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Difference of Opinion

12 Aug

I’ve been talking to everybody I know about Jewish food for the last few months. (A lot longer than that, but really focused on it now.)  The most interesting thing to me is that my sister and I have opposite views on the important things.  We grew up in the same house and had the same parents and grandparents cooking for us, so how did our preferences diverge so widely?

For instance:

  • Matzo Balls – I like them fluffy.  Not super-fluffy so they’re falling apart, but fluffy so it’s not like I’m eating a cement ball.  My sister feels that they should be firm enough that they’ll bounce off the floor and hit the ceiling if you toss one.
  • Fried Matzo #1 – I like it sweet with syrup drizzled on top. She likes it savoury with butter and salt or some sautéed vegetables.
  • Fried Matzo #2- I prefer using the pancake method – one single pancake of fried matzo, nice and brown on both sides.  She’s of the “scrambled eggs” technique. You mix it up as it cooks and it doesn’t form that nice crust (“I don’t like it crusty!” says she. “Oh, I do” says I.)
  • Even though we’re (both) Ashkenazi, I like to say that I have the taste buds of an Ashkenazi and her taste buds are Sephardi. A chicken dish I made last week was liked by all, but my lips went a little numb and I made the comment “cut back on the chili powder a little”. Her response “no, it’s good.”

This is just a sampling, I’m sure I could go on.  Check back later for a new  post, potential title “My Mother Prefers More Salt – I Prefer More Pepper”

Cooking & Tasting

11 Aug

Last week I took a few days off of work so I could spend the time at home, working on recipes for the cookbook. I got a lot done, but not as much as I had planned.

I’m going through my lists of tested recipes and to-test recipes, trying to figure out what’s left to do.  The problem is that I keep thinking of new ideas, so the to-test list isn’t really getting any smaller.

In the last week or so I’ve worked on:

  • potato latkes (not just for Chanukah!)
  • zucchini/leek latkes
  • sweet potato ginger latkes
  • matzo balls
  • zucchini/spinach/chicken soup (needs a good name)
  • brownies
  • meringue cookies with toasted coconut/almonds/chocolate chips
  • sautéed eggplant & roasted pepper salad
  • an old-school beef flanken recipe
  • blueberry coffee-cake
  • sweet potato/apple side dish
  • roast chicken with roasted vegetables – a little sweet, a little spicy
  • matzo brei (can’t have passover without one recipe — will do at least two — one sweet, one savoury and maybe a couple of other variations)
  • strawberry/blueberry conserves for the matzo brei ( it would also be good on matzo)

Some of the recipes I’ve been making for years and just needed to be written down.  Some are new for me and have to be tried a few times, tweaking things here and there.  Some recipes (like a brisket I cooked on Sunday) just don’t work at all and aren’t worth tweaking.  Those are the most frustrating.

While I normally count on immediate family members for taste-testing (don’t worry, there are no critiques more honest — sometimes brutally honest — than those of your parents and siblings), I was lucky enough to have some extended family visiting from out-of-town.

tovina latkes

This little 2-year-old thought the sweet potato and ginger latkes were just fine . . . and she stopped eating them after latke #4 or 5.

The 6 dozen latkes made that afternoon were gone quickly. And it was a lot of fun having the kitchen full of family, grabbing the latkes as soon as they came out of the pan.  It’s true — these Chanukah treats are as good in April or August as they are in December.

So I’m moving along in the kitchen, and getting as much typing done as I can between customers.  It’s almost time to start thinking about what has to happen when the cooking is all done.  Just not yet.

It’s all about the recipes.

4 Aug

For me, the best part about working on a cookbook is the recipe development and testing. Well, that’s usually true. Sometimes the testing can be less than fun — when I’m trying something for the 6th time and it’s still not right. At that point I’m no longer enjoying myself.

The part I’m not as fond of is typing up the recipes. I procrastinate and can’t do a long stretch without checking the eG forums and then Twitter and Facebook multiple times. When I wrote the last book I didn’t have these distractions — in fact, I spent a good chunk of time up at the lake doing nothing but typing.

Again, I think this probably has something to do with the self-publishing vs. using a publisher. No one’s setting deadlines for me but me. So I’m trying to figure out how to lay down the law — with myself.

I’ve been pretty good with the testing. Every day that I haven’t been at work, I’ve been working on recipes. I’ve put all of my recipes into a spreadsheet so I can see what I have and what I still need. It’s looking good and the end is in sight. I’ve made arrangements to take the rest of the week off from the family business. I’ll spend the next few days working on recipes and there won’t be much left on my recipe to-do list.

I’d like to take a couple of weeks cooking/baking the recipes that I wrote a few years ago. I haven’t made some of them in 2+ years and I’d like to include weights — something I didn’t do then. Then it’s on to typing.

I’ve tried to keep up with the typing. Typing as many recipes as possible between customers at the store. But I still have a stack of 20+ recipes that need to be typed, plus whatever I get done in the next couple of weeks. Then on to editing and writing the bits that go before and between the recipes.

There are so many things that I have to think about this time that I didn’t give a thought to with the last book. I’ve started researching printers and shipping, layouts and photos — but I can’t devote a lot of time to these other areas until the recipes are done.

The good news is that I’m still on track and should be able to have the book done for Passover 2010, but there’s a lot to do.

It’s all about the recipes.

4 Aug

For me, the best part about working on a cookbook is the recipe development and testing.  Well, that’s usually true.  Sometimes the testing can be less than fun — when I’m trying something for the 6th time and it’s still not right.  At that point I’m no longer enjoying myself.

The part I’m not as fond of is typing up the recipes.  I procrastinate and can’t do a long stretch without checking the eG forums and then Twitter and Facebook multiple times. When I wrote the last book I didn’t have these distractions — in fact, I spent a good chunk of time up at the lake doing nothing but typing.

Again, I think this probably has something to do with the self-publishing vs. using a publisher. No one’s setting deadlines for me but me.  So I’m trying to figure out how to lay down the law — with myself.

I’ve been pretty good with the testing.  Every day that I haven’t been at work, I’ve been working on recipes.  I’ve put all of my recipes into a spreadsheet so I can see what I have and what I still need.  It’s looking good and the end is in sight.   I’ve made arrangements to take the rest of the week off from the family business. I’ll spend the next few days working on recipes and there won’t be much left on my recipe to-do list.

I’d like to take a couple of weeks cooking/baking the recipes that I wrote a few years ago.  I haven’t made some of them in 2+ years and I’d like to include weights — something I didn’t do then.  Then it’s on to typing.

I’ve tried to keep up with the typing.  Typing as many recipes as possible between customers at the store.  But I still have a stack of 20+ recipes that need to be typed, plus whatever I get done in the next couple of weeks. Then on to editing and writing the bits that go before and between the recipes.

There are so many things that I have to think about this time that I didn’t give a thought to with the last book.  I’ve started researching printers and shipping, layouts and photos — but I can’t devote a lot of time to these other areas until the recipes are done.

The good news is that I’m still on track  and should be able to have the book done  for Passover 2010, but there’s a lot to do.

Self-Publishing

29 Jul

For a variety of reasons I’m trying the self-publishing route with this book. There are a lot of pros and cons either way, but after giving it a lot of thought (read: sleepless nights), I decided that the potential pros outweighed the cons.

Doing this myself means that things are a lot different. First of all, I don’t have a publisher (two actually) giving me deadlines or telling me how they think the book should look. I get to decide if the book will have metric or Imperial measurments, if I spell things like a Canadian or American (lots of u’s being used), how many pictures will be included, etc.

It also means that I have to set my own deadlines and enforce them. This is much harder. If all goes well, the book will be completed in time to have it printed and available before Passover. If all doesn’t go well, I’ll have to rethink the plan.

Add the editing, photographing, printing, marketing, distributing, listings and anything else that I’ve forgotten to my list of responsibilities and doing it myself is a lot more work. Thankfully I have friends and family who are ready to pitch in.

The next few months should be interesting; learning as I go. It’s also exciting and nerve-racking. All sorts of questions keep coming up and I’m trying to find the answers.

Cold Weather and Beef & Barley Soup

16 Jan

I am going to try my best not to complain about the weather.  Winnipeg (known to some as WinterPeg) gets a bad rap – and this winter has been really nice.  Until last week, when it turned bitterly cold.  On Friday the temperature hovered at about -33 C and today it’s better, but still a bone-chilling -23.

It’s during cold spells like this that I like to pull out the big soup pots and let a batch of soup simmer away, warming the house and then warming me.

Beef & Barley Soup
1 1/2 lb. (or more) marrow bones
2 lbs. flanken (short ribs, I use “Miami ribs” which are quite thin)
1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1-2 cups button mushrooms, sliced
3/4 cup pearl barley, rinsed and drained
1 – 19 oz. can of mixed beans, rinsed and drained
18 cups cold water
kosher salt and black pepper to taste

You’re going to need a big pot for this one.  I use a heavy, enamel coated, cast iron pot – but any big stock pot that isn’t thin and flimsy will do.

Rinse the ribs and bones.  Place them in the pot.  I must confess – my ribs weren’t completely thawed, so they went in whole.  If you’d like to cut them up a bit to make them more manageable, you can do that now.  You could, of course, leave out the marrow bones if they aren’t your cup of tea – but marrow is a wonderful thing.  The bones will add more flavour and the marrow will add some richness.

Pour the cold water over the bones and then the pot goes onto the stove (medium-high until it just starts to simmer).  It won’t take long for scum to start coming to the top of the pot.  Skim it.  Skim it all – be vigilant.  Stir things up every few minutes to release more scum - and reduce the temperature so that the water is just barely simmering.  It will take a good 20-30 minutes for the scum to stop – keep skimming until the water is pretty clear (don’t worry about it being completely clear – just make sure that the scum has stopped forming, and remove whatever you can).  You’ll find yourself with a bowl full of scum and foam to dispose of. Loosely cover the pot and let the meat simmer for 45 minutes.

While the meat is simmering, prep your vegetables. I like everything chopped about the same size (small) - this is pretty forgiving soup though, so you decide how you like it.  Rinse and drain the beans and barley.  When 45 minutes are up, add all of the vegetables, beans and barley to the pot.

Loosely covered and another 45 minutes of simmering.

When I say ‘loosely covered’ I mean that it should be covered, but left open just a crack.  I want some of the liquid to evaporate during cooking, but not too much.  Make sense?

Add some salt and black pepper, taste, add more if necessary.  Serve it up with some crusty bread.

This does make a lot of soup – but on a cold winter weekend, it doesn’t seem to hang around. Should you find yourself with a lot of leftovers, it can be frozen and then reheated when another cold snap hits.

Lights, Camera.. Borscht?

3 Jan

I had no soup plans for the week.  Our store has been closed for over a week and it’s taking so much energy to get back into things.  But when I got to work on Tuesday there was a  message on the machine from a local food magazine.  They want me to come in tomorrow for a photo-shoot! Their February issue is focusing on soup – I wrote a soup cookbook – there you go.

All I need to do is get to their offices in the morning, ready for pictures, with some soup already prepared. Easy enough.  They requested borscht – so I made a batch from the recipe in my cookbook. 

Borscht can be made in so many different ways.  When I make it at work, I usually go for more of a sweet and sour tone.  This version is very subtle in it’s sweet and sour flavour.  You could always add some sugar or lemon juice to kick that up.  Feel free to add some cabbage – and garnishing with sour cream is encouraged.

Beet Borscht
10-12 small beets (2 lbs. | 1 kg) peeled and cut into ½” cubes
1 small carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
1 small yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped and ½” cubes
1 can (28 oz. | 796 ml) crushed tomatoes
8 cups | 2 L cold water
1 Tbsp. | 15 mL salt
1/4 tsp. | 1 mL black pepper
1 Tbsp. | 15 mL granulated sugar
1 ½ Tbsp. | 20 mL lemon juice

Another version, which I love, is meat borscht. Start by bringing some stewing beef up to a low boil in the 8 cups (2 L) of water, skimming off any residue and simmering approximately half an hour – until the meat is cooked and tender. Then add the vegetables and follow the recipe. The meat will be sweet and tender.

Method:
Place the beets, carrot, onion, celery, tomatoes and water in a soup pot. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, and simmer for 45 minutes, or until the beets are fork-tender.

Add the salt, pepper, granulated sugar and lemon juice. The seasoning may need adjusting, but it should have a subtle sweet-and-sour flavour.

Passover already?

25 Dec

I don’t mean to be an alarmist or scare anybody, but Passover is just over 3 months away.  For most people, this means very little – you probably won’t start worrying about it for another couple of months – or maybe longer. For those of us in the kosher food world, it’s much sooner than you think.

A couple of years ago Canadian Living magazine asked me to provide them with some recipes for Passover.  At the time, I hadn’t started writing my own recipe columns, and I couldn’t believe how early they needed the information.  For the most part, I’m a cook-as-you-go sort of person.  I can tell you how I do something, but I rarely know the measurements or the cooking times.  Only when I’m writing a recipe for publication do I actually write everything down and time it.  So there I was in December of 2004 hosting a Passover Seder.

I’ve now been writing my column for a year and a half and I remember how hectic last year was.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I run a kosher food store, and you can probably imagine how crazy it gets (or maybe you can’t… believe me, it’s hectic).   Because the store was so busy leading up to (and including) Chanukah, we’ve decided to close for a week.  While everybody else is on vacation, I’m diligently working on recipes.  That’s right.  Tomorrow the cake meal will make it’s first appearance of the season.

Now, I didn’t mean to worry you.  You have plenty of time to worry about Passover.  I’m just getting a jump on it.  By the way – the first of my Passover supplier lists has already arrived.

Chinese Kreplach?

24 Dec

Tonight dinner was a simple affair.  I had a crazy morning at work yesterday - fighting the Christmas food shoppers to get some needed fruit and vegetables for work.  As I pushed my way through the crowds and glimpsed the long line-ups at the cash registers, I decided that picking up some things for home would be a good idea.  The thought of returning to the store after work was too stressful!

I’ve had visions of wonton soup in my head for a few days now, so I bought some baby bok choy, Chinese broccoli, snap peas, mushrooms and green onions.  The chicken stock, wonton wrappers and ground chicken I had at work – and everything else was at home.

The wonton filling was a mix of ground chicken, finely chopped mushrooms and green onions, fresh ginger, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and 1/2 of an egg white.  I let the wrappers thaw, brushed the edges with water – filled with some chicken filling and set aside.

As the wonton assembly was under way, I was slowly bringing the chicken soup (diluted with water) to a simmer.  In went some quartered mushrooms – after a few minutes the wontons and then the Chinese broccoli went in.  Simmer another minute or two and in goes the baby bok choy and the peas.  Seasoned with soy sauce and it was ready to go.

Easy to put together, and one of my favorite soups.  The trick to making this not a good soup, but a great soup, is using really good homemade chicken broth.  Tonight I used broth from work (made the same way I would make it at home) – but plans for this week is making a big batch of chicken soup at home.  I’ll eat some of it as ‘classic Jewish chicken soup’ and hopefully have enough to stick in the freezer for the next time I’m craving the wontons.

Chanukah oh Chanukah..

21 Dec

As we’re still in the midst of Chanukah it seems appropriate that the first recipe I share is for potato latkes.  There are so many recipes out there – and many of us use the same recipes and techniques that have been passed down in our families for generations.   My recipe is nothing new – but I like the results. 

Before we begin, some latke pointers:

  • Use a box grater to grate vegetables. If making large quantities, use a food processor. Squeeze as much liquid from the vegetables as you can.
  • Grating the onion first, then tossing the potatoes with the onions as you grate them will help keep the potatoes from oxidizing and turning that blueish grey that is so appealing.
  • Use a non-stick or cast-iron frying pan for frying. Heat 1/2″ of canola or vegetable oil over medium (350 degrees). The oil should be hot enough for the latkes to sizzle and bubble as soon as they touch the oil, but not too hot or they will burn before they are cooked through.
  • Drain the cooked latkes on paper towel.
  • Fry one latke and taste it, checking the seasoning before frying the whole batch. If you like things light on salt and pepper cut back my quantities – taste one and add seasoning to suit your tastes.
  • Serve with apple sauce, sour cream, creme fraiche or tzatziki.
  • Latkes are best served hot, right out of the pan (after draining). If you are feeding a group, place the fresh latkes on a baking sheet and keep in a 200º oven as you make them. If necessary, they can be frozen, thawed and reheated on a baking sheet at 350º degrees, uncovered, until warm (about 10-15 minutes).

Traditional Potato Latkes
1 large yellow onion, peeled and shredded
2 lbs. red potatoes (5 medium), peeled and shredded
2 whole eggs
3 T. flour
1 1/2 – 2 tsp. salt
1/4 – 1/2 tsp. black pepper

Grate the onion and potato, drain and place in a mixing bowl. Add the eggs, flour, salt and pepper and mix well.

Heat oil and use two spoons to place batter gently into the oil (use about 2 T. of mixture for each latke). Fry for about 4 minutes, or until the edges start to brown, then turn over and cook another 3-5 minutes until both sides are golden brown.

Transfer to paper towel, drain and enjoy.
Makes 12-14 latkes.

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