An Expansion and an Evening of Cooking

We have decided to abandon the theme of Arabesque and to embark on "following to-the-letter all good and sound recipes" that we might chance upon. In that mode, this weekend's cookery alighted upon a theme of pasta sauces. It started with my craving for Alfredo, vegan style, and ended in a super simple tomato pasta sauce that was delicious!! Along the way, some breadsticks and baklava worked their way in as well.

First stop, the red pasta sauce, which Talea found here, and which I forgot to photograph as it was cooking, and being consumed, because I was so wrapped up in enjoying the flavors. After settling it onto the stove to start its plopping and splattering, we turned to breadsticks.

Now, I am trying again a stint of gluten-free, to last in every nook and cranny I can find. So I bought some gluten-free flour (made up of garbanzo beans, fava beans, and other odd items) and we tried a recipe from here for breadsticks. Talea made hers partly whole and white wheat. Which I think turned out more successfully. Mine refused to rise, or even knead like dough, and promptly burned before being done baking, and essentially made my whole kitchen smell like falafel. C+ at best. They are not breadsticks, they are some alien kind of savory cookie. Matt would like them. I, am unimpressed.

While the breadsticks were "rising", I launched an attempt at baklava, which I'd been meaning to try for several weekends, and just never had the energy or the health to do. I combined the ideas from a couple of different recipes from here and here, and set to work on my own finished product. I was working with less than half a package of phillo dough, which was still semi-frozen, and several random ends of butter, melted. I ground together some walnuts and almonds, about a cup and a quarter total, and stirred them together with some freshly ground cardamom (which cardamom is now going on at least four years old because I bought it in Egypt last time I was there) and cinnamon. I poured some water and sugar into a pan and added some very sugared honey, which immediately thinned out delightfully. I layered the phillo and nuts and butter in the pan, popped it in the oven where it browned up nicely, and then poured the syrup over it. I couldn't resist a bite before it was finished cooking, and it was GOOD.

I might like this baklava making business.

This morning I got up and cleaned up the mess, and then enjoyed a bowlful of papaya and yellow honeydew to top it all off.