Baba Ghanoush

 

-3 eggplants

-1/2 cup of tahini or less, depending on the size, flavor, and mood of eggplants and your own

taste

-2-3 cloves of garlic, also depending on the size and tastes (and Ira brought up the subject

of kissing afterwards, but is there any reason why your kissing partner would be deprived

of baba ghanoush??? Even Dasha's Seth liked it although he got an issue with eggplants.)

-2-3 small lemons

-salt,

prererrably sea salt

-optional, for serving: black olives, cilantro

 

Prick the eggplants in several places with a fork. Preheat the oven to 350-375 degrees F and bake them in the middle of the oven for 50 minutes. The eggplants should be soft to the touch, but still have character when ready. Cool them and peel the thin dark skin. (Here, I never squeeze the juice out of eggplants because they lack bitterness.) I do my best to remove the seeds; just follow the body of the eggplants and remove the seeds like a vein.

Puree the peeled eggplants in a food processor. Add some tahini, some squeezed garlic, and some juice squeezed out of lemons. Add some salt, vigorously mix very thoroughly, and try it. Add more ingredients in small portions and try for taste. I like to serve it with pita bread wedges, but it works with any bread. It is a good combination for feta cheese. Spread baba ghanoush on bread and sprinkle with feta cheese - here is a fancy half sandwich.

For hummus, instead of eggplants, you use pureed cooked garbanzo beans (chickpeas), and all printed recipes which I know suggest addition of olive oil, but I never add oil into hummus. I do add paprika and a dash of cayenne pepper to it. Hummus is great with many raw vegetables for serving, but I especially like to serve it with colored bell peppers. In the previous recipe, substitute 1 or 2/3 of cup of raw garbanzo beans for eggplants, and voila.

Медовая горка

Take 2 sticks of softened (not melted) butter, 1/4 cup of sugar. 1/2 cup of sour cream and 4 cups of flour. Mix well in a bowl. Put it in the freezer for about 30 min. Then preheat oven to 400 and line a cookie sheet with foil. Take dough and grate it on the cheese grater on the sheet till the think layer forms. Bake in the oven till slightly golden brown. (I use a few cookie sheets at the same time - as many as will fit in the oven). Repeat   till dough is gone.

 Cream: 1 can of caramalized seewtened condence milk and 1 stick of soft butter creamed together. Mix cream with baked crumbs in a big bowl till all is evenly coated. Shape into any form that you wish (some of you have a wild imgination) . Sprnlke with chocolate or anything else.

Sour Dough from Danny

Sour Dough Bread Recipe

Feeding the Sour Dough Start

Once a week add:

1 cup of water (236ml)

½ cup of sugar

2 Tbl spoons of instant mashed potatoes

Put one cup of the start back into the container and use the rest to make bread. If you need more start, double the amount of everything added. Then reserve the 1-cup in the original container. Let the mixture stand at room temperature for two hours before making bread.

For Bread or Rolls

6 cups of flour

½ cup of sugar

1 tsp of salt

2 Tbl spoons of oil

1 cup of Sour Dough Starter

1 cup of water or other liquid such as whey.

Sift together the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Reserve 1 cup of flour to adjust the dough for moisture.

Add the oil, starter, and water and mix well. Adjust the dough with the extra flour until the dough is releasing from the sides of the bowl. Knead thoroughly. Put a little oil in the bowl and roll the dough in the bowl to cover with thin film of oil to prevent drying. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a lid. Let this dough rise 6-8 hrs. Over night is a good rule. The second rise should only take about 4-5 hrs.

I cut the dough into pieces that roll into about 2 inch balls and place them on a cookie sheet for baking. You can put into bread pans or braid it on a sheet. It is very flexible dough and can be used any way you would use bread dough. It is a slow rise but very good to rise without large bubbles. If you let it rise a third time it will be less sweet