Going Egg KuKu
by Sidonie Maroon, a blue dot kitchen
This Spring, I’m making lots of Kuku-ye Sabzi, a Persian egg dish popular for Norooz, the Iranian New Year, celebrated at the Spring Equinox. Egg dishes are popular throughout the Middle East, and Iranians are especially fond of kuku, a type of open faced baked omelet similar to the Italian frittata and the Arab eggeh.
What’s so special about a kuku? Well, for one the name, it’s fun to watch the puzzled look on people’s faces when I tell them they’re eating kuku. They think I’m cuckoo, but after one bite, they’re hooked. Besides being delicious, the kuku is a great way to use seasonal greens, herbs, and all manner of vegetables. It’s like a crustless quiche, except it uses more vegetables and doesn't call for cream, so they’re less of a custard, but still thick and fluffy. The spicing is exotic—using turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, coriander, and nutmeg. When done right, this makes for a delightful meal out of ordinary eggs. The Kuku-ye Sabzi, or herb kuku, uses walnuts in its batter, which gives a wonderful flavor and texture. I can’t think of another time when walnuts are in a savory egg dish?
Serving the kuku. It’s baked in a round pie dish and flipped onto the serving plate. This makes a visually stunning ‘egg cake’ that’s perfect for sprinkling herbs, scattering cranberries, or creating patterns with walnuts.
There are many types. Some of the most popular are potato, eggplant, winter squash, fava bean, and zucchini. Your culinary kuku possibilities are endless. After making Persian kukus I’ve branched out and am trying other combinations using the same technique. I recently enjoyed one made with chickweed, dijon mustard, sauteed onions, and black pepper
To create the perfect Kuku-ye Sabzi, don’t be afraid of using lots of herbs, just make sure that they’re minced. Saute the onions long enough to bring out their sweetness. Don’t skimp on the fat, it’s needed for flavor and helps release the kuku. Preheat the pie dish in the oven with butter. Heating the dish helps create the golden crust. You can also toast the walnuts and cranberries in the preheating oven. Grind the spices with the other dry ingredients to create more bulk in the grinder. Use fresh local eggs if possible.
More kuku thoughts. While I love the round shape, I’ve also made kuku in rectangular casseroles, or even for an enormous crowd on rimmed baking sheets. I can serve them at a potluck, brunch or as snacks and lunches. They’re good out of the fridge, easy kid pleasers and a wonderful way to get more protein and veggies in without fuss.
Kuku-ye Sabzi
Makes one 9-inch round kuku
Herb kuku is a traditional Nowruz (Iranian New Year) dish celebrated at the Spring Equinox. The green of the herbs symbolizes rebirth, while eggs represent fertility for the year to come.
Equipment
9-inch round pyrex or metal pie plate
Spice or coffee grinder
Ingredients
1/3 cup dried chopped cranberries
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
4 tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoons for pie plate
1 large onion cut into a small dice
6 large eggs
2 cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped
1 cup baby spinach
1 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup finely chopped fresh dill
Spices and dry ingredients
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon toasted and freshly ground cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground coriander seeds
Seeds from 1 green cardamom pod
6 black peppercorns
1 tablespoon potato starch
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) Put the pie plate in the preheating oven, and add 1 tablespoon butter in a few minutes before adding the egg mixture.
2. In the preheated oven, toast chopped walnuts and dried cranberries separately from each other on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, for approximately 5 to 6 minutes.
3. Toast the cumin and coriander seeds until fragrant, and grind in a spice grinder with the other dry ingredients.
4. Heat 4 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat and saute the onions until golden. Chop the herbs and garlic while the onions cook.
5. Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients and spices and beat in with a fork. Fold the garlic, spinach, herbs, walnuts and sauteed onions in.
6. Put the mixture into the heated, buttered pie dish and bake for 25 minutes or until the eggs set.
7. Loosen the kuku’s edges with a knife. Cover with a plate and invert. Garnish with the chopped cranberries.
8. Serve hot or at room temperature with pita bread and yogurt.
Tortilla de patata
Serves 4
1 hour excluding potato soaking time. It is a labor of love recipe
Potatoes, onions, oil, eggs and salt, such simple ingredients for so much flavor. This recipe will give you an authentic tasting Spanish omelet, but uses some innovative techniques to increase flavor and streamline the traditional version, but it’s still a labor of love.
Changes I made
I cut back on the frying oil, and eliminated straining it, so there’s no worry about how to store or use it again. I caramelize the onions first, before adding the potatoes. This increases the flavor. The potatoes soak in water to remove some of their starches, making them tender inside and crisp on the outside. Putting a lid on, while reducing the heat for the first 5 minutes of frying the potatoes, helps give them a jump start. Allowing the eggs and onion-potato mix to sit and pre-cook with residual heat keeps the eggs moist without being too runny.
Ingredients
⅓ cup olive oil
3 medium Yukon gold or other waxy potatoes, cut in half lengthwise, cut into ¼-inch slices, and then cut into randomly shaped triangular chips.
1 medium onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
Flaked Maldon sea salt to taste
Directions
Prepping the potatoes
Wash and slice ¼ inch thick, unpeeled, waxy potatoes. Cut them lengthwise, then lay a potato half down on its flat side, and thinly slice along the half, keeping the potato shape together. Once sliced, holding the potato together, chop it at random angles into small chips. Put the potato chips into a bowl of water, swishing them around to release the starches. I let them sit in the water, changing it several times for at least an hour. You can do this step ahead and even let them soak overnight. Removing the starches helps to make a soft interior with a crispy crust. This is also an excellent trick for making potato salad that tastes like you’re using new potatoes. After the potatoes have soaked, blot them dry with a towel, or send them through a salad spinner.
Caramelizing the onions
Preheat a 10-inch heavy-bottomed skillet, I use cast iron, for 10 minutes, at medium heat. Bring the heat to medium high. Pour the oil in, bringing it up to heat and add the onions. Pan fry the onions for 10 to 15 minutes, caramelizing them. You’ll want them to be sweet and dark but not burnt.
Cooking the potatoes
Add the potatoes, stirring them into the onions. Salt, and turn the heat down to medium about 300 F. Put a lid on the skillet and let the potatoes and onions cook for 4-5 minutes. You’ll want the potatoes to soften but not burn the onions. Take the lid off, stir and turn the heat to medium high, about 400 F. Continue to pan fry until the potatoes are tender and somewhat crisped.
Incorporating the eggs
While the potatoes and onions are cooking, break 6 eggs into a bowl and stir with a fork just enough to scramble them. Don’t whisk or over-mix. They don’t need to puff. Add a pinch of salt for each egg and stir in. Let the eggs sit while you continue frying the potatoes.
Add the hot potatoes and onions into the eggs and fold together, so that the eggs coat everything. Cover the bowl with a plate and let the mix sit for 15 minutes. This allows the flavors of the onions and eggs to penetrate the eggs, and the residual heat cooks and thickens the eggs so they’re creamy in the tortilla.
Cooking the tortilla
The skillet should still have some oil from pan frying. Bring it up to a medium high heat, add the egg and potato mixture and cook for 1 minute, allowing the tortilla to set. Turn the heat down to medium and cook for another 2 minutes. Look under the tortilla and see if it’s golden. Then, flip it by inverting it onto a plate, larger than the skillet. Turn the heat back up, slide the flipped tortilla back in and cook for 1 minute, reducing the heat and cooking for another 2 minutes. Flip it back onto a plate. The tortilla will continue to cook on the plate, so wait 5 minutes before slicing and serving.
The insides should be moist and slightly runny in the center.
Savory Fennel and Rhubarb Quiche with Nouveau Baking Sweet Pastry Crust
1 large quiche in 10-inch tart pan with removable bottom
Luscious creamy quiche with an Italian sweet crust and sour sorrelesque flavor with fennel. You’ve got to taste it.
Ingredients
Saute
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup rhubarb, cut into a small dice
⅓ cup wild fennel greens, chopped fine
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced
Liquids
4 large eggs
½ cup whole milk
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon runny honey
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
Crust
(If wanted, substitute a conventional sweet pastry dough)
Dry
½ cup pre-washed raw quinoa
⅓ cup raw chickpeas
¼ cup flax seeds
1 tablespoon psyllium seed husk powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
⅓ cup sugar
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
Wet
½ cup cold unsalted butter
1 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
¼ cup cold milk or as needed
Directions
Crust
Using a Vitamix or high-speed blender, grind the dry ingredients together at high speed for 1 minute. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl.
Cut the butter into small pieces and work it into the flour by hand until the size of small lentils. Or, return half the flour to the blender, add ½ the butter, add the remaining flour and butter, and pulse at a low speed until the butter resembles small lentils. Return to the mixing bowl.
Mix the vinegar into the milk. With a fork, fluff the dough as you add the liquid until a dough forms. Bring it together with your hands and evenly press into a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Take care that the dough comes up to the top of the fluted sides and that all areas are approximately the same thickness.
Prick the bottom of the crust with fork tines and freeze for ½ hour. Blind bake the frozen crust at 425 F for 10 to 12 minutes.
Sauteed Filling, Liquids and Baking
Preheat the oven to 375 F.
Using a medium saute pan, over a medium high heat, melt the butter and saute the onions for 10 minutes.
Add the rhubarb and continue to saute for another 3-4 minutes or until the rhubarb softens. Add the fennel greens and thyme and allow to cool.
Mix the liquids together until smooth. Add the saute, stir, and pour into the blind baked crust.
Set the tart pan on a rimmed baking sheet, on a middle rack, and bake at 375 F for 25 to 30 minutes or until completely set. Allow to cool before removing tart and slicing.
Hortopita Greek Style Greens Pie
Makes one 10-inch pie
Serves 4
1 hour plus 30 minutes baking time
An easy grain free walnut pastry dough with cheesy greens filling.
Walnut Pastry Dough
Ingredients
1 cup walnuts
½ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup flax meal
2 tablespoons psyllium husk powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
½ cup boiling water
Greens filling
¾ cup sheep feta, crumbled
½ cup cream cheese, softened
½ cup dill, minced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup scallions, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed and minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cups of fresh greens, like mustard, spinach, chard... or a mix, chopped (When cooked and squeezed they’ll measure about ⅔ cup.)
Directions for filling
Make the filling first and allow it to chill while you roll the dough. In a heavy-bottomed skillet, using a medium high heat, saute the greens in olive oil until soft. Reduce the heat to low, putting on a lid and allowing them to soften for 3-5 minutes. Rinse the greens under cold water, squeezing out any excess moisture. Combine the remaining ingredients with the greens and mix.
Directions for pastry
Using a Vitamix or high-powered blender, process the nuts and seeds and other dry ingredients together, on high, into a nut and seed flour. I run the machine until I hear the motor slowing down. Try to not have any large chunks of walnuts left, because they’ll tear the dough when rolling.
Dump the nut and seed flour into a mixing bowl, using a spatula to get everything out. Break it up between your fingers until it resembles a fine meal. Add boiling water and vinegar to a liquid measure and pour over nut and seed flour, quickly mixing with the rubber spatula. Continue mixing until the dough solidly comes together. Use 1/2 for the top and 1/2 for the bottom.
Forming the Pie
There’s no need to ‘flour’ the dough when rolling, but some oil on your hands will prevent sticking. When rolling, use parchment paper under both top and bottom of the pie. Roll out the bottom dough as thinly as possible. Lay down a 10-inch pot lid to make a perfect circle and cut away the excess. Do the same with the top. Lightly score an 8-inch circle inside of the bottom dough. Add the chilled filling to this inside circle, patting into a straight-sided mound. Lay the top dough over the filling and press around its form. Bring the bottom excess up to meet the top pinching them together. Use the back of a butter knife to make a decorative edge. Score a design into the top or decorate, making leaves or such, using scraps from the leftover dough. Cut the excess parchment paper away from the pie, leaving enough to lift the pie and move it to the oven.
Baking the pie
Preheat the oven to 400F. If you have a pizza stone, preheat it to bake on, otherwise use a baking sheet. When the oven’s ready, slide the pie onto the stone with the parchment paper under, or put the baking sheet with pie into the oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or under browned and smelling toasted. Allow the pie to cool for 5 minutes before serving.
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