Saffron Pistachio Shortbread

Shortbread is one of those simple, yet satisfying treats.  It is one of those elemental baked goods, taking flour, butter, and sugar and transforming them through the heat of an oven.  This is a recipe that hints of Spain's past.  It is lightly scented and tinted with a healthy pinch of saffron.  It also includes some toasted pistachios.  Like all good shortbread, it is rich and hard to resist, but takes little effort or time to prepare.  I prepared it in the morning before going to class.

The recipe comes from The New Spanish Table by Anya von Bremzen, a cookbook that is full of a great number of good recipes.  She credits Melissa Clark for creating the recipe.  The original recipe calls for toasting raw, shelled, unsalted pistachios.  I simply used dry roasted unsalted ones that I got at Trader Joe's. 

Saffron Pistachio Shortbread

adapted from The New Spanish Table

3/4 cup shelled, unsalted, dry-roasted pistachios

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, plus extra for sprinkling on the baked shortbread

1/2 tsp coarse salt

1 cup (8 oz--2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed

1 large pinch of saffron, ground in a mortar, steeped in 2 tablespoons of warm water and cooled

1 TBS full-flavored honey

Preheat the oven to 350º F.  Position a rack in the center of the oven.

In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugars, and salt until mixed.  Add in butter, honey, cooled saffron water, and honey, and pulse until the dough just begins to come together.  Place in 9-inch square baking pan.  Press down to fill the pan with an even level of dough.  I find placing a sheet of parchment paper on top and pressing the dough down is the easiest way to quickly fill the pan.  Remove the parchment paper before baking.

Place the pan on the center rack of the preheated oven.  Bake for 35--40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time.  Place the pan on a wire rack and let cool for at least 20 minutes before attempting to remove the shortbread.  While the shortbread is still warm, cut it into squares by cutting 6 strips lengthwise and 6 strips crosswise.  This will give you 36 1 1/2-inch squares.

Let the shortbread cool completely before dusting with the reserved powdered sugar.

Valencian Orange Tart

Although I like a good dessert, it's not something I make that often. In part, its because I prefer to consume my calories in the form of alcohol or savory goods. I don't often refuse a dessert if it is offered, but won't go to the trouble of making one unless it's a special occasion. Even then, my wife and I have differing views on what constitutes a good dessert. Ching likes the syrupy, sweet, gelatinous desserts that are popular in Southeast Asia. I like buttery, rich baked goods.




We belong to a book club of other teachers that meets about once a month to eat, drink, and talk a little about the book we've read. We rotate hosting duties and each person contributes a dish to the potluck, but I've been designated the dessert maker. So, once a month or so, I make a dessert. I try to bring something that everyone will like, but it ain't easy. Desserts with fruit are usually popular, so I thought I'd try this tart. The recipe is from The New Spanish Table by Anya von Bremzen.



Since orange and chocolate go so well together, I decided to make a chocolate crust. I got that recipe from Baking With Julia. Both the filling and crust are fairly easy to pull together, but the filling does take some time. The crust paired perfectly with the filling, but the filling was a little sweet for my taste. Ching, however, who usually doesn't care for pies or tarts, liked this one. It's a tart I could see serving with an afternoon tea.

Valencian Orange Tart
Chocolate Crust
from Baking with Julia

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tesp salt
1 stick (four ounces) cold, unstalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 large egg yolk
1 TBS +/- ice water

Using a food processor, blend dry ingredients. Add butter and pulse until you have small pebbles of butter/flour. Stir together the egg yolk with water and add to the flour mixture with the machine running. Pulse in short bursts until mixture is crumbly. Pour onto a large piece of plastic wrap and gather dough together. Chill at least 30 minutes.

To bake, roll chilled dough out and press into an 11 inch tart pan with removable bottom. Chill the crust in the tart pan for at least 30 minutes. Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork at regular intervals. Bake in the center of a preheated 350º oven for about 12 minutes, rotating the tart halfway through the baking time. Remove and allow to cool before filling.



Orange Filling

4 to 5 medium thin-skinned oranges, scrubbed well
2 1/2 cups fresh orange juice
1 cup sugar, plus more for caramelizing the tart
1 TBS grated orange zest
2 tsp orange flower water (optional, available in Middle Eastern markets)
1 cup orange marmalade

Mix the orange juice, sugar, orange zest and orange flower water (if using) in a wide pot and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Using a sharp knife, slice the oranges about 1/8 inch thick, discarding the tops and bottoms of each orange. Add the orange slices to the juice and simmer, partially covered, over low for about 15 minutes. The slices should be submerged in the liquid, if not add a little water. Allow the oranges to cool in the liquid, then drain and pat the slices dry with paper towels. Cut the dried slices in half.

To assemble and bake the tart, spread the marmalade across the bottom of the cooled crust. Working from the outside in, lay the halved orange slices in concentric circles, overlapping slightly. Bake on the center rack of a preheated 375º oven for 30 minutes until the oranges are very soft and lightly browned.

Sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on top of the baked tart and caramelize with a blowtorch. Von Bremzen says you could also do this under a preheated broiler, but I think that's much more difficult to control, at least I wouldn't trust my broiler.

Let the tart cool to room temperature before serving.

Daring Cooks--Rice with Mushrooms, Squid and Artichokes

Having started this blog largely so I could participate in the Daring Bakers challenges, figuring that it would give me an excuse to bake more often, I was pleased to discover the Daring Cooks component. I am more fond of savory foods than sweet ones, so I looked forward to trying my hand at the challenges presented by the cooks. There's a bit of delay in being admitted into the inner sanctum of the Daring Kitchen in order to take part in the challenges, so this is my first Daring Cooks challenge. This month's challenge was hosted by Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes. It was rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes by José Andrés. You can watch him make the dish here.

Although there are several steps to making this dish, it is really not difficult. I made several adaptions based on personal preference and availability. I used squid instead of cuttlefish. I also used brown beech mushrooms and canned artichoke hearts from Trader Joe's. In spring I would choose to use fresh artichokes as the canned ones seem watery and insubstantial. Instead of making a fish stock, I used two cups of clam juice mixed with four cups of water.

This was a delicious recipe, one that got rave reviews from my wife. She is quite particular in rating rice dishes and does not usually like risotto. I made the dish expecting to hear bland praise at best. Instead, she positively gushed about the combination of rice, squid and allioli. Thanks for the recipe, Olga.

It really is the allioli that brings this dish together. I worried that I wouldn't be able to bring the four ingredients--garlic, lemon juice, salt, and olive oil--together in an emulsified whipped cream-like mass, but it worked wonderfully. I actually used juice from a kalamansi lime instead of lemon juice, but there were no problems. The key seems to be adding the olive oil very slowly to the garlic at first. You can add it much more quickly once you have gotten the process underway.

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Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 4 Artichokes (you can use jarred or freezed if fresh are not available)
• 12 Mushrooms (button or Portobello)
• 1 or 2 Bay leaves (optional but highly recommended)
• 1 glass of white wine
• 2 Cuttlefish (you can use freezed cuttlefish or squid if you don’t find it fresh)
• “Sofregit” (see recipe below)
• 300 gr (2 cups) Short grain rice (Spanish types Calasparra or Montsant are preferred, but you can choose any other short grain. This kind of rice absorbs flavor very well) – about 75 gr per person ( ½ cup per person) Please read this for more info on suitable rices.
• Water or Fish Stock (use 1 ½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)
• Saffron threads (if you can’t find it or afford to buy it, you can substitute it for turmeric or yellow coloring powder)
• Allioli (olive oil and garlic sauce, similar to mayonnaise sauce) - optional

Directions:

1. Cut the cuttlefish in little strips.
2. Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and put the cuttlefish in the pan.
3. If you use fresh artichokes, clean them as shown in the video in tip #7. Cut artichokes in eights.
4. Clean the mushrooms and cut them in fourths.
5. Add a bay leaf to the cuttlefish and add also the artichokes and the mushrooms.
6. Sauté until we get a golden color in the artichokes.
7. Put a touch of white wine so all the solids in the bottom of the get mixed, getting a more flavorful dish.
8. Add a couple or three tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.
9. Add all the liquid and bring it to boil.
10. Add all the rice. Let boil for about 5 minutes in heavy heat.
11. Add some saffron thread to enrich the dish with its flavor and color. Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor. If you’re using turmeric or yellow coloring, use only 1/4 teaspoon.
12. Turn to low heat and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”)
13. Put the pan away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.

Sofregit (a well cooked and fragrant sauce made of olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and onions, and may at times
different vegetables such as peppers or mushrooms)-

Cooking time: aprox. 1 hour
Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
• 4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)
• 1 Bay leaf
• Salt
• Touch of ground cumin
• Touch of dried oregano

Directions:

1. Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft.
2. Taste and salt if necessary (maybe it’s not!)

Allioli is the optional part of the recipe. You must choose one of the two recipes given, even though I highly recommend you to try traditional one. Allioli is served together with the rice and it gives a very nice taste

Allioli (Traditional recipe)
Cooking time: 20 min aprox.
Ingredients:

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• Pinch of salt
• Fresh lemon juice (some drops)
• Extra-virgin olive oil (Spanish preferred but not essential)

Directions:

1. Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt.
2. Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.)
3. Add the lemon juice to the garlic.
4. Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle.
5. Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go.
6. Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.

José's tips for traditional recipe: It's hard to think that, when you start crushing the garlic, it will ever turn into something as dense and smooth as allioli. But don't give up. It's worth the extra time and effort to see the oil and garlic come together before your eyes. Just make sure you're adding the olive oil slowly, drop by drop. Keep moving the pestle around the mortar in a circular motion and keep dreaming of the thick, creamy sauce at the end of it all.

Allioli a la moderna (Modern recipe)
Cooking time: 3-4 minutes
Ingredients:

• 1 small egg
• 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil (as above, Spanish oil is highly recommended)
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 1 Tbs. Spanish Sherry vinegar or lemon juice (if Sherry vinegar is not available, use can use cider or white vinegar)
• Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Break the egg into a mixing bowl.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the garlic cloves, along with the vinegar or lemon juice.
3. Using a hand blender, start mixing at high speed until the garlic is fully pureed into a loose paste.
4. Little by little, add what's left of the olive oil as you continue blending.
5. If the mixture appears too thick as you begin pouring the oil, add 1 teaspoon of water to loosen the sauce.
6. Continue adding the oil and blending until you have a rich, creamy allioli.
7. The sauce will be a lovely yellow color.
8. Add salt to taste.

José's tips for modern recipe:
(1) If you do not have access to a hand blender, you can use a hand mixer (the kind with the two beaters) or a food processor. If you use a food processor, you must double the recipe or the amount will be too little for the blades to catch and emulsify.
(2) What happens if the oil and egg separate? Don't throw it out. You can do two things. One is to whisk it and use it as a side sauce for a fish or vegetable. But if you want to rescue the allioli, take 1 tablespoon of lukewarm water in another beaker and start adding to the mix little by little. Blend it again until you create the creamy sauce you wanted.

Olga’s Tips:
(1) In Spain, rice is not stired as often as it is when cooking Italian risotto. You must stir it once or twice maximum. This tip is valid for all Spanish rice dishes like paella, arròs negre, arròs a banda…
(2) When cooking the alternative style you can change the cuttlefish or squid for diced potato.
(3) If you can’t find cuttlefish or squid, or you’re not able to eat them because of allergies, you can try to substitute them for chicken or vegetables at your choice.
(4) Sofregit can be done in advance. You can keep it in the fridge or even freeze it.
(5) For more information on how to clean and remove the heart of artichokes, please watch this video
(6) To watch how Jose Andres cooks this dish click here.
(7) For more information on how to clean and remove the heart of artichokes, please watch this video
(8) To tone down the taste when you do it by hand in a mortar, then add an egg yolk. If you want to tone it down in the alternative way use milk or soy milk. Anyway, the best alternative way is the original oil and garlic alone.
(9) Allioli must be consumed during the preparation day and preserved in the fridge before using it.
(10) For help on conversion on metric to imperial, visit this page.