My thoughts on Jewish food.
Looking for a new, parve side for Shabbos? Trying to find a way to get your family to eat more green vegetables? This kugel is for you, Dear Reader, raising boring old zucchini to fabulous new heights. Bonus? It’s easy to prepare, especially if you use a food processor for slicing the zucchini. Zucchini Kugel …
Our go-to dessert when we want something easy and homey is this simple applesauce cake with its moist and tender crumb. After many years of experimentation, we decided to leave the raisins out and substitute cornstarch for some of the flour to lighten the texture. The result is a cake that practically melts in one’s …
Real kishke is delicious. But no one wants to deal with cleaning an intestine to use as a casing. Instead, the modern cook gets creative and improvises a casing. Some use a cooking bag, others use aluminum foil, and then there are those of us who make do with parchment paper. None of them match …
Stuffed mushrooms make an elegant starter or even a side for any Shabbat or festive meal. They are a lot easier to make than you might suspect. I like to use frozen chopped spinach to save time. I just thaw and squeeze out the excess liquid before continuing with the recipe. If you have leftover …
Everyone likes deli roll. And it’s not difficult to make. Which is a plus after all those endless elaborate holiday meals we cooked. But hey, what’s not to like? Carbs in the form of pastry dough plus cold cuts, with a slathering of good mustard. Don’t know anyone who can say anything but “Yes, please!” …
Now is when we finally get those beautiful, summer-ripened tomatoes. That is when we can rejoice in the flavor of a truly remarkable ingredient that is at its peak. And we need something like that in the summer heat. A salad like this matbucha just perks up your taste buds. Great with challah at the …
Those of us whose parents lived through the Depression, have an aversion to throwing away food. That makes it difficult if you’re into making sourdough bread. In order to keep a sourdough starter going, you throw some out and feed only a small portion each week. Otherwise, it would grow enormous and you’d never use …
Most people see steak as a special food for special occasions. But recently, we’ve begun a Sabbath tradition in our home of setting out some sliced rare entrecote for people to add to their tossed salad, at table. It takes almost no time at all to throw some seasonings on a steak and broil it, …
Some people really like sweet chicken a lot. I am not one of these people, especially since I’m doing low carb high fat, and sweets are, well, carby. But also because sweet food in Jewish cuisine, is typically characteristic of Jews from Galicia. Jews from Lithuania, from whence my ancestors hale, tend to prefer savory …
No Friday night meal is complete without chicken soup. That is, if one is Ashkenazi. And of course, chicken soup is folk medicine, too, having had its healing powers verified by the medical establishment. But not all the Jews went to Eastern Europe, and the Jews who ended up in Yemen, have their own healing …