Dayrecipe Food Community

I haven’t made pasties in ages and got a craving for them today. I wanted something different, not just the same old thing. Moroccan pasties? Why not? They ended up tasting great and whats better than hand held food in the summer! Grab a pasty and a cold drink and your all set for lunch.

MAKES: 5 pasties

INGREDIENTS:

PASTIE DOUGH:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 5/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable shortening, frozen, then cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup chilled unsalted butter or margarine
• 3 tablespoons ice water
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

FILLING:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon butter (or broth for lower fat)
• 1 cup broth
• 1 rounded teaspoon Ras El Hanout
• 1/2 lb left over meat (chicken, beef, pork, veal, etc., about 1 1/2 – 2 cups, chopped or shredded in very small pieces)
•  1 teaspoon flour
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

DIRECTIONS:

PASTIE DOUGH:

1. In a food processor place flour and shortening and butter and cut in using on/off turns until mixture resembles coarse meal.
2. Transfer mixture to bowl.
3. Mix 6 tablespoons ice water and vinegar in small bowl; pour over flour mixture.
4. Stir with fork until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry.
5. Gather dough into 2 balls; flatten each into disk.
6. Wrap each in plastic and chill 30 minutes.
7. Unwrap, roll to 1/8 thick and cut the dough into 5 or 6 inch circles.
8. Rewrap the circles andwith a tiny bit of flour between them, re-wrap and keep in the fridge until filling is ready.

PASTIE FILLING:

1. Sauté onion in butter (or broth).
2. Add the broth (saving a couple of tablespoons), seasonings and meat.
3. Simmer until the liquid has reduced to about 1/2 cup
4. In a small bowl mix remaining broth and flour into a paste.
5. Add to meat mixture, stir until thickened and add parsley.
6. Place 2 tablespoons of meat mixture in the center of each dough circle.
7. Fold the dough over the filling and seal the edge by pressing a fork around the edges.
8. Place on baking sheet and bake at 375F for about 20 mins or until lightly golden.
9. Allow the pasties to cool on the baking sheet then dig in.

Watch everyone’s eyes open wide when you serve this big four-layer cake.

Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 3 hr

Makes 12 servings.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 1/2cups cake flour (not self-rising)
• 1tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4teaspoon baking soda
• 1teaspoon salt
• 2sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 2cups sugar
• 4large eggs at room temperature
• 2teaspoons vanilla
• 2cups sour cream
• chocolate sour cream frosting garnish: brown sugar buttercream

DIRECTIONS Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter2 (9- by 2-inch) round cake pansand line bottoms of each with
rounds of wax or parchment paper. Butter paper and dust pans with flour, knocking out excess.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla. Add half of flour mixture and mix at low speed until just blended. Add sour cream, mixing until just combined, then add remaining flour mixture, mixing at low speed until batter is smooth.

Divide batter between pans, smoothing tops. Bake in middle of oven until cake is springy to the touch and a tester comes out clean, 30 to40 minutes. Cool in pans on racks10 minutes, then invert onto racks, remove paper, and cool completely.

Trim tops of cooled cake layers with a long serrated knife if necessary to make flat and level. Halve each layer horizontally with serrated knife to make a total of 4 layers.

Put 1 cake layer on a cake plate and spread with3/4 cup frosting. Layer remaining cake layers using 3/4 cup frosting between each layer. Frost top and sides of cake with remaining frosting.

Cooks’ notes:

•Cake layers can be made 1 day ahead of assembling and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.

•Cake can be assembled 1 day ahead and chilled in a cake keeper or loosely covered with plastic wrap (use toothpicks to hold wrap away from frosting). Bring to room temperature before serving.

• This batter can be baked in a 13- by9- by 2-inch pan 50 to 55 minutes; or in30 (1/2-cup) muffin cups about 25 minutes.

• We used 2 pastry bags, one fitted with an3/4-inch plain tip and the other fitted witha 3/4-inch ribbon (basketweave) tip, and couplers to decorate our cake, but it won’t be any less attractive or delicious if you decide simply to use candles.

My namesake. Throughout the South this humble dish of “peas” and rice is eaten on New Year’s Day for good luck, with a plate of greens, cooked with a hog jowl and plenty of corn bread to sop up the pot likker. In Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry, cowpeas — dried local field peas — are traditional. The classic Charleston recipe for hoppin’ john is a very dry version of the dish, but it is served with greens in their juices — or with a side dish of more peas and pot likker.

“One pound of bacon, one pint of red peas, one pint of rice” — thus did Sarah Rutledge begin what may well be the first written receipt for this quintessential Lowcountry dish. As the daughter of Edward Rutledge, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and niece of Arthur Middleton, another signer, Miss Rutledge was the “Lady of Charleston” who anonymously authored The Carolina Housewife in 1847.

Where the name originated is a matter of dispute, and I hesitate to concur with any of the pop etymologies. Still, I believe the dish arrived here with the slaves, who numbered in the tens of thousands in Charleston and on the neighboring rice plantations of the 17th and 18th centuries. Those West Africans were long familiar with rice cultivation and cookery, and the pigeon pea (Cajanus), favored throughout Africa, quickly took to the tropical environment of the Carribean where so many of the hapless Africans were first shipped. The Carolina Housewife may have been written by a “Lady of Charleston,” but dishes such as hoppin’ john were staples in the “big house” that had been brought there by black cooks. Karen Hess, the noted culinary scholar, includes an entire chapter on hoppin’ john in her treatise on the Carolina rice kitchen, but one needn’t be a historian to understand that the slaves taught the master to love this simple dish.

Makes 6 servings.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup small dried beans such as cowpeas or black-eyes
• 5 to 6 cups water
• 1 dried hot pepper (optional)
• 1 smoked ham hock
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
• 1 cup long-grain white rice

DIRECTIONS Wash and sort the peas. Place them in a saucepan, add the water, and discard any peas that float. Gently boil the peas with the pepper, ham hock, and onion, uncovered, until tender but not mushy — about 1 1/2 hours — or until 2 cups of liquid remain. Add the rice to the pot, cover, and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes, never lifting the lid.

Remove from the heat and allow to steam, still covered, for another 10 minutes. Remove the cover, fluff with a fork, and serve immediately.

These cakes are great for parties because they can be completely assembled the day before and then quickly baked before serving, for the all-important “ooze” factor.

Makes 8.

INGREDIENTS

• ice cream
• 1pint vanilla ice cream, softened
• 2tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger
• 1tablespoon dark rumcakes
• 14ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/4cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2teaspoons ground coriander
• 2teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2teaspoon ground white pepper
• 6large eggs
• 6large egg yolks
• 2teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3cups powdered sugar
• 1cup all purpose flouradditional powdered sugar
• crystallized ginger strips

DIRECTIONS For ice cream:
Place softened ice cream in medium bowl. Using plastic spatula, fold ginger and rum into ice cream. Transfer to airtight container. Freeze ice cream mixture until firm, about 4 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep frozen.)

For cakes:
Generously butter eight 3/4-cup soufflé dishes. Stir chocolate, butter, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and white pepper in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool slightly. Whisk eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Whisk in 3 cups powdered sugar, then chocolate mixture, then flour. Transfer batter to prepared dishes, filling to top and dividing equally. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Bake cakes until batter has risen above dish, top edges are dark brown, and centers are still soft and runny, about 15 minutes, or about 18 minutes for refrigerated batter. Run small knife around cakes to loosen. Allow cakes to rest in dishes 5 minutes. Using hot pad and holding dish very firmly, place plate gently atop 1 cake and invert onto plate. Repeat with remaining cakes. Dust with powdered sugar. Top with crystallized ginger. Serve cakes with rum-ginger ice cream.

Active time: 1 hr Start to finish: 5 hr

Makes 64 truffles.

INGREDIENTS

• 8oz lindt white chocolate
• 1cup salted dry-roasted macadamia nuts (5 oz)
• 1/4cup heavy cream
• 2tablespoons dark rum
• 1 1/2cups finely shredded unsweetened desiccated coconut

DIRECTIONS Finely grind white chocolate in a food processor and transfer to a bowl. Pulse nuts in food processor until finely ground (be careful not to grind to a paste).

Bring cream to a simmer in a medium skillet. Remove from heat and stir in rum. Whisk in white chocolate until melted and ganache is smooth. Stir in nuts. Pour ganache into a plastic-wrap–lined 8-inch square baking pan and chill, uncovered, until firm, about 4 hours.

Invert ganache onto a work surface and remove plastic wrap. Cut ganache into 64 squares and roll each piece between your palms to form a ball. When all balls are formed, roll in coconut to cover completely, then chill truffles, covered, until ready to serve.

Cooks’ note:

• Truffles keep, covered and chilled, 1 week.