Blossom end times

Once, I spent a couple of hours watching Marcella Hazan fix an artichoke dish from her newest cookbook (at that time) An entire room full of students hyptnotically watched her peel the leaves off an artichoke one by one until she had a pile next to her. We were all wondering the same thing. Finally, someone asked "What are you going to do with those?" She looked puzzled for a few seconds and then announced that she was going to throw them away..."What would I do with them?" Now I understand that the artichoke heart was all she needed. If you have a fresh, just picked artichoke , the heart is pure gold!

This is a simple recipe that really showcases the best part of the artichoke: the heart. As dymnyno notes, the fresher the artichoke the better. You get rid of all of the leaves (don't despair, it's worth it!), gently steam the artichoke hearts until just tender and then coat them in egg and panko before crisping them in a shallow pool of olive oil. The richness of the crust and the slight bitterness of the artichoke are offset by the bright, aromatic lime and cumin dipping sauce. Make sure to serve these warm, while they're still nice and crisp.

Serves 4 artichoke halves

Artichoke Hearts

2 globe artichokes, preferable with some stalk.
1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 egg, beaten
1 cup dry bread crumbs

Prepare the artichokes: Peel all the leaves off the choke. Peel the stalk and with a paring knife neatly trim the bottom where you removed the leaves.
Cut the trimmed artichokes in half vertically and with a spoon remove the hairy choke. Be careful when cutting in half to evenly cut the stem, too.
Rub immediately with lemon juice so the artichoke doesn't get brown (which happens very quickly!). Steam the hearts until tender. Time will vary depending on the size of the hearts (about 15 minutes).
Dip each artichoke half into the egg and then into the bread crumbs.
Fry in the olive oil over medium heat until golden.
Set on paper towels to absorb the oil.

Creamy Cumin-Lime Dipping Sauce

1/2 cup creme fraiche
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground
finely grated zest of a lime
juice of a lime
Salt

Mix all the ingredients together, adding salt to taste.
Serve the golden hearts warm with the creamy dipping sauce.

Author Notes: Just playing around in the kitchen when a relative brought me back hot paprika from their trip to Spain



Serves 2

2 bone-in center cut pork chops DR Max electronic English, each about 1 inch think
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon sweet or hot paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, sliced thin

Mix all dry spices together, and rub on to pork chops on both sides. Rub in well using your hands. Let the pork chops sit for 10 minutes at room temperature.

In a large saute pan, heat oil for a minute on medium heat. Add sliced onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add wine DR Max electronic English, and cook one more minute.

Move onions over to the side of the pan, and place pork chops in the pan, cooking 5 minutes, then turning, and cooking 5 minutes on the second side.

Remove from heat, then cover the pan DR Max electronic English, as is, tightly with foil, and let sit for 5 minutes. Plate the pork chops, topping them with the onions, and serve.

Author Notes: After seeing a recipe for beet and farro burgers that called for puréeing the roots raw in a food processor, I tried the same method with my C.S.A. turnips. It worked beautifully. Everything—root and greens—goes into the food processor together with herbs and rice, which allows the patties to come together in a snap. Fresh breadcrumbs hold the patties together, and a mix of seeds gives the burgers a crunchy texture.

A few tips:

Turnips: I have been using hakurei turnips from my C.S.A. and the farmers market. As an experiment, I made a batch using purple top turnips from the grocery store—and woah! Big difference. The taste was so turnipy that I had to add a carrot and zucchini for sweetness. So, just taste your mixture before cooking—if it tastes super turnipy, which it shouldn't if you are using C.S.A. or farmers market turnips, maybe add a carrot or zucchini to cut the bite.

Seeds: I have been obsessed with this simple seed mix since reading about it the Prune cookbook: equal parts sesame seeds, poppy seeds, millet, and flax. It is so good sprinkled over buttered toast or thrown into any homemade bread or added to things like this veggie burger for texture—the millet especially adds such a nice crunch. Feel free to use any mix of seeds, however.

Use this recipe as a guide. I use it to clean out the fridge of tired herbs, carrots, zucchini, etc. I have only used sushi rice, but I imagine other grains would work well, too.

Finally, I have been serving them with hummus and these zucchini pickles. I think a homemade tahini sauce would be nice here, too.

Makes 5 patties

3 to 4 small turnips with greens (12 to 14 ounces)
1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
1 scallion
1 to 2 cloves garlic
Herbs, whatever you have
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1 cup cooked rice
1/3 cup seeds, such as a mix of millet, sesame, poppy, and flax
Freshly cracked pepper
Grapeseed or canola oil for frying
Buns or naan, hummus or tahini sauce, and/or pickles for serving

Remove greens from turnips and set aside. Cut remaining stem end off root and discard. If turnips or greens are dirty, wash or soak briefly to remove dirt, then pat dry.

If you haven't made your fresh breadcrumbs yet, pulse some bread in the food processor before it gets dirtied by everything else. Set crumbs aside.

Roughly chop turnip roots, then pulse in food processor until finely ground. Add scallion, garlic, herbs, 1 teaspoon of salt, and turnip greens and pulse until combined, scraping down the sides of the processor as needed.

Add the rice and pulse briefly to combine—you want the rice to have some texture. Transfer contents to a large mixing bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs and seeds and mix to combine. Taste. Add more salt if necessary. Add more breadcrumbs if mixture seems too wet. Using a 1/2 cup measuring cup, portion out 5 patties. Chill until ready to cook.
Place two large sauté pans over high heat. Add a thin layer of oil to each pan. Season patties with salt and pepper on each side. Make sure oil is hot before adding patties. Patties should sizzle when they hit the oil. Immediately turn heat down to medium or medium low and cook for 5 minutes a side. Try hard not to disturb the patties as they cook — if you let them brown over medium low heat for 4 to 5 minutes, they will not stick, and they will brown beautifully. Depending on your pan, cook two to three patties at a time.

Serve with buns or naan, hummus or tahini sauce, and/or pickles if you have them.

F estive crescent-shaped rugelach, made with cream-cheese enriched dough wrapped around a sweet, gooey filling, are a traditional Jewish treat and perfect for a Hanukkah celebration. Eager to find the best recipes and rugelach-making techniques, we spoke to several experts in the field: cookbook author and Beurre & Sel cookie pro Dorie Greenspan, baking teacher and Kosher Baker author Paula Shoyer, and Noah Bernamoff, one half of the team behind Brooklyn's Mile End Deli and co-author of The Mile End Cookbook.

But a funny thing happened during our interviews: Each and every time we asked about rugelach's connection to Hanukkah, we were met with confusion. Noah Bernamoff, who bakes his Nana Lee's recipe at Mile End, considers rugelach "an all-year dessert." Greenspan agrees, adding that she "would be happy to have rugelach for every holiday and non-holiday." We came closest with Shoyer, who points out that rugelach make sense for Hanukkah because after all those latkes, you don't necessarily want a big dessert. Still, she doesn't associate the two, and prefers to think of rugelach as "just a great Jewish dessert that deserves attention any time of year."

Only one person could clear up this Jewish holiday baking conundrum: Gil Marks, author of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. Marks explained that rugelach are often associated with Hanukkah because of the Book of Judith. As the story goes, when the Assyrian army was about to invade Jerusalem, Judith fed an Assyrian general copious amounts of salty cheese or milk, followed by gallons of wine. The general was then so intoxicated that Judith was able to behead him with his own sword. With no general, the invading army fled, and Judith's people were saved. Eating dairy during Hanukkah is about celebrating this miracle.

But there's a problem. According to Marks, Judith predates the Hanukkah period, and there was no relationship between Judith and the Maccabees. "It was a medieval mistake in assuming Judith to be of the Hanukkah era, and, in many instances, a relative of the Maccabees, that introduced the tradition of dairy and cheese to Hanukkah."

It may be based on a delicious misunderstanding, but we forged ahead, gathering baking tips from Bernamoff, Greenspan, and Shoyer. So whether for the Festival of Lights, another Jewish holiday, or just your average cookie break, read on for advice on making rugelach at home, plus ten great recipes.

Baking Tips:

❤Make Friends with Your Fridge (or Freezer)

Baking: From My Home to Yours author Dorie Greenspan insists rugelach is "one of the simplest doughs to make and work" and perfect for dough newcomers. She stresses the need to use cold, rather than room temperature, ingredients, and says, "The refrigerator is your best friend." Once the dough is made, thoroughly chill it before rolling it out. Paula Shoyer goes a step further and recommends chilling the dough in the freezer. The chilling, she explains, firms up the fat, making it easier to roll out, so you won't need to use as much flour. If the dough becomes sticky while you're rolling, cutting, or shaping it, simply chill it again.

In addition to chilling the unshaped dough, Bernamoff recommends chilling the rolled and shaped cookies before baking them in a preheated oven. This technique, he explains, helps the rugelach steam and puff up, and produces light and airy cookies.

❤Work Quickly But Gently

While you can certainly make rugelach dough by hand, our experts all prefer to use a food processor. The machine's speed and efficiency help keep the dough chilled. Process the dough until it forms what Greenspan calls moist clumps or crumbles. "Don't let it form a ball that rides along the blade," she says. "At that point the dough is overworked." You'll still be able to make rugelach, but it won't have its signature delicate, tender crumb.

❤Simplify Your Shape

Thanks to its elegant twisted shape and the slivers of filling that poke through, rugelach, says Greenspan, "looks so much more complicated than it is." When you're rolling the dough and forming it into crescents, "neatness and precision don't count." The crescents will look beautiful, even if you're not an experienced pro. But if all the rolling and shaping just seems too fussy, Shoyer's method is even simpler: She rolls the dough into a rectangle, spreads it with filling, then rolls it into a log, which she bakes and then slices. "I find this a lot easier," Shoyer explains, adding, "I also find you can keep more filling inside this way."

❤Be Creative with Fillings

There really is no one ultimate rugelach filling. At Mile End, the rugelach tend to be seasonal. Bernamoff says that when they discover beautiful fruit, they'll preserve it and use it in rugelach. Shoyer encourages home bakers to have fun and make these mini pastries your own. "If you really love strawberry jam and chocolate, make it with that, but if you really love pecans, apricot, and coconut, you can make it that way, too." Shoyer reports that when she teaches baking classes, no matter how many bowls of nuts, jams, dried fruit, and other fillings she sets out, just about everyone goes for chocolate.

Whichever filling you choose, Greenspan recommends chopping everything finely so it's easy to spread and roll up. And if using dried fruit, be sure it's moist and plump, because baking is only going to dry it out further. Overly shriveled fruit can be rehydrated in a bowl of hot tap water then drained and patted dry.

❤Experiment with Savory Fillings

Most rugelach dough contains little to no sugar, making these pastries equally good for savory fillings. Bernamoff thinks a lemon-poppy combination or honey and ricotta would be delicious, while Greenspan recommends red pepper jelly, piment d'Espelette, tapenade and pine nuts, or even a not-for-Hanukkah combination of bacon and cheese. For a savory take, see our recipe for Hazelnut and Olive Rugelach.

❤Fill with Caution

Your rugelach filling may be delicious, but if you use too much, it will ooze out, making for messy cookies and even messier baking pans. If you love filling, use Shoyer's rolled-log approach. Another trick that all our experts agree on is to line your baking pans with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat such as a Silpat. "No matter how careful you are, the filling is going to bubble over and may even burn around the edges of the cookies," says Greenspan. Breaking a little jam off the edges of your rugelach isn't a big deal, but scrubbing baking pans is a hassle you want to avoid.

❤Add a Final Flourish

While not at all mandatory, many recipes, including those from Bernamoff and Greenspan, call for brushing rugelach with an egg wash and sprinkling the cookies with sugar before baking. As Greenspan notes, this extra step is "unnecessary but pretty." Bernamoff finds that the egg wash helps the cookies develop a deeper outer browning, while the sugar lends "a sweet crunch." But, notes Bernamoff, if your filling is particularly sweet, you may want to skip the extra sugar dusting to keep the cookies balanced.

❤Make Rugelach in Stages

Unlike chocolate chip cookies that you just drop on a cookie sheet, rugelach do require some fussing, but "You can make this fabulous little pastry fit into your schedule," says Greenspan. Most fillings can be made in advance and chilled for several weeks. Greenspan warns against making the dough and refrigerating it for more than a day or so, because cream cheese dough has a tendency to develop little black spots. But if wrapped well, the dough can be frozen for a month or two. Another option is to roll out the dough, fill and shape the crescents, and then freeze them unbaked. When you're ready for cookies, let them defrost about 15 minutes before baking. Lastly, the cookies can be fully baked and frozen for one to two months. If you make log-style rugelach like Shoyer, rather than freezing individual rugelach, wrap and freeze the whole log and then defrost the log and slice it into cookies.