A Cookie, a Cracker, a Celebratory Dip (and a Tribute to Syria)

Free to all: Three recipes for a holiday or really an any-day table

Three treats for the holiday table, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or the New Year—one sweet, two savory, all three delightfully welcome and easy to do ahead.

Mhammara

Let’s start with Mhammara, the distinctive red pepper-pomegranate-walnut dip, sauce, condiment, you name it, the star of so many Syrian tables. The vivid color speaks to the brilliance of all our end-of-the-year holidays, and the technique, so closely allied with the Syrian kitchen, makes it an overwhelming choice to salute that country’s sudden explosion of freedom from the stultifying wickedness of the Assad regime.

Inshallah, Syria’s future will be as bright as a bowl of red peppers.

Jimmy Nardello peppers, just because...

Mhammara, sometimes written as muhammara, is a dense sauce that appears on almost every Syrian table as a meze dip or spread, a rich, dark, brick-red blend of walnuts mixed with both fresh and dried peppers. You eat it with scoops of Arab pita bread, toasted or not, but it’s also good as a dip for a plate of crudités. It’s often served with a garnish of more olive oil and lightly toasted pine nuts. The photo below shows muhammara as served at Akdeniz Hatay Sofrasi, a Syrian restaurant in Istanbul, which was as close as I could get to Syria at the time.

Muhammara at Akdeniz Hatay Sofrası, Istanbul

You may use jarred red peppers for this, but for best results roast fresh sweet peppers over live fire—a gas flame on your cooktop or charcoal embers in the fireplace or on the outside grill. Roast, turning frequently, until the skins are black and blistered. Failing gas or charcoal, you can also roast peppers under the oven broiler until they collapse and the skins blister—but they will not have the intense flavor of flame-roasted peppers. Whatever the method, put the roasted peppers in a paper bag and set aside for 15 or 20 minutes to steam in their own heat and soften. At that point it’s easy to remove the blackened skin, using a paring knife to pull it away. Then cut the peppers open and discard the stems, seeds, and white inside membranes. Chop coarsely for this recipe.

Adjust the heat in the recipe by increasing or decreasing the amount of fresh chilis as well as Turkish red pepper paste, called biber salçasi. Kalustyan’s, the great New York City emporium for Middle Eastern, Asian, and other ingredients, carries Turkish red pepper paste, as well as pomegranate syrup, sometimes called “molasses” (it’s dibsl rumaan in Arabic), another essential for mhammara.

Roast the walnuts and the pine nuts in a 350º oven for 10 to 15 minutes but be careful not to burn them. The walnuts are ready when their thin skins start to flake off, the pine nuts are done when they are golden.

• 2 roasted red chili peppers, peeled and chopped

• 2 or 3 roasted red sweet peppers, peeled and chopped (or use jarred red peppers)

• 1 heaping tablespoon Turkish red pepper paste

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 to 1 1⁄2 cups roasted walnuts

• 1⁄2 cup unseasoned dried bread crumbs

• 2 tablespoons pomegranate syrup (pomegranate “molasses”)

• Sea salt

• 1 scant tablespoon tomato paste

• 4 to 6 tablespoons olive oil

• Roasted pine nuts for garnish

Combine all the ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor, a blender, or a mortar, and blend, crushing, until quite smooth but still with a little texture. Mix in, one at a time, 4 tablespoons of the oil, stirring thoroughly. Check the consistency. You want a spreadable but not too drippy-liquid texture. Add a little more oil if it seems called for. And if it seems too gloppy, stir in a tablespoon or more of bread crumbs.

Spoon the muhammara into a bowl and garnish, if you wish, with the toasted pine nuts. Before serving, top with a dribble of olive oil and serve with crackers or toasted quarters of pita bread. Or with fresh, raw vegetables.

Note: Control the heat by adding more or less fresh red chilis and, of course, more or less Turkish red pepper paste.

Package this up in a small container, tie a bow around it, and offer it with a box of crackers as a holiday gift.

Peg’s Cheese Biscuits

Peg’s cheese biscuits, right out of the oven

An old favorite that goes back many years to a beloved family friend, long gone, alas, but who left behind this simplest of all recipes. I follow the model of Peg, the originator, who always kept a roll of the dough in her freezer, ready to take out, slice into thin rounds, and toss into the oven whenever an unexpected guest showed up. Fifteen minutes later they emerged, crisp, crunchy, and energizing, perfect with a late-afternoon martini in a living room that looked over Camden harbor at sunset.

Peg Shea's cheese biscuits

Peg made these with a sharp, well-aged cheddar but I’ve often made them with a combination of aged pecorino and parmigiana reggiano. A smoky gouda would add something interesting too; above all, the cheese must be of good character and firm enough to grate. As for grating, tedious, yes, but it really does produce better results than just whizzing everything together in the food processor. A little effort often makes a better outcome—important life principle.

• 1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature

• 2 cups sharp cheddar, shredded

• 1 cup flour

• 1/4 teaspoon (more or less) cayenne or other sharp, fragrant chili pepper

• Pinch of salt if needed (depends on the saltiness of the cheese)

Using a wooden spoon or your hands, cream together the softened butter and grated cheese. When well mixed, add the flour and continue to mix well with your fingers. Add the chili (or, if you wish, plenty of ground black pepper). When it all comes together, shape the mixture into a firm log, about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Roll the log back and forth on a lightly floured board, just to make sure there are no air holes in the center, then wrap it tightly in aluminum foil and
refrigerate for at least 2 hours. The log can also be frozen but be sure the foil is tightly sealed to keep it from drying.

When ready to bake, set the oven on 375ºF (190ºC). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Cut the log into 1/4 inch slices and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden and a little brown around the edges. Remove and cool on a rack.

These will keep well in a tin for several days or up to a week. And small tins make very welcome holiday gifts or additions to a friend’s table.

Those New York Times Viennese Crescents

It may have been 1964 when I first made these spectacular Christmas cookies. The recipe reproduced below is from the original 1961 New York Times Cookbook; the legend at the Times is that the company, not believing in the sales potential of a mere cookbook, gave Craig Claiborne, then food editor of the newspaper, complete authority over the publication. The rest, I need hardly say, is history. I have no idea how many copies the cookbook has sold but sixty years on, it is a valuable artifact. I’ve probably made these cookies every year since and they’re still a big hit, with some people actually putting in orders ahead of time.

My process, as you will see, has changed over the years. Most importantly, I’ve introduced a food processor which at the time the book was published, was unknown to Claiborne, or anyone else. Interestingly, Claiborne himself had a major role in promoting food processors when they were introduced to US cooks back in the early 1970s. “Possibly the greatest food invention since toothpicks,” he is said to have said.

For best results, be sure to toast the nuts before chopping—10 minutes in a 350ºF (175ºC) oven should do it, but be careful not to burn them. And don’t be afraid to experiment—pecans are excellent, as are hazelnuts, in the recipe.

Here’s how I make Viennese crescents today:

• 1 cup coarsely chopped, toasted walnuts

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 1 cup (8 ounces, 2 sticks) unsalted butter at cool room temperature

• 2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 cup, more or less, sifted confectioner’s sugar

Combine the walnuts and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process in spurts, pulsing on and off, until the mixture is as finely grained as cornmeal. Add the vanilla and process briefly, then the butter in chunks, pulsing on and off. Add the flour and pulse to mix well, then turn the dough out on a lightly floured board and knead briefly, just to be sure the butter is completely integrated and there are no lumps lurking in the dough. Form into a ball and refrigerate, completely covered, until you’re ready to bake. If the dough is well covered, it can keep several days in the refrigerator.

When you’re ready to bake off the cookies, set the oven on 375º. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Take up the dough by tablespoons and roll into a ball, then flatten the ball on the paper-lined cookie sheet. (A crescent shape is traditional, if you have the time, which I never do.)

Bake the cookies for 18 to 20 minutes, or until they are dry and just beginning to turn golden along the edges. Remove from the oven and transfer to a rack. After a minute or so, sift plenty of confectioners sugar like snow over the cookies.

Once the cookies are cooled to room temperature, keep them in sealed tins. A small tin filled with these Viennese cookies makes a very welcome hostess gift for the holidays.