brown sugar added to the apples to 1 Tbsp instead of 2.

* When preparing this dessert in a 24 cm pan, it won’t slice that pretty, and its sliced look will be more rustic and scattered. If you’re looking for the more elegant look, go ahead and prepare it in individual ramekins.

Apples Over Honey-Caramel Pastry / Adapted from a Betty M. Crook recipe
For a 24 cm round pan

Ingredients:
4 Granny Smith big apples, peeled and cored
1/4 cup  honey (see tips for variations)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 tsp Vanilla
1 large egg

Directions:
1. Thinly slice the apples.
2. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
3. Place apples, honey, brown sugar, orange juice and spices in a bowl, and mix until blended.
4. In a separate bowl mix all the other ingredients, until a dough is formed.
5. Grease the pan. If you’re using a springform pan, wrap its bottom with a piece of aluminium foil, since the apple mixture is quite liquid, and we don’t want it to drip in the oven or on the floor.
6. Place the apple mixture in the pan and distribute them evenly (add also all the liquids).  Place the dough on top of the apples and make sure it’s arranged evenly - you can help it using your hands or a tablespoon.
7. Bake for 45 mins, or until the top is nicely browned.
8. The recommended serving is with a side of vanilla ice cream. Store it tightly wrapped at room temperature or in the fridge - the choice is yours.

Avi and I had our first date (it was April 8th, 2005, almost 3 years ago!) at a great Italian restaurant named Bellini. It was the best first date I’ve ever had - it lasted for 6 whole hours, and every minute of it was absolutely wonderful! Don’t get alarmed here, we didn’t eat for 6 straight hours, after the restaurant we went to a pub
At Bellini, which is ever since our favorite restaurant in Israel, we ate, among other things, a super delicious pasta with eggplant, mushrooms and honey.

Whenever we go to Bellini, it’s always a sure bet that we’re gonna order that dish, all the other stuff in our menu are to be decided when we arrive at the restaurant. Last time we’ve been there, I’ve noticed a hint of an oriental taste in it, which was kinda weird - suddenly noticing a new fact about a dish I’ve been eating regularly for years. I was almost certain it was soy sauce. It was then that I decided that I’m gonna try and make this at home, after figuring out some of the main ingredients it contains.

Last Friday we had a Friday nigt with no family gatherings planned, so I figured I’d give it a shot. My expectations weren’t high at all, since I’ve already tried doing reverse engineering on recipes just by their taste and the list of ingredients I think they contain, and it didn’t come close to the real thing. For example, when we were in Italy, we ate the best dinner there at a small restaurant in Pistoia, that was recommended by Lonely Planet. One of dishes we ordered, and the one that I remember its taste exactly till this day, was pasta with a superb black olives sauce. Tried to make it home, was nice, but not even close to that divine taste.

But boy was I up for a sweet surprise! The sauce came out wonderful, and tasted 99% exactly like the one at Bellini!! Avi and I were both shocked with pleasure, every bite we took was an absolute paradise! The tastes of the soy and honey along with the white wine and brown sugar I’ve added blend together to create a marvelous pasta sauce! Serving it with Feta cheese aside, and adding a little of it to every bite you take completes the tastes celebration that’s going on in your mouth. I HIGHLY recommend this one!

This is also my entry for this week’s Presto Pasta Night, a blog event kindly held weekly by Ruth at Once Upon a Feast.

Farfalle with eggplant, honey and soy sauce / Self recipe
Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:
250 gr farfalle, cooked by manufacturer’s directions
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves
1 medium sized eggplant
4-5 medium sized fresh mushrooms, finely chopped
3 Tbsp white wine
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp honey
1 1/2 tsp light brown Demerara sugar
For serving: grated Feta cheese

Directions:
1. Slice the eggplant, scatter salt over all the slices from both sides, and let rest for an hour.
2. Wash the eggplant, dice them into small squares, so they won’t take ages to cook.
3. Warm the vegetable oil in a pan, add the garlic cloves and fry them for about a minute.
4. Add in the eggplant and mushrooms and fry until the eggplant is completely soft (about 15 mins, maybe a bit more).
5. Add the white wine, stir, and fry until the wine has almost completely evaporated.
6. Stir in 2 Tbsp of the soy sauce and all the honey.
7. After about 5 mins stir in the brown sugar.
8. Add the cooked pasta into the sauce, add the remaining 1 Tbsp of soy sauce and stir until the pasta gets a bit darker color (from the soy sauce).
9. It’s highly recommended to serve it with grated Feta cheese alongside, the tastes combination is simply exciting!

פרפלה ברוטב חצילים, דבש וסויה סטייל מסעדת בליני / מתכון עצמי - מירי רביבו
עבור 2 מנות

רכיבים:
250 גרם פסטה, מבושלת ע”פ הוראות יצרן
3 כפות שמן
4 שיני שום
1 חציל בינוני
4-5 פטריות יער בגודל בינוני
3 כפות יין לבן
3 כפות סויה
2 כפות דבש
1 1/2 כפיות סוכר חום דמררה
להגשה: גבינת פטה מגוררת

הכנה:
1. חותכים את החצילים (עם הקליפה) לפרוסות, ממליחים, ונותנים לזה לנוח כך כשעה וחצי, להוצאת המרירות.
2. לאחר מכן שוטפים את החצילים וחותכים אותם לקוביות קטנות, על מנת שבעת הבישול לא ייקח להם הרבה זמן להתרכך.
3. מחממים שמן במחבת ומטגנים את השום כדקה.
4. מוסיפים את החצילים והפטריות ומטגנים עד לריכוך מוחלט של החצילים (כרבע שעה, אולי טיפה יותר)
5. מוסיפים את היין הלבן, מערבבים, ומטגנים עד לאידוי כמעט מלא של היין.
6. מוסיפים 2 כפות מהסויה ואת הדבש ומערבבים היטב.
7. לאחר 5 דקות מוסיפים את ההסוכר החום.
8. מסננים את הפסטה ממי הבישול ומעבירים אותה למחבת עם הרוטב. מוסיפים את כף הסויה הנוספת ומערבבים עד אשר האטריות משחימות קלות (מהצבע של רוטב הסויה).
9. מומלץ בחום רב להגיש את המנה עם גבינת פטה מגוררת בצד, שילוב הטעמים הוא נפלא!