HANNAH BW

We ate Bosnian food this week. It is a testament to my total immersion in German (ha!) that I almost wrote “vood” up there. Das Vood.

Here, some British Vood:

“Have you got nothing else for my breakfast, Pritchard?” said Fred, to the servant who brought in coffee and buttered toast; while he walked round the table surveying the ham, potted beef, and other cold remnants, with an air of silent rejection, and polite forbearance from signs of disgust.

“Should you like eggs, sir?”

“Eggs, no! Bring me a grilled bone.”

From Middlemarch, p. 98.

And from the recipe files: make these brownies, NOW. Christopher made them last night and the pan is quickly dwindling.

I promised Christopher a pie, but the man is picky. No apple, he said. Pumpkin is not readily available here in the Old World, and I won’t make pecan because it requires too much corn syrup (something else I haven’t seen over here). Berries, cherries, and rhubarb are so out of season it isn’t even funny. And we don’t have a food processor, so I thought that lemon pie was out of the question, too. Turns out I was wrong, but that’ll have to be a pie for another day, folks.

So! Banana cream pie it was. And it was good, though not as good as the one from Marble Falls, TX.

after a brief aufenthalt on the patio for chilling

Man, I swear that the lighting in this apartment is the worst!

Anyway here is the recipe I used, from Recipezaar.

• 3 cups whole milk
• 3/4 c. sugar (I thought it was a little too sweet, so maybe cut this by 1/4 c.)
• 1/3 c. flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp vanilla (we don’t have this, so I used vanillazucker–FAKE)
• 3 bananas

Bring your milk almost to a boil. In a heatproof bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Pour your hot milk in gradually, mixing together, then put back in your pot and stir constantly over medium-high heat until thickened. The directions say to cover and cook for two more minutes–I didn’t think this made any difference whatsoever. Pour a little bit of the hot mixture in with the eggs to temper them (don’t let them scramble! ew!) and then pour the egg mixture in with the pudding mixture and stir constantly for a minute or two. Then let cool to warmish/room temperature. Slice your bananas into a parbaked pie shell (I used Alice Water’s pate brisee recipe, via Smitten, baked at 400ºF for 15 minutes lined with foil and pie weights, then 5 more minutes without foil to brown.) and top with the pudding mixture. Chill and serve with whipped cream.

What a round number.

The wrap up from Israel: I had a great piece of cheesecake at Confiserie and a great falafel at Dr. Sa’adia. I ate the latter on a bench on King George V St. Strange to me that these benches just hang around looking at traffic. I made good use of it.

pickles on a bench

Then I came back and, embracing my Jewish heritage, made a load of rugelach.
Recipe inspired by this post.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened

Cream the cream cheese and butter together. Add the flour and salt, mix until it holds together. Form into two flat discs and refrigerate (or put outside on your patio in the -7º C weather).

Fillings: I did two types (call me crazy!). Dark chocolate, dried cherry, walnut, and raisin walnut.

Here’s what you do: chop your fillings til pretty small. Divide each disk in half and roll out til pretty thin (1/8″ ish) and rectangularish (so now you have four rectangles). Spread each sparingly with apricot jam–about 1 1/2 tbsp per rectangle–and sprinkle with toppings. Then sprinkle with about 1 tbsp of cinnamon sugar. Roll up, brush with milk, sprinkle with a little more cinnamon sugar, and make cuts crosswise about 3/4″ deep. These cuts will be a guide for where to slice the cookies later on. Bake at 375º for about half an hour, or until golden and crispy and not soggy on the bottom. Let cool, then slice through and eat.

rugelach!

Some (honest) questions about kashrut:

Why can’t you eat milk with meat, but you can eat eggs with chicken?

Why can’t you eat chicken with milk?

If you know you want to eat ice cream for dessert, why do you have a hamburger for dinner? And how long do you have to wait before you can have proper ice cream?

Notes on Jerusalem food:

The big bagels (NYC bagels: 0; Jerusalem bagels: <===>) are too big. But the little bag of za’atar makes them as addictive as crack (um, not that I would know).

The salad bar at my conference was the bomb.

Musakhan (is this like moussaka? etymologically, I might say yes) is also really delicious. And mine came rolled up and looked like a burrito. Even better.