The Time We Spend for a Craving- Sesame Crackers

So this evening, I really wanted some crackers to eat with some cheese that I had in the fridge. Unfortunately, these things don't exist except in big cities. "What?!?" you say. Crackers? No crackers? None. They prefer sweets here in Morocco so the only salty snacks available in my town are popcorn and chips. Neither one really works as a good crackers and cheese snack. I thought about buying some bread, but I eat bread everyday and even toasted, it's still not a cracker. Bread and cheese is good, but I didn't want very many carbs... just a thin cracker was all I wanted.

Hmmm... What to do? I looked through our Peace Corps cookbook. I thought perhaps a very thin bread you could do on the stove would work. I looked through. I didn't want anything that needed time to rise. That eliminated many recipes. Finally I saw one for Sesame Crackers, discovered I had all the ingredients and set off to make them.

The dough was easy, though I did mess it up a bit. I added too much water and it was a sticky mess by the end. I had to add significantly more flour to balance it out. It worked.

Here it is:

Sesame Crackers- copyright the PC Morocco cookbook

2 cups flour
2 T sesame seeds toasted
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 T butter melted
2/3 C ice water
1/4 C Yogurt (I used the plain kind though it doesn't specify)

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together 2 times. Cut in the yogurt. Add the sesame seeds and melted butter. Mix it all up with the water until it forms a dough. Roll it out to 1/8th of an inch. Lightly greese cookie sheet and then bake it in a preheated oven- medium heat- until brown and crispy.

I found there was a lot of dough for one cookie sheet, so I slightly greesed aluminum foil and pulled it off the top of the cookie sheet for each one. This worked especially well as even the non-greesed parts didn't really stick.

These are really good. I recommend them to everyone who has a craving for sesame crackers. I will say though to all of you at home... if I were home, I would just go buy some sesame crackers.

Goat Cheese Bites! I cook again...

So, I decided that this entry needed 2 parts to the title...

I cook again...

Yes, I'm back. I didn't really cook during the summer because it got up over 110 degrees in my concrete oven of an apartment. Then my friend Diana moved here and she's a much more experienced cook than I. I learned a few tricks from her, but stopped being my usual experimental self. So, now that it's me here almost by my self (the new guy is in home-stay with a Moroccan family), I am cooking again! Tonight I made... Goat Cheese Bites. :-)

So this was a total experiment on my part. I had some idea that you could make a batter out of an egg white and some flour. Here's what I did:

• Took a round of goat cheese and cut it into 18 little wedges- not too thick, not too thin.
• Separated the egg white from the yolk.
• Beat the egg white until nice and frothy all the way through.
• Add a tablespoon of flour and a pinch of salt and pepper and beat them all together. It looks nice and thick when it's done.
• Use a spoon to carefully dip the delicate piece of cheese in the batter.
• Heat up some vegetable oil for frying (so get it pretty hot first).
• Drop it in the oil. When you see the bottom get a nice golden brown, flip it over.
• When the other side gets brown, it's done... stick it on a paper towel to absorb the excess grease.
  

Then I proceeded to experiment. I tried different kinds. Here are my favorites:

1. Goat Cheese and Herb bites- I whisked basil, oregano and thyme in the batter. Enough so that you could really see it in there but it was all mixed in well. Really good, but it gets better...
2. Add heated up confiture (jam) to the top of the Herb bites. I used apricot and it added a yummy dose of sweetness to balance out the sour goat cheese.
3. Mix a little bit (maybe a half spoonful) of honey into the batter for Honey Goat Cheese Bites. This is good too with the sweetness inside.

Here's an idea that my friend Jeremy had... I unfortunately cannot try this as we don't have raspberries here in my town. These would make a tasty and attractive appetizer if you put a little raspberry sauce on top with 1 or 2 fresh raspberries. Or maybe strawberry slices, or perhaps other fruit... You'd have to experiment to see what's your favorite.

Yum!