Recipe: Syrian Style Labneh (Spiced Yogurt Cheese) - Vegetarian

Syrian Style Labneh (Spiced Yogurt Cheese)

This recipe is adapted from Poopa Dweck's  cookbook, Aromas of Aleppo, The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews. I wrote more about that book in this post on Syrian Red Lentil Soup.

Labneh, aka Lebneh, is eaten all over the Middle East. The term can cover a wide range of yogurt-based products from very thick liquid all the way through to a firmly pressed fresh cheese. It is made by draining the liquid from plain yogurt through cheesecloth, and then optionally adding flavorings, and it is quite easy to do at home.

You'll get the best results if you start with a good yogurt, such as Fage or Greek Gods. I made this batch with full fat, but I think 2% will be fine too. If you try it with non-fat, let me know how it turns out.

Dweck flavors her version with cumin, dried mint and Aleppo Pepper. She doesn't specify, but I used spearmint and it worked really well. If you don't have the Aleppo Pepper, red chili flakes would be a decent substitute. Serve this with wedges of toasted pita bread and you've got a delicious snack.

You can easily vary the flavorings with other Middle Eastern herbs and spices, citrus zest, garlic and so on. If you feel compelled to make sun-dried tomato Thai Curry labneh, please, don't tell me!

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Syrian Style Labneh (Spiced Yogurt Cheese)
Vegetarian, not vegan

• 1 quart thick Greek-style yogurt or 1.5 quart thinner natural yogurt
• 1.5 t ground cumin
• 1.5 t. dried spearmint
• 1/2 t. Aleppo pepper or chili flakes
• 1.5 t. sea salt
• olive oil
• cheesecloth

1. Put a large colander in a bowl. Line the colander with a double layer of cheesecloth. Pour in the yogurt, and tie the cheesecloth into a ball. For bonus points, tie cheesecloth around a wooden spoon or something you can hang over the colander rim so it is suspended. That will help it drain faster, using its own weight.
2. Put the whole apparatus in the refrigerator overnight. Make sure there is enough room in the bowl to catch the liquid, we don't want a mess in your fridge.
3. Remove the yogurt from the cheesecloth into a clean bowl. It should be firm enough to form somewhat decent balls at this point. If not, drain it more. Mix in the cumin, spearmint, pepper and sea salt.
4. To serve, fill a shallow bowl with about 1/8" of olive oil. Grease your hands and form balls a bit smaller than a golf ball. Arrange in the dish, and garnish with roughly chopped parsley or cilantro.

Recipe: Syrian Vegetarian Red Lentil Soup (Shurbat Addes)

Syrian Red Lentil Soup (Shurbat Addes)

This recipe, and the next couple that I post, are adapted from Poopa Dweck's spectacular cookbook, Aromas of Aleppo, The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews.

Aleppo was home to a major Jewish population from the time of the Babylonian exile (600 BCE). They experienced golden ages under the Byzantines and Ottomans, and remained there until the horrendous pogroms of 1947. Their Aleppo Codex is the oldest surviving document of the Old Testament other than the Dead Sea Scrolls, and resides at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Much of the Aleppan community has resettled in New Jersey. Aleppan Jewish cuisine contains elements similar to those found in the other Sepharic cultures, with strong Middle Eastern and Levantine flavors.

I tend to favor cookbooks that have a particularly strong individual point of view, and Aromas has that in spades. Dweck's book reminds me of those wonderful church, mosque or synagogue cookbooks that every immigrant congregation seems to put together after the first generation is well established, to ensure that their kids can carry on the traditions. Only this one somehow got printed in a gorgeous coffee-table sized hardback with world class photography and an outstanding historical introduction. If you like to cook with Middle Eastern flavors, it deserves a proud place on your shelf.

This particular soup is awfully easy to do. Basically you  just boil red lentils until they puree themselves, add a seasoning sautee and a quick garnish. I prefer to make it a little bit thinner than Dweck's version, so that it serves as a relatively light first course, but it also works in a larger and thicker portion as the main dish of a simple meal.

Ingredient notes

Red lentils are available at any natural food or health food store; do not substitute brown/green/black/french lentils. Aleppo pepper is a red pepper that is specific to Syrian food, and is quite hard to find in the US. One source is ChefShop.com. Instead of the cumin and Aleppo pepper, another great garnish alternative is dukka, a spice blend from Egypt that is available from World Spice Merchants.

Syrian Red Lentil Soup (Shurbat Addes)
Vegetarian and Vegan
Yields 8 cups, enough for 8 appetizer servings or 4 main course servings

• 2 c. red lentils (see note above)
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 t. coriander seed
• 1 T. kosher salt
• 2 T. olive oil
• Garnish: fresh cilantro, ground cumin, Aleppo pepper (see note above) or chili flakes, lemon wedges

1. Rinse the lentils, pick them over for stones or other miscellaneous material, and bring them to a boil with 2 quarts of water. Lower to a simmer. Stir occasionally to make sure they aren't sticking in a large lump on the bottom, otherwise they may scorch. Simmer for about 40 minutes, until they have dissolved into a puree.
2. While the lentils are cooking, grind the garlic, coriander seed and salt in a mortar and pestle or a small food processor into a coarse paste. Fry this paste in the olive oil for about 1 minute, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add to the soup and let simmer a bit longer.
3. Taste and adjust first for texture first (by adding water). I like it moderately thin, but thick is good too. Then add salt as needed to make it flavorful.
4. Serve in individual cups garnished with a sprig of cilantro and a pinch of the cumin and pepper, and a lemon wedge on the side.

Book Review: Best Food Writing 2007

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Holly Hughes started this "Best Food Writing" collection back in 2000 and has published a new edition every year since. And every year I grab the new one and  devour it in a day or two.

It has been fun to watch the evolution of the series. Back in 2000, food blogs, Food Network and celebrity chefs were not major players in the food world and didn't figure in her roundup. The writers were mainly well known authors for major newspapers and magazines, or wrote their own books and newsletters. Ruth Reichl, Michael Ruhlman, Jeffrey Steingarten, Eric Asimov, R.W. Apple, John Thorne and many more, all heavyweights in the field. By 2007 we see a much more diverse group, including several pieces that were originally published on blogs or other websites.

Hughes combs thousands of pieces every year to make her selections, and I think she does a fine job. There are always a few that I've read in the original, and usually they caught my eye too. For example a story about traditional Breton crepes by Nancy Coons had me drooling when I read it in Saveur, and here it is again... time to go buy some buckwheat and hard cider!

She also makes a good effort to organize the pieces around dominant themes. This year we have Food Fights (people arguing about the politics of food), Home Cooking, Someone's In The Kitchen, Dining Around, Fast Food, The World's Kitchen, The Meat of the Matter, Personal Tastes, and Why I Cook, each with four to eight articles.

By the way, if you are a fellow vegetarian, please don't let that stop you from enjoying this kind of food writing. I find that plenty of it is about foods that I do eat. And of course there are significant parts about meat, but I find I still take pleasure in reading about other people's ways of relating to and enjoying food, even if they don't work for me. You'll find plenty to challenge and/or reinforce your choices. (Though I have to say this piece by James Sturz over at leitesculinaria.com made me want to vomit. And I bite too.)

Inevitably when I read the collection, it points me to additional books that I just have to get. For example, the very first piece this year made me resolve to read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and Madhur Jaffrey's Climbing the Mango Trees.

If you are a fan of food writing, I'll bet you if you buy this year's, you'll be lined up when 2008 comes out! Hey, maybe I'll be in it :).

Book Review: The Nasty Bits, by Anthony Bourdain

The Nasty Bits is yet another book by Anthony Bourdain, whose overexposure is becoming somewhat legendary after Kitchen Confidential. This one is a collection of short pieces that he wrote for various magazines over the past few years.

As usual, Bourdain is at his best when digging in with gusto to a down-home local cuisine. He does have a knack for making friends with his love of food, and the obviously genuine zeal with which he can tuck into pretty frightening "delicacies" makes him entertaining. The opening couple of pages, where he shares a whole seal with an Inuit family is maybe hard to read for those of us that lead sheltered lives, but compelling. ("... frozen blackberries. She generously rolled a fistful of them around in the wet interior of the carcass, glazing them with blood and fat before offering them to me. They were delicious.")

And he's at his worst when he drags out the pathetic macho chef schtick, combined with the sentimental longing for when he could cook, shoot up, and screw with the best of them. Believe me, not all kitchens or chefs are like this. I don't doubt that he's painting a fairly accurate picture of a certain place and time, but please take this stuff with a grain of salt.

If you take the time to read the notes in the back of the book, he actually admits as much. Referring to an essay where he waxes nostalgic about how dangerous New York used to be, he says "Who was I kidding? The bullshit meter is flashing bright red." Actually I think this book would be stronger if they included these notes right with each piece.

One article I found really interesting was about his visit to Ferran Adria's El Bulli, which is probably the most revolutionary restaurant of this generation. He admittedly went with the assumption that he would hate all this molecular gastronomy stuff. And he was blown away  by the incredible sophistication and flavor of the food. They spent several days together and made quite a good DVD showing Adria & Co.'s process. I had seen this a couple of years ago, and it is well worth getting. It was interesting to hear Bourdain's perspective as everything he thought he knew about cooking was turned upside down.

The final, and longest, piece in the book is a piece of fiction called "A Chef's Christmas", in which a chef who has sold his soul for celebrity returns to his roots as a brilliant cook. The writing isn't spectacular, but if you have the cooking bug you'll be rooting for the characters.

Bottom line: if you liked Kitchen Confidential, you'll probably want to read The Nasty Bits. He's as hyperbolic as ever, and you might feel like you are listening to a three year old sometimes, but many of his criticisms of the elitist food world are spot-on, and his portraits of far-away adventures will fuel your wanderlust.

Recipe: Double Crust Mac and Cheese

Double Crust Mac and Cheese on the Plate

Everyone knows that the best part of mac and cheese is the crunchy top, but it took Sally Schneider to do something about it. In The Improvisational Cook, Schneider makes the brilliant suggestion that you split your mac and cheese into two parts, baking half in a casserole and the rest in a thin layer on a baking sheet. When you serve it up, each person gets a small amount of each, and great crispy crunchiness ensues!

Now I tried her recipe as written once and it was super, but relies on a somewhat strange thickening technique for the sauce. Rather than making a normal roux-based milk sauce (Bechamel) and then adding cheese (which would then be a Sauce Mornay), she prefers to boil the pasta and then pull some of it aside and puree it with the milk. I guess that gives you the thickening power of wheat flour, but to me it seemed to lack a little something. Granted, that something is probably, um, butter, but for me this kind of rich mac and cheese is such a treat that if I make it I want it to be as great as humanly possible.

Be that as it may, the double crust idea is pure, unadulerated culinary genius. So here is my hybrid recipe with a traditional cheese sauce and the double top. Guaranteed to scratch your comfort food itch. It makes a great party dish because you can do it ahead, meat eaters will be just as happy to eat it as vegetarians, and kids and adults will be equally joyous.

Variations: depending on how much of a stickler you are for comfort food remaining untweaked, there is infinite room for improvisation here. You can use any cheese that melts well, any shape pasta you like, and any flavoring style, as well as adding vegetables. For example: spicy with fresh or dried hot peppers, luxurious with fresh truffles, or Greek flavors with lemon zest, oregano, roasted red peppers and romano cheese.

Also, you might want to check out the Presto Pasta Nights at Once Upon a Feast for more ideas.

Double Crust Mac and Cheese
Serves 6

• 1.5 lbs rigatoni (or other pasta shape of your choice)
• 6 c. milk
• 4 oz. butter
• 4 oz. all purpose flour (1 cup)
• 10 oz. gruyere cheese, grated
• 1 T. dried thyme or 2 T. fresh, leaves picked
• 12 oz. parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated
• 2 c. breadcrumbs (regular or panko)
• salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 and put a large pot of salted water on to boil.
2. Boil pasta until al dente. Do not overcook. Toss with a bit of olive oil or butter.
3. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer, but do not scald.
4. In a skillet, melt the butter, add the flour, and stir until a toasty smell develops and the raw taste is mostly gone, 2-3 minutes.
5. Stir 1 c. of the milk into the flour/butter mixture (roux), then add all of the roux back to the milk and whisk over low heat until smooth and starting to thicken.
6. Stir in all of the gruyere, and two thirds of the parmesan, a handful at a time, until melted and smooth.
7. Add thyme and some black pepper.
8. Taste and adjust salt. I'm not giving a specific measurement because it depends a lot on how salty the cheese is.
9. Mix the pasta with the cheese sauce.
10. Put 2/3 of the mixture in a large buttered casserole and 1/3 on a greased sheet pan (or use a silpat).
11. Top both pans heavily with breadcrumbs and the remaining parmesan cheese. Use more than called for above if it seems like a good idea.
12. Bake for about 30 minutes until thorougly golden brown. If hot but not sufficiently browned you may want to use the broiler to finish the job, but watch it closely
13. To serve, give each person a portion from both pans (see picture above).

Double Crust Mac and Cheese After Baking

Welsh Cakes from Alford and Duguid's HomeBaking

Mini-me started the morning with my favorite refrain: "want make something!", which means she'd like us to cook something together. I was a bit bored of our regular muffin routine, so I pulled out Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's HomeBaking thinking of scones and settled on something related but a bit different, the "Welsh Cakes" you see above.

I don't have the author's permission so I can't reproduce the recipe here, but the basic concept is somewhere in the neighborhood of a typical biscuit or scone, but with no baking powder or soda, and all the liquid coming from eggs. They are flavored with the usual sweet spices (nutmeg, cinammon, ginger, cloves) but also get a little spike of black pepper, and are baked like pancakes on the stovetop in a skillet instead of in the oven. The recipe called for currants but I was out, so we used chopped dried blueberries instead. The results were delicious: buttery, both moderately flaky and tender, and with a fairly intense flavor unscathed by the typical chemical aftertaste from the leavenings. According to Wikipedia, this unleavened variation is more correctly known in Wales as a "Llech Cymreig".

Alford and Duguid's strong point is to bring together a big group of recipes via a theme and tie them together with photos and tales of their travels. I'm a big fan of all of their work. The HomeBaking book focuses on rustic baked goods from around the world. Nothing in here is meant to be pretty in the way of fancy pastries, but they all have an earthy and honest beauty that is easy to appreciate.

That said, there were a couple of nits I might pick with this particular recipe. First, it calls for 2 extra-large eggs. It is pretty much a universal standard that recipes use large, not extra large. I just used 2 large and they turned out just fine. If it had called for 3 XL, I probably would have used 4 L. Also, it tells you to roll them out 1/4" thick, and that you will get 12 or 13 cakes. I don't think they measured, because a full 1/4" would only give you about 8-10 cakes. I find this is the case with many recipes that call for dough to be rolled out, and you have to use your own experience as a baker to see how thick they should really be.

Notwithstanding these pet peeves, both the book and this recipe are outstanding.

Two Great Mexican Cookbooks

How about a Avocado-Mango Salad with Fresh (or Blue) Cheese and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, does that sound any good?!? I've been aware of Rick Bayless for awhile as he often makes appearances on Food Network or gets mentioned in Food & Wine. But somehow I didn't have any of his books on my shelf. I recently picked up his classic, Authentic Mexican and his latest, Mexican Everyday, and I'm reading them simultaneously. Talented, I know. Well, ok, not simultaneously, but Authentic is upstairs in the "drifting off to sleep" pile, and Everyday is downstairs in the "I finally have 5 minutes to sit down" pile.

The thing that makes Bayless great is that he is trained as a cultural anthropologist, so his focus is on accurately reporting what cooks throughout Mexico actually make, instead of some theoretical ideal. So for example when he discusses the spice mixtures used in the Yucatan, he'll tell you right up front that most cooks buy them prepackaged, but then give you the recipe in case you do want to make them from scratch.

I find both of the books to be well worth owning. Authentic is going to be my go-to cookbook when I want to know how to really make a tamale or corn tortillas from scratch. Everyday is not so much one I will cook a recipe from start-to-finish, but it is full of fantastic ideas that will inform my cooking. For example yesterday I made a vinaigrette with a roasted dry ancho chili, pan roasted garlic, lime juice and olive oil that was inspired by one of Bayless' recipes. Everything in it is geared towards meals you can realistically make on a weeknight.

Of course Mexican cuisine does involve lots of meat and fish, but both of these books have many meatless dishes, and suggestions for how to make others vegetarian. Highly recommended, and when I pick up Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico I'll let you know how they compare.