Cranberry Malabi

December slipped in when I wasn’t looking. Last week, Thanksgiving was a cozy blur of happy times with Sam home from college, football, good food, and celebrating with family and friends. And now we’re nearing the end of another festive holiday, Hanukkah. I can’t keep up!

Before I flip my calendar page to December, I want to share with you what we were cooking with for Tasting Jerusalem in November. Pistachios! Pistachios are quite popular in Middle Eastern cooking and baking. The best baklava I ever tasted was a version with green pistachios at the Abulafia Bakery in Tel Aviv. Truly a decadent treat. Another delicious sweet that I enjoyed while in Israel was malabi, a milk-based pudding. There are several names for this luscious custard, including muhallabieh (as it’s called in Jerusalem), sutlaj or sutlach. No matter what it’s called, it’s creamy and wonderful and I can eat it by the bowlful.

When I spotted the recipe in Jerusalem, I knew I had to make it. Traditionally, malabi is flavored with rose water and topped with a drizzle of sweet syrup and pistachios. Since I had Thanksgiving flavors on my mind when I was dreaming about a dish of malabi, I came up with a variation using cranberries and maple syrup as a topping and swapped out the rose water for vanilla. I also used cream in place of water with the milk, making it rather like a rich panna cotta. The pudding here is made with milk, cream, sugar, vanilla and cornstarch and whisked together over heat until smooth and custardy (this happens quickly, so be sure to remove from heat the moment it thickens to avoid lumps).

For the topping, I stirred together fresh cranberries (such pretty little jewels!) and maple syrup over medium heat until the berries were bursting and bubbling away. Both the pudding and topping can be made ahead and chilled before layering. I spooned the pudding into wine and champagne glasses for an elegant dessert and then topped each with a smooth layer of the cranberries and a scatter of chopped pistachios.

The bright, tart flavor of the cranberries contrasts nicely with the creamy sweetness of the pudding, while the pistachios add crunchy texture. The cheery red and white colors make this a merry dessert for Christmas or New Year’s Eve, too.  And with the frigid cold we’re having outside now, I don’t need any reminders that December has indeed arrived!

Cranberry Malabi
Serves 6
Adapted from Jerusalem: A Cookbook
By Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

6 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
6 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups fresh cranberries
3/4 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons unsalted pistachios, roughly chopped

For the pudding, whisk the cornstarch together with 6 tablespoons of the milk until it forms a paste. In a saucepan, stir together the rest of the milk, cream, sugar and vanilla and warm it over medium heat until it begins to steam. Whisk in the milk/cornstarch paste and keep stirring until it turns to custard. I found this happened very quickly, so be ready to pull it off the heat. Pour the pudding into 6 pretty glasses or dishes. It’s nice to use clear glass so you can see the contrast in colors. Cover and place in the fridge to chill.

For the topping, stir the cranberries and maple syrup together in a saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes. The berries will start popping, so stir often to prevent sticking and mash them gently against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon. When the sauce has thickened, remove from heat and chill.

Both the pudding and sauce can be made the day before. When ready to serve, divide the sauce between the 6 custards and gently smooth. Garnish each with a sprinkle of chopped pistachios and serve.

Cranberry Quince Sauce

My dining room table is covered with cookbooks and old issues (sniff) of Gourmet magazine (love those Thanksgiving editions!). All are open to various recipes I have made in the past or want to try for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner. For a few evenings now I’ve had to gather the stacks and move them so we can eat dinner. The books then quickly return to spread out again as I make my menu and shopping list. So many tempting choices for this one festive meal ... why can’t Thanksgiving be eight days long like Hanukkah?

I love trying creative twists on traditional favorites. Cranberry sauce lends itself well to experimenting. Cooked or raw, spiced or simple, cranberries are amazingly versatile and it’s always fun to mix in different flavors and textures.

Something new in my fridge are quinces that I picked up on impulse at the market. I haven’t cooked with quinces before and decided it was time. Quinces are in the same family as apples and pears, but unlike those the quince needs to be peeled and cooked first before eaten (according to what I’ve read, roasted, baked and poached are all good methods). The quince is hard and bland when raw, but when given some heat it transforms into a soft, floral, delicious fruit and the flesh becomes a rosy pink blush (they are high in pectin, as well, so I may try making quince jam this fall!).

When simmered in apple cider, the chopped quinces became fragrant and sweet and I could easily have stopped there and spooned some over pancakes. But I wanted cranberry sauce, so I poured in my fresh cranberries, some honey and maple syrup and started stirring. The lovely pop of cranberries soon began, and as they bubbled away a jewel-toned sauce emerged. I tasted a bit and was pleased with the results – tart with just the right touch of sweetness plus some added texture from the softened quince.

This is a quick sauce to make and cranberry flavor shines. In addition to your Thanksgiving table (or your turkey sandwiches), this would be terrific adorning a cheese plate.

Cranberry Quince Sauce
Makes 2 cups

2 quinces, peeled, cored and diced small
1 cup unfiltered apple cider
12 ounces fresh cranberries
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon maple syrup

In a medium sized sauce pan, combine the diced quince and apple cider and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the quince pieces are soft, about 8-10 minutes. Add the cranberries, honey and maple syrup and increase the heat to medium. Stir often and let cook until it thickens into a saucy texture, about 10-15 minutes. You’ll hear the lovely pop of cranberries! Watch closely to make sure it doesn’t start to stick or burn and lower heat if necessary. I like to make sure some of the cranberries stay whole for added texture. Remove from heat and let cool. Keep in the fridge for up to a week.

Cranberry Bread: A Family Tradition

This time of season evokes thoughts of family traditions and memories of holiday celebrations. Thanksgiving, in particular, sends me flying back to my childhood table. When I moved away from home and began cooking in my own kitchen, I took many of my mom’s recipes with me. They were the building blocks in the creation of my own repertoire of recipes and I am still cooking many of them years later.

Every year, I pull out the five pages of handwritten Thanksgiving recipes from my mom. In these pages she shares her menu for dishes such as scalloped corn supreme, cranberry salad, autumn stuffing, cranberry velvet pie and her delectable sour cream coffee cake (wonderful for breakfast on Thanksgiving Day). She includes notes and tips from her experience in preparing this holiday feast - so helpful for me as a novice cook, and great reminders now! She ends the pages of notes by writing, “Good luck – a lot of fun work and worth it!” I have found this to be very true.

Looking over these splattered, rumpled pages, I lingered on the recipe for cranberry bread. It’s a recipe my younger brother, Mike, brought home from his preschool (as noted by my mom) and that we enjoyed on our Thanksgiving table every year after that. It’s full of fresh cranberries and toasted walnuts, with a subtle citrus flavor. My mom always baked the bread in mini-loaf pans and placed one at each person’s setting on the table. I loved having my own individual loaf and carefully cutting little slices to devour!

As I got older, I began making this cranberry bread myself and it always tastes of Thanksgiving and family to me. Thanks, Mom.

Cranberry Bread
Makes 1 9x5 inch loaf or 4 mini-loaves

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup orange juice
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, roughly chopped or pulsed a few times in a food processor
1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x5 loaf pan or 4 mini-loaf pans.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars together. Add the egg and orange juice and mix until blended. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and beat into the butter mixture. Gently fold in the cranberries and walnuts until just mixed.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake until golden and a tester has just a few moist crumbs on it (about 25 minutes for mini-loaves, 45 minutes for a big loaf). Let cool before removing from pan(s).