Cooking up a Story Example

Cooking Up a Story Example:

I've chosen to cook baklava. My father's family is Lebanese-American and this is one of the many dishes that my grandmother on that side always cooks. It's a real process-oriented recipe, you layer the sheets of fillo dough one by one, brushing on butter in between. It is natural to invite the family children to lend a hand, and I would hear stories about my relatives as I slowly built layer upon layer of paper-thin dough. In a way the dish represented that whole family history, built generation upon generation up until the present moment.

For the sake of convenience I'll be using a different recipe (grandma's is not very desciptive)
1 (5-inch piece) cinnamon stick, broken into 2 to 3 pieces or 2 teaspoons ground
15 to 20 whole allspice berries
6 ounces blanched almonds
6 ounces raw or roasted walnuts
6 ounces raw or roasted pistachio
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon rose water
1 pound phyllo dough, thawed
8 ounces clarified unsalted butter, melted
For the syrup:
1 1/4 cups honey
1 1/4 cups water
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 (2-inch) piece fresh orange peel

Read the full recipe at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baklava-recipe.html?oc=linkback



1. slowly layer the fillo sheet by sheet, brushing each layer with melted butter.

After 9 layers, add 1/3 of chopped nuts  ( can use pistachos, walnuts, almonds, cashews, etc.) 

Sprinkle with rosewater.

Layer with 6 more sheets, brushing with butter in between. Add 2nd 1/3 of nuts, sprinkle rosewater, repeat.

Cut and put in the oven for 1/2 an hour.

While the dough is cooking, assemble the ingredients for the syrup

boil the sugar, honey orange rind, cinnamon stick and water until it's all liquid, 10 or 20 minutes

Let everything cool.






eat.






pour the syrup the baklava. Store in a sealed container but do not put in the fridge! It will harden rock-solid.