Sesame seed cookies with maple-tahini icing

Every month I think I'm going to enter something in the Sweet or Savory Kitchen Challenge, and every month goes by in a flash and I miss it. Not this month. This month features sesame seeds, and I've made sesame seed cookies with maple-tahini icing. The cookies feature a half cup of toasted sesame seeds which gives them the most wonderful flavor. If you like the taste of sesame, you'll love these.

Baking the cookies is a little tricky; the sweet spot just as the cookies turn golden and right before they burn, is what you're aiming for. You want them to be crisp and toasty, but not burned. Even if they get a little too dark, I can tell you from experience they'll still taste great. But they're best just before that point.

When making the icing, measure the tahini VERY carefully in level tablespoons because too much will overpower the maple syrup. I'm extremely careful about this. Also, don't skip the cooking of the maple syrup. This step is what enables the icing to harden after it's spread on the cookies.

The first step is to pan-toast the sesame seeds. I like to use a cast iron pan, but any heavy pan will do. Use a medium low heat and stir the seeds frequently. After a few minutes they'll start to turn golden and fragrant, and start to pop. Turn off the heat and keep stirring until they are evenly toasted. Taste a few to see if they taste roasted, and if they crunch easily.

Sesame seed cookies with maple-tahini icing
(makes 18 cookies)
Preheat oven to 325˚ F

• 1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted (see story)
• 1/2 cup evaporated cane juice (Sucanot)
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Toast the seeds as described in the story above.
2. Beat the sugar and oil together with a spoon in a large bowl.
3. Beat in the milk and vanilla.
4. Sift or whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder in a small bowl.
5. Add the flour mix to the sugar mix and combine well.
6. Stir in the sesame seeds.
7. Form into small balls and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Flatten with the bottom of a wet glass or with your wet finger tips. The cookies should be thin. (Don't get them too wet!)
8. Bake 20 to 25 minutes at 325˚ F. Watch carefully so they turn golden but don't burn. (See story.)
9. Cool on a rack.

Maple-tahini icing

• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3 LEVEL tablespoons raw tahini (see story)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• few grains os salt

1. Place the 1/4 cup of maple syrup in a small pot. Cook over medium low heat until it starts to bubble. Cook and stir for 3 minutes, bubbling gently, then turn off the heat and quickly whisk in the 3 tablespoons of tahini, vanilla and salt. Whisk the mixture until it's perfectly smooth and a little glossy.
2. Now work fast because the icing will harden quickly. Spread some icing on each cooled cookie. You should have just enough for 18 crispy cookies.

note: These cookies freeze well and taste great right from the freezer. They don't taste frozen, they taste crisp.

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Feeling creative?
Tandoor Chef sent me the following press release:

In celebration of National Pizza Month, Tandoor Chef, the
leader in restaurant quality, all natural frozen Indian cuisine, has launched its first annual “Naan Your Average Pizza Contest.”
From October 1 through October 30, 2010, consumers are encouraged to submit an original naan pizza recipe using any variety of Tandoor Chef’s naan bread for a chance to win free Tandoor Chef products from November 2010—February 2011.

Recipes can be entered online at TandoorChef.com/October. Tandoor Chef is encouraging pizza lovers nationwide to get creative in the kitchen with this unique Indian Italian fusion contest and hoping to inspire chefs next door with their newly launched Original Naan Pizza. Entries will be judged based on the pizza’s flavor, appeal and creative use of naan. One grand prize winner will be selected, as well as a second and third place winner. Tandoor Chef’s nationwide search for original naan-based pizza recipes will allow Tandoor Chef consumers, and all pizza lovers, to get creative with this new flavor sensation, which is taking the nation by storm. Tandoor Chef’s original naan pizza recently won a grand prize “Tasty” award from Cooking Light and naan pizza was also the winning dish for The Next Food Network Star, Aarti “Paarti” Sequeira.

The grand prize winner will have their recipe featured on Tandoor Chef’s website, Tandoorchef.com, and Tandoor Chef’s Facebook page, Facebook.com/TandoorChef and win free Tandoor Chef Naan Pizzas throughout the winter. One second place winner will receive two free Naan Pizzas each month throughout November—February and one third place winner will receive naan pizzas for one month.

To enter the contest, individuals can complete an entry form online at TandoorChef.com or simply send a post card or 3” x 5” index card with their name, address and contact information, along with their original recipe to “Tandoor Chef’s Naan Your Average Pizza Contest” c/o 6116 Cleveland Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43231. No purchase is necessary to participate.

Tandoor Chef, produced by Deep Foods, is a second-generation family owned and operated leading manufacturer of Indian cuisine. Tandoor Chef is committed to producing restaurant quality, all natural frozen Indian food.
www.TandoorChef.com
www.Facebook.com/TandoorChef
www.Twitter.com/TandoorChef

I reviewed Tandoor Chef products on this blog here, and here.

Raw Food Made Easy

Many years ago, My husband, youngest son and I spent 10 fabulous days in Barcelona, where my husband gave a talk at a conference. Barcelona was our base, and there was so much to see in the city we had no trouble filling our time, but we made a spur of the moment decision to take the train to Costa Brava for a little adventure. I made a list of hotel possibilities, and we set about calling each one, only to be told there were no rooms. Finally, we found a reasonably priced hotel with space, and we were off. The long, complicated hotel name was in Spanish, of course, but there was something so familiar about it; I just couldn't put my finger on what it was.

While we were on the train, it suddenly hit me where we were going, and at the moment of my recognition, my husband said, "I wonder if we'll find anything to eat." "I don't think that will be a problem," I answered. "We're staying at a Hippocrates Institute." If you don't know what that is (my husband didn't) it's a raw foods healing center. (Founded in 1956 by Ann Wigmore, the Hippocrates Institute has its main center in West Palm Beach, Florida, and I don't know if the one in Costa Brava was associated with the one in Florida, or not, but it sounded similar.) The hotel — large, old and slightly eerie — was perched high on a hill overlooking the city. The rooms were comfortable but vaguely hospital-like, and we may have been the only guests not walking around in thick, white terrycloth robes and receiving treatments, but we did attend all the meals. The food was a spectacular array of raw, vegan dishes — everything from massive displays of gorgeous fresh fruits, veggies and salads, to gourmet preparations of intricate raw food dishes. We were in heaven.

I like raw food, and would like to add more into my diet, but raw food cuisine beyond the basics of whole raw fruits, veggies and smoothies, can seem complicated and time consuming, which is why I was excited to receive a copy of "Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People," by Jennifer Cornbleet.

The author has chosen easy and delicious recipes "that can be made in minutes, that work every time, and that can be eaten every day." She's divided the book into sections for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert, and has provided a list of equipment and pantry staples as well as a weekly shopping list, to make food preparation easier. There were so many recipes I wanted to try it was hard to pick just one, but I chose the Not Salmon Paté variation of Not Tuna Paté, partly because it sounded interesting, and partly because I had the ingredients. At least I thought I did. I didn't have celery so used parsley instead. The finished paté looked good and tasted great.

Not Salmon Paté (reprinted with permission) makes 1/2 cup, 2 servings

• 1/2 cup soaked raw sunflower seeds (soaked 6 to 8 hours)
• 1/4 cup soaked raw almonds (soaked 8 to 12 hours)
• 1/4 cup shredded carrot
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 tablespoons minced celery
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh dill weed or 1 teaspoon dried dill weed

1. Place the seeds, almonds, water, lemon juice and salt in a food processor fitted with the S blade and process into a paste. Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
2. Transfer to a small mixing bowl and stir in the celery,onion and dill. Mix well.
3. Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to five days.

So what did I do with the paté? There are several suggested ways to use the paté in the recipe sidebar, and ironically, I decided to make sushi, which was one of the suggestions, though I didn't realize it. Ms. Cornbleet calls the dish Not Tuna Rolls, and I didn't look at the recipe. I wish I had. My nori rolls were filled with only paté, shredded carrots and baby greens, and were gorgeous and quite delicious, but hers also contained avocado, which would have made them even better.

My version of the rolls, using baby greens and carrots

Here is Jennifer Cornbleet's recipe:
Not tuna rolls (reprinted with permission) makes 2 rolls, 1 serving

• 2 nori sheets
• 2 teaspoons mellow white miso
• 2 cups alfalfa or clover sprouts
• 1/2 ripe avocado, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup not tuna paté
• 1/4 cup grated carrot
• 1/4 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• tamari for dipping (optional)

1. Lay one sheet of nori, shiny side down, on a bamboo sushi mat
2. Spread 1 teaspoon of miso in a single horizontal line anywhere along the the bottom third of the nori.
3. Along the edge of the nori closest to you, layer the sprouts, avocado, paté, carrot and pepper.
4. To roll, grip the edge of the nori sheet and the mat with your thumbs and forefingers, and press the filling back toward you with your other fingers. Using the mat to help you, roll the front edge of the nori over the filling. Squeeze it with the mat, then lift the mat away and continue rolling.
5. Just before completing the roll, dip your finger in water and run it along the far edge of the nori to help seal the seam.
6. Cut the roll into 6 pieces with a serrated knife. Make the second roll.
7. Serve with tamari for dipping if desired.

note: For more detailed directions (with photos) on how to roll sushi, click here. The directions are for traditional sushi with rice but could be helpful if you've never made sushi before.

Full disclosure: The cookbook described in this post was sent to me free of charge by the publisher. No attempt was made by the publisher to influence my review, nor was I paid to write a review.

Japanese Cooking | Japanese stewed vegetables

When I was growing up, my mother made her special sweet potato casserole for every holiday dinner. It was filled with apple and pineapple chunks, and topped with marshmallows, which melted and toasted in the oven. All the adults at the table would rave about the concoction, assuring its appearance at the next holiday meal, but when the dish made its way around the table to me, I would carefully remove one marshmallow with the barest amount of sweet potato clinging to it, and place it on my plate. "You really should taste the casserole," my mother would say. "Yes. yes" came the echo around the table." I AM tasting it," I'd reply.



A similar thing happened whenever my mother made baked sweet potatoes. "I can't understand why you don't like these," my father would say. I just didn't like the taste or the smell. It took me years to develop a taste for sweet potatoes, and because they're similar in so many ways, for winter squash. And although I now cook, eat and really enjoy these vegetables, mainly roasted or in savory soups, I still don't consider them favorites — I'm more of a broccoli and kale person. When I see winter squash at the farmers market, my huge enthusiasm for buying them, I now realize, has more to do with their amazing beauty, and the variety of their shapes and sizes, than for their culinary potential. And I'm also suckered in by their names. How can I resist a squash called "butternut," or "delicata" or "kabocha?" The kabocha pumpkin pictured here was purchased to use in a Japanese donburi, or one-bowl meal, that I wanted to make from my new cookbook.

I received a copy of "Japanese Cooking, Contemporary & Traditional" by Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner from the Book Publishing Company, and, as a big fan of Japanese cuisine, was eager to try some recipes. Most of the recipes I was first attracted to involved making konbu-shiitake dashi, and if you recall my last post, (black worms, anyone?), you'll know why my enthusiasm was momentarily dampened. But I decided to "get right back on the horse" so to speak, and a new bag of dried shiitake mushrooms entered the kitchen.

I finally settled on a recipe for stewed vegetables, and because the sidebar on the recipe page said that "it was more of a method for cooking vegetables" than a recipe, I decided to use the resulting vegetables as a major component of a dish, rather than a dish by itself.



As the seaweed and mushrooms for the dashi, or stock, soaked, I was obsessed with any black dots or foreign-looking matter that appeared in the bowl. I picked and scraped, and generally harassed those mushrooms until they were pristine. I was tense.
Kobocha pumpkin was just one of the vegetable choices given in my chosen recipe, and although I had planned to combine several veggies, I ended up with so much cut up squash, I just used that. The directions said the skin was edible and the kobocha didn't need to be peeled, so I left it unpeeled, just scrubbing and scraping away any weird stuff. The pumpkin was very hard (as in VERY HARD) to cut. Using a recently sharpened Japanese chef knife, I got a good workout. I was surprised that it only took about 15 minutes to cook.

The recipe was simple, requiring only the pumpkin, dashi, a small amount of sweetener, mirin, and, near the end of cooking, soy sauce. As I was adding the ingredients to the pot, I have to be honest and admit to not looking forward to eating the result. My "squash-avoidance attitude" was kicking in, and I was also remembering that I didn't love the very dry, flaky texture of kabocha. It didn't look that good to me, and the broth at first had a slightly weird and fishy taste from the konbu. And the shiitake.

When I tasted the finished product I was shocked — it was fabulously delicious. How did that happen? The simple ingredients had magically transformed. I used the cooked pumpkin and its broth as the basis for a one-pot dish, adding fried tofu (purchased in an Asian market) and serving it over soba (the thin Japanese noodles made from buckwheat). The dish was a huge success. The next day, I added frozen corn and ate it for lunch, and the day after that I added Swiss chard and ate it yet again. I'd eat it right now if there were any left!

"Japanese Cooking" published in 1999, is a very handy collection of vegan, traditional and contemporary Japanese recipes. It contains a group of seasonal menu ideas, a useful glossary for those not familiar with Japanese ingredients, and a collection of easy-to-prepare recipes under headings such as rice dishes, soups and stews, cooking with tofu, fried dishes, salads and cold vegetables, noodles, etc. Many of the dishes will require a trip to an Asian grocery or well-stocked natural foods store to purchase Japanese specialty food such as miso, konbu, enoki, konnyaku, cooking saki (mirin). If you have an interest in learning about everyday Japanese cuisine, this little book might be a good place to start.



Stewed Vegetables (reprinted with permission)

• 4 to 6 cups large bite-sized pieces peeled carrots, daikon, bamboo shoots, lotus root, or kabocha pumpkin
• fresh or reconstituted shiitake, sliced
• approximately 2 cups konbu broth (to barely cover vegetables)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons sweetener of choice
• 1 to 3 tablespoons mirin
• 2 to 4 tablespoons soy sauce

1. Place vegetable pieces and shiitake in a pot, and pour broth over to barely cover.
2. Add the sweetener and mirin, partially cover, and simmer until tender.
3. Add the soy sauce and simmer for 5 or 6 more minutes. Vegetables should be soft. (except for lotus root, if using)
4. Adjust seasonings if necessary.

notes: I added fried tofu purchased from an Asian grocery and cut into bite-sized pieces, with the soy sauce. The cooked vegetables and broth were ladled over soba, into individual bowls.

When I made my dashi, I used both dried shiitakes and konbu since I needed the mushrooms for the recipe, anyway. To make dashi: (reprinted with permission) Soak a 3 x 4-inch piece of konbu and 5 large or 10 small dried shiitake in 1 quart of water for at least 2 hours. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the shiitake and konbu; they can be used for other dishes.

Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner is also the author of "The Now and Zen Epicure: Gourmet Cuisine for the Enlightened Palate."
disclaimer: The cookbook described in this post was sent to me free of charge by the publisher. No attempt was made by the publisher to influence my review, nor was I paid to write a review.