Tag Archives: walnuts

BAKLAVA WAFERS WITH RASPBERRIES, LEMON CURD AND GREEK YOGURT

by

Baklava Wafers-9958

Ceci ce n’est pas un baklava.  Or not quite.  Baklava cookies or baklava biscuits is closer to the mark.  Jody liked wafers, so that’s where we’ll land.  Baklava Wafers with Raspberries, Lemon Curd and Greek Yogurt.  This is an easily assembled dessert of the things you’re most likely to have on hand* –  except for the baklava biscuits, er, wafers.  Until a recent trip to Thessaloniki and Istanbul I would never have considered myself a baklavite.  If a parallelogram of baklava and a double espresso found themselves within mutual reach, perhaps a few times a year, I didn’t object, but neither did I seek them out.  All has changed, alas, since Istanbul, where the baklava is indeed something to write home about.  And bring home, in the form of an obstinate spare tire I seem to have had no trouble smuggling through customs.  Did anyone ever eat half a portion of baklava?  A quarter?  I think not, but these baklava wafers are a lighter indulgence.  You can gussie them up into the full-boat dessert shown here, or you can just eat a couple as an afternoon snack with you espresso.  Either way, this recipe will leave you with plenty of wafers even after the dinner party guests have departed.

Poached Pears and Honey Walnuts with Roquefort Ice Cream

by

Poached Pears with Honey Walnuts and Roquefort Ice Cream-1834

Do you remember the first time you tasted Roquefort?  Heheh.  Me too. Took awhile, didn’t it?  Roquefort, like bottarga, scotch and uni, is one of those tastes that waits for your tongue to grow up.  Ideally, you have your first Roquefort with someone who will hold your hand, steadfast as your eyes water, until sufficient sensory signals from your tongue accumulate in your brain to ignite Roquefort-appreciation synapses, and they in turn link together in a blazing neuro-culinary ah-ha moment.  Which, given the components of this week’s recipe – fat, sugar, salt – they are sure to do.  Poached Pears with Honey Walnuts and Roquefort Ice Cream, is a very easy dessert, but one for the big people.  It is also, for those hesitant about blue cheese, an excellent introduction, since only a small amount is used, and that is mashed into vanilla ice cream.

Kale Salad with Plums, Roquefort and Walnuts

by

Kale Salad with Plums, Roquefort and Walnuts-9029

For your consideration: Kale Salad with Plums, Roquefort and Walnuts.  By now it’s hard to believe that there remains a kale stoned unturned.  A few days ago, idling at a traffic light, the bedraggled bumper sticker on the car ahead of me drew my eye. The sun had bleached out the yellow background and faded the text to WRAITH56, and the edges of the sticker had that scalloped, singed effect favored by moviemakers for pirate treasure maps, as though someone had tried to peel away the bumper sticker, gotten disgusted, then said the hell with it.  I had to squint.  EAT MORE KALE.  Good lord, I wondered with a frisson of culinary panic, is kale overexposed?  Not so long ago you could hardly cruise down to the Gap for new underwear or Pinkberry for whatever it is that people buy at Pinkberry without noticing the sea of EAT MORE KALEs around you, as though overnight everyone in town in had joined a spanking new megachurch, and somehow forgotten to tell you.  Have we been kaled to death?  Can STOP TALKING ABOUT KALE bumper stickers be far behind?

Not so fast. Are we over-kaled?  I think not.  Not all important things fit on a bumper sticker: Eat kale, if you’re not already.  It’s really f****** delicious.