harissa tomato danishes with herby goat cheese

/

we had a great low-key weekend of zucchini and beans and *just one more episode of jane the virgin* and trying to figure out why my pokemon go app isn't working. "maybe pokemons haven't gotten to the midwest yet?" eggboy asked as i feverishly paced around the town gym staring down at my screen. he doesn't get it, he still has an iphone 2, have i told you that?

one highlight of my weekend was eating a very mayo-y jimmy johns sandwich and another highlight was making vegan ice cream with all of the basil from our garden for eggmom and eggpop, but generally i got myself ready for the trip that i am about to embark on today that will have me in five (5!) continents within the next few weeks. two of those are just layovers, and one is north america so i guess that doesn't count.  

these danishes are inspired by my last trip to new york, a few weeks ago. i popped in for a few days to see my homies, noodle around the new hummus and tahini spots, and help maria find a wedding dress (i am going to be a bridesmaid!). i got citi bike for the first time and immediately became obsessed. i zoomed around like the good old sticky city days, when i'd violently refuse to ride the subway, and go over bridges and through midtown on the rickety old molly mobile. ah the molly mobile! look, it's me as a new york bean with the molly mobile! and there i am again! and there's my little basket! and our first bike ride date! ok sorry to be so nostalgic and mushy it's just that so many of my favorite new york moments happened by bike and they all came swimming back to me on this trip! 

another great thing happened during this trip: i learned how to make couscous. not the kind where you open a box and pour it in a pot and set a timer, but the real kind, where you start with a bowl of semolina and a spray bottle of salt water and end up with zillions of tiny balls, generally of uniform size (that is something i have to work toward!). my new friends ron and leetal spent an evening patiently teaching my clumsy hands how to roll the little balls and then they whipped up one of the most amazing meals i have ever had in the whole entire world. it was meatballs in perfect sauce and herby salads shoveled up on clouds of four types of couscous and it ended with homemade marzipan dusted with gold (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and they sent me home with their harissa. i love their harissa. it's sweet and sour and not too spicy. 

the next morning i brought my suitcase to the weight limit with all of my frozen couscous souvenirs and harissa jars and then made the customary stop at breads bakery for plane snacks where something called a designer danish was staring me in the eye and begging me to take him home. so i obliged, because i just didn't have room for a whole babka and needed something savory. oh, good heavens, it was delightful! it was a buttery flaky pastry filled with tomato sauce and topped with herby goat cheese. it was huge and delicious. that's what she said. so i hurried home and made up a version of it. 

i've taken the easy route, with store-bought puff pastry, and filled it with whipped goat cheese and tomato jam that's got a heavy plop of ron and leetal's harissa mixed in. it's a danish that toes the line between sweet and savory, and it gets an itsy bitsy kick from the harissa! you can also make these with cream cheese if goat cheese isn't your thang.

harissa tomato danishes with herby goat cheese

makes 18 small danishes

ingredients

tomato jam:

2 lbs roma tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
1⁄2 c sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tb harissa, or to taste

goat cheese filling:

8 oz goat cheese, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk
1 tb sugar
1 tb flour
a pinch of kosher salt
a handful of chopped fresh thyme or rosemary or a mix of both

assembly:

1 package (17 oz) puff pastry, thawed in the refrigerator overnight
eggwash: 1 large egg beaten with a splash of water
sesame seeds, for sprinkling
flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

clues

tomato jam:

In a saucepan, combine the tomatoes, sugar, and salt. Set over medium heat and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has cooked off, 1 to 1 1⁄2 hours. Press through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the tomato skins. Stir in the lemon juice and harissa. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

goat cheese filling:

beat together all ingredients until combined. transfer to a piping bag or ziploc bag with a corner snipped off.

assembly:

preheat the oven to 375ºf. line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

working with 1/2 the puff pastry at a time, roll out into a 12" square, dusting your surface with flour if necessary. cut into nine 4" squares and then transfer the squares to the baking sheets. brush with the eggwash and then fold the four corners in towards the center. poke the bottom a few times with a fork. brush the tops of the corners with the eggwash and then place a tablespoon of jam and a swirl of goat cheese in the center. sprinkle with sesame seeds and sea salt and bake until golden brown; begin checking for doneness at 22 minutes. repeat with the other half of the puff pastry. 

let cool slightly and enjoy!

-yeh!

walnut feta kibbeh, a stone fruit blender cake,

/

and all of these other silver lake good times...

for one week last month i lived in a little house on a hill in silver lake, los angeles, and cooked the days away.

a work-cation of sorts! done in a kitchen equipped with: a blender, some forks, no mixing bowls, and a very cute old oven. 

every morning i picked herbs and tomatoes from the garden and every night brought something new and bright and bursting with the glee of **california produce**. 

there were eggs in a basket made with rainbow potatoes from the hollywood farmers' market, salads upon salads upon salads galore, and in a moment of small triumph: lily and alana guided me through my first ever fish cooking experience, a pair of branzini, stuffed with herbs and lemon and olive oil we found in the cabinet. 

heather came over with maple butter and cheddar scones, alana brought poke bowls and that fancy matcha bread, and then there were those two 105º days spent with the freezer and our popsicles. (i tried to run it all off but, you know, in silver lake, that's just kinda like huffing and puffing and walking up hills.) at the end of the week, lily brewed up some rye dough onto which we dumped all of the leftover vegetables and petaluma cheese, and that was my pizza friday pizza, enjoyed on the redeye out of town.

the whole thing was like living in a secret clubhouse up in a tree and to get in you just needed to bring your appetite and a vegetable. it was all so fresh and delicious. 

today i'm sharing two recipes that can be made in even the most bare bone kitchens: a vegetarian version of kibbeh, which is a levantine meatball made with bulgar, and an interpretation of huckleberry's blueberry cornmeal cake, made with stone fruit and a blender and a slightly paired down ingredient list that allowed me to buy a few less groceries for my one short week. i did a lot of eyeballing in my rental kitchen, and used a literal tea spoon (meant for tea, not baking) for all of the small measurements. but that's ok in both of these recipes! the kibbeh, especially. you really just want it to be a consistency that will hold its shape when fried, past that you can add any seasonings or herbs or cheese that you please. and for the cake, obviously feel free to use a regular electric mixer instead of a blender. i was just so excited that multiple respectable cakes came out using this method. so, idk, make these in your home kitchen or bring them on the road the next time you vacation somewhere with a kitchen!  

walnut feta kibbeh

makes about 4 servings

ingredients

3/4 c cooked bulgar
1 c toasted walnuts, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c fresh mint, finely chopped
1 c crumbled feta
2 large eggs
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
A few turns of black pepper
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin

oil, for frying

for serving:

yogurt or tahini, a salad, more feta, fresh herbs, a squeeze of lemon 

clues

combine all ingredients.

heat a layer of oil until shimmering (if using olive oil, take extra care not to let it smoke), fry up a test patty of the mixture and taste it. adjust seasonings as desired. roll the mixture into small balls and fry, in batches, turning until all sides are golden brown.

serve over a salad and drizzle with yogurt or tahini and a squeeze of lemon. top with additional feta and fresh herbs, if desired.

stone fruit cornmeal blender cake

adapted from huckleberry's blueberry cornmeal cake

makes one 10" cake

ingredients

1 1/2 c flour
3/4 c cornmeal
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 c coconut oil, at room temperature
1 c sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 c olive oil or canola oil
3 tb maple syrup
1 tb vanilla
2 c full-fat plain yogurt
A bunch of stone fruit, sliced
chopped fresh rosemary, if you want
2 raw sugar packets, if your airbnb host has any to spare

 

clues

preheat the oven to 350ºf. line a 10" cake pan with parchment and set it aside.

in a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

put the coconut oil and sugar in a blender and blend it all up. add the eggs, one at a time, blending after each. blend in the oil, syrup, and vanilla. add the dry ingredients and blend a little and then add the yogurt and blend to combine. pour into the cake pan, top with stone fruit, rosemary (if using), and raw sugar (if using) and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. begin checking for doneness at 1 hour. let cool for 15 minutes in the pan and then serve. 

-yeh!

a vanilla prelaunch cake

/

how are we talking about cake after monday's pizza overload fourth of july festivities??? i dunno. i ate so much pizza because it was so smoky and good from the campfire, and it was covered in all of the fresh herbs that we're getting from our garden, and also because my new favorite dress that i wear every day is like wearing a pillow case so i have no idea how to gauge when i've eaten too much pizza. meh! happy belated 4th to you!! i really hope you ate flag cake and drank spritzes aplenty. 

today this fun new-to-me thing starts, called a book prelaunch! i've never done one of these before, obvi, but from what i can gather, i think i'm going to approach it as if it's the chrismukkah season (and chrismukkah is actually october 4th, the molly on the range release date). so instead of peppermint/gingerbread/gift guide holiday content, i'll be periodically posting behind the scenes looks at the making of molly on the range and some recipes that didn't make the final cut but are still really good, and instead of secret santa, there will be surprise preorder giveaways scattered about the next few months (!!!), and instead of the eight days of hanukkah arriving at the end of it all, there will be more like 28 days of me showing up in your town* and talking about molly on the range and making you cake! 

*specific towns are tbd and idk if it'll be exactly 28 days

i'm still working on what kind of tree we're going to decorate for the occasion and i'm trying to persuade eggboy to write a song about it. or maybe you're a songwriter and want to write a song for the season?? what's confirmed is that there will be cake (actually two cakes) for those who preorder my book! because this first preorder giveaway includes:

-the recipe for this very vanilla layer cake, along with some choose-your-own-adventure ideas for adding various mix-ins and flavorings and nuts and things

-the recipe for a pumpkin walnut layer cake with cream cheese frosting that is going to make you sooooo excited for the fall

-cake frosting tips!

to download these bad boyz, preorder the book, and then enter your info here.

and preordering now will also make you eligible for the next few giveaways which i'll be announcing soon!!

happy prelaunch season everyone! *throws sprinkles in the air*

-yeh!

 

watermelon mini cakes

/

macaroni and tofu turn one this week!!!!!! 

i can't believe it. *they grow up so fast* look at them a year ago (!!):

and now they are beautiful colorful egg-layin ladies and tofu is a handsome young man and they bring us so much joy (and lots of shakshuka). happy birthday, macaroni and tofu! we love you! 

obviously we made little cakes for them with all of their favorite things: watermelon, yogurt, mint, and "sprinkles" (sunflower seeds and stuff). we sang the birthday song and thought about making little party hats... but i don't think chickens really like hats. sweaters, maybe. but hats? do you have any intel on this?

yogurt, i recently learned, is really good for chickies since it helps their digestion, and mint keeps them cool and helps repel any pests. and of course watermelon hydrates them, oh boy they are big watermelon fans.

i didn't sweeten the yogurt in these since chickens don't really have a sweet tooth, but if you're looking to make a human version of these, it might be tastier to use whipped cream or sweetened yogurt between the watermelon layers. or! you could take the old sweet/savory route and use slices of feta. these are easy little cakes to make and perfect for a hot summer day!

watermelon mini cakes

1. slice thin layers of watermelon and use a biscuit cutter to cut out your cake layers

2. stack up your layers with a layer of yogurt/whipped cream/feta (see note above) and a few mint leaves in between

3. top with mint leaves and sprinkles and enjoy!

-yeh!