Umm Ali

Umm Ali means “the mother of Ali”. I don’t who she was but she certainly knew how to create a good dessert!

I first had this dessert in a hotel in Doha, the capital of Qatar. It was one of those events that, even at the time, I realised was a key moment in my life – I had discovered something too delicious for words!


Since then, I have scoured many recipes and websites for a recipe to replicate the dish. It seems to be a recipe that many countries in the Middle East have different versions of; some use filo pastry, some use bread but I knew the one I’d eaten was puff pastry.

So, there I was – bereft of a decent Umm Ali recipe – when I lamented my hardship to Jasmin, a colleague of mine. Jasmin grew up in Dubai and knows all about Umm Ali so felt my pain. About an hour later the recipe for authentic Umm Ali arrived in my inbox! Jasmin knew someone, who knew a chef and thus the recipe was found. Further proof that what matters in this world is who you know! Thanks Jasmin!

I tweaked the recipe slightly so it replicated the version I ate in Doha. It’s the sort of recipe that tolerates a bit of variation and you can pick the nuts you prefer – as long as you chop them and keep the quantities the same, it will work. As you know by now I am a vanilla freak so also added a vanilla pod, which probably isn’t authentic at all.

Unusually, you cook the puff pastry and then chop it up. I guess this is why it’s called “puff” pastry:


Add some nuts and raisins:


Then smother in cream, milk and sugar...are you starting to realise why this will be delicious?


Just for good measure, add some whipped cream on top:


Bake in the oven, serve up and you have the ultimate comfort pud:


A spoonful of creamy, nutty, pastry goodness. If you can tear your eyes away from what’s on the spoon, you will see my red camera reflected in the metal:


Don’t worry, this soon got eaten...


Ingredients:
250g baked and crushed puff pastry (I used ready made)
50g sliced almonds, plus some extra for sprinkling on top
30g chopped pistachios
30g chopped pine nuts or raisins/sultanas
600ml whipping cream
200ml milk
50g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod

How to make:

- Bake the puff pastry according to the instructions on the packet. Mine required 15-20 minutes at 220°C/fan oven 200°C/425°F/Gas mark 7.
- Cut the cooked puff pastry into small squares and place in a 20cm ovenproof dish. My dish was a ceramic lasagne dish and the sides were fluted so that the top of the dish was bigger. If your dish has straight sides you might want to use one slightly bigger than 20cm.
- Scatter over the nuts and raisins.
- Preheat the oven to 250°C/fan oven 230°C/500°F/Gas mark 10.
- Put 300ml of the whipping cream, the milk, sugar and vanilla pod (cut and scrape the seeds out) into a saucepan and bring to the boil. As soon as it starts to boil, remove from the heat and pour, through a sieve, over the pastry in the bowl. Tidy up the pastry so that it is all covered by the cream – when you pour it over, it gets disturbed.
- Leave to soak for 5 minutes.
- Whip the remaining cream (300ml) and spoon onto the creamy pastry mix. I piped it which proved utterly pointless as it collapses in the heat of the oven!
- Bake until golden brown – this will take approximately 15 minutes.
- Scatter some chopped nuts over the top. I used almonds.
- Allow to cool slightly before serving.
- It is nice to have some additional cream to pour over – this is optional.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.

Finally you can see what The Caked Crusader and Boy Wonder look like....

...thanks to the super-talented Jessie, of Cakespy:

What the Caked Crusader chose to bake to this week (5 July 2008)

It’s strange how you can have a CD in your collection and go for ages without listening to it but then someone else mentions it and suddenly it’s the only album you want to hear! My brother mentioned Tom Waits’ masterpiece “Blue Valentine” (a pox on the two Amazon reviewers who only give it 4 out of 5) and ...guess what I baked to this week? Yep. Blue Valentine!

Tom Waits’ songs are usually sad tales of hard boiled drifters and losers. The comparison has often been made between his songs and the paintings of Edward Hopper and I also see a comparison between his characters and the great Noir thriller novels of the 1940s and 50s – Raymond Chandler, James M Cain et al.

Blue Valentine was released in 1978 but is utterly timeless; the blues guitar and bluesy growling vocal could have been recorded yesterday. It’s so hard to nominate a “best track” on such a wonderful album but, for me, it’s “Wrong Side of the Road”. I can’t even begin to pretend I know what a lot of the lyrics mean but they just sound cool:

strangle all the christmas carols
scratch out all your prayers
tie ‘em up with barbed wire
and push them down the stairs

While we’re on the topic, why would you choose to drive all the way to Reno on the wrong side of the road? Answers on a postcard to.....

Rhubarb meringue pie

I have always loved the concept of lemon meringue pie; it looks gorgeous - like a cloud has landed in a pie plate - and you get lots of different flavours and textures in a single slice. In fact, the only thing holding me back from forming a lifelong love affair with lemon meringue pie is the small matter of my lemon loathing. I may well have found the answer.


There’s no need to pipe the meringue but I’m obsessed with piping everything at the moment:



Rhubarb provides the same tart contrast as lemon does to the sweet sticky meringue and, as the CCD (Caked Crusader’s Da) had harvested the last of the summer’s rhubarb crop it seemed wrong to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Here’s the rhubarb waiting to be covered in a duvet of meringue:


Rhubarb, left to its own devices, is very tart – mouth puckeringly so. What interested me with this recipe was that you use a combination of sugar and orange juice to sweeten the rhubarb. The orange juice worked beautifully and seemed to bring out a delightful depth of flavour in the rhubarb. It was intriguing as the first ‘hit’ of flavour was the tart rhubarb then the sweet orange came through and left you with a fresh citrus taste.

The rhubarb filling sets very firm allowing lovely crisp slices to be cut:


I served it with thick cream, but in truth, it didn’t need it (believe me, this is not a comment I make lightly!).

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
173g plain flour
120g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons icing sugar
2 egg yolks - keep the whites for the meringue!
Plus, a further 2 egg yolks for sealing the pastry after baking blind – keep the whites for the meringue!

For the rhubarb filling:
675g rhubarb, chopped
75g caster sugar
Juice of 3 oranges (if you want to use bottle juice, this amounts to 250ml)
75g cornflour
1 egg yolk

For the meringue:
4 egg whites – saved from the stages above!
175g caster sugar

To serve: whipped cream

How to make:

- First make the pastry. Place the flour, icing sugar and butter in either a food processor or mixer and blend until the texture fine breadcrumbs.
- Add the egg yolks and mix until the dough comes together.
- Using your hands, make the dough into a smooth ball. Flatten slightly then wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.
- Grease a 23cm fluted flan tin and then roll the pastry out and use to line the tin. I roll my pastry out between two sheets of baking paper as this eliminates the need to dust the surface with flour.
- Once in the tin, cover the pastry with either baking paper or non stick foil and weigh down with baking beans.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the baking beans and paper and brush the pastry with the two beaten egg yolks. This will seal the pastry and stop it becoming soggy from the juicy rhubarb.
- Return the pastry, uncovered, to the oven for a further 15 minutes, or until the pastry is crisp and golden.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack.
- While the pastry is cooking, make the rhubarb filling. Put the chopped rhubarb in a large pan with the sugar. Cover the pan and cook on a low heat for five minutes. Then remove the lid and keep cooking until the rhubarb softens. Rhubarb collapses when it cooks and that’s what you’re aiming for – you don’t want any hard lumps left. Stir every now and again to encourage the rhubarb to break down.
- Mix the cornflour with the orange juice. Remove the rhubarb from the heat and stir in the orange juice/cornflour mixture.
- Return the pan to the heat and bring to the boil stirring all the time. This will thicken the rhubarb.
- When the rhubarb is at boiling point, cook it for a further 2 minutes then remove from the heat.
- Allow to cool slightly before beating in the egg yolk. If you do this straightaway the egg might scramble so be patient!
- Pour the rhubarb into the pastry case. You can make the dish up to this point the day before serving. Let the rhubarb cool in the pastry case then cover and chill. If you make the meringue the day before it might weep.
- Finally, make the meringue topping. Whisk the three egg whites until the soft peak stage.
- Preheat the oven to 150°C/fan oven 130°C/300°F/Gas mark 2
- Continue to whisk and add the sugar gradually until it is fully incorporated.
- Whisk until the stiff peak stage before spreading or piping over the rhubarb.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until the meringue is crisp on the outside and golden brown.
- Serve either warm or at room temperature but definitely with cream!
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.