pareve

Stuffed Squash Workshop

First, bake the acorn squash until tender. I bake the squash whole for about an hour in a 350° oven. You can do the baking the day before you use it, if you like.

Now prepare your stuffing. You have so many choices! Klara sent me a few of her ideas, so if the ingredient was Klara’s idea, I’ll say so. (Thank you, Klara). And thanks for some mango tips from Helen and from Alyssa.

Red + Yellow = Orange

I added a beet to my turmeric soup, and it turned orange. OK, maybe it turned a brighter redder orange from the pale yellowy turmericky orange it had been before?

Turmeric Soup

Baila’s got a whole bunch of recipes at the latest Kosher Cooking Carnival.

I’ve been playing in my crock pot again, and this time it’s called Turmeric Soup. It doesn’t look terribly different than my Farmer’s Market Soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
• Turmeric, about 1 tsp.
• Pepper, about 1/2 tsp. and salt to taste
• 1 sweet potato or yam
• 1 can of beans (I used cannellini, but chickpeas or northern beans will work, too)
• 3 leaves of kale

Saute the onions in olive oil until translucent. Sprinkle generously with turmeric, pepper and salt. Put chopped sweet potato in crockpot. Put in the can of beans. Put in the sauteed onions and garlic. If you feel up to waiting just before it’s almost ready, you can add the kale right before everything is tender. But if you are lazy like me, just add it at the same time as the other ingredients.

I let it cook for about 4 hours, and it tasted delicious.

Mandelbread

For Mrs. S., mazel tov on the upcoming bar-mitzvah!

Mandel Bread, Mandelbroit, Biscotti

When I need a dessert for company or for my family, I often make these little cookies called mandelbread. In Yiddish, mandel means almonds, so traditionally these cookies had almonds in them. I’ll give you two recipes, one with almonds and one without, so you can choose.

Mandelbread with Crushed Almonds

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• dab of salt
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup of crushed raw almonds
• 2 cups of flour
• Canola oil, enough to wet the dough

Crush the almonds in the food processor. Mix ingredients in order shown, except for the oil. Drizzle in oil until the dough is wet enough to shape into loaves. Shape into 2 long loaves, 2 inches long. Place on parchment paper on baking sheet. Bake at 350° for about 20-30 minutes. Cut into 1/2 inches slices and place on their sides. Continue baking for about 4 minutes.

Mandelbread, plain

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• dab of salt
• 2 cups of flour

Mix ingredients in order shown. Shape into 2 long loaves, 2 inches long. Place on parchment paper on baking sheet. Bake at 350° for about 20-30 minutes. Cut into 1/2 inches slices and place on their sides. Continue baking for about 4 minutes.

With either recipe, you can dot the top of your pre-baked mandelbread with chocolate chips, points facing down, for the choc-oholics in your family.

Lentils

I have been making lentils in various forms this fall. The lentils in the bowl above were made overnight in my crockpot.

Lentil Soup with Curry

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. lentils
• 3 cups of water
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 slice of ginger root
• Salt, turmeric, cumin to taste

Put all the ingredients except the spices in the crockpot. Cook on low overnight. In the morning, add the salt, turmeric and cumin.

Lentil Salad with Lemon Juice

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. lentils
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• lemon juice, preferably from fresh lemons
• salt to taste
• optional: parsley

The key to making lentil salad as opposed to lentil soup is use less water. Cook the lentils with the water for about two hours (this is how long it takes in my crockpot). When the lentils are tender, add the lemon juice and salt. Garnish with parsley. Can be served hot or room temperature.

Lentil Soup with Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. lentils
• 3 cups of water
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 slice of ginger root
• Handful of baby carrots
• 2 sliced zucchini
• 1 can whole tomatoes
• Salt to taste
• Optional: jalapeno pepper, chopped

Cook the lentils, ginger, garlic and carrots in water until the lentils are tender (two hours in my crockpot). Add zucchini and salt (add jalapeno pepper, if using one). When zucchini are almost tender, add the canned tomatoes.

Farmers Market Soup

Just came back from my weekly trip to the Farmer’s Market (is it Farmers’ Market? or perhaps Farmers Market?). Above is a beautiful soup I made from some of my purchases last week.

Ingredients:

• 2 onions
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 1 bunch of kale
• 3 yellow-orange squash
• 4 leaves of fresh basil
• 2 peeled cloves of garlic, chopped or pressed
• 3 small tomatoes, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. tomato sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onions in olive oil until translucent. Add squash and water. Cook for ten minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Cook until squash is tender. Enjoy. If you like, sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Update: you might want to add some lemon. I can’t remember if I did or didn’t. I definitely didn’t buy lemon at the Farmer’s Market. New Jersey isn’t that warm (yet).

Kid-Friendly Noodle Kugel

I used to make noodle kugel with a stick of margarine. A WHOLE STICK. After I learned about the evils of margarine, for a long time I did not make noodle kugel. At some point recently, after craving a good noodle kugel, I put together this easy recipe. At the end I include options that might make the kugel more interesting, tasty or healthy. However, the “plain” version is the one my kids eat. And it tastes good to me, too.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. thin egg noodles
• 4 eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Enough canola oil to grease the bottom of the pan

Boil water and prepare the noodles. Preheat oven to 350°. Strain the noodles, and mix with the eggs. Add salt and pepper to taste. Grease the bottom of the pan with oil (I use pyrex; sometimes I make two pans of kugels, one for Friday night and one for Shabbat lunch). Preheat the pan(s) so the kugel will be a little crispier. Add the kugel mixture, and bake for about 30 minutes or until the kugel starts to get crispy.

Options: chopped spinach (frozen is easiest), chopped onion, bits of hamburger meat (I’ve never made it this way, just tasted others, but it’s delicious)

Cabbage Mustard Garlic Salad

Do you like garlic? mustard? Here’s an easy, no cooking necessary salad for those of us that like strong flavors.

Ingredients:

• 1 savoy cabbage or napa cabbage
• olive oil to coat
• brown mustard to coat
• 2 or 3 crushed garlic cloves
• salt, pepper to taste
• juice of 1/2 fresh orange or lemon
• for color: bits of shredded purple cabbage and/or carrot (optional)

Chop the cabbage into bite size pieces (that’s the most complicated part of this recipe). Add the shredded carrots and/or purple cabbage. Put in a large bowl. Coat the cabbage with olive oil. Then coat it with mustard. Crush in your garlic cloves, and mix. Sprinkle with salt and/or pepper to taste. Squeeze on lemon or orange juice, and mix well.

Tip on shredded carrots: you can use your food processor, or you can peel off little piece of carrot with your carrot peeler.

Orange Cake

My mother used to say that little expression. I think she would have enjoyed this cake. I took Batya’s basic cake recipe and converted it into an orange cake.

Before I share the recipe, we had an amusing afternoon with this cake. I made the cake at about 5 pm. My daughter (who is five years old) did the stirring, so she felt like she made the cake. It came out of the oven at about 5:45 pm. I put it on that pretty cake platter in the photo, dropped three home-grown strawberries in the center and took a few photos. Then daughter and I headed out for about half an hour to the library. The cake was left as displayed in the kitchen to cool.

Upon our return, it looked like a mouse had visited our cake! Or perhaps a little hand. There was one medium-sized gouge toward the top of the cake, and two little gouges in other spots. Sure enough, I had left my two boys at home at our usual supper time, so one hungry eleven-year-old had helped himself to a bit of cake. I requested that next time he use a knife and cut a piece. My daughter and I helped ourselves each to a slice of cake. I then went upstairs to take care of a few things. Upon my return downstairs, when I was planning to make supper, I was a bit shocked to discover the cake was now half its original size. Sure enough, Eldest son had helped himself to a few slices.

The moral of the story: don’t be surprised if half your cake disappears if you leave it alone with two hungry, growing boys in the house.

Finally, the recipe:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 orange
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 cup water
• A pinch of salt

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add eggs and oil. Add grated orange peel. Add water. Squeeze in the juice of the orange. Add vanilla. Mix well. Pour into a greased baking pan (I used a shaped bundt pan). Bake for about 45 minutes at 350°. Use a toothpick to see if it’s ready. Let cool before serving.

Update: I just added this to The Recipe Box.

Carrot Salad Re-Make

I am notorious for taking a recipe and changing a few of the ingredients. My mother used to do this, too; she taught me to read cookbooks for ideas, not necessarily following every detail of the recipe.

On Friday, I took Ilana-Davita’s carrot salad recipe and adjusted it slightly for my needs.

Peel, slice, steam about 4-5 carrots
Due to being in a rush, I did less than the original, which said:
500 gr/1.1 lb peeled, sliced and steamed carrots

2 or 3 cloves garlic
I didn’t change this. I used 2 small cloves. Since I was using fewer carrots, my salad came out garlicky. Not a problem for the adults I was serving. The kids didn’t touch this salad.

1 tsp ground cumin
This stayed in the recipe.

1 tsp coriander
The original recipe called for paprika. I don’t care much for paprika.

1 tbsp olive oil
A little less olive oil due to fewer carrots

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper