This recipe is an effort to balance what is my seemingly never ending sweet tooth with something savoury. Readers of my blog will assume that due to the number of sweets that I make, that I have an achingly sweet tooth. Not so, really. I don’t eat sweets that often unless they are exceptional (Zumbo, Laduree or Herme) but my natural instinct is to go for savoury. Cakes and sweets are awfully pretty to look at and if you’ve read my About page, you’ll see that I think that they belong in an Art Gallery (true, look at Zumbo’s creations). But savoury is what I crave.

I have a deep seeded fear of deep frying. I burnt my arm badly when I was cooking as a teenager and ever since then I’ve been afraid of it. But things such a Briouats are wonderful because they allow you to have the buttery crispness of deep frying whilst cooking them in the oven. I shall investigate a similar way to do Spring rolls in the same manner although I am not a big Spring Roll fan.

I based these on the delicious Etli Borek pastries that we tried from Ottoman Cuisine at the Taste of Sydney event. The reason why I remember the name so clearly is that the man behind the counter made us all recite the name after him, thereby drumming it into our memories. Sure he was a bit odd, firstly telling us that it was snake but the trick worked. They are earth shatteringly crisp and buttery and serving them scattered with Pomegranate seeds, minted yogurt and sweet chili sauce is ideal. “Ras El Hanout” roughly translated to “Top of the Shop” whereby a spice store would do their own blend of the best spices. No two shops’ Ras El Hanout is exactly the same and I used Herbies Ras El Hanout which was gifted to us at the Allrecipes dinner, which contains a Moroccan blend of 23 spices including saffron. I upped the quantity to what was recommended as I felt it really enhanced the flavour and was over the moon with the flavour. I made these on a rainy night when the sky was dark even at 3pm and by the time I got these on the table 45 minutes after starting, it was pitch dark outside so I hope you’ll forgive the photography.

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I had one of those moments, you know the ones that occur every now and then when you try on your jeans – you know the ones that if you can’t fit into them, you know you have to cut down on the cakes – and they were a little too snug for comfort. I knew exactly why they were too snug, and I knew exactly what I needed to do. It was to make this dip and to snack on it instead of snacking on other less healthy options. I find that when I am peckish, especially around the witching hour of 4pm, I need something crunchy and this dip is great as it gives a nice plain cracker some pretty colour as well as a fabulous taste. It’s also pretty easy with a total of 3 (or 4) ingredients although I will say that most of the work is in the actual preparation of the beetroot.

This is a seriously great dip and I think this was helped along by two things that I bought in the Easter Show’s Best of Show Deli bag: the fabulous Pane Croccante by Brasserie Bread that I served it with from and the ambrosially creamy Country Valley Lush natural yogurt. I didn’t use any fresh herbs as I only had basil and I wasn’t sure if that would work but rest assured it is good without them. Something that I do find is that with beetroot you do get an “earthy” or “dirt” flavour but I didn’t detect any with this dip. And did I mention the jeans now fit again?

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My friend M had her birthday recently. What I didn’t realise was that her birthday is the same date as my our wedding anniversary so when we booked our trip to New Zealand months ago I didn’t realise that we’d be missing out on her birthday. She is such a good friend that she postponed her birthday celebration until we returned. She was having a celebration where a friend of hers Sara, a lovely lady that makes all manner of fantastic Persian delicacies, was making the food for her. So in turn I offered to make dessert for her and I have been dying to try and make a Baklava. I was inspired by Alejandra’s delicious Orange Hazelnut baklava and adapted her recipe.

I adore this dessert, it’s so sweet, sticky and delicious. I wanted to make something that fit the occasion and a flavouring such as rose and pistachio immediately sprang to mind. It’s one of my favourite combinations – if you’re a regular reader you’ll see evidence of my obsession with rose. While I was clarifying the butter I wondered if somehow browned butter would work. Browned butter is wonderfully aromatic with its nutty aroma so what better way to enhance the nutty flavour of a Baklava than using browned butter instead of regular melted butter.

I was nervous, this was my first time making baklava properly. I don’t usually do unusual things for events such as this where other people are tasting my food-certainly I felt out on a limb making baklava for the first time already but when you’re out on a branch, you may as well enjoy your time on the edge. The key to not having a soggy baklava is that the syrup and he pastry must be at opposite temperatures. Either you pour cold syrup over the hot baklava or warm syrup over the cold baklava. I chose the former as the timing suited me to make the syrup the night before and store it in the fridge.

Zereshk Polo Ba Zaferon: Saffron rice with berries

Tadige Nan: crunchy bread

Today is also the day for Persian New Year (at 10pm to be precise) which is what I learned from talking to Sara. We were lucky to try these fantastic dishes which she painstakingly made over 2 days. We were dining with Sara & Shahram; Dean and Penny; Esan and Ellie, Laura and of course M and her boys.

Khoreshte Gheyme Bademjan: Eggplant and lentils with tomato

Shirin Polo: Saffron rice with meatballs

Sara made Persian rice studded with berries, saffron rice with mini meatballs, a delicious eggplant bake with a lentil-ey bean, a rice, egg and chicken layered dish and gorgeously crunchy bread. We feel absolutely spoilt by all of the delicious food. “Sale No Mobarak” or Happy New Year in Persian!

Tachine Morgh: Rice layered with chicken and egg

And did the baklava work? Thankfully it worked a treat. The baklava was crunchy with a light aroma of rose and the ultimate compliment came from the Persian and Iranian guests Sara and Ellie who were very complimentary about it. And like an actress drawn to the drama, or a moth to the flame I am a ham when it comes to food and compliments like that only spur me on and encourage me to enjoy my time out on the proverbial limb.

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