Khetayee

After two great recipes from the Parwana cookbook (the meat kofta sauce and the bolani), I was really excited to try something sweet. I had bookmarked two different cookie recipes, one that was traditionally eaten around Nowroz (new year at the beginning of spring) and one called khetayee that was traditionally eaten for Eid. So to celebrate Eid (last year), I decided to make khetayee on our day off from school!

The recipe seemed pretty straightforward. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, milk powder, baking powder, confectioner's sugar) and then slowly add the oil while mixing everything together. Then shape the dough into balls, flatten them a little, make thumbprints where the ground pistachios would be added (side note: the pistachios in the recipe photo were bright green, but ours weren't - where do the bright green pistachios come from?), and then bake until lightly golden.

I was excited to make these for a bunch of reasons. First, I didn't really make any desserts for Afghanistan the first time around unlike all of our other geographic explorations. Second, B doesn't get much pistachio in his diet other than some ice cream, and I thought this would be a good way to increase exposure (for prevention of allergy purposes). Third, I had never made anything with milk powder before, and I was curious to see how that would affect baked goods.

Unfortunately, the cookies I made were not good. I think that's likely user error, because these cookies would not have been passed down for generations in Afghanistan if they had this texture. They were incredibly dry and hard to eat, so stick-to-your-mouth dry that I couldn't even think about giving them to little B for safety reasons. At least I was able to give him a spoonful of ground pistachios before I made the cookies.

So, what may have gone wrong? First, I used nonfat milk powder instead of whole milk, because I was able to get a big bag of that at Whole Foods. The specialty store had whole milk powder, but I wasn't sure that packet was going to have enough for the recipe in it, and I didn't want to run short. Looking online before buying, it didn't sound like there would be a dramatic difference between the two in baking, but maybe I got that wrong. Second, I had to keep adding flour during the mixing/shaping step, because it was impossible to shape the dough I made into balls. It just kept spreading and would not keep the shape until I added a fair amount more of the flour. Third, maybe I baked them too long. I added a minute or so to the time because they weren't golden on top, but I didn't think that would turn them into bricks of chalk.

Who knows what other missteps I might have made, but the cookies were not good. Edible, but not good. I'd say the best parts of the experience of making these was being able to give B some pistachios and just how soft the dough felt when mixing it. I probably won't make them again after the disappointing results, but I'm glad I tried.

Week 3 (2023) - Oaxacan

We had our first real taste of Oaxacan cuisine in LA over a decade ago (brief look here), and have tried to explore more of the cuisine on each subsequent visit to LA (like our dinner at EK Valley). NYC doesn't really have the depth of Oaxacan offerings that LA does (at least it didn't the last time we checked, back when we did more WorldEats eating), so we tried to take advantage of it every time we flew out there. When this challenge came up, the two things that came to mind based on our previous meals were mole, which we love but I was definitely not going to make right now because of its time-consuming nature, and tlayuda, which I very much wanted to try to cook. Easy choice here.

Tlayuda is like a Mexican pizza (so it counts as our pizza for Mexico for the AtWCC) with a masa base and toppings, usually beans, meat, and cheese with some fresh vegetables on top. The only restaurant one we tried (at EK Valley) was topped with black bean paste, chorizo, quesillo, tomato, cabbage, and avocado, and I aspired to do something similar. I found a Food Network recipe for a chorizo tlayuda that sounded perfect and easy to make, so I used that.

The ingredients were masa harina, salt, and vegetable oil for the tortilla base, refried beans (I forgot they were supposed to be black and just bought refried pinto beans), chorizo (used seitan chorizo because we already had it and it was expiring soon), and Oaxaca cheese for the toppings, and tomato, queso fresco, and cilantro for the garnishes. The recipe also had iceberg lettuce but we didn't remember having that on the ones we'd eaten in the past, and Mexican crema, which I kind of overlooked but also didn't really want to buy heavy cream.

Making the tortilla base was not as easy as it sounded from the recipe, and I found myself wishing we had a tortilla press, because rolling out the dough did not go well. I used the amount of masa specified, but could not make two tortillas that were 10 inches in diameter. Not remotely close. Also the rolling pin was a bit of a disaster, because the masa kept falling apart and coming off on the rolling pin. When I tried it with the layers of parchment paper like in the recipe, it broke apart even worse. What did I do wrong?! I ended up using my hands and making it as thin as I could, but they were definitely not as large or smooth as they were supposed to be.

After cooking the tortilla in the skillet, I spread on the bean paste (took far longer than it should have; it kept clumping), and sprinkled on the chorizo and Oaxaca cheese (which took longer to melt than I expected). It's possible the tortilla cooked too long as the finished product was a little solid and dense. But I guess it has to be solid to hold up all the toppings? (I had made Algerian bread the day before that came out like a brick, and this was at least better than that...) The garnishes were queso fresco, tomato, and cilantro, but I skipped cilantro on one of them for B (but he ended up not eating any anyway because he was sick).

Overall, it was tasty but definitely not as good in flavor or construction as the ones you would get at a Oaxacan restaurant. Both our beans and chorizo were vegan though, so not that surprising that it would taste a little different. I don't know if it would be possible for me to get the base as thin and crispy but also sturdy as the professional ones, and there's just something different about it when it comes off the griddle compared to our non-stick pan. I'm glad we tried it, but it just makes me wish I could get a restaurant tlayuda nearby.

Week 2 (2023) - Cabbage

Coming off a challenge year where I made a lot of salads including shredded cabbage, I did not want to do that for the week 2 cabbage challenge. I searched cabbage recipes for a bit until I found one on The Kitchn for a caramelized cabbage butter pasta. That sounded delicious and cozy for a winter night.

I am not a huge fan of buying whole cabbages. I think my hourlong cleaning adventure with a Savoy cabbage back when I first started cooking for real is probably the cause of that, even though working with the green cabbage from our cabbage rolls a couple of years ago wasn't as bad. Since the recipe offered an alternative of buying pre-shredded cabbage to save time, and since the cabbage was going to end up shredded anyway, that sounded like the best option for convenience. I ended up getting a cole slaw mix with carrots in it too, but more vegetables are always welcome.

It did take a little bit of time to soften and caramelize the cabbage, and I didn't start with quite enough butter in the beginning, but once it was finished, it tasted really good. We don't usually make plain buttered pasta, but I definitely see how it is a comfort food for so many people. This was really good, especially the parts where the cabbage combined with the melted parmesan cheese. I don't know if we would make it again any time soon, since B hasn't been interested in cabbage yet, but it's good to know this recipe is here if we ever need/want it.

Week 1 (2023) - Rainy Day

I haven't finished posting the 2022 challenge yet, so this might get confusing, but I've had most of this year's just sitting and waiting, so it seemed better to try to catch up a little bit here too.

First week of the new challenge! I tried to picture a day with gloomy pouring rain outside and what I would want to eat, and it was actually a fairly easy choice - grilled cheese and soup. I don't know if I ever actually eat that when it's rainy out, but I don't usually time our meal plan with the weather forecast (which changes anyway). But it's my top pick, for sure.

For the challenge, I decided to go with a Kappacasein-style cheese toastie (my favorite version of grilled cheese). I made this for a sandwiches challenge back in 2015 after we returned from London, and at that time, there was an official recipe on the Borough Market (where Kappacasein is) website. That recipe is no longer there, but thankfully I took good notes on it the first time, plus I found another similar version on Feast/SBS.

The biggest difference between this toastie and the last one I made was that I didn't have leeks. The frozen leeks we've had stored for years are getting a little too old and flavorless, so I sadly had to leave them out and just use red onions, because it was too late to go get fresh leeks. Luckily, Trader Joe's still carried the same cheddar-gruyere blended cheese blocks, which is the perfect cheese for this sandwich (if you can't get the local cheeses they use in the original). This toastie is really where I learned to make good grilled cheese sandwiches, so besides being delicious (which it was again this time), it really holds a special place in my heart.

For the soup, I decided to go with a squash, bean, and corn soup I found on the Borough Market website, because why not just go fully British? The basic ingredients were acorn squash, tomatoes, corn, black beans, kidney beans, onions, garlic, vegetable stock, cumin, smoked paprika, lime juice, cilantro, and salt, but I skipped the sour cream in favor of their listed alternative of adding cheese. I couldn't find the specific cheeses they mentioned (Wensleydale or Cheshire), but we went with a white cheddar which was a good match. It was a little more like stew than soup, but that fits my personal soup preference anyway. A lovely way to kick off the challenge, and a good meal for the England AtWCC!