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Turte cu julfă
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Turte cu julfă

Hemp seed cream pastry stack

On Christmas Eve (Ajunul Crăciunului), the last day of the Advent fast, old Moldavian households around Neamț and Suceava set out turte cu julfă: paper-thin baked sheets of dough stacked with a sweet cream of ground hemp seed and crushed walnuts. The sheets are said to stand for the swaddling clothes of the Christ child, and the whole cake is vegan so it can be eaten while the fast still holds. Soaked with syrup and left overnight, it softens into a dense, nutty, gently sweet slice. Buy food-grade hulled hemp seeds (hemp hearts), which are sold as a food and contain no intoxicating THC. A common mistake is cutting the cake straight away; it needs a night in the fridge to soften and hold together. Chef's tip: bake the sheets a day or two ahead and let them dry on a rack, as dry sheets soak up the syrup more evenly.

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by KrazyBadal 0 views

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Pounded yamPounded yam dough

Pounded yam, iyan in Yoruba, is the pride of Ekiti and Oyo tables, where it is still pounded in a big wooden mortar on Sundays and at celebrations, the thud of the pestle carrying down the street. Boiled white yam is beaten until it becomes a smooth, elastic, slightly sticky dough that is torn off by hand and dipped into egusi, efo riro or okra soup. At home most people now use a stand mixer or food processor instead of a mortar. It has to be true African white yam (puna yam), not orange sweet potato, which some shops label as yam. Chef's tip: pound or mix the yam while it is still very hot; as it cools the starch sets and it turns lumpy instead of stretchy.

40 minNigerianSidesVeganGluten free
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Pasta e fagioliBean and pasta soup

In Naples pasta e fagioli (pasta e fasule in dialect) is thick enough to stand a spoon in, made with cannellini or borlotti beans, a few cherry tomatoes, garlic and broken pasta cooked straight in the bean broth. It is a cheap, filling Friday-night meal in many Neapolitan homes, and the bean starch, not cream or cheese, makes it velvety; this version stays vegan. Chef's tip: blend a ladle of the beans before the pasta goes in; it thickens the soup naturally so the pasta is coated, not swimming.

45 minItalianSoupsVegan
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Pasta e patatePasta with potatoes

Pasta e patate is Neapolitan home cooking at its most thrifty: potatoes and mixed broken pasta (pasta mista, the odds and ends from many packets) cooked together in one pot like a risotto, until the potato breaks down and the starch makes everything creamy. Naples families eat it on weekday evenings in winter, and many stir in cubes of smoked provola at the end so it goes stringy (pasta patate e provola). Children love it. Chef's tip: cut half the potato small and half larger; the small pieces melt into the sauce while the larger ones keep their shape.

40 minItalianPasta & Noodles
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