Making Baklawa (Baklava)

Delicious confectionaries and pastries come from the middle east, rich with doughs, nuts, butter, creams or cheeses and dates.

One of the most common desserts that you'll find in nearly every restaurant here is one made simply with paper-thin sheets of dough, boundless amounts of butter, and sandwiched between the two stacks of dough are usually nuts. On the restaurant menus this is usually written as baklava, but Arabs would know it better pronounced as Baklawa.

Granted, its not an easy dish to make, the dough can dry quickly, leaving you with sheets that will crumble in your hands before you can even pick them up, or rip the moment you hold them. I find this dessert is best made when you have a good friend or family member to help you. This is the first middle eastern dessert I'd learned to make, and it also gave me my first burn scars on my arm from handling pans that were actually too large for the oven and my clumsiness.

So given its difficulty, here I'll show you the steps of how you could make it, and ways to make the dish easier. The Arabic style simple syrup is always poured over the top of the finished dessert, so make sure you have a small pitcher of this on the side when you serve it.

First, you'll need a large baking sheet, approx 11x17 inches, or large enough just so the dough will reach all corners of the pan, depending on the size also of your pan. You will need also a basting brush to brush melted butter between your layers of Filo dough.

Here is the dough I used, which is actually around 9x12 inches large. The pan I used was much larger for this batch, but it also works. Using the rolling pin to hold the edges of dough straight while placing the dough was helpful without a partner, but not totally necessary also.  

Walnuts are used as the filling here, but you may also use ground cashews or a mix of nuts. Almonds work well, but because they are more firm, they should be blanched with skins removed before using them.

To make a diamond shaped baklawa, before cooking slice the baklawa lengthwise, then at a diagonal angle. Bake in the oven and watch the magic happen.

After cooking, your baklawa should be nicely golden brown. Add the ground pistachios over each piece for decoration, then re-cut, place 2-3 pieces on a plate and drizzle with simple syrup before serving.

Ingredients:

• 1 package Filo Dough, approx 1 lb (Also spelled phyllo)
• 1/2 lb walnuts, coarsley chopped or crushed.
• 2/3cup sugar
• 1/4c unsalted melted butter 
• 1 TB rose water
• Approx 1/2c unsalted melted butter for layering the dough
• 1/4c finely ground pistachios for garnish
• 1 cup simple syrup recipe for serving

Directions: 

1. Unroll filo dough, leaving it on the plastic sheet below it. Be careful if you bought it frozen: let it thaw outside for 30 minutes and unroll it carefully. 
• If it is still too frozen, wait and let it thaw more. Frozen dough will be more brittle and fall apart. 
• Keep the dough completely covered with a slightly damp paper towel or light towel so the dough doesn't dry out while you are cooking. Dry dough will also be brittle and difficult to work with. 
2. While the dough is being thawed, grind the walnuts and separately. Mix walnuts with 2/3c sugar and rose water and 1/4c melted butter.
3. Start layering dough in the pan: coat the pan lightly first with butter using the basting brush. 
4. Pick up 2-3 sheets of filo dough (whatever you can grab that is not horribly sticking to other sheets, and carefully lay it flat in the pan. Lightly brush the tops of those layers with butter. 
• It is easier to lay the dough flat if you have two people, one person holds two corners, and the other person holds the other two corners to lay the sheets flat on the tray like a blanket.
• If you don't have others to help you, you can carefully aim where you'll lay the dough, or use a rolling pin to assist you in holding the dough straight as in the picture.
5. Repeat step 5 until half of your filo dough is gone. 
6. After having half the filo dough laid out in the pan, add the nuts in a layer around 1/3 inch thick (around 0.75-1 cm).
7. Continue layering the rest of the dough, lightly buttering the sheets every 2-3 layers. Butter the top of the baklawa after you place the last layer of dough.
8. Cut parallel lines vertically down the pan approx 1 inch apart. Then cut diagonal lines around a 30 degree angle also around 1 inch apart to create the shape of a diamond. 
• Please do not skip this step to only cut after baking. The dough is very brittle after baking so if you try to cut it after baking only, your beautiful golden top layer shatters to bits. :-(
• Because of the butter on the top layer of dough, your knife might stick to the dough and pull off of the tray slightly. Apply slight pressure on the dough with your fingertips while cutting to prevent the dough from coming out of place. 
• Also, after every 2-3 lines I made, I rinsed the excess butter from the knife to reduce sticking.
9. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned.
10. Remove from the oven and retrace the lines you had cut before baking. 
11. Lightly sprinkle a little mound of ground pistachios in the center of each piece of baklawa.
12. Place 2-3 slices of cooled baklawa on a plate, and drizzle simple syrup over it before serving.  

Appetizer: Apples with Goat Cheese and Oregano

Want an elegant, healthy appetizer for the holidays, but don't know what to offer? I enjoy making these apple appetizers because they are light, healthy and unlike most appetizers, they are lower in calories. These also taste wonderful as an accompaniment to a nice sparkling cider or Riesling. Offering a nicely decorated platter of these baked apples along with some low fat candied pecans will really wow your guests and leave them munching on more. Cheers to no leftovers!

Apples with Goat Cheese and Oregano

Ingredients:

• 4 small Gala apples
• 1/2 cup goat cheese or reduced fat Swiss or Gouda cheese
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4c fresh oregano sprigs

Directions:

1. Slice apples in half, dig out seeds with a mellon baller, leaving deep round wells in the half apples. divide half-apples into halves again.
2. Add 1/2 tbsp goat cheese into apple wells.
3. Drizzle each apple quarter with around 1 tsp of honey.
4. Add a sprig of fresh oregano on top of each round of cheese, or a bundle of around 3-4 leaves of oregano.
5. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes. Apples will become soft and cheese will begin to melt and also brown slightly.

Nutrition Facts for 2 slices (1/2 apple):
98 total calories, 18g total carbohydrate, 3g fiber, 3 g protein, 1g fat
(1 Carbohydrate, 0 Fat, and 0 protein exchanges)

Practice What You Preach

While I am counseling a patient, sometimes they ask me what I had today for lunch or breakfast. Honestly, I'd love to say I'm healthy ALL the time, but *gasp* I don't think anyone is perfect.  So I try to follow a similar diet that I give to my patients, encouraging them to combine healthy sweetness from fruits with their meals to reduce the craving for desserts afterwards. Also, I am a horrible liar, so if I've eaten an unhealthy meal, I'll never be able to keep it a secret if a patient asks.  Therefore, to keep myself and my clients healthy, I encourage people to follow these three simple rules:

1. Include carbs, protein and nonstarchy vegetables with every meal. Start with filling one 9 or 10-inch plate with around half vegetables, then after you've already set the boundaries of how much food you can put on your plate, fill the other half with food: protein and carbohydrate.
2. Eat the majority of your carbohydrates from whole grains-- high fiber bread, oats, whole wheat pasta and tortillas, bulghur, buckwheat, millet or brown rice. If you limit carbs to 1/4 of the plate, this turns out to be around 2/3 to 1 cup.
3. Eat your proteins from primarily vegetarian sources (beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, or nut butters) or low fat animal meats (chicken, turkey, lean beef, bison, shrimp or fish). If you limit your proteins to 1/4 of the plate, this turns out to be around 3-4 oz, or around 24-32g protein. This is adequate for the majority of the population if it is done twice or three times daily (at lunch & dinner is most common).
4. Usually I snack on cheese and fruit or other dairy throuout the day, so adding it on the side of the meal becomes less necessary, and just added carbs.

So to help all those out there to have healthy diets, and to prove to myself and others that I actually try to follow my own advice, I provide you this account of my meals and snacks that I have been working on for a couple weeks now.  I've taken pictures of all my meals for the last week, no lies. Here, you'll see examples of healthy options, and less healthy ones, plus links to some of my recipes, showing how you can easily balance your meals with lean protein, high fiber, and plenty of vegetables, all in appropriate portions. Plus I'll give you some deliciously healthy snack options in further posts.

For breakfast, I usually eat a high fiber cereal around 4-6 days a week, or a toasted sandwich once a week.  The usual breakfast: 2/3 cup "Trader Joe's High Fiber Cereal," with 80 calories, 9gm fiber, and 23gm total carbs, added to that some ground flax seeds that I bought in a huge bag from costco (for my heart health), and some 2% milk. Altogether, adding up to about 320 calories. Another nice option for cereal is Special K, the "protein plus" variety.

Day 4 Breakfast-- I'm out of cereal! So here goes option two: My favorite bread is by Orowheat, and it is the "Double Fiber" version.  My sandwich contains spinach, a couple slices of tomato and a lite swiss cheese from the brand Jarlsberg (I often use lowfat mozzarella instead, but the bread and cheese I get from Costco, so they are quite cheap!). I drizzled 1/4 cup of egg whites over the top slice of bread and let it slowly absorb. I baked my sandwich on a heat-safe plate in the oven for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees.
236 calories, 34g carbohydrate, with only 26g net carbs, as well as 16g protein, and 4 g fat.

And here are my lunches. I got my portioned lunch containers in a 4-pack of different colors for $14 from easylunchboxes.com.

(Left)Braised lamb shank cooked with vegetables and potato, and a side of roasted beets. As you can see, half of my dinner plate was assorted vegetables-- some are a little higher in carbohydrate, but that's what I had available. Despite my goal for lean meats, I could not pass up that lamb, and the potatoes also which were lower fiber than recommended. Again, I'm not perfect. But at least I achieved one rule out of three (vegetables).
(Right) For lunch the next day I placed leftover lamb and starchy veggies and potatoes from the previous night's dinner in one half of my box, and in the other half a spinach salad seasoned with balsamic vinegar and some diced beets.

Searching through the fridge for leftover meat or protein, I finally settled for chopped tofu for 1/4 plate my protein,  a little steamed brown rice for my 1/4 plate whole grains, and the other 1/2 plate from a mix between broccoletti (a variety of broccoli), some tomato, and a roasted beet. I felt the meal seemed quite boring, so I added chili paste and tried to make my lunch into a happy face. :-) Sometimes, we work with what we've got!

1/4 steamed brown rice, 1/4c shredded boiled chicken, and 1/2 of that lunch was from vegetables seasoned with a little blueberries, balsamic vinegar, black pepper and olive oil. 

Protein is usually a problem for me to find something good, and now I need to go to the store, so my lunch consisted of mostly scraps I found in the refrigerator, freezer, and cupboard. So this morning I boiled some raw chicken tenders with a variety of my favorite spices, and cooked some quinoa with cranberries. The cooking process took around 20 minutes total for both items. and on the side, half of my plate was from chopped tomatoes and cucumber, and a strange-looking bell pepper; at lunch I sprinkled everything with chili en polvo (the tajin brand). 

Leftover steak from last night's dinner, basmati rice, and in the other half of the plate, a spinach salad with  roasted bell peppers and 2 TB guacamole. 

Seriously, I think you've got the picture: healthy vegetables to cover half the plate first. Add healthy proteins and healthy grains. Now the balanced meal is in place. Don't try low carb, the body needs carbs. Focus only on keeping control, and trying as hard as possible to keep these three items on the plate in similar proportions at least at lunch and dinner. Once you get yourself accustomed to thinking about vegetables, the rest comes easily, and soon you will have your meals under great control. Then we can move to focusing on snacking habits. :-) Happy eating!

Cravings and Addictions Begin Somewhere-- Healthy Snacks

Usually, I counsel patients on healthy eating and balancing their plate, eating enough vegetables, limiting sweet drinks, and daily physical activity. Oftentimes I counsel my patients on nutrition for specific disease states like Diabetes or cholesterol, but these days, I see a lot of obesity in adults, teens and children. The quality of the obesity is also getting scarier: I am seeing more patients with fatty liver issues(and a higher risk of non-alcohol-induced liver cirrhosis due to the fat content overpowering the liver), higher rates of diabetes in children, and higher rates of cholesterol and malnutrition. It is scary. I honestly believe the life expectancy of generations born in 1995 and beyond will have a much shorter life expectancy given the poorer average quality of diets and larger variety and availability of junk foods than previous generations.

So I'm hoping some healthy snack advice and great recipes might help.

If a sweet or creamy snack is desired, offer

• Smoothie made from blending 1 cup of low fat milk with 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen fruit
• Fresh apple slices dipped in peanut or almond butter
• Homemade souffle if you feel daring
• Fat free cottage cheese or yogurt with pieces of fresh or frozen fruit.
• Homemade sweet or savory baked sweet potato fries
• Homemade fruit chips you can dip in fat free vanilla yogurt
• Baked apple slices with cheese and honey
• Homemade candied nuts
• Homemade milk pudding, a family favorite for adults as well as the kids!

If a salty snack is desired, offer

• Pretzels with fat free cream cheese
• "Baked" potato chips with pico de gallo salsa
• Homemade popcorn with oil and spices instead of butter
• Slices of fresh fruit, jicama or cucumber with fresh spices (Hispanic around here use chile powder and/or lemon or lime, but Arab friends & family often feed kids the same veggies but with Arab-style spices-- zaatar (dried thyme & sesame), or cumin, sumac, salt and/or lemon)
• Homemade (savory version) baked sweet potato fries
• Whole wheat crackers with guacamole
• roasted peanuts or almonds
• Carrot, celery or broccoli sticks with light or fat free ranch dressing or guacamole 

*steps on little soap box, clears throat*
So, I find it scary that I've been seeing a 28 year-old mom regularly for 3 months now for diet management: her diet is weakened by her addiction to sweet and salty snack foods, and oftentimes replaces her meals with these. She has developed pre-diabetes, cardiovascular disease and the beginnings of fatty liver that are giving her blurred vision, night sweats, urinary frequency, unusual amounts of fatigue, chest pains, and scarily vivid dreams. Meanwhile, she still doesn't mind feeding her 4-year-old child top Ramen for lunch, Doritos for a snack on the way to see the dietitian, and after finishing the bag of Doritos in my office the child was promised ice cream if she is a good girl. Wait what? A junky treat after eating junk for lunch and snack?
I don't care if the child is thin, nor do I care if she will "burn it off," it is a poor quality fuel, and will cause problems internally after a year or two before mom even sees that child start to gain weight.
I know children should be allowed to be children, have an ice cream for a treat, have a candy with friends... I agree they should enjoy life rather than worry about what they eat. This is true.
Please, parents, if your child asks for something unhealthy and you know that they've eaten nothing but junk, then tell them sorry, not today, you've already had a lot of special foods today. You can have some in a couple weeks. Save the special food for a special day. If you do, that special day will be so much more special! They will understand if you spend 20 seconds explaining to them. Offer them a variety of healthy choices, like grapes, apples and peanut butter, strawberries, carrots, wheat crackers, yogurt, low fat milk or a string cheese, and give them the freedom to choose one of these healthy options they like best. If they are truly hungry, they'll eat  what is offered. If they keep begging, chances are that they aren't really hungry, they just want to see how far they can push your authority. They have the right of freedom to choose, but its your job to provide them with guidance of what to choose from. Please don't feel bad, they will get over it.
Your body deserves more than unreal snack foods that exist just to get you addicted. You are too good for that. You deserve better. And so do your children.
*steps off soap box, somber, deflated*

I love Nuts

Many arabs like to offer guests that visit a cup of tea or coffee and oftentimes bowls of salted or raw nuts for  snack with fresh fruit or sweet pastries. I get bored offering my guests the same thing as all the neighbors, so I have a little twist to make my snacks memorable and unique.

Roasted nuts with a little attitude.

So nuts, though they are high in fat, are also very healthy. You'll obtain from them alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a plant-based omega-3 essential fatty acid, required by the human body. Many people take Omega-3 or Omega complex pills made from fish oils as a supplement for heart health. This type of fat aids in improving the HDL (good) cholesterol, and some studies suggest it helps the brain development of the fetus during pregnancy. Of the nuts, walnuts are particularly high in these fats, and are also high in antioxidants and provide a convenient source of protein and fiber. I prize walnuts as essentially the king of nuts for this reason, and I'd encourage using primarily these in recipes involving nuts. Also high in these healthy fats are almonds and cashews, which can also be used especially in families where a walnut allergy is an issue (like for my niece).

Sugar-and-Spice Candied Nuts

Makes approx 16 1/4-cup servings

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup dark-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar (or splenda)
• 1 Tsblespoon paprika
• 2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
• By replacing the first 4 ingredients with 2/3c white sugar and 1/3c unsweetened cocoa powder, you can create some chocolate-candied nuts that are also quite amazingly delicious.
• 1 pound walnuts, pecans, cashews, or raw almonds
• 1 egg white, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon water

Chocolate/sugar powder (left), and cinnamon/sugar powder after coating some pecans (right)!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Mix sugars and spices in a large bowl that has a lid; set aside. 
3. Beat egg white and water until frothy but not stiff. Add nuts, and stir to coat them evenly. 
4. Remove nuts from the egg white, strain them momentarily to make sure they are not too drippy. 
5. Place them in the bowl of sugar and spices, put the lid on, and shake or toss until evenly coated. 
6. Spread sugared nuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet fitted with parchment paper or foil. Bake for 15 minutes, shaking the sheet occasionally to stir up the nuts. 
7. Remove from oven, and separate nuts as they cool. When completely cool, pour the nuts into a bowl, breaking up any that stick together.
8. And now munch delightfully!

Nutrition Facts for 1/4-cup of candied walnuts:
202 total calories, 10g total carbohydrate, 2g fiber, 4 g protein, 16g fat
(0.5 Carbohydrate, 3 Fat, and 1 protein exchanges)

Sweet Potato Fries-- Just like the South, but not!

So I don't have a working heater in my house, and the space heaters are sold out. Thankfully, this gives me an excuse turn on the oven to warm myself up.

And there's nothing better on a cold winter weekend than warming up with some good, old fashioned comfort food like sweet potato fries. The difference? These fries are not fried, but baked. They also have a touch of added protein, and are nearly fat free. And they are absolutely delicious as a guilt-free comfort food!
For the savory option: I also make these with 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp garlic powder, and 1 tsp dried oregano instead of the sugar and cinnamon.

Step 1: Cut the sweet potato into thin slices.

Step 2: Dip the sweet potato slices in egg white mixed with cinnamon and sugar. Then bake.
Now I only need to learn self-control. *wink* 

So... Now you want to know how to make it? Here's the recipe. Munch, munch, munch...

Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Makes two servings per sweet potato.
Ingredients:

• 1 large sweet potato, sliced into sticks or wedges
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp sugar (optional, but if sugar is wanted, splenda also works well as a calorie-free replacement)
• enough oil to coat the baking sheet

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil and spray lightly with oil.
2. Place sweet potato sticks on a microwave-safe plate and cook for 1-2 minutes or until they’re flexible.
3. In a shallow bowl or container, whisk egg whites cinnamon and sugar together. Toss sweet potato sticks in mixture but drain off drips before placing them in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.
4. Bake for 10 minutes, then flip pieces and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes more.

Nutrition Facts for 1/2-cup of sweet potato fries:
80 total calories, 15g total carbohydrate, 3g fiber, 1 g protein, 1g fat
(1 Carbohydrate, 0 Fat, and 0 protein exchanges)

Apple Chips

When your parents go to a farming community known for its apple orchards, and they get awed and excited by wall-to-wall apples, the results might sometimes be overwhelming. In my case, the situation is alarming.

My parents returned from Apple Hill in Northern California with two cases (approximately 18 lbs) of apples mixed between Fuji and Granny Smith varieties. I've had two apples every day for the last 2 weeks, and I'm really getting sick of them. Meanwhile, I am bringing home persimmons from friends that want me to make them into persimmon chips for a healthy snack, so I decided last night to try making chips from a few of the apples I've got.
I use usually the mandoline attachment for my food processor to slice the apples horizontally. But you can also purchase a small mandoline slicer for cheap.

Here's my Cuisinart food processor, with the regular blade removed and the mandoline slicer blade attached.

The horizontal cross section of the apple makes a cute little star shape where the seeds would be, and the slicer can slice directly through the seeds, so you only need to shake off any seeds and bake the slices for a couple hours. These apple chips are a great treat for little kids because of the rewarding little star in the center. :-) One small apple makes approximately 15 chips.

Soon I'll post another nice snack with baked apples (and an elegant appetizer with white wine or sparkling cider) involves roasting them with honey, cheese and fresh sprig of spice.

So here's the recipe for apple chips

Ingredients:

• 4 small granny smith or fuji apples

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees, or 200 degrees on convection if your oven is capable.
2. Thinly slice off the top and bottom of the apple, and peel the skin off with a potato peeler.
3. Using a mandolin or food processor attachment, slice the apples into thin 1/16 inch thickness (you can use a knife for this process, but for me it takes some time, and I have trouble getting my slices a uniform thickness, so I prefer to use the machine)
4. Place them on trays with holes for adequate ventilation, my version looks like flimsy aluminum chicken wire, but it works. Dry them in the oven for around 1 hour and 45 minutes, rotating the trays after the first 45-60 minutes of drying so they all cook evenly(if you use a convection setting on the oven, rotating is unnecessary).

You can buy grilling trays/pans for drying food or making chips in the oven here (I waited until spring for grillling season and found some at the dollar store).

Nutrition facts for a serving size of around 12 chips:
60 calories, 15gm net carbs, 4gm fiber, 0g fat, 0g protein (1 diabetic carbohydrate exchange, 0 fat and 0 protein exchanges)