Spice (43 page)

½ recipe pickled pears or green tomatoes (see Nookie’s Pickles, page 280)

1.
In a small sauté pan over medium-high heat, sauté the onion in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Add the cumin and allspice. Cook, stirring from time to time, for about 6 minutes, until the onions are soft and translucent. Reduce the heat to medium if the onions cook too quickly; they should not brown. Remove the onions from the heat and set aside.

2.
Prepare a medium bowl of ice water.

3.
Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil and add salt to taste. Drop the spinach in and cook for 1 minute, until it becomes limp and dark green. Drain and drop the spinach in the ice water. Let the spinach sit in the ice water for a couple of minutes or until completely chilled.

4.
Remove the spinach from the ice water, little by little, squeezing it dry in small amounts. Squeeze as much water as possible from the leaves (squeeze hard between the palms of your hands). You should have about 2 cups of blanched spinach.

5.
Chop the spinach into small pieces and set aside.

6.
In a medium saucepan, bring the milk to a boil (when it rises up in the pan) on high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and whisk in ¾ teaspoon of the salt and 1/3 teaspoon of the pepper. Taste the milk to make sure that it is seasoned well and add more salt and pepper to taste.

7.
Slowly whisk in the chickpea flour, little by little, until it is so thick that you can’t whisk it anymore. Switch to a wooden spoon and stir in the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil and keep stirring for another minute, until it is incorporated. Reduce the heat to very low and cook for about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Be careful not to get your face too close to the pan because it can bubble and spit, like polenta. When done, the edges should pull away from the sides of the pan and the mixture should be very thick.

8.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the chickpeas, lemon juice, onion mixture, chickpea mixture, and chopped spinach. Stir until the ingredients are incorporated into the chickpea mixture, which is the binder for all the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

9.
Scrape the mixture onto a baking sheet or shallow roasting dish and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

10.
Form the falafel into 15 to 16 balls, about 1½ in diameter.

11.
Place the canola oil in a large, heavy saucepan or in a countertop fryer and heat to 350°F (use a thermometer if you don’t have a countertop fryer).

12.
Dredge each falafel ball in flour and carefully drop them, one by one, into the hot oil. Cook for about 4 minutes, until golden brown and hot inside. Remove the falafel from the oil and drain them on paper towels. Sprinkle the falafel lightly with salt.

13.
Line a platter with the lavash bread and top them with the hot falafel. Spoon a couple of teaspoons of tahini sauce over the top of each falafel and garnish with just a few salad greens and enough pickled pear slices for everyone to have 1 or 2 with each falafel. Serve immediately, passing around extra tahini sauce and pickled pears.

TAHINI SAUCE

I prefer the dark-roasted variety of tahini from Tohum, available at www.tohum.com.

M
AKES
½
CUP

¼ cup tahini

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

¾ teaspoons ground cumin

¾ teaspoon chopped garlic (about 1 clove)

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. The tahini sauce will last for 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator.

Creamy Parsnip Hummus with Parsley

Hummus versions abound, but most—except for some Turkish recipes—are made with chickpeas and tahini.
Hummus
means “chickpea” in Arabic, and it is taken very seriously in the Middle East, where people debate questions such as whether the chickpeas should be peeled before puréeing or whether chilling the tahini ruins its texture.

Sometimes I like to leave out the chickpeas and experiment with ingredients such as white beans, avocados (page 17), pumpkins, squash, and parsnips. This, of course, breaks the rules since technically hummus is not hummus without chickpeas. Oleana’s customers, though, understand why I call this recipe hummus when they taste it. I purée parsnips in place of the chickpeas, but I flavor the dish with the traditional garlic, lemon, cumin, and tahini. The parsnip’s texture is perfect for hummus: it is smooth and creamy, just like chickpeas, but has twice as much flavor.

In New England, parsnips are the first spring crop, even before spinach, nettles, or fiddleheads. Farmers like to harvest parsnips after they’ve “wintered over” because the freezing ground makes the sugars more intense. The sweetness of the parsnips paired with the bitter, nutty tahini and earthy cumin is just divine.

If I’m serving this dish to a group as a mezze, I mound the creamy parsnips onto a platter and make a well in the center, which I fill with tahini sauce, and then serve it with Crick-Cracks (page 176) or pita bread. This dish is also a wonderful accompaniment to the Beef Shish Kebobs with Sumac Onions and Parsley Butter on page 98; my guests pass the tahini sauce around the table like gravy at Thanksgiving.

I happen to like the dramatic visual contrast of the white parsnip purée holding the dark tahini sauce, but if this presentation seems too fussy to you, you can combine the tahini with the parsnips before serving.

If you serve parsnip hummus as an hors d’oeuvre, try pairing it with a Falanghina from Italy; the flavors in the wine have just enough bitterness to set off the tahini and sweet parsnip.

M
AKES
4
CUPS TO SERVE
8
AS AN APPETİZER OR
4
AS PART OF A MEAL

1 pound parsnips (about 6 medium or 4 large), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 tablespoon chopped garlic (about 3 large cloves)

¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons ground cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

½ recipe tahini sauce (page 187)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1.
In a medium saucepan, cover the parsnips with water and bring them to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer the parsnips for about 20 minutes, until they are very tender when squeezed with a pair of tongs or pierced with a fork. Drain the parsnips in a colander, reserving 1 tablespoon of the cooking liquid or water.

2.
Transfer the parsnips to the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Purée the parsnips with the reserved cooking liquid, garlic, lemon juice, butter, olive oil, and cumin until smooth and creamy, for about 3 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl a couple of times.

3.
Season the purée with salt and pepper. Spoon the purée into a serving bowl and cool it to room temperature, for about an hour.

4.
Use the back of a large serving spoon to create a well in the center of the purée, big enough to hold about ½ cup. Spoon the tahini sauce into the center of the well. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Swordfish Kebobs with Nigella Seed Vinaigrette

I was inspired to create this recipe by traditional Circassian rice dishes and salads, which contain cilantro and coconut—unique in Turkish cooking. I was also inspired by the Black Sea region of Turkey, where marinated fish chunks are wrapped in grape leaves and then skewered and grilled.

In late summer, when swordfish is in season, these kebobs are wonderful served following Sliced Summer Tomatoes with Basil and Walnut Tabouleh (page 258) and accompanied with Rice Cakes (page 65) served with Seared Sea Scallops (page 62). To give the coconut vinaigrette a smoky flavor, I lightly oil the celery and grill it before chopping it and adding it to the vinaigrette.

It’s preferable to use fresh grape leaves for this recipe, but jarred leaves are okay. You can find grape leaves at any Greek or Middle Eastern market or online at www.kalustyans.com.

This dish pairs nicely with a dry chenin blanc from Savennieres, a complex and full-bodied white wine with ever-changing flavors: herbaceous, mineral, floral, and citrus. You’ll never tire of what this wine has to offer.

S
ERVES
4