We’re heading into the last two days of Pesach and I just wanted to take a moment and wish everybody a happy Passover. I hope it’s been a lovely, delicious holiday so far and that the end is just as great as the beginning. For me the last two days are the best. No work, no seders (though enjoyable, they aren’t exactly restful) — just some time off to enjoy the family time, food and the holiday itself.
Chag sameach,
Pam
I started off the year well, posting more times in one week than I did in all of 2012. I did well into February until I got buried under Passover prep and all of the sudden I had no time to do anything. I have a notebook full of recipes just waiting to be typed up and pictures on my phone ready to upload, but they’ll have to wait until after Passover before they get turned into posts. I thought I’d be able to post some great new recipes for Passover, but time got away from me (though there’s still a chance of some posts during the holiday). Instead, I’ve done a little search online to find my Passover footprints and round them up into a single post here. Some of the links are recipes on my blog or other websites, some are links to my business and my books and a few of them are links to eGullet.org, where I spent 3 Passovers blogging for the members there during Passover (I look back on those foodblogs now and can’t figure out how I got them done).
These are recipes on my blog:
The three eGullet Passover foodblogs I did over the years:
My family business: So, the reason I’m so busy now is that along with my parents, I own a kosher food store (the only independent kosher food store in the city) and catering company. Passover is our busiest time of the year, no question. We turn our store over completely for Passover, removing all items that are not kosher for Passover from the shelves, freezers and coolers and bringing in well over 1,000 kosher for Passover items (plus beef, lamb, veal, poultry and deli). Starting last week, we’ve been getting truckloads of products delivered almost daily, starting with an initial order that weighed in at 11,600 lbs. You can take a look at what we sell on our Facebook page, where we posted this album/tour.
On the side, I write cookbooks. So far, two. The second book is Passover – A Kosher Collection. For the three weeks leading up to Passover, my days are spent (among other things) answering questions from my customers. Younger customers are looking for help with traditional recipes, older customers are looking for new ideas and vice versa. I realized that there was a need for a new Passover cookbook and went to work on it. In the US and Canada, you can by it in various Judaica stores, and it’s available on Amazon.com in hard copy or for the Kindle/eReader. You can also order them from my website, and I’ll ship them anywhere! Around the web – my Passover friendly recipes/articles from other sites:
To all those preparing for Pesach, I hope it’s an easy year for you and hopefully I’ll be back during the holiday with more recipes. Chag sameach!
I love Tortilla Soup and make many different yet similar versions of it. What’s so great about Tortilla Soup (in my mind, at least) is that it’s a bowl of hot, slightly spicy (how spicy is up to you), filling soup that’s just what I want on a cold winter day, yet the flavours take me to southern California and I can pretend I’m sitting in the sun rather than shivering in the ice and snow.
The chipotle peppers in adobo sauce are a new obsession for me, but if you can’t get them, don’t want to use them because they’re too spicy or don’t like them, simply leave them out and add 1/2 – 1 tsp. chili powder. If you have it, add 1/2 tsp. of smoked paprika as well.
The fresh, cool avocado that I add when serving the soup is something new for me. The last couple of times I’ve made this soup I’ve added the avocado and love it. The creamy, cool avocado is a great addition to the spicy, tart soup flavours.
Ingredients:
Over medium heat, saute the onion and orange pepper in the olive oil for 5-7 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic, cumin, salt, black pepper and the tomatillo and cook another minute.
Add the chipotle and the adobo sauce and stir through. Add the stock and tomato juice, cover and bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the chicken and beans and cook for 2 minutes, then add the corn. Cook another 8-10 minutes, or until the soup just comes back to the simmer, the corn is hot and the chicken has cooked through.
Add the lime juice and cilantro, stir through and taste, checking the seasoning and adjusting if necessary.
Top each bowl with diced avocado and serve with tortilla chips and extra lime wedges and chopped cilantro on the side.
I’ve always liked cauliflower — even when I was really young, I always liked the vegetables that most kids don’t. I’m quite happy with simply steamed cauliflower, but I’ll take it in a soup, with sauces, in a stir-fry, a quiche or many other recipes. But just like my crispy smashed potatoes, one of my absolutely favorites ways to prepare cauliflower is to simply roast it. (It also happens to be great for Passover.)
Just like those crispy smashed potatoes, the ingredient list is small — only four items:
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Mix the olive oil, garlic and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the cauliflower and mix until the oil, salt and garlic are evenly distributed. Spread the cauliflower out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Roast for 20 minutes, then toss and roast for another 20-25 minutes or until the cauliflower is soft and the edges golden brown. Serve immediately.
** Any leftovers are great chopped up and added to scrambled eggs for breakfast.
When I was younger we had a baker that used to make Cowboy Cookies. I don’t know where the name came from, and an online search doesn’t come up with much, but I remember that they were huge oatmeal cookies that had chocolate chips and raisins in them. Perhaps they got their name because of their size and heartiness, making them a great snack for a cowboy.
Another name for these cookies could be the Everything But the Kitchen Sink Cookies — but I like to think of them as an All in One cookie. This recipe combines a peanut butter cookie with an oatmeal raisin cookie and a spice cookie and a chocolate chip cookie. These cookies are great as they are, but there’s plenty of room to play around with the additions. Replace the chocolate chips and raisins with dried cranberries and pecans or slivered almonds and apricots — or any other combinations you can think of.
The ingredient list calls for almond butter, but I also make them with peanut butter and like them that way too.
The recipe makes approximately 24 cookies — they will keep in the freezer for a few weeks if they’re well wrapped.
Cowboy / All in One Cookies
Preheat your oven to 350° F.
Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and two sugars together. Add the almond butter and mix to combine, then the egg and vanilla. Make sure everything is thoroughly mixed together.
In another bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice together. Add the flour mixture to the stand mixture and mix on low until combined.
Add the oats, chocolate chips and raisins and mix on low until they’ve all been incorporated. The dough will be very thick.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and use two spoons to portion the dough into approximately 2 Tbsp. balls. Use a fork to press the balls down and flatten each cookie, making sure you leave about 1 inch between the cookies.
Bake one sheet of cookies at a time on the middle rack of the oven for 17-21 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown. Remove and cool. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days, or in the freezer, well wrapped, for a few weeks.
Through the years I’ve tried several different types of Hamentashen. Some of my favorites include almond pastry with apricot filling, gingerbread pastry with pear filling, cream cheese pastry with any fruit filling, yeast pastry and chocolate pastry with cherry filling. Though all good, sometimes I think there’s nothing better than a plain-old-simple-pastry with assorted fruit fillings.
Here’s my recipe for Simple Hamantashen dough. You can fill these with anything you want — jam, pie filling, chocolate, etc. I’ve made my own apricot, pear, poppy seed, prune and other fillings, but there are lots of great fillings out there, ready to go. Use whatever you like.
I use lemon zest in the recipe because I really love the hint of lemon flavour it adds to the cookies, but you can leave it out and they’ll still be delicious.
Ingredients:
Preheat an oven to 350°.
Using an electric mixer or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Add the lemon zest, baking powder and salt and mix through. Add the flour and mix on low until it’s all combined and a ball of dough forms.
Divide the dough into 2 sections, setting one aside. Roll the other section approximately 1/8″ thick on a well-floured counter. Use a cutter to cut out 2 1/2″ – 3″ circles. You can keep the scraps and re-roll them once.
Place about 1 tsp. of a filling of your choice in the center of each circle. Bring three sides of the dough together to make a triangle. Pinch the three corners together and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Continue with the rest of the dough.
Place the hamantashen in the oven and bake 15-17 minutes, or until the bottom and edges are golden brown.
You can make the dough the day before you want to make them, keeping it in the fridge, well wrapped.
Makes approximately 4 dozen hamantashen.
I planned on posting this last week for a great Superbowl Sunday dinner idea. Though I’m not a football fan (I’d watch hockey over football any day), I thought this was a great option. Alas, do to some technical difficulties, my blog has been down for over a week. But it’s still a great recipe and with a very short prep time, you’re free to watch the hockey game or anything else while it slowly cooks.
This is an easy recipe. Mix everything together and toss it in the oven or slow-cooker for several hours and you’re good to go.
This is a hearty, filling meal. It’s fun. Finally, it’s delicious.
I’ve done this with a shoulder roast in the past, and you can, but I really prefer a chuck roast (boneless here, but you can use bone-in).
Raw, ready to cook.
Ingredients:
Sauce:
After 5 hours. .
Preheat the oven to 275°F.
Season the roast generously with salt and pepper and place in a Dutch oven or large pot with lid.
Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a mixing bowl and pour the sauce over the roast. Cover the pot and place in the oven to cook for 5 hours, turning the roast over every 2 hours. It’s ready when the meat breaks apart easily when you stick a fork in it.
Shredded, mixed with sauce.
Remove the meat from the pot, placing it on a large plate or in a bowl. Use a spoon to carefully remove as much fat as possible from the top of the sauce. (If you’re not eating this right away, you can chill the sauce, remove the fat, then reheat it before serving.)
Use two forks to break the roast into small chunks or to shred it. Remove any fat as you go.
Return the meat to the sauce and mix, making sure all of the beef has been coated in sauce. Serve on a soft bun on it’s own, or try it with some coleslaw added to the sandwich.
Makes 6-8 big sandwiches.
** If you’re using a slow cooker, cook for 10 hours on low or until the roast is fork tender and pulls apart easily when using two forks.
It has been cold here. I mean really, really cold. I hate to complain about the weather because there’s more to my little region of the world than the cold weather, but when temperatures are hitting -40°C it has a big impact. By the time the work day is over and I’ve made it through the frigid temperatures back home I’m there for the night and I’m looking for something to warm me up.
One of the best ways to warm up is with a steaming bowl of soup. Between the weather and the fact that we still have a couple of days left of National Soup Month, I decided to share a quick, simple and delicious recipe with you. It’s based on the Coconut Sweet Potato Soup that’s in the 2nd edition of my book, Soup – A Kosher Collection with a few changes that reflected my mood and what I had on hand in my kitchen when I made it a few nights ago.
Ingredients:
Heat the olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Add the shallots and saute for 4-5 minutes, until the shallots are soft but not browned. Add the garlic, ginger, salt and pepper and cook another 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
Add the sweet potatoes and chicken stock, cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 20 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender.
Puree the soup — I like to use an immersion blender to puree the soup right in the pot, but if you don’t have one, use a food processor or blender to puree the soup in small batches. When it’s pureed and smooth, return the pot to low heat and add the coconut milk and lemon juice, heating until it just returns to the simmer.
Taste the soup and check for seasoning, adding more salt or pepper if necessary. Serve!
These simple cookies are delicious. When I first made them I used an assortment of dried berries (cherries, blueberries and cranberries) but you can use any dried fruits you like. The last batch I made had some diced dried apricots that were delicious combined with the cranberries and pecans.
You can also play around with the nuts — use almonds, walnuts or pistachios with different dried fruits. Use the combination that appeals to you!
Ingredients
Preheat an oven to 350° F.
Using the paddle attachment, cream the butter/margarine and the icing sugar until fluffy. Add the
eggs one at a time, while mixing on low. Add the vanilla and salt and mix until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl a couple of times to make sure it’s all well mixed.
Add the flour and mix on low until just combined. Add the nuts and fruit and mix until evenly distributed.
I like to use a scoop to evenly portion out the dough — the one I use is equal to 2 Tbsp. Scoop out all of the dough, roll into a ball then flatten into a circle. Place the dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until the edges just start to brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.
These will keep, wrapped for a few days on the counter or a few weeks in the freezer.
Makes about 24.
By special request, this is how I make my Crispy Smashed Potatoes. They’re not difficult, and this is more of a technique than a recipe — once you’ve made them, you don’t have to worry about quantities, just follow procedure. But if you’re a stickler for recipes, here are the quantities:
Place the clean potatoes in a pot and cover with cold, salted water. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes or until fork-tender. Drain very well. Cool enough so that you can handle — but the warmer they are when you smash them the better.
While the potatoes are simmering, preheat your oven to 400° F on convection or 425° F if you don’t have convection.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Now, I use a heavy glass for the next step but you can use a can, mallet or anything else you might have to press each potato down until it’s smashed into a disk. Smash/press them until they’re all the same thickness and line them up on your baking sheet in a single layer (use another baking sheet if there’s not enough room on the first one).
Drizzle 2 Tbsp. of olive oil over the potatoes, making sure each potato gets some. Sprinkle 3/4 tsp. of salt oven them and then flip them all over. Drizzle another 2 Tbsp. of olive oil and another 3/4 tsp. of salt oven the potatoes.
Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes, or until they’ve started to brown. Flip them all over again and roast another 20 minutes or until they are all browned and crispy. Serve right away (ketchup is optional).
