January 20th, 2015
Dukkah is an Egyptian spice mix traditionally made of various nuts, sesame seeds, herbs and spices like coriander and cumin. It is typically served alongside bread as a savory dip, but can also be sprinkled on many dishes to add texture and spice – think salads, roasted vegetables and pasta.
Having tried and completely fallen in love with traditional, savory dukkah, I had an idea to make a sweet dukkah mix. Mine consisted of pistachios, hazelnuts, black sesame and poppy seeds, with plenty of bright spices like cardamom, coriander, cinnamon and nutmeg, sweetened with dates.
To stick with a Middle Eastern theme, I rolled up the dukkah into spelt dough cigars. The ‘cigar’ or ‘sigara’ is a traditional Turkish pastry shape, usually made with filo dough, cheese and herbs.
The great thing about dukkah is that you can add or substitute nuts, seeds and spices based on your preference and what’s on hand. For this particular mix, I suggest to keep sesame seeds and cardamom as a constant, building around them. The result will be a fragrant, chewy, slightly crunchy, and subtly sweet pastry. A topping of chocolate is optional, but adds that perfect touch for all the chocoholics out there.
Sweet Dukkah Cigars
makes 20 cigars
for sweet dukkah
1/2 cup raw hazelnuts or walnuts
1/3 cup sesame seeds
2 tablespoons poppy seeds – optional
4 green cardamom pods – crushed in mortar and pestle, green shells removed
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
2/3 cup raw, unsalted pistachio nuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 soft dates – pitted and chopped
pinch of sea salt
to make dukkah
1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Spread hazelnuts or walnuts onto a baking sheet and toast for 5 minutes. Add sesame and poppy seeds, if using, and continue to toast for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven.
2. Toast cardamom and coriander seeds in a pan over medium heat until fragrant, for about a minute or so. Grind them in a mortar and pestle.
3. Add hazelnuts/walnuts and pistachios to a bowl of a food processor, pulse a few times. Add sesame and poppy seeds, cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, dates and salt to the food processor. Pulse to combine to the consistency of coarse bread crumbs.
for dough
1 1/2 cups sprouted or whole spelt flour
1 1/2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
2 tablespoons miso paste
2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup very warm water
to make dough
1. Put the flour into a medium mixing bowl, add oil and work it in. Make a well in the center.
2. Combine miso paste and 2 tablespoons water in a separate bowl and mix until smooth. Add the mixture into the flour well, followed by the rest of the water.
3. Start mixing with a fork, slowly incorporating flour into the liquid. Continue by kneading the dough with your hands until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
for cigars
4 tablespoons ghee or coconut oil plus more for brushing finished cigars
4 tablespoon honey
about 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
to assemble and bake cigars
1. Melt 4 tablespoons ghee or coconut oil with 4 tablespoons of honey on a double boiler, combine well and keep warm.
2. Divide the dough into 2 even parts, keep one of them wrapped in plastic. Flour your working surface. Form a rope from the first part and cut it into 10 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a very thin wrapper, keeping the surface floured.
3. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C). Brush each wrapper with coconut oil/honey mixture and sprinkle with about 1 tablespoon of dukkah. Roll the cigar tightly, tucking the sides in as you go. Repeat with the second part of the dough.
4. Place cigars on a parchment paper covered baking sheet and brush with melted ghee or coconut oil. Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool. Melt chocolate on a double boiler and sprinkle the cigars with melted chocolate. Enjoy!
Note: although these pastries are delicious right away, I found them improving in texture after resting for several hours or even overnight.
Tags: cardamom, dessert, dukkah, pistachio, sesame seed
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February 25th, 2014
This post is also available in: French
Granola bars have always presented somewhat of a challenge to me. I haven’t been able to find a wholesome store-bought granola bar that doesn’t taste like cardboard or isn’t too sweet. Have you? I’ve also had a hard time coming up with a good granola bar recipe myself, they often come out bland and overall boring. Still, I have been determined to have one delicious granola bar in my repertoire and these Sweet Potato Buckwheat Bars with cardamom have got to be it.
I can talk about my love for cardamom for hours – in my opinion, almost anything can benefit from its flavor. No wonder that it is one of the most expensive spices in the world, its taste is absolutely heavenly. A little cardamom goes a long way though – those little green pods are like little ticking bombs of flavour. I just learned about the existence of smoked cardamom, from here, and will surely include it the next time I make these bars.
The preparation here is quite simple – a few scoopfuls of very nutritious grains, nuts and seeds mixed with a kind of sweet potato ‘caramel.’ The bars are not only incredibly tasty but also densely nutritious and filling. Also, they are very flexible in preparation. My older daughter, Masha, who takes most of the photos for Golubka and lives in NYC, treats my recipes as any recent college grad would – simplifying them and using only the ingredients that fit a tight budget. She made these bars without cardamom, brown rice syrup and no nuts – just sunflower and pumpkin seeds, which are cheaper, all to very good results. She also tried baking them and loved what she ended up with. As variations, you can add cocoa nibs, dried coconut, dried fruit, hemp hearts, maca powder, sesame seeds, toasted rolled oats or quinoa flakes, different grain puffs, chia or flax seeds, and various nut butters. Just make sure to keep the dry to wet ratio the same.
I talked about my love for winter Olympics in the last post, and it has been an incredible two weeks. Having these bars on hand (I made a double batch!) for the whole family to snack on and to include in Paloma’s lunchbox has been helpful, as my attention has been guided away from my kitchen and straight into Sochi.
Sweet Potato Buckwheat Snack Bars with Cardamom
1 1/2 cups raw buckwheat groats – soaked in water for a minimum of 1 hour, rinsed and dried completely, or quinoa puffs
1 small or 1/2 large sweet potato
1 heaping cup assorted nuts/seeds (I used 1/2 cup hazelnuts, 1/4 cup each almonds and pecans)
1/2 cup pumpkin or sunflower seeds, or a mixture of both
4 cardamom pods ground in a mortar and pestle
1/2 cup sesame tahini
1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
2 tablespoons honey
pinch sea salt
1. Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C). Prick sweet potato skin with a fork several times and bake for about 40 minutes or until soft throughout. Cool, peel and mash with a fork.
2. Lower the oven temperature to 350 F (180 C). Place nuts on a baking tray and toast for 10 minutes. Transfer onto a kitchen towel and remove the skins. Then toast your seeds for 5 minutes.
3. Add nuts to a food processor and pulse until broken into small to medium pieces. Combine the nuts, seeds and buckwheat groats in a large mixing bowl.
4. In a small saucepan, warm the brown rice syrup with honey, tahini and almond butter, mixing until well combined. Add in the sweet potato mash, salt and cardamom. Combine into a caramel like homogenous sauce. Pour it over the granola mixture and mix well.
5. Cover a 9 x 9 baking dish with parchment paper, extending it to the sides of the dish. Scoop the mixture into the dish, pressing it inside in a compact and even layer. Place into a freezer for about 30 minutes or until firm.
6. Remove from the baking dish and cut into bars. Keep refrigerated or even in the freezer – the bars will never be completely frozen, just perfectly chewy and crunchy at the same time.
Tags: breakfast, cardamom, snack, sweet potato
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August 12th, 2013
Last week we learned that our cookbook will be much bigger, over fifty pages longer, than originally planned. We’re very excited and, upon our publisher’s request, have been busy taking a large batch of new photographs, making the dishes from the book and reliving the experience.
In the middle of these crazy times, I especially cherish my quiet mornings, before the work begins. Breakfast is always mandatory, and this fragrant and nutritious amaranth porridge has been a dish that I’ve come back to time and time again. Amaranth is amazing, although often thought of as a grain, it is a seed of the amaranth herb and contains more protein than wheat or any other gluten-free grain. The texture of amaranth reminds me of poppy seeds, which is one of the reasons I like it so much. Growing up, poppy seed rolls were one of my favourite treats, and I still crave them when feeling nostalgic. Cardamom and vanilla make this porridge exceptionally addicting. There are few flavours as magical as cardamom seeds straight out of the pod or vanilla scraped fresh from a plump vanilla bean. The porridge is also very good cold, straight from the fridge, and we sometimes have it that way for dessert. Any fruits in season will work in place of strawberries.
Back to work now!
P.S. Honored to be featured in Emma’s Inspire Me Series.
Cardamom Amaranth Porridge with Stewed Strawberries
for the porridge
1 cup amaranth – soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
2 cups almond or coconut milk
2 tablespoons coconut sugar
1/2 vanilla bean – split open, seeds scraped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom – from about 3-4 pods
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon – optional
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg – optional
for the strawberries
1 lb fresh strawberries – hulled and sliced
1/2 vanilla bean – split open, seeds scraped
1/4 cup honey
to make the porridge
Combine all of the ingredients (vanilla bean included) in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.
to prepare strawberries
Combine all of the ingredients (vanilla bean included) in a separate saucepan, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
to serve
Mix the porridge and strawberries together. Add a few splashes of coconut milk if desired and sprinkle with poppy seeds.
Tags: amaranth, breakfast, cardamom, porridge, recipe, strawberry
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