Thursday, February 16, 2017

Ess Gezint: “Jewish Soul Food,” “Kosher Taste,” and “100 Best Jewish Recipes”




Three new cookbooks have made their presence felt just in time for Sukkoth. With all the meals that have to be produced in and out of the sukkah for four days of yuntif , one Shabbat, and three days of Chol HaMoed, these books could not come at a better time.

Carol Unger’s Jewish Soul Food: Traditional Fare and What It Means (Brandeis University Press) recognizes that the Jewish preoccupation with food is “fundamentally human.” We all need to eat, and, since life is with people, there are few more convenient places to socialize than at the mealtime table. But Ms. Unger is convinced that many of our favorite foods carry “spiritual messages.”

For example, her challah recipes all have seven ingredients—and, boy, are there a lot of challah recipes in this book: three-braid; six-braid; the vav-shaped oval (because two vavs equal 12, the number of loaves of showbread); a bird-shaped challah for Kol Nidrei night (just as a bird flies from its captors, so, too, will G-d rescue the Jews from their foes); a challah in the shape of a hand for Hoshana Raba; a Torah-scroll challah for Simchat Torah; and maybe a dozen more.

The Frankfurter Goulash, she says, is an “Old Country fast food” that doesn’t freeze well, But not to worry, she says, “You aren’t likely to have leftovers.”



Amy Stopnicki’s Kosher Taste: Plan, Prepare, Plate (Feldheim) is in the popular tradition of beautiful cookbooks that are very useful as gifts. A mother of four and a successful event-planner, Ms. Stopnicki loves to entertain. Her love of planning can be a bit intimidating to those of us who fly by the seat-of-our-pants, but her organizational tips make sense (even to those of us who know we will never use them). You don’t have to use all her menus to enjoy them.

Her pumpkin loaf makes as good as dessert as it does a side dish, and the Greek potatoes are a great alternative to fried, even if you don’t peel and slice the potatoes in advance and leave the soaking in water in the refrigerator.

For many years, Evelyn Rose, the author of the very popular The New Complete International Jewish Cookbook, was the food editor of the London-based Jewish Chronicle. Just recently, her daughter, Judi Rose, also a food writer, took on the ambitious task of winnowing down the number of her mother’s best-loved recipes.



The result is 100 Best Jewish Recipes: Traditional and Contemporary Kosher Cuisine from around the World (Interlink Publishing Company).

“With over a thousand recipes in The New Complete alone, choosing just one in ten was no mean feat, but this selection represents not only some of her personal favorites—as well as those of her fans—but her conviction that Jewish food is a living, evolving cuisine, rooted in tradition, but inspired by the present, just as it has been for centuries,” says Judi Rose.


Carol Ungar’s Frankfurter Goulash
Ingedients
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1-2 medium-size onions
½ red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 clove garlic, chopped
8-10 all-beef franks (reduced fat is fine), sliced into rounds
4-5 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
16-oz can tomato sauce
2 Tbs teriyaki sauce
1 tsp paprika
Pinch of black pepper

Method
Heat oil in Dutch oven over a medium flame and sauté onions, pepper, and garlic. When onion is translucent (or even before if you’re rushing), add frankfurters and sauté everything for 1 minute, mixing with a wooden spoon. Add potatoes, tomato sauce, teriyaki sauce, paprika, and pepper. Cook covered on a low flame, checking occasionally to make sure potatoes don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. If they seem to be sticking, add more water. Taste and adjust seasonings. When potatoes feel fork tender, about 20 minutes, it’s done. Serve immediately. Serves 4

Carol Ungar’s Honey Cake
Ingredients
3½ cups flour
¼ tsp salt
1½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
⅛ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground ginger
4 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 cups honey
½ cup brewed coffee
1½ cup walnuts or almonds

Method
Preheat oven to 325°. Spray two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray. Sift dry ingredients together into a large bowl. In a second bowl, beat eggs until light, gradually adding sugar, oil, honey, and coffee. Combine wet and dry ingredients and fold in nuts. Divide the batter between the two loaf pans and bake for 50 minutes.

Amy Stopnicki’s Pumpkin Loaf or Muffins
Ingredients

1½ cups flour
⅔ cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
⅓ cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin purée
⅓ cup water
⅛ cup roasted sunflower seeds
⅛ cup roasted pumpkin seeds

Methods
Preheat oven to 350°. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and ground ginger in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add oil, eggs, vanilla, pumpkin purée, and water, and mix until combined. Pour mixture into a greased loaf pan (or muffin tin). Top with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. If a loaf, bake for 40-50 minutes. If muffins, bake for 20-25 minutes. In either case, top should be golden brown. Freezes well.

Amy Stopnicki’s Greek Potatoes
Ingredients

⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 large lemon
2 Tbs dried oregano
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
8 large potatoes (Yukon Gold), peeled and cut into wedges, about 6-8 wedges per potato

Method
Preheat oven to 400°. Combine olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl. Dry the cut potato wedges with paper towels. Pour mixture over potato wedges and coat well. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray. Bake potatoes on the prepared baking sheet for 25 minutes, toss, and continue baking for another 20-30 minutes or until potatoes are golden. Serves 8-10.

Evelyn Rose’s “Fried” Fish
Ingredients

1½ cups breadcrumbs or matzoh meal
1 tsp salt, plus more to salt the fish
4 fillets or steaks of white fish (cod, haddock, tilapia, sea bass, flounder, red snapper, etc)
1 egg
¼ cup sunflower or vegetable oil

Methods
Preheat the oven to 400°. Put the breadcrumbs or matzoh meal in the oven to brown as it heats up, taking them out when they are well colored. Wash and salt the fish and set aside to drain. Beat the egg with the oil and 1 tsp salt and put in a shallow casserole dish. Have ready a piece of wax paper with the coating crumbs on it. Dry each piece of fish thoroughly with paper towels, then brush with the egg mixture, and coat with the crumbs. Arrange the coated fish side by side on flat baking trays (no need to grease then). (At this stage, the fish can be placed in the refrigerator until ready to bake). Put fish in the oven and allow to bake, without turning, for 20-25 minutes, depending on the thickness. Serve hot. Serves 4.

Evelyn Rose’s Fillets of Salmon with a Crushed Pecan Crust
Ingredients

Oil, butter, margarine, or non-stick spray for greasing
1⅔ cups shelled pecans
¼ cup snipped chives
2 Tbs unsalted butter or margarine, melted
1⅔ lb thick salmon fillet, cut into 6-8 pieces
Salt
White pepper
2 Tbs reduced-calorie mayonnaise

Methods
Lightly grease a shallow baking pan wide enough to hold the pieces of salmon in one layer. Then, make the crust. In a food processor, pulse the nuts until coarsely ground. Then mix with the chives and melted butter or margarine in a small bowl. Arrange the salmon pieces in the baking pan and season lightly with the salt and pepper. Then spread the surface of the fish with a thin layer of mayonnaise and cover completely with the nut mixture, patting it on well. Set aside until ready to bake. About 15 minutes before serving, preheat the oven to 425°. Put the salmon in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the salmon flakes easily with a fork. Serve warm. Serves 6-8.

Evelyn Rose’s Cinnamon Balls
Ingredients

2 egg whites
½ cup sugar
2¼ cups ground almonds
1 Tbs ground cinnamon
Sifted confectioner’s sugar, for coating

Methods
Preheat oven to 325° and grease a cookie baking sheet. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Gently stir in all the remaining ingredients (except the confectioner’s sugar), mixing until even in color. With wet hands, form into 20-22 balls and arrange on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until just firm to the touch. Roll in confectioner’s sugar while still warm and then again when cool.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Breakfast Rolls: The School at the Chalet, Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, Harper Collins

The School at the Chalet, Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, Garper Collins

Food in books: breakfast rolls from The School at the Chalet


Kate Young seeks some escapist fiction and bakes a breakfast enjoyed by the children in the Austrian boarding school in Brent-Dyer’s novel


Breakfast rolls from The School at the Chalet. Photograph: Kate Young of The Little Library Café

The boarders of the Chalet School always declared that Sunday was quite one of the best days of the week. To begin with, they could stay in bed until nine o’clock if they were so minded. Then, after their breakfast of coffee, rolls, and honey, they all assembled in the meadow which ran from the lake edge to the pine wood, and Madge read aloud to them for an hour.
---

Perhaps, like me, you need a bit of escapist fiction this week. A warm, comforting, charming story – maybe one featuring a group of teenage girls attending a tiny, fledgling school in Austria, eating rolls and coffee for breakfast, and hiking through the Alps?

A friend gave me a copy of The School at the Chalet, the first in the extensive Chalet School series, when she discovered I’d never read them as a girl. It’s exactly the sort of series I would have committed myself to collecting during childhood. If you’ve never read them before, I heartily recommend doing so.

Twenty years ago, it is the cohort of schoolgirls who would have held my focus, with their politics, friendships and the challenges they come up against. Reading it as an adult, twentysomething Madge is the one I am fascinated by: faced with a limited budget, a brother in India, and a little sister to take care of, she decides to move to Europe, and start a small school. It is an extraordinary plan, and one that has filled me with a desire to copy it to the letter.

I have always loved teaching. I studied drama and education at university, and moved to London hoping to find a career in theatre. But I also had to pay rent, so spent my early months here teaching science in a school. Though I have long moved on from working in formal education settings, teaching remained a part of my career: from projects with young people in theatres, to my current role as a nanny.

I discovered early on that it is informal education I really relish playing a part in - the kind that happens incidentally, almost by accident. Using fractions to measure out ingredients when making a batch of pancakes. The language we pick up through new stories, read aloud before bed. Questions about the natural world asked, investigated, and answered on cold morning walks to school. Though Madge takes her planning and curriculum seriously, it’s this sort of learning they have time for at the Chalet School.

Like in all good boarding school novels, the girls also eat particularly well. In trying to recreate these buns, I have gone for the sweetest, softest, most delicious version I could imagine. They are filled with plum jam, which the girls at the Chalet School always seem to have a pot of. They’re perfect dipped into a strong and milky coffee on slow Sunday mornings. Though I encourage you to eat them straight out of the oven, they will keep for a couple of days in an airtight box.
FacebookTwitterPinterest Photograph: Kate Young of The Little Library Café
Buchteln and Coffee


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Serves 8

Ingredients
150ml whole milk
100g unsalted butter
50g golden caster sugar
15g fresh yeast (or 5g easy action yeast)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
175g plain flour
150g strong white bread flour
Pinch salt
60g plum jam
1tbsp icing sugar

Equipment
Saucepan
Whisk
Mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
Ovenproof dish (like a pie dish or roasting dish)
Sieve

1. Put the milk and 75g of the butter into the saucepan, and warm over a low heat until the butter melts. Take off the heat, and leave to cool until it is lukewarm. Whisk in the sugar, then the yeast. Add the egg and egg yolk.


2. Put the flours and salt in the mixing bowl. Tip the liquid ingredients in, and bring together into a dough using the wooden spoon. Knead it for 10 minutes until it is smooth, elastic, and bounces back when you prod it. The dough will be sticky, but do add a small amount of flour to help your kneading if required.

3. Wash out the mixing bowl, grease it with butter, and place the dough in it. Cover and leave to proof for an hour, until doubled in size.

4. Weigh the dough, and cut it into eight even pieces. Flatten each (not too thinly in the centre, or the dough might split), place a teaspoon of plum jam into the centre, and pull the edges up. Pinch them together, then flip the ball and roll it on the work surface. Place each in the greased oven dish, not quite touching the others. Allow to proof for around 40 minutes, enough to let the rolls join up, and until they bounce back when prodded.

5. Preheat the oven to 180C. Melt the rest of the butter, brush it over the rolls, and bake for 20-25 minutes, until risen and golden. Dust with icing sugar, and serve with honey, and sweet, milky coffee.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

DUCK A L'ORANGE



Image result for DUCK A L'ORANGE



INGREDIENTS

For duck
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 (5- to 6-lb) Long Island duck (also called Pekin)
1 juice orange, halved
4 fresh thyme sprigs
4 fresh marjoram sprigs
2 fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs
1 small onion, cut into 8 wedges
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup duck stock, duck and veal stock*, chicken stock, or reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 carrot
1/2 celery rib
For sauce
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh orange juice (from 1 to 2 oranges)
2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 to 4 tablespoons duck or chicken stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon fine julienne of fresh orange zest, removed with a vegetable peeler

Special equipment: an instant-read thermometer; a 13- by 9-inch flameproof roasting pan
1 13- by 9-inch flameproof roasting pan


PREPARATION
Roast duck:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 475°F.
Stir together salt, coriander, cumin, and pepper. Pat duck dry and sprinkle inside and out with spice mixture. Cut 1 half of orange into quarters and put in duck cavity with thyme, marjoram, parsley, and 4 onion wedges.
Squeeze juice from remaining half of orange and stir together with wine and stock. Set aside.
Spread remaining 4 onion wedges in roasting pan with carrot and celery, then place duck on top of vegetables and roast 30 minutes.
Pour wine mixture into roasting pan and reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Continue to roast duck until thermometer inserted into a thigh (close to but not touching bone) registers 170°F, 1 to 1 1/4 hours more. Turn on broiler and broil duck 3 to 4 inches from heat until top is golden brown, about 3 minutes.
Tilt duck to drain juices from cavity into pan and transfer duck to a cutting board, reserving juices in pan. Let duck stand 15 minutes.
Make sauce:
While duck roasts, cook sugar in a dry 1-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, undisturbed, until it begins to melt. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a fork, until sugar melts into a deep golden caramel. Add orange juice, vinegar, and salt (use caution; mixture will bubble and steam vigorously) and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until caramel is dissolved. Remove syrup from heat.
Discard vegetables from roasting pan and pour pan juices through a fine-mesh sieve into a 1-quart glass measure or bowl, then skim off and discard fat. Add enough stock to pan juices to total 1 cup liquid.
Stir together butter and flour to form a beurre manié. Bring pan juices to a simmer in a 1- to 2-quart heavy saucepan, then add beurre manié, whisking constantly to prevent lumps. Add orange syrup and zest and simmer, whisking occasionally, until sauce is thickened slightly and zest is tender, about 5 minutes. Serve with duck.


NUTRITIONAL INFO


Calories1441
Carbohydrates29 g(10%)
Fat128 g(197%)
Protein38 g(77%)
Saturated Fat44 g(219%)
Sodium1814 mg(76%)
Polyunsaturated Fat16 g
Fiber3 g(12%)
Monounsaturated Fat60 g
Cholesterol249 mg(83%)
per serving (4 servings)Powered by Edamam

Too bad about the kippers

Herbed scrambled eggs for breakfast, from Jeanine Larmoth, Murder on the Menu, prepared by me (the cook)
served by me (the butler), consumed by me & Len (residents of our fine mansion).
No mysteries here for the moment, unless you count the question of how the stock market will do today.

Here's the recipe I used. Yes, I meant to include Kippers, which I bought yesterday. But ...
Alas, when I looked at the package, I realized that somehow  -- although I bought them yesterday --
these kippers were 6 years out-of-date. I was afraid to open them, and will take them back to Whole Foods!
Note: the scrambled eggs were very good. But I'm afraid we didn't come near to reproducing the atmosphere described by Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers. I'll try again to make something from one of my mystery cookbooks!

Next step: watch more TV dramatizations of these mystery stories. I was amused at one scene that I already watched in "Hickory Dickory Dock."  Poirot (played by David Suchet) was having his usual Continental breakfast with his houseguest Inspector Japp, who says "I say Poirot, don't you have any bacon and eggs?"