Syrian Orange Salad

It's still citrus season in Berkeley, which means we can't get enough of the mandarins, pomelos and sweet limes overflowing at the farmers' market. Alongside these more exotic offerings, we're adoring the navel oranges and wanted to share this simple preparation we've been enjoying for years. It can be breakfast, dessert, a snack or a palate cleanser. What we love about this dish is how easily it transforms a plain old fruit snack into something special; we even used to make this in our dining hall in college with nothing but an orange, a knife, a bowl and some honey. But if you have or can seek out the orange blossom water (you can find it in Middle Eastern grocery stores), the extra citrus perfume elevates the entire experience to something pretty heavenly.

We've blathered about the elegant potential of supreming citrus before, and once again refer you to this helpful tutorial if you need a visual to go with our instructions.

Per person:
1 navel orange (the slightly reddish one pictured above is a cara cara)
Honey or agave nectar to taste, depending on how sweet the orange is
A pinch of cinnamon
A few drops of orange blossom water (optional)

Slice off the top and bottom of each orange. Carve off the peel from the sides and then cut out the orange sections over a bowl, leaving the membranes behind. Squeeze the extra juice from the membranes into the bowl with the oranges. Stir in honey or agave, cinnamon and optional orange blossom water.

Persimmon, Pomegranate and Pistachio Parfait

This is our version of an Indian dessert called shrikhand, a fruit parfait with cardamom-spiced yogurt. This is frequently done with mangoes, but persimmons and pomegranates are abundant in California this time of year and go very well together. The tart, crunchy pomegranate seeds are a lovely contrast to the simple sweetness of the persimmon. Try this as a light dessert or a twist on your usual morning yogurt.

This is traditionally made with strained yogurt, but if you're using cream top yogurt or Greek yogurt there's no need to strain it.

1 cup yogurt
2 teaspoons agave nectar (or other sweetener)
1 teaspoon cardamom
2 Fuyu persimmons, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 pomegranate, seeded
1/4 cup pistachios, chopped

Mix together the yogurt, agave and cardamom. Divide the ingredients into 4 eight-ounce glasses or bowls in the following order: persimmons on the bottom, then the pomegranate seeds, then the yogurt mixture, and finish by sprinkling pistachios on top.

Triple Almond Cookies

Over the summer we got pretty obsessed with these cookies. While we definitely don't follow the Primal Blueprint diet, we were intrigued by the idea of cookies with no flour and no sugar. So we made them no less than twenty times, tried out numerous variations, and got the thumbs-up from both gluten-free friends and consumers of regular cookies before we decided it was time to blog our version. We were going to wait until Passover, but these cookies are too good to be relegated to the "Passover dessert" category (keep them in mind when that time of year rolls around, though). These cookies have three almond sources--almond meal, slivered almonds and almond extract--with maple and warm spices singing backup. They're addictive and macaroon-like and disappear VERY quickly!

We tried both almond flour and almond meal and have found that we like almond meal better (it's a little coarser, so the texture is more complex). East Bay readers, you can get almond meal in the refrigerated section in the bulk aisle at the Berkeley Bowl, in the case with the pasta dough.

Modified from This Primal Life

1 and 1/4 cups almond meal
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter (or coconut oil!)
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine almond meal, slivered almonds, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cardamom. Mix together melted butter, maple syrup and almond extract and add to the dry ingredients, stirring well to combine. Drop tablespoonfuls of dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake on the top rack of your oven for 10 minutes, until the bottoms start to brown, and then transfer to a wire rack--they may not seem done when they come out, but they will firm as they cool and develop an amazing chewy texture. Let sit for 15-20 minutes before you EAT. THEM. ALL.

Date and Ginger Charoset

Another Passover, another bowl of apple-based charoset? Not around here! Syrian charoset is a sweet, gorgeous paste of dates and wine, and we've spiced up Hannah's grandma's recipe with a little ginger juice. If you have some left after your Seder (not likely!), it's fantastic for breakfast, either slathered on matzah with whipped cream cheese or stirred into a bowl of yogurt.

Hope you all have an awesome holiday, and just a reminder: kale is kosher for Passover!

1 lb dates, pitted
1-inch hunk of ginger
2 and 1/2 tablespoons of sweet red wine (Manischewitz Concord Grape being the gold standard)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts (optional)

Place the dates in a saucepan with water to cover, bring to a boil, and simmer until dates are soft, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, grate the ginger and squeeze over a bowl to extract the juice; discard the pulp. Drain the dates, transfer to a food processor, and add the ginger juice, wine and cinnamon and process until very smooth. (If you're finicky and/or retired, you can also push it through a strainer to remove any fibrous bits of date skin). Top with chopped walnuts and serve.

Pumpkin Coconut Milk Ice Cream

We've been perfecting our coconut milk ice cream technique for a few months, ever since we realized we were busting our grocery budget on Coconut Bliss, the most rich, delicious frozen treat on the market for the lactose-intolerant among you. This rendition is our creamiest and most authentic yet--it really has the texture and decadence of ice cream. Try this for Thanksgiving and please everyone from Grandpa Meat-and-Potatoes to Cousin Vegan-Liberation. We prefer to use our low-glycemic index friend, agave nectar, but any sweetener will do.

1 14-ounce can coconut milk (regular, not low-fat)
3 tablespoons cooked pumpkin puree (canned works well -- but make sure it's unflavored)
1/4 - 1/2 cup sweetener (agave, honey, maple syrup, sucanat, sugar)
1 inch piece of ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of allspice

Grate the ginger and then squeeze it between your fingers or in a cheesecloth to extract the juice. Discard the squeezed ginger pulp. Combine the ginger juice with all of the ingredients except the sweetener and whisk well.

Heat the mixture over a low flame and add the sweetener slowly, tasting as you go. (It won't need to be very hot, just enough to dissolve the sugar and meld the flavors.) Transfer to the fridge until it's cool, then follow the directions for your particular ice cream maker.

Applesauce with Ginger and Plums

We were already planning to spend all day in the kitchen roasting heirloom tomatoes to keep for winter, so while we were at it we made a batch of my sister's applesauce. This is one of the last weeks we'll see both apples and plums at the farmer's market, and here's a great way to take advantage of that overlap: spicy, rosy-hued, delicious with a swirl of yogurt. It would be great on latkes, too.

This made enough for 5 12-ounce jars, so scale down if you're not embarking on a mass-preserving project. We used a mixture of apple types from the "seconds" bin at the farmer's market and tiny Italian prune plums, but what we ended up with was basically half apples, half plums--any plums will do.

1/2 cup Concord grape juice, apple cider, Good Earth tea or other yummy sweet liquid
12 medium apples, roughly chopped (leave the skins on if they're organic)
30 Italian prune plums, halved and pitted
4 tablespoons very finely grated ginger (use a microplane if you have one)

Place all ingredients in a large stock pot and simmer for about 2 and a half hours, stirring occasionally, until fruit is broken down and saucy. Run through a food mill.

Plum Crisp with Sunflower Streusel

This is just to say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

William Carlos Williams

We ended up with a ton of plums from our friend Bianca's family farm this week, and used most of them in this crisp. Most crisp recipes involve macerating the fruit with white sugar to bring out the juices; here, we've provided some extra juice by mixing the fruit with a lemon-agave solution. The plums give off a beautiful reddish-purple bubbliness when baked, and the crunchy vanilla-scented topping is a nice textural contrast to the soft baked fruit.

For the filling:
8 plums, pitted and sliced roughly
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon minced ginger

For the topping:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
5 tablespoons butter or Earth Balance
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup agave nectar

Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together lemon juice, agave, cinnamon and ginger and pour over plums in a 9 x 13 inch pan, mixing well to coat. In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats and sunflower seeds and cut in the butter. Add the vanilla and agave, stir well to combine, and crumble topping over the plums. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, then remove foil and bake another 5-7 minutes or so, until fruit is bubbly and topping is starting to brown. It's good served warm, but it's also delicious straight out of the icebox, so sweet and so cold.

Dark Chocolate Mousse Pie with a Coconut Crust

Tonight we're heading over the annual Wine and Pie Party at our friend Tanya's house. While all pies are welcome, the rock-star challenge this year was to make a pie that everyone could eat, including attendees who are gluten-free (hence the nut crust), sugar-sensitive (hence the agave nectar) or vegan (hence the coconut milk and coconut butter) and at least one person who can't eat corn (hence the arrowroot powder in lieu of cornstarch). Our entry is this decadent creation, and we think it's a contender. With the chocolate and coconut flavors, it's like a Mounds bar, but without the nasty milk chocolate and too-sweet aftertaste.

To minimize insanity, you should:
(1) Have everything measured out before you start. You're dealing with coconut, nuts and chocolate, all of which burn easily, and you don't want to turn around to chop something and turn back around to find something smoking.
(2) Either have an electric mixer or a cooking partner, since there's a ton of stirring involved.

For the crust:
3/4 cup almonds (or walnuts)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup coconut butter (you can totally use butter or margarine if you don't feel like shelling out $10 for a jar of fat. We understand.)
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the topping:
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tablespoons coconut butter

For the filling:
2 14-ounce cans of coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-4 tablespoons arrowroot powder
3/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 cups chopped unsweetened baking chocolate (chop well so it will melt easily!)

First, start the crust. Grind almonds in the food processor until they're finely chopped, then add in the remaining ingredients and pulse until well-mixed. Press the mixture onto the bottom of a pre-greased 10-inch pie pan. Pop the pan into your broiler and cook for 5 minutes or less, only until browned. Keep an eye on it! You're just toasting, not cooking, and if the crust burns, you'll probably cry. Stick it in the freezer to cool while you make the topping and filling.

For the topping, heat the coconut butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add coconut and stir frequently until golden brown, 2-4 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Filling time! Make sure you have everything measured out and ready, because this will come together quickly. In a medium-sized saucepan*, bring the coconut milk, agave and salt to a light simmer. Create a slurry in a small cup by mixing together the arrowroot with a few tablespoons of water. Add the arrowroot slurry a little bit at a time (you may not need all of it), stirring vigorously with a whisk or immersion blender, until the coconut milk thickens to a loose pudding texture. Remove from heat and cool for a minute. Add the vanilla extract and chocolate and continue stirring (see what we mean about the incessant stirring?) until chocolate is melted. Spoon the filling into the crust and top with the toasted coconut. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour or until you're ready to serve. Meanwhile, lick all of the utensils.

*If you have a double boiler or are comfortable improvising one with two pots, that works well. The only change to the recipe is that you don't have to bring the coconut milk all the way to a simmer and you don't have to remove your pan from the heat before adding the chocolate.

UPDATE July 2009:

Phoebe's sister made a vanilla version of this recipe and said it was delicious! She just added more arrowroot to get it to firm up, swirled with raspberry jam, and topped with fresh raspberries. We've also made Meyer lemon variations that we'll share with you once we have the recipe just right.

Apricot-Cranberry Compote

This is one of our favorite desserts: sweet-tart dried fruit slow-simmered down to a rich amber stew. It's a blessedly simple option for when you're having company--there's almost no prep work and you can just throw everything in the pot before you start making dinner and let it simmer gently throughout the evening until dessert rolls around. Feel free to experiment with the fruit; try substituting dried figs or dried peaches for the apricots, dried cherries for the cranberries, or orange slices for the lemon slices. You can also replace the yogurt with creme fraiche (if you're feeling fancy) or cashew cream (if you're feeling lactose-intolerant).

The slow simmer really concentrates the sugar in the fruit, so you'll want to serve this with plain, unsweetened yogurt (we like this with thick Greek yogurt or goat yogurt for variety). The sweetness will also vary depending on the kind of fruit you use: Turkish apricots will yield a sweeter compote than California apricots, lemon slices will be tarter than orange slices, and sugar-sweetened cranberries vs. juice-sweetened cranberries--well, you get the idea. If you do end up with a compote that isn't as sweet as you'd like, you can drizzle honey or maple syrup over the final product.

If you end up with leftovers, this makes a delicious breakfast!

1 and 1/2 cups dried apricots
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 a lemon, thinly sliced
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
yogurt for topping

Place all ingredients in a saucepan (don't use cast-iron--it'll taste weird). Add water just to cover and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 2-3 hours, until fruit is very soft and the liquid has reduced to a mahogany syrup. Serve with a dollop of yogurt.

Carob-Coconut Fudge

Tu B'Shevat is upon us, which in our household means: bring on the carob! (Eh, who are we kidding--every day is bring on the carob day around here). This easy, addictive fudge also incorporates two other things that grow on trees (and are thus suitable celebratory food for this holiday): almonds, another traditional Tu B'Shevat food, and shredded coconut.

The way we've made it, this fudge has a lot of texture. If you want a smoother fudge, you could pulse the coconut in a food processor to achieve a finer consistency.

1/2 cup agave nectar
3/4 cup almond butter
1/2 cup carob powder
2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut

optional:
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup carob chips (or chocolate chips)

In a large mixing bowl, combine the carob powder and shredded coconut and mix well. Add in the almond butter, agave nectar and optional goodies and stir well to combine. Press the mixture into a pie pan or glass baking dish, flattening to about an inch. Cover and freeze until thoroughly chilled, then cut into squares or use cookie cutters for whatever festive shape you desire.

Cranberry-Persimmon Crisp with Filbert Streusel

Two fruit happenings inspired this crisp: we both came home from the office with free persimmons from co-workers' trees, and we found last year's bag of cranberries in the freezer while cleaning it out in anticipation of Thanksgiving. Phoebe came up with this dessert to combine the two, and the sweetness of ripe persimmons plays beautifully off the tart cranberries.

A note about the topping: we found a jar of ground-up filberts left over from an attempt at Passover-friendly cookies (again:we were cleaning house), but if your pantry is a little less bizarre than ours, you could just grind some almonds in a food processor until they turn into almond meal. Or just buy the almond meal ready-made at Trader Joe's.


4 ripe Fuyu persimmons, diced
1/2 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen
2 tablespoons agave nectar or maple syrup
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup filbert meal or other finely-ground nuts
1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
4 tablespoons butter or Earth Balance, melted
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a round cake pan and add the fruit, then drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the agave or maple syrup. In a medium-sized bowl, combine oats, filbert meal, chopped walnuts, melted butter or Earth Balance, the remaining tablespoon of agave or maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla and salt. Sprinkle topping over the fruit, cover pan with foil, and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for 5 more minutes, until topping is browned.

Pumpkin Pie with Honey-Caramelized Walnuts

I've been traveling for the last week and a half, and on my flight home (yay JetBlue!) I watched 6 straight hours of the Food Network, all Thanksgiving-themed, which really got me in the mood for pumpkin pie. Our moist version combines traditional elements with cardamom and coconut milk, and the honey-caramelized walnuts add a delicious textural contrast. (The plan was to have them cover the top, but we ate a few while the pie was baking and...well, you can see how that ended).

Way Less Annoying Than Rachael Ray

1 9-inch pie crust (we had a spelt one in the freezer and used that, but if you have time to make your own, go crazy)
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup coconut milk
a pinch each of ground cloves, nutmeg and allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons honey mixed with 2 teaspoons water
1 tablespoon butter or Earth Balance
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped roughly

And Almost As Hot As Giada DeLaurentiis

Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, stir together pumpkin, eggs, agave, coconut milk, salt and spices. Pour into the crust and bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350. Once the pie has been in for 50 minutes total, start the caramel!

To make caramel, microwave the honey-water mixture in one-minute increments, stopping between increments to check if it's the right consistency yet. To check the consistency, drop a little of the mixture into a glass of cold water--when it forms a soft ball, it's caramel. (This usually takes around five minutes in the microwave.) Add the butter, stir quickly and add to walnuts, stirring to coat.

Sprinkle caramelized walnuts on top of the pie and bake for 10-15 more minutes, until the pie center stays firm when you gently jiggle the pan from side to side. (Total cooking time - about 1 hour 10 minutes) Allow the pie to cool to room temperature, which will give it time to firm up. Eat alone or with your creamy frozen treat of choice.

Rosemary-Threaded Figs with Cashew Cream

We threw a tapas-and-games party on Saturday night and needed a not-too-rich dessert to round out a decadent spread. We made our household gazpacho and three tapas (tortilla espanola, marinated semisoft cheeses with garlic & rosemary and soft cheeses with honey) from Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America, plus a guest brought gorgonzola-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. So we created this fall incarnation of a dessert we love to make with whatever fruit is in season. (We've also made a summer version with grilled peaches and a blueberry reduction, and a Christmas version with grilled pears and an apple cider reduction).

For the cashew cream:
1 cup raw cashews
4 cups water
2 tablespoons agave nectar (or maple syrup or honey)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the threaded figs:
18-20 fresh black or purple figs
6 branches fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons butter or Earth Balance
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon, allspice and cardamom

For the delicious dessert assembly:

Soak the cashews in 4 cups of water for as long as you can--at least 3 hours, but they'll get softer (and achieve a creamier texture) if you soak them for longer. You can also soak the rosemary branches if you want--they only need about 20 minutes. This will keep them from burning in the oven, but I forgot to do this once and it wasn't catastrophic.

When you're ready, remove cashews from water with a slotted spoon and place in the food processor with 1/2 cup of the soaking water, agave/maple syrup/honey, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth--you can add more water as necessary, but you want this to have the consistency of a pudding rather than a sauce.

Preheat the oven** to broil. Thread 3-4 figs onto each rosemary branch. Melt butter and honey in the microwave for about a minute and mix in cinnamon, cardamom and allspice. Brush figs with butter-honey mixture and place in the broiler on a foil-lined cookie sheet:


Broil about 3-4 minutes on each side, brushing with more butter-honey marinade mixture halfway through. Serve figs with a dollop of cashew cream. If you're serving more people than you have rosemary branches, you can snip branches between figs with kitchen scissors to create individual servings.

**We used the broiler because we don't have a grill, but these would be delicious grilled.

Rosy Peach Pops

These might look like the fruit pops you already make, but adding rosewater and cardamom really takes this snack to the next level--perfumed and unforgettable. Also, a nice save when you arrive home from the farmer's market to find that you've accidentally banged up your peaches. This is also a nice opportunity to praise agave nectar, our household sweetener of choice! It has a low glycemic index (for the sugar-sensitive among you) and is sweet enough that you only need a little. It doesn't have a strong flavor, so it's a much better sugar substitute than maple syrup or honey.

4 peaches, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon rosewater
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup agave nectar (to taste, depending on how sweet your peaches are).

Blend all ingredients and pour into popsicle molds.

Freeze until you can't wait any longer. Eat.