Passover Fresh Fruit Tart

Happy Pesach everybody!

About a week ago my bestie Ilene and I went to a "Passover Sides and Desserts" class at the Institute for Culinary Education here in NYC. We were both seeking inspiration for new dishes to bring to our respective Seders this year. During the 4+ hour class we made: chicken soup, herbed matzo balls, salmon gefilte fish, matzo polenta with mushrooms, Passover rolls, potato kugel, a chocolate torte, a strawberry hazelnut macaroon torte, and this lovely fresh fruit tart that I am sharing with you today.

Fresh fruit, tangy raspberry sauce, and an almost marzipan-ish cake... yum scrum

My original plan was to re-make it for my family's Seder on Friday, but the truth is the combination of a killer hangover (Thursday night was... uhm...epic) and a lack of faith in my ability to transport it safely up to Stamford, CT made that impossible. I did make it on Saturday though. And it was deeeelicious. It is kosher for Passover, but seriously its so good and so simple there's no need to limit it to those 8 days of the year. Besides, dessert is non-denominational.

Passover Fresh Fruit Tart

Ingredients for the Almond Cream Cake:

• 1 cup blanched almonds
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• pinch kosher salt

For the toppings:

• 10 oz frozen raspberries, thawed
• fresh fruit and berries (I used banana, orange, raspberries and strawberries- you can also use pears, apples, etc.
• 5 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/4 cup apricot preserves

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9 inch round cake pan and line with parchment paper; grease the parchment paper. Pulverize the almonds in a food processor, then add the sugar and process until combined. Add both eggs and process for one minute. Add the butter (cut into small pieces) and the salt and process for another minute (or until no chunks of butter are left). Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until browned (in my experience this takes no longer than 20 minutes).


Cook in cake pan on wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove cake from pan and cool entirely.

In the meantime, wash and chop up your fruit. Berries and oranges can be placed directly in the refrigerator, while bananas/apples/pears should be tossed with 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice before they are put in the fridge to prevent browning.

Blend the thawed frozen raspberries in a blender until smooth, then strain the mixture to remove the seeds.


When the cake is fully cool, spoon the raspberry sauce over the cake (you may not need to use all of the sauce).


Arrange the fresh fruit on top.


In a small saucepan, melt the apricot preserves and 3 tablespoons lemon juice over low heat.


Using a pastry brush, gently brush the apricot preserves over the tart.



Serve with a little extra raspberry sauce for added flavor and prettyness.


Voila! Enjoy.

Sephardic Lentil Salad

Well, here I am. Back in NYC and back in the land of Olive Trees & Honey, a mysterious land where seemingly any dish can be deemed Jewish as long as any Jew ate it anywhere at any point in time. This "Sephardic" lentil salad is no exception- while many a Sephardi may have enjoyed it, something tells me the salad's appeal (and history) is a bit broader. This simple salad can be served warm or at room temperature and would be a great side dish for any entree with Mediterranean or North African flavors. Try serving it over rice or with some fresh hummus and warm pita.

Sephardic Lentil Salad (adapted from Olive Trees & Honey)

Ingredients:

• 1lb (about 2 1/4 cups) brown or green lentils
• 8 cups water
• 1 bay leaf

For dressing:

• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice or red or white wine vinegar (or even a combination: I used half lemon juice, half red wine vinegar and it turned out well)
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 red onion, chopped

In a large saucepan, bring the lentils, bay leaf, and water to a boil.


Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until tender but not mushy (about 25 minutes). Drain and remove bay leaf.



Put the warm lentils in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice/vinegar, parsley, salt, pepper, garlic, and cumin.

the usual suspects: a lineup of the dressing ingredients

Slowly whisk in the olive oil.


Drizzle over the lentils and stir gently to coat. Just before serving stir in the onion.



You can serve this salad plain, sprinkle it with feta cheese, or even make it into a dip by blending it in a food processor with 1 cup tahini and and an extra 2/3 cup of lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups of parsley.

You can also serve it in a bowl you made at a paint-your-own-pottery studio in college.

Leek, Zucchini and Cheese Casserole

This lovely recipe is introduced in Olive Trees and Honey as follows:

A classic example of the Sephardim's love of vegetables mixed with cheese and eggs, this comforting casserole goes by many names: quajado/cuajada ("coagulated"), sfongato de puerro ("leek sponge"), and almodrote de prassa ("hodgepodge of leeks")...

First of all, since when is the "Sephardim's love of vegetables mixed with cheese and eggs" a cultural characteristic of note? And secondly, what a hilariously unappetizing collection of names. Although "hodgepodge of leeks" is kind of great, if only because it gives me an excuse to use the word hodgepodge. Repeatedly. Hodgepodegehodgepodgehodgepodge.

Err, anyways... the original recipe was a straight up leek and cheese casserole but I thought that would be a tad bit too one-dimensional. I love me some veggies, so I made a modified version by replacing half of the leeks with grated zucchini. I used feta and Gouda as my cheeses but you can also use kefalotyri or parmesan instead of the feta and Muenster or cheddar instead of the Gouda.

This dish represents a lot of firsts for me:

• My first time cooking with leeks
• My first time making anything with Gouda.
• My first time using fresh dill since a scarring incident that started with me making greek zucchini fritters for my family and ended with my mother discovering that she has a violent allergy to dill

So needless to say I was a little nervous about this one. How did things go? Let's take a look!

Remember when using leeks...

...to only use the white and light green parts. Wash them carefully; leeks can hold a lot of dirt. The fresh leeks smelled delicious.

The grated zucchini adds some extra flavor and texture, and helped me tone my right bicep

Sautee the leeks and onions in a saucepan with vegetable oil until slightly softened and then simmer with water, zucchini, and kosher salt until tender
Strain the leeks and then add them to a mix of feta and Gouda cheeses, eggs, salt and pepper, olive oil, and fresh dill

Spoon the mixture into a 9x9 casserole pan and bake in the oven for 55 min until firm and golden brown on top

The verdict? Delicious! The heaviness of the cheese and eggs was nicely countered by the light vegetables. The dill added some complexity to the briny feta. Since I used the feta I probably could have cut down on the salt. Otherwise, the dish was perfect- like a greek frittata. Love. The casserole can be served warm or at room temperature with some rice or a side salad.

Annnd we're BACK!

So, it's been awhile...
I didn't write. I didn't call. I'm sorry.
I promise I still care.

It's just, this blog started as a method of final-exam-studying procrastination. And then finals were over. And then I started work. And then work was over. And then I spent a semester in Barcelona. And now THAT'S over, and I'm back in NYC, yet again in the mood to procrastinate, and hoping to cook as much as possible during the next couple of months before I become a corporate law drone with no free time who comes home to a fridge stocked solely with beer, water, and a lifetime supply of condiment packets hoarded from seamless web deliveries.

BUT things are going to be a bit different this time around. Because.... brace yourself.... I won't be making that many desserts.

I know, I know, its madness. What's Torts & Tarts without the Tarts? It's just torts... and that's no fun. But never fear, when JSus closes one kitchen cabinet she opens another one, and the one I just opened is full of yummy ingredients I can use to make recipes from this book:

And this book:

And this book:

And all the other underutilized cookbooks I've accumulated over the years.

Why? I don't know, I guess I've been belatedly inspired by the Julie & Julia craze of cooking your way through a cookbook. While I'm no longer strictly vegetarian, most of the meals I make are, and there's only so many stir-fries and salads a girl can eat before she goes crazy. Plus this will provide some structure and hopefully keep me cooking and keep me posting! So here goes.