I Cook Because I Can

Chicken  Tagine

Michael Ruhlman posed a question in his blog post yesterday that I thought about for a long time, but I didn’t post a comment until this morning.  Instead, I decided I needed to get out of the house on my day off and headed out to see the Indian movie, My Name is Khan.  I came home wanting to make something for dinner that involved Indian herbs and spices, but when I got home and opened the closet to hang up my coat, the shiny red tagine tucked away on a shelf above the coats caught my eye and a trip to Morocco was suddenly on the menu.  And as I made dinner and began writing about it, the answer to the question became more clear … like an image through the lens of a camera coming into focus.

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I cook because I can. I cook because it gives me and others pleasure — even if it’s only those catching the aromas of my cooking wafting through the hallways as they walk to their own apartment.  I cook because I’m inspired by what I see, read, hear, and smell and talk about throughout the day.  And I cook because I am a slave to instant gratification.  I like to finish what I start and cooking allows me to do that.

I used a recipe I found on Epicurious and whipped up a chick pea salad as a side dish.  Dessert was sublime, but I didn’t make it until this morning.  I wanted to get shots of the Crisp Pastries with Almond Creme in daylight so I ended up having the end to last night’s dinner for breakfast this morning.

Now, don’t get all OMG, she did not!  On me because if you make this, and you should, you’ll find it tastes just like cereal with milk that’s thick and not overly sweet.  It doesn’t take long, but it does make a lot, so save this one for a party.

I chose the recipe from The Food of Morocco, but adapted it to accomodate what I had available and to what I like.  I’ll note the changes after the recipe:

Almond Cream Pastries

• 3 cups milk
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup caster (fine) sugar
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1.5 tablespoons rosewater
• 2/3 cups blanched almonds, lightly toasted
• 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, plus extra to serve
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 36 square wonton wrappers brought to room temperature
• vegetable oil for frying

To make the almond cream, put 1/2 cup of the milk in a large bowl, add the cornstarch and mix to a thin paste.  Bring the remaining milk to the boil until it froths.  Mix the cornstarch paste again, then pour in the boiling milk, mixing constantly with a balloon whisk.  Pour this back into the saucepan and stir in the sugar and ground almonds.  Return to the heat; stir constantly with a wooden spoon until thickened and bubbling.  Pour back into the bowl and stir in the almond extract and rosewater.  Press a piece of plastic wrap on the surface and leave to cool.  Just before using the cream, stir briskly with a whisk to smooth it; if it is too thick, stir in a little milk to give a pouring consistency.

Roughly chop the toasted almonds, mix with the icing sugar and cinnamon, and set aside.  Lightly brush a wonton wrapper with water and press another firmly on top.  Repeat until there are 18 pairs.

In a large, deep frying pan, add oil to a depth of 1/2 inch and place over high heat.  When the oil is hot, but not smoking, reduce the heat to medium and add two pairs of wonton wrappers.  Fry for about 20 seconds until lightly browned, turning to brown evenly.  Remove pastries with tongs and drain on paper towel.  Repeat with the remaining squares.

To assemble the pastries, put a fried pastry square in the center of each plate.  Drizzle with a little almond cream and sprinkle with a heaping teaspoon of the chopped almond mixture.  Repeat with another pastry square, cream and almonds.  Sift a little confectioners’ sugar over the top and serve with the remaining almond cream in a pitcher or save for later.   I quite liked it by the spoonful. 

My changes:

• I’m not a fan of rosewater so I omitted it and used the juice from a blood orange in it’s place.
• I made just two layers rather than the 3 the recipe calls for.
• I had peanut oil in my pantry rather than vegetable oil and it worked well.
• And finally, I topped my pastries with candied kumquat slices.
• I put the almond cream in the refrigerator overnight and it thickened up nicely, like pudding.  A quick whisk and it was the right consistency to build the pastry.
• I made the pastry pairs, but don’t think i’ll bother with this step the next time.  It didn’t seem necessary.

I put mine together when the wonton wrappers were warm and the almond cream just oozed goodness from them.  YUM!

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In 2007 my career with a large, but shrinking high tech Fortune 50 \"left me,\" leaving a void in my life. While lamenting the loss and flying around the world looking for a new career to get married to, I discovered a way to use a familiar outlet during tough times -- writing. My blog-writing morphed into writing about my favorite past time -- Food! I purchase food, sell food, make food, watch food being made, broadcast meal preparation, photograph and blog about food. Like I said; Food! To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box.

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Tagged as: Cooking, Food, India, Morocco, My Name is Khan, Tagine