Caramelized Onions, Pear, and Pecan “Pizza”

• 2 tsp butter
• 1 medium onion, sliced thinly
• 1/2 tsp molasses or brown sugar (optional)
• pinch of baking powder (optional, 1/2 tsp per pound of onions, so a pinch only)
• 1 pear, peeled, and sliced
• 2 TBSP pecans, chopped
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
• Bread dough

In a saucepan on low heat, melt the butter. Add the thinly sliced onion, carefully separating all the rings. Stir and add a bit of salt and continue to cook on low heat for a long time, checking occasionally and stirring. Be patient and go read a book. You can cook it on higher heat, but the goal is not one single bit onion getting charred, so I slow cook it for an hour or even longer. After the onions are softened, you can add a pinch of baking powder to speed the Maillard reaction. I like to add a bit of molasses to make the flavor just that bit more complex. You could also bake it in the oven at 350° but it stains the sides of the pan above the onions and is hard to clean.

While the onions are cooking you could make the bread dough using this recipe a friend gave me. This makes enough dough for eight pizzas or four artisanal boules. I make it and just keep it in a plastic container in the fridge to use when I need some dough. I use it for boules, for pizzas, for fry bread, and for wrapping around cocktail sauces or cheese for snacks. Anyway, the two hours the onions take is plenty of time for the first rise of the dough. 

Turn the oven on at 400°

Roll the dough out as thin as you can and then roll the edge to the center, just one roll so you have a bit of an edge to keep anything from going on the baking sheet.

Spread the caramelized onions on the dough and spread to the edges.

Place the pear slices evenly over the “pizza.”

Sprinkle the mozzarella and pecans over the top.

Bake for 20 minutes.  Makes two services of two slices each.

Let cool for about 10 minutes and cut into four pieces. Letting it cool makes it easier to eat and the flavors are more intense when they aren’t too hot. Also, when it’s hot out of the oven, everything will slide right off the bread.

This is delicious, caramelized onions and pears are pure magic. I’ve made this with blue cheese too and it is delicious as well.

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Sour Cherry Seed Cake

1 tablespoon butter, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
salt to taste
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon caraway seed
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
Lemon zest from 1 lemon.

Sour Cherries (pitted)

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Grease and flour the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square cake pan with softened butter. I actually just used the butter wrapper paper.

Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add lemon zest.

Cream 1/2 cup butter and sugar together. Mix in caraway seeds and egg. Add flour mixture and milk, beating well.  Stir in sour cherries. Spoon batter into prepared cake pan. It’s pretty thick and gloopy, but it works.

Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool.

This is a zingy cake what with lots of lemony flavor from the zest and the pucker power of sour cherries. But somehow it’s just perfect.

Sweet & Sour Mango and Fig Sauce

• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 8 mangos, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup grated ginger
• 2 fresh lemons, zest and juice
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup dried figs, chopped
• 12 tsp grated nutmeg
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

Put everything into a heavy saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce to a slow simmer, cover, and cook for two hours or more, stirring occasionally until a thick paste. Remove from heat, cool, and puree in a blender.

Makes 3 jars of chutney which is also a fabulous sauce for steaks. As a lifelong addict to knackebröd, a little chutney, flat parsley, plain yogurt and sliced raw asparagus is a tasty, flavorful breakfast. Last night, I used the chutney on a steak .

This is a sweet, sour, and spicy sauce. It’s based on Major Grey’s Mango Chutney, but I substituted dried figs for raisins. (I like nearly every other dried fruit more than raisins.) I left out the garlic and used seasoned rice vinegar rather than cider vinegar. That was because I was out of cider vinegar, but it does add a deeper flavor. I pureed in a blender rather than leave it chunky, which is the more traditional way to serve it. This is because I was thinking of using it as a base for a salad dressing, which you can see in my next recipe.

Tomato Jam

Ever since I read the words tomato jam in some book about the South, I have been thinking I need to try it. When there were two freah tomatoes in my Imperfect box this week, I knew its time had come.

• 2 tomatoes, remove the core and chop
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1 small lime, use zest and juice
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Put all the ingredients in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring steadily. Turn the heat down to low and let simmer for about 90 minutes, checking and stirring every 15 minutes or so until reduced to a thick jam texture. Store in a covered container in the fridge. It will keep for a couple weeks, but it won’t last that long as it’s so good. This makes about 1 cup of jam.

So wow! This is so good. It’s got this amazing sweet and sour flavor that would be good on just about anything. There’s some great heat from the ginger and red pepper flakes, there’s this aromatic oomph from the cloves and cinnamon and truly, my house smelled like tomato heaven.

Here are a few sandwich options. I toasted and yes! those are heels because I like how crispy they get when toasted. It makes me think this may be really delicious on knäckebröd and makes me want to go to Ikea. On the left, toast, tomato jam, sliced cucumber, and grapefruit. On the right, tomato jam, feta cheese, and a sprig of fennel.

Here I used knackebröd with tomato jam. On the left, I added feta and on the right, I used sauteed kale, fennel, and onions from the grilled cheese.

Blue Cornmeal Applesauce Breakfast Bars

• 2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1½ cup blue cornmeal
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tsp cardamom (optional)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 stick butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds (optional)
• 1 cup dried figs (optional)
• sugar and cinnamon for dusting

Heat oven to 400 degrees Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Cut in pieces of butter using a pastry blender. Add applesauce and sour cream and mix. The batter will be more solid than cake batter, but not stiff and dry like scone batter. Add optional nuts and dried fruit. You can experiment with different nuts and fruits, including currants, raisins, pecans, walnuts, or pepitas.

Roll into a log using parchment paper or wax paper. Then slice into  12 pieces and layer on parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Bake 15 minutes at 400, remove for a moment, shake some mixed cinnamon and sugar over the top and return to oven, lowering temperature to 300 for 15 more minutes.

These are a nice moist, breakfast/dessert bars. They are toothsome, hearty, and slightly sweet. Goes well with coffee or tea. A good afternoon snack. They’re not as sweet as dessert bread, but not as “healthy” as corn muffins.

Oatcakes – Oatmeal Crackers

Smörgåsbord is a way of life for Scandinavians and open-face sandwiches and snack crackers like rye crisp are part of that tradition. These are my aunt’s oatcakes that make a delicious snack cracker sandwich.

Preheat oven to 325° F.

In a bowl, blend together

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1 cup white flour
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Add liquid and mix.

• 1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup hot water

Layer parchment paper on a cookie sheet and spread out the dough, pressing it flat to 1/4 inch. To get even edges, fold up the parchment paper and press until it is evenly flat. It will fill the entire cookie sheet so it’s nice if you use one with edges. I used a pizza cutter to cut into 24 squares before baking because it will crumble if you cut it later. The pizza cutter won’t pull the dough, so it’s easier than a regular knife.

I baked for 40 minutes, until it began to brown and then let it cool. It will crack apart where you cut. The oatcakes are delicious plain, a bit of nutty crispness. However, oatcakes are also a fantastic base for snacks.

Things I have put on oatcakes include:

• Diced tomatoes and parm
• Hard-boiled eggs and olives
• Cucumbers, sour cream, and dill
• Zucchini, tomatoes, and red chili flakes (Thanks, Eripom!)
• Pepper jack cheese
• Cheddar cheese
• Olive tapenade
• Lingonberry preserves
• Banana & Peanut Butter

Three Cucumber Salads

Why three cucumber salads in one post? Because I got 15 pounds of cucumbers from the Food Bank’s Harvest Share program and cucumbers do not keep that well without some vinegar. So, I spent a long time slicing and dicing and mixed up three huge salads. Two of them based on my mom’s delicious old-fashioned cucumber salad.

This is mom’s recipe. Slice your cucumbers no more than 1/4 inch thick. I used a mandoline and easily sliced wafer thin slices. Layer the slices in a container with high sides, lightly salting between layers. I used Glad’s 13 cup family size container which held about 8 -10 large cucumbers, sliced. I put a sheet of wax paper over the container and set my cast iron fry pan on top of the wax paper and then put my tea kettle on top of that so it was weighted down heavily. I left it for a few hours and came back to add the dressing.

After two hours, I dumped the cucumbers into a big colander and let them drain. Rinsing the Glad container to get the saltiness out, I mixed the dressing right in the container while the cukes drained. I used 2 cups of white vinegar, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 TBSP of dill weed, 1 tsp of garlic salt, and 2 tsp of celery seed.  I squeezed the juice out of the cucumbers, added them back into the container with the dressing and refrigerated overnight so they absorbed back the fluid I had drawn out with salt. Now they are saturated with a fresh dill flavor that has a mild bite. Makes 10 cups of salad.

I only made about 7 cups of this salad because I used oil so it won’t last as long. To make it I cut the cucumbers into 4-6 inch long lengths that I shredded on the mandoline, making threads of cucumber. I also sliced and diced finely two purple onions. I salted and let rest for about an hour. Squeezing out the excess, I grated the zest of two limes over the salad, mixing it in. Then,  squeezed the lime juice into a sauce bowl for the dressing. I added 3/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar, 1/4 cup light olive oil, 2 TBSP of soy sauce, salt, pepper, and 2 tsp of red pepper flakes. I poured on top of the cucumber and onions, shook and let sit to absorb flavors for a few hours. This is a spicy, tangy salad with that delicious earthy tang of limes and the heat of peppers.  It’s delicious on a sandwich with pulled pork. Makes six cups of salad.

These are pepper-salted cucumber slices, also a recipe from my mom. As before, I sliced the cucumbers, layering with salt until I filled the 13 cup container. I added weight on top of them and let them sit for two hours to draw out the liquid. I drained them in a colander, squeezing out all the liquid I could.

In the 13 cup plastic container, I added 2 cups of vinegar, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 TBSP of pepper. I mixed together, Added the cucumber and let it soak up the vinegar overnight. This has a fresh vinegary taste with a bit of bite from the pepper, fresh and cool followed by just a bit of heat. Makes 10 cups.

Pear, Brie, and Hazelnut Yufka

This was the fruit and cheese course in the six course Christmas dinner yesterday, a collaboration between my best friend and me. We had a lot of pears so it made sense to use them. I remembered this extraordinary Brie she had at Thanksgiving which I thought would make a great accompaniment. Googling for pear and brie recipes brought up lots of for a tart of crostini. With everything else, it made sense to go for something lighter, with less bread, a naan or pita, perhaps. Then I remembered a recipe in the fabulous Soframiz cookbook I reviewed earlier this year for Yufka, a flatbread that is a tiny bit richer than pita, light and delicate, but not a pastry.  It really worked perfectly.

Yufka Dough:

• 1 2/3 cup of flour
• 1 tsp of kosher salt
• 2/3 cup warm water
• 2 TBSP olive oil

Mix the salt and flour in a bowl, make a well and add the water and olive oil. Mix with your fingers until well blended. Then knead for a good three minutes. I counted to 180 kneading. Lightly brush with olive oil, wrap in plastic wrap and let rest 4 hours or more. I let it rest overnight.

When you’re ready to cook, divide into 2 oz portions. I used a scale. I expected it to come out to 6 pieces, but it came out to 7. Bonus! Roll it out as thin as you can, use plenty of flour to keep it from sticking. It should be thinner than a tortilla and about 8 inches round.

Heat a skillet or griddle to medium high. Do not grease. Cook on one side until it bubbles, then flip and cook on the other. About 2 minutes each side. These are partially cooked yufka that finish cooking whenever you do what you do with them.

The Pear, Brie, and Hazelnut Yufka

• Pears
• Brie
• Olive oil
• Dried Thyme
• Toasted Hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 400°. Slice three pears and 12 oz of brie. Lay the yufka on a baking sheet, lay down the layer of pears, add the brie, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle dried thyme over it. Put it in the oven to bake, just until the cheese browns very lightly.

Meanwhile, toast a cup of chopped hazelnuts in a dry pan.

Place each yufka on a plate, sprinkle with the hazelnuts and serve warm.

This was so delicious, rich and flavorful without being overly rich. Makes 6.

 

Pear Quick Bread with Buckwheat Honey, Apricots & Pecans

I had three pears that were so ripe that eating them would have been a mess, so I peeled and mashed them with a fork and decided to try making a pear-based quick bread. I decided the molasses that I usually use for quick bread would overpower the pears and decided to use buckwheat honey instead. I also thought dried cranberries would not work well and opted for dried apricots, a milder flavor.  This takes no special equipment other than a bread pan.

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup mashed pears
• 1/4 cup buckwheat honey
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp powdered ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 cup dried apricots (chopped small)
• 1.3 cup chopped pecan

Preheat to 300°

First cream 1/2 cup of butter with 1 cup of sugar. I use a whisk, but if you have a mixer, use it. I used room temperature butter, but you can take cold butter, cut it into pieces and then cream it with the whisk. Once the sugar and butter is light and creamy, fluffy even if you have the energy, add the eggs, one at a time, whisking them into the batter.

In a bowl, mix the mashed pears and buckwheat honey together. If you don’t have buckwheat honey, use regular honey, but use a little less. Buckwheat honey is not as sweet tasting.

In another bowl, mix the flour and spices.

Add the pear mixture and the flour mixture about 1/3 at a time, so you blend thoroughly, first the pears, then the flour, pears, flour, pears, and flour.

Finally gently fold in the pecans and the dried apricots.

Pour the batter in the greased bread pan and bake for about 90 minutes. Test with a knife after an hour or so and see if it comes out dry. My bread pan is one of those very thick insulated ones, so I need 90 minutes, but a thin bread pan will cook faster.

Fry Bread with Apples and Yogurt

I made these last month when it was too hot to turn on the oven, but wanted to make an apple dessert. I decided to make some fry bread with apples and yogurt.

To make the fry bread. Heat vegetable oil in a deep pan. Use plenty of oil (1 or 2 cups), you can strain it through a cheese cloth and use it again.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup water

Mix together and form into four rounds. Drop into the oil, one or two at a time, depending on the size of your pan. You want plenty of space. When one side is done, flip it over and fry on the other side. Remove and rest on paper towels to drain, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

So, these are slightly savory apples. I put 1/2 TBSP of butter in a pan with some sliced red onions and a few rosemary leaves. I added two apples, peeled and sectioned, and cooked until tender but not mushy, adding a TBSP of sugar at the end to sweeten the onions a little bit more.

I served  half the apples with two fry bread and a spoonful of yogurt. This made two servings.