New Year's Feast

We had our closest friends over for New Years, so I prepared the usual repast. I know it was only 9 of us (with 4 of them being under the age of consent), but I can't help it. I have to prep a lot of food, mostly because you never know what sort of flavour you might require.

You know, when you are inebriated.

The kitchen island was covered in all kinds of tapas. There was:

- Sufganiyot
- black olives
- green olives
- lobster claws with a homemade dijonaisse dip
- spanakopita (2 ways - puff pastry or filo)
- all kinds of cheese
- mushroom vol-au-vents
- proscuitto
- salami
- homemade lemony taheena (my specialty)
- shankleesh (a turkish cheese dip I make)
- israeli style of hot sauce
- black olive hummus (purchased from Sababa)
- palm leaf cookies
- cinnamon sugar palm leaf cookies
- roasted cauliflower (to be discussed in a future post - thought I already had written about my cauliflower dish, but can't seem to find it)
- freshly made gravlax
- bourekas
- fruit and berries
- a bunch of store bought stuff like pitas, crackers, Ritz (my guilty pleasusre) and Rivi's cookies

It also is intersting when you have crazy friends who KNOW you go a little insane when you host (ie., cook a shit load of food) and they bring an entire meal of our favorite Thai take out. They brought shrimp coconut curry, chicken and shrimp pad thai, chicken fried rice, jasmine rice and sweet and sour chicken. You know, just in case we got hungry.

I can't even remember what else we had. If I can't see it in the picture below, then I don't remember it. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH INEBRIATION. Really. Its only because it was already a week and a half ago, and I simply can't remember. SERIOUSLY.

The spanakopita is pretty easy to make, regardless of whether you make it in puff pastry or in filo. For the feta mixture, you mix a whackload of feta with chopped up fresh baby spinach, approximately equal amounts. Add a beaten egg, a tablespoon or so of chopped fresh dill, some pepper, a few garlic cloves and mix it all together. If you are using (store bought) puff pastry, roll out the cold pastry to a thin layer, using lots of flour to stop it from sticking to anything, cut it in the sizes/shapes you want, add a bit of the mixture and seal it using a bit of beaten egg as a glue and use the fork to mash it down on the edges.

Once you put it on a baking sheet lined with parchement, put it back in the fridge to get cold again.

If you are using filo pastry, use a pastry brush with melted butter to layer the filo. Since filo dries super quick, you need to keep the sheets under a very slightly moist cloth, with a piece of wax paper on top of the filo. So you take one sheet of filo, and as quick as you can try and brush the melted butter on it, and add another sheet of filo on top of it. If it rips, which it will, just put it back together as best you can. Its a bitch to work with.

I put 5 sheets together before I got totally frustrated and said screw it. Once the sheets are done, put a lot of the feta mixture on it and roll it up.

Use the melted butter to seal it. Its just like licking an envelope.

Score the top of it, brush it with melted butter and lay it on a parchment covered baking sheet.

You can bake both the filo and the puff at the same time in a 350 oven. Keep an eye on them, and when they are golden and crisp, take them out. I can't remember how long each baked for. I would put it in for 20 minutes, and keep an eye on it. If its not done, keep it in for longer.

I realize now that the only pictures I have of the finished product are on the fully laid island, and its not the clearest. Oops.

With whatever was left over of the spanakopita (both filo and puff) tasted very nice the next couple days once you heated it up in the toaster oven.

The cinnamon sugar palm leaf cookies are really easy and totally yummy. Roll out a sheet of puff pastry nice and thin. In a small pot, melt a wodge of butter. Once melted, add an equal amount of brown sugar and cinnamon to taste. I like it very cinnamony, so I added a lot. Mix it together. Once it is well mixed, shmear it all over the rolled out pastry.

Roll up on both sides.

Let it get cold in the fridge for a while, then slice and bake on parchment paper in a 350 oven until done. Start at 15 minutes and see where you are at.

They expand quite a bit when they are cooked, so give them lots of room on the cookie sheet.

RULES FOR A GOOD PARTY: put out lots of food, lots of booze, invite cool people. Add some great music, and Bob's your Uncle. Instant Excellent Party.

Happy New Year to All.