Soy Ginger Salmon

January 19, 2009 · by ·

Wednesday evenings are one of the nuttiest in our house. Both kids have assorted activities. We do not get home until 7:30, making the whole dinner routine a bit tough. I don’t like to do fast food, nor do we have any decent kosher fast food nearby. I do admit, I often turn to the more processed/frozen varieties of nutrition too often on those nights. I prefer to give my family a more balanced home cooked meal. This past Wednesday, we had the perfect dinner. We had a soy ginger salmon over whole wheat couscous with mushrooms and herbs. Yum!

Soy Ginger Salmon

Marinade Ingredients

1 pound of salmon
1/3 cup brown sugar
juice of half a lemon
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons ginger paste
1 tablespoon olive oil

Marinate your salmon for at least 30 minutes.

You have two options for cooking this up. You can sear it and finish in the oven, or you can broil for 15 minutes or so on high.

I chose to sear for 10 minutes and then finish in the oven.

Heat up the marinade ingredients in a sauce pan. Heat to boiling. Pour some of this sauce over the salmon and couscous.

I would show you a picture, but the camera didn’t cooperate. I will make this again though. So good!

Filed Under: Dinner, fish · Tagged: , , , , ,

Kosher Carbonara – Yes it’s possible…

January 15, 2009 · by ·

Pasta Carbonara is said to be pure Italian comfort food. The basics of the classic dish are bacon, eggs, pasta, and parmesean. The bacon is obviously problematic in my world as far as kashrut goes. The raw eggs, which are cooked in the pasta, while not a problem, it still made me nervous.

Some people choose to use some of the fakin’ bacon. I choose not to, only because the texture doesn’t work quite right ever. Have no fear though, Bacon Salt is here. Bacon Salt is a spice mixture that gives your food that yummy eerie flavor of bacon. I just bought it and thought that a cabonara would be the perfect dish to test this spice out.

Below is the recipe I came up with…

Kosher Carbonara

Ingredients:

1 lb. spaghetti
3 eggs
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
8 mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup of peas
1/2 stick of butter
salt
pepper
1/2 cup of white wine
1/2 cup of starchy pasta water
2 tbsp. bacon salt
1 cup parmesean
olive oil

Cook the pasta to al dente in a pot of salted water.
In pan, saute the garlic. Add in the mushrooms and peas. Continue to saute. Add in one tablepoon of the bacon salt. Now add the wine and the cooking water.

In a separate bowl, mix up the eggs with the parmesean cheese.

Drain the hot pasta into a large bowl. Quickly add in the egg and cheese mixture and stir, stir, stir. Now mix in the mushroom/pea mixture. Keep stirring. The pasta will cook the egg, but you don’t want the egg to scramble. Add in the butter. Stir some more. You should have some yummy creamy pasta.

Serve on a plate. Spinkle on additional bacon salt and parmesean.

It was very tasty. I have never tasted real carbonara, so I have nothing to compare it to, but this was very good.


Filed Under: Dinner, pasta, Vegetarian · Tagged: , , , , , ,

Vegetarian Spring Rolls

January 15, 2009 · by ·
Sunday night’s dinner was pad thai. What better to go with than a spring roll.

I have never made spring rolls before. I made egg rolls once a few years ago, but egg roll wrappers are easier to work with. I have had the spring roll wrappers sitting in my house for a while, just waited to be played with. I don’t like frying things and I was a bit fearful. I charged ahead.

While it wasn’t too complicated to prepare and they were tasty, I do need to make some tweaks next time. I need to use larger wrappers or less filling, and I need to fry in more oil than I used.

Vegetarian Spring Rolls – (10 spring rolls)


Ingredients:

Spring Roll Wrappers – rice papers
Bean Thread Noodles or Rice Noodles (Vermicelli) – 1 small “bun”
1 cup of shredded cabbage
1/2 cup of shredded carrots
2 scallions, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped ginger
2 tablespoons of bamboo shoots, chopped
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon fish sauce (optional)
Vegetable Oil

Begin by soaking your noodles in boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain.

In a tablespoon of oil, sautee the garlic and ginger. Add in the carrots and cabbage. Saute until soft. Add in the bean sprouts, bamboo shoots and scallions. Saute a few more minutes. Season with the soy sauce, sesame oil, and fish sauce.
Soak your rice papers in a shallow bowl of warm water.

Lay out the softened rice paper.

Put 1 tablespoon of the noodles and one tablespoon of the veggie mixture on the rice paper. Place the mixture on the edge closer to you. Wrap the edge in. Fold in the sides, then finish rolling up.
Fry in oil. Drain on paper towels.

Just a reminder that my spring rolls didn’t look so perfect this time. They were damn good though.

Eat. Yum
Filed Under: Appetizers, egg roll, fried, Gluten Free, rice paper, spring roll, vietnamese · Tagged: , , , , ,

Easy Rib Steak

January 15, 2009 · by ·

C is for Cow.

B is for the beef that comes from cow. I was a vegetarian for over 10 years. Then one day, I had an extreme craving for my mom’s brisket. I haven’t been a vegetarian since. I can’t say I love meat, but I do crave meat every once in a while.

One Thursday evening, while doing my pre-shabbat shopping, these pretty rib steaks looked perfect for dinner. Much dinner than the omelette that was planned. Steak is even easier than omelettes. Just marinade and broil. If you are extra good, you can have a salad alongside that steak.

The marinade I created on the fly for 2 rib steaks is as follows:

1/4 cup of worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons of dijon mustard

2 tablespoons of garlic
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
salt
pepper

Stir the mixture up. Spread over the steaks. Let it sit for a half hour. Broil.

Yummy

Filed Under: beef, Dinner · Tagged: , , , ,

Veggie Enchiladas

January 8, 2009 · by ·

A couple of years ago a colleague had some yummy smelling lunch that I just had to inquire about. It turned out to be vegetarian enchiladas. She passed on the recipe to me and I subsequently buried it in my email box and let it sit. From time to time I would eyeball the recipe and think about the idea of making it. After all, it did smell good. I thought it might be too time consuming to make though. I have toughened up since then. I am brave enough to take on more “complicated” dishes now. Last night I prepared my own adaptation of the veggie enchiladas. It was easy and amazing. It also made for wonderful leftovers the next day at lunch. The only shortcut I did was use a bottle of Trader Joe’s Enchilada Sauce, which just happens to be cheap and kosher.

Vegetarian Enchiladas
1 onions, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 green squash, diced
1 yellow squash, diced
1 can of pinto beans, rinsed
1 chile, seeds removed and chopped
2 scallions
8 baby bella mushrooms, chopped
salt and pepper
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1-2 cups of cheddar/monterey jack mix, shredded
olive oil
8 Tortillas
1 bottle of Trader Joes Enchilada Sauce
Sour Cream
Cilantro, olives, chives – optional

Preheat your oven to 350.

Begin by preparing your filling ingredients. Chop up all the veggies.

In a bit of olive oil, saute the onions and the garlic. After a few minutes, add in the chili powder, salt, pepper, and cumin. Next, add in the squash. Saute for 5 minutes. Add in the canned pinto beans. Let that cook a bit. Mash up the beans a bit. Add in the mushrooms, scallion, and the chile. Make sure you have removed the seeds from the chile. Let it cook some more until the liquid evaporates.


In a 9×13 pan, pour some of the enchilada sauce to cover the bottom of the pan.

In each tortilla, place around two tablespoons of the vegetable mixture along with a sprinkle of cheese.



Roll up the tortilla and place seam side down in the pan. Do this 8 times.


When all the tortillas are in, pour the rest of the sauce over the tortillas. Make sure the enchiladas are well covered by the sauce. Throw on the rest of the cheese. Place in oven.

Remove after 25-30 minutes. Garnish with sour cream, cilantro, chives, and olives.

Enjoy! This dish is great the next day. It might also work well frozen.

Filed Under: beans, cheese, enchiladas, mexican, vegetables, Vegetarian · Tagged: , , ,

Yummy Soy Sausage

January 6, 2009 · by ·

A staple in our house is fake meat…soy and otherwise. I like the versatility of the fake meat products…and in the words of my 7-year-old, “I don’t want to be fleishig.”

On any given Monday night, dinner can be a rush. The buzz of the beginning of the week and crazy schedules make meal planning tough. The presence of the soy meat options are very helpful. Making dinner can be easy.

Dinner was Veggie Italian Sausage with a Mushroom and Tomato Saute over Pasta. I used gemelli, but any pasta can be used. I just like to use fun shapes. I used Trader Joes brand veggie sausage. I have seen other brand out there. Lightlife and Field Roast brands both offer similar tasty treats.


Italian Sausage, Mushrooms, and Tomato over PastaIngredients

1 box of pasta – any shape will do
1 onion
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 Italian Soy Sausages, more if feeding a larger crowd
1 can of diced flavored tomatoes
salt and pepper
Basil – fresh if you have it
Parmesean Cheese

Start by sauteing one chopped onion with 5 chopped cloves of garlic in some olive oil. Slice up two sausages thinly. Add it to the pan. Add in some sliced baby bella mushrooms, salt, pepper, and some basil. Use fresh basil if you have it. Next, add in a can of crushed tomatoes. I like the italian balsamic tomato flavor.

Spoon the mixture over some cooked pasta. Grate some parmesean cheese over it. This dish was wonderful and filling. Goes great with some steamed veggies or a green salad.

Filed Under: cheese, dairy, italian, mushrooms, pasta, sausage, seitan, soy, tofu, Vegetarian · Tagged: , , ,

Cooking with my Dad: Vegetable Samosas

January 5, 2009 · by ·
I grew up in a family of foodies. My ideas about food and how to cook it are definitely shaped by my parents. I often find myself calling them to run recipe ideas by them, in addition to the standard needed parenting advice. When I come home to my kitchen, I miss my parents looking over my shoulder telling me how something needs to be cooked or how to accomplish the task better.

I was overjoyed by the opportunity to cook with my father on a recent trip back home. He is an excellant father and an excellent cook. I was still curious to see how it would play out as he is a bit possessive of his kitchen. Originally I thought I would do some sort of traditional Minnesota dish like hotdish that has never seen the light of my parent’s kitchen or mine, but instead we chose to cook something that we knew we would enjoy eating.

We chose to do a slight adaptation to Bonnie Stern’s samosa recipe from her Heartsmart Cooking series. It’s is an ode to my parent’s cooking roots, as they took cooking lessons at her cooking school in Toronto back in the day. Below is the recipe as we prepared it.

Vegetable Samosas

2 potatoes, diced
1 onion, diced
2 carrots or 8 baby carrots, diced
2 tbsp. chopped ginger
1 red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup of peas

1 cup of hummus, (the recipe called for chickpeas, which we didn’t have)
1 scallion, chopped
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. of garam masala
2 tsp. curry
1 tsp. fenugreek
Egg Roll or Wonton Skins
2 tbsp. oil for brushing
Preheat oven to 375.

Begin by sauteeing the potato/onion/carrot mixture in olive oil. Sautee for around 10 minutes. After about 8 minutes, add in the ginger and the other spices. Saute a couple more minutes.


Add in the peas and the hummus, stir a bit. Add in the chopped scallions. Add in the water. Let everything cook until most of the liquid evaporates.

On a baking sheet lined with buttered/greased parchment paper, lay out the wonton/egg roll skins. Put 1-2 tablespoons into center of square and then fold into a triangular pocket. Seal the edges with water.


Brush the triangles with olive oil.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until browned. Enjoy!

They were yummy! I will definitely make this again. I think I prefer these to the fried version that I have at the Indian restaurants.I will add some garlic to it next time.
Filed Under: Appetizers, bonnie stern, indian, minneapolis, potato, samosas, Side Dish, toronto, wonton wrappers · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

The Latest Kosher Cooking Carnival

December 24, 2008 · by ·

Hey Everyone,

The latest Kosher Cooking Carnival is up. Thank you to Leora for all your hard work in assembling this. This 37th edition is filled with many different delicious kosher recipes by several loyal kosher foodie bloggers. Enjoy!

Check it out!

Filed Under: recipes · Tagged: , , ,

Sufganiyot

December 22, 2008 · by ·
I don’t usually deep fry anything, so the idea of homemade sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) is a bit daunting to me. Last year I attempted to make zeppolis on chanukah by using the premade Trader Joes pizza dough. It didn’t quite come out right.

 

Tonight I used the recipe from Claudia Roden’s The Book of Jewish Food. If you ever wanted to buy a Jewish cookbook, this is the cookbook you must buy. More useful than the well-thumbed “purple cookbook,” Spice and Spirit , tastier and better stories than any of Joan Nathan’s treasures.

 

Here is her recipe

 

Soufganioth by Claudia Roden, The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York

 

Ingredients:

 

1 tsp. dried yeast
1/4 c. lukewarm milk or water
2 tbsp. sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp. sour cream or oil
A pinch of salt
2 or 3 drops vailla extract
1 2/3 c. flour, plus more if necessary
Oil for deep-frying – **cringe**
Apricot, red-currant, or raspberry jam
Confectioner’s sugar for sprinkling

 

Dissolve the yeast in warm water or milk with 1 tsp of sugar and leave for 10 minutes or until it froths.

 

Beat the rest of the sugar with the egg and the yolk. Add the sour crem or oil, the salt, vanilla, and the yeast mixture, and beat very well. Fold in the flour gradually, and continue beating until you have a soft, smooth, and elastic dough, adding more flour if necessary. Then knead for 5 minutes, sprinkling with a flour if it is too sticky. Coat the dough with oil by pouring a drop in the bowl and turning the dough in it.

Cover the bowl with and leave in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours, or until doubled in bulk.

 

Knead the dough again for a few minutes, then roll out on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut 2 inch rounds….Put a teaspoon of jam in the center of the dough round. Brush the rim with a little water to make it sticky and cover with another round. Press the edges together to seal. Continue with the rest of the rounds and arrange them on a floured tray. Leave them to rise for about 30 minutes.

Heat 1-1/2 inches of oil in a saucepan to medium hot. Drop in the doughnuts, a few at a time. Fry in the oil for 3-4 minutes with the lid, until brown, then turn and fry the other side 1 minute more. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with the confectioners’ sugar.

Eat them while they are still warm.

 

The variation on this, is to fry a thicker round of plain dough – about a 1/2 inch thick – when it is cool enough to handle, cut a small slit and inject the jam into the doughnut.
I tried both methods. I preferred the jam-injected donut to the 2-piece donut. I do need to play around with dough thickness and cooking time. All in all, it was an easy recipe and a good start…
Sufganiyot
 
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Author:
Ingredients
  • 1 tsp. dried yeast
  • ¼ c. lukewarm milk or water
  • 2 tbsp. sugar
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 3 tbsp. sour cream or oil
  • A pinch of salt
  • 2 or 3 drops vailla extract
  • 1⅔ c. flour, plus more if necessary
  • Oil for deep-frying
  • Apricot, red-currant, raspberry jam or other favorite filling
  • Confectioner's sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
  1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water or milk with 1 tsp of sugar and leave for 10 minutes or until it froths.
  2. Beat the rest of the sugar with the egg and the yolk. Add the sour cream or oil, the salt, vanilla, and the yeast mixture, and beat very well. Fold in the flour gradually, and continue beating until you have a soft, smooth, and elastic dough, adding more flour if necessary. Then knead for 5 minutes, sprinkling with a flour if it is too sticky. Coat the dough with oil by pouring a drop in the bowl and turning the dough in it.
  3. Cover the bowl with a towel and leave in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours, or until doubled in bulk.
  4. Knead the dough again for a few minutes, then roll out on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin to ¼ inch thickness.
  5. Cut in to 2 inch rounds
  6. Put a teaspoon of jam in the center of the dough round. Brush the rim with a little water to make it sticky and cover with another round.
  7. Press the edges together to seal.
  8. Continue with the rest of the rounds and arrange them on a floured tray. L
  9. eave them to rise for about 30 minutes.
  10. Another option is to inject the jam in to the fried donute. Fry a thicker round of plain dough - about a ½ inch thick - when it is cool enough to handle, cut a small slit and inject with a pastry bag.
  11. I like the injecting method.
Filed Under: baked, Chanukah, claudia roden, Dessert, donuts, hanukkah, sufganiyot · Tagged: , , , , ,

Basic Latkes

December 22, 2008 · by ·
Happy Chanukah/Hanukkah! Make it a happy one, whichever way you choose to spell it.

During the holiday, we usually make latkes twice. Each year we do the basic recipe, and then later in the week, we try and come up with a unique “gourmet” version. Stay tuned for the gourmet flavor.

Tonight, we made and enjoyed our basic, easy latke recipe. I will not say it’s a “no-fail” latke, because anyone can mess up, but it’s pretty good. Even my picky 7-year-old partook in the latke joy tonight.

LatkesIngredients:

4 largeish yukon gold potatoes
1 onion
1/4 cup of flour
2-3 eggs
salt and pepper
vegetable oil

Peel and quarter your onion and potatoes.

In a food processor, grate the onions and potatoes together, using the grating blade. If you are deficient in nice kitchen appliances, use a hand grater.

Pour the grated goodness into a tea towel. Squeeze out the starchy water from the mixture into a sink. This keeps the latkes from getting a starchy brown color. This brown is a greyer color than the fried brown color. If your latke mixture is too starchy and moist, it can fall apart and have a pastey consistency.

Dump the squeezed out potatoes and onions into a mixing bowl. Mix in the eggs, flour, salt, and pepper.

Heat up a fry pan with around an inch of vegetable oil.
Plop the potato mixture using a tablespoon in to the fry pan. Flip over when you see the edges begin to brown.

Drain on a cookie sheet covered in paper towels.

Serve the latkes hot with sour cream and/or applesauce. We prefer sour cream in our house. Never use ketchup or mayonaisse on your latkes.

If you plan to serve them at a later time, reheat on a cookie sheet at 200 degrees.
Filed Under: Appetizers, Chanukah, fried, hanukkah, potato · Tagged: , , , , , ,
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