Split Pea Soup with Flanken

December 22, 2008 · by ·
I came home from work Thursday night, looked at the weather, looked inside my freezer, and was disturbed. I had no soup left. The school superintendent and the weathermen were both predicting snowstorms. I needed something warm and hearty for a Shabbat soup. The only requirement was that I must be able to make matzah balls with it.
I looked though my pantry and fridge and decided on split pea soup. I normally cook it with a smoked turkey leg to give it that treife split pea soup with ham taste, but I didn’t have any smoked turkey and the kosher store was out of it. I opted for flanken and flanken bones. The soup is very good and there is plenty leftover for a few more dinners.

Split Pea Soup with Flanken

Ingredients:
1 pound of boneless flanken
3/4 pound of flanken bones
3 stalks of celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
3 carrots, diced
2 cups of split peas
8-10 cups of water
salt
pepper
2 tsp. dried thyme or 3 sprigs fresh
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper the meat thoroughly. In your soup pot, brown the meaty bits in some olive oil. After 5-10 minutes, add in your mirepoix of chopped celery, carrots, and onions.Let oy saute for 5-10 minutes.
While the meat and veggies are sauteeing, rinse the split peas.

Pour the split peas in to the pot. Stir. Add in the bay leaves and the thyme.
Pour in the water.

Let the soup come to a boil. Simmer for 1-2 hours, until reduced to your desired thickness.
Enjoy!
Filed Under: Soups · Tagged: , , , , ,

Chocolate Raspberry Rugelach

December 17, 2008 · by ·

I own a rolling pin, but never use it. It’s not that I am afraid of it, I just don’t really like using recipes that seem to have way too many process transitions. I use my rolling pin maybe twice a year. As you have seen by my carrot muffins, I am in some sort of wierd baking mood. I decided to get all brave and try to make some rugelach. I don’t like most bakery pastry, and I wanted to see if I could “have it my way.”

I used Ina Garten’s recipe for the rugelach dough and then came up with my own filling. The rugelach came out super tasty and they were suprisingly easy to make. My fear of baking is slowly fading.

Is rugel the singular of rugelach? I’ll go with it…
Chocolate Raspberry Rugelach (Dairy)
Dough Recipe – from The Barefoot Contessa by Ina Garten
8 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature
2 sticks of butter – softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 egg mixed beaten, mixed with 1 tsp of milk for brushing later on
2 tbsp sugar and one tsp. cinnamon, mixed for dusting
In your mixer, using the paddle attachment, mix up the cream cheese and the butter until well mixed.

Add the sugar, salt, and vanilla. Continue to mix on low speed. Slowly add the flour with the mixer running. Do not over mix the dough. The dough will be sticky.

Turn the dough out on to a well floured board and roll it into a ball. Cut the ball into quarters. Wrap each quarter in plastic wrap and chill in the refridgerator for at least an or…or you could freeze the dough for future use. The dough works best the colder it is.

While the dough is chilling, get your filling ready.

My chocolate/raspberry filling ingredients are as follows:

1 cup of walnut pieces
3/4 cup of chocolate chips – semisweet
1/4 cup of light brown sugar
Raspberry Jam – I used seedless
In a food processor, chop the walnuts and chocolate until ground well. Mix in the brown sugar.

I love my mini cuisinart. It’s petite,adorable, and cute. It was sitting lost and lonely in a cabinet behind my giant cuisinart. It should have a permanent place on my counter, but I dislike the clutter.

Once the dough is chilled, we are ready to roll up some rugelach.

On a well floured board, roll each ball into a circle, around 9 inches. Spread a very light layer of jam on to the dough circle. Do not add too much jam, as there will be too much oozing when baking. Sprinkle the nut/choc filling onto the jam. Cut the dough circle into wedges, around 12-16 equal wedges. I find it cuts best with a pizza slicer.


Starting with the wide edge, roll up each wedge. Put the rolled up rugelach on to a baking sheet lined with parchement paper or a silpat.
Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Remove the dough from the fridge. Brush each rugel with the egg wash. Dust with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Be thankful that I am not including any nutritional information on this one.

Filed Under: baked, chocolate, cookie, Dessert, jewish, raspberry, rugelach · Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Carrot Cake Muffins

December 16, 2008 · by ·

“Carrots have vitamins that are good for your eyes,” says the kid to her friend. The friend nasally asked “why” and stomped off. She didn’t care about an answer. Lucky me, she came back to the house with an apron built for a kid. My daughter was shocked. I don’t think she has seen me wear an apron…ever. I do have an apron somewhere in some closet that has an ice cream cone from my days working at Perkins.

I decided a week or so ago in some gooey state of crohn’s induced steroid hunger that I needed to make carrot cake muffins/cupcakes…even if I couldn’t actually eat them. I trudged out to buy the ingredients. I promised my daughter some hallmark cooking moments. It was either that or Hannah Montana blasted into the kitchen. I don’t think I can handle more of “It’s the beeeessst of both worlds!” So we went to work after the mad dinner rush. Cooking with your kids can be fun. I am not sharing picture of the cleanup.

I even made the cream cheese frosting to go with…I have never made frosting before.

After much eyeballing recipes on the web, I came up with a recipe that seemed to please all tastes…not too sweet, not too “cimanimony,” and moist.

Carrot Cake
Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups grated carrots (raw)
3/4 cup applesauce
1.5 cups chopped pecans or walnuts (I can’t eat nuts, but prefer pecans – tradition is walnuts – I think)
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, amd salt in one small bowl. In a separate large bowl, beat the oil, sugar, and vanilla. Slowly mix in half the flour mixture. Add in the carrots, applesauce, nuts, and the eggs. Beat well. Add in the rest of the flour.

Have your muffin tins greased or lined and ready to go. Pour batter into cups. Do not overfill. This recipe gave me 24 cupcakes. Bake for 20 minutes.


My daughter scarfed them down. She didn’t even want to wait for it to cool down or for the frosting.


You do need the cream cheese frosting. It’s not a cupcake without the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
8 oz. of cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups of confectioners sugar
5 tbsp. butter
Beat the 3 ingredients together for a few minutes. You have some yummy frosting.
You can spread over the cupcakes or you can just eat straight from the bowl…alternating with bites of cupcake of course.

Filed Under: baked, Breakfast, Snacks · Tagged: , , , ,

Pad Thai

December 10, 2008 · by ·

I often find myself watching cooking videos and podcasts on my ipod. Youtube is wonderful for finding every possible how-to video. As of late, I have been especially into Korean and Thai cooking. Today I dug down to the heart of Chinatown and wandered through a couple of Thai markets for ingredients and ideas.

One of my favorite Thai dishes is Pad Thai. It’s truly comfort food, when done right. I finally built up the nerve to cook it. I was amazed that it wasn’t that hard to prepare.


Pad Thai

Ingredients:

Thin Flat Rice Stick Noodles
Eggs – a couple
Tofu – diced small, extra firm
Another protein (optional)
Garlic – chopped
Ground Peanuts – crushed, roasted
Chives –
Beansprouts – I didn’t have any and didn’t see any good ones in the store
Tamarind Concentrate
Sugar – when done right, you should use palm sugar – I didn’t have any
sriracha or chili paste
fish sauce – sometimes available kosher from koshergourmetmart – if vegetarian, use extra soy sauce
soy sauce
Vegetable Oil – non fragrant oil is important, peanut or canola works well
lime wedges – very important player in this dish

The trick is to have everything read to go, before you heat up your wok.

Get your sauce ready. For 2-3 servings, I used 2 tablespoons of tamarind, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of chili paste.

Cut up your tofu and let it dry on papertowels.


Chop up veggies and/meat

Cook the rice noodles. Pour boiling water over noodles in a bowl and let sit for 10 minutes. Do not overcook them. Very important.



Ready to get down to business now. Heat up a large wok with 2 tablespoons of oil. Add in your garlic and tofu. Fry a bit. Move the garlic and tofu to the side. If using meat, this is when you would cook it. Crack in your eggs and scramble. Let it set a bit.

Toss in your noodles. Toss in the sauce and mix. Throw in the beansprouts and any other veggies you might be adding. Mix up and stir fry a few minutes.

Serve on to a plate. Sprinkle over some chopped peanuts. Serve with a lime wedge to squeeze over. The lime juice is essential and very yummy in this dish.


This meal turned out to be a hit tonight. Feel free to play with ingredients a bit. Add more or less of sauce ingredients to meet your taste. I will probably add more heat (chili paste) next time as well as more lime juice squeezed on. I was very happy with this meal and will make again. Very easy quick dinner night meal.

Filed Under: Dinner, Lunch, Uncategorized · Tagged: , , , , ,

Beer Braised Brisket

December 9, 2008 · by ·
I had some extra beer. I had bought a couple loosies to experiment with during the beer bread episode. I am not really a beer drinker, even in partylicious social settings. I decided to experiment a little. Wouldn’t want the good Heineken to go to waste.
I opted for a beer braised brisket. The guy at the liquor store claimed that ANYTHING can be cooked better with beer.
Hindy’s Beer Braised Brisket

Ingredients:

1 Brisket – should have some good marbling on it
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
Onion, chopped
Garlic, chopped
2 red potatoes, cubed
3 stalks celery, sliced
3-4 carrots, sliced
Bay Leaves
1 Bottle of Beer
Olive Oil
Preheat the oven to 350.
Rub salt and pepper into the meat. In a Dutch oven, brown your meat on all sides. Takes around 15 minutes.
Put your meat aside. Toss in the onions, garlic, and some of the thyme. Scrape up the meaty bits. Saute for 10 minutes. Remove half of the onions.
Lay the brisket on top of the onions. Cover with the rest of the onion mixture. Surround the meat with chopped veggies. Throw in the rest of the thyme and the bay leaves. Add some more salt and pepper.
Pour over the beer.

Cover and transfer the meat to the oven. Cook for a few hours until done.
Let the meat cool before slicing.

The verdict is that the meat was very good, but the beer taste was not overpowering in the least bit. It’s a good brisket over all. The meat was very tender. Not sure if that was because of the beer or the brisket cut though.
Filed Under: beef, Dinner · Tagged: , , , , , ,

Beer Bread

December 9, 2008 · by ·
I came across this bread recipe on a natural parenting site that I frequent. Everyone was raving about this bread. I am not usually one to follow the cultish trends, but this seemed like a fun experiment to test on a day off. I learned a few lessons along the way. One being that the bread is awesome. Two, is that I didn’t even need a whole day. If I had a toaster oven at work, I could do this during my lunch hour. It’s that quick and easy. Three, is that the bread gets eaten very fast if you have people mulling about your kitchen. It’s really that good. I do plan to make some variations of this again. Maybe adding some herbs, olives and/or some roasted garlic.

Beer Bread

Ingredients:

3 c self-rising flour (poured loosely into measuring cup)
1/2 c sugar (do not decrease or substitute) – I will experiment with less next time
1/4 t baking powder (probably optional)
12oz can/bottle beer – not Corona, I don’t know why…just don’t use the Corona. I used Heineken.
3 T butter, melted – do not use margarine or any other substitute

 

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix together the flour, sugar, and baking powder.

Add the beer. Mix a few strokes until everything is mostly incorporated. Do not overmix. Do not knead. The dough mixture with be sticky, wet, and lumpy.

Pour into a loaf pan. Pour the butter over the top. Please remember that the butter is very essential.

Bake at 375 for 45-55 minutes., until the top is brown and crispy. This bread top is essential. It is the best part of this bread. Let cool, a little. Dig in!

If G-d forbid you don’t finish the bread on the same day, store in a ziplock bag. The bread is pretty good when toasted.

Filed Under: baked, bread · Tagged: , , , ,

Maple Roasted Chicken with Roasted Root Veggies

December 9, 2008 · by ·

Really. it has been way too long. I really have been cooking. I haven’t just been feeding my kids fish sticks and mac and cheese out of a box. Though I have to admit, there have been many days where that is the only thing I feel like cooking. No, it’s not what you are thinking…I am not pregnant. All is ok.

Maple Roasted Chicken with Roasted Root Veggies
Ingredients:
2 medium red potatoes, cubed
2 carrots, sliced
1 large pasrnip, sliced
1 onion, cut up
1 turnip, cut up
1 sweet potato, cut up
2-3 shallots, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
Maple Syrup – approx. 1/4 cup
Dijon Mustard – 2-3 tbsp.
Olive Oil – 1/4 cup
Ginger Paste – 2-3 tbsp.
Salt
Pepper
Fresh Rosemary and Thyme, chopped
Chicken – either whole or cut up
1 Lemon, juiced if using chicken portions, cut in half, when using a whole chicken

In a roasting pan, lay out your cut veggies. Pour on a couple tablespoons of olive oil, salt, and pepper, and a portion of your chopped herbage . Mix them up a little bit.

Lay the chicken on top of the vegetables. Consider the vegetables a sort of nest for the chicken. If using a whole chicken, fill the chicken cavity with the halved lemon, some herbs, and a few garlic cloves. If using chicken cut in pieces, sprinkle lemon juice, salt, and pepper over the chicken.
Mix up the maple syrup, ginger, mustard, olive oil, garlic, and herbs. Pour over the chicken.

Place in a 375 degree oven covered for an hour. Remove the foil after an hour. Place back in oven for another 45 minutes. Enjoy!
Filed Under: Dinner, Gluten Free, poultry · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Zucchini and Mushroom Saute over Couscous

July 9, 2008 · by ·
I came home from work, picked up the kids, and took said kids to swim lessons – with a dinner plan in mind. The plan was to dine one a yummy salad, some grilled chicken, and some sushi rice. It was a Monday. Things can never go as planned. I opened the fridge and saw that the chicken was still frozen, popsicle frozen. It was already 7pm. I had about five minutes before my six-year-old would self-combust with screams of “I’m Hungry!” I had to do something. I offered tuna or salmon salad. She would have none of it. I found some baby hot dogs. I grilled them up with some onions and served them to her with some ketchup, sliced cucumbers and tomato, and some baby dill pickles.
Now what was I going to eat? Eyeing the fridge and the pantry, I came up with a concoction that was tasty and met the task at hand.

Monday Rushed Dinner – Served over some whole wheat couscous

3 shallots, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
½ large zucchini, diced
1 yellow squash, diced
5 Baby Bella mushrooms, sliced
1 Veggie Italian Sausage by Lightlife, diced
½ cup of cooked or canned cannellini beans
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
½ cup of vegetable broth
Chopped Fresh Basil
Chopped Fresh Thyme
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

 

Sautee the shallots and garlic in olive oil. Add in the Zuchini and squash. Add the “sausage.” Add the rest of ingredients. Cook it on medium heat for 15 minutes. It mushes up a bit. The broth gives it some sauciness.
I served it over couscous, but it would be just as good over rice or pasta even. Enjoy! Have a good week!

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

No-Knead Bread

July 9, 2008 · by ·

Maybe I am a sheeple…but it works.
The latest trend in bread baking was brought on by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois in their book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I just ordered the book. While I wait for the book to arrive, I decided to try out the master recipe that has been posted all across blogs and newspapers. The duo have a website, click here.

 

Master Recipe by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois
Makes four 1-pound loaves

3 cups lukewarm water (about 100º F)
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
6 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour (no need to sift)
Cornmeal for the pizza peel

 

In a 5-quart bowl, mix the yeast, water and salt. Add all the flour, then use a wooden spoon to mix until all ingredients are uniformly moist. It is not necessary to knead or continue mixing once the ingredients are uniformly moist. This will produce a loose and very wet dough.

Cover with a lid (not airtight). Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse, about 2 hours, but no more than 5 hours.

After rising, the dough can be baked immediately, or covered (non completely airtight) and refrigerated up to 14 days. The dough will be easier to work with after at least 3 hours refrigeration.

On baking day, prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal to prevent the bread from sticking when you transfer it to the oven. Uncover the dough and sprinkle the surface with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough (serrated knives are best). Store the remaining dough in the bowl and refrigerate for baking at another time.

Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick. Create a smooth ball of dough by gently pulling the sides down around to the bottom, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. While shaping, most of the dusting flour will fall off. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out during resting and baking. Shaping the loaf this way should take no more than 1 minute.
Place the dough on the pizza peel. Allow the loaf to rest for about 40 minutes. It does not need to be covered. The bread may not rise much during this time.

Twenty minutes before baking, place a pizza stone on the center rack of the oven. If you don’t have a baking stone, use another baking sheet. Remove any upper racks. Place a broiler pan on a rack below the pizza stone or on the floor of the oven. Preheat oven to 450 F.

When the dough has rested for 40 minutes, dust the top liberally with flour, then use a serrated knife to slash a 1/4-inch-deep cross or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top.

Slide the loaf off the peel and onto the baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour 1 cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the oven door.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch. Allow the bread to cool completely, preferably on a wire cooling rack.Here is a picture of my first try. I was definitely impressed and surprised that it worked.

 

It isn’t so pretty, but it tastes good dipped in olive oil. Would be good with a good hearty soup. I hope for prettier bread with the remaining dough. I will add some rosemary and garlic with the next batch.

Filed Under: bread · Tagged: , , ,

I’m not really a balabuste…but I have some recipes for you

July 9, 2008 · by ·

It’s hot here in the Northeast. It’s so hot that every night I am tempted to order takeout. I have been good. I have cooked, every night even. I apologize for neglecting to show you my goodies.

I will share with you some winners from this past weekend. I had an old roomie over for Shabbat, who declared me a balabuste. If she only knew. I can’t be a balabuste if I can’t cook a kugel. I can make some awesome rice dishes though.

Friday night is always rough on these long summer Shabbats. By the time Shabbat starts, you are super hungry, but too tired to eat. Still, I cooked, and I cooked some more. Guests are fun. On the Friday night menu was chicken soup, roasted maple glazed chicken with roasted root vegetables, a pilaf, steamed broccoli, and yummy garlicky green beans with shallots. I forgot to serve the sauteed zucchini. Sorry for the lack of pictures.

 

I don’t have a name for my rice creation. I never use recipes for rice. I will admit that I have become overly confident in my knack for a good rice dish.

July 4th, 2008 Rice Dish

2 cups basmati rice
1 onion, diced
2 shallots, chopped
1 Tbsp. ginger, minced
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
handful of pinenuts
7 mushrooms, sliced
3 cups water or vegetable broth
coriander
olive oil
salt
pepper

In a large saute pan that you have a lid for, on medium-high heat, saute onions, garlic, shallots, and ginger. Throw in the rice. Let it toast a minute or two. Add in the sliced mushrooms. Saute one more minute. Add 1 Tbsp. of coriander, salt and pepper. Add in the pinenuts. Add the water or broth, and cover with a lid. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Walk away a bit until done.

 

For Shabbat Lunch, I made a pot roast in the crockpot, accompanied by a tasty assortment of salads. There was a large green salad, an imitation crabmeat salad, a couscous salad, a tomato basil salad, and hummus.

 



Slow Cooker Pot Roast – adapated from Allrecipes.com

4 pounds roast – I used chuck…just look for a nice hunk of meat, after a dozen plus hours in the crockpot – it’s all good

salt and pepper to taste
1 cup vegetable broth
1/4 cup of good red wine – reminder to always use wine you like to drink
3 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 stalk celery, chopped –

Take the chuck roast and season with salt and pepper to taste. Brown on all sides in a large skillet over high heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute a bit more.
Place in the slow cooker and add the broth, wine, carrots, onions, potatoes and celery.
Cover and cook on low. It is done after 10 hours, but I left it cooking overnight until lunchtime. The smell was heavenly at 6am.

“Crab” Salad – dedicated to my Aunt who introduced us to the yummy salad

1 Package of imitation crab meat, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped fine
Half of a small seedless cucumber, chopped
1 plum tomato, seeded and chopped
Juice of one lemon
chopped parsley
Pepper
1 Tbsp. Old Bay
1 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard
1 1/2 Tbsp. Mayonaisse

Mix everything together and serve.




Tomato Basil Salad

5 Sliced Plum Tomatoes
Chopped Red Onion, about a quarter
Chopped Fresh Basil
Salt
Pepper
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

Mix all together. Enjoy! Good with some nice crusty challah to sop up the juices

CousCous Vegetable Salad – from www.fantasticfoods.com

2 cups cooked whole wheat couscous
6 green onions, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and cut into small pieces
1 cup cucumber, chopped
½ cup cooked (or canned) garbanzo beans
1 cup parsley, chopped

Mix all ingredients together and toss with the following salad dressing:

Dressing
¾ cup olive oil
½ cup fresh lemon juice
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

All of these dishes were a hit. I had little to no leftovers…which in my book is always a good sign. I get ooked out by leftovers.

Filed Under: Appetizers, Salads, Side Dish · Tagged: ,
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