I first tasted kuku at my friend’s Tammy’s dinner party.  Not knowing what it was called or its origin, I remembered it was absolutely tasty and exploding with herbal freshness.  Tammy is my citizen du monde friend — from the Bay Area to Chicago, New York, London and now Paris….like those ad taglines for high end perfume.  But it was really from her Persian background, as I found out years later….although I still didn’t know what it was called. In a casual conversion with my Persian neighbor in the laundry room, I learned it was called kuku and eaten during the Persian new year.  That’s when the kuku exploration began.

Kuku is essentially a Persian fritata.  Many Middle Eastern stores sell a kuku mix, and the advieh mix.  But you can make your own from scratch.  Just make sure you use all fresh herbs….the dried ones are just not the same.

Chef Tips: Make your own Advieh with this recipe: In a coffee /spice grinder, add 1 X cardamom, cumin, ginger and dried rose petals, 2X cinnamon and 0.5X cloves and grind into a fine powder.

6 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons Persian Advieh
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 cup garlic greens, chopped
1 cup parsley, chopped
1 cup cilantro, chopped
1 cup fresh dill, chopped
1/2 cup mint, chopped
2 tablespoons dried barberries, reconstituted

2 Tablespoons clarified butter or olive oil
1 Tablespoon dried fenugreek

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Break the eggs into a large bowl. Add the baking powder, flour, advieh, salt, and pepper. Lightly beat in the chopped garlic, herbs and barberries.
3. Using a 10-inch oven-proof  skillet, melt butter.  Add fenugreek until the fenugreek pops.  Turn down the heat a bit. Add the eggs and herbs mixture and cook over medium-low heat — gently stir in the beginning then run a spatula underneath the sides of the omelet and tilt the pan so the uncooked eggs slide to the underside.   Cook until the eggs are just set.
4. Place the skillet in the oven and bake for about 5 minutes, or until well set and puffy. Remove from oven, slide kuku onto a large plate, cut into wedges and serve.

Serves: 4

Tags: Breakfast, Persian.

This is an adaptation of Ubuntu’s Cauliflower in a Cast Iron Pot.  It’s a little less creamy, and  a little easier to accomplish and more accessible without the vadouvan while still accomplishing the creamy sweetness of the cauliflower.

Chef’s tip: Making brown butter is a two step process. First, melt the butter to separate the solids and moisture.  Then bring it to brown to a rosy hazelnut color.

1 head cauliflower
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large shallot, diced finely
1 Tablespoon Madras curry powder
1 cup 2% milk
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
2 8-oz ramekins

1. Trim cauliflower, and slice the cauliflower into 1/4 inch thick slabs.  Break them up with your hands into bite size.
2. Preheat oven 400F.  Toss 3/4 of the cauliflower with olive oil and salt.  Roast in the oven till brown bits form.  About 40 minutes.
3. In a small saucepot, melt the butter, removing the foam.  When butter begins to brown, add shallots and saute till golden brown.  Add curry powder, bring it to a sizzle and remove from heat.  Pour the butter mixture into a small bowl.
4. Using the same saucepot, add in the remainder 1/4 head of chopped cauliflower and the milk, and bring to a simmer, 15 minutes till the cauliflower is soft.  Using a handheld blender, puree the mixture.
5. When the cauliflower is roasted, toss with the spiced butter and the chopped parsley.
6. In a ramekin, rub on some of the spiced butter.  Layer in puree, roasted cauliflower, puree and top with roasted cauliflower.  Pop back into the oven to brown the top, about 5 minutes.
6. Serve with a hearty, robust bread.

Serves: 2

Tags: Indian, Vegetarian.

This week, I got a big box of spices from my friend, Karina, from Singapore.  She sent me a kilogram of dried “bunga telang” – blue pea flower, a type of tropical morning glory. It’s an edible flower and we use its brilliant indigo blue pigment as a natural food dye.  See the pictures below for a view of the brilliant blue color!   You can’t imagine how excited I was.  Even when I lived in Malaysia, bunga telang is hard to come by.  If we see it on vines by the roadside, we would stop the car to pick some.

So what do you do with these blue flowers?  Nasi Ulam or in the East Coast of Malaysia, sometimes refered to as Nasi Kerabu.  “Ulam” means a medley of herbs.  The rice salad is tossed with, yes, a medley of Asian herbs, dried coconut and dried fish flakes.  If you want to keep it vegetarian or serving the rice to less adventurous palates, just skip the dried seafood part.  It tastes just as yummy.

Chef’s tip: Toasting coconut is just as easy on the stove top as in the oven.  Coconut burns really fast, so remove it from the heat source a tinge below your desired color, and it will continue cooking on its own.

3 Tablespoons dried bunga telang, soaked in 1½ cup water
1 cup Jasmine rice
1 cup Jasmine rice + 1½ cup water

2 oz salt cod, soaked 10 minutes, drained, optional
¼ cup dried shrimp, soaked, drained, optional

1 cup shredded, unsweetened desiccated coconut

Herb mix
½ cup mint leaves, chiffonade
½ cup Thai basil leaves, chiffonade
½ cup Rau Ram leaves, chiffonade
½ cup cilantro leaves, chiffonade
¼ cup perilla/shiso leaves. chiffonade
½ cup Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
¼ cup sorrel leaves, finely chiffonade
2 tablespoon kaffir lime leaves, chiffonade
½ cup shallots from 2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 inch fresh tumeric, thin juliennes
1 inch galangal, thin juliennes
1 lemon grass, white only, finely sliced
1 ginger flower, finely sliced
Note: You can use any fragrant herb, if you cannot find all the herbs listed, or try new ones

½ cup roasted peanuts, chopped
1 Tablespoon roasted belachan, optional

Preparing the 2 types of rice:
1. Soak 1 cup of rice in 11½ cup waters with the blue flowers for at least 1 hour.  Remove flowers just before cooking.
2. In a small pot, bring the soaked rice and blue soaking liquid to boil. When it comes to a boil, cover the pot, turn to low simmer, and simmer for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and let it sit, still covered for 10 minutes.
3. In another small pot, bring the white rice and 1½ cups of water to boil. When it comes to a boil, cover the pot, turn to low simmer, and simmer for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and let it sit, still covered for 10 minutes.
4. Fluff the rice and toss together into a large bowl to cool.
Preparing the coconut and seafood, if using:
5. Toast the coconut till golden brown. Add to the big bowl of rice.
6. Soak and drain salt cod and dried shrimp.  Place salt cod in food processor and grind coarsely.  Set aside.  Repeat with dried shrimp.
7. Heat a sauté pan with 1 tablespoon of canola oil and fry the salt cod till fragrant.  Add to the rice.
8. Toast the dried shrimp till fragrant.  Add to the rice.
Preparing the herbs
9. Finely chiffonade all herbs.
Assembly:
10. Toss all ingredients – salt cod, dried shrimp, coconut, herbs – together with the cooled rice.
11. Sprinkle with chopped roasted peanuts and roasted belachan.  Serve at room temperature.

Serves: 8

Tags: Herbs, Malaysian, rice salad, salty, vegan, Vegetarian.