No Food? No Problem

Last night, I had no fresh food to speak of in the house and no shabbat leftovers to tide me over till I was supposed to shop today (which, of course, I didn't get to).

It was 7:30 and I was hungry for dinner. Instead of ringing up my favorite sushi place, I dug through my freezer and fridge and came up with the following delicious concoction, which made enough to serve my husband and I and another serving tonight for dinner.

Manna From the Freezer
3 tbs oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp hawaj

1 half bag of frozen crock pot white beans
1/4 frozen ground dark meat turkey (turkey shwarma in Israel)
1/2 pan leftover roasted vegetables
3-4 tablespoons leftover sauce from crock pot short ribs 

Saute onion in the oil, add garlic after onion is translucent. Add spices and stir until they release their fragrance (Add enough oil to make almost a paste). Add meat and brown. Add the beans, vegetables and sauce and simmer for 20 min.

Serve with polenta, rice or couscous. (I made polenta and it was very yum).

What's that? You don't have all of these exact leftovers in your fridge and freezer? (and why would you, unless you have a spy camera in my kitchen and have been secretly preparing what I make for shabbat). No problem. I think the spices and onion make a great base for a Morrocan style chile. Add any type of ground beef, chicken or turkey. Add canned or cooked beans (I think chickpeas or any type of red or white bean would work fine. Try baked beans, if that's all you have). Any kind of fresh or frozen veg would also work, but you might want to saute them separately to keep them whole and give them a bit of color. Add chopped tomatoes or tomato paste, salt, pepper and maybe a bit of soup mix. Simmer for 30-40 min.

Anyway, I'm very proud of myself for making up such a frugal and yummy dinner from almost nothing.

Mollie Katzen Week

I've been cooking and baking a ton this week, mostly from Mollie Katzen recipes. She wrote the Moosewood Cookbook and a bunch of other really great vegetarian cookbooks. We aren't vegetarian in this house but I've always loved her fresh and interesting take on vegetables and cooking in general. I started cooking from her books in high school and I still use the same books to this day.

On Sunday, I made zucchini apple muffins from this recipe. They came out pretty good. They sliced nicely and made cute sandwiches spread with some cottage cheese.

Here they are just before we put them in the oven (the muffins, not the girls. :))

Today I made Mollie's Oatmeal Maple Bread. Thanks to Google books, you can see exactly what the recipe is and looks like in the book right below! Amazing. Search for "Oatmeal Maple Bread" if you can't see it immediately below. I used silan because I didn't have maple syrup and it came out fine. (So I guess it's technically "Oatmeal Silan Bread".)

I added chocolate chips, like I do to everything. This bread is actually really bready. I thought it would be kind of "banana bread"-like (meaning more like a cake) but it had an actual bread crumb and will probably toast nicely, with some jam. Here's how it came out below.

Finally, I also made some crockpot white beans with rosemary and tomatoes. Not from Mollie, but definitely Mollie-inspired. I used this recipe but changed a few things. I used 300 ml of crushed tomatoes instead of  the two tomatoes peeled and seeded. I skipped the onions and cloves since I didn't have any cloves and just used two chopped onions. I added a sheet of torn up nori (seaweed sheets for sushi). It doesn't taste fishy at all, just adds some depth and added protein. It needs  a lot of salt and pepper (I think my palette might be busted from using too much soup mix over the years though.) It took about 5 hours in the crock pot but made a really yummy and filling supper for a cold winter's night.

B'teavon to us all!

Cauliflower and Mushroom Bisque

This is a sturdy soup that you can make as thin or as thick as you like, depending on how much stock you add. It passes for potato soup but no potatoes were harmed in the making! For serving with dairy, feel free to add some cream or thinned yogurt. This also makes a good sauce for rice, couscous, pasta, chicken, pargiot or even mini hamburgers, which I made tonight.

And it got one kid vote at supper tonight, even though said child burned her mouth on it ( I don't want any McDonalds coffee type lawsuits so, WARNING: This soup is very very hot when you first make it, so blow on it before eating and don't put the bowl between your knees while driving a car. Thanks!)

Hattip to my mother. She gave me the original idea for the recipe.

Cauliflower and Mushroom Bisque
1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

4 zucchini, washed and cut into chunks (if you want to maintain a lighter color and you're not in Israel, peel some or all of the zucchinis).

1 large or 2 small heads of cauliflower, broken into florets

1 basket of mushrooms, sliced

3-4 Swiss chard leaves or 1 cup spinach, roughly chopped

Chicken, veggie stock or water to cover vegetables

s/p

Pinch of nutmeg

Saute onion and garlic until soft. Add mushrooms and saute until they start to cook down. Add the rest of the vegetables except chard/ spinach and stir. Cover pot and cook on low, without water for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables start to make their own stock (this really brings out the flavor in the vegetables, so don't skip this step). Cover with stock or water, season to taste. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1/2 hour. Add chard or spinach and cook for 10 minutes longer. Let cool for a bit and blend with a hand blender.

Note: Feel free to leave out the greens if you think it will freak your kids out or if you want a mellower, more potato/leek soup type flavor.

בתאבון

(photo credit: Glenda Kay's Gifts. I think you can actually buy a doll like that)

Check out Kosher Cooking Carnival #46

Many thanks to Mimi at Israeli Kitchen for putting together a delectable looking Kosher Cooking Carnival.

I'm gaining weight just looking at the recipes!

Greens, Mushrooms and Noodles

I made cabbage and noodles a few weeks ago. I hadn't made it in ages (possibly years) and I had forgotten how much my husband loved it. I bought some Swiss chard and mushrooms this week, thinking I'd make some kind of soup with them. Last week I bought a pack of endives after reading this recipe in the NYT.  Cooked endive sounded intriguing.

In any case, I was still stuck with all these ingredients Friday afternoon, so instead of all my previous ideas, I sauteed onion and garlic, added the mushrooms, thinly sliced endive and the chopped chard, with lots of salt and pepper. I cooked a pot of good wide egg noodles (not the crappy Israeli kind). My husband and I finished the whole thing at dinner, thanks to some generous "tasting" helpings before Shabbat.

A few notes on serving: I served this Friday night, and to be honest, it doesn't take too kindly to reheating on the plata. So there are two options: you can add a few eggs or one egg and some egg whites and more salt and pepper, making this a kugel. Or, you can keep the vegetables and noodles separate until the last minute and stir them together before serving, that way the noodles don't get all tired and limp looking.

In any case, we thoroughly enjoyed the dish (of course, the kids wouldn't look at it).

Greens, Mushrooms and Noodles

1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 basket of button mushrooms, sliced (any mushroom will do, feel free to substitute)
2 endives, thinly sliced from the end
1 bunch of Swiss chard, washed well, checked and chopped
salt and pepper
1 package of wide egg noodles, cooked just to al dente

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in a large wok or frying pan  for about 10 minutes on low heat, until thoroughly browned and soft. Add mushrooms and cook until the juices have evaporated. Add endive, cook until soft. Add chard, cook down as well. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook noodles in boiling water until just al dente. Mix veggies and noodles just before serving. Or mix together and add 2-3 eggs and bake in an oblong pan at 180 degrees Celsius until firm, 30-40 minutes.

[Insert Recipe Here]

Well, if you want to find my recipe for Vegetable Soup with Chicken kneidalach, you'll have to go to the fabulous new CookingManager.com site. There are lots of other neat kitchen tips, ideas and recipes there as well.

Swiss Chard Pie

I made this on Shavuot and it was a big hit at my inlaws.

Swiss Chard Pie

Filling:
1 bunch Swiss Chard (alei mangold in Hebrew)
1 basket of mushrooms, dark, light, whatever you like, sliced
1 leek, sliced thinly
1 red onion, diced
1.5 containers of 5% cottage cheese
1 handful shredded cheese
2 tablespoons bread crumbs/matzo meal
2 eggs

For crust:
2 medium eggplants or
1 eggplant/1 zuchinni

To prepare crust: Slice vegetables longitudanally quite thin, but not paper thin. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Broil or roast them in a very hot oven until browned. Let cool in the pan and remove carefully. Line the pie/tart pan with the vegetables. I like to let a little hang over the sides and fold over the pie after it's filled.

Filling:
Wash the chard in a few changes of water. It's quite sandy. Remove hard ribs and chop finely. Chop the rest roughly, set aside. In a hot pot or large wok, cook chopped chard ribs, onion, and leek until transluscent. Add mushrooms, season with salt and pepper. After mushrooms have cooked down, add the chard and cover until the chard has wilted.

Remove from the heat and let cool a few minutes. In a large bowl mix together vegetables and the rest of the ingredients. Feel free to add herbs you might like- thyme, basil or marjoram would be great. Pour on top of your veggie "crust". Sprinkle with a bit more cheese.

Bake at 180 C/ 350 F for about 40 minutes, until brown.

Delicious hot, warm, room temprature or cold.