BREAKING NEWS…BREAKING NEWS…BREAKING NEWS!

University of California, Davis researchers have found that drinking beer can help prevent weak bones.

You hear that Sally Fields? You can give it a rest now. My drinking buddies and I aren’t taking your Boniva…anymore.

To celebrate this life changing medical discovery, I decided to make a companion snack to my new beer diet regiment. The usual suspects came to mind…pretzels (which I will make some day but not this time), potato chips and/or maybe a ‘gourmet’ popcorn.

None of these options really struck my fancy. I wanted something different. Around the same time, I came across a recipe in Food & Wine magazine for an interesting way of turning pasta into a snack food.

Fettuccine & Wasabi ‘Breadsticks.’ This recipe called for frying cooked pasta until it takes on a crispy texture. They are unique, ridiculously easy to make and make a great party conversation piece. I was drawn to this recipe. It should be noted that as a person who grew up in Alabama, any recipe that starts by frying an ingredient that really doesn’t need to be deep fried is tops in my book.

Actually, the original Food & Wine magazine recipe called for Udon noodles and ground Nori. I liked the concept but it was a little too fancy smancy as a beer snack. And plus, I was way too lazy to go the market and hunt down Udon noodles. I also decided to add in a little heat with a dash of wasabi powder (oddly enough while I don’t have Udon noodles, I have lots of wasabi powder in the pantry).

I really like these babies. I think they are the ultimate party snack: crunchy, salty, with heat from the wasabi and best of all…fried.

As easy as they are, I have to admit, I had to cook a few of them before getting them just right. Here are a few things I solved through trial and error.

Don’t tie the knots too tight (they won’t cook). Don’t fry them extremely hard (you’ll get something with the texture of a brick). If you need to salt them again, do so right after they are fried (the salt adheres better). I would suggest making a few extra and cooking them one at a time until you get the technique just right. Enjoy.

Cheers!

FETTUCCINE & WASABI “BREADSTICK” KNOTS

Adapted from Food & Wine Magazine

30 strains of fettuccine

Vegetable oil, for tossing and frying

1 TSP wasabi powder (alternatively, you can use fine ground black pepper)

Kosher salt, to taste

In a medium saucepan of boiling water, cook the fettuccine noodles until they are cooked through and pliable, about 8-10 minutes. Drain thoroughly and transfer the pasta to a medium bowl. Gently toss the pasta with a teaspoon or so vegetable oil to keep them from sticking together. Lightly toss pasta with wasabi and Kosher salt to taste. (Add the wasabi powder a little at a time – tasting it as you go – to make sure that you season the pasta to your taste).

Take 3 fettuccine strands and carefully tie them in a loose knot near the end. Repeat with the remaining pasta. In a large skillet, heat 1/4 inch of vegetable oil until shimmering. Fry 2 of the fettuccine bundles at a time over moderately high heat, spreading the ends of the fettuccine out in a fan, until golden and crisp, about 1 minute per side. Transfer the bundles to paper towels to drain.

Makes 10

“Ouch!” It felt like the wrath of God had just rained down on me.

Cooking can be a dangerous sport. There are the occasional little cuts and the accidental burns from searing hot sauce pans. But the most dangerous (and painful) of them all is carelessly working with fresh peppers.

And no matter how often I try to remember to wash my hands after working with jalapenos or scotch bonnets I still sometimes forget.

On those occasions I am usually painfully reminded of this lapse of judgment when I inevitably rub my eyes. It’s a special hell that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemies (well, maybe some of them).

So before I go any further with this recipe, here’s a warning to the wise…the recipe calls for fresh jalapenos. Please don’t forget to wash your hands after you handle them.

That’s the note of caution. Now here’s the good news…the reward of this recipe is totally worth the risk.

As a former Southerner, I love fried foods – especially chicken. And I am always looking for different ways to enjoy this Southern pastime – a recipe that brings something different to the table. I think this recipe for Spiced Lime Fried Chicken just may fit the bill.

It’s not your average fried chicken fare. There are a few twists.

First, there’s no flour. So it’s missing the heavy and thick oil-soaked crust that plagues many traditional fried chicken recipes. Instead, this recipe uses egg whites, corn starch and sesame oil batter to form a beautiful golden “crust” on the chicken. It’s gluten free fried chicken, y’all!

And then there’s the flavor. It’s a nice layering of flavors. Key to this recipe’s uniqueness are the notes of citrus and heat/spice that really help to make this dish come to life on your tongue. None of these elements overpower the chicken. Actually, the hint of lime gives the chicken a nice, bright lift. And the five spice marinade and the toss with jalapenos really give the chicken a slight kick of heat in the end.

I love this recipe. I make it often. Even my mom and aunts, who are Southern/Soul Food aficionados, give this ‘new fangled’ version two thumbs up.

This is no one note snoozer. This fried chicken has a full symphony of flavors that will make you stop and taste the roses. And cut into strips, they are perfect for a cocktail party.

NOTE: You can easily adjust the heat of this dish. For more heat, toss the fried chicken and jalapenos for a longer period of time. You want to the lime and jalapenos almost directly after frying. The heat from the chicken really helps the lime and jalapenos to release their flavors.

Like this recipe? Check out our Brined Southern Fried Chicken recipe. It’s slightly spicy and endlessly flavorful.

SPICED LIME FRIED CHICKEN

Some like their food spicy and then some people like it SPICEY. For those who can’t get enough spice you can try to use unseeded jalapeno slices when tossing the chicken at the end – jut be careful to remove the jalapeno slices so that no one bites into a jalapeno seed. Also, the longer you toss the jalapeno with the chicken the spicier it gets. So adjust this per your taste.

2 egg whites

1½TSP toasted sesame oil

1½TSP Chinese Five-Spice

2TBL corn starch

1½TSP Kosher salt

¼TSP freshly ground pepper

1/2 TSP dried oregano

1/4 TSP red pepper flakes

3 boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 2lbs), cut into thin long strips

2 cups canola oil

1 lime, cut into eights

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and thinly sliced cross sections

In a large bowl, whisk egg whites, sesame oil, five-spice, corn starch, salt, grounded pepper, oregano and red pepper flakes until the egg whites have loosened.

Stir in the thinly sliced chicken breast into the bowl until the chicken is completely coated. Let chicken marinade in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

In a large saucepan or wok over medium high heat, heat canola oil until it shimmers (about 325˚).

Being careful not to over crown the pan, cook chicken strips until they are light-golden brown and cooked through, about 5-6 minutes. Let each batch drain on a rack or paper towel.

In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly toss chicken, lime and jalapeno slices in a bowl (keep in mind the longer you toss the jalapeno and chicken, the spicier it gets). Salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

Serves 4-5.

I can be lazy. Actually, I can be very lazy.

Some days I have the energy of a two-year old. Other days, I have the energy of the parent of a two-year old.

So, when I came across this recipe for a Coconut Chocolate Tart in Donna Hay’s New Food Fast that called for only 5 ingredients, I immediately thought to myself, “Now that’s a dessert I can do.”Not only did the recipe read easy and approachable, but it seemed delicious. Rich. Sweet. Layered.

I was excited to get started. And then came the snag (Isn’t there always a snag?). The recipe wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. It called for desiccated coconut. I am no stranger to a grocery store but I had no idea what desiccated coconut was. I had to ask my know-it-all friend…Google.

It’s finely ground unsweetened coconut. An ingredient not readily available in most American supermarkets (I hear Whole Foods stocks it).

At that point I was very close to abandoning the Coconut Chocolate Tart ship, but I decided to tough it out and work around the hurdle.

That’s when I decided to make the recipe even simpler. Instead of an easy 5-ingredient tart, this would now be an Ultra-Easy 4-ingredient tart. I decided to use sweetened coconut flakes since everyone carries them.

I omitted the sugar since the flakes were sweetened. And I toasted the flakes to dry them and make it easier to pulse them in a blender. The toasting would also give the shells a nice nutty flavor which I thought would work well with the chocolate.

So, that was the plan. And guess what? The plan worked! Hooray!

The tarts have this beautifully rich flavor (I used bittersweet chocolate). And if you top the tarts with a tad bit of coarse salt they have this incredible balanced, sophisticated and complex flavor.

I can imagine serving them with coffee or tea. Or, since they are so small and portable, they would be perfect for a cocktail party.

If you’re looking to serve an easy, delish tart, this is a must try.

Enjoy!

ULTRA-EASY COCONUT CHOCOLATE TART

Adapted form New Food Fast by Donna Hay

1 egg white

7oz sweetened shredded flakes

2/3cup heavy cream

5oz quality dark chocolate, chopped

2 TSP coarse salt (optional garnish)

Preheat oven to 350˚.

On a parchment lined baking sheet, spread coconut flakes out in one layer. Toast flakes in oven until they are just beginning to brown around the edges, about 8-10 minutes (be careful not to burn flakes).

Let coconut flakes cool slightly. In a small blender, pulse flakes until they’re finely ground. In a small bowl mix, coconut and egg whites until blended. With wet fingers, press about 1 rounded tablespoon of the coconut mixture into 2” wide muffin tin. Should make about 10 tarts.

Bake tart shells in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until the shells are just beginning to turn light golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool shells for about 1 minute and then carefully remove them from the tin on a wire rack and cool completely on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, place the cream in a saucepan over medium heat and heat until almost boiling. Remove cream from heat. Add the chocolate. Stir until chocolate has melted and the filling is smooth.

Pour the chocolate filling into the tart shells and place in the freezer for 10 minutes or until the filling has set.

Garnish with a coarse salt (optional). Serve with coffee or berries as a dessert.

Makes about 10 tarts.

And they say that a leopard can’t change his spots. Well, they’re wrong.

Typically, I am not a big fan of dips.

It has been my experience that most dips are uninteresting semi-liquid glops designed to mask the flavor of something equally uninteresting.

But despite this admitted prejudice, I stand before you a changed man – one no longer shackled by the weight, memories and horror of parties where my only semi-acceptable food options were pigs-in-a-blanket or a sad blue cheese dip sitting alone in the middle of a crudite platter.

I can now say that I have a dip recipe that is anything but boring. I recently picked up a copy of The New Portuguese Table cookbook by David Leitte (Leite’s Culinaria)

I’m not that familiar with Portuguese cooking, so I was excited at the chance of opening up a whole new world of tastes, flavor combinations and ingredients (I have over 150 cookbooks – I know, I need rehab – and surprisingly, not one of them is on Portuguese cuisine).

While there were quite a number of recipes that caught my eye, it was the Patê de Azeitonas Verdes (Green Olive Dip) that really piqued my interests.

The base of the dip is what the Portuguese call a ‘milk mayonnaise.’ Unlike what you would expect, this ‘mayonnaise’ doesn’t contain egg yolk or mustard. It’s made from milk that has been emulsified and whipped into a beautifully silky and creamy sauce. I had to see this for myself.

Not only is the dip simple to make, it’s delicious. It’s easily one of my favorite new recipe discoveries. The type of dish you know is going to be a party favorite (goodbye crappy blue cheese/crudite platter)

The dip is a beautiful marriage of flavors: earthiness of the green olives, creaminess of the whipped milk and brininess of the anchovies. NOTE: I am not a big fan of anchovies. But I don’t think the recipe would be the same without them. So I only used three anchovy fillets instead of the six called for in the recipe.

I tried the Green Olive Dip with another recipe that I found in the cookbook: Herb Potato Skins. Again, another great find. They puff up as you fry them (the skin separates from the vegetable)…the result is a crispy and light potato snack.

Green Olive Dip & Herbed Potato Skins…I’m thinking you’re gonna like this one.

Bon appetite.

GREEN OLIVE DIP & HERBED POTATO SKINS

From The New Portuguese Table by David Leite

GREEN OLIVE DIP

1/3 cup whole milk

3 oil-packed anchovy fillets

1 small garlic clove, smashed

6 cilantro sprigs (leaves and tender stem)

Pinch of freshly ground pepper (white pepper is ideal, but black will do)

¾ cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup pitted green olives, chopped (rinsed quickly if particularly salty)

Add the milk, anchovies, garlic, two thirds of the cilantro, and the pepper to a blender and pulse to combine. With the motor running, pour the oil in a fine stream. Keep whirring until the oil is incorporated and the mixture thickens, 30 to 40 seconds.

Scrape the dip into a serving bowl and stir in the olives. Mince the remaining cilantro, sprinkle on top and serve.

Makes about 1 ½ cups.

HERBED POTATO SKINS

1 cup roughly chopped mix of herbs (thyme, sage, cilantro)

3 cups vegetable oil

2 cups thick Yukon Gold potato peelings, patted dry

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Dump half the herbs in a medium saucepan and pout in the oil. Heat the mixture over very low heat until the herbs begin to sizzle, about 8 minutes.

Strain the oil through a fine sieve and discard the herbs.

Return the oil to the pan and heat over medium-high heat until it reaches 350˚F on a deep-fat or candy thermometer. Carefully lower the potato peels into the oil and fry until golden and crispy, about 5 to 7 minutes. Stir frequently an adjust the heat so they don’t burn. Just before the potatoes are done, dump the rest of the herbs into the oil and fry for 30 seconds to crisp them.

With a slotted spoon, transfer the skins and the herb to paper towels, toss to drain well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Tart

It’s not right to take chances with your friends’ wellbeing…but sometimes you have no choice.

Yesterday a few of neighbors and I were lounging around in one of our backyards when we decided to have an impromptu cocktail party. Nothing major – some wine and a few simple dishes for the five of us. We would each bring a little snack for everyone to nibble on while we continued enjoying the lazy summer evening.

At first, I was excited. But when I got home I realized that my fridge was a bit light on ingredients. This was a problem since I was feeling especially lazy and unable to muster up the energy to make a trip to the market.

I knew what I had to do. It was time to play a round of Refrigerator Roulette. I would cross my fingers, hope for the best and make something out of whatever random ingredients were left in the fridge – which could be a dangerous game to play if you haven’t gone to the market in a while. And this was one of those days.

During a quick scan of the fridge and freezer I discovered some promising items: slab bacon (you can always find use for bacon), puff pastry and goat cheese. Along with some staples (i.e. butter, milk…), that was pretty much it. As a less accomplished cook, this required some thought on my end.

With the puff pastry leading the way in my head, I decided to make a quick tart.

I had also decided to call the bacon, goat cheese and onion into service. I was digging the flavor combo of the deep sweetness of the caramelized onions, the heartiness of the smoked bacon and the briny/creaminess of the goat cheese.

So, I hoped for the best and started cooking.

I was happy with the results. I loved the way this tart turned out – including the homemade, free form shape. And luckily, it was a hit with the group.

DISCLAIMER: This was an unplanned dish so there aren’t as many step-by-step photos as you would normally find in these pages. Sorry. And since I am far from being a recipe writer (I’m getting better), please feel free to pass on any suggestions that you have for improving the recipe (ingredients and/or instructions).

Oh yeah, one of the last times I played a round of Refrigerator Roulette I cooked this Cream of Leek & Parsnip Soup – which actually turned out really nice.

Bon Appetite!

CARAMELIZED ONION AND GOAT CHEESE TART

1/3 cup slab bacon, cut into strips

1 TBL butter

½ of Vidalia Onion, cut into strips

1 TBL sugar

¼ TSP thyme

2 TBL goat cheese

Dash of red pepper flakes

1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 400˚

Sauté bacon in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until bacon is cooked through and crisped, about 7 minutes.

Set bacon aside and disregard rendered fat (being careful to leave behind any solids stuck to the saucepan). Returning saucepan to stovetop, add the butter, onion, sugar and thyme. Stir to evenly coat onions with the sugar and butter. Stirring occasionally, cover and sauté onions until cooked through and caramelized, about 20 minutes.

Working on a lightly floured surface, roll out a 10”x5” sheet of puff pastry (most sheets of store bought puff pastries are folded into thirds. Each third is roughly 10”x5”). Using a sharp knife, carefully draw a ½” border around the edges of the puff pastry – being careful not to cut all of the way through the puff pasty.

Place the puff pastry on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Remove puff pastry from refrigerator and spread caramelized onions within the pastry’s border. Dot the onion mixture with the bacon and goat cheese. Lightly brush the exposed edges of the puff pastry with the beaten egg.

Bake tart in the center of the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the pastry is puffed and golden.

Remove tart from the oven and sprinkle with a red pepper flake. Allow tart to cool. Garnish with fresh herbs. Serve.

Makes one 10”x”5 tart

Cheese Puffs

Cheetos don’t really love me.

Actually, it’s a very destructive relationship. I try to spend as much quality time with them as possible. In turn, they do their best to give me high cholesterol and love handles. It’s a very unhealthy relationship.

So needless to say when I came across this intriguing recipe for real homemade cheese puffs I was ecstatic and prepared to kick the Cheetos to the curb. The first thing that struck me about the cheese puffs featured in the Barefoot in Paris cookbook was their use of Gruyere cheese. I was hooked before I tried them.

As you probably know, Gruyere is a beautifully rich Swiss cheese (no holes in this version).

To me Gruyere has a complex and slightly sweet flavor – kind of like a less briny version of Parmesan. And speaking of Parmesan, this recipe has a little of that too. I mean, what’s not to love?

The base of these cheese puffs is the French dough, pâte á choux. It’s the same dough you’d use for profiteroles or éclairs. But don’t let the name or the dough’s origin fool you, it’s a very easy dough to prepare – I have never messed it up and that’s saying something.

I love the flavor of these puffs. They have this yin yang, sweet, briny flavor combo from the Gruyere and Parmesan cheese, respectively.

The other stand out is the fact that they actually ‘puff’ up leaving you with a final product that’s slightly crusty of the outside and hollow and light in the center….delicious.

I usually topped the puffs off with a little minced Parmesan and chopped herbs (in this case dill)

NOTE: Despite the fact that I do own a proper piping bag set, as you can tell by the above picture, I still use this homemade piping bag made from a Ziploc bag. I don’t know how to explain why I do this. But you know what they say, you can take the boy out of Alabama but it’s useless if he’s just moving up the road to Mississippi.

GRUYERE CHEESE PUFFS

Via Barefoot in Paris Cookbook

1 cup milk

¼ lb (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 TSP kosher salt

1/8 TSP freshly ground black pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 extra-large eggs

½ cup grated Gruyere cheese. Plus more for sprinkling

¼ cup Parmesan cheese

1 egg beaten with 1 TSP water, for egg wash

½ cup of finely chopped dill, for garnish

In a saucepan, heat milk, butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg over medium heat, until scalded. Add the flour all at once and beat it vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture comes together. Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat for 2 minutes. The flour will begin to coat the bottom of the pan. Dump the hot mixture into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Immediately add eggs, Gruyere and Parmesan and pulse until the eggs are incorporated and the dough is smooth and thick.

Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip. Pipe in mounds 1 ¼ inches with and ¾ inch high onto the baking sheets.

With a wet finger, lightly press down on the swirl at the top of each puff. Brush the top of each puff lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with a pinch of Gruyere. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown outside but still soft inside.

Makes about 40 puffs.

Lemongrass Caipirinhas Cocktails

I’m starting to think that my friends and I are a bunch of boozers. I mean, you can’t really blame us that much…this cocktail was a fun way to kick off the dinner party and it was so delicious that it was impossible to have just one…or two! This could be my mostest favoritest drink ever.

So today, Chapter II of ‘The Dinner Party Chronicles,’ Volume I, will feature the recipe for the Pre-Dinner Cocktail – Lemongrass Caipirinhas. And oh boy, let me tell you, you’re gonna love this cocktail. The drink is refreshing and complex and it has a nice almost, floral overtone. A great summertime or brunch drink.

Before I go on, a quick note for those not familiar with ‘The Dinner Part Chronicles.’ The ‘Chronicles’ is a feature of this blog that recaps the successes AND failures of dinner party menus and recipes thrown by yours truly. It is divided into volumes and chapters. Volume refers to the actual date of the dinner party. And each chapter (i.e. posting) will focus one specific dish of that night’s meal.

Here’s a quick recap of the menu for Volume I (June 20, 2009):

THE MENU

Pre-Dinner Cocktails: Lemongrass Caipirinhas

Appetizer: Duo of Lamb (Ravioli & Seared Loin) with Garden Scapes

Soup: Cream of Leek & Parsnip Soup with Lardons

Main Coarse: Port/Orange Sauce Braised Duck Breast & Asparagus Salad

Dessert: Fennel Ice Cream on Sugared Puff Pastry with Caramel Sauce

With that said, on to Chapter II: The Pre-Dinner Cocktail.

The idea of this drink started with one ingredient…the lemongrass. I had a few stalks on hand. I wanted to use them somehow in a dinner party we were hosting but I wasn’t sure how. At first, I was thinking about using them in the main dish….maybe, some type of poultry in a lemongrass braise. But I decided against that. Or a dessert…maybe, a lemongrass and buttermilk ice cream. Nope. I had already decided that I was going to make Fennel Ice Cream with Sugared Puff Pastry (to be featured in the next chapter).

And then the idea of making a cocktail came to mind. I wanted to play up the inherent tropical nature of the lemongrass. Immediately, two drinks come to mind….Mojitos or Caipirinhas. I had some cachaça on hand, a Brazilian liquor made from sugarcane juice and the main ingredient of caipirinhas. So, caipirinhas it was. (NOTE: The last time I worked with cachaça for was this Fresh Coconut & Cachaça Sorbet.)

Instead of mashing the lemongrass to release its flavor into the drink I though it would be more flavorful to use a lemongrass simple syrup. A flavored simple syrup also solved another problem – I hate when using sugar in cocktails. A good bit of the sugar always settles to the bottom of the glass, leaving you with an unpleasant, gritty finish to the drink.

With a plan in mind, I set out to find the right ingredient balance. On that note, recipe development/testing for cocktails is a lot more fun than testing chicken soup recipes– I can promise you that.

I think the final drink hits the mark. As I mentioned in the intro, the lemongrass syrup adds a beautiful almost-floral like quality to the cocktail. I can totally see Carrie and the rest of the Sex in the City girls ditching their tired ole’ Cosmopolitans for this far more refreshing and complex drink. On that note, while I wouldn’t necessarily serve this drink at your next Super Bowl Party, I think that your average guy can also get into.

Enjoy!

LEMONGRASS CAIPIRINHAS

I prefer to make this in one big batch for parties. But you could easily make this on a glass-by-glass basis – 1 oz each of lemongrass syrup and cachaça, plus splash of club soda and crushed ice.

I recommend that before you mix the entire batch, that you test out the proportions with one serving to make sure that the sweetness of the drink is to your taste. If need to, you can adjust the balance.

1 cup lemongrass, cut into 1″ dices

3 cups water

2 cups sugar

2 cups cachaça

9 limes, cut into eights

In a medium sized, heavy bottom sauce pan over medium-high heat, bring the lemongrass and 3 sups of water to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover with a tight lid and let lemongrass steep for 30 minutes.

Strain liquid and discard the lemongrass. You should have about 2 cups of liquid. Pour lemongrass back into sauce pan and pour in sugar. Heat liquid enough to completely dissolve the sugar. Set syrup aside until it is room temperature. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate.

Blend cold lemongrass syrup and cachaça in one pitcher.

To serve, place 4 pieces of a quartered lime in the bottom of the glass. Using a muddle or the back of a wooden spoon crush the limes to release their juice. Pour in about ½ cup of the syrup/cachaça mix. Add finely crushed ice. And top off drink with club soda (to taste, in order to adjust the sweetness of the drink).

Lavosh (Armenian Crackers) & Edamame Hummus

‘OK, I’M AN IDIOT!”

There, I said it. This weekend I decided to do some ‘programming work’ on the blog. Not the smartest move. As everyone knows, before you attempt revising any electronic file, you should always back up your work. Well, yours truly was way too cocky to take such precautions. Result? I erased a chunk (about 160) of the email subscribers to this blog. Yikes! (On that note, thanks to all of you who have signed up. If you received an automatic update on this post, I was able to find and resubmit your address from an older list.)

As punishment, I will make myself wear a dunce cap and write, “I will never tinker with my blog without backing up the data,” 101 times on a chalkboard.

So, before I move on to the food, I have a small favor to ask….please please please re-subscribe to receive your Ceramic Canvas updates. And if you haven’t signed up yet, ‘What are you waiting for?’ We are a very zany and cool bunch at the Ceramic Canvas subscription group. We’re kind of like the cool kid’s table at the high school cafeteria. Not that I would know what that’s like. I sat with the band geeks. (You can subscribe by entering your email in the top right corner of this page.)

Now, that I’ve publicly acknowledged my bone-headedness, on to the food.

My good friends Rasha & Ehab recently got me the coolest cookbook for my birthday. The book, Saha: A Chef’s journey trough Lebanon and Syria, is absolutely stunning. It’s filled with vivid photography and stories about Middle Eastern food. Reading the book, you really feel like you are walking with the author as she conveys her appreciation of the local cuisine and its history.

I was so inspired by the book that the very next day I ordered the companion book, Turquoise: A chef’s travels in Turkey. I was equally blown away. Between the two books, I have tabbed over 50 recipes that I’m committed to trying and sharing in this blog.

First up is a recipe for lavosh – Armenian crackers. I have wanted to make my own crackers for some time. It just seems like a cool thing to do. So, when I came across this recipe for lavosh I thought, “No time better than today.”

From the start I envisioned these crackers being served with hummus. But I didn’t want just any old hummus. I wanted something a little different. Inspired by a comment left on this blog about fava bean hummus, I decided to try my hand at an edamame version.

So, I rolled up my sleeves and got down to cooking.

When I finished, I tested the crackers and hummus out on some Guinea Pigs…I mean, friends… and they were a hit. The crackers were crisp and the hummus had a beautiful earthy flavor.

Although the crackers and hummus were pretty good, there are definitely some things that I will do differently the next time. First, the original recipe called for putting dill seeds inside of the dough. I don’t recommend this. For maximum crispiness, the crackers should be rolled paper-thin, which is difficult to do with whole dill seeds inside the dough. Next time I will sprinkle the dill seeds on top of the dough just before baking.

Secondly, I will dial up the edamame flavor in the hummus by decreasing the tahini (which has a pretty bold flavor) and increasing the amount of edamame. Both of these tweaks are reflected in the recipes below.

Enjoy the dish!

Oh yeah, don’t forget to re-sign up for the Ceramic Canvas subscription (top right corner of page).

LAVOSH CRACKERS (adapted from Turquoise by Greg & Lucy Malouf)

1 cup flour

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp sugar

2.5 tbl unsalted butter

½ cup milk, plus 1 tbl

1 large egg

Mix of dill, sesame and poppy seeds (about ¼ cup)

Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl and blend in the butter with a pastry cutter. Use your hands to mix in the milk until the mixture becomes a rough ball of dough. Knead for 5 minutes then cover with plastic wrap and let res for one hour.

Preheat oven to 300˚ and line cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Cut dough into quarters and work with one piece at a time (keeping the remaining dough covered until time to use). On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until paper-thin, or use a pasta machine, working through the settings (until setting ‘5’ on KitchenAid pasta press attachment).

Transfer the sheet of dough to your work surface, then cut it into long strips about 2 ¼ inches wide and carefully transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Lightly beat egg with the extra milk, and then brush each strip or dough with this. Sprinkle the dough with seed mixture and allow air-drying for 3 minutes.

Cut each strip into long triangles, rectangles or squares and bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden and crisp, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.

Once crackers have cooled, store in an airtight container.

Makes about 20 crackers.

EDAMAME HUMMUS (adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman)

1 cup canned chickpeas, drained

1 ¼ cup of blanched edamame beans

2 tbl tahini

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish

2 garlic cloves

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Sesame and poppy seeds, to garnish

Put the chickpeas, edamame, tahini, olive oil, garlic and lemon juice in a blender and process until smooth – add water to achieve desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with sesame and poppy seeds and a drizzle of olive oil.

Makes about 2 cups of hummus.