Auckland pastry chef Petra Galler got a special shout-out from Middle Eastern food maestro Yotam Ottolenghi for her new recipe book.
Butter, Butter: Sometimes more is more features rich, decadent recipes inspired by Petra's Jewish heritage.
Petra Galler Photo: Melanie Jenkins (Flash studios)
She shares with RNZ her recipes for Challah bread (a sweet loaf made with eggs) and Knafeh (a filo pastry dessert soaked with butter).
Galler has loved baking since she was seven years old and for the last five years has done it full-time.
She hopes Butter, Butter can help people feel less fear of baking... and of butter.
"People look at it like it's this really tricky science - in some ways it is. You've got to be precise with your measurements, your timings… but really it's not as intimidating as people think.
"Once you get into it and you've got the basics down, anyone can do it."
A few years ago, an obsession with wellness had many people going dairy-free and sugar-free but dietary measures and cake don't go very well together, Galler says.
"Bring back real cake. If I'm gonna eat something sweet, I want all the butter, all the flour, all the chocolate."
Many recipes in Butter, Butter feature Middle Eastern flavours like spice, citrus, orange blossom, and rosewater.
"I've eaten Middle Eastern food and bold-flavoured food my entire life so this kind of cooking is really normal for me."
Knafeh – a shredded filo pastry dessert – is something Galler says many New Zealanders haven't yet tried.
"On paper, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense… there's fetta and ricotta and orange blossom. It looks pretty odd but honestly, it's heaven."
Challah bread – the only recipe in Butter, Butter that doesn't contain butter – is a brioche-like loaf that was one of Galler's childhood loves.
Every Friday she'd buy two loaves from her Jewish primary school to take home for Shabbat (the Jewish day of rest) and eat almost one whole loaf on the bus.
Challah contains more sugar than other styles of bread and eggs for added richness: "It's this pull-apart bready soft… it's really divine."
Galler says she was "deeply uncool" when meeting Yotam Ottolenghi, who was visiting his friend Peter Gordon in Auckland: "I was so excited it was embarrassing."
After a family friend delivered a copy of Butter, Butter to Ottolenghi's restaurant in London, Galler received a video from the star chef himself.
"I honestly nearly died. He's the number one for me, I adore him, so it was a dream."
After moving on from Peter Gordon's Homeland cooking school, Galler is now happily "semi-unemployed", baking cakes to order and taking life as it comes. One day she might open her own bakery.
"It's gonna be an adventure, I can feel it."
Recipe: CHALLAH
"Image from Butter, Butter by Petra Galler" Photo: Melanie Jenkins (Flash Studios)
I have so many fond memories of eating challah. I went to a small Jewish primary school and every Friday we had the opportunity to buy a couple of loaves to take home to our families for Shabbat. We never really celebrated Shabbat in our household, but we definitely celebrated bread, so every Friday without failure I would hop on the bus home with two pillowy loaves in hand. I don't think the loaves ever survived the 10-minute bus journey intact. It's almost brioche-like in sweetness but has this gorgeous thready, pull-apart texture that makes it near impossible to resist. Once you start, it's very hard to stop, so either don't even try it, or commit to the whole loaf! I would choose the latter. The recipe below is enough for two braids and is best eaten on the day it is made. If there are leftovers, however, it's divine lightly toasted with lashings of butter, or turned into French toast.
Recipe: KNAFEH
'Image from Butter, Butter by Petra Galler" Photo: Melanie Jenkins (Flash Studios)
On a family trip around Israel, Palestine and Jordan I think I ate my weight in knafeh. Actually, I know I did. But it wasn't until our last stop in Amman when Nirvana was really reached. I had heard of the hole in the wall, Habibah, and it turned out to be a mere 100 metres from our hotel, easily spotted by the hordes of people streaming from the tiny alleyway holding plates of pistachio-bejewelled, syrupy heaven. I have forced this dish on a fair few sceptics and every time it has been met with surprised delight. Kataifi pastry, popular throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean, is a threadlike dough, and is often referred to as 'shredded filo dough' although that is not technically accurate. Unlike filo, kataifi starts as a crêpe-like batter, which is dripped into a rotating metal plate with fine spouts. The long strands are spun out, briefly dried and cooked until you are left with vermicelli-like strings. You will find kataifi pastry at Middle Eastern and Mediterranean grocers in the freezer section. It's crunchy, cheesy, sweet and sticky and may make little sense on paper but I implore you to try this recipe - you won't be sorry.
