Shabboth Cooking

Yom Kippur Koton

2007-07-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

YK kotn is called thus because it's only one. For the two days of regular YK are called "one day" two, I mean: too, yummu arichtah, so to make things clear, the biblically commanded fastday before RCh is called a yummu arichtah koton.

Eyes of Haman- A Special Purim Bread

2006-03-13T21:04:00.000-08:00

Ideations of symbolic or actual violence are all in vogue this season, whether it is the roving Jewish Purim gangs of early modern Europe, or the blithe eating of Oznei Haman by delighted school-children.
My family's purim tradition is a fanciful bread known as "Ojos de Haman", Eyes of Haman. An egg in the middle, gleefully ripped out and distributed to participants in the Purim Seuda, represents the much-vaunted eye, and our triumph over Haman. These are great as Mishloah Manot because they are two berakhot in one and actually can be used as part of your seuda.

Eyes of Haman

6 hardboiled eggs
6 cups white or whole wheat flour or a mixture (and some gluten to add if you are using all whole wheat)
1 packet dry active yeast
2 eggs
3 tbsp oil
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 cups (plus a little more or less) hot tap water

Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Crack the eggs into a 2 cup liquid measure and add the oil, then fill it up the rest of the way with hot tap water. Add to the bowl and stir until the dough holds together enough to be kneaded for a while on a lightly floured surface, adding more flour or water if the texture is too sticky or dry. When you are done, the texture should be smooth and elastic. Oil the mixing bowl and turn the dough into it, turning it over in the bowl once so that a bit of the oil is on the bottom and the top. This keeps it from drying out. Set in a warm place with a damp dishtowel over the bowl for 45 mins or untill doubled in bulk. Punch down. Take challah. Divide into 6 disks plus a 6 little leftover bits.
Punch a slight depression in the center of each disk and place an egg inside. Roll up the bits into long snakes, then pinch them in half and stretch over the egg in an X, anchoring in the dough disk. With a scissor, cut 5 or 6 cuts into the disk, pull them out slighlty, and pinch into decorative points- see above. Preheat your oven to 350. Let the shaped breads rise for a bit, then wash them with egg and pop them in the oven untill they are golden brown and thump hollowly when tapped on the bottom.

Purim Sameah!

Hol Cooking I

2006-03-08T16:32:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't been cooking so much for shabbat lately, due to a combination of having gotten invited out alot and going away, but I have been cooking during the week, both to have healthy dinners and leftovers to take for lunch. The results have been quite interesting, with many dishes of my own invention taking shape. I'll start with one of my favorites,

weeknight pasta sauce.

1 28oz can chopped tomatoes
1 small can tomato sauce
3 pressed garlic cloves
1 or 2 onions
olive oil
rosemary, pepper flakes, ground black pepper, salt
a jar of marinated artichoke hearts (Season is the only brand I've seen with a hekhsher)
A few splashes of wine
A 16oz can of canellini beans
Saute the onions and garlic untill softened and fragrant. add the drained artichoke hearts, pulling them into pieces with your fingers while you add them to the pot. add the tomatoes, canelinni beans, and tomato sauce with the wine and spices. Simmer until reduced and yummy.

Badger Badger Badger Soup! (Post the answer to the Joke if you get it....)

2006-02-04T20:18:00.000-08:00

Really good for veggie shabbos guests, its filling enough that they wont feel starved eating kugel, salad, and challah if you've mde this. Non-veggie people like it too.

2 boxes white button mushrooms
1 box portobello mushrooms
2 cups red wine
a small bunch of fresh parsley
olive oil
1/2 a head of garlic
oregano
capers
baby lentils
3 large green onions

slice up the mushrooms into thin and manageable chunks and toss into your big soup pot. clean the parsley and the green onions and skin and press the garlic. Toss this in, and add a healthy splash of olive oil and let it start sauteeing. (you can also use leeks or regular onions, btw) Clean the parsley and coarsely chop the leaves. Save the stems for stock or something else. Add the parsley, the capers, grind in some pepper and toss in some salt and oregano. When the mushrooms are cooked and fragrant and starting to evaporate most of the juice theyve thrown off, deglaze the stuck-on bits in the pot with the wine and fill up the rest of the pot with water. Bring back to a simmer and toss in about 1/2 or 2/3 of a cup of baby lentils. Cook this untill all the flavors are blended, not harsh, the lentils should be tender and the soup shouldnt taste of alcohol. Long simmering improves matters further, kol hamarbeh, harei ze meshubach.

Grown Up Chocolate Cake

2006-01-31T20:19:00.000-08:00

This cake is REALLY easy, and you can modify the recipie endlessly and it still comes out fine. You can double it if you have a bigger pan. It is, however, darker and more bittersweet than your average chocolate cake and the dark chocolate icing intensifies matters. I made it in a healthy(er) version this shabbos and i'll include the modifications in the parentheses.

Preheat your oven to 350
Take a 9x13 pan, I used a foil disposible. Measure these ingredients into it.
1.5 cups all purpose (or whole wheat) flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Stir these together with your finger tips. When it looks evenly combined (no lumps of flour or cocoa), poke three "wells" in the powder with your finger. Pour one of these into each hole
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil (i also have used non-extra virgin-olive oil out of necessity and it came out fine).
The pour a cup of water over it all and mix really well with a spatula or spoon. Add walnuts or something if you want. Pop it in the oven for about half an hour to 45 minutes- its done when a knife stuck into the center of the pan comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs on it.

While the cake is cooling, make the frosting.
Take a bar of your best premium pareve or DE chocolate. I used a combination of Scharffenberfer Gianduja and Scharffenberger 62% Semisweet. Either grate it (not reccomended on a dry day as finely grated chocolate can pick up a static charge and fly all over the room when you move the grater) or chunk it up- or just use chocolate chips. Place in a microwave safe bowl with a drizzle of water and nuke in thirty second intervals untill the chocolate is softened- dont let it burn though- and stir it together untill its smooth and frostinglike. Pour it onto the cake and frost! Garnish as desired.

Cooking for the Freezer

2006-01-31T16:33:00.000-08:00

When I'm under pressure cooking for Shabbos can be pretty stressful.
To make things easier on myself I try to cook some foods in advance (often in large batches) and stick them in the freezer for those weeks when things are just too crazy.

Here's what you need to know:

Unreliable Freezer = Unreliable Results
Is your freezer older than your mom?! Freezing won't work in a freezer that cannot maintain a consistant temperature. Here's a test. Does your ice cream come out of the freezer full of those nasty ice crystals? That's a sign of melting and refreezing - unless you've been leaving your Ben and Jerry's out on the table too long before refreezing, do not attempt to use your freezer for this kind of storage.

Trapped Air = Freezer Burn
Anyone who knows me will tell you I am the queen of the ziplock bags. I buy them in all sizes.
They are wonderful because you can put the food inside, squeeze out the extra air and seal. Keeps things fresh and delicious.
For more liquid or heavier items I used air tight plastic storage containers.
Leaving things unwrapped or loosely wrapped in foil or plastic wrap is a bad bad idea.

Don't Refreeze
Once you have frozen a dish and thawed it, don't put it back in the freezer- the magic only works once.
You can however freeze raw meat or chicken, defrost and cook it, and then freeze the cooked version.

So what kind of foods can be frozen in advance without becoming soggy, freezer burned, and generally unedible?

Here are some guidelines:

Baking - Most baked goods freeze well. Cookies, Challah, Brownies, Cake will all come out just fine. Just make sure that the baked goods are full cooled before you freeze them. Oh, and don't mix batter and fruit for example: don't try to freeze an apple cake. An apple pie on the other hand (or any fruit pie) where the pastry and the fruit are seperate will freeze nicely.

Soup - Soup is a great thing to freeze. Any non-dairy soup should freeze well. You can even freeze chicken soup with matza balls and it comes out great. I would avoid adding pasta to any soup before freezing it, you can always add it in after you thaw and reheat it.

Chicken and meat with liquids- I've found that meat and chicken with sauces freeze wonderfully - for example sweet and sour meatballs, chicken marinara, or even pot roast once reheated will be just as delicious as if you made it that day.

Do Not Freeze
Cooked fish, raw fruits and vegetables - this requires a special freezer and in the case of fruit some blanching prior to freezing let's not go there... pasta, and dairy products.

I hope this is helpful and if you have any questions about cooking or freezing or ummm anything just ask...

-Shifra

GEFILTE FISH

2006-01-25T18:08:00.000-08:00

While we lived in Europe, my father would sometimes wistfully mention the food that he longed for.
One of those things was gefilte fish.
Which, my mother being an uninspired cook, it was probably a blessing that we did not serve.

And at that time I had not become the food-slut that I am now, and so had no interest in making gefilte fish or reading about it either.

In the mid-seventies my father and I went to Brussels and Paris several times - Brussels because of the fine restaurants and wonderful drinking establishments (Belgians have no religion except eating and drinking), and Paris for a variety of reasons. Including restaurants in Le Marais, such as Goldenbergs (I think on the Rue Vielle Du Temple?), which had chocolate cake to commit mayhem for, and a number of dishes on the menu that were, to me, unidentifiable, such as 'poisson farci'.

Which my father joyfully recognized as gefilte fish.

When I came to Berkeley in 1978, the gefilte fish situation was as bad as it had been in the Netherlands. So I wrote a friend, and got a recipe. Which, with almost no modifications whatsoever, I post below.

--- --- --- --- --- ---

GEFILTE FISH

Benodigd, voor de visballen:
Required, for the fishballs:

Twee pond lichte vis, zowel zee als zoetwater vis.
Two pounds of white fish, both fresh and saltwater.
2 Kleine uien, versnipperd.
2 Small onions, minced very fine.
6 - 7 Eetlepels matzemeel.
6 to 7 Tbs. Matzameal
4 Eieren.
4 Eggs.
1 Eetlepel suiker.
One Tbs. Sugar.
2 Theelepel zout.
2 Tsp. Salt
2 Theelepel peper.
Two Tsp. pepper

Voor de soep:
For the soup:

Vier pond vissenkoppen, graten, en vel.
4 Pounds fishheads, scraps, bones, skin
1 grote peen, geschraapt en gehakt.
A large carrot, cleaned and chopped.
4 stengels selderij, gehakt.
Four stalks of celery, chopped.
2 Kleine uien, gepeld.
Two onions, peeled.

Bereidingswijze:
Preparation:

Hak de vis erg fijn. Meng er doorheen: ui, matzemeel, eieren, suiker, zout en peper.
Chop the fish finely. Mix with the minced onion, matzameal, eggs, sugar, salt, and pepper.
Plaats de vismengsel in een kom en laat in de koelkast 1 uur rusten.
Place the fishmixture in a bowl, and let it rest one hour in the fridge.
Doe alle visresten, met peen, selderij, en ui in een kastrol, giet er genoeg water bij dat alles ruwweg 5 cm onder staat. Breng aan de kook en laat 15 minuten zachtjes (niet borrelend) koken.
Place all fishscrap materials, carrot, celery and the two peeled onions in a cauldron, add enough liguid that it stand under by roughly two inches. Raise to boil and simmer (do not allow to roil) for fifteen minutes.
Met vochtige handen ovalen ballen van het vismengsel vormen.
With damp hands form oval balls of the fishmixture.
Plaats de visballen voorzichtig in de hete vloeistof, bedeksel de pan, en laat de visballen 1 uur of ietwat langer sudderen. Lang garen heeft voordelen voor zowel de smaak als de structuur van de visballen. Let op dat de visbalen helemaal bedekt blijven met vloeistof, daar ze veel vocht opnemen. Voeg indien nodig wat (heet) water toe.
Place the fishballs carefully in the hot liquid, cover with the lid, and simmer for an hour or more. Long poaching improves both the taste and the structure of the fishballs. Check to make sure the balls remain inundated - they take up rather much moisture. If necessary add some (hot) water.
Neem de visballen met een spaan uit de pan en leg ze in een soep schaal.
Remove the fishballs with a slotted spoon from the pan, and place in a tureen.
Zeef het kookvocht, en schenk het over de visballen.
Strain the kooking liquid, and pour over the fishballs.
De gefilte fish is, mits bewaard in het kookvocht, ten minste 3 dagen in de koelkast houdbaar.
Gefilte fish, submerged in cooking liquid, can be kept for at least three days in the refrigerator.

Geef er mierikswortel (chrein) bij.
Serve with horseradish.

Het gerecht mag met de gekookte peen (gesneden of gesnipperd) gegarneerd worden.
The dish may be garnished with the cooked carrot (sliced or minced).

Alzook peterselie.
As well as parsley.

Dairy Shabbos SuperPost!

2006-01-21T20:28:00.000-08:00

So here I was at around 11:30 am on a Friday morning with absolutely no meal plan and no menu. And then, like a lightening bolt flash, the answer hit me. Dairy! Its fun, its unconventional, and I could throw most of it together from stuff I already had around. Plus, Ben and Jerry's made a star appearance as dessert along with chocolate milk and chocolate cake. Fret not, this entire menu, including the whole wheat challa took no more than 4 hours to prepare! I was rushing at the last minute, but that's probably because I took an hour to get a haircut. So, you too can throw together shabbos in less than 4 hours with my magical dairy menu!

Potato-Leek Soup
Leeks can be tricky to clean/check sometimes. My method is to slit it down the middle and take off the outer leaves which are sometimes muddy and yucky. Rinse the whole thing (one pretty largeish leek) and give it a cursorial inspection. Then chop it into rings, leaving off only the toughest tips of the green. Some recipies tell you to throw away the whole green, but IMHO thats pretty wasteful because it cooks to tenderness anyway. But if it bugs you, trim it off and save for soup stock. Take 2 medium yellow onions, peel, and cut into half-moon slices. Heat up a generous dab of olive oil in your soup pot and add the onions and leeks. You can also add garlic. While this is cooking, peel and slice a generous number (6 maybe? mine were small....) of potatoes. Fit this number to the number of people you expect and figure about a potato and a half per person. Add these to the soup pot and let them cook a bit as well. Then fill up the pot with water and let the whole thing simmer while you get your hair done or do something productive like laundry. When the potatoes look more or less like they are about to fall apart, you can either give it body (to match your shiny, gorgeous hair) by pressing the potatoes with a spoon against the side of the pot or by pureeing it with a stickblender or jarblender. Season with salt and pepper.

Honey-Mustard-Dill Salmon
Works with individual pieces or with a whole side of a salmon.
Preheat your oven to 425. Wash the salmon after you take it out of the package (cuts down on the fishyness and smell- I promise!) and arrange it on a baking sheet or rimmed lasanga pan or foil baking pan if you are like most of the singles I know who don't own bakeware. This is easiest with squirt-bottle mustard and similarly equipped honey. Squirt generous dabs of honey and mustard over the surface of the fish and smooth over it with your hands. Use rubber gloves or plastic wrap if you are squeamish. Then take a shaker bottle of dried dill and shake vigorously (think green snowfall) over the coated salmon and follow with peppermill twists. Throw it in the oven and watch it carefully- cooking time will vary on whether you used big or small peices and mine were done in 20 mins- and a good thing too because it was almost lichtbentchen time. Its done when it flakes easily with a knife but still looks tender and juicy. If it looks dry it is. But dont worry cause you can rescue it with.....

My Mom's Famous Tartar Sauce!
Chop up one dill pickle. Spoon enough mayo over it that you can imagine every person at the meal taking a healthy spoonful, but if you mess up its no biggie cause this is easy enough to refill in the kitchen in seconds. Add some capers if you like, thin it with some apple cider vinegar and add a dash of sugar to balance the acidity. Salt, pepper, and more dill- it makes it match the salmon. Garlic or onion powder if you are into that kinda thing.

Mac-and-Cheese Kugel
It doesnt get much easier than this. Or much better. Boil noodles. Use whole wheat and then you can justify pushing more on people by saying "its whole wheat! its healthy for you!" and it doesn't change the taste a whit. Drain and rinse with cold water. Grate about a brick of millers cheddar and crumble almost all of a block of feta. Add most of these, saving some for the top-to the chilled noodles with one egg. Season with salt, pepper, red pepper, red pepper flakes, nutmeg, or whatever looks appealing. Pour into a lightly oiled pan and top with the rest of the cheese and some paprika or cayenne for flair. Bake at 350 to cook it through but finish it slightly higher- 425, say, to get the crispy, browned effect. Sure to generate rave reviews and plenty of food-guilt.

I also served a romaine-hearts of palm salad with a dressing i tried to base on the one on Caravan of Dream's house salad- mmmm. Peel, bruise, and slice a garlic clove thinly. Let this steep in olive oil for a few minutes, then add an equal quantity of rice vinegar and a few dashes of soy sauce and pepper. Pour over the salad, trying to exclude the garlic- it tends to be too bossy if you let it get into the salad but letting it infuse in the oil gives you fresh garlic taste without scaring people.

Black-eyed pea Soup

2006-01-19T16:06:00.000-08:00

margavriel (6:58:44 PM): I made a soup last night...
margavriel (6:59:50 PM): ...a bit of an experiment, actually.
margavriel (7:00:42 PM): perhaps i'll post the recipe on the "Shabboth Cooking" blog...
margavriel (7:00:51 PM): ...even though it was cooked as a weekday soup.
margavriel (7:02:22 PM): black-eyed peas...
margavriel (7:02:37 PM): carrots & parsnips...
margavriel (7:02:49 PM): curry powder...
margavriel (7:02:53 PM): eggplant...
margavriel (7:03:10 PM): ...zucchini and butternut-squash...
margavriel (7:03:20 PM): ...potato...
margavriel (7:03:34 PM): thyme & marjorm...
margavriel (7:03:51 PM): ...green pepper...
margavriel (7:04:10 PM): ...apple-cider vinegar, and white wine...
margavriel (7:04:20 PM): ...and, of course, water...
margavriel (7:04:36 PM): some turnip probably would have done it a lot of good.
margavriel (7:04:50 PM): Oh, and of course it contained onions! (Forgot to mention that.)
margavriel (7:04:56 PM): Does it sound good?
AIM-buddy (7:05:41 PM): sounds like it could be

And it turns out you CAN have chicken soup for Shabbat Lunch....

2006-01-14T19:49:00.000-08:00

Just leave it in a pot on the plata (large Israeli electric hot plate with no adjusting button, for the folks keeping score at home.) It works out fine, I promise.

Shabbos Lunch Chicken Soup (works for dinner too)
Take 4 meaty chicken bottom quarters, skinned and with the lumps of fat pulled off. Fill the biggest pot you have with water and set it on the flame. Add the chicken. While its coming to a boil, peel 4 carrots and wash a largish leek as well as a few decent-looking celery ribs, cut these into substantial chunks, the kind you would like to see in a bowl someday. Ditto with zuchinnis (which I don't peel) and potatoes, and you can throw in some turnips and parsnips- peeled of course. You can also throw in dill and parsley leaves and/or stems. Add 2 quartered onions, peeled if you want a lighter broth, unpeeled if you want a richer color. Also about 10 peppercorns. Let this come to a simmer but DONT let it boil over if you want a gorgeous clear broth. Once its been cooking for a while add some salt. You can serve this either for dinner or lunch, or both.

Served with:
Roasted butternut squash (chunked, seeded, olive-oiled and ovened at 425 untill pokeable)
M'jedra (brown rice and lentils with fried onions)
Whole wheat challah.

Spaghetti-Chicken; the evolution of a dish

2006-01-08T09:44:00.000-08:00

I was thinking of making a Syrian spaghetti with chicken casserole, partially because people generally like it and partially because its a casserole and how hard could it be? Upon looking at a Syrian cookbook, the answer to that question turned out to be, to hard and involved for my 4-hour-max time limit of total shabbos prep. It involved such gratuitous steps as roasting the chicken with a spice mixture first, making a tomato sauce seperately, recovering the pan drippings, heating them on the stove, throwing cooked pasta in the hot oil to make a crisp crust, boning and chunking the chicken seperately, makign a gravy, then assembling the crispy, tomato-sauced pasta as a nest for meticulously prepped chicken, then pouring a gravy over. Too many pots and pans and plates for my tiny manhattan kitchen. However, my mother typically makes a round variation of this dish (with a big round slice of cured dry salami in the center) for Shabbat Parashat Beshalah- we call it "Pharaoh's Wheel" in symbolization of the chariot wheels of the Egyptians caught in the mud at the crossing of the Red Sea. So I may attempt it that Shabbos.

As it stood, I had 2 boxes of whole wheat spaghetti and no good ideas. I was going to make thai peanut or sesame noodles as a side dish when resounding cries of "not sesame noodles again!" from the peanut gallery made me think twice. I said, "Maybe I'll make a mushroom pasta," thinking along the same crispy-tomato-sauced lines. I was totally at a loss for how I could combine pasta and mushrooms in any appetizing way with chicken, but heres what I came up with.

Emphatically Non-Syrian Spaghetti Chicken
First, I boiled a box of whole wheat spaghetti. Drained, rinsed, dabbed with olive oil and set aside.
I took the pasta pot and sauteed 3 boxes of white button mushrooms (sliced up) in olive oil with 3 or 4 pressed garlic cloves and a handful of chopped fresh parsley. As the mushrooms began to throw off copious amounts of juice, I threw in some capers and caper juice along with some peppermill twists and some salt, which caused even more throwing off of mushroom juice, as salt draws out more water once the cell walls break down a little. Once the juices had reduced to a syrupy almost nothing, I added some leftover red wine (I have some left over almost every shabbos and its a shame not to use it..) and let the alcohol cook off (you can tell this has happend if you stick your nose over the pot and you don't feel like you are in a bar).

I tossed this mushroom mixture (which took about 10 minutes to make) with my reserved spaghetti and began to wonder what to do with it. Sure, I could just heat it up on the platta as a side dish, but I was planning on making chicken cutlets, and however was I going to fit both pans and my soup pot on a 2-burner blech?

In the interest of economizing on space, I had a brilliant idea-- combine chicken and pasta! I was almost back to square one, but from a completely different angle. I pounded about 8 chicken cutlets untill pretty thin, and then tossed some flour, salt, and paprika on them. I heated up more olive oil in a frying pan and sauteed the chicken breasts. At the end of this procedure i was left with a chicken-flavored olive oil lightly thickened with castoff flour, so I added a little more flour and cooked my improvised roux for a minute or too. Then I added more capers, about 2 lemons worth of juice, and (suprise suprise) some more red wine and salt and pepper. I assembled the chicken on top of the pasta and poured my thickened sauce atop all.

I served this with winter vegetable soup, grapefruit-avocado salad, potato kugel, and a delectable zucchini-tomato dish that my friend Yael brought over.

Shabbos Hannukah- winter vegetable soup, ptcha-inspired potato kugel, and chicken in wine sauce

2005-12-31T22:33:00.000-08:00

I've been blogging my Shabbat menus (and much other random stuff) on my personal blog since I started it about 3 years ago, but I only started making Shabbat when I moved out to the 'Heights last year. As one who enjoys cooking and serving food to J-bloggers and other people, I heartily applaud the idea of this blog and am honored to be included. Here's what I (in addition to whole wheat challah, which I might post later on) made for Shabbos Dinner this week...

Chicken in Wine Sauce
Preheat oven to 350 F. Take defrosted or fresh chicken bottom quarters. This cut takes the best to roasting, I think, and can survive hours on the blech if your shabbos guests come late. Arrange them in your baking pan and squirt a dab of dijon mustard on each. Smooth it over the chicken, as if you were putting on sunscreen. Now you can get creative with this, but I scatter some capers and caper juice and then some dried rosemary over it all, then some healthy lashings of last weeks qiddush wine- I usually have about half a bottle left from last week so I guess I use about a quarter of a bottle, which is probably a scant cup for you measurement freaks out there. Bake it untill the juice runs clear when you jab a knife ito the fattest part of the thigh. Take that, chicken!

Winter Vegetable Soup
So I had some leftover frozen beef broth- about 2 quarts worth- sitting in my freezer and ever since I found out about this great Hassidish minhag to have lima beans in chicken soup by the Shabbos Tisch I'd been curious about using lima beans in soup. So I concocted a Winter Vegetable Soup of epic proportions. I peeled and cut into rough chunks- 1 turnip, 1 parsnip, 3 carrots, 1 sweet potato, 1 white potato, the center of a celery head and added them to the defrosted broth along with a frozen package of lima beans. I may have thrown in a garlic clove, and another few cups of water. I let this simmer sloowly... from about 9 to about 3, so my guess is you could even do this in a crock pot for a totally non-cholenty cholent alternative. It was beyond yumalicious.

Ptcha-Inspired Potato Kugel
After Chakira told me how much he loves Ptcha, I decided to replicate the delicate (ha ha!) balance of garlicy, salty, peppery, and paprika-y flavors in the famed Satmar edition of "garlic jello" in a much more palatable potato-kugel form. After all, everyone loves potato kugel! So I took about 4 large russet potatoes and peeled them, then grated them with my trusty box grater, then squeezed out the starchy potato-water into the sink, which does wonders for the texture of the finished kugel, and latkes too as any latke-maven (including my bubby) will tell you. Then, instead of adding my characteristic carmelized onions, I grated in 3 large garlic cloves, then added a generous pinch of salt, a few heavy shakes of pepper, and a dash or two of paprika. i then cracked in two eggs and mixed the whole mush together with my fingers, then poked dots in the top and poured olive oil (this was Shabbos Hannuka, after all!) all over the top and finished it with some purely decorative paprika. Bake at 350, done when golden and crispy on top and no longer any hint of jigglyness. Note: NEVER serve partially cooked kugel, as you can food-poison your guests. It has happened to me, people, and its not pretty.

Challah - no big deal

2005-12-21T08:25:00.000-08:00

I bake challah whenever I can and people make such a fuss you'd think that it was the cooking equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. It's really not difficult at all, you may need to practice once or twice to get the hang of it but once you do it's fun and easy and cheap! You don't even need any special equipment.

This is my Bubby's famous recipe with some modernisha additions added in italics by yours truly. The amounts listed here will make about 2 good sized challos which I consider a waste of time. I usually make 7X this recipe in a huge bowl and freeze the extra challos until I need them (they still taste great). For the first time out though you might want to try it as written or doubled so you can get the feel of it without being overwhelmed.

HARDWARE:
Cooking Sheet
Large Bowl
Clean Dishtowel
Baking Parchment Paper (you can find this near the tin foil and plastic wrap at the market.)

SOFTWARE:
1 cup lukewarm water
3-4 cups of flour (bread flour is the best, you can also use whole wheat in a 50-50 split with regular or bread flour- yum!)
2 Eggs
1 packet of active dry yeast (you can use rapid rise if you like)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp of salt

Optional - raisins, diced onion, poppy seeds, or sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS:
Add 3 cups of flour, salt, and sugar to large bowl and mix well.

Heat water to lukewarm - What is lukewarm you ask? Well if it's warm enough to take a comfortable bath in, it's too hot - if it's room temperature it's too cool. It's very important not to overheat the water or you will kill the yeast. If it's too cool the yeast won't work either so this is a key step.

Add yeast to water and mix well, let this mixture rest for at least one minute.

Create a hole (or well) in the middle of the flour mixture- add the oil, ONE egg, and the water/yeast solution into the well and begin kneading the dough together with your hands. DO NOT USE THE MIXER. No matter how much you paid for your fancy-shmancy mixer with the dough hook attachment it will not come out as well as if you do it by hand- plus it's good for your nerves according to my Bubby.

If the dough feels very sticky you can add a bit more flour.

Cover the bowl with a clean dishtowel and put it in a warm safe place to rise. All things being equal this should take about an hour- this is a good time to start the laundry.
When the dough is double in size punch it down and give it a good kneading again. If you want to add raisins now is the time.

Spread a little flour on the parchment paper (which you should cut to fit your baking sheet) and shape the dough into whatever shapes you desire. Arrange your challos on the baking sheet leaving space between them as they will rise.
Beat an egg and brush the challos with it - now you can sprinkle on the seeds, or onion if you like - I like mine plain. Allow the challos to rise again for about an hour (go fold the laundry) and then put them into a preheated 350 degree oven until they are golden brown (baking time depends on the size of the challos and the calibration of your oven - it's about 15 minutes for rolls and 35 for challos but that's a very rough estimate.

To serve:
Challah is delicious at room temperature but I like to wrap them up in foil and stick them in a warm over right before shabbos so they are nice and warm on Friday night.

Enjoy!

Shnei Zeisem

2005-12-19T05:25:00.000-08:00

This original recipe was handwritten in the back of a much-used pfille bearing the name of an Alsatian Jew, Reb Yekef Bondi, whose grandchildren fled from the Nazis to Britain, where they anglicised their name to Bond.¹

Recipe for a Shnei Zeisem²

Fill a small plate with icing sugar.³
Moisten the rim of a chilled cocktail glass⁴ with an orange wedge and turn the glass into the plate. Leave space for your lips.

Fill in the equivalent of two kezeisem of Kirsch (room temperature).

Add two dashes of Martini Rosso.⁵ Not more.

Add two dashes of Angostura.

Stirring is fine, or if you insist on shaking - go ahead.

No cocktail flags or other unthinkables of this kind.

In the original Shnei zeisem, there were olives added as well, but bevôneseinerabbm, the tradition was lost exactly how many are two kezeisem of olives, and also which sort Chaza"l commanded, Greek, Italian, or the ones with the paprika paste. The followers of the Karliner actually claim they found out, but they really take cherries and process them until they're green.

Some poskem say this is fine even if they're not the right olives, but others name a second reason why we don't do this today, namely because the last person who knew the tradition terribly got the hiccups from one of those olives, went meshugge and wasn't able to pass on the tradition. Unfortunately, this was the same man who knew how to dye tzitzes and had real smiche.

A variation may be found here.

Footnotes

1. In case anyone still didn't get it. (back to text)

2. Shnei zeisem is the name of a piyyut said on Shabbes Chanucke. The name means "two olive( tree)s", and the paytan also alluded to the fact that in Alsace, it often snows at Chanucke. In this latter meaning, it is stressed on the first word. (See also here for a further proof.) (back to text)

3. Americans: That's powdered, or, confectioner's sugar. (back to text)

4. Not a Martini glass. (back to text)

5. You can take Askalon Vermouth Rosso as well, if you don't have kosher Martini at hand, but don't say I didn't warn you. (back to text)

Polenta in soup or cholent

2005-12-18T07:22:00.000-08:00

Shifra asks (heh!):

How does polenta hold up in cholent anyway, does it stay together or
just thicken up the whole stew?

Both. Some of the polenta falls apart, and makes the stew thicker, but lots of chunks, which haven't fallen apart, remain as discernable chunks.

I have only been using polenta in soups and cholents for the past few weeks. I used to sautee it, but for the longest time, they haven't been carrying polenta at KMP (Kosher MarketPlace). A few weeks ago, they started carrying it again, and something possessed me to put it into a soup. It worked!