I invented this recipe because I have lots of basil in my garden. I discovered meatloaf freezes well, so I made it today, and I will serve it to my guests this coming Shabbat.
Ingredients:
1 lb. chopped meat
1 handful or more of basil leaves, chopped
1 onion
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup matza meal
2 eggs (if the mixture looks dry, add a 3rd egg)
seasoning (use any or all of these): salt, pepper, cinnamon, dried ginger, cumin, coriander, allspice, nutmeg, crushed clove
How to Make the Meatloaf:
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Transfer to a baking dish – I used a covered casserole dish, but a loaf pan with aluminum foil covering is fine. Bake for 1 hour at 350°.
Leftovers: If you happen to have leftovers, warm up half a jar of tomato sauce and throw in the leftovers. You can add more fresh basil, if you have. I served this on spaghetti, and my daughter said it tasted like special restaurant food.
I realized after years of making potato salad that what I really like is when the potatoes and hard boiled eggs make the salad creamy, but the peas and red onion are what I love to eat. I came to this conclusion one weekend when I only had potatoes left in my salad (because I had picked out and eaten all the peas), and all I needed to do was add more peas, another hard boiled egg and some olive oil and I had more of the salad I had made on Friday.
Ingredients
6 oz. frozen peas (or cut string beans or both)
3 yellow potatoes (or any potato that becomes creamy when cooked)
1 tsp. sea salt
olive oil to coat the potatoes
1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar (or use one fresh lemon, squeezed)
1/2 chopped red onion (or use a sweet vidalia onion or scallions)
1/4 cup cut fresh sage or fresh dill
pepper to taste
2 hard boiled-eggs
How to make the potato pea salad
Take the frozen peas out of the freezer and put in a bowl. Boil the potatoes in water for about 40 minutes. After 30 minutes, add the eggs to the top so they can cook along with the potatoes. When the potatoes are tender (or starting to crack), cut them up and put them in the bowl with the peas. Sprinkle olive oil to coat. Put the hard boiled eggs aside in cold water. Add sea salt and pepper to taste. Add chopped onions and mix. Peel and chop the eggs into pieces. Add apple cider vinegar, chopped eggs and fresh herbs to the salad. Mix and serve. You can double the size of the recipe, if you like.
As we have a three day holiday of Rosh Hashana coming up this week, this is an easy recipe to make the day before the holidays or even on the holiday, if you plan to cook. You just need to make sure you have the ingredients.
Adapted from Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World by Gil Marks
Gil Marks calls this “Moroccan Vegetable Stew for Couscous.” I used white beans and brown rice, and I left out the cabbage. I also changed the amounts and cooked it all in a crockpot. Still delicious!
Ingredients:
6 cups vegetable stock (I used water – I’m not one to make stock for a stew)
12-16 baby carrots (or 6 big carrots, cut up)
1 large onion, sauteed (the original recipe says 3 onions and doesn’t say sautee)
1 tsp. sea salt
1 stick of cinnamon (original recipe said 3)
1 Tbsp. turmeric (the original recipe said only 1/2 teaspoon)
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut up into pieces (or use butternut squash)
1/2 cup fresh parsley or cilantro
2 turnips, peeled and quartered (they look like potatoes in the finished dish)
3 zucchini, cut into chunks
2 cups cooked beans (original recipe said chickpeas – I used white Northern beans)
If you use dried beans, soak the beans overnight the night before you prepare the recipe. If you use a can of beans, add the can towards the end of the recipe. Cook the beans in your crockpot for a few hours until soft. Add carrots, sauteed onions, sweet potatoes and turnips and cook for another hour in the crockpot. Add spices, the zucchini and cooked beans (if you used canned beans – if you started with dried beans, they should already be in their cooking). Cook until zucchini is tender, about twenty minutes. Sprinkle the parsley on top at the end.
The original recipe says serve on couscous, but I served it on brown rice. Drizzle the liquid on top like it’s gravy.
Gil Marks suggests this stew as a dish to serve on Rosh Hashana (yes, the Jewish New Year is the next holiday on the Jewish calendar, unless you count Tu B’Av). I think of it as a summer stew, because you can get delightful fresh garden vegetables to include in the stew at this time of year.
Welcome to the #54th edition of Kosher Cooking Carnival, the blog carnival of kashrut in Jewish law, reviews of kosher restaurants and cookbooks, Shabbat and holiday menus, and kosher recipes.
Upcoming is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and it is customary on this holiday to eat dairy. However, there are those that insist on eating meat with every holiday meal, and so they have a bit of dairy first and then meat. There are others who insist on never, ever, ever having any animal products, and so they eat vegan food as usual. Finally, there are those like myself who are lactose-intolerant or allergic to dairy, so we avoid it, too. Thus the name of this KCC edition.
Adapted from Japanese Foods that Heal: Using Traditional Ingredients to Promote Health, Longevity, and Well-Being by John and Jan Belleme
Ingredients for the Salad
12 oz. udon or soba noodles (recipes called for soba and I used udon, in the hopes my kids would like this – no luck, but I loved it)
2 cups of small broccoli florets
1 cup of sliced cabbage (recipe said use napa cabbage; I used savoy cabbage)
1 large carrot, cut into thin matchsticks
3 green onions (scallions), thinly sliced
optional: 1 kirby cucumber, peeled and sliced (I skipped this)
Spicy Peanut Sauce
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup warm water
2 tablespoons peanut oil (I used olive oil and sesame oil instead)
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger
3 Tbsp. shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. rice vinegar (I skipped this)
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. fresh lime juice (I used fresh lemon juice)
1 Tbsp. mirin (Japanese rice wine – delicious condiment, if you can get some)
1/2 tsp. dried red pepper flakes (I used hot pepper sauce instead)
How to Make the Noodle Vegetable Salad
Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling water. Stir to prevent sticking. Cook until tender but firm. Drain. Rinse with cold water. Set aside in large bowl.
Steam the broccoli until bright green and tender-crisp. Remove, then steam the cabbage and carrot sticks. Add to noodles. Add the scallions and cucumber to noodles as well.
Mix all the peanut sauce ingredients in the food processor. Puree until smooth. Add to the noodles and toss gently. Serve.
The recipe for this dish of cabbage with carrots, ginger, orange, miso is here as Winter Slaw and here as Fresh Tekka. It is adapted from a macrobiotic recipe, and if I have the time, I make it once a week.
Want a piece of apple pie? Use this pie crust, take four granny smith apples, peel ’em, slice ’em and toss sugar and cinnamon all over them. Put the apples in the pre-baked crust, cover with additional crust dough (throw some oatmeal in the top crust), and bake for about 50-60 minutes in a 350° oven.
Want more recipes? I will be hosting the Kosher Cooking Carnival on May 16, so be sure to visit on that day. If you are a blogging cook or a cooking blogger and have a kosher recipe to share, please submit the post. Kosher Cooking Carnival is a blog carnival about kosher food, halachot (laws), customs, reviews of restaurants and cookbooks. If you want to host a KCC or for more information, visit Batya.
Avdus L’Herus (Slavery to Freedom) Salad Revisited
Passover is a challenge even for vegetable salads – sometimes one cannot get a certain condiment with a Pesach hashgacha (approval) that adds flavor, so one gets creative. Last year I blogged about the Slavery to Freedom Salad. This year I became enamored of a macrobiotic dish of pickled radishes with umeboshi paste. Since I cannot get the umeboshi paste for Passover, I came up with this combination of the two salads:
Ingredients:
3 fresh beets – boiled and beet juice preserved
1 bag of red radishes, sliced
1 bunch chopped mint (or substitute parsley or cilantro)
3 navel oranges, cut into pieces
1 half chopped red onion
Cut the radishes into circles and cook them until slightly soft in the beet juice. Mix with oranges, chopped parsley and red onion. Serve at room temperature.
• • •
Beet Salad
Don’t know what to do with the cooked beets? Here is what I put together:
Peel the beets after boiling. Discard skins. Chop into circular pieces (and then cut in half again, if desired). Drizzle with olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Garnish with scallion and parsley. Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice.
I got two endearing comments last night on my sponge cake recipe (or Esther Robfogel’s z”l recipe) that I posted two years ago:
Esther G. Robfogel (1904-1997) was my mother. I ate her excellent sponge cakes on Pesach and throughout the year for many decades. I hope that my granddaughter, Esther F. Robfogel, will carry on the tradition.
– Nathan J. Robfogel
I’m Esther Robfogel’s daughter. Although I used to bake with my mom, baking was never my forte. As it happens, I was thinking about making mom’s cake this year. After reading your blog, I know I will. Thanks.
– Hanna
On a sad note, two men in Teaneck, New Jersey died walking home from shul at the end of Shabbat when a tree fell on them. I can’t imagine what Pesach is going to be like for those two mourning families.
The potato leek part is my older daughter’s favorite soup, and we make that quite often, and she prefers it without any milk or cream. Both kids love the novelty of having the green star in the middle, and they actually eat the spinach (swirling it with the soup to dilute the taste). I think the spinach purée alone makes a pretty tasty dairy-free “creamed spinach” side dish, but since I am the only one in the family who likes creamed spinach, I don’t make it unless I am making the soup.
If you don’t have a kosher for Passover cookie cutter, use a cup.
Potato Leek Soup
(makes 10 servings)
Ingredients
3 leeks
5 tbsp olive oil
2 pounds white potatoes, chopped
2 qts water
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup cream or milk (optional)
Cooking equipment
Cutting knife
Colander
Spatula
Measuring cup
Measuring spoon
Large pot
Cookie cutter or small plastic cup with the bottom cut off
Blender (stick blender works nicely)
To make the plain potato leek soup:
1. Discard tough part of green tops of leeks, then wash bottoms thoroughly
2. Cut leeks into thin slices and rinse in colander.
3. Cook in olive oil until leeks are soft – about 5 minutes.
4. Add potatoes and water and bring to a boil.
5. Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
6. Puree with a blender.
Add salt and pepper to taste. For a creamier variation, add ½ cup of cream or milk
Spinach Purée
1. Blanch 1 lb of baby spinach (Put in small colander and submerge briefly into boiling water until barely cooked. Then transfer to bowl of ice water.)
2. Drain spinach.
3. Puree with ¼ of batch of potato leek soup.
Assemble final soup by placing the cookie cutter in the bottom of a soup bowl. Spoon spinach puree into the cookie cutter to desired depth. Pour potato leek soup around cookie cutter to the same depth. Then remove cookie cutter and repeat in another bowl.
