Frum Cuisine

KCC

2009-10-02T02:27:00.001-07:00

This month's Kosher Cooking Carnival is up at Batya's site. Enjoy!

Cherry crumb kugel

2009-10-02T01:02:00.000-07:00

This is a nice, versatile recipe. It can be served either as a cake, dessert, or side dish during a holiday meal (it's parve so you can serve it with either meat or milk). It freezes well and is wonderful both warm and cold. Pick your favorite pie filling to make it into a cherry, apple or blueberry kugel.

4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup oil
1 cup sugar
2 vanilla sugar

2 eggs
1 can pie filling

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Grease 9 x 13 pan
3. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients
4. Pour 1/2 batter into pan
5. Spread pie filling over batter
6. Pour remaining batter over pie filling
7. Bake for 1 hour

PS. When I googled on 'kigel' to find a nice image to go with the recipe, I found this painting of a bird in a cherry blossom tree, painted by Jean Kigel. How funny!

Carrot muffins

2009-10-01T01:54:00.000-07:00

These muffins are a great alternative for serving plains veggies. They turn out wonderfully with carrot and apple, but I can imagine that adding drained zucchini or even potatoe could also work well.

1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

2 cups grated carrots

1 large apple, grated

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs 3/4 cup oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup coconut (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tins (or use silicon ones)

2. Toast nuts (optional)

3. Combine dry ingredients

4. In separate bowl combine eggs, oil and vanilla

5. Add carrot and apple

6. Fold into flour mixture. Don't overmix!

7. Pour mixture into muffins tins

8. Bake 20-25 min. or until toothpick inserted comes out clean

Sweet potatoe pie

2009-09-30T02:03:00.000-07:00

Sukkot is celebrated during the harvest season. Many dishes are prepared with seasonal veggies. I love this recipe for sweet potatoe pie. The flavour is fairly similar to pumpkin pie. The sweet potatoes can be substituted with pumpkin or butternut squash.

2 9-inch prebaked pie shells, frozen or homemade

2 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp all spice

1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup non dairy creamer

2 tbsps margarine, melted

3 eggs, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees

2. Mix sweet potatoes with spices and sugar

3. Add creamer, melted margarine and eggs

4. Mix well and pour into pie shells

5. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce to 350 for 45 minutes

PS. Pie crust can be made easily. For 4 shells, mix 4 cups flour, 1 tbsp sugar and 2 tsps salt. Cut in 1 3/4 cups shortening (or margarine) with two knives. In small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup water, 1 tbsp vinegar and 1 large egg. Combine both mixtures and mix with a fork until moistened. Divide into four portions, shape into balls and chill for 30 minutes. Roll out each ball on a floured board, place in 9 inch pie plates and prick dough. Preheat oven to 450. Weight the bottoms with a sheet of wax paper topped with dried beans. Bake 10 to 15 minutes and cool.

Latkes

2008-12-26T00:43:00.000-08:00

Chanuka is the holiday of the mighty victory of a brave group of Hashmoneans over the powerful army of the Greek Syrians. It is also the holiday of the miracle of the menorah, that kept burning for eight days although there was only enough oil for one day.

And yes, Chanuka is the holiday of oil. Lots of it, preferrably. Sufganiot are served (also known as 'ponchkes'), which are doughnuts fried in oil and filled with jelly, pudding or chocolate, and other dishes in which oil plays an important role.

One such dish is the latke, a potatoe pancake which, of course, is fried in oil and eaten with apple sauce and sour cream. They are very easy and quick to make, and very nice. To vary (and make the dish (even) more healthy), you can add shredded vegetables such as carrots, zucchini or leek.

Latkes (makes about 20)

6 large potatoes
2 medium onions
2 eggs
5 tbsp flour
pepper
salt
oil for frying

Peel potatoes. Potatoes can be shredded uncooked, but then you need to drain them and squeez the excessive liquids through a seeve. I prefer to slightly cook them, until they are softer but still firm. Shredd potatoes in food processor. Shred onions and add to potatoes. Mix. Check the two eggs, beat, and add to potato mixture. Gradually add flour and mix. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

In frying pan, heat a thin layer of oil (the original recipe uses 2 cm of oil, but this is out of the question for me. There is a maximum amount of oil one can take in, and this is where I draw the line). When oil is hot, take a large tbsp of potato mixture. Form into patties with your hands and place in pan. Bake for about 5 minutes, or until both sides are golden brown.

The latkes are parve, and can be served with apple sauce and sour cream (or Israeli white cheese) which will of course make the dish milchig.

Chanuka is not the healthiest holiday foodwise, but it certainly is one of the warmest and happiest holidays from the Jewish calendar. Plus recent research proved that two eggs a day can even cut your cholesterol levels! :-)

Vegetarian moussaka

2008-08-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

Visiting the open air veggie market is something I love doing, but hardly ever find the time for. The vegetables are much cheaper and of better quality than in the supermarket. I bought a big bag of eggplants. I love these deep purple vegetables with their beautiful shape. I could hold them for hours, but in stead sliced them up for this wonderful vegetarian moussaka (milchig). I tried this recipe for the first time, and it's a definate winner. Not only is it kosher because it leaves the meat out, but for that same reason it has far less calories than the original version. This recipe is from about.com and serves 4 to 5 people. But it was so good we finished it with only 3 ;-)

Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
1 1/4 pounds of eggplants (long slender type), trimmed, cut in 1/8" slices
1 1/4 pounds of small zucchini, trimmed, cut in 1/8" slices
1 1/4 pounds of potatoes, peeled, cut in 1/8" slices
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 cups of water
3 tablespoons of crushed toasted breadcrumbs
1 3/4 cups of finely grated gouda cheese
------------
For the tomato sauce:
2 medium tomatoes, run through blender
1 medium onion, minced
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
3/4 cup of olive oil
3/4 cup of water

Preparation:
Place sliced vegetables in a colander over a bowl, sprinkle and toss with 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and set aside while making the sauce.
Make the sauce: Combine all sauce ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. When it reaches a full boil, reduce heat to medium and cook until excess liquid has cooked off and a chunky tomato sauce remains (about 1 3/4 cups).

Preheat oven to 480F (250C).

Make the moussaka: Sprinkle the bottom of a 12-inch diameter (or equivalent) roasting pan evenly with the breadcrumbs. Place a single layer of potato slices on the breadcrumbs, overlapping only slightly if needed to cover the bottom. Top with a layer of eggplant slices. Sprinkle with 1/3 cup of the grated cheese. Add a layer of zucchini slices, and a layer of the remaining eggplant and zucchini mixed. Top with a layer of potato slices. Spoon the tomato sauce evenly over the top. Add 2 cups of water (pour around the sides so as not to disturb the tomato sauce on top) and top with the remaining grated cheese.

Bake at 480F (250C) until the liquid in the pan comes to a full boil, about 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 390F (200C) and cook for one hour. Cover the pan loosely with foil when the cheese on top is nicely browned.

Yield: serves 4-5

Marak perot kar

2008-04-22T01:20:00.001-07:00

The only way to survive Passover without gaining weight and without messing up your digestive system, is to eat loads of fresh fruit. On the second seder I served this cold fruit soup, and everybody loved it. It's perfect for such a late night meal, and it really suits the spring atmosphere of the holiday of Passover.

Ingredients

1 medium Cantaloupe

1 quart Strawberries, fresh

1 mango

2 medium Apples

3/4 cup Lemon juice, fresh

1/2 cup Sugar

6 cups Water

1 1/2 cup Orange juice, fresh

Directions
Cut the cantaloupe in half. Remove the seeds and stringy fibers, scoop out the pulp with a large spoon and chop it coarsely. Wash the strawberries under cold running water, picking out and discarding any fruits that are badly bruised. Remove and discard the stems. Peel mango and chop it up. Combine the cantaloupe, strawberries, mango, apples, 1/2 cup of the lemon juice, the sugar and water in a 4 to 6 quart enameled or stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Puree the soup through a food mill, or pour the entire contents of the pan into a large fine sieve set over a deep bowl and force the ingredients through with the back of a spoon, pressing down hard on the fruits before discarding any remaining pulp. Stir the remaining lemon juice and the orange juice into the soup and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until thoroughly chilled. The lemon juice will make sure your soup keeps its beautiful red colour. Serves 8-10.

Optional

Soup can be garnished with pieces of fresh strawberry or with a mint leave.

Mango can be replaced with 1/2 pound of green seedless grapes, or any other fruit you like.

Teacher potluck carnival

2008-02-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

Dear gastronomic educators,

Welcome to this month’s potluck carnival! Apparently most of us have preferred to stay home and watch the Superbowl, so I really appreciate you being here tonight for a nice cup of coffee and a piece of cake!

Jose Vilson treats us all to an amazing, decadent cake to celebrate his blogiversary. There’s to many more years Jose! In honor of this special event, let’s all share an innovative educational insight tonight!

“Now that we’re enjoying a coffee”, Eric from teachers-call begins, “please don’t forget to donate a cup or two over at my blog. I always seem to be out of pennies when I walk up to the machine. Oh, and while you’re there, check out my posts on using computers in your language class and about teaching language skills through photos.”

Miss Copy smiles. “Don’t worry about that coffee Eric. Tonight you can get as many refills as you like. So here’s my insight. Did you know that we can all save many precious hours researching and grading, simply by teaching ourselves how to read faster?”

Adam from IPEX tv stirs his latte. “I guess my insight is not really related to grading, or teaching, for that matter. Although I do believe that all educators should check out this video about the way governments from the West are responsible for the malaria epidemic in Africa."

Ms. H. finishes her piece of cake, and then recalls the Law and Order episode she watched last night: “Seeing the horrible things this teenager committed, and seeing the lack of structure and guidance he received at home, made me wonder whether teachers are responsible for teaching their students moral behavior, especially in those cases where their parents are obviously not doing that job.”

“Guys,” says Shari Nielsen, “I’ve got the biggest insight for you. What better subject to talk about over a strong espresso than salaries? We all know that we educators get lowsy salaries for the important work we’re doing. I’ve got the perfect solution for educators that finally want to earn the money they deserve.”

We all nod. Shari is right. But tonight there’s just the good company and the cake.

Kosher cooking carnival

2008-01-08T23:42:00.000-08:00

On this blog I will also link to the monthly kosher cooking carnival. The December carnival was hosted by Batya at Me-ander. What a wonderful collection of recipes!

Chicken in mushroom sauce

2008-01-08T10:27:00.000-08:00

According to the cookbook (Spice and spirit, the complete jewish kosher cookbook) this sauce adds a touch of elegance with little effort. I totally agree. In stead of immediately adding the sauce to the chicken, as the recipe suggests, I prefer to add the sauce in a later stage. Bake chicken for about 30 minutes, remove liquid, then add the sauce.

Ingredients

8 pieces of chicken (or more, if pan allows and more people are served)

2-3 tbsp. oil

1 large onion, diced

4 sprigs parsley, chopped

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. white pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp. flour

2 cups red wine

2 lemons

Rinse chicken, remove excess dat, and pat dry.

In a 2-quart saucepan, heat oil over medium flame and saute onions, then add parsley, mushrooms, salt, pepper, and garlic. Simmer over low flame for 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in flour and mix well. Add the wine. Cook and stir until mixture has thickened (appr. 5-10 minutes).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place chicken pieces in roasting pan and pour sauce over chicken. Bake covered 1 hour and then remove cover and bake for another 1/2 hour (I bake the chicken covered all the time since I use the oven for both meat and milk).

Squeeze lemon juice on the chicken while it is still warm.

Honey vanilla challah

2007-12-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

Vacation means: finally some extra time to get into the kitchen and do some serious cooking. This shabbes I made honey vanilla challah (I found the recipe here but slightly adapted it), chicken with mushroom sauce, potato knish and zuccini-filled tomatoes. Although the dishes could have used some more spices, they were quite tasty. Because of shabbes I couldn't take a picture, so you'll just have to believe me that the challah looked really nice... Best part: this morning the challah was still fresh!

Honey vanilla challah

Ingredients (makes one loaf)
1/2 tablespoon active dry yeast
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 1/4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup of warm water
2 eggs + 1 for the glaze
4 tablespoons of olive oil + 1 teaspoon for greasing the bowl and another for the glaze
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon honey

In a large bowl using a whisk combine the yeast, sugar, salt and 1 cup of the flour. Add the warm water, 2 eggs, 4 tablespoons of olive oil, then the honey and vanilla. (Add the olive oil first, then use the same measuring spoon to add the honey - residual oil on the spoon will make the honey slide right out.) Vigorously mix the ingredients until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl halfway through, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, switching to a wooden spoon when the dough becomes too thick for the whisk. Continue mixing the dough until it is too stiff to stir.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until soft and springy, about 4 minutes. If the dough is sticky, dust with flour 1 tablespoon at a time - just enough to prevent it from sticking to the surface. The dough is done when it’s smooth and small air bubbles show under the skin. If you press your thumb into it the impression should bounce back. This is a slightly firm dough, which is exactly what you want for easy braiding later on.

Place the dough in a deep container greased with 1 tsp of olive oil. Turn the dough once to coat the top and cover with plastic wrap. Allow it to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease it with non-stick spray. Gently deflate the dough by pressing your fingers into it, then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.

Divide into 4 equal portions, and roll each portion out into a smooth, thick strip about 20 inches long, with the ends slightly thinner than the middle. Lay these ropes side-by-side, touching only at the top.aI really like the 4 rope-braiding. It looks fancy and it's really easy. This is what you need to do: starting with the outer left rope, you move each rope over the 2nd, under the 3rd, and then again over the 4th. Again, take the left rope and follow this procedure. Continue until ropes are completely braided. Combine the ends and tuck them under the braid.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and place the braided dough on your baking sheet and let rise until almost doubled in bulk, 30 to 40 minutes.Just before the rising time has finished whisk together 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of olive oil, this is going to be the glaze for your bread. Gently brush the dough with a thick layer of it. Place the dough in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the bread is a deep golden brown and sounds hollow when you thump it on the bottom. Transfer to a baking rack to cool.

PS. The original recipe uses warm milk in stead of water, but I wanted the challah to be parve. If you prefer milchige challah, just replace the water with milk.

Time flies cranberry pie

2007-11-14T08:24:00.000-08:00

For weeks I had been looking forward to midterm exams. Not because I love grading (on the contrary) but because it would give me a week and a half of less lessons to prepare. I wanted to use the time for preparing an outline of the next semester, writing a new history syllabus, doing some extra reading, going to the city centre to shop for yarn, knitting, and cooking.

Today's recipe will be of a typical time-flies-pie that I prepared yesterday for a dinner party we hosted for my husband's colleagues. It's a lovely cranberry pie that takes hardly any time to prepare.

Ingredients
4 cups of cranberries
2/3 cup orange juice
1 cup light brown sugar
1 graham crackers pie shell

Boil cranberries in juice. After boiling mixture for 3-5 minutes, add sugar. Put mixture in pie shell. Cool in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake pie for about 20 minutes. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

Oatmeal apple crisp

2007-10-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

'Fall, leaves, fall'
Fall, leaves, fall;
die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night's decay
Ushers in a drearier day.'

Emily Jane Brontë

Last night, a friend came over for dinner. We studied together in university and hadn't seen each other for quite some time. It was nice to see how we were both 'adults' now in stead of students. Grown-ups with jobs and responsibilities. For desert I served this oatmeal apple crisp, a real fall recipe and very easy to make.

Oatmeal apple crisp

Ingredients
1,5 pounds Cortland apples
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
3/4 cup margarine, softened
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan.
Peel, core and slice apples; place in pan. Mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger in a bowl.

Mix in margarine until coarse crumbs form. Stir in oats and walnuts.
Sprinkle over apples.

Bake for 35 minutes until apples are tender and crumb topping is cris.

Serve warm or cool.

Yields 6-8 servings.

Traditional potato kugel

2007-10-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

This morning at 8:00 AM I was already in the kitchen to cook for the last days of Sukkot. We will have six guests, and because of the laws of the holiday all the cooking has to be finished by 6:50 PM tonight. So I just popped a potato kugel into the oven, after taking out the apple pie and sweet noodle kugel. It's the first time I tried the potato recipe, so I don't know yet what it will turn out to be like.

Traditional potato kugel

Ingredients

6 medium potatoes

1 onion

3 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1,5 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

4 tbsp oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel potatoes and place in a large bowl of cold water. Peel onion. Grate on small holes of grater into a clean bowl. Add eggs to potato-onion mixture. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix well with fork.

Place in greased 9x9 inch baking pan. Bake for at least 1 hour or until light brown and crisp. For variation, grate a small head of cauliflower or 2 grated medium carrots.

Makes 1 kugel.

Batata bread

2007-09-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

Another nice Rosh haShana recipe is this sweet potato kugel. This is actually a carrot-loaf recipe, but I adapted it slightly and used sweet potatoes instead. Because of their sweet taste, you could even cut back on the sugar, making it a delicious recipe without too many calories.

Batata kugel (sweet potato bread)

Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

3 tbsp. orange juice

1,5 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

4 big sweet potatoes, boiled and mashed

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream softened margarine with sugar in a large bowl. Add egg, juice, and dry ingredients. Add mashed potatoes and mix well. Place in a greased loaf pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Apple Betty pie

2007-09-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

These past days we celebrated Rosh haShana, the Jewish New Year. Rosh hashana is a serious time of soul-searching and introspection, but at the same time it is a very happy holiday on which we welcome the new year with a strong belief that it will be a blessed one. Special dishes are prepared to underline this double character of the holiday. We eat pommegranate, uttering the wish that in this coming year our good deeds will be as plenty as the seeds of this beautiful fruit. We also eat apple dipped in honey, to symbolize our wish that the upcoming year will be a sweet and happy one. Some families prepare a dish called 'tzimmes', which is a dish made of carrots, prunes, raisins and honey. The Yiddish word for carrots is mehren, which also means 'more', thus expressing the wish that our good deeds will multiply this coming year.

I want to share two of the dishes I prepared this year. They are extremely easy to make (I had no time for extensive haute-cuisine ) and very tasty, plus they add a nice sweet flavour to the new year (without adding too many pounds :-) I guess this will be my submission for the next teachers' potluck carnival.

Apple betty pie

Ingredients

4 cups peeled and sliced apples
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup margarine

Preheat oven to 375F. Put apples into greased 9-inch pie plate. Sprinkle with orange juice. For the crumb topping, combine salt, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cut in margarine. Mix until mixture is crumbly. Cover apples with crumb topping. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cool.
I slightly adapted the recipe. I used only half of the ingredients, and put them in a prepared graham-cracker-pie crust.

Limonana

2007-08-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

This August poem describes exactly what I feel like. Enjoy this last month of summer with a quick, homemade Israeli limonana! Mix the juice of 6 lemons with 6 cups of cold water and 1 cup of sugar. Add fresh mint leaves to taste (nana is the Hebrew word for mint). Serve chilled and on ice.

"August rushes by like desert rainfall,
A flood of frenzied upheaval,
Expected,
But still catching me unprepared.
Like a matchflame
Bursting on the scene,
Heat and haze of crimson sunsets.
Like a dream
Of moon and dark barely recalled,
A moment,
Shadows caught in a blink.
Like a quick kiss;
One wishes for more
But it suddenly turns to leave,
Dragging summer away."

~Elizabeth Maua Taylor~

Hawaiian pound cake

2007-08-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

I just had to post this cake recipe. First of all because we had this cake at our friends' place in Berlin. We hadn't seen them for more than a year, so it was great talking while enjoying a moist piece of this cake. Secondly, what better way to hold the summer feeling a bit longer at the start of the new schoolyear than with this yummy Hawaiian cake?

Hawaiian pound cake
1 cup margarine
1,5 cups sugar
6 eggs
2,5 cups flour
0,5 tsp. baking powder
0,5 tsp. ground ginger
1 8,5 ounce can crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan. In large mixer bowl, cream margarine and sugar until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add remaining ingredients. Blend at low speed until thoroughly combined, scraping bowl occasionally.
Pour batter into prepared pan, making sure it reaches edges all around. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes before removing from pan. Is best if still warm when served.

Healthy chocolate chip cookies

2007-04-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made healthy chocolate chip cookies. I don't know why the recipe says 'healthy' because after all, they are cookies plus they have chocolate chips inside. Maybe it's because whole wheat flour was used. Maybe it's because there isn't that much sugar inside and part of the sweetening is done with honey. Maybe because of the oats? Anyway, they came out great.

Next time I have to remember to put them on the baking sheet with a teaspoon (as the recipe suggests) instead of with a tablespoon, because they get a bit bigger in the baking proces. As you can see, mine are bigger than the continent of Europe. Which doesn't matter, because it's the smallest continent anyway.

Healthy chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients

1 cup shortening (or butter)
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla (I put lemon flavour instead, which gives them a really special twist)
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 oz. parve chocolate chips (thanks Lime!)
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup honey

Cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla and cream together. Add eggs one at a time. Mix well. Add flour, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Stir in oats, nuts, coconut, honey and mix well. Add chocolate chips. Mix well. Drop by teaspoonfulls onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Makes approximately 60 cookies.

PS. This recipe can be made milchig if the margarine is replaced with butter, and if milchig chocolate chips are used.

Blueberry pie

2007-04-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

This shabbes we had friends coming over, so I wanted to make something fancy. Since you can feel that summer is in the air, I decided to make a blueberry pie. I couldn't make a picture. Most of the pie was finished on shabbat and the leftovers were taken by our old neighbour who is in the army. Actually a good sign. The recipes without the pictures are usually the best :-)

Two crust pie shell (for two crusts, use one freeze one)

4 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsps salt
1 3/4 cup shortening
0,5 cup water
1 tbsp vinegar
1 large egg

In large bowl mix flour with sugar and salt. Cut in shortening until crumbly. In small bowl, beat together water, vinegar, and egg. Combine both mixtures and stir with fork until moistened. Divide into four portions. Shape each portion into a ball and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll out each ball on a lightly floured board. Place two crusts in 9 inch pie plates, and use the other two to cover.

Filling

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

juice and grated zest from 1/2 medium lemon

5 cups fresh or frozen thawed blueberries, rinsed well (I used frozen forest fruits, mmmmm)

1 tablespoon butter, cut in small pieces (optional)

In a large bowl combine sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, lemon juice and grated rind, and blueberries. Pour berry mixture into pie crust and dot with small pieces of butter (I skipped the butter and didn't miss it).
Roll out remaining pastry to about 1/8 inch thick. Cover pie; trim, turn edge under and crimp. Cut a few vents in top of crust to allow steam to escape. Bake at 425° for 40 minutes, or until crust is nicely browned.

Whole wheat honey challah

2007-04-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

I decided that, after a long time, it was time again to bake my own challah. I love the flavour of this whole-wheat version I used, but something didn't go well with the rising of the dough and they came out like baseball bats.

Hence the pictures :-) What could have gone wrong? My braiding skills have dramatically improved though.

Honey and whole-wheat challah

Ingredients

6 packages dry yeast
4 cups warm water
1 tbsp. honey
1 cup oil
5 eggs
1 cup honey
3 tbsps salt
12 cups whole wheat flour
8 cups white flour
1 egg beaten + poppy or sesame seeds for glaze

In a large bowl dissolve yeast in 2 cups warm water mixed with 1 tbsp honey. Set aside 5 to 10 minutes. Add oil, eggs, honey and remaining 2 cups warm water and mix well.

Gradually add dry ingredienst and knead dough until elastic and not sticky, 5 to 10 minutes (if necessay add more flour, a bit at a time. If too stiff, add more water, a little at a time).

Place dough in an oiled bowl, turning to coat all sides with oil. Cover and let rise 1 to 2 hours.

Punch down and let rise 1 hour. Divide dough into seven even pieces. Separate challah with a bracha. Shape dough as desired and place in greased pans. Let rise another hour.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Brush loaves with beaten egg and sprinkle with seeds. Bake until brown, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from pans and cool on racks.

Pesach lemon bars

2007-04-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

I promised to post my best Pesach recipe (save this one for next year, it's definately a winner). Because of the computer crash I didn't feel like taking any pictures, so you will have to imagine what it looks like. But trust me. Try it. One of the negative aspects of Pesach cooking is the huge amount of eggs and sugar. It's like a cholesterol bomb. I always reduce the amount of sugar and eggs, and most of the time it doesn't harm the recipe. Also in this case you can easily reduce eggs and sugar, or replace part of the sugar with artificial sweetener. To compensate the lack of lemon bar pictures, I posted some pictures of the blossoming trees in our neighbourhood. Enjoy!

Lemon bars (parve)

Ingredients:

CRUST:3 sticks margarine, room temperature3/4 c. Passover powdered sugar1/2 tsp. salt2 c. cake meal1 c. potato starch

FILLING: 8 eggs4 c. granulated sugar1/2 c. potato starch3/4 c. lemon juice

PREPARATION:1. Combine crust ingredients. Press into a sprayed 11x17 inch pan.2. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes.3. Combine filling ingredients. Pour on crust.4. Bake another 30 minutes.

(Recipe from about.com by Paula Levine Weinstein and Julie Komerofsky Remer)

Pesto

2007-03-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

Often, I surf the web in search for nice parve recipes. Parve dishes are prepared without milky or meaty ingredients, so that they can be served with both fleishig and milchig dishes, or as a dessert after a fleishig meal.

A great source for parve recipes (apart from the kosher cooking sites) are vegan recipe sites. Although I miss the environmental conviction to skip milk and meat products from my meals alltogether (I must admit that I love cheese) these sites are a great additional source for parve recipes.

This week I wanted to make a nice pasta dish (to get rid of the chometz) so I prepared a really nice and quick parve/vegan pesto. It was so good that the food was finished before I could take a picture...

Vegan/parve pesto

Ingredients

2 cups fresh basil
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tbsp pine nuts (I like putting in more)
2 cloves garlic
pinch of (sea) salt
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced
some fresh cilantro (optional!)

Toast pine nuts in dry pan (you can skip this step if you don't have enough time, although it does add a really nice nutty flavour). Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until mixture is smooth. Serve with penne pasta or spaghetti. I love food processors. You can just throw in the whole cloves of garlic and have it minced without having smelly fingers.

Iraqi cholent

2007-03-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

Throughout the ages it has been the most famous dish served on shabbat. In southern European and Arabic countries the dish is referred to as chamin, in Western and Eastern European countries it is known as cholent. Although the etymology of the world is unknown, many people believe it to be derived from medieval French, chaud meaning warm and lent meaning slowly.

Indeed, cholent is a dish that slowly heats up and retains its warmth all throughout the shabbat. On Friday morning, the ingredients are combined in a big pot. The pot is put on an electric stove or in the oven, and left there the whole shabbat. The next morning it is being served. Each country and even each family has its own recipe. Usually the basic ingredients of cholent are meat, beans, potatoes and barley, although the oriental chamin usually consists of rice, and sausage. Some families add ketchup or even cola.

I like an Iraqi chamin version, to which I added some ingredients I like. That's the great thing about cholent: you can put in anything you like, and it usually comes out great. Plus (for the crockpot lovers) once you put it on the stove, the cholent prepares itself.

Iraqi cholent/chamin (serves at least 6)

Ingredients

4 large onions
4 large tomatoes
6 big pieces of chicken
3 cups of rice
4 cups of water
salt
black pepper
paprika
curry or other spices that you like
6 eggs (optional)
chickpeas (optional)
sausages (optional)
2 sweet potatoes (optional)

Mince onions and sauté in a big pan. Dice tomatoes and add to onion mixture. Add spices.To onionmixture add pieces of chicken. Cover pieces on all sides and let stand for 5 minutes. Remove pieces from pan and set aside. To onion mixture, add 3 cups of rice and 4 cups of water (1 1/3 cup of water to every cup of rice) and bring to a boil. Cook mixture for about 10 minutes. At the same time, in separate pan, bring eggs to a boil and immediately return from fire once water starts boiling. Return chicken pieces to pan. Insert optional ingredients (eggs, chickpeas, sausages, sweet potatoes cut or whole). Remove pan fire and put on electric hotplate. Leave on plate the whole shabbat.

Baked apples

2007-03-07T10:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had a friend over for dinner. I came home late from school, so I didn't have much time to prepare anything impressive. After a simple pasta with salmon, spinache and cream cheese I wanted to give an easy but fancy desert. These baked apples turned out to be just the right pick!

Ingredients (serves 4)

4 big apples
4 sheets of puff pastry
sugar and cinnamon
1 egg yolk

Thaw puff pastry. Preheat oven to 350F.
Peel apples and remove cores, without cutting the apples.
Put each apple on a sheet of pastry dough.
Insert sugar and cinnamon in the centre of the apple.
Cover apple with the puff pastry on all sides.
In glass, mix egg yolk with two tbsp. of water.
Brush apples with egg yolk mixture.
Bake apples for about 25 minutes, until golden brown.
Serve with vanilla icecream and coffee on the side.

The great thing is that it takes only about 15 minutes to prepare the apples, and the oven does the rest while you and your friends are enjoying dinner!

Harira

2007-02-15T10:10:00.000-08:00

Despite the sunny weather I am posting a soup recipe today, as was requested by Thursday. I made this dish yesterday after a long day of work, and it totally refreshed my senses.

Harira (Arabic chickpea soup)

This soup is often eaten at the end of a day of fasting during the Ramadan. I made it yesterday after a long day of work. It’s very wholesome and takes only about 20 minutes to make, so it’s perfect for a busy tiring day at school.

Ingredients (serves 4)

2 teasp. olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly

2 teasp. ground cumin

3 cans of 400 gr. chickpeas, with the juice

some saffron (I replaced this with curry powder, different taste, same color)
1 stock cube for vegetable soup, crumbled

400 gr. tomatoes, chopped, seeds removed

some cilantro according to taste, chopped

juice of half a lemon

some tabasco according to taste

seasalt and black pepper for seasoning

Heat the olive oil in a big soup pan and fry the chopped onion. Add garlic and cumin and fry for one more minute. Add one can of chickpeas and the saffron, afterwards the crumbled stock cube and heat until the mixture starts to boil. Stir for about five minutes until the stock cube is dissolved. Add the remaining chickpeas and add 250 ml. water. Let boil on low fire for about 15 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes. Stir for a minute and add the cilantro, lemon juice, tabasco, salt and pepper. Stir for one more minute and remove pot from fire. Serve and garnish with a bit of cilantro and a drop of olive oil. Serve with whole wheat toast, chummus and a green salad on the side.

Hearty lentil soup with sausages

2007-01-19T10:14:00.000-08:00

What dish is better in a storm than a nice, hearty lentil soup? Here we go:

Hearty lentil soup with sausages (serves 4-6)

Ingredients

2 tbs olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

2 big carrots, sliced

4 branches celery, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

225 grams red lentils

1,4 liter vegetable bouillon

150 ml tomato juice

8 (vegetarian) sausages, broiled

seasalt and black pepper for seasoning

chopped parshley for garnishing

Heat oil in hot pan. Add chopped onions, carrots and celery, and boil 6-8 minutes on low fire. Stir occasionaly. Add garlic and spices. Wait 2 minutes and add lentils.

Gradually add bouillon and tomato-juice. Cover and let boil for 20 minutes until vegetables are soft. Cut broiled sausages. Take soup off fire and stir in sausages. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with chopped parshley.

Very nice with whole wheat bread! The sausages can be replaced with vegetarian sausages, thus making the recipe parve.

Vegetable curry & banana mint raita

2007-01-08T10:20:00.000-08:00

New Year's resolution #1: Eat more vegetables!

Classic vegetable curry, serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups dried unsweetened coconut
2 1/2 cups very hot water

1/4 cup tomato paste

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large onion, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

4 large garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 medium red-skinned potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch dices

4 cups very small cauliflower florets

1 carrot, thinly sliced

1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed

1 1/2 tablespoons minced cilantro

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. To make the coconut milk, combine the coconut and hot water in the container of a blender (preferably) or food processor and process 2 minutes. Place a strainer over a large bowl and pour in half the coconut mixture. With the back of a large spoon press the coconut to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the pressed coconut and repeat with the remaining mixture. You should have 1 2/3 cups coconut milk.

2. Place the tomato paste in a small bowl and stir in about 1/2 cup coconut milk to dilute the tomato paste and make a smooth mixture. Pour this into the remaining coconut milk and set aside.

3. Melt the butter in a stockpot over medium heat. Add the onion, ginger, and garlic, and sauté, stirring often, until the onions are golden brown, about 10 minutes.

4. Stir in the turmeric, cumin, coriander, cardamom, and cayenne, and 'toast' the spices for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Pour in the coconut milk mixture and bring to a boil.

5. Stir in the potatoes, tightly cover the pan, and cook 5 minutes.

6. Carefully mix in the cauliflower and carrots, and stir to coat the vegetables evenly. Cover the pan tightly again and cook over medium heat until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Occasionally remove the cover and stir the vegetablees for even cooking. (The curry can be made a few hours in advance to this point. Reheat before proceeding with step 7. If the sauce has become very thick, thin with a little water.)

7. Stir in the peas, cilantro, and salt. Cover again and cook 1-2 minutes, or just until the peas are heated through.This curry is delicious with banana mint raita (mix one cup of low fat yogurt with a mashed ripe banana and some fresh mint, mmmm).