Artichoke Cheese Squares

Margaret Austin of Marysville, Washington, USA sent this to me in 2001 when I was collecting recipes for a proposed cookbook.  She wrote: "This is a favorite recipe of artichoke fans. If I bring this disk as potluck for a gathering, it is always eaten very quickly." I had the same experience when I served this hors d'ouevre.

⅓ cup onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 eggs, well beaten
14 ounce can of artichoke hearts, drained, finely chopped (do not use marinated hearts)
8 ounces Swiss or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded, or a combination of both
2 tablespoons minced parsley

¼ cup coarse dry bread crumbs

¼ teaspoon oregano 

¼ teaspoon salt 

⅛ teaspoon pepper 

• Saute onion and garlic in olive oil.
• Combine eggs, artichokes, crumbs, cheese, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper.
• Add onions and garlic to the artichoke mixture.
• Spread in a buttered 11 x 7 inch baking dish.
• Bake at  325 Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.
• Cool for 10-15 minute.
• Cut into squares and serve. 

Bernard’s Steamed Ginger Fish

In 2012, Bernard Eng Hock Quah lived in the same guesthouse as I did at UNHCR in Kabul. A fantastic cook of Chinese Malaysian descent, he wowed us with many dishes, this one among them.

5 or 6 fillets (boneless) of red snapper, sole or halibut

8-10 green onions, chopped into 3-4 inch pieces, plus 3-4 green onions chopped into smaller pieces

2 large hunks of ginger (approx. 2-3 inches each), peeled and cut into slivers

Cilantro (for garnish)

Sesame oil (about 2-3 tablespoons)

¼ cup soy

1 tablespoon palm sugar

White pepper

• On two plates which will fit into a steamer, lay out the long pieces of green onion 
•  On top of the onion put the fillets 
• Cover the fillets with the slivered ginger 
• Pour about a tablespoon of sesame oil over the fish on each plate 
• Mix together the soy and sugar and pour it over the fish 
• Season with white pepper 
• Put the plates into a steamer and steam for no more than 12 minutes 
• Garnish with additional chopped green onion and cilantro

Grandma Johns’ Pecan Tarts

Grandma Johns was in her ‘60s when I first met her in 1976 in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Her husband was about 10 years older. They often took care of my son, then an infant, and became like grandparents to him. The Johns were Armenians who had fled Turkey and the Armenian genocide of 1915. Grandma Johns was also a prodigious baker. This was what I considered her best recipe -- one that I always make during the holiday season. And my 4 year old granddaughter loves to help make the tarts.  (I don’t think there is anything Armenian about it.) This recipe make 24 tarts.

For the Pastry

3 ounces cream cheese (at room temperature)

1/4 pound butter, unsalted (at room temperature)

1 cup flour (a little more if needed)

2 muffin tins, each with 12 cups, each approximately 2 inches in diameter

•  Cream the butter and cheese until smooth.
• Add flour.
• Stir into a ball and knead a little to make it smooth.
• Grease muffin tins with soft butter.
• Divide dough into 24 pieces (about 1 round tablespoon each). Note: I take the dough and divide it in half. Then, I sub-divide each half into thirds (giving me 12 pieces) and halve each of these pieces (to reach 24).
• Roll each piece of dough into a small ball and put one in each cup of the muffin tins.
• With your thumb, press dough into the bottom and then up the sides of each cup, making a small shell which comes just over the rim.

Tart filling

1 cup pecan nuts, coarsely chopped

1 cup (light) brown sugar, firmly packed. (The brown raw sugar -- Sucre brut -- in Europe is not a substitute for the light brown sugar used in North America. It results in tarts with a different texture.)

2 tablespoons of soft butter

1 egg, at room temperature, slightly beaten

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Powdered Sugar. (Sucre glaceé in Europe.)

24 unglazed paper tartlet cups - size for petit fours

• Cream butter.
• Add sugar.
• Add egg and mix well.
• Then add the vanilla and nuts and mix well.
• Spoon into shells. (Do not over-fill shells or mixture will bubble over and make it hard to remove tarts from tin.)
• Bake in 375 degrees F oven until crust is lightly browned, 12-15 minutes. 
•  Cool in tins about 5 minutes. 
• Then scoop out carefully and transfer each tart to the paper cup.  
• Sprinkle generously with powdered sugar. 

Chicken Schnitzel (and traditional Austrian Weiner Schnitzel)

When I first went to Israel in 1963-64 and stayed with my cousins Freda and Menashe Ben Baruche at their apartment in Ramat Gan, Freda made this Chicken Schnitzel.  I have been making it ever since. And now my four year old granddaughter loves to help me make it as well as to eat it.

The same recipe with veal is your traditional Austrian Weiner Schnitzel, though many of us don’t eat veal now because of the inhumane way in which calves are raised.

Chicken breasts

Eggs (about one per chicken breast, but it depends upon the size)

Flour (about 2 cups)

Fine bread crumbs (about 2 cups)

Salt and pepper

Dried herbs (e.g., herbes de Province), optional

Oil for frying (peanut or sunflower oil).  I usually fry in a mixture of butter and oil. But do not use olive oil as it does not get hot enough.

Lots of lemon, cut into quarters

• If the chicken breasts are not deboned, remove the bones and the skin and any fat that is on the chicken. [You can use the bones to make a chicken broth. The fat and skin can be saved to render into “smaltz” and “grivenes” – or just discarded. They are not needed for this recipe.] 
• You need to flatten the chicken breasts into pieces that are about ¼ inch thin. If the breasts are very large, I slice the meat to get pieces as wide and as thin as possible. If the breasts are small, it may not be necessary to slice them. In either case, you need to pound the chicken with a mallet (or a similar tool) to get thin slices of meat. You can put the chicken to be pounded between two pieces of waxed paper, which prevents splattering and appeases the minds of those who have a phobia about handling raw chicken. 
• Crack the raw egg on a plate and mix it just a little. You can add a some water if you like to make the egg go farther. 
•  On a second plate, put down one to two cups of flour. 
• On a third plate, put down one to two cups of fine bread crumbs. You can add salt and pepper to the bread crumbs. You can also add some herbs if you like. 
• Now you dip the chicken into the egg, then coat it in flour and shake off any excess, dip it into the egg again, and coat it in the bread crumbs. I usually do all the chicken in egg and flour first, then a second round of egg and bread crumbs. You can add more eggs as you go along if needed. 
•  I stack the breaded chicken on a plate in layers which can be separated with waxed paper if you are not going to cook the schnitzel immediately. (You can prepare the breading and leave the chicken in the refrigerator to cook later.) Otherwise, it is not necessary; you can just stack the pieces on a plate. 
• In a heavy frying pan, melt 2-3 tablespoons of butter and add a similar quantity of oil (or you can use just oil) – this should give you about a ¼ inch of fat in the pan. Let the oil get hot before you start cooking. 
• Fry each of the slices of breaded chicken in the hot oil, turning once, until golden on each side and the chicken is cooked. Depending on how large your pan is and how large your slices, you can fry 3 to 5 pieces at one time, but don’t crowd the pan. The pieces should not overlap each other.  It should not take more than 3-5 minutes to fly a slice. 
• When I take the breaded chicken out of the frying pan, I put the schnitzel on a plate covered with paper towels so get rid of the grease, then transfer them to a serving platter. (I change the paper towels as needed, usually as each new batch comes out of the frying pan.) 
• Repeat until all of the breaded chicken is cooked. You will need to add more butter and oil as you go along, depending on how many slices you have. Try not to burn the chicken by regulating the heat. 
• Serve hot with lots of quartered lemon which people squeeze onto their schnitzel. (This both adds flavor and cuts the grease.)

Carrot and Sesame Salad

Jasmine Ketabchi made this last night (4 April 2013) for a dinner at UNHCR Guesthouse Echo in Kabul

Bunch of carrots, peeled and cut into small sticks (julienned)

Handful of sesame seeds, roasted

A handful of chopped coriander leaves

For the dressing:

Splash of balsamic vinegar

Teaspoon coarse-grain mustard

¼ cup olive oil

Tablespoon of honey

Juice of half a lemon

Teaspoon ground cumin

Coarse salt

• Put the carrots in a bowl.
• Add the chopped coriander leaves 
• Make a dressing of the olive oil, honey, mustard, vinegar, lemon, salt and cumin. Adjust for taste. 
• Mix with the salad.
• Sprinkle on the toasted sesame seeds.