pomegranate Cranachan

I was recently introduced to the Scottish Cranachan. I stumbled upon it right around the same time I spent a family vacation at the Scott’s hotel in Tiberias. I felt I could not and should not ignore the evidently recurring theme.

Tiberias is a small city overlooking the sea of Galilee, and really that is its main feature. That and the Scott’s Hotel, perfectly designed so that there is no need to venture outside to the dreary surrounding, while enjoying a panoramic view, though in the case you do, you can get it in small doses, in the form of a tour and a guide.

Between the pool, the spa and the dining room, a room with a view and a whiskey bar, it was the closet to a vacation in Scotland without the need for a passport.

Cranachan, as I found out, is a Scottish dessert served during the harvest season, mainly summer and fall. It consists of the best in Scottish produce: dairy, oats, berries, honey and single malt whiskey. Scotland is still on my ‘go to’ places, but I have never been drawn to the cuisine with stories on deep fried everything and stuffed innards. I was more then pleasantly surprises to discover cranachan and how it spoke in a dialect I could relate to and understand.

This is no Scotland and so I took the original recipe and modified it using local and seasonal ingredients to a cranachan with a Hebrew accent. Similar to the Japanese version of tahini, it is always a pleasant surprise to find that some words mean the same thing no matter the language. This is one of those dishes.

pomegranate Cranachan

(serves 6)

Recipe heavily adapted from here

Ingredients

170g coarsely grated dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa solids)

1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, husked, coarsely chopped

1tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not the instant kind)

1 3/4 cups chilled heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup sour cream

1/3 cup Arrack (or single malt whiskey)

3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

1 pomegranate, seeded.

Preheat oven to 175°C.

Mix chocolate, hazelnuts, cinnamon and brown sugar in medium bowl.

Spread oats out on rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 7 minutes, until toasted and golden brown, stirring occasionally.

Stir hot oats into chocolate mixture. The hot oats will partially melt chocolate.

Set-aside until chocolate firms, at least 2 hours. This can be made 1 day ahead, covered and chilled.

Beat whipping cream until it reaches the stiff peaks stage.

Gently fold the sour cream, and Arrack into the whipped cream.

Fold the pomegranate molasses and gently fold to create red swirls in the whiteness of the cream.

Either in individual bowls or one large communal bowl layer 3/4 cup cream mixture and 3/4 cup oat mixture and repeat layering.

Top with the cream mixture and sprinkle with oat mixture and pomegranate seeds.

Can be served at once or prepared in advance and chilled for a few hours.

If you cant get hold of pomegranates or pomegranate molasses, you can substitute it with any honey and seasonal or preserved fruit you have.

Sweet rolls cake

School is over. For the most part. What now remains is a long summer holiday, and the practical side of studying, the internship. The last few weeks flew by with some of the highlights detailed here. I am now in the process of preparing for yet another transition in life.

I attended gelato university for a day of proper ice cream education that left me with an over dose of, well, how should I put it, not the best of ice creams. Must have been all the stabilizers and combination of flavors that I would probably never bother to order.

I suspect that my own private research into good gelato across Italy, as well as the home made experiments have yielded ice cream that any industrial version would find hard to beat.

Its been 6 days since my last ice cream. And counting.

Then there was Bottura.

Massimo Bottura, Chef of Osteria La Francescana in Modena, rated 13th best in world, whatever that means.

Bottura came in for a day with a sous chef, and prepared 2 dishes from his repertoire, cooking what he calls ‘’food with a memory’’; Emilia Romana traditional cuisine with a contemporary twist that challenges the concept of locally found ingredients and the fixation with how they should be cooked, drenched in poetics.

Like the dish of Parmesan cheese prepared in 5 different ways, to a variety of textures and forms or the pleasant surprise of a melanzane alla Parmigiana merged with Thai soup, Tm Kha. An eggplant, basil, Stracciatella, lemongrass and smoked chillies never know how much they had in common.

The last dinner, the farewell party, the dinner of all dinners was the unintentional yet surprisingly themed ‘mostly vegetarian Mediterranean buffet’. It exemplified a Grande finale fit for a food themed year, it was good for us, good for the environment and good for the animals that got to see another day. The scarcity of meat was hardly noticed with an abundant table featuring multiple types of focaccia, breads, empanadas, salads of sorts, dips, and cakes.

The non Jewish cousins of Kneidlach, the knödel made an appearance. I don’t think many Jews are aware of this cousin’s existence. Must be the black sheep of the family. I prefer to think of them as atheist knodels.

Unlike the matzoh based Kneidlach, the Knodels are made with bread or pretzels and can be mixed with different herbs and vegetables, and meats such as sausage, bacon, liver or beef. There is also a sweet version with sugar, honey and cinnamon served with cooked fruit. They Knodels are amphibian creatures, and can also be served outside a broth.

This is truly a life changing revelation, and a symbolic one at this point in my life.

I am turning a page.

sweet yeast pastry rolls cake

The best thing about this cake is that it requires no slicing. The rolls can simply be pulled out of the cake.

Ingredients

Sweet yeast pastry(follow this recipe)

spread of your choice ( I used 100g chopped dark chocolate and Halva & Hazelnut spread)

For the glazing
1 1/2 cups Sugar

2/3 cups Water

prepare the dough.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Remove the dough from the fridge and cut into two. Roll out and flatten one half of the dough to a rectangle.
Wrap and refrigerate the remaining half, as this dough is easier to manipulate when cold.
Spread half of the filling on the dough rectangle. Cut into long and narrow strips. Roll each strip (not too tight), and place in a tray in a circular pattern.
Leave to proof until double in size.
Bake for 12 minutes.
Repeat with the remaining dough.

Once the cake has cooled prepare the sugar glazing by bringing the sugar and water to a boil. Glaze using a brush.
This is best eaten on the day of baking but will keep for several days in an airtight container, or cover with foil and freeze until ready to have with coffee.