It’s time for Wednesday Bites!

This week, Wednesday Bites, our weekly foodie post, will be brought to you by me, Mac. Shana will most likely usually have this honor, but last night I made some excellent baklava and I thought it’d be a good thing to share the recipe with everyone.

Baklava! Yum yum yum...

I first made baklava in 2001 and made it several times during my time in college, but this was the first attempt I’ve made in recent years. I didn’t have the recipe I’d used before, so I compiled the recipe below from four different variations I found online and suited to my tastes and used what I could remember of previously having made the dish. If you try it out, you’ll have to let me know how it goes for you. Without further ado, here’s the recipe:

Baklava!!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough (if more than one size box available, get the longer box)
• 1 pound chopped walnuts (optionally, roast before using)
• 1 cup butter
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 ¼ cup water
• 1 ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon lemon rind
• 1 cup honey

DIRECTIONS

1. To make the sauce, boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla, lemon rind and honey. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Leave uncovered and allow to cool as much as possible while you continue with other preparations and baking.
2. Preheat oven to 325° F. Depending on your oven, you may want to go as high as 350°—it’s simply a matter of experimentation. Butter the bottoms and sides of a 9×13 inch pan OR you can skip buttering the pan if you simply apply extra butter to the bottom most layers when you start layering the dough.
3. Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll phyllo dough. Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying out as you work. Place two sheets of dough in pan letting the excess half of the sheets drape over the side. Using a clean basting brush, butter the half of the sheet that is in the pan. It is only necessary to lightly brush on the butter, not saturate. The more wrinkles the sheet has in it, the better. Quickly fold the excess back over the buttered half and butter it as well. Repeat until you have 8 layers (4 full sheets, folded onto themselves). As you lay the sheets of dough, note that more wrinkles will equal a crispier baklava. At this point, sprinkle 2 – 3 tablespoons of nut mixture on top. Continuing as before, layering dough, butter and nuts in that order but only use 2 layers of dough (1 folded sheet) instead of the initial 8 until you reach the top. The top layer should be about 6 – 8 layers deep. Apply a small amount of extra butter to top layer, but still avoid completely saturating the dough.
4. Using a sharp knife cut into four long diagonal rows, creating diamond shapes. Only cut to within a half to a quarter inch of the bottom of the pan—not all the way through. This will allow for the maximum sauce retention within the layers of the baklava. You will cut the remaining half inch or so later, after it has FULLY cooled. Bake for about 1 hour until baklava is golden and crisp. Oven times can vary quite a bit—best to go by how it looks more than any other factor.
5. Remove baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. I like to sprinkle the tiniest amount of extra cinnamon on top at this point (see photo), but I don’t think that that’s very traditional. After it’s completely cooled you can slice the rest of the way through all of the cuts you made before baking it and remove each piece carefully. Often, it’s served in cupcake papers to help contain any excess syrup but I’ve never done it that way. Leave it uncovered if possible as it gets soggy when wrapped up.

Tags: food, photos

Wednesday BITES!!

Wednesdays posts are about food!  Yay!  

We both love food.  Who doesn’t?  We both love eating, we both love cooking.  And we both have lots and lots to share on the subject.  Furthermore, we live in a great big city with not only lots of food options, but lots of really really fantastic food options.  Within a few blocks of our house, we have our pick of delicious Korean fried chicken, fancy fresh pizzas, and a long list of different flavored margaritas, not to mention the numerous cafes, ice cream shops, and of course, the fancy cheeses place.  Ooh, I just saw on their website they have classes.  I could go on and on!  I haven’t even touched on our brunch options! 

But there are lots of Wednesdays ahead, so there’s no need for me to ramble on like this.  We’ll be taking turns talking about restaurants, recipes, and the latest taste sensations (mmhmm, I’ve said it before, we’re cutting edge) as they relate to our lives here in Chicago.  

All of that said, and now that you’re all excited, I’ve had a cold for the last few days and I think pretty much all I’ve consumed has been frosted mini wheats (aldi brand, of course) and, most of all, red tea.  Or at least that’s all I can think of.  Bummer.

So that’s going to be it for me today: red tea.  Lucky for me, it’s delicious, because, on the orders of my supervisor at the cafe, I drank almost a hundred ounces of it at work last night in a variety of forms: hot red tea, iced red tea, red tea latte, red tea latte with vanilla, with caramel, with soy milk, iced soy red tea latte with sugar free vanilla, easy on the ice… almost 100 ounces.  That’s a lot. 

They’re starting to say that red tea has as many health benefits as green tea when it comes to antioxidents and lowering cholesterol and generally making you healthier, which I think is nice because I like red tea better.  I did make it through my closing shift last night, if that’s any testament to red tea’s ability to keep a fever down and a person up.  But I tell you what, after 100 ounces, I don’t mind that we’re out of red tea and I’ve been drinking other things.  I also don’t mind not having to close tonight.  Sheesh, Wednesday really does bite when you’re sick.  But don’t worry, I’ll bolster up my strength and get to feeling better and post a super awesome foodie post next week.  It’ll probably be about lentils.  Get excited.

PS, my back is sore and I think it’s because I’ve been blowing my nose so much.  Is that weird?

PPS, Mac made me dinner, some delicious sweet potatoes and Asian sesame salad with oranges and chicken.  He’s the best.  Who needs to eat out when you can eat on the couch?  :)

Tags: food, tea, work