Baklava
Every year for his birthday, The Mister asks for
1. Lobster
2. Baklava
So, we have "LobsterFest."
The Annual Harvey LobsterFest is no small undertaking. The night prior to the event, I go to our favorite seafood store and buy shrimp, crabmeat, and oysters for a pot of seafood gumbo, and I start dough for homemade bread. The morning of, I travel from grocer to grocer, collecting live Maine lobster. We count participants and add one...because the birthday boy wants two...
Additionally, one daughter will make a side dish. Usually, it is a cheese and prosciutto risotto (don't let t.v. chefs fool you. It takes longer than 20 minutes!). This year, we had a "spaghetti cacio e pepe," a delicious pasta with Grana Pedano cheese and black pepper.
Add a green salad and a pound of melted butter, and it's on!
In South Louisiana, almost everyone owns some sort of "boiling rig:" a huge pot and stand that attaches to a propane burner, used for crawfish. It may be used interchangeably as a "Turkey fryer." The Mister sets it up to accommodate the dozen lobsters we will steam. Meanwhile, I am finishing gumbo, setting bread to rise, and putting the baklava together.
Baklava is impressive, 50 layers of pastry, nuts, and a spiced simple syrup, but it is not difficult! It just takes a bit of organization. I would love to take credit, but I got this recipe from a magazine in the mid-to-late 1980's. I can't remember...it may have been "Gourmet," or another magazine called "Sphere." There was a section called "Cooking Lesson," and this particular edition featured baklava. I have used this recipe ever since to rave reviews. Fun fact: It is not necessarily pronounced "BAH-kla-Va." I worked with a couple of surgeons from Pakistan and India, and they call it "bah-KLA-va," emphasizing the middle syllable. I had no idea. Another doctor of Lebanese descent told me my recipe was "all wrong," not at all how his mother made it...and I'm ok with that.
Baklava
I use a glass 11 x 15 baking dish. You will need a pastry brush to spread the melted butter, but a (new, clean) 1-2 inch paint brush works just as well! Phyllo is paper thin sheets of pastry. Handle with care, but do not stress if the sheets tear. Once baked, no one will be able to tell!
Pastry:
1 lb phyllo dough
3 sticks melted butter
Filling:
1 3/4 cups slivered almonds
1 3/4 cups walnuts
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
2 tsp ground cinnamon
In a food processor, combine nuts, breadcrumbs, and cinnamon. Process until finely chopped.
Syrup:
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup honey
3 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
Butter the bottom and sides of a glass baking dish 11 x 15". One by one, place sheets of phyllo into the dish and brush with melted butter.
Once you have 12 sheets down, spread 3/4 cup filling over the buttered layers, and top with 4 sheets of phyllo, buttering each. Repeat 3/4 cup nut filling and top with 4 sheets of phyllo (buttering as you go) for a total of 4 sets.
Top with 14 sheets, buttering each as you go. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven heats up, with a sharp knife, make four linear cuts across the pastry along the long axis. Be sure to cut all the way through the layers.
Next. Make diagonal cuts to create the traditional diamond shape.
Bake 45 minutes.
Once the pastry has been in the oven 15 minutes, start the syrup. On medium/low heat, gently simmer the sugar, water, honey, cinnamon sticks and cloves in a medium pot. The syrup should reduce slightly and take on a pale amber color. Remove the cinnamon sticks and cloves.
When the pastry is done, remove it from the oven. Pour the hot syrup over the hot pastry. It will bubble and spit and act like it is trying to climb out of the dish! Do not be alarmed! This is the syrup penetrating every layer!
Allow to cool completely.
1. Lobster
2. Baklava
So, we have "LobsterFest."
The Annual Harvey LobsterFest is no small undertaking. The night prior to the event, I go to our favorite seafood store and buy shrimp, crabmeat, and oysters for a pot of seafood gumbo, and I start dough for homemade bread. The morning of, I travel from grocer to grocer, collecting live Maine lobster. We count participants and add one...because the birthday boy wants two...
Additionally, one daughter will make a side dish. Usually, it is a cheese and prosciutto risotto (don't let t.v. chefs fool you. It takes longer than 20 minutes!). This year, we had a "spaghetti cacio e pepe," a delicious pasta with Grana Pedano cheese and black pepper.
Add a green salad and a pound of melted butter, and it's on!
In South Louisiana, almost everyone owns some sort of "boiling rig:" a huge pot and stand that attaches to a propane burner, used for crawfish. It may be used interchangeably as a "Turkey fryer." The Mister sets it up to accommodate the dozen lobsters we will steam. Meanwhile, I am finishing gumbo, setting bread to rise, and putting the baklava together.
Baklava is impressive, 50 layers of pastry, nuts, and a spiced simple syrup, but it is not difficult! It just takes a bit of organization. I would love to take credit, but I got this recipe from a magazine in the mid-to-late 1980's. I can't remember...it may have been "Gourmet," or another magazine called "Sphere." There was a section called "Cooking Lesson," and this particular edition featured baklava. I have used this recipe ever since to rave reviews. Fun fact: It is not necessarily pronounced "BAH-kla-Va." I worked with a couple of surgeons from Pakistan and India, and they call it "bah-KLA-va," emphasizing the middle syllable. I had no idea. Another doctor of Lebanese descent told me my recipe was "all wrong," not at all how his mother made it...and I'm ok with that.
Baklava
I use a glass 11 x 15 baking dish. You will need a pastry brush to spread the melted butter, but a (new, clean) 1-2 inch paint brush works just as well! Phyllo is paper thin sheets of pastry. Handle with care, but do not stress if the sheets tear. Once baked, no one will be able to tell!
Pastry:
1 lb phyllo dough
3 sticks melted butter
Filling:
1 3/4 cups slivered almonds
1 3/4 cups walnuts
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
2 tsp ground cinnamon
In a food processor, combine nuts, breadcrumbs, and cinnamon. Process until finely chopped.
Syrup:
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup honey
3 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
Butter the bottom and sides of a glass baking dish 11 x 15". One by one, place sheets of phyllo into the dish and brush with melted butter.
Once the pastry has been in the oven 15 minutes, start the syrup. On medium/low heat, gently simmer the sugar, water, honey, cinnamon sticks and cloves in a medium pot. The syrup should reduce slightly and take on a pale amber color. Remove the cinnamon sticks and cloves.
When the pastry is done, remove it from the oven. Pour the hot syrup over the hot pastry. It will bubble and spit and act like it is trying to climb out of the dish! Do not be alarmed! This is the syrup penetrating every layer!
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