Food Glorious Food - The Cooking Thread

[cremetangerine82]

Summer's here, and I'm hankering for a great walnut, pear, and blue cheese salad!

I found some good recipes, but they add an element (candied walnuts, maple vinaigrette, pomegranate seeds, etc.) that seems excessive to me.

I love gorgonzola, toasted walnuts, and ripe Anjou pears. My greens are a mixture of baby spinach, arugula, radicchio, and butter lettuce.

I skip dressing since the flavor palate gets too crowded for my taste buds.

[Carolinian]

I dug out Oxynia's recipe for baklava (from 2006!) and made a half recipe using pecans for an event. I assembled and baked it in the morning so it was fresh and crisp. Absolutely delicious, and the hit of the event. I will never eat commercial baklava again, and I suspect that now some of the attendees won't either.

Oxynia, how to you slice it so the layers of pastry don't shatter? That was the only drawback.

[Oxynia]

Oh I'm so glad you liked it! It's one of my favorites too.

To slice it so the pastry doesn't shatter, what I do before I bake it is to score it through the filo into diamonds or squares. Then put a little bit of water on the filo (I put water on my fingers and flip them in front of the filo), which keeps the pastry from curling up where it is scored. It keeps the pastry flat and smooth while it's baking. Then you can take it out of the oven and when it cools, you can slice it all the way and the pastry doesn't shatter at all. Easy peasy!

[mojogirl]

Celebrity-adjacent humblebrag:

You may remember my oldest son is friends with Ken Jennings' son Dylan. Dylan came for Thanksgiving last year at our house as he wasn't super into visiting his Mormon relatives in Utah. Anyway he looooved my cherry pie and this year asked for the recipe so he could make it for his girlfriend, particularly the crust which he thought was amazing.

So I am sharing my secret with you - it's butter. Lots and lots of butter. Also it's Melissa D'Arabian's recipe.

Pro Tip - she says to rest in the refrigerator at least half an hour, an hour or two is better. You need to let the flour hydrate; if you roll it out too soon it will be crumbly.