Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Last week was challenging for many reasons but I am grateful for friends, family, and work colleagues that made me laugh through some of the absurdities. Also, special thanks to Wyatt, who made the most delicious papusas, which I gorged myself on almost every night.  Delightfully, I found a splendid way to engage in some Syrian fusion experimentation as well as self-medication by making tahini chocolate chip cookies using an adapted recipe from a paper that does not publish fake news despite what Cheeto-in-Chief may say. 

Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons butter

• ½ cup tahini, well stirred

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 egg yolk

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 cup flour

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 ¾ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

•  Flaky salt, like fleur de sel or Maldon

Or eat raw if you're really struggling.

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream butter, tahini, and sugar at medium speed using an electric mixer.

2. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and continue mixing at medium speed for another 5 minutes.

3. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and kosher salt into a large bowl and mix with a fork.

4. Add flour mixture to butter mixture at low speed until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.  Refrigerate dough for about 8 hours. Or not.

5. Shape into balls and bake for about 12 minutes on parchment paper lined cookie sheet in oven preheated to 325 degrees.

6. Eat while watching this.

Syrian-Style Pancakes with Pomegranate Molasses

My morning cycling class kicked my butt big-time and by evening all I could think about was what I wanted for dessert, never mind dinner. Although cookies and cake are my go-to treats, I passed by IHOP on the way home and had an epiphany: You need pancakes. Then, I looked at the glossy photos of IHOP's Frankencakes laden with fake syrup and god-knows-what sort of fruit substitute and had a follow-up epiphany: But never those pancakes. 

When their powers combine, wonderful things happen.

Rifling through my pantry at home for ingredients and add-ins, I remembered how orange blossom water added such a lovely flavor to the zarda I made a few months ago, and I decided to make American pancakes with some Syrian inflections via the inclusion of staple ingredients from the latter country's cuisine. 

Mix-ins: Pistachios and dried berries.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour

• 1/4 cup white sugar

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• Pinch salt

• 1 cup milk

• 1 egg

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 teaspoons orange blossom water

• 1/2 cup pistachios, raisins, and dried cranberries

Directions

1. Thoroughly combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk milk and egg together. Add olive oil, vanilla extract, and orange blossom water.

3. Add wet ingredient mixture to dry ingredients, mixing slowly.

4. Add in pistachios, raisins, and dried cranberries.

5. In a large frying pan heavily coated with cooking spray over low heat, dump about half the batter. Cook first side of pancake until bubbles begin to emerge, then flip gently.  Watch closely as the second side will take less time to cook than the first.

This is how you know one side is done.

6. Repeat.

7. Serve with pomegranate molasses and Maine maple syrup.

Using olive oil instead of butter or other vegetable oils gives these pancakes a slightly earthy flavor that is well balanced by the subtle sweetness of the orange blossom and vanilla. I love also how the whole pistachios provide contrasting crunch to the otherwise uniformly soft, supple cakes.

Slik Chocolate

Whoa, guys, I am so late to the game on this one. And, that being said, er, written, I am fully prepared for a "Well, DUH!" response to this post.

Apparently, more than THREE YEARS ago Slik Chocolate, a chocolate company started in Damascus in 1892, opened an outlet in Houston.   I don't know what the hell I have been doing, but I certainly haven't been reading the right news. CNN should have made some room for this in their election coverage.

Photo by Slik Chocolate.

In addition to selling a variety of Middle Eastern dainties such as chocolates, candies, puddings, and ice cream, Slik also serves hot waffles, including one variation that is a sweet version of fettuccine alfredo.

I want to go to there. I need to go to there. Will report back asap.

Zarda (Saffron Rice Pudding)

I have been very slowly reading through recipes in my new Syrian cookbook, and had planned this week to make an intriguing salad involving mint and pickled beets, but after an unexpectedly stressful week at work and some late nights, I needed a bit of comfort food as a reward. I also needed (#firstworldproblems) to use at least some of the massive bag of saffron I lugged home from Thailand. 

It was so cheap! I had to buy tons.

For me, rice pudding is the perfect eat-your-feelings food because it combines pure sugar and carbohydrates and its texture is so delightfully spoonable. I remember reading in Comfort Me With Apples how Ruth Reichl ate an entire pot of rice pudding one fretful evening standing up by the stove and I could totally relate. I also liked the backstory of zarda, which apparently was the equivalent of the cupcake in 16th-century Ottoman Syria as it was the go-to dessert for celebrations.  The recipe below is adapted from The Aleppo Cookbook.

Ingredients

• 1 cup short-grain white rice

• 1 tsp ground saffron plus a few errant whole threads

• 4 cups water

• 1 cup sugar

• 3 tablespoons orange blossom water

• Handful of almonds or pistachios

Directions

1. Combine ground saffron with 3 tablespoons hot water and let steep 15-20 minutes.

2. Wash rice thoroughly and combine with water in a medium-size saucepan.  Cover and warm over medium heat until water is boiling vigorously.

3. Lower heat and add saffron. Simmer on very low heat until rice is very soft (about 30 minutes).

4. When there is just a splash of liquid left in rice, add sugar and orange blossom water. Mix thoroughly and remove from heat.  Rest on adjacent burner until remaining liquid is absorbed.

5. Garnish with almonds to taste. If you like a creamier pudding, eat immediately, even out of the pot, but sit down for God's sake, you've had a long day. For a thicker, sturdier pudding, refrigerate for one hour.

Breaking Fast: Dates

There is a little less a week left to Ramadan, and I have neglected to write about one of my favorite customs with regards to the holiday: the breaking of fast (iftar) with dates (tmar).

The association between dates and breaking the day's fast is has religious as well as practical roots. “When one of you is fasting, he should break his fast with dates," said The Prophet Muhammed, "but if he cannot get any, then (he should break his fast) with water, for water is purifying.“

But dates are also in many ways an ideal first food to consume when you haven't eaten in approximately 12 hours. Dates are high in sugar, but have a low glycemic index, which mean they help stabilize blood sugar rather than create those spikes that render you flying high as a kite one minute to absolutely wiped the next. Dates are also easily digested but high in fiber, so, in theory, they fill you up and prevent you from over-eating at the evening meal. In theory.  Pretty sure I could eat a pound and still have room for a double-quarter-pound.

Although I could have easily picked up some dried dates at the supermarket, I decided in the spirit of Going Through All the Food Products I Have Hoarded (#lifegoals) to sample the date spread i received from Try the World.

And, while eating the spread straight from the jar is perfectly acceptable, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and use it as a spread for the scones I had been planning to make this evening.

Reading & Roz Bhaleeb

If I'm not thinking about food, cooking food, or eating food, I'm probably reading about food. Since the start of 2017, I've read over 15 food memoirs in the course of doing research for my own writing project. Some are better than others, and among my favorites for their depth of detail and original phrasing are those written by Diana Abu-Jaber.  I first read The Language of Baklava and am now finishing Crescent (technically personally-inspired fiction, not memoir), and next up is Life Without A Recipe.

Also, delicious.

Abu-Jaber is Jordanian and of course peppers her books with Middle Eastern recipes, which always makes me hungry and eager to cook more Syrian food. Last night, I said to hell with more healthful mezze and made roz bhaleeb, a fragrant rice pudding. Versions of roz bhaleeb are found all over the Arab world and sometimes orange blossom water is used instead of rose water.

Up close and personal.

Ingredients

• 5 cups whole milk (don't skimp on the fat!)

• 1/2 cup medium-grain white rice

• 1/2 cup white sugar (or brown...drr...if you run out)

• 3 tablespoons rose water

• 1/4 cup crushed pistachios

Directions

1. Combine rice and whole milk in a saucepan under low heat.

2. Simmer and cook for 90 minutes, stirring FREQUENTLY, until mixture thickens significantly.

3. Add sugar and rose water.

4. Refrigerate for at least four hours, if not overnight.

5. Garnish with crushed pistachios.