Warak Inab

For years one of my favourite dishes has been "warak inab," or stuffed grape leaves. I first had them in Jordan when I was 16, made by the mother of a friend of mine. My favourite non-Slovak restaurant in Slovakia made them wonderfully, and I've hunted for years for a good recipe. (As well as grape leaves-- not so easy to find in small-town Tennessee.) When my Mom was here last summer for Hadassah's birth, we tried a recipe she and my sister found online. Not so very good. Tolerable, but not good. 

The thing is, there are tons of recipes for stuffed grape leaves out there. Some of them are Greek, some are Jordanian, and some are I-don't-even-know. Back in the spring, I picked up some grape leaves from The Fresh Market in Chattanooga and ordered two Middle Eastern cookbooks that I'd had a hankering for for awhile. One of them, The Middle Eastern Cookbook by Maria Khalifé, had the recipe that I used to make some warak inab today. 

Here's her version:

• 1 lb 2 oz vine leaves
• 1 medium potato, peeled and cut into thick slices
• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut into thick rings
• 1 medium tomato, cut into thick slices

For the stuffing:

• 12.5 oz (4 cups) parsley
• 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
• salt to taste
• .5 tsp white pepper
• 5.5 oz (3/4 cup) short-grain rice, rinsed and drained
• 3 medium tomatoes, rinsed and chopped
• 2 fl. oz (1/4 cup) lemon juice
• 3 fl. oz (1/3 cup) olive oil

Here's how I used and adapted her recipe:

• 2.5 cups of fresh parsley, chopped up. (Don't use the stalks.) 
• 5 small tomatoes and 1 medium sized one, chopped up
• salt, to taste
• white pepper, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup butter (I was out of all forms of oil)
• 3/4 cup jasmine rice, uncooked
• 8 oz of Jimmy Dean sage sausage (I would have used some ground beef instead but I didn't feel like defrosting any from our freezer and I had the sausage handy in the fridge), uncooked

I combined the parsley, tomatoes, lemon juice, and butter and then blended them all together in my food processor. I didn't blend for too long because I wanted to have some chunks left while getting a finer consistency than I could achieve through merely cutting the parsley and tomatoes with a knife. Then I dumped it all back into my starting bowl, added a fair amount of salt and both peppers, and poured the rice and sausage in. I mixed it all up, washed up, and got out the grape leaves. You're supposed to pull them out and drop them in boiling water for a few seconds, but I didn't. Instead, I pulled them out of their jar and, one at a time, spread them out with the protruding vein side up (subtle difference, but it's there). Make sure you have no stems attached. At the base of the leaf, right above where the stem begins, I added a spoonful (more or less, depending on the size of the leaf) of the stuffing. I then folded in the sides of the leaf and rolled it up-- firmly but not too tightly. 

When all the stuffing was used up, I placed the bundled leaves face down (the flap-side down) in a pan, covering the bottom. I had a few layered on top as well. Then I covered the bundles with water, placed a small plate on top of the bundles in the water to help them keep their shape, turned on the burner to high, and let the whole thing boil for about a minute before turning it down and covering the pot to simmer for an hour.

If you try this, you'll know it's done when you try one and the rice is soft. Scoop the warak inab out of the pan and place on a plate. Some people serve it chilled, but I like mine warm. Dobrù chuť!

Finished product

Halušky and Paprikaš

I got a text from my brother, Stephen, this afternoon (I didn't see it until late tonight) asking for my recipe for halušky and paprikaš. Halušky is standard fare in Slovakia, which is where we grew up. It's fairly simple to make, although a lot of people use potato in their halušky rather than just flour: 

• flour
• 1-2 eggs
• salt
• milk

It completely depends on how much I want to make as to how much flour and milk I put in. I want the consistency to be thick but wet, easy to drop down into the boiling water to cook. I usually set a large pot to boil before I start mixing ingredients simply for the sake of timing. Once the water is boiling and everything is mixed together (add a pinch of salt and some oil to the water), I use my halušky grater to cut the halusky into the water. I'll periodically stir the water to make sure the raw dough isn't sticking on top of the cooked halušky. Once the halušky floats, it's done. Use a slatted spoon of some form to gather the cooked halušky up.  

To make the paprikaš, I start out with a basic cream sauce:

Depending on how much you want to make, you can adjust the flour/milk ratio. For Stephen's use, he'd probably want to start out with half a cup or so of flour in a bowl. Slowly add milk to it until you can stir easily. Don't add too much too quickly or you'll end up with lumps. Add just enough at first that you can start stirring it in but that you still need to keep adding it in order to get everything wet. Once all the flour is thoroughly mixed in, add another cup or two of milk. Put it all in a pan on the stove and heat up, stirring regularly. (You don't want the milk to scorch.) Add paprika, salt, and pepper to taste. Sometimes I'll add chicken bouillon as well. (You can add chicken into this whole sauce if you'd like.) When you're finished, add sour cream to the sauce for a smooth finish.

Coffee Cake

Here's my coffee cake recipe. I originally got it from a cookbook of my Mom's that a bunch of her friends had collaborated on. This recipe was contributed by a Gerri Woods. 

• 4 c. flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 c. butter
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 cups sugar

Mix this together. Remove two cups for topping and set aside.

Add to previous bowl:

• 2 eggs
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1 TBsp vanilla extract

Mix together and place in a greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cook at 350F/180 C/4 gas for 10 minutes, remove, add topping, and then replace in the oven for another 40-50 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean). It should be a nice golden brown colour.

Bread Dough

I've gotten a number of recipe requests in the last few months, and I've been thinking for awhile about just posting recipes on a blog-- both for foods that I've made for years as well as for foods I've just tried out.

Per Natalie and Laura's request, here's my roll recipe. You can use it to make bread, stromboli, rolls...it's rather versatile. Take it and make it your own.

Dough:

• 3.5 cups flour
• .5 cup butter
• 3 TBsp sugar
• 2 TBsp yeast
• 1 cup milk
• .5 cup water
• 1 tsp salt

Because yeast needs warmth and sugar to best activate (the warmth activates it and sugar gives it something to feed on), I melt the butter, warm the milk and water, and then add the yeast and sugar to that. The liquids should be warm, but not so hot that you can't comfortably stick your finger into them. You want to activate the yeast, not kill it. (Avoid microwaving the yeast while you're at it.) Once you've combined the water, milk, butter, yeast, and sugar, add the salt. Stir, and then begin adding your flour. You'll be able to use a whisk to start out, but soon you'll need to get in and use your hands. I roughly use 3.5 cups of flour, but the dough should be slightly tacky to the touch by the time you're done. Use more or less flour as needed. Knead for several minutes, being careful to avoid breaking the dough in the process.

At this point I'll turn the oven on to warm for the future-- 200 degrees is good. Put some oil in the bowl you've been mixing in and roll your dough in it (again, not breaking the dough). Cover the dough/bowl with a clean dish towel and leave to sit for 15-20 minutes. It should rise quite well. Turn off the oven (you don't want it too hot). If you're going to make rolls, pull the dough apart and pat it into roughly the size dough you want. This recipe should make twelve rolls. Place them onto an appropriate pan, cover them with the dish towel, and put them in the warmed oven. Leave them to rise for about 15 minutes before removing the towel (important!) and turning the oven on to 350 degrees. Bake until golden brown.

Conversely, you can grease a bread pan and place the wad of dough in that instead to bake at 350 degrees for some nice bread.

I used this recipe last night to make dough for stromboli and I think it turned out well. That's a whole other post though, I think.