Dessert from the desert

So, it seems that over the past week recipes have not only specialized in having naughty words or phrases in the title, they've also been from the same general area.

Hummus and pita are pretty well known middle eastern / Mediterranean foods and make a great meal on their own, or on a platter with a few other nibbly things. Of course, at the end of dinner, there's always dessert. Baklava is the usual thing, yes, but never one to be normal, I decided to go for something a little different.

I've moved south into the area known in trashy romance novels as Persia. I write medievals mostly, and Iran was known as Persia until well into the 20th century. Persia was quite the superpower, and held its own against the Romans in ancient times. But its proximity to the east, bordering Pakistan, seems to have removed it not only from western culture, but also a bit from the rest of the middle east, at least in culinary terms. Spices that feature prominently in curries and other Indian dishes (curry is English yes, but the spices are Indian) appear regularly in Persian foods. Cardamom being one of my favourites.

Cardamom is what drew me to these little cakes. And then I saw the rose water. There is something exotic and luxurious about eating flowers and I will take any opportunity to do so. Put the two together and I am guaranteed to want to try the recipe.

LIke this one:

Yazdi Cakes

What you need:

2 eggs

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

3 teaspoons rose water

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 c chopped pistachio nuts

What you gotta do:

Preheat the overn to 350.

Get a pan of water simmering on the stove.

Crack your eggs into a metal or glass bowl, add the sugar, and set the bowl over the pan of simmering water.

With a whisk (or electric mixer if you insist), beat them together until they look pale and creamy. It will take about 6 or 8 minutes, and you'll think at first that they're never going to change colour and thicken, but they will. And when they do, they'll look like this:

Srsly, there is nothing in that bowl but eggs and sugar. What you've basically made here is a the beginnings of a very light custard called zabaione. This is the Mediterranean influence.

Once you've decided that you do want to make cakes, and not veer off into the land of custard, remove the bowl from the heat, and keep whipping it until it's cooled a bit. Yes, I did this by hand with a whisk. No, I don't have forearms like Popeye, but I also don't have (or want) an electric mixer. I can make whipped cream by hand in less than 3 minutes.

Anyway, once it's cooled a bit, add the butter, yogurt, rosewater and cardamom. The last two are your more eastern ingredients.

See how thick and creamy that yogurt looks? That's because it has fat in it. I've managed to find a brand of yogurt with 10% milk fat. The typical complaint about yogurt is that it's unpallatably sour. Well, that's because most of what you find in the grocery has a mere 0 - 2% MF. It's watery and thin, bluish in colour, and virtually inedible unless it's loaded with sugar (or more commonly, artificial sweeteners). You want something with at least 5% MF. Even if you're using yogurt to decrease fat content, such as a replacement for sour cream, you're still ahead of the game since sour cream is usually 14% MF. And you know why it tastes good? Yeah, that's why 0% yogurt tastes like crap.

Once you've mixed in the butter, yogurt, cardamom and rosewater

sift the baking powder into the flour, add them to the batter, and switch to a wooden spoon (no mixer allowed here).

Mix until smooth, then fill 12 cupcake liners about 3/4 full.

Coarsly chop your pistachios, (the above pic is pistachio porn for Taneasha, who loves them) and sprinkle them on the top of the cakes.

Bake at 350 until they're golden, about 25 minutes.

The smell is divine. They have a decidedly exotic aroma, but that familiar and comforting cupcake shape. 

If it weren't for the pistachios on top, you'd probably want to put icing on these, but really, they're just not made for it. They're wonderfully rich and flavourful all on their own. The texture is dense, almost muffin like, which makes them a tempting breakfast. Particularly with a side of yogurt and berries.

If you absolutely insist that they need something on them, I recommend splitting them open like a muffin and topping them with butter, honey or rose petal jelly.

Yes, more roses. Have you ever eaten flowers?

Leg humpingly good.

I first had hummus about 20 years ago when I'd dropped out of highschool for a year to work for Greenpeace. I was fundraising door to door, not riding Zodiacs out to whaling boats, so no, not exciting at all. But there was this great little Lebanese deli around the corner from the office and I could get a huge platter full of falafels, hummus and pita for less than 5 bucks.

Hummus is really just a bean dip. It's Mediterranean in origin, part of both Greek and various middle eastern cuisines, vegetarian (vegan even), and works as a dip for bread and veggies, or as a spread in a sandwich.

I loved the stuff. But I had no idea how to make it. And after I moved away from home I had to make do with a mix from the local whole foods store. Or from some other deli, but the texture was off, and the seasoning lacked. Nothing was as good as Cedars. I figured out the ingredients, and made it a few times myself, but it was never quite right. Something was always missing.

Until...

Him.

He promised it was tasty. He assured me it would be the best hummus I'd ever had. He said once I'd tasted it, no other hummus would ever satisfy.

I literally humped his leg the first time he put it in my mouth.

Holy crap. It's the best hummus I've ever had. Leg humpingly good hummus.

And he told me I can show it all to you.

;)

What you need:

1 19 oz tin of chick peas

3 cloves garlic

¼ c fresh, chopped parsley

½ tsp dried, ground cumin

½ tsp dried, ground coriander

¼ tsp cayenne

½ tsp salt

¼ c tahini**

3 tbsp lemon juice

½ c olive oil

**Usually found in the import or health food section of a grocery store, or at a Mediterranean or Middle Eastern market.

What you gotta do:

Drop the garlic into the food processor and give it a whirl for a few seconds to chop it up a bit. You could do this with a knife but you've already got the processor out so you may as well use it.

Drain the chick peas, don't bother rinsing them, and cover the garlic with them. Then add the parsley, cumin, coriander, cayenne and salt.

Top with tahini and lemon juice.

Start your engines! Whiz it until it's still a bit chunky. You'll know the texture is right because you'll have a dire need to add liquid to it. 

Scrape down the sides, and put the lid back on. Through the chute in the top, drizzle in the oil as the processor does it's thing. Basically, it's making an emulsion. The oil need to be whipped really fast into the lemon juice, and the tahini and speed are helping do that.

At this point you get to decide what kind of texture you want. The longer you run it, the smoother and creamier it will be.

Hummus is a regular part of a Mediterranean and Middle Eastern finger food meal called Mezze. It's usually served with tzaziki, stuffed grape leaves, meatballs, cheese, pickled veggies and pita breads. Any or all of these on a table makes a great meal or snack. (I really need servingware.)

It also works great as a veggie dip at parties, or, as an instant food to have in the fridge for when you get home from school or work starving.

Hm... There's an empty plate in that picture... what would you want on your Mezze platter to go with the Leg Humpingly Good Hummus?