Feta Crostini in the Persian Manner

Feta Crostini

I remember seeing a fabulous recipe in one of my cookery books – it was a puff pastry roll stuffed with mashed potato and gorgonzola. I know, ‘carb on carb’ sounds strange (and naughty), right? Well, it’s just the sort of thing I love. I wanted to prepare this at home as a first course. It would be lovely with a Chablis. Of course, when the time came to prepare it, I could not find the book – was the recipe from my beloved, yellow-paged, slightly tattered New York Times cookery book? I had picked it up near our library at home in DC for $2. Alas, I simply could not find this recipe; I doubt it was from this book.

And that’s how these crostini were born. I had some gorgeous vermillion-hued saffron-specked honey which I had made earlier that morning, as well as walnut paste (I love to mix a teaspoon of it into my strained yoghurt with a slow drizzle of maple syrup in the mornings). I sliced pieces of whole wheat baguette, brushed them with olive oil and under the broiler they went for 30 seconds. After the crostini became golden around the edges, I took them out and slathered on some soft and creamy Persian feta, added the walnut paste and scattered a few pistachio slivers over it. Then, finally, I dotted it with saffron-honey. The musky aroma of the saffron and the sweetness of the honey paired so beautifully well with the feta.

What did you create this weekend?

 

Kuku Sibzamini – Saffron Potato Fritters in the Persian Manner

Kuku Sibzamini

This recipe first appeared in BBC Good Food Magazine, India, March 2013, for a ‘Persian Delights’ feature I was commissioned for.

It has to be fried. And preferably spicy. And you have to wash it down with steaming cups of tea.Read More

Elaichi Chai- Cardamom Tea in the Pakistani Manner

Chai Tea

If you were friendly with one of the House Prefects, you were always guaranteed a thick stack of those buttery, crumbly biscuits for dipping into your milky tea. At 10am, as the bell rang, all of us would push past the Assembly Hall’s heavy doors and greedily reach for the blue and orange rectangular biscuit tins. The Prefects had control over the tins and if you weren’t on good terms with them, you’d have to ask your mates to share some of their goodies with you, which they always did, but rather reluctantly. It was all about survival of the fittest in that Assembly Hall. No one really wanted to share their elevenses with you. Not even your best friend. Everyone huddled together, with their plastic teacup of fragrant Kenyan tea in their hand, dipping the thin sliver of a biscuit with the frilled edges into the hot liquid till it turned just a tad bit soggy and melted in your mouth with each bite.Read More