Putting The Season's Bounty To Good Use

(Cross-Posted on Guess Who's Coming To Dinner)

At least insomnia is good for something.

I was unable to sleep last night so I began trolling the internet at 3 a.m. (the internet never sleeps....) for something new and different to make for the shalom zachor of a very good friend who just had her FIFTH (!!!) boy. I chanced upon this post over at Life In the Carpool Lane: CHOCOLATE DIPPED CLEMENTINES. What a deceptively simple, yet elegant idea! And to make matters even better, clementines which are abundant right now, also happen to be on sale this week for $4.99 a box.

Here is my adaptation of her recipe:

Ingredients:

clementines

semi-sweet chocolate chips

sweetened shredded coconut

• Peel and section the clementines
• Melt good quality chocolate over a double boiler and stir
• Dip each clementine section halfway into the melted chocolate and then in a bowl of shredded coconut
• Put the pieces on wax paper in the fridge to set

These taste as good as they look, and they look like something you might find in a gourmet shop.

Beaver Tails - a different kind of Chanuka donut....

I have a really great friend, Perla, who happens to also be Canadian. Whenever she has a party she makes sure that Beaver Tails are on the menu, and the first time I tried these donuts, it was love at first taste. Apparently they're really big in Montreal, where she's from. This is my version. Enjoy warm with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar!

Ingredients

1/2 cup warm water
5 teaspoons dry yeast

1 cup warm milk
1 tablespoon + 1/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
5 cups flour
oil for frying


Topping

2 cups white sugar, or as needed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the yeast, warm water, and a pinch of sugar. Let stand until slightly foamy, about 5 minutes.
2. When the yeast is foamy (looks like beer), stir in remaining sugar, milk, vanilla, eggs, oil and salt.
3. Add flour gradually to make soft dough. Knead 5-8 minutes (by hand on a floured surface or with a dough hook), adding flour as needed to form a firm, smooth, elastic dough. Place dough in a greased bowl, and cover. Let rise until doubled, about 30 to 40 minutes.
3. Gently deflate the dough, and pinch off a golf ball-sized piece of dough. On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll the ball out to an oval. Set aside to rest covered with a tea towel, and continue with remaining dough.
4. Heat about 4 inches of oil for frying in a deep-fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). If you do not have a deep fryer, a wok or Dutch oven will work. Test a tiny bit of dough and see if it sizzles and swells immediately. If it does, the oil temperature is where it should be.
5. Just before placing the beaver tails in the oil, stretch the ovals out into a tail shape, thinning and enlarging them as you do. Carefully place the tails in the hot oil one or two at a time. Fry, turning once, until the tails are a deep brown, about 1 to 2 minutes per side. Remove using tongs and drain on paper towels.
6. Place 2 cups of sugar in a large bowl, and stir in 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Toss beaver tails in the sugar bowl while they are still hot. Shake off excess.

Lebkuchen

(Cross posted on Guess Who's Coming To Dinner)

I've had readers ask for more recipes.

I've had other readers ask for more posts with German Jewish themes.

I've had different readers ask for more controversial posts (OK, you guys are out of luck this time...).

I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone with this recipe for lebkuchen, a traditional German spice cake with the consistency of a brownie.

Enjoy it this Chanukah courtesy of yours truly:

Lebkuchen

1 stick margarine
4 eggs
1 pound brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 package vanilla sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 package ground walnuts -- (7 ounces)

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice
hot water -- if needed
Topping:
nonpareils

Mix together all ingredients. Pour into greased 9" x 13" pan.

Bake at 325° for 30 minutes or more until it looks like brownies.

Mix glaze ingredients and ice while hot! Sprinkle with nonpareils.

Ever So Yummy Corn Bread

1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup corn meal
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oil (I use canola)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Beat egg and milk together. Add flour, corn meal, both sugars, oil, baking soda and baking powder. Mix well. Pour into a greased pan (I usually use one of those circular pans). Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Honey Chicken

Ingredients:

1 chicken, about 3 1/2 pounds, cut into 8 pieces

3/4 cup honey

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray.
   
2. Rinse chicken, pat dry and place in prepared pan.
   
3. In a small bowl, mix together honey, soy sauce, olive oil, garlic powder and pepper and pour over chicken.
   
4. Bake, uncovered at 375 degrees for 1 hour until slightly browned.

Teriyaki Chicken & Peppers

 

Ingredients:

3 pounds boneless chicken breast cutlets, sliced into strips
20 ounces teriyaki sauce (you can really use less, maybe 10 oz)
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 whole red bell pepper, seeded, veins removed, slice into thin strips
1 whole green bell pepper, seeded, veins removed, slice into thin strips
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

 

Directions:

1.    Rinse cutlets and pat dry

2.    place chicken in a sealable plastic bag with teriyaki sauce and honey, shake to coat and set aside

3.    in a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium high heat and sauté peppers for 10 minutes, until tender

4.    while that's cooking, in another large skillet, heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat and sauté chicken strips for 10 to 15 minutes until cooked thorough

5.    add balance of marinade (Whatever is left in sealable plastic bag) to peppers and heat thoroughly for about 5 minutes

6.    combine peppers and chicken and sprinkle with sesame seeds before serving

milkshake mishap

The only thing you're going to get out of this post is a recipe for disaster.

So I went shopping for groceries today - one of my fave things to do because it combines two of my greatest loves - shopping and food. (ok three - the place I go has the hottest bag boys)

Anyhow, love #4 - sales - were abundant in this pre-Thanksgiving season. And much to my delight, my preferred brand of frozen fruit (including strawberries, blueberries and mango) was included in the discount. I was very excited to make my purchase of three bags of frozen goodness, and even more excited to go home and whip up some soy smoothies (soy milk was also on sale!).

I think I was a little too excited to show my bubbie my kitchen proficiency, because while you and I may know that making smoothies is practically child's play, well at least that's what I thought before the mishap hap'd, my bubbie comes from the land of kugel and kasha where food is either white or brown or speckled with carrot. Pink or blue food in Eastern Europe is something you throw out.

So here is where it all when to sh$t.

I filled my blender with some newly-purchased fruit and soy milk. That's basically it. I think I put too much fruit. Not enough soy milk.

As soon as I hit the 'Frappé' button, I knew something was going terribly wrong. My blender started screeching. My mixture had separated. The bottom half was strawberry pink, the top half blueberry blue. The mango pieces had formed an icy barrier against the blender blades. The soy milk must have freaked out because it was slowly freezing over into a chunky mess. My blender had somehow turned into an ice cream-maker.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my bubbie's perplexed stare. Giving her my best reassuring plastic smile, I grabbed a long wooden spoon out of its drawer hoping to save the smoothie. I managed to hand-mix the whole thing to a nice deep purple in a tribute to life before electronic gadgets.

Unfortunately, they didn't have smoothies in those dark ages, and neither did my bubbie today. I poured some of the soft-ice-cream, slushy-like mix into a cup, handed my grandmother a spoon and said 'L'Chaim!'.

Little Bites For Little Birthdays

Thank you to Material Maidel for inviting me to contribute to Kosher Cuisine. While I was happy to be included, I wasn’t sure what I could bring to the table here (ha ha ha! That’s so punny!) I’m not the world’s best cook, and I don’t really have any recipes in my repertoire that are so exceptional that they deserve to be shared here. One thing I do know, however, is how to feed hungry kids on a tight budget. Another thing I know (hey! I know two things!) is how to throw a fun birthday party for the young’uns that won’t burn a hole in your wallet (think arts & crafts, jewelry beading, painting, and “manicures & makeovers” for the girls; outdoor ball games for the boys, because you don’t really want so many rambunctious little boys inside your house at one time).
So I thought I’d share with you some menu ideas that will allow you to host a fun, inexpensive and easy to prepare birthday party that DOES NOT INCLUDE PIZZA (kids eat way too much pizza). The rule of thumb here is that most kids like food that is cut up, crunchy, easy to eat, and presented in a fun way- in colorful little bowls, or on a stick. Added bonus: you won’t need to provide any cutlery- this is finger food (except for the ice cream).
***For ages 3 and up only. Some of these foods present a choking hazard to children under 3.

Dairy menu:
­*Bowls of potato chips, pretzels, licorice bites, M&Ms, etc. for snacking.
*Miniature bagels filled with cream cheese, butter, strawberry or grape jelly, tuna salad, egg salad or grilled cheese.
*Cut up cucumbers, baby carrots, grape tomatoes, and red/yellow/orange baby bell peppers arranged attractively on a tray or on colorful toothpicks. Provide small bowls of creamy salad dressing for dipping.
*For dessert (and instead of an expensive birthday cake that no one will finish) prepare in advance little 4 oz. cups with one scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled with a bit of chocolate syrup. Before serving, top each one with whipped cream and colored sprinkles. Put a lit candle in the birthday child’s cup and sing Happy Birthday.

Meat Menu:
*Bowls of potato chips, pretzels, licorice bites, popcorn, etc. for snacking.
* Alternate cocktail franks on toothpicks with crunchy pickle slices. Provide ketchup and mustard for dipping.
*Put out trays of french fries, mini corn on the cobb, and small potato burekas (just fill store bought puff pastry squares with mashed potatoes and bake at 425 degrees Farenheit for 15-20 minutes).
*You can add a tray of homemade chicken nuggets if you’d like.
*For dessert: put out little bowls of fruit: grapes (plucked off the vine), baby apples, cubes of seedless watermelon, and orange sections. Put each type of fruit in a separate bowl, so the kids can select the ones that they like.
Instead of birthday cake: brownie squares with colorful sprinkles. Put a lit candle in the birthday child’s brownie and sing Happy Birthday.

Cottage Cheese Cheesecake

Crossposted on me-ander
When our firstborn was almost a year old, my in-laws came to visit and meet their first grandchild.  They brought a gift, a blender, a Hamilton Beach one which lasted decades.  The blender came with a nice big cookbook, which I read from cover to cover.

I must admit that I cooked very few of those recipes.  The one I cooked the most was its cheesecake.  And this morning I got a facebook message from an old friend asking if I still make it and a request for the recipe.  So if she remembers it fondly from over thirty-five, yes 35, years ago, it's definitely worth blogging.

In those days we didn't have great varieties of food here in Israel.  We always had to substitute, so I used plain cookies/biscuits instead of the zweibacks, the book lists.  Honestly, to this day, I haven't the vaguest idea what zweibacks are.

It's a very easy cheesecake recipe using easy to find ingredients.  It's simple to make and make lower fat if desired.  I'm sure it'll taste fine with arificial sweetners, too.  You can add cut fruit and anything else, including chocolate.  Recipes are supposed to be "played with."  Please let me know how it comes out.

Here's the recipe, including commentary:

18 "zweiback"
2 Tablespoons sugar (could be deleted, makes the topping too sweet) 
1/3 cup melted butter (I must have used about 2 or 3 cubed inches)
1 cup milk
1 T lemon juice, which was awful, so I used vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)
2 T flour (I used whole wheat)
1/4 teaspoon salt (I never add salt to cakes, so you can leave it out)
lemon rind, optional and not recommended
16 ounces of cottage cheese

1. blend the cookies into crumbs, making 1 1/2 cups
2. mix crumbs with the 2 T's of sugar and the melted butter
3. press just under half of it on the bottom of a 9x9x2 or 8" round baking pan
4. put remaining ingredients in blender, in order listed, and blend until smooth
5. pour into baking pan
6. spread remaining crumb mixture, actually, I used to just make less crumbs and only use them on the bottom.  You can reduce the calories enormously by eliminating the topping, or top without bottom crumbs.
7. bake until center is firm, temperature a drop less than for a regular cake.

Bring on the Broccoli Salad

Have you seen this salad recently? Quite possible - because it's become one of those dishes that graces almost EVERY Shabbos table in Brooklyn.  I found the original recipe in today's holy bible of Kosher cooking, Susie Fishbein's Kosher by Design. Here's my version.

Ingredients
1 head broccoli, stems discarded, florets chopped very small
1 cup light or fat-free mayonnaise
1/2 small red onion, finely diced
3 Tbsps. red wine vinegar
3 Tbsps. sugar
1 package kosher Ramen-type soup noodles (discard seasonings packet)
1/2 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1/4 cup sunflower seeds, shelled and unsalted
1/4 cup raw cashews, unsalted
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup pine nuts

Instructions
Crumble soup noodles in a Ziploc bag with a rolling pan.
In a large mixing bowl, combine mayonnaise, onion, sugar and vinegar. Add broccoli and toss until evently coated.
Add noodles and remaining ingredients. Toss lightly.


This dish tastes great served right away or even the next day.