Hamine Eggs, for Grandma Olga

We had been planning since last Passover to post this recipe around now, reasoning that you'd be most interested in Seder recipe ideas right before the big day. Now that it's finally posting time, we want to dedicate this post to Hannah's Grandma Olga, an amazing cook and a fabulous lady who passed away earlier this month. While she never used the internet and thus never read the blog, she has been such an inspiration for our work: Grandma Olga was all about making things from scratch with the best produce she could find, and her recipes are behind many of our posts, like date charoset, mjeddra and fried eggplant. We feel so lucky to have inherited her recipe journal, a 1964 date book packed with her own handwritten recipes, recipe cards from relatives, recipes clipped from the newspaper, recipes from the back of a Quaker Oats box. There is no time of the year I associate with Grandma Olga more so than Passover, when she would to make jars of her famous date charoset for all the households in our family, lemony-minty hamud that perfumed the whole house, and perfectly-tanned hamine eggs. So Grandma Olga, this one's for you.

Hard-boiled eggs are a traditional fixture on the Passover Seder plate. The Syrian-Jewish version, hamine eggs, involves slowly cooking the eggs overnight with onion skins and coffee grounds, which turns the flesh a beautiful tan color. Last year, we started to make hamine eggs for Passover and realized that while we had plenty of onion skins, the tiny bag of 2-year-old coffee in the freezer had vanished. We did, however, have a box of lapsang souchong tea bags and decided to try them instead. Lapsang souchong is a smoked black tea with an amazing flavor, and our finished eggs were deliciously rich and smoky. Throw these on your Seder plate and everyone will be hooked!

This does take a while, but nearly all of the time is inactive and you can either do this overnight or try it in a Crock-Pot if you don't feel like being confined to your house for 6-8 hours.

12 eggs
Skins from 3-5 onions
10 Lapsang Souchong tea bags
1 teaspoon canola oil

Place eggs in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Add the onion skins, tea bags and oil and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to very low. Simmer, partially covered, for 6-8 hours. Any cracks in the eggshells will create beautiful dark veins on the egg whites. Drain the eggs, discard the tea bags and onion skins, and peel the eggs once they've cooled.

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.

Complete Beet Fritters

These came to be when we wanted to make Swiss chard fritters for a brunch potluck last month, didn't have enough Swiss chard, and substituted a grated beet for half of it. The beets worked beautifully with the warmth of the cinnamon and allspice and the slightly pink fritters were a big hit, even with self-professed beet-haters.

Beet greens get very muddy, so be sure to wash them extremely well before you cook them, since you don't want dirt in your fritters! If your beets come without greens, or if the greens are slimy and past their prime, feel free to substitute chard.

1 large bunch beet greens, rinsed well
1 beet, peeled and grated
4 eggs, beaten
1 onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup peanut oil

In a medium stockpot, bring 1 inch of water to boil. Add the beet greens, cover, and cook for 2 minutes. Drain the beet greens thoroughly and chop roughly.

Combine the beet, eggs, onion, allspice, cinnamon and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Mix well and stir in the beet greens.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. When oil sizzles upon contact with a droplet of water, drop 1 tablespoon of the batter into the pan. Flatten the mound of batter slightly with the back of a spoon. Continue adding as many mounds of the batter mixture as the skillet will allow. Fry for 3 minutes, or until golden, turning once. Drain the fritters on paper towels. Repeat this process with the remaining batter.

Yogurt Cheese with Za'atar

Lebneh is one of our favorite party treats: rich balls of oil-drizzled whole-milk yogurt, perfect for spreading on bread and crackers. Add some olives and a bowl of dates and you have yourself the beginnings of an awesome spread.

Za'atar is a Middle Eastern spice blend that usually includes sumac, thyme and sesame seeds. Once you have some, you'll start sprinkling it on everything--especially your morning toast and scrambled eggs! If you don't have a Middle Eastern grocery store or a Middle Eastern grandma at your disposal, you can make your own or buy it online. Or just skip it!

If you're short on time, this is just as delicious served in a bowl--no need to roll the strained yogurt into individual-sized portions. The quality of the finished product depends a lot on the kind of yogurt you start with--you want a nice creamy one, not too watery. We always make ours with whole-milk yogurt; you're welcome to try it with low-fat, but nonfat might not be creamy enough.


1 quart plain whole milk yogurt
1 teaspoon salt
Za'atar for sprinkling (optional)
Olive oil for rolling & drizzling

Line a large bowl with a thick layer of cheesecloth. Pour in the yogurt, tie a knot in the cheesecloth and hang it over the bowl, as shown (refrigeration optional). Let it sit for 6-8 hours, until yogurt is very thick. The whey will drip into the bowl--don't throw it out! Add a little salt or sugar to the whey for a refreshing drink.

Transfer yogurt to a bowl and mix in salt. Rub some olive oil on your hands and roll the yogurt into golf-sized balls. Drizzle finished platter of yogurt balls with olive oil and sprinkle generously with za'atar.

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.

Toor Dal with Tahini and Parsley

This was originally supposed to be a luscious Indian dal with coconut milk, shallots and curry leaves. But it was raining hard enough on Sunday to deter a supermarket run, and we were out of curry leaves & shallots, and the jar of leftover coconut milk in the fridge that inspired the whole dal idea had developed, shall we say, a very mature aroma. The result: there is absolutely nothing Indian about this soup besides the toor dal (split yellow pigeon peas) and because it relied on whatever we had around, it's taken on more Syrian flavorings: tahini, browned onions, chopped parsley and cumin. It's rib-sticking comfort food, and has been doing an awesome job as warm, motivating breakfast during the first week of bone-chilling rainy weather.

If you don't have toor dal, yellow split peas are fine--you might need a slightly longer simmer to get them soft.

1 cup toor dal or yellow split peas
4 cups water
1 tsp turmeric
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, sliced into thin rings
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons tahini
a teaspoon or so of good kosher salt or sea salt
Black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Combine dal, water and turmeric in a medium-sized saucepan and bring to a boil. Skim off the white foam that rises to the top, and simmer 40 minutes, until dal is very soft.

Meanwhile, heat oil over medium-high heat in a cast-iron skillet or heavy-bottomed frying pan. Add the sliced onions and fry, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes, until they start to brown.

When dal is cooked, add the onions, cumin, tahini, salt and pepper and simmer for 5-10 more minutes to thicken the soup and blend the flavors. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Whole-Grain Stuffing with Apricots and Allspice

Perusing the mainstream Thanksgiving stuffing recipes available, we once more found ourselves thinking, "Again with the day-old artisan bread?" Apricots and allspice bring a little Syrian flair to this complex-carb incarnation, which is comforting and delicious on its own or stuffed inside whatever festive protein you're into. This serves 4-6 as a side dish, so scale up if you have a bigger crowd.

2 tablespoons butter
1 small leek, white and pale green parts, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
6 slices whole-grain bread (we used Alvarado St. sprouted bread), cubed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon allspice
1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped roughly
1 egg
1 and 1/2 cups vegetable stock
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add leeks, celery and garlic and saute 5 minutes, then transfer to a greased 9 x 13 inch casserole. Reheat skillet and toast bread cubes and add those to the casserole with the vegetables. Mix in thyme, allspice and apricots. Beat together egg and stock and stir into stuffing. Drizzle olive oil over the top, salt and pepper to taste and bake for 30 minutes.

Swiss Chard Fritters with Creamy Mint Dipping Sauce

These fritters, called krefsiyeh, are from Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews by Poopa Dweck. This encyclopedic guide is full of childhood favorites (including a mouthwatering full-page photo of mjeddra), but also includes a lot of interesting dishes that are totally new to me, such as this recipe. (Also, the one for calf brains, which is interesting on a completely different, thanks-for-not-making-that-Grandma level). The classic Syrian flavorings of allspice, cinnamon and fried onions are delicious with the sweet chard, and we didn't modify the seasonings for these fritters at all. We did dairy it up with a sour cream-based dipping sauce that's totally optional for the lactose-intolerant reader, but a smashing addition if you want to throw these on your Shavuot menu.

Recipe notes: we used peanut oil (best for high-heat frying), and you'll want to drain the chard really well so your batter doesn't end up watery--try pushing down on the chard in a mesh strainer over the sink.


Original Recipe from Aromas of Aleppo:

2 bunches Swiss chard, stems removed
4 eggs, beaten
1 onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup vegetable oil

In a medium stockpot, bring 1 inch of water to boil. Add the Swiss chard, cover, and cook for 2 minutes. Drain the Swiss chard thoroughly and chop it.

Combine the eggs, onion, allspice, cinnamon and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Mix well and stir in the Swiss chard.

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. When oil sizzles upon contact with a droplet of water, drop 1 tablespoon of the egg batter into the pan. Flatten the mound of batter slightly with the back of a spoon. Continue adding as many mounds of the batter mixture as the skillet will allow. Fry for 3 minutes, or until golden, turning once. Drain the fritters on paper towels. Repeat this process with the remaining batter, and if necessary, add more oil.

Optional Dipping Sauce from Aromas of Kale-eppo

1 cup sour cream
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons finely chopped mint

Stir together and dollop on fritters!

Bulgur and Red Lentil Soup with Browned Onions

Kolkeh is a hearty, filling Syrian soup with simple ingredients: bulgur, red lentils, garlic, onions and practically nothing else. Conceptually, it's very similar to a soupy mjeddra, with lentils, whole grains and crispy onions combining to be more than the sum of their humble parts. The chewy bulgur and the broken-down lentils have a great textural contrast.

3/4 cup cracked bulgur
3/4 cup red lentils
3 cloves garlic, peeled
water to cover
1 onion, sliced into thin rings
1/4 cup canola oil (or other high-heat oil)
salt to taste
Toppings:
Sour cream or yogurt
Lemon wedges for squeezing

Place the bulgur, lentils and garlic in a medium-sized saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer about 30-35 minutes, until lentils break down and bulgur is tender.

Meanwhile, heat oil over medium-high heat in a cast-iron skillet or heavy-bottomed frying pan. Add the sliced onions and fry, stirring occasionally, until they are crispy and brown. Remove them promptly with a slotted spatula to prevent burning (but keep the cooking oil).

When the soup is cooked, stir in the onions, a teaspoon or two of the onion-frying oil, and plenty of salt. Serve with sour cream, yogurt or lemon wedges.

Work Snacks: Muhammara with Pita Triangles

First things first: no, we don't take a chip-and-dip bowl to the office. We made this for work snacks last month, forgot to take a picture, and then whipped up a batch as a games-and-mezze snack last night, hence the non-lunch-box presentation. But picture this in a work snacks container--doesn't that look like the answer to your 3 pm slump?

Muhammara is a red pepper and walnut spread, tart with pomegranate molasses. You can reduce or even omit the garlic and chile depending on whether you have the kind of job that involves breathing on other people--it's delicious no matter what, since the main flavors are the smokiness of the roasted peppers and the je ne sais quoi of the pomegranate molasses. Pomegranate molasses is available in well-stocked grocery stores (it's next to the honey at the Berkeley Bowl for you East Bay folks) or Middle Eastern food stores. Once you have some in your fridge, you'll drizzle it on everything; it's delicious over yogurt and granola.

Also, no need to limit yourself to pita triangles--tortilla chips, zucchini rounds, carrot & celery sticks or crackers will work too. And if you're serving it at home, it's delicious with fried eggplant slices as an appetizer.

The Antidote to a 2-Hour Conference Call

2 red bell peppers (when you have access to gypsy or marconi peppers, by all means substitute those and use a few more)
1 and 1/2 cups walnut pieces
1 minced jalapeno or serrano chile (with seeds if you like heat, without if you don't)
2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Now, About That Toner Cartridge...

Roast peppers in the broiler, turning until blackened on all sides. When peppers are completely blackened, remove from broiler and place in a paper bag to steam for about 15 minutes. When the peppers have cooled down, peel off the charred skins, discard cores and seeds and chop roughly. Throw the peppers and everything else in the food processor and pulverize for a minute or so, until you have a thick paste. If you want it thicker, add more walnuts; if you want it thinner, drizzle in extra olive oil.

Buttery Soft Fried Eggplant with Smoky Tomato Sauce

You may notice that this post is tagged "work snacks" and wonder what kind of barn I was raised in. I'll tell you: one in which my dad and my grandma made meltingly tender fried eggplant spiced with paprika and served it cold or at room temperature. This is actually a common thing for Syrian Jews to serve at room temperature for Saturday lunch, so why not have it for Tuesday snack in a little Tupperware? Of course, it's also delicious over cooked grains for dinner (we chose a red quinoa-brown rice mix), with lemon wedges to cut the grease. We've moved the paprika from the eggplant to a seat-of-the-pants dipping sauce we created with our abundance of roasted tomatoes, but if you're not into big canning projects, we provide alternate instructions for roasting tomatoes while you do other stuff.


Forget Parmesan

1 large eggplant, sliced into 1/4-inch thick rounds
Salt
Peanut or canola oil for frying
7 roasted tomatoes (if you have them) or 7 medium fresh tomatoes
Olive oil for roasting tomatoes
1 chipotle chile
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt

Ratatouille is So Last Year

If you don't have roasted tomatoes, start here: roll the whole tomatoes in olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and bake on 300 for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours.

In a small bowl, pour boiling water over the chipotle and cover with a plate while you do everything else.

Place eggplant slices in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for about 30 minutes--the salt will leach out all the bitterness and it will collect in a brown pool at the bottom of the bowl (and to think you usually eat that!). Pat the eggplant slices dry, which will make them fry up nicely.

Heat 2 inches of oil in a large frying pan. When a drop of water sizzles on contact with the oil, add the eggplant slices in a single layer (you'll need to do more than one batch). Fry for about 3 minutes, flip, and fry for 3 minutes on the other side. Remove finished slices to a paper-towel-lined plate.

When all eggplant slices are fried, remove the stem and seeds from the chipotle and drop in the food processor with tomatoes (recently roasted or from your fridge), paprika and salt. Process until smooth. Drizzle sauce over eggplant and serve with a lemon wedge.

Mjeddra: New, Improved and Sprouted

Mjeddra is a traditional Syrian dish of basmati rice, lentils and fried onions, topped with yogurt or sour cream. My grandmother makes me mjeddra every time I come to visit, and it's been a beloved staple in every kitchen I've had. It's comforting, filling and addictive. A brief history of its evolution in my repertoire:

(1) After our last visit to Grandma's, my sister pointed out that she and I both make mjeddra with equal parts rice and lentils, while Grandma's mjeddra is more like rice studded with occasional lentils. I don't know when this deviation happened, since we both learned to make it from her, but I do prefer it with equal parts rice and lentils (shhh--good thing Grandma doesn't use the Internet!).
(2) When Phoebe and I first made the whole grain commitment, we started making it with long-grain brown rice instead of the traditional basmati rice.
(3) Wednesday night, we tried using sprouted lentils since we're obsessed with our Sproutman hemp sprouting bag.

The following recipe is for the third and final incarnation, which we think is the best yet. While I grew up eating this topped with just yogurt or sour cream, other Syrian & Lebanese cooks make a raita-type cucumber & yogurt sauce for the top, so we marinated some cucumbers in lemon juice and arranged them on top of the mjeddra. This is optional if you don't have time or cucumbers; just plain yogurt is delicious.

The Parts

1 cup (dry measure) sprouted brown or green lentils
1 cup long-grain brown or brown basmati rice
1 onion, sliced into thin rings
1/4 cup canola oil (or other high-heat oil)
1 English cucumber
juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt
pepper
yogurt or sour cream

More Than Their Sum

A note on the lentils: We measured one cup of dry lentils, soaked them overnight, then left them hanging in the sprout bag for two days (rinsing 2-3 times daily). If you don't have a sprout bag, soak them overnight, then put them in a jar with a cheesecloth lid and turn the jar on its side to drain, covered by a cloth. Rinse a few times a day by filling the jar with water, swishing it around, and then turning it over to drain. One-day sprouts would work fine in this recipe but two-day sprouts have such cute little tails.


Rinse rice in a strainer while you boil 2 and 1/2 cups of water in a saucepan. When water has boiled, add rice, return to boil and then simmer until all water is absorbed, about 40-45 minutes. Meanwhile, if you're doing the cucumber garnish, chop the cucumber into small cubes and mix with lemon juice, olive oil and salt. Let it marinate while you cook the rice.

Another thing to do while the rice is cooking: onions! Heat oil over medium-high heat in a cast-iron skillet or heavy-bottomed frying pan. Add the sliced onions and fry, stirring occasionally, until they are crispy and brown. Remove them promptly with a slotted spatula to prevent burning (but keep the cooking oil). When the rice is mostly cooked, bring about four cups of water to boil in a second pot and boil the lentils until they are soft -- about five minutes.

When the rice and lentils are both finished, mix them together with the canola oil. Add a generous amount of salt and pepper to taste, then top with fried onions, cucumbers and yogurt.

Getting Old School:

If you don't want to sprout your lentils, you can make this the old-fashioned way. Cook 1 cup of dry lentils in with the rice, adding two more cups of water.