Friday, July 20, 2018

Zoodles with Vibrant Tomato-Corn Sauce, a recipe from the Bard of Bat Yam, Poet Laureate of Zion, Stephen Darori





Time 30-60 Minutes


Ingredients:
2 onions
¼ cup olive oil
2 lb. cherry tomatoes
2 ears of corn
kosher salt
black pepper

Directions:

Cut the onions into quarter rounds. Sauté in the olive oil for 5 minutes.
Add the cherry tomatoes, cover, and cook for another 15-20 minutes.
Cut the corn kernels off the cob and add to the tomato mixture. Cook for 10 more minutes.
Season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.
Serve over zucchini noodles.
For the zucchini noodles:
3 large zucchinis
2–3 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. kosher salt

Directions

Related image
Spiralizer

To make zucchini noodles, you’ll need a spiralizer of some sort. Spiralize the zucchini and put it on a couple of pieces of paper towel. Cover with paper towel and press down to absorb some of the moisture. Let zucchini sit for 10–15 minutes. Replace the paper towel if necessary. To cook, place 2-3 tbsp. oil in a frying pan over high heat. Once the oil is very hot, add the zucchini and the salt, and toss it for 2 minutes or so. Be careful not to let the zucchini overcook and become soggy and watery. (Depending on the size of your frying pan, you might need to do the zucchini in several batches. You don’t want to overcrowd the pan.) Remove from pan; serve immediately.

Note: You can prepare the raw zucchini noodles a few days in advance. Store, refrigerated, in an airtight Ziploc bag, with a couple of pieces of paper towel.



Classic Spaghetti Bolognese, a recipe by the Bard Of Bat Yam, Poet Laureate of Zion, Stephen Darori

Spaghetti Bolognese is a dish loved the world over. This Classic Spaghetti Bolognese is cooked long and low to leave you with a rich, deep ragu that is loaded with flavor. A classic family favorite.



This is a slow cooking dish but it is worth the wait. The key to developing the flavour is to let the sauce cook over a very low heat for 90 minutes. This elongated cooking time, means the dried herbs soften and mellow into the sauce and the onion and garlic melt into the sauce.

When you add the ground beef to the onion mixture, make sure you use a spatula or wooden spoon to really break the meat down. This helps it to absorb the flavours and gives the final sauce a melt in the mouth feel.

Although the recipe requires you to brown the beef, don’t let it get too crispy as this can affect the texture of the final sauce.



Don’t be alarmed by the addition of sugar. Most canned tomatoes are a little acidic and the sugar helps to enhance the tomato taste and remove any sour notes.

If you have read any other recipe here on Easy Pasta Sauces, you will know that we are big advocates of using the pasta cooking water to create a thick saucy emulsion. That is vital here. Once the pasta is cooked, add the pasta back to the pan along with some reserved cooking water and half of the bolognese. This is all cooked together to get the sauce into the pasta. It really does make a difference. You can still spoon a big spoonful over the top, but the simple step of cooking the pasta in some of the sauce will make all the difference.



The recipe below makes enough sauce for 8 people, if you want a smaller amount hover over the servings, you can use the slider bar to reduce the servings. Or freeze half for a quick weekday meal. It tastes fabulous after freezing. Just remove the ragu from the freezer in the morning and it will be ready to heat up when you get home in the evening.
Serving Suggestions:

Side: We think this classic spaghetti bolognese is best paired with some sort of bread. Either some warm ciabatta or plenty of garlic bread.

Wine: Because of the slow cooking the tomatoes in this dish can take a big bright red wine. Try a Shiraz or a Chianti. Or go more traditional and pair this dish with a wine made with the Nebbiolo grape: a Barolo or Barbaresco.
If red isn’t your thing then stay with the regionality of this dish and serve this up with a sparkling Lambrusco, unusual but a great wine pairing.







Spaghetti Bolognese is a dish loved the world over. This Classic Spaghetti Bolognese is cooked long and low to leave you with a rich, deep ragu that is loaded with flavor. A classic family favorite.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours 10 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 20 minutes
Servings 8


Ingredients

2 large onions
2 tbsp olive oil
2 lb ground beef (1kg)
4 garlic cloves
3/4 cup red wine (180 ml)
3 beef bouillon cubes (like oxo)
2 x 28oz can crushed tomato (880g)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried Italian mixed herbs
1/2 cup water (125ml)
salt and pepper

To Serve
1.5 lb spaghetti (680g)
parmesan cheese

Instructions

To make the sauce

  • Peel and finely chop the onions.
  • Heat the olive oil in a large pan.
  • Add onion and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes and cook until they are softened and lightly golden.
  • Turn the heat up to high, add beef and use a spatula or wooden spoon to really break the mince down as it browns. 
  • Crumble over the beef bouillon cubes and stir well to coat the meat.
  • Peel the garlic and grate or crush it into the mixture. Stir well.
  • Add in the red wine and let it sizzle for a a couple of minutes.
  • Add in the crushed tomatoes, sugar, Worcestershire Sauce, oregano, Italian mixed herbs and water.
  • Stir well and bring the mixture to a simmer.
  • Put the lid on and cook over a very low heat for 1 1/2 hours; stirring occasionally.
  • Once the time is up, increase the heat to medium and cooke without the lid for a further 20 minutes.
  • Taste the sauce and then add extra salt and pepper to taste.
  • At this point you can cook the pasta or cool the sauce and refrigerate it until later.

To cook the Spaghetti
  1. Bring a very large pan of water to the boil, once boiling salt it generously and cook the pasta until al-dente. (1 minute less than the packet suggests)
  2. Reserve a cup of the pasta cooking water and then drain the pasta.
  3. Place the pasta back into the pan and add the reserved water. Place over a high heat and add half of the bolognese sauce. Stir well until the sauce has thickened around the pasta.
  4. Serve the pasta with extra sauce spooned on top.
  5. Garnish with parmesan.

Roasted Cauliflower with Creamy Garlic Spaghetti, a recipe by the Bard of Bat Yam, Poet Laureate of Zion, Stephen Darori


This Roasted Cauliflower with Creamy Garlic Spaghetti is an elegant yet simple vegetarian pasta dinner. Perfect for entertaining or meatless Monday.



Roasting the cauliflower in the oven turns something plain into something super special. The edges caramelize, the flavour sweetens and the texture is beautifully yielding without a hint of soggy. Roasted Cauliflower will please vegetarians and carnivores alike. Who knew cauliflower could be so delicious.

The creamy garlic and thyme sauce comes together quickly and coats each strand of pasta with a silky creamy sauce that only uses 2/3 cup of cream for 4 people. You get decadent and elegant without the excessive calories.



We used spaghetti today but any long pasta will work with this dish. If you prefer a smaller shape than something flat like a farfalle/bow-tie pasta would work too.

Avoid tubular pasta or shells as they will fill up with the creamy sauce and you might find there isn’t enough sauce to coat everything beautifully.


Serving Suggestions:

Side: Swerve the bread and instead go for a crisp bright salad to balance the creamy sauce. Dress baby kale leaves with a lemon and olive oil dressing.

Wine: To cut through the creamy sauce pick an unoaked chardonnay or a dry pinot gris. For the red wine lovers something light like a Barbera d’Asti or a Merlot will work with the garlic and cream.


Buon Appetito
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Roasted Cauliflower with Creamy Garlic Spaghetti


This Roasted Cauliflower with Creamy Garlic Spaghetti is an elegant yet simple vegetarian pasta dinner. Perfect for entertaining or meatless Monday.

Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

For the Cauliflower
1 head cauliflower
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp thyme leaves
salt and freshly-ground black pepper

For the Pasta
11 oz dried spaghetti (320g)
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves
2/3 cup heavy cream (See notes)
1/2 tsp thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
black pepper

Instructions

  1. Preheat you oven to 400º F/200ºC.
  2. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper.
  3. Remove the outer leaves of the cauliflower and cut the florets into large bite sized chunks.
  4. Lay the cauliflower out in a single layer and drizzle over the EVOO. Season generously with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 25 minutes until tender and caramelized on the edges. Remove from the oven and set aside until needed.
  5. Bring a large pot of water to boil and then add a good amount of salt.
  6. Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente. (usually around 1 minute less than the packet suggests)
  7. Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the garlic.
  8. Heat the butter and olive oil in a deep fry pan over low high heat.
  9. Add the garlic and sauté for 2 minutes (don't let them colour).
  10. Add the cream and bring to boil.
  11. Add in the thyme leaves, salt and pepper, then turn heat down to low and simmer for 3 minutes.
  12. Before draining the pasta, scoop a mugs worth of pasta water out and keep to one side.
  13. After reserving the cooking water drain the pasta in a colander.
  14. Transfer the pasta and ¼ cup of reserved pasta water into the pan with the sauce.
  15. Add more cooking water if needed.
  16. Stir in the roasted cauliflower and serve with grated parmesan and thyme leaves.

Chicken, Spinach and Garlic Pasta with Pangrattato, a recipe from the Bard of Bat Yam, Poet Laureate of Zion , Stephen Darori

Juicy chunks of chicken, stirred through a creamy spinach and garlic pasta, topped with a salty and crunchy pangrattato. This Chicken Spinach and Garlic Pasta is a great mid-week meal.



Pangrattato is also known as poor mans parmesan, but don’t let that put you off. The buttery crispy crumb is fabulous with the creamy soft pasta. You could serve this Chicken, Spinach and Garlic Pasta with a simple grating of parmesan, it will be delicious. But try the pangrattao, it will be a revelation.

When you are making the pangrattato, once it has got to the crispy golden stage, remove it from the heat and then remove it from the pan. It will continue to brown in the hot pan and can quickly turn black.


Serving Suggestion:

Side: The chicken and spinach in this dish add plenty of nutrients to this pasta dish. But to brighten the meal further this is great served with a simple salad of fresh spinach and sautéed mushrooms. Top it with a little of the pangrattato to complete the meal

Wine: This Chicken, Spinach and Garlic Pasta with Pangrattato is rich, creamy and packed with garlic. This means it can carry a lightly oaked white wine like a chardonnay or an oaked Viognier.



Chicken Spinach and Garlic Pasta with Pangrattato Recipe

Juicy chunks of chicken, stirred through a creamy spinach and garlic pasta, topped with a salty and crunch pangrattato. This Chicken Spinach and Garlic Pasta is a great mid-week meal. From Easy Pasta Sauces.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 4


Ingredients

For the Pangrattato
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp butter
1/2 cup fresh or dried breadcrumbs
salt and pepper

For the Pasta
2 large chicken breasts
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
3 large garlic cloves
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup heavy cream
12 oz long pasta
2 cups spinach

Instructions

To make the Pangrattato
Melt the butter in a skillet with the olive oil and once it starts to foam add the breadcrumbs.
Cook over a medium high heat until they are crisp and golden.
Remove the breadcrumbs from the pan to prevent them burning then seasoning generously with salt and pepper.

To make the Pasta
  • Chop the chicken into large chunks, Season with salt and pepper.
  • Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and add the chicken pieces.
  • Cook for 4 minutes over a medium high heat until the chicken is golden.
  • Turn the heat down to low.
  • Add in the butter and then crush in the garlic.
  • Cook for 2 minutes before adding the wine.
  • Bring the wine to a boil. Let it bubble for 5 minutes until it has evaporated by half.
  • Add in the heavy cream and simmer gently over a low heat.
  • Meanwhile cook the pasta.
  • Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Salt it generously and then add the pasta. Cook until al-dente.
  • Reserve a cup of the cooking water and then drain the pasta.
  • Add the drained pasta to the sauce and stir well. Add in a couple of tablespoons of the reserved water. Until the pasta is well coated and the sauce is at the constancy you prefer.
  • Add in the spinach, stir and then serve sprinkled with the pangrattato.

Venetian Chicken Pasta with Pinenuts, Rosemary and Sultanas


This Venetian Chicken pasta with Pinenuts, Rosemary and Sultanas is a rich and delicious pasta dinner; just grab a supermarket rotisserie chicken and follow our top tips for creating this fabulous dinner in under half an hour.



The sauce in this Venetian chicken pasta is rich and sticky from the chicken juices whilst the sweet sultanas work amazingly with the woody fragrant rosemary. This dish is a comforting yet different chicken pasta.

If you have time you can roast up your own chickens, it will be outstanding, but for a normal mid-week meal a store bought rotisserie chicken and a few short cuts will still give you a delicious dinner. The recipe below is for a store bought chicken, but check the notes for adapting this recipe.



When you buy a rotisserie chicken, if any juice/jelly has collected in the bottom of the container/bag, reserve that. It will be packed with flavor and also gelatin that will help to thicken the sauce.

A chicken stock cube is melted into butter and with the help of some pasta cooking water, it recreates the wonderful juices you get from a roast chicken.


Serving Suggestions:

Side: The roast chicken juices in this pasta make it perfect for serving with a slice of ciabatta to soak up any remaining sauce. However as the pasta is quite rich, we would suggest a single slice of bread and a crisp green salad.

Wine: The sweet sultanas in this dish and the deeply savoury chicken make it an interesting dish to pair wine with. We like the slightly unusual pairing of a Viognier, The complex flavors balance the sweetness and umami elements in this chicken pasta.
For red wine lovers a pinot noir would be a great choice.




Venetian Chicken pasta with Pinenuts, Rosemary and Sultanas
This Venetian Chicken pasta with Pinenuts, Rosemary and Sultanas is a rich and delicious pasta dinner; just grab a supermarket rotisserie chicken and follow our top tips for creating this fabulous dinner in under half an hour.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

1 rotisserie chicken
12 oz pappardelle (340g)
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 chicken stock cubes
3 rosemary sprigs
1/3 cup sultanas
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

Instructions
  1. Start with the chicken.
  2. Strip the meat from the rotisserie chicken and set to one side.
  3. If any juice has collected in the rotisserie chicken packet, set this aside with the chicken.
  4. Bring a large pan of water to a boil, salt it well and add in the pasta.
  5. Set the timer for 1 minutes less than the packet suggests.
  6. Whilst the pasta is cooking, melt the butter together with the oil.
  7. Crumble in the stock cubes and let them bubble gently together.
  8. Add in the chopped leaves of the 3 rosemary sprigs and then take 1 cup of water from the pasta pan and add it to the butter mixture.
  9. Add the sultanas to the mixture and reduce the heat down to a low simmer.
  10. When the pasta has cooked, reserve a jug of the cooking water.
  11. Drain the pasta and add it to the butter and chicken stock.
  12. Stir in the chicken meat (plus any reserved juice) and 1/2 cup of the reserved water.
  13. Cook over a low heat until the pasta is well coated and the chicken has heated through.
  14. Add more cooking water if needed.
  15. Serve topped with the toasted pine nuts.

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Espagnole Sauce , its history and a recipe by the Bard of Bat Yam, Poet Laureate of Zion , Stephen Darori


Espagnole sauce






Beef with espagnole sauce and French fries

Espagnole sauce (French pronunciation: ​[ɛspaɲɔl]) is a basic brown sauce, and is one of Auguste Escoffier's five mother saucesof classic French cooking. This sauce was already compiled in different Spanish cooking handbooks of the late 19th century,[1]and Escoffier popularized the recipe, which is still followed today.[2]

Espagnole has a strong taste, and is rarely used directly on food. As a mother sauce, it serves as the starting point for many derivatives, such as sauce africaine, sauce bigarade, sauce bourguignonne, sauce aux champignons, sauce charcutière, sauce chasseur, sauce chevreuil, and demi-glace. Hundreds of other derivatives are in the classical French repertoire.

Escoffier included a recipe for a Lenten espagnole sauce, using fish stock and mushrooms, in Le Guide culinaire, but doubted its necessity.

Preparation

The basic method of making espagnole is to prepare a very dark brown roux, to which veal stock or water is added, along with browned bones, pieces of beef, vegetables, and various seasonings. This blend is allowed to slowly reduce while being frequently skimmed. The classic recipe calls for additional veal stock to be added as the liquid gradually reduces, but today, water is generally used, instead. Tomato paste or pureed tomatoes are added towards the end of the process, and the sauce is further reduced.


Etymology

Although espagnole is the French word for "Spanish", the sauce's connection to Spanish cuisine is argued by French cooks. According to Louis Diat, the creator of vichyssoise and the author of the classic Gourmet's Basic French Cookbook:

"There is a story that explains why the most important basic brown sauce in French cuisine is called sauce espagnole, or Spanish sauce. According to the story, the Spanish cooks of Louis XIII's bride, Anne, helped to prepare their wedding feast, and insisted upon improving the rich brown sauce of France with Spanish tomatoes. This new sauce was an instant success, and was gratefully named in honor of its creators."

In Kettner's Book of the Table, published in 1877, an entirely different explanation is given:


When the Bourbons made their way to the Spanish throne under Louis XV, and when Spanish fashions came back to Paris, the French cooks took a hint from the Spanish pot-au-feu—the olla podrida—and produced a variation of their brown sauce which they called "Spanish". The essential principle of the French pot-au-feu was beef; the essential principle of the Spanish was bacon, ham, the red Estremadura sausage—all well smoked... The Duc de St. Simon sent home marvellous accounts of the hams of Montanches; there grew up a rage for Spanish hams; and the French were not to blame, for they have no hams of their own which have any reputation. Great as they are in pig's flesh, they are poor hands at bacon and ham; and the treasures of Montanches were a revelation to them. They ran wild after ham... And so, by introducing the flavour of the Estremadura bacon and ham into the old brown sauce of the French, there came into being the Spanish sauce... The hams of Montanches are not too plentiful in this world of sorrow, and the cooks came to be satisfied with any ham—even with French ham, which is little better than salted pork. So the meaning of the prescription was lost; the peculiarity of the Spanish sauce passed away, and its name became a puzzle.The name "Kettner" in the title refers to Auguste Kettner, former chef to Napoleon III, who emigrated to England and in 1867 opened a restaurant in Soho—Kettner's—one of the oldest restaurants in London.


Espagnole: A Basic Brown Sauce  Recipe



75 mins
Prep: 15 mins,
Cook: 60 mins
Yield: 8 servings (2 oz each)



Espagnole (pronounced like the word for Spanish: español) is a basic brown sauce that is one of the five mother sauces of classical cuisine. It's also the starting point for a rich and deeply flavorful sauce called demi-glace, which is traditionally served with red meats.

Making espagnole sauce is not too different from making velouté—they're both essentially a stock-based sauces thickened with roux. Where they differ is that espagnole is made with brown stock (i.e. beef stock, and see the note below), and it includes additional ingredients, such as tomato purée (which adds color and acidity) and mirepoix, which is a fancy name for chopped up carrots, celery and onions, which add a tremendous amount of flavor and aroma.

You'll also see something called a sachet, which is simply a few dried herbs and spices bundled up in cheesecloth and tied with a long piece of cooking twine to make it easy to fish it out afterward.

To make demi-glace, you'd combine equal parts espagnole and brown stock along with additional mirepoix (and probably another sachet) and reduce it by half (hence demi). Here's a shortcut method.

What You'll Need

1/2 cup onions, diced

1/4 cup carrots, diced

1/4 cup celery, diced

1 oz clarified butter

1 oz all-purpose flour

3 cups brown stock (i.e. beef stock)

2 tbsp. tomato purée

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

3–4 fresh parsley stems

7–8 whole black peppercorns


How to Make It

  1. Fold the bay leaf, thyme, parley stems and peppercorns in a square of cheese cloth, and tie the corners with a piece of kitchen twine. Leave the string long enough so that you can tie it to the handle of your pot to make it easier to retrieve it.
  2. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over a medium heat until it becomes frothy.
  3. Add the mirepoix and sauté for a few minutes until it's lightly browned. Don't let it burn, though.
  4. With a wooden spoon, stir the flour into the mirepoix a little bit at a time, until it is fully incorporated and forms a thick paste (this is your roux). Lower the heat and cook the roux for another five minutes or so, until it just starts to take on a very light brown color. Don't let it burn, though! 
  5. Using a wire whisk, slowly add the stock and tomato purée to the roux, whisking vigorously to make sure it's free of lumps.
  6. Bring to a boil, lower heat, add the sachet and simmer for about 50 minutes or until the total volume has reduced by about one-third, stirring frequently to make sure the sauce doesn't scorch at the bottom of the pan. Use a ladle to skim off any impurities that rise to the surface.
  7. Remove the sauce from the heat and retrieve the sachet. For an extra smooth consistency, carefully pour the sauce through a wire mesh strainer lined with a piece of cheesecloth.
  8. Serve hot. If you won't be serving the sauce right away, keep it covered and warm until you're ready to use it.

NOTE: You can use store-bought beef stock for making your espagnole, but as always, make sure to use a low-sodium or, if at all possible unsalted, stock. Anytime you're reducing a liquid with salt in it, you'll be concentrating the saltiness, which you might not want to do, especially if you plan to use the resulting sauce to make yet another sauce, which itself might be reduced. Better to season at the very end of cooking.

Roux ( sauce thickener) , its history and a recipe by the Bard Of Bat Yam , Poet Laureate of Zion Stepehen Darori


Roux



A white roux


A roux-based sauce


Roux (/ˈruː/) is flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, and cooked to the desired level of brownness. Clarified butter, vegetable oils, bacon drippings or lard are commonly used fats. Roux is used as a thickening agent for gravy, sauces, soups and stews. It provides the base for a dish, and other ingredients are added after the roux is complete.

The fat is most often butter in French cuisine, but may be lard or vegetable oil in other cuisines. The roux is used in three of the five mother sauces of classical French cooking: béchamel sauce, velouté sauce, and espagnole sauce.

In Cajun cuisine, roux is made with bacon fat or oil instead of butter and cooked to a medium or dark brown color, which lends much richness of flavor, albeit less thickening power.

Central European cuisine uses lard (in its rendered form) or more recently vegetable oil instead of butter for the preparation of roux, which is called zápražka in Slovak, jíška in Czech, zasmażka in Polish, zaprška (запръжка) in Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, and Macedonian, zaprazhka (запръжка) in Bulgarian, rántás in Hungarian and Mehlschwitze in German.

Japanese curry, or karē (カレー), is made from a roux made by frying yellow curry powder, butter or oil, and flour together. The French term roux has become a loanword in Japanese, rū (ルー), or more specifically karērū (カレールー, curry roux).

Roux (meyane has been used in Ottoman and Turkish cuisine since at least the 15th century.

Methods

The fat is heated in a pot or pan, melting it if necessary. Then the flour is added. The mixture is heated and stirred until the flour is incorporated, and then cooked until at least the point where a raw flour taste is no longer apparent and the desired colour has been reached. The final colour can range from nearly white to nearly black, depending on the length of time it is heated and its intended use. The end result is a thickening and flavoring agent.

Roux is most often made with butter as the fat base, but it may be made with any edible fat. For meat gravies, fat rendered from meat is often used. In regional American cuisine, bacon is sometimes rendered to produce fat to use in the roux. If clarified butter is not available, vegetable oil is often used when producing dark roux, since it does not burn at high temperatures, as whole butter would.
Types[edit]

Light (or "white") roux provides little flavor other than a characteristic richness to a dish, and is used in French cooking and some gravies or pastries throughout the world.

Darker roux are made by browning the flour in oil for a longer time, and add a distinct nutty flavor to a dish. They may be called "blond", "peanut-butter", "brown" or "chocolate" roux depending on their color. The darker the color, the richer the flavor.

Swabian (southwest German) cooking uses a darker roux for its "brown broth" (braune Brühe), which, in its simplest form, consists of nothing more than lard, flour, and water, with a bay leaf and salt for seasoning. Dark roux is often made with vegetable oils, which have a higher smoke point than butter, and are used in Cajun and Creole cuisine for gumbos and stews. The darker the roux, the less thickening power it has; a chocolate roux has about one-fourth the thickening power, by weight, of a white roux. A very dark roux, just shy of burning and turning black, has a distinctly reddish color and is sometimes referred to as "brick" roux.


A dish of staka served as part of a meze, Souda, Crete

Cretan staka

Staka (στάκα) is a type of roux particular to Cretan cuisine. It is prepared by cooking goat milk cream over a low flame with wheat flouror starch: the protein-rich part of the butterfat coagulates with the flour or starch and forms the staka proper, which is served hot. It is generally eaten by dipping bread in it, occasionally served over French fries.

The fatty part separates to form stakovoutyro, staka butter, which is kept for later use and has a faint cheesy flavor. Staka butter is used in Cretan pilaf (piláfi), commonly served at weddings.

Alternatives

Cooks can substitute for roux by adding a mixture of cold water and wheat flour to a dish that needs thickening, since the heat of boiling water will release the starch from the flour; however, this temperature is not high enough to eliminate the floury taste. A mixture of water and flour used in this way is colloquially known as “cowboy roux”, and in modern cuisine it is called a white wash. It is used infrequently in restaurant cooking, since it imparts a flavor to the finished dish that a traditional haute cuisine chef would consider unacceptable. Cornflour (known as cornstarch in the United States) can be used instead of wheat flour, as less is needed to thicken, it imparts less of the raw flour taste, and it also makes the final sauce more shiny.

As an alternative to roux, which is high in fat and very energy-dense, some Creole chefs have experimented with toasting flour without oil in a hot pan as an addition to gumbo. Cornstarch mixed with water (slurry), arrowroot, and other agents can be used in place of roux as well. These items do not contribute to the flavor of a dish, and are used solely for thickening liquids. More recently, many chefs have turned to a group of naturally occurring chemicals known as hydrocolloids. In addition to being flavorless and possessing the ability to act as a thickening agent, the resulting texture is thought by some to be superior,[citation needed] and only a small amount is required for the desired effect.

Fettuccine with Venetian Chicken Sauce a recipe by the Bard of Bat Yam, Poet Laureate of Zion , Stephen Darori

Image result for FETTUCCINE WITH VENETIAN CHICKEN SAUCE


Venetian Sauce (French: Sauce vénitienne) is a classical French herb sauce used to accompany fish. It consists of:

  • a velouté and fish fumet base
  • equal quantities of tarragon vinegar and white wine reduced with:
  • chopped shallots and chervil
  • White wine sauce
  • Herb juice
After cooking, it is strained and finished with chopped chervil and tarragon.


Fettuccine with Venetian Chicken Recipe

Redady in : 1hr 5mins
Serves: 6-8

Ingredients
2cups chicken stock or 2 cups chicken broth
8ounces boneless skinless chicken breasts
6tablespoons unsalted butter
1garlic clove, finely chopped
1cup finely chopped carrot
1⁄4teaspoon sea salt
1cup tomato juice, preferably organic
1lb dry fettuccine
freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Directions
  • In a saucepan, bring chicken stock to a boil.
  • Meanwhile, cut the chicken breasts into lengthwise strips about the width of a finger; drop the strips into the boiling stock.
  • Cover and bring to a boil; decrease heat and simmer for 4 minutes.
  • Remove the cover and set aside, allowing the chicken to cool in the liquid.
  • When cool, transfer chicken to a cutting board and reheat the stock.
  • Meanwhile, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in another large saucepan.
  • Stir in the garlic and cook over low heat until the garlic becomes golden.
  • Add 1 cup water to prevent the garlic from browning; stir to combine.
  • Add in carrots and salt; cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture is nearly dry with just a bit of water left.
  • Be vigilant and stir constantly toward the end of this step to be sure the carrots do not brown at all.
  • Add the hot stock and tomato juice; cover and bring to a boil; decrease heat, set the cover ajar, and simmer gently for 35 minutes or until the carrots are very soft.
  • Puree with an immersion blender until you have a smooth puree; set aside.
  • Cut the chicken strips lengthwise into 1/8-inch thick slices, then cut across to make 1/8 inch dice; add the chicken to the sauce and reheat gently.
  • Bring a large pot of water to a boil; generously salt the water and add in the fettuccine.
  • Cook, stirring often, until al dente; drain the pasta and transfer to a heated platter or shallow gratin dish.
  • Toss with the remaining butter and fold enough sauce to coat the noodles generously.
  • Sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano; serve immediately; pass more cheese at the table.


Veloute Sauce Recipe 

Total:20 min
Prep: 20 min
Yield: 2 cups

Ingredients


3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken stock
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper

Directions


In a saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in the stock, 1/2 cup at a time. Whisk until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve.

Velouté sauce ... its history and a recipe from the Bard of Bat Yam Poet Laureate of Zion, Stepehen Darori




A velouté sauce (French pronunciation: ​[vəluˈte]) is a savoury sauce, made from a roux and a light stock. It is one of the five 'mother sauces' of French cuisine listed by Auguste Escoffier in the 19th century, along with espagnole, tomato, béchamel and hollandaise. The term velouté is the French word for velvety.

In preparing a velouté sauce, a light stock (one in which the bones used have not been previously roasted), such as chicken or fish stock, is thickened with a blond roux. Thus the ingredients of a velouté are equal parts (by mass) of butter and flour to form the roux and a light chicken or fish stock, with some salt and pepper to season as needed. The sauce produced is commonly referred to by the type of stock used (e.g. chicken velouté).

Derived sauces

Sauce velouté is often served on poultry or seafood dishes, and is used as the base for other sauces. Sauces derived from a velouté sauce include:
  • Albufera sauce: Addition of meat glaze, or glace de viande.
  • Allemande sauce: By adding a few drops of lemon juice, egg yolks, and cream
  • Aurore: Tomato purée
  • Bercy: Shallots, white wine, lemon juice and parsley added to a fish velouté
  • Gravy: usually made with meat and/or vegetable drippings instead of a separate stock, but follows the same principle.
  • Hungarian: Onion, paprika, white wine
  • Normande sauce: prepared with velouté or fish velouté, cream, butter and egg yolk as primary ingredients. Some versions may use mushroom cooking liquid and oyster liquid or fish fumet added to fish velouté, finished with a liaison of egg yolks and cream
  • Poulette: Mushrooms finished with chopped parsley and lemon juice
  • Sauce a la Polonaise ("Polish style"): Sauce velouté mixed with horseradish, lemon juice and sour cream[4]. (Not to be confused with the topping garnish of breadcrumbs browned in butter and chopped hard-cooked egg, often with parsley.)
  • Sauce ravigote: The addition of a little lemon or white wine vinegar creates a lightly acidic velouté that is traditionally flavored with onions and shallots, and more recently with mustard.
  • Sauce Vin Blanc: Sauce Vin Blanc has the addition of fish trim, egg yolks and butter and is typically served with fish.
  • Suprême sauce: By adding a reduction of mushroom liquor (produced in cooking) and cream to a chicken velouté.
  • Venetian sauce: Tarragon, shallots, chervil
  • Wine sauce: such as white wine sauce and champagne sauce

Veloute Sauce Recipe


Total:20 min
Prep: 20 min
Yield: 2 cups

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken stock
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper

Directions


In a saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in the stock, 1/2 cup at a time. Whisk until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve.

Mornay Sauce , its history and a recipe by the Bard of Bat Yam, Poet Laureate of Zion, Stephen Darori


Related image


A Mornay Sauce is a béchamel sauce with shredded or grated Gruyère cheese added. Some variations use different combinations of Gruyère, Emmental cheese, or white Cheddar. A Mornay sauce made with cheddar is commonly used to make macaroni and cheese.

Etymology

The name origin of Mornay sauce is debated. It may be named after Philippe, duc de Mornay (1549–1623), Governor of Saumur and seigneur du Plessis-Marly, writer and diplomat, but a cheese sauce during this time would have to have been based on a velouté sauce, for Béchamel had not yet been developed.

Sauce Mornay does not appear in Le cuisinier Royal, 10th edition, 1820. Perhaps sauce Mornay is not older than the great Parisian restaurant of the 19th century, Le Grand Véfour in the arcades of the Palais-Royal, where sauce Mornaywas introduced.

In the Tout-Paris of Charles X, the Mornay name was represented by two stylish men, the marquis de Mornay and his brother, styled comte Charles. They figure in Lady Blessington's memoir of a stay in Paris in 1828–29, The Idler in France. They might also be considered, when an eponym is sought for sauce Mornay.

Sauces in French cuisine date back to the Middle Ages. There were many hundreds of sauces in the culinary repertoire. In cuisine classique (roughly from the end of the 19th century until the advent of nouvelle cuisine in the 1980s), sauces were a major defining characteristic of French cuisine.

In the early 19th century, the chef Marie-Antoine Carême created an extensive list of sauces, many of which were original recipes. It is unknown how many sauces Carême is responsible for, but it is estimated to be in the hundreds. The cream sauce, in its most popular form around the world, was concurrently created by another chef, Dennis Leblanc, working in the same kitchen as Carême.Carême considered the four grandes sauces to be espagnole, velouté, allemande, and béchamel, from which a large variety of petites sauces could be composed.

In the early 20th century, the chef Auguste Escoffier refined Carême's list of basic sauces in the four editions of his classic Le Guide Culinaire and its abridged English translation A Guide to Modern Cookery. He dropped allemande as he considered it a variation of velouté, and added hollandaise and sauce tomate, defining the five fundamental "mother sauces" still used today:

  1. Sauce béchamel, milk-based sauce, thickened with a white roux 
  2. Sauce espagnole, a fortified brown veal stock sauce, thickened with a brown roux 
  3. Sauce velouté, light stock-based sauce, thickened with a roux or a liaison, a mixture of egg yolks and cream 
  4. Sauce hollandaise, an emulsion of egg yolk, butter and lemon (or vinegar) 
  5. Sauce tomate, tomato-based
A sauce which is derived from one of the mother sauces by augmenting with additional ingredients is sometimes called a "daughter sauce" or "secondary sauce".Most sauces commonly used in classical cuisine are daughter sauces. For example, béchamel can be made into Mornay by the addition of grated cheese, and espagnole becomes bordelaise with the addition of reduction of red wine, shallots, and poached beef marrow.






A specialized implement, the French sauce spoon, was introduced in the mid-20th century to aid in eating sauce in French cuisine, enjoying increasing popularity at high-end restaurants.

White Sauce or Bechamel Sauce Recipe

This used to be one of the first lessons in home economics classes; invariably white and pasty, it coated many a bland dish. When well made, however, it has a proper place in homey, creamed dishes, often making leftovers stretch or giving cooked foods new life. And it is important as a base for soufflés. The French term for this medium-thick white sauce is béchamel. The foolproof way to attain a perfectly smooth sauce is to have the milk hot when added to the butter and flour. It uses an extra pot, but as you become more proficient, this cautionary measure may not be necessary.

YIELD Makes about 1 cup

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/4 cups milk, heated
Salt
Freshly ground pepper


PREPARATION

  1. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the paste cooks and bubbles a bit, but don't let it brown — about 2 minutes. Add the hot milk, continuing to stir as the sauce thickens. Bring it to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste, lower the heat, and cook, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes more. Remove from the heat. To cool this sauce for later use, cover it with wax paper or pour a film of milk over it to prevent a skin from forming.
  2. Cheese Sauce.
  3. Stir in 1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese during the last 2 minutes of cooking, along with a pinch of cayenne pepper.

How hot should the milk be?
Warm the milk on low heat just until little bubbles begin to form at the edges. Then remove from heat.


Béchamel Sauce (White Sauce) ... its history and a recipe by the Bard Of Bat Yam, Poet Laureate of Zion and Stephen Darori


"White sauce" redirects here. For the sauce used on Fettuccine Alfredo, see Alfredo sauce. For the condiment associated with American halal street carts, s



Béchamel sauce

Milk infusing with bay leaf, peppercorns, shallot and flat-leaf parsley prior to being added to the roux

Béchamel sauce ( French: [beʃamɛl]), also known as white sauce, is made from a white roux (butter and flour) and milk. It has been considered, since the seventeenth century,one of the mother sauces of French cuisine.It is used as the base for other sauces (such as Mornay sauce, which is Béchamel with cheese).

Origin


Balsamell or Besciamella is the Italian equivalent of the French Béchamel: a very simple white sauce of flour, butter and milk. The sauce was originally from renaissance Tuscany and was known as “Salsa Colla or Colletta” ("glue sauce") because of the gluey consistency of the sauce, and was brought to France by the chefs of Catherina de’ Medici in 1533. Louis de Béchamel, Marquis de Nointel, was a financier who held the honorary post of chief steward to King Louis XIV. The sauce was prominent in Italian cooking texts of the Renaissance as "salsa colla", but was renamed much later in Le Cuisinier François, published in 1651 by François Pierre La Varenne (1615–1678), chef de cuisine to Nicolas Chalon du Blé, marquis d'Uxelles. The foundation of French cuisine, the Cuisinier François ran through some thirty editions in seventy-five years.

The sauce originally was a veal velouté with a large amount of cream added.
Image result for béchamel sauce

Recipe


Prep Time 40 min

This is a quick and easy béchamel sauce.

Ingredients 

Serves: 8
5 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons plain flour
1 litre milk
1 dessertspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Method
  1. Prep:5min › Cook:35min › Ready in:40min 
  2. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, stir in the flour until smooth. Continue stirring as the flour cooks to a light, golden, sandy colour, about 7 minutes.
  3. Increase heat to medium-high and slowly whisk in milk until thickened by the roux. Bring to a gentle simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low and continue simmering until the flour has softened and not longer tastes of flour, 10 to 20 minutes, then season with salt and nutmeg.

Yorkshire Pudding, the history and a recipe from the Bard of Bat Yam, Poet Laureate Of Zion and Stephen Darori




Yorkshire pudding is a common British side dish consisting of a baked pudding made from batter consisting of eggs, flour, and milk or water.[1] It is a versatile food that can be served in numerous ways depending on the choice of ingredients, the size of the pudding and the accompanying components of the dish. As a first course it can be served with onion gravy. For a main course it is often served with beef and gravy and is part of the traditional Sunday roast, but can also be filled with foods such as bangers and mash to make a meal.



Mini Yorkshire puddings, served as part of a traditional Sunday roast

When wheat flour began to come into common use for making cakes and puddings, cooks in the north of Englanddevised a means of making use of the fat that dropped into the dripping pan to cook a batter pudding while the meat roasted. In 1737, a recipe for "a dripping pudding" (later named "The Yorkshire Pudding") was published in the book The Whole Duty of a Woman:

Make a good batter as for pancakes; put in a hot toss-pan over the fire with a bit of butter to fry the bottom a little then put the pan and butter under a shoulder of mutton, instead of a dripping pan, keeping frequently shaking it by the handle and it will be light and savoury, and fit to take up when your mutton is enough; then turn it in a dish and serve it hot.

Similar instructions were published during 1747 in the book The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse, with the name 'Yorkshire pudding'. It was she who renamed the original version, known as Dripping Pudding, which had been cooked in England for centuries, although these puddings were much flatter than the puffy versions made today. William Sitwell suggests that the pudding got the name 'Yorkshire' due to the regions association with coal and the higher temperatures this produced which helped to make the batter crispier.

Originally the Yorkshire pudding was served as a first course with thick gravy to dull the appetite with the low-cost ingredients so that the diners would not eat so much of the more expensive meat in the next course.An early recipe appeared in Sir Alexander William George Cassey's The Whole Duty of a Woman during 1737. Because the rich gravy from the roast meat drippings was used up with the first course, the main meat and vegetable course was often served with a parsley or white sauce.

In poorer households, the pudding was often served as the only course. Using dripping, a simple meal was made with flour, eggs and milk. This was traditionally eaten with a gravy or sauce, to moisten the pudding.

The Yorkshire pudding is meant to rise. The Royal Society of Chemistry suggested during 2008 that "A Yorkshire pudding isn't a Yorkshire pudding if it is less than four inches tall".


A Yorkshire pudding filled with mashed potato, beef, gravy and vegetables


Yorkshire pudding cooked in 22 cm diameter frying pan
Cooking method

Yorkshire pudding is cooked by pouring a batter made from milk (or water), flour and eggs into preheated, oiled, baking pans, ramekins or muffin tins (in the case of miniature puddings). A basic formula uses ​1⁄3 cup flour and ​1⁄3 cup liquid per egg. Water produces a lighter crisper but less sweet pudding than using milk. They can also be baked in the oven in muffin tins A 1926 recipe involves covering the pudding with greaseproof paper to steam it and then serving it with jam, butter and sugar.





Recipe

PREP: 5 MINSCOOK: 20 MINS
MAKES 8 LARGE PUDS OR 24 SMALL

The secret to getting gloriously puffed-up Yorkshires is to have the fat sizzling hot and don't open the oven door!

Ingredients

140g plain flour (this is about 200ml/7fl oz)
4 eggs
200ml milk
sunflower oil , for cooking

Method

Heat oven to 230C/fan 210C/gas 8. Drizzle a little sunflower oil evenly into 2 x 4-hole Yorkshire pudding tins or a 12-hole non-stick muffin tin and place in the oven to heat through.
To make the batter, tip 140g plain flour into a bowl and beat in four eggs until smooth. Gradually add 200ml milk and carry on beating until the mix is completely lump-free. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the batter into a jug, then remove the hot tins from the oven. Carefully and evenly pour the batter into the holes. Place the tins back in the oven and leave undisturbed for 20-25 mins until the puddings have puffed up and browned. Serve immediately. You can now cool them and freeze for up to 1 month.

Roast Pigeon, a recipe from the Bard of Bat Yam, Poet Laureate of Zion and Stephen Darori


ROAST PIGEON




Here in Zion, everyone seems to think there’s something dodgy about hunting and eating pigeons, which are, after all, a non-native, borderline invasive species totally unprotected in most states (although in the Bat Yam and Tel Aviv  they are, inexplicably, considered a pests).

Mind you, I’m not talking about hunting city pigeons, whose crops are stuffed with Doritos and cigarette butts. We chase “barnies” that live in semi-abandoned barns who spend their days gorging themselves on grain and seeds. Still, talk to any Israeli about Roast Pigeonand you’ll get the squinched nose. “Ew! Dirty!”


Sorry, but I have a thing for pigeons. I love hunting them, I love how fast they fly, how tough they are — pigeons don’t die easily — and I love how they taste. I know, I know, some of you are already tuning out. Fine. More for us. But can I hear from the Britons out there? Back me up: Wood pigeons are damn good, right?

This recipe is an homage to my Polish ancestors. It is just a simple roast pigeon, served atop a bed of roasted root vegetables, with a little malt (or beer) vinegar splashed on and served, ideally, with a British pale ale or a glass of claret.

The great chef Fergus Henderson’s The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating serves as my inspiration, with a few modifications. I probably cook as many little birds as anyone, and I have a few pointers you might want to learn before you pop your rock doves (or wood pigeons) in the oven.

First, pigeons are a red meat bird and should be eaten somewhere around medium.

What’s more, they are rarely fat, although once in a blue moon you’ll find a pigeon so morbidly obese you have no idea how it flew. (Those are a treat for the table, by the way.) Normally, however, you need to deal with athletic birds, able to cruise around at 55 miles an hour with a top end at close to 90 miles an hour; this makes them the fastest game bird in North America. Impressed yet?

Incidentally, if you like doves you will like pigeons. Pigeons are to doves what hares are to cottontails, or geese are to ducks: Bigger, smarter, tougher, older. Where most doves barely live a year, the average lifespan in the wild of a typical pigeon is five years. Yep, that’s older than most deer you shoot. So you’ll need to deal with that.

You can sometimes tell if you have old birds. Their feet look like they’ve been walked on for years and their keelbones are super hard. Young birds have a flexible keelbone and are just generally fresher looking. They also tend to have lighter colored meat. But it’s not an exact science.

So as an insurance policy against toughness, you need to start the cooking of the legs and wings before the breast. The easiest way to do this is to sear the legs and wings in hot butter or oil before you roast the bird. You don’t want to sear the breast, though, because you want it to be pink when you serve it. To do this, you need to hold the pigeon with tongs in the hot oil and be vigilant.

There is another way. I recently bought a nifty kitchen device called the Searzall Blowtorch Attachment. You screw this baby onto a Bernzomatic TS4000 Trigger Start Torch, which uses for fuel those little green propane tanks you get in the supermarket. Why not just use the torch? Because it gives meat a nasty propane stink. The Searzall converts the propane flame into radiant heat energy. I used the Searzall to pre-cook the legs and wings of the pigeons here, and it worked like a charm.

SavePhoto by Holly A. Heyser

I could have easily seared the breasts, too, and, had I wanted to, I might have been able to cook the whole bird with the torch. But I am still working out the ins and outs of this thing — and I wanted to give you a recipe that you can repeat without special equipment.

For any of you who have eaten doves, pigeons taste pretty much the same, although they can be a little more aggressively flavored. Squab, readily available in fancier restaurants, is just a baby pigeon. The closest parallel beyond that is wild duck, like a teal, only without the fat layer.


Pigeon is meaty, but not so much as venison or beef. Very tightly grained, especially the breast meat. It takes salt and vinegar very well, and is “gamey” only in the sense that it tastes like something, not like flaccid, corn-fed, penned beasts.

It’s a bird to get down on, too: Pick it up and gnaw. Sure, you can carve it and get all white linen, but I find it so much better eaten caveman style. Juices flowing, crispy skin on the legs, which are the best part to my mind.

So. Damn. Good. Go get some, people!



Roast Pigeon Recipe  with Root Vegetables
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 30 mins



Pigeons are a smallish, dark meat bird with very little fat. Closest substitution would be store-bought squab, which is to pigeon what veal is to beef. You could also use ptarmigan or sharp-tailed grouse. You'll only need one per person, and up the roasting time to 12 to 14 minutes. As for the vegetables, go for it. Use whatever you want. The more the better, and the crazier the better. I served this with salsify, parsley root, carrots, Jerusalem artichokes and golden beets. Have it it.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: British
Serves: 4 people

Ingredients

2 to 4 pigeons, plucked and dressed
1/4 cup melted butter or olive oil
Salt and black pepper
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
4 to 6 Jerusalem artichokes, cut into chunks
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
2 to 4 salsify roots, scrubbed and cut into 2-inch lengths (optional)
1 or 2 roots of Hamburg or root parsley, cut into chunks (optional)
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Beer vinegar or malt vinegar, for garnish

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 425°F. Put all the chunked-up vegetables in a small roasting pan and coat with about half of the melted butter. Salt them well and pop them in the oven to roast. Take the pigeons out of the fridge when the veggies go into the oven. Let the pigeons come to room temperature for 30 minutes.
  • Stir the root vegetables, which should be starting to get brown. Paint the pigeons with more melted butter and salt them well. Pour the remaining melted butter into a small pan and get it hot. Sear the sides of the pigeons in the hot butter. You want to get the legs and wings halfway cooked before the birds go into the oven. This should take about 6 to 10 minutes. Don't sear the breast meat.
  • Check the vegetables. They should be pretty close to being done. If they are, remove them from the oven, put in a bowl and cover with foil. Turn the oven up to 475°F, or even 500°F if it will go that high. Wipe out the roasting pan. Let the pigeons rest for the 10 minutes or so this will take. When the oven is ready, put the pigeons into the roasting pan, breast side up. Roast for 10 minutes.
  • Remove the pigeons from the oven and set on a cutting board. Turn off the oven, pour the vegetables back into the roasting pan, toss with the chopped parsley and set into the oven to re-warm and cook a bit further. Let the pigeons rest for 5 minutes before serving. Serve them surrounded by the vegetables, which you can season with a little vinegar if you want.

Friday, July 13, 2018

Fay Baker Drus's Brisket with Crispy Potatoe Leek Kugal and Roasted Garlic Asparagus , an edited and adaped recipe by the Bard of Bat Yam (#BardOfBatYam) , Poet Laureate Of Zion ( #PoetlaureateOfZion) , Stephen Darori,(@stephendarori)


Image result for Brisket


YIELD
8–10 servings

INGREDIENTS


a 5- to 6-pound first-cut beef brisket

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 large yellow onions, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 5 cups or 3 pounds)

2 or 3 large garlic cloves, or to taste, minced

1 teaspoon paprika, preferably Hungarian

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a Dutch oven or other heavy baking pan large enough to hold brisket heat 1 tablespoon oil in oven 10 minutes. Pat brisket dry and season with salt and pepper. Roast brisket in pan, uncovered, 30 minutes.

While brisket is roasting, in a large heavy skillet cook onions in remaining 2 tablespoons oil over moderately high heat, stirring, until softened and beginning to turn golden. Reduce heat and cook onions, stirring occasionally and reducing heat if necessary, until deep golden, about 20 minutes more. Stir in garlic, paprika, salt, and pepper and cook 1 minute. Stir in 3 cups water and bring to a boil.

Spoon onion mixture over brisket and bake, covered, with lid 1/2 inch ajar, 3 1/2 hours, or until brisket is tender. (Check pan every hour and if necessary add more water.) Remove brisket from oven and let cool in onion mixture 1 hour.

Remove brisket from pan, scraping onion mixture back into pan, and chill, wrapped in foil, overnight. Spoon onion mixture into a 1-quart measure and chill, covered, overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Discard fat from onion mixture, add enough water to mixture to measure 3 cups total, and in a blender blend gravy until smooth. Slice brisket against the grain (thick or thin, as you prefer). In a large ovenproof skillet heat gravy until hot, add brisket, and heat in oven 30 minutes.

Crispy Potato-Leek Kugel Recipe 

Image result for Crispy Potato-Leek Kugel Recipe

YIELD
Serves 8

ACTIVE TIME
45 minutes

TOTAL TIME
2 hours

INGREDIENTS

9 medium russet potatoes (about 4 1/2 pounds), peeled
7 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
3 medium leeks, white and pale-green parts only, thinly sliced crosswise
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided, plus more
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 small onion
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, divided
Special Equipment:
An 8x8" baking pan

PREPARATION


  1. Preheat oven to 375°. Cut 4 potatoes into 1" chunks and place in a medium pot. Cover with cold water by 1". Season water generously with salt, bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook until potatoes are tender, 10-12 minutes. Drain well, transfer to a large bowl, and mash with a potato masher; set aside.
  2. Meanwhile, heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a large skillet over medium until shimmering. Add leeks, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and golden, 5-8 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 1-2 minutes more. Remove pan from heat and let cool slightly.
  3. Grease bottom and sides of an 8x8" baking pan with 2 Tbsp. oil. Place pan in oven for 10 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, grate 3 potatoes and onion using the large holes of a box grater or a food processor fit with a shredding blade. Wrap potatoes and onion in a clean dishtowel or several layers of paper towels and squeeze out as much liquid as you can; add to the bowl with the mashed potatoes. Stir in sautéed leeks and garlic, eggs, 2 Tbsp. oil, 1 Tbsp. thyme, 2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper; mix until well combined.
  5. Thinly slice remaining 2 potatoes and toss with remaining 1 Tbsp. oil, 1 tsp. thyme, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper in a medium bowl; set aside.
  6. Carefully remove preheated pan from oven and transfer potato-onion mixture to the pan (it should sizzle when it hits the hot oil). Smooth top with a spatula. Layer potato slices over the top in a shingled fashion. Bake until golden brown and cooked through, 60-75 minutes. Heat broiler; broil kugel until crispy crust forms, 1-2 minutes, watching carefully so it does not burn. Let cool briefly, then cut into squares to serve.


Roasted-Garlic Asparagus Recipe 

Image result for Roasted-Garlic Asparagus Recipe

YIELD 
Makes 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
8 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 tablespoons fresh finely chopped parsley
2 pounds thin asparagus, ends trimmed
Fleur de sel or coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION


  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Line a large jelly-roll pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
  3. In a small pot, heat the oil, garlic, onion powder, and parsley on medium-low heat. Cook for 3 minutes, until the garlic mixture is fragrant but not browned.
  4. Spread the asparagus in a single layer on the prepared pan. Lightly sprinkle with coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Drizzle on the garlic-oil mixture.
  5. Roast for 8-10 minutes, until the asparagus are bright green; do not overcook.
  6. Transfer to a platter and serve hot.