SPICED PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE with ORANGE-GINGERSNAP CRUST

Mr Cardinal, what do you think of my pumpkin cheesecake?  Is it rich, sweet and moist, with a velvety cream cheese softness and with pumpkin and cinnamon-spice overtones?  Is it all that and more, is it exactly what a pumpkin cheesecake should look and taste like?  I think Mr Cardinal is saying yes. 

  

Last year this recipe came out kind of mushy. Good taste but mushy texture. Lovely topping, lovely crust, but the pumpkin and cheese part secretly wanted to be soup and were only pretending at being a cheesecake. I learned a valuable lesson: don't rush when baking! Give the cheesecake enough time to cool down. And if you make pumpkin cheesecake only once a year, like I do, rely on your notes for the recipe and don't try to wing it. Because if a year has gone by since you last made this, chances are you won't remember what you're supposed to be winging.

  

Ah, the joy a two-year-old brings to one's life...  Gracie and dad Joe opening up Christmas presents!

Our Layla celebrates her birthday on December 26th.  That's one of the several cakes she got for her 17th birthday.  And my nephew, Alex, would not let go of the Bauer hockey stick I gave him for Christmas. He taped it right away and wanted to use it right away. His dad (my brother) had to hide it so that we could all sit down to dinner.

Starting as early as late August, a large variety of pumpkin flavoured foods begin to make their appearance. There's pumpkin coffee, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin ice cream, and I've even run into pumpkin-and-spice flavoured almonds. But in my estimation, when it comes to pumpkin, nothing beats the comforting taste of pumpkin cheesecake. I make one either at Thanksgiving or Christmas, both being perfect holidays to enjoy the taste of pumpkin. The recipe I use is one I've stayed with for a long time because it makes a sumptuous, rich, and magnificent cheesecake! It has a smooth and velvety texture into which is incorporated the subtle flavour of pumpkin. Complementary spices and an orange flavoured gingersnap crust harmonise together to enhance the taste of this cheesecake. The topping is made with vanilla-scented sour cream. What could be better? Here's the recipe:

Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake with Orange-Gingersnap Crust

    For the crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup crushed good quality gingersnap cookies
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

    For the pumpkin cheesecake filling:
2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (plain pumpkin, not seasoned pie filling)
2 tablespoons unflavoured gelatine
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3 (8-ounce) packets of cream cheese
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
6 large eggs
2  1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

    For the sour cream topping:  
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

    To make the crust:

• Have all the ingredients ready and at room temperature. Place the rack in the centre of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.  Keep the oven on while making the cake. 
• Grease a 9-inch springform pan and wrap the outside well, using 2 layers of heavy-duty aluminium foil.  
• In a medium-sized bowl combine the graham cracker crumbs, crushed ginger cookies, and melted butter.  (If you like, save about 2 tablespoons of the mixture to use as decoration for the top of the cheesecake). 
• Press the crumb mixture evenly on the bottom and sides of the pan.  Bake for 10 minutes, until the crust is almost firm when pressed. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool while the filling is being prepared.

To make the filling:

• Wrap the springform pan base with aluminium foil; the cheesecake will be baked in a water bath, therefore the foil will keep water from entering the pan. 
• Remove the excess moisture from the pumpkin: line a large colander with several layers of paper towels. Spoon the pumpkin onto the towels. Top with more layers of paper towels and press down to squeeze as much liquid as possible from the pumpkin. Repeat until the pumpkin resembles a paste. 
• In a microwave-safe bowl add the water and over it sprinkle the gelatine. Stir and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in the cream and microwave for 1 minute. Make sure the gelatine is completely dissolved. Stir again and set aside.
• In the bowl of a mixer combine the cream cheese, the sugars, the ginger, the cinnamon and the allspice. Beat on low, gradually increasing the speed to medium. Beat for 5 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
• Beat in the eggs one at a time, until the mixture is smooth.   
• Add the pumpkin, beating until incorporated. 
• Beat in the vanilla and the cream-gelatine mixture.  Keep beating until everything is mixed well.   
• Pour the filling into the crust, spreading it evenly. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles. Place in a roasting pan and transfer into the preheated oven. Add hot water to the roasting pan, enough so that it comes about 1 inch up the sides of the (foil covered) springform pan.  
• Bake for half an hour. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F and continue baking about 60 minutes longer or until the filling barely jiggles in the centre and springs back when the surface is tapped. 
• Turn off the oven and transfer the cake to a wire rack.  For safety, don't remove the pan from the hot water until the water has cooled down. 
• Once removed from the water, let the cheesecake stand for 15 minutes and then run a paring knife around its circumference to loosen it from the sides of the pan.  This will help prevent the cheesecake from cracking.  Cover it and let it cool overnight.  

It's Christmas morning, and it's time to put some makeup on this cheesecake!

• Remove from the springform pan and spread the sour cream topping over the cheesecake. (Recipe for the topping is below). Additional decorations can be used, such as pecans or cookie crumbs. 

    To make the sour cream topping:

In a small bowl add the sour cream, the brown sugar and the vanilla.  Mix thoroughly, until the sugar has dissolved and the topping is well blended.

This recipe is based on one from "The All American Dessert Book," by Nancy Baggett © 2005 (pp. 80-82).

VASILOPITA: For Saint Basil and for the New Year!

If it’s the first day of January and you are Greek, it’s time for a most important ritual: the cutting of the vasilopita.  Grab your plate and your fork and get in line.  Perhaps this is the year you will be lucky.  Perhaps this year you’ll get the coin!  Because, as all Greeks know, inside every vasilopita there’s a coin that's hidden. Come on, dad, slice that vasilopita and pass around those pieces. First, you’ll pretend that you are interested in eating your piece. Then you’ll do what everyone else does and dig around your slice for the coin.  Crumbs on the tablecloth, on your lovely new outfit, on the floor. Who cares? Where is that coin? 

“Ohhh, it’s me! I have it!!!” shouts Veronica, who just happens to be your least favourite cousin. She's the lucky one this year. So there is nothing left for you to do but to gather up your crumbs one by one, and if they are still eatable, to eat them. Meanwhile, that cousin of yours (Veronica ...) who just happens to have really hairy forearms and a big nose and how come you never noticed it before, well, Veronica is smiling from ear to ear while recounting the play-by-play of how she found the coin: 

“I cut into my piece, and felt something that I thought was the coin, but it turned out to be a raisin. I put a bite of vasilopita in my mouth and started chewing it. But it wasn't as moist as in other years. How come? Anyway, I forged ahead in looking for that coin. I knew in my heart that this was going to be my year! I cut into my piece again, and yes, I could see something shining.” 

“What was it, another raisin?” you have the temerity to ask.

  

Impervious to my sarcasm, Veronica clarified that it was definitely not another raisin. 

“It was definitely not another raisin!" 

You continue, trying to sound perplexed: "Oh, a piece of walnut, then!" 

"It was the coin!" she gasps. “It was mine!  My goodness, this will be such a great year for me!”  

Your little brother, whom you love dearly (most of the time), eyes the lucky coin sitting on the side of Veronica's plate and, in one slick move, removes it and deposits it into his pocket. Then he leaves the table and heads for his room. 

A few minutes later, as you’re washing dishes, you know why your cousin with the hairy arms and big crooked nose who snores as indelicately as a hibernating bear and could use a CPAP, has started to scream: “Where is my coin???”  Yup, clever girl, she figured out it's missing. 

"Wasn't the Vasilopita moist enough this year?" asks my mother as a way of a reply.

"Auntie, what's important is that my coin is missing!"

"It's got to be around here somewhere." My mother gets up from her chair and devotes all of thirty seconds to her search." She sits back down. "Maybe we'll call Sherlock Holmes ..."

And so rolls another New Year’s Day at chez Grecque Maison. 

 

For Greeks, the first of January is a day when secular and religious traditions are combined to celebrate the coming of the New Year. Along with New Year’s Day, there is celebrated the feast day of Saint Basil the Great, one of the most important saints in the Greek ecclesiastical calendar.

Saint Basil was born into a wealthy family but gave away his money to the poor.  Because he was a pious individual and champion of the underprivileged, myths and traditions slowly developed to commemorate his memory.  It’s interesting to note that another saint of the same period, Saint Nicholas, was also known for his generosity.  Over the centuries, the legends of Saint Nicholas and Saint Basil blended together to form one “big” legend associated with none other than Santa Claus. However, Saint Nicholas is associated with the Santa of the Western churches, and the Eastern Santa is Saint Basil.

Yes, Saint Basil is the Greek Santa Claus. On January 1, his feast day, children receive gifts brought by the saint, New Year’s carols are sung, and families gather around the vasilopita, which is a cake made in Saint Basil’s honour. Recipes for vasilopita vary with regions and family traditions.  In some places it takes the form of a fillo pie, in others it is a cake, and yet in others, it is a yeasted sweetened bread. That which makes vasilopita a vasilopita is that it's round in shape and has a coin hidden inside. The head of every Greek family makes the sign of the cross over the vasilopita and then slices it. The slices are distributed to family members and guests, starting with the eldest and ending with the youngest. Whoever gets the slice with the coin is blessed by Saint Basil, and has good fortune for the year to come. The round shape of the vasilopita symbolizes the unity of the church and the concept that God is without beginning or end. 

Many cultures have the custom of hiding trinkets into celebratory cakes. This custom most certainly predates Christianity and was probably associated with the pagan festival of Saturnalia, which celebrated the renewal of light and the coming of the New Year. As the Roman Empire came under Christian rule, some of its customs were incorporated into the seasonal celebrations of the church. 

For Greeks, the celebratory cake became the vasilopita, so named after Saint Basil. Inclusion of an actual coin is unique to Greece, and that's because Saint Basil is associated with the giving away of money for the protection of the poor.

Beyond the myth, who was Saint Basil?  He was born around 330 CE in Asia Minor, which at the time was under the control of the Roman Empire. He studied philosophy and rhetoric in Constantinople and Athens and then settled in Caesarea of Cappadocia, Asia Minor. He was baptized as a Christian in 358 and joined the priesthood, eventually being appointed bishop. He wrote important ecclesiastical works, some of which concern monastic life. These were pivotal to the development of the monastic tradition. 

Saint Basil gained prominence for successfully defending the Nicene Creed against the Arian theology supported by the Roman emperor Valens, who denied the relationship of the Holy Trinity. St. Basil was also a humanitarian and a philanthropist. He built a sprawling complex, unique for its time, which included a hospice, a poorhouse and a hospital, and which was open free of charge to all. This became a model for other institutions of similar nature. He was a famous preacher, noted for his sermons on ethics and morality. Saint Basil died on January 1, 379. It is for that reason that January 1 is celebrated as his feast day. All I can say is, we need a few individuals like him today. 

I love Saint Basil, not only because I admire him for his intellect, piety, and goodness, but also because I have wonderful associations with his name itself. My most beloved uncle was named Basil, and I remember how we visited him on New Year's day, his name day. We would arrive at his home and find it filled with flowers, gifts, and boxes upon boxes of confections, all of them brought by well-wishers. I would sit and listen to the grown-ups talk: family stories, political discussions, gossip, jokes ... There were many conversations I remember to this day, and there are memories which envelop me in joy and warmth!

VASILOPITA  for NEW YEAR’S DAY (makes 16 servings)

Ingredients:

2 cups powdered sugar (480 grams)

3 cups almond flour (320 grams)

1 ½  cups flour (200 grams)

4 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

16 egg whites  (just protein here, it's the yolks that contain the cholesterol.  I threw my egg yolks away. Some markets sell containers that contain egg whites only. In that case, you will need to weigh 560 grams of egg whites)

18 tablespoons melted butter  (520 grams)

Rind from 2 medium oranges

Directions:

• In a large bowl add all the dry ingredients and mix them well.  
• Add the egg whites and mix gently. 
• Add the butter and mix gently.  
• Place into a greased 10-inch springform pan that's resting on a baking sheet.
• Take a clean coin such as a quarter and wrap it in aluminium foil.  Drop the coin into the batter.
• Bake at preheated 350º F for ½ hour, lower to 325º F and bake for another ½ hour to 45 minutes depending on the oven.  Don’t open the oven door for at least the first half-hour.  
• Let cool and remove from the pan.  Decorate the top with powdered sugar, and tie a pretty ribbon around it until it's time to cut it.  I added some melted white chocolate and chocolate chips on top just to make it fancier.  
• This vasilopita is very easy and quick to make, and it tastes really good too. The recipe is from chef Parliaros, who is a Greek master pastry chef. I don't understand how he can work with all that sugar and butter and stay so thin.  But, he says that if you have small portions of everything the calories are less significant. Below I include the YouTube video in which he and his sous chef make this recipe. The video is in Greek, but even if you don't understand Greek you can get a general idea of how he makes the vasilopita. The amounts for the ingredients are given in the metric system, and chef weighs everything. I weighed everything also, and then I converted the amounts to cups.  Do you see that tiny crack on the chef's vasilopita? Mine had a crack also, only it was much larger and deeper. Truth to tell, that's why I covered the top with both powdered sugar and melted white chocolate. The melted chocolate covered the crack beautifully and made the vasilopita look pretty fantastic too. What can I say?  My vasilopita may get a crack, but my cheesecakes never do!  How about that???
• Signing off now, and once again I wish you a happy and healthy 2013!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Z-mk2J_rI&list=PLGhwbjGNin26X4uAzHx72zQH2FGiG4RQH&index=1

MELOMAKARONA with a RICH ORANGE FLAVOUR!!!

Merry Christmas one and all! Here is a very appropriate post for Christmas Day: a brand new recipe for melomakarona. I made them on Christmas Eve, and as I was waiting for them to come out of the oven, it started to snow. Beautiful Snow! I considered it to be a surprising, blissful miracle. We were having an uncommonly warm winter; however, nature changed her mind about our toasty temperatures and gave us a perfect Christmas present by dusting our lawns with a light coating of snow. For just one brief moment, baking as I was, I imagined that each lawn, all over the neighbourhood, had been sprinkled with powdered sugar! 

The snow continued its soft descent ... Standing at the counter, in front of my kitchen window, I sprinkled crushed walnuts on the cookies as I watched the snowflakes fall, ephemeral Christmas Eve snowflakes.

Merry Christmas to all, and may you have a safe, loving and peaceful Christmas Day. Keep the feeling of love and the hope of peace in your hearts all year long. Come on, if I can do it, so can you! After all, it's not so hard; there aren't too many days left in the year. Right? Oh dear, was this joke necessary?

Melomakarona are the quintessential Greek Christmas cookie. I have some information on their history in the other melomakarona recipe posted on this blog.  The recipe on this page is one I tried for the first time, and as it turned out, it was a great recipe. It even got the approval of my mother, who is on the stingy side with her compliments. It's a recipe based on one by Greek master pastry chef Stelios Parliaros. It was well worth making. The cookies turned out crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, they had the fragrant aroma and taste of oranges, and the syrup in which they were dipped made them really delicious. This is a sophisticated version of melomakarona, with prominent orange and honey-flavoured notes. I loved it, loved it, loved it, but I also love my other melomakarona recipe posted here, which contains a heavier dose of spices. I suppose that from one Christmas to the other, I will have to alternate between these two recipes. 

Chef Parliaros lives in Athens, where he occasionally makes TV appearances and where he markets his concoctions in the several patisserie shops he owns. He is a highly praised French-trained pastry chef. He is also very good at teaching his craft. I watch his demonstrations on YouTube, and he inspires me. 

I gathered the information for this recipe, translated it, got the ingredients, and made the melomakarona. Near the end of my post I will have a link for the YouTube demonstration of chef's melomakarona. It's in Greek, so you may not understand what he is saying, but you will see how the chef moulds the cookies, which I think is an important demonstration, especially for me, because I have trouble making decently shaped melomakarona.  

The most important piece of advice the chef gives is to mix the dough by hand and to work in gentle, light strokes. In this way, the dough will stay fluffy, and the oil contained in the melomakarona will not leak out during baking. If the oil leaks out, the cookies will turn out dry. You want a cookie that is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Working quickly and softly should provide that result. Another piece of advice given is to have the syrup cold and the melomakarona hot when we dip them in the syrup. Chef is very insistent about that.  So here we go:  

First, make the syrup.  This can be made the day before, as it needs to be cold when used. This recipe makes an excellent syrup!

Ingredients:

2 cups water

3 cups sugar

3 sticks of cinnamon 

1 cup honey (use thyme honey if available, because it has a strong flavour. Orange blossom honey can also be used, but in my opinion, it's one of the sweetest types of honey available - overly sweet - therefore, I don't use it).

the peel from 2 medium oranges

1/2 cup of orange juice

Directions:

• Into a pot, add the water, the sugar, the orange peel, the orange juice and the cinnamon sticks. Mix the ingredients with a spoon and stop mixing once the syrup goes over the heat. The reason for not mixing the syrup as it cooks is that the sugar it contains might crystallise.
• Place the pot on the stove over medium-high heat, let the syrup come to a boil, and then turn down the heat. Cook for 2 minutes and remove from the heat.  
• Add the honey and mix.
• Let the syrup cool down and then transfer it to a wide container with a lid.  Cover it, and let it get cold. 

The melomakarona are made next.  No need to use a mixer; this should all be done by hand. Chef weighed everything, and so did I. Where possible, I converted the quantities into cup measurements. 

Ingredients:

2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice (or use the best quality store-bought juice), weight is 400 grams

3 cups sunflower oil or mild olive oil, weight is 530 grams

5 tablespoons butter, melted in the microwave

1/4 cup powdered sugar (powdered sugar mixes well and helps to add colour while baking)

1 teaspoon baking soda

2  teaspoons cinnamon

1/2  teaspoon ground cloves

zest from one orange

about 10 cups (to weigh 1,200 grams) of all-purpose flour.  There is no need to sift the flour.

walnuts, chopped

honey to use while layering 

Directions:

• In a deep container, add all the wet ingredients, including the melted butter.

• To that, add the powdered sugar and the spices.

• Mix the wet ingredients.

• Add all of the flour along with the baking soda. Mix with your hands gently, starting from the middle of the bowl and progressing toward the outside.  Don't use a mixer, it will destroy this dough. Stop mixing as soon as the liquid is incorporated with the flour and the dough begins to form. The dough will have a wonderful aroma.

• Shape the cookies into ovals and then score lines on their surface with a fork.

• Alternately, you can place them on a rack and roll them to make decorative grooves.

• The lines and grooves give character to the cookie and also help to hold in the syrup. There is a demonstration of how to shape them on the YouTube video below.

• Place the cookies on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake them at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes, depending on the oven. When done, they should have a dark golden colour.

• As soon as they come out of the oven, drop them in the cold syrup. Work in small batches of three or four cookies. Turn them over with a large spoon and leave them in the syrup for about one minute. If you leave them in for too long, they will become saturated with syrup (that's not necessarily bad, they do get soggy and become really sweet, but they still taste okay).

• Remove the melomakarona from the syrup, place them on a rack and let them drain off any excess syrup.

• Prepare a serving platter by spreading a little honey and some walnuts on its surface. 

• Add a layer of melomakarona and then repeat the same procedure, layering honey, walnuts and cookies, ending with a light layer of honey and walnuts.

• This recipe makes about 70 really delicious, honey-orange-cinnamon flavoured and fragrant cookies.

melomakarona demonstration by Chef Parliaros (YouTube)

Some notes:
*If you cannot find oranges that are flavourful and juicy, buy a good quality prepared orange juice.  

*If you watch the full video, you will see the chef stuff some of the cookies with walnuts. This is a well-known variation. I made half of my melomakarona without stuffing, while I stuffed the other half with walnut pieces.

 

*Melomakarona can be kept fresh for 10 to 15 days. 

SALTY KOULOURAKIA / BÂTON SALÉ / AΛΜΥΡΆ ΚΟΥΛΟΥΡΆΚΙΑ AND A BEER

These little treats are just like potato chips, in that you can't eat just one. You have to go back and get another and another. It's just a guilty pleasure. They are salty, cheesy, buttery, they melt in your mouth, and they are irresistible! The dough is a little crunchy on the outside and a lot flaky on the inside!!! 

If you are familiar with koulourakia, you know that they are a sweet buttery Greek cookie. Here is a different version of koulourakia: these babies are not sweet ... they are savoury, or as Greeks call them, they are "salty koulourakia." They are also referred to as "bâton salé," which in French means "salty sticks." I don't know why they have two names but they can be found in patisserie shops all over Greece, and they are a very popular snack.

Bâton Salé or Salty Koulourakia  ... Presenting this wonderful, addictive, savoury cookie!!!

This recipe was given to me by my aunt Sophia, who told me that she got it from the owner of a patisserie shop. It's supposed to be a top-secret recipe. (Actually, it was top-secret up until the time I published it). I don't know what methods my aunt employed to get it, and I don't want to find out, either. Suffice it to say that it's a great recipe!  

Salty koulourakia go well with drinks, especially with beer. If you want to drink that Heineken so you can forget the one you love who doesn' love you back ... go ahead, drink the beer, you're probably not in the mood for a snack. On the other hand, if a party is happening where beer will be served, make salty koulourakia, I recommend them! These guys are also good with tea. Somehow, I don't like them with coffee. 

Mix by hand, no need to use electric appliances. This recipe is incredibly easy and quick to make. To prepare it requires only one bowl, a whisk, a measuring spoon, and a measuring cup! The full recipe will yield 70 pieces but it can be cut in half. 

Ingredients:

butter: use half of a pound which is 
           equivalent to 8-ounces, or    
           2 sticks, or one cup; for the 
           metrically inclined, the butter
           equivalent is 230 grams.         

1 cup good vegetable oil 

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon black pepper

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup ground Pecorino Romano cheese

2 tablespoons feta cheese, finely crumbled

about 4 cups of flour

1 egg beaten with a tablespoon of milk, a few dashes of poppy seeds and a tablespoon of Pecorino Romano cheese: this will be used as egg wash
Additional toppings: sprinkle slivered almonds or sesame seeds on top of the egg wash

Directions:

Melt the butter, let it cool and then whisk it with the oil until well blended.  Add the eggs and continue whisking.
 

Add the milk, the black pepper, and the cheeses, and continue beating.

Sift the flour with the baking powder.  Add it gradually to the butter mixture, mixing between each addition. 

Turn the dough onto a board and knead, adding more flour if necessary, not so much that the dough gets tough. The dough should be soft and pliable.

Cut the dough into pieces of about 1 inch in diameter.
  

Shape into rods or circles.

Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, and brush with the egg wash mixture.

Use some toppings if desired.
  

Bake in a preheated 350º F/180º C oven until golden in colour (about 25 to

30 minutes). 

give them different shapes ...

top them with almonds, have them with tea ...
 Pictured above is a previous version that had been baked. Notice how I had given them different shapes. Just have fun making them and shaping them! They're very enjoyable! 

SPANAKORIZO (Braised Spinach and Rice, made in the Greek Style)

To Greeks, braised spinach and rice is a very popular recipe that can be served as a main meal or as a side dish. The best way to eat it? No bread, no salad, just spanakorizo! In the southern regions of Greece, there is usually tomato or tomato paste that is added during cooking. No offence meant, but I find the practice rather strange. Up north it's out with the tomatoes, in with the lemon juice!!! 

Just as an aside, I think lemon flavour makes a recipe really Greek because Greeks try to introduce lemons in just about anything that can be eaten: is it a dessert? Add some lemon juice. Is it a salad? Lemon juice, and while you are at it, throw in some lemon zest just for good measure. I am not finished: Oranges? Sprinkle lemon on top (maybe I'm kidding). Having breakfast? Add some lemon juice to your tea. The basic rule is never, ever, cook anything without adding lemon. 

The best, best spanakorizo I have ever eaten was while visiting Toronto, Canada. We were in a small Greek restaurant in Toronto's Greek section. It was lunchtime and the owner/chef, a rather grumpy fellow, told us he had just finished making spanakorizo. Try it, it's good, he said, matter-of-factly. I ordered it and it was served to me in a bowl with a couple of lemon slices for garnish. I don't know what recipe the chef had used but the spanakorizo was heavenly! It had a pronounced lemon flavour, but as pronounced as it was, it wasn't overwhelming. I kept eating bite after bite wondering if the taste would still be the same and obviously, yes, it was. But I had trouble believing it. It was that good! I complimented chef, he took it in stride, and he certainly didn't tell me his secret for melding all that lemony flavour into a smooth, savoury, exceptional spinach and rice dish. I have never been able to duplicate the taste. But I keep trying. I use the freshest ingredients and keep it simple. And I try.

  

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 clove garlic, chopped

4 scallions, chopped

1 small red onion, chopped

¾ to 1 cup rice 

4 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 pounds fresh spinach washed and sliced. (if you’re in a hurry use the frozen spinach that comes pre-chopped)

Juice of 1 ½ lemons

3 1/2 cups water or vegetable juice

Salt and pepper to taste

1 carrot, diced (totally optional and I was criticised for including it)

olive oil to drizzle on top

lemon slices for garnish

Directions:

Heat the oil in the saucepan.

Add the onion, and while stirring sauté five minutes until softened, then add the garlic and sauté for another two minutes.  

Add the rice and while stirring sauté until the rice is well coated with the olive oil.

Add the water or broth and let it come to a boil.

Add the spinach and stir until wilted. As spinach leaves cook and expel their liquid they shrink, that's why the spinach ratio has to be that much higher than the rice. Rice expands, spinach shrinks.

Reduce the heat and add the scallions, parsley, dill, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.  

Mix, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is cooked. 

Serve garnished with lemon slices and for an extra depth of flavour drizzle some good extra virgin olive oil on top! 

A CARROT CAKE FOR "HEARTBURN;" My "Washington Carrot Cake."

    

The novel Heartburn by Nora Ephron was published in 1983

It was so easy to become a fan of Nora Ephron! An inveterate New Yorker who occasionally put up with living in such backwaters as Washington DC and Hollywood, Nora Ephron was an author known for her sophisticated prose. She wrote in a spirited manner, hiding soulfulness and vulnerability inside paragraphs brimming with wit and sarcasm. 

In addition to novels and essays, Ephron wrote screenplays, producing and directing some of them when they were made into films. She was a Hollywood power player whose untimely death at the age of 71 came as a shock. 

For years, she had been in remission from leukemia, a condition she chose to keep hidden. She had planned her own memorial, and because she was passionate about food and cooking, she wanted favourite recipes included in the service. She died from pneumonia, a complication caused by chemotherapy. I admired Nora Ephron; her intelligence and creativity remain an inspiration.
  

What initially made Ephron famous was the roman à clef “Heartburn,” a satire based on the collapse of her marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein. He threatened to sue over its publication but never did. I guess “Heartburn” hit Mr Bernstein too close to home. I remember the gossip concerning his infidelity. Mr Bernstein was quite a womanizer, and I have often wondered what compels that sort of man to marry. Why bother? There must be a streak of sadism running through the veins of serial adulterers because they inflict pain on the women they are married to and sometimes also on the women they cheat with. 

Nora Ephron with Carl "Casanova" Bernstein, plus a woman comfortably sitting on Carl's lap. This picture kind of says it all. I guess old Carl had trouble understanding certain concepts, including the meaning of the word "RESPECT." And he wasn't that great of a reporter, either. I'd call him Bob Woodward's lap dog. He was more of an expert at seduction than anything else.

“Heartburn,” is a story of love, betrayal and heartbreak written in a sarcastic style. Humour acts as the salve which makes the heroine’s predicament bearable. This heroine's name is Rachel Samstat, and she’s a cookbook author seven months pregnant with her second child. At seven months she is bloated, her feet feel “like old cucumbers” and she suffers from what she describes as “terminal heartburn.” To compound her misery, it’s at this stage that she stumbles upon the fact that her husband, Mark, is having an affair. What’s more, she's acquainted with her husband’s mistress and on one occasion, had invited her to her home for carrot cake! 

At first, Rachel vows to win back Mark, despite the fact that he confesses he loves his mistress and has never loved another woman as much. Still, he wants Rachel to stay with him, at least until the birth of their child. That's one considerate kind of guy!  

Eventually, Rachel takes her children and leaves the marriage. The catalyst is her discovery that Mark has spent a small fortune as a down payment on a necklace for his mistress. Soon thereafter, a sense of clarity comes to Rachel:

    “You can love someone so much,” she thinks, “that you don’t see anything at all. You decide to trust him and you kind of notice that things aren’t what they were, but it’s a distant bell, it’s through a filter… I can’t stand feeling sorry for myself.  I can’t stand feeling like a victim… I can’t stand sitting here with all this rage turning to hurt and then to tears.”  

Rachel writes the story of her marriage, 

    “... because if I tell the story I can make you laugh, and I would rather have you laugh at me than feel sorry for me. Because if I tell the story it doesn’t hurt as much.” 

In this manner, she can begin to forget. 

The narrative of the novel is interspersed with Rachel’s recipes, some of them quite mouth-watering. There’s even a recipe index at the end of the book:  Cheesecake, page 49. Key lime pie, page 166. Vinaigrette, page 177. 

There’s been some criticism that the characters in the book are not well developed. My answer is that Ephron’s focus is mainly on satire, which is a genre that does not necessarily rely on a heavy-duty psychological evaluation of character motivation. The main purpose of satire is social criticism via the use of wit as a weapon. 

Ephron’s novel was socially significant. At the time of its publication in the early 1980s, divorce rates were climbing, but divorced women kept quiet about their predicament. Ephron was the first to write openly about living with a philandering husband and about experiencing a painful divorce. She empowered women by changing the way divorce was talked about. She encouraged women to talk candidly about it and to share their stories.  

With this reading of “Heartburn,” I am participating in Cook the Books, a bi-monthly (not semimonthly) Internet book club/cooking event that features a different book for each round. The challenge is to read the book chosen, cook something inspired by it, and then blog about it. I chose to make a carrot cake because that's what the unsuspecting heroine of “Heartburn” serves to her husband’s mistress. I was overcome by the potent irony in this exchange between hostess and visitor. And I remembered how popular carrot cake was in the 1980s ... 

Years ago, I found myself in a situation similar to Rachel’s. And yes, I did invite the "other woman" to my home, although not for carrot cake but for a barbeque. One of the most important things I learned from my experience was not to be the victim in a relationship. Love, cohabitation, marriage, all relationships including friendships, should be victim free. Easier said than done, but as Rachel Samstat says in “Heartburn,” when your dream dies, you are left “with a choice: You can settle for reality, or you can go off, like a fool, and dream another dream.” 

WASHINGTON CARROT CAKE

I call this my “Washington” carrot cake. That’s because the recipe was given to me by a wonderful cook and family member who lives in the Washington DC area. This is one of the first cakes I learned to make successfully, and it has been in my cake repertoire since I first made it in the early 1980s. The cake is fruity and tastes like a spice cake. It's made with oil and carrots, so as far as cakes go, I guess it's kind of "healthy." It can be eaten plain; that's why I usually bake it in a 9x13 pan. For a holiday treat, bake the batter in round pans and then slather cream cheese frosting on top, on the sides and between the cake layers.
  

Ingredients

    For the cake:

butter and flour to grease the pan

2 and 1/2 cups flour, all-purpose

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups peeled and grated carrots (about 10 carrots)

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts 

1 cup dried and shredded unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup good vegetable oil 

3/4 cup buttermilk 

1 cup crushed pineapple, drained well

Ingredients

    For the Frosting:

8 tbsp. unsalted butter softened and cut into pieces.

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

2 (8-ounce) packages of cream cheese

2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

Directions

    For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 325° F.  
Grease and flour a 9" x 13" baking dish with butter and flour. This is an important step, don't forget it.

Gather the carrots, walnuts, coconut, and drained pineapple into a large bowl.

Into a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. 

Into a really large bowl beat together the oil and sugar. 

Add the eggs one at a time and beat after each addition. 

Add the vanilla and beat in. 

Fold in the flour mixture until incorporated.

Fold in the carrot mixture in batches. Make sure that you don’t over-mix.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes.  

Let the cake cool in the pan for about 1/2 an hour. 

Turn it out onto a cake rack and let it cool completely.

If you'd like to have frosting, you can frost just the top if you've baked the cake in a 9x13 pan. If you'd like to have frosting on the top plus the sides and between layers, bake the batter in round pans and adjust the baking time accordingly.

Directions

    For the Frosting:

Use an electric mixer with the paddle attachment.  

On medium speed beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and the lemon zest, beating until incorporated. 

Lower the speed and add the sugar in batches, beating for about a minute between additions. Finish beating by bringing the frosting to a smooth consistency. 

Spread the icing evenly over the cake. 

Decorate the top of the cake with toasted walnuts pieces and coconut. 

Chill before serving.