Baklava

This week I wanted to try baking something with pastry. This was because prompted by two things: 1) I went to Pêche Patisserie on Picton Street with some co-workers the Tuesday before last and nearly died at the deliciousness. Then I went back last Friday and got lovely things like a cheesecake danish and pieces of noisette and opera, which I then forgot in the staff refrigerator on Friday afternoon. I never tried pastry - the closest I came was an easy flour crust for a cheesecake sometime last year when I was still trying to figure out the filling.

2) I check out food blogs to see what recipes are recommended and look for baking tips when I have to troubleshoot (because I always have to troubleshoot), and David Lebovitz visited Lebanon and shared pictures with some of the treats he tried there. One thing stood out - baklava. I looked at a few recipes, checked what I had, and bought a box of filo pastry at the supermarket.

On Sunday afternoon, I got started. I mixed the nuts and had everything ready to assemble before I realised that my pastry was brittle because it was cold. I let it thaw in the refrigerator for a few hours and started a bit later in the evening while waiting on Game of Thrones to start.

Let me just say that despite the fact that I over-reduced my syrup (I can't even remember what distracted me) and had to remove the baklava pieces from the pan by holding it over hot water, it tastes DIVINE. I apologize for my always dark photos - I take them in the evening in harsh light when I get home (or when the treats are done).



Baklava

Ingredients

Baklava: 1 box filo pastry (10 sheets of 18"x14"), 2 oz. unsalted almonds, 2 oz. unsalted pistachios shelled, 4 oz. unsalted walnuts, 1/2 tsp. cardamom, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, 6 - 7 oz. caster sugar, 5 oz. melted butter.

Syrup: 1 cup water, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup honey, 1/2 tsp. lime/lemon juice, lime/lemon zest, 1 stick cinnamon, 1 pinch of ground nutmeg, 1 tsp. vanilla essence.

Method

BaklavaPut the box of filo in the refrigerator several hours before starting. Mix the nuts, sugar, juice and spices in a food processor until the nuts are chopped into small pieces but not ground. Butter a pie dish (I used an 8"x8"x2" pan). Measure the size on the base of the dish and cut the size out of all the layers of dough. Almost all of the dough will be used for two layers of filling and three layers of pastry. Place a warm cloth over the pastry while brushing.
Carefully place a layer of dough in the greased pan and brush the dough with melted butter. Add another layer and brush butter as before. Do this until 10 layers are obtained.
Spread half of the nut mixture onto the dough. Butter the top of another piece of dough and place it on the nut mixture, buttered side down. Butter the dough again and add buttered layers as before until 10 sheets have been placed. Add another layer of nuts and repeat the pastry layers.
Brush the top of the baklava with butter and cut diamond shapes all the way through the layers. The pastry becomes brittle after baking so it will be difficult to cut after without making a mess. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes until the top is golden. While the baklava is baking, prepare the syrup.

SyrupStir all the ingredients in a small saucepan on low heat until the sugar melts. Simmer for 15 - 20 minutes. Cool for about 15 minutes before pouring over hot baklava. Leave the baklava to cool and soak up the syrup uncovered overnight. I placed my dish in a large tray with some water and covered it with a mesh cake cover to avoid eating ants and other night creatures.

The baklava can be stored in the freezer long term. It is a very delicious and surprisingly easy dessert to make. Next time I try this, I'm going to use one layer of date filling and one of nuts.

Strawberry mascarpone yumminess

When I came home yesterday, I was in the mood to make something with the strawberries I bought the day before. I Googled some recipes and ended up trying my own thing using the ingredients listed on the websites just so I could have something to put in the refrigerator in less than an hour.



I made 10 tarts using the following:

Ingredients
Crust
20 bourbon biscuit sandwiches with the filling removed, 1/2 cup butter, 2 tbsps. granulated sugar.

Filling
200ml carton of whipping cream, 1 tbsp. vanilla essence, 8oz. mascarpone cheese, 1 tbsp. lime juice, 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar.

Topping
5 small strawberries sliced

Method
The crust was a lazy man's, made up of crushed bourbon biscuits, granulated sugar and butter. I mixed them in the food processor, put them in my silicone cups and baked them for 10 minutes. After, I pressed them with a spoon (because the ends slipped down and the bottoms bubbled up and almost filled the cups - it was so annoying) and put them in the freezer for at least 5 minutes. When they were hard, I popped them out of the cups.
For the filling, I whipped a carton of whipping cream and vanilla on high speed until stiff peaks were obtained. I put it in a bowl and stored it in the refrigerator. Then I whisked the cheese, lime juice and sugar on medium speed until combined. I folded the whipped cream into this mixture. The cheese was not smooth, so the filling did not look smooth.
The filling was spooned onto the cooled crusts and strawberry slices were put on top. The tarts were kept overnight in the refrigerator so the filling could get firm.

The tarts were not too sweet and the mascarpone in the filling gives it a creamy cheesecake taste. The chocolatey crust was meant to complement the strawberries and cream. It was so good OMG.

Asa Wright Nature Centre

On Monday, I took the day off from work. Kedar, Anne and I went to the Asa Wright Nature Centre. It was a humid, cloudy day that threatened to rain JUST when we were about the start the trail. Thankfully, the clouds held up until we were driving out.

When we arrived, we paid the tour fee so we could go on the trails. The grounds were well maintained.





Since it was 12:30 p.m. and the next tour was at 1:30 p.m., we spent the majority of our time on the verandah. Below the verandah, there were hummzingers, fruits and specially grown plants that attracted hummingbirds.







Other birds also got in on the fruits and water set up. These kiskidees were territorial over their water.



This one was perched by the hummzinger hanging by the verandah.



I don't know the names of birds, but they were pretty.




We went on the trails to see the extremely shy (but noisy) manakins. The trails were nice, if a bit short. We saw flamingo heliconia and some pretty flower I can't remember the name for.





Along the trail there were some nice sights.

  

 

We saw the manakins but they were far and facing the other direction. Antisocial birds. There were other trails that we didn't go on, and the weather wasn't encouraging the birds to really come out. I thought it was nice, but I want to return another time to see more of the grounds, trails and wildlife.

Apple tarts

Last Wednesday I had to stop off at the mall before going home. I decided to get some almond flour (for round 6 of macarons vs. me) at the supermarket and when I walked in, I saw apples and said, 'Hey! I could make tarts."

When I got home, I took out some plain digestives, butter, sugar and spices that I would need. I rinsed the 6 silicone cups I bought ages ago but never used. Peeling and coring the apples took FOREVER. I don't even know why I bothered taking my time, since I got fed up when I was assembling and dumped everything for the filling in the food processor.

These were my babies:

   

For 6 tarts, I used for the crust: 3 packs of digestives (each has 3), 2 tbsp. butter, 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp. granulated sugar. I mixed them in the food processor until it could be packed and I lined the bottom and sides of the silicone cups.

For the filling: 2 granny smith apples peeled, cored and diced, 2 tbsp. granulated sugar, 1 - 2 tbsp. lime juice, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. allspice. After mixing everything in the food processor, I spooned out 6 portions into the cups.

I never remember to pre-heat the oven, so I turned it on at 350F and waited a few minutes before putting a cookie tray with the tarts. I baked it for about 30 minutes (the apples were soft by then). When they were ready, I left them to cool until the crust got hard (5 - 10 mins) and then they popped out easily from the cups. I whipped some cream with 1 tbsp. vanilla essence and topped them when they were cool enough. From start to finish, I took about 1 1/2 hours and the only thing that was left over was the topping. Apparently one 200ml pack is enough for 12 tarts. Which is why I made them again on Saturday.

YUM.

Even after all this, I was still peeved that the supermarket had no almond flour.

La Vega

On Monday, Kedar and I went to the La Vega Estate. We drove into the recreation park and explored some of it before it was time to leave (5 p.m.) and then drove home. I have some pictures from the park and the sunset on the way home.

The first place we visited was Lake George.







Here is Kedar taking a picture of a tree at that lake.



Then we went to Lousade Pond. This pond is completely covered with plants, making it look like a savannah. The workers used the fishing lines to move the pond weeds along to control its growth in the other ponds.







Along the pond there was a hut that was frequented by peacocks. They were quite camera shy.







After that, it was getting late so we headed out and made a quick detour to the Tortuga R.C. Church (it was closed) and caught these views on the way out.