Roasted Potatoes with Horseradish Dressing

When I first moved to the US in 1962, I couldn’t understand why American Jews would limit their horseradish experience to something that is spread over gefilte fish. Growing up in Uruguay – and in keeping with my parents very European customs – we would have it with all types of meat – whether steak, roast, chicken, etc. I always loved the taste of horseradish whether red, white or in sauce form. Last eve I made this dish which I found in Earth to Table by Jeff Crump and Bettina Schorman:

Photo on page 77 in Food & Wine’s Best of the Best Cookbook Recipes, Volume 13, published in 2010

Peeling fingerlings potatoes is time-consuming but well worth it – they get so crisp while roasting. A little secret: The warm potatoes soak up the creamy, tangy vinaigrette beautifully.

Serves 4

2 pounds fingerling potatoes, peeled
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive-oil
3 tablespoons dry white wine
1 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon salt
2 bunches watercress (about 10 ounces), trimmed

DRESSING
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon freshly grated
horseradish root
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Potatoes are something that I have planted in my garden at home. There is really something about digging a few potatoes from the cold earth with your hands. It is almost surprising to find them under the plant. Horseradish and potatoes have a real love for one another; try some horseradish on french fries.

Preheat oven to 450 F. In a medium bowl, toss potatoes, oil, wine, thyme and salt. Spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake until tender, about 40 minutes.

Preparing the dressing

In a large bowl, whisk together oil, sour cream, vinegar and horseradish. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Add warm potatoes to dressing and toss to coat. Divide among 4 plates and top each with a handful of watercress.

MAKE AHEAD The dressing can be covered and refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Next time, I’ll try this with Yukon Gold potatoes, I think it’ll work well also. Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy; I certainly did!

CS

Spicy Mumbai Potatoes

Reader Ilana Berg, from Miami, sent in this recipe of a dish she loved while traveling through India, where she met some Bene Israel Jews:

Photo by: Ilana Berg

Yields 6-8 portions

Ingredients

• 3 pounds new potatoes
• vegetable oil for frying
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground hot chilli peppers
• 1 teaspoon ground dried chilli flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice and 4 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 cups shelled peas
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, to garnish

Directions

1. Peel the potatoes and cut into 2 1/2 inch pieces
2. Transfer to a large pan and cover with cold water. Add the salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 7 minutes, or until tender (yet slightly undercooked), test by inserting a knife. drain and rinse under cool running water
3. Heat about 4 tablespoons of oil in a skillet. Add the cumin, chilli powder, chilli flakes, turmeric and and curry powder and cook., stirring to blend for 30 seconds.
4. Carefully add the potatoes and stir to coat with the spicy oil. Add the lemon juice and water, cover and cook for 5 minutes or until tender. Stir occasionally.
5. Stir in the peas and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and any liquid is absorbed. Spoon into a serving bowl and sprinkle with the cilantro.

It sounds like a great side dish and I can’t wait to make it; so… enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS

Red Grape Soup

There’s more to it than just vegetables, and/or noodles. Not only is soup good comfort food in the winter, not only can it warm a cold bodyon a freezing winter day, it can also cool us on a hot summer day. Pamela Reiss, in her Soup -A Kosher Collection gives us many delicious recipes of every kind, ranging from winter comfort types to refreshing summer ones.

Photo by Michelle Furbacher, page 190 Soup - A Kosher Collection

Here’s one I tried last evening, it was easy to make and absolutely delicious:

Serves 5

This lovely, elegant chilled soup is wonderful as a starter. Taste one of the grapes before you cook them; if they are exceptionally sweet, you may want to hold off on adding the granulated sugar.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb red grapes
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup dry red wine

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a soup pot, cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer on low for 5 minutes, or until grape skins start to split.
2. Purée the soup. (Use a blender, a hand blender, or a food processor to purée a soup. Do it in small and be very careful. Put a towel over the top of the food processor or blender to prevent any hot soup from spaying. If you are concerned about processing the hot liquid, allow the soup to cool beforehand.
3. Pour the soup through a fine-mesh strainer to remove any seeds and skin, and transfer to a clean bowl. Chill the soup for for a minimum of 4 hours, or until it is completely cold.

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS

Recipes We’ve Enjoyed During the Holy Days – Part 1

I cooked up a storm this season since we’ve had lots of guests at meals meal during the Holy Days. These can, however, be made and enjoyed at any time and they’ll be perfect no matter what the occasion!

Let me start with an appetizer that went over very well:

Sesame Chicken Toasts

Serves 12

Photo from: Simply Southern - With a Dash of Kosher Soul

Ingredients

• 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1 boneless skinless chicken breast half
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 green onions, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 12-15 slices white sandwich bread, crust removed and cut into 8 triangles
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• Vegetable oil

Directions

1. Process chicken in food processor until finely chopped. Add egg, green onion, garlic, cilantro, broth, pepper, and salt. Pulse a few times to mix well.
2. Scatter sesame seeds onto a plate. Sread a thick layer of chicken mixture over bread pieces. Press spread side into seeds making an even covering.
3. Heat 1/2 oil in a skillet until hot. Quickly fry triangles for 2-3 minutes on both sides. turning once until golden browned. Drain toasts on paper towels.

Toast may be prepared in advance. Store in refrigerator for 3 days or frozen up to a month. Thaw overninght in refrigerator. Reheat in hot oven for 5 minutes.

Roasted Summer Vegetables

(Adapted from The Big Book of One Pot)

Serves 4

Photo from: The Big Book of One Pot

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 fennel bulb, cut into wedges
• 2 red onions, cut into wedges
• 2 beefsteak tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 1 eggplant, thickly sliced
• 2 zucchini, thickly sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into chunks
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into chunks
• 1 orange bell pepper, seeded and cut into chunks
• 4 garlic cloves
• 4 fresh rosemary sprigs
• ground black pepper
• crusty bread, to serve

Directions

1. Brush an ovenproof dish with a little oil. Arrange the fennel, onions, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini and bell peppers in the dish and tuck the garlic cloves and rosemary sprigs among them.Drizzle with the remaining oil and season to taste with pepper.
2. Roast the vegetables in a preheated oven at 400 F, for 10 minutes. Turn the vegetables over, return the dish to the oven and roast for another 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and beginning to turn golden brown.
3. Serve the vegetables straight from the dish or transfer to a warm serving platter. Serve immediately, with crusty bread to soak up the juices.

(Adapted from: The Big Book of One Pot. When I made this dish I tripled it, as we had 11 people at the particular meal).

My guests were very pleased with the above dishes, I hope you will enjoy as well.

SYR

Roasted Peppers

For Shabbat and Sunday I was in Providence, RI, for a grandson’s bar mitzvah. My daughter, who invited mostly out of town guests, had me stay at my dear friend Irving Schild, photographer extraordinaire. I arrived mid morning on Friday and soon discovered that Irving not only excels in his chosen profession but he’s also a very good cook.

Among various side dishes he was preparing for Shabbat, as he was helping his wife, was one I always wanted to taste. Easy to make, superbly delicious, it was a dish of Roasted Peppers.

Ingredients

• 3 large red peppers
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• salt and pepper.
• olive oil

Directions

1. Place peppers on a cookie sheet. Put cookie sheet in broiler.
2. Broil until the skin has blackened and blistered.
3. Take out and let it coll until it can be easily handled.
4. Pull of the stem, and peel the peepers.
5. Cut into strips of desired size.
6. Place in a bowl over crushed garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste
7.  Add enough oil to lightly coat.
8. Serve at room temperature.

You’ll find these are delicately flavored, they can be enjoyed by themselves – as I did – or as a side dish.

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS

Marred by Overpreaching…

Anyone with a smidgen of intelligence, anyone who has ever used the grey matter that Hakodosh Boruch Hu gave him/her, realizes that in this age when animals are raised much faster than nature intended them to (with the help of various chemicals added to their foods), red meat consumption has to be cut down. Even yours truly, carnivore to the core, admits it. Thus, I welcomed Roberta Kalechosky’s books when I first heard of them. While I never intended, nor intend, to abandon my preference for meat I was looking for healthy tasty alternatives.

When I got The Vegetarian Shabbat Cookbook by Roberta Kalechofsky and Roberta Schiff and The Vegetarian Pessach Cookbook by Roberta Kalechofsky, I expected to find some great recipes that would lessen my interest in meat dishes. Instead, while I found some intriguing possibilities I also found myself barraged – specifically in the Passover book – with anti meat sophistry based on often made up statistics (even if Ms. Kalechofsky quotes others), out of context quotes and even horribly misquoted quotes. The Vegetarian Pessach Cookbook (published in 2002) spends the first 20 of its 72 pages preaching against eating meat in terms that misunderstand – or purposely obfuscate the intent of – the religious texts she quotes and bringing politics as a reason for ceasing our consumption of meat. I could go on, but I see little point in continuing to discuss the all too often shrill tone of the author’s polemics.

In The Vegatarian Shabbat Cookbook, (published in 2010) a far more attractive tome, far less shrill and more than three times the number of pages than the earlier one, there are some good recipes. Whether she has matured in her thought in the eight years since she published the Passover book, whether she studied Dale Carnegie‘s How to Win Friends and Influence People, or whether her co-author – Roberta Schiff – served as as a tempering foil, she has curbed down her anger and her politics. What emerges instead is a far more sensible book with some interesting possibilities for those who would vary their diets and veer away from constantly eating meat. While none of the recipes got me very excited, unlike other cookbooks we reviewed on this pages, some are definitely not bad and here’s one I intend to try:

Roasted Root Vegetables With Wine Sauce

Preheat Oven to 375 F

• 3 golden beets scrubbed
• 1 turnip, scrubbed, but not peeled, if organic
• 2 parsnips, scrubbed, but not peeled, if organic
• 2 large potatoes, do not peel if organic
• 3 carrots, scrubbed, do not peel, if organic
• 3 medium or 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled
• 4 Tablespoons olive oil
• 8 shallot cloves
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 teaspoons of a good prepared mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/3 cup red or white wine
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large soup pot to boil.

Cut all the vegetables into large chunks and put the chunked vegetables in to the boiling water in three or four batches. Boil 2-4 minutes for each batch. Take each batch out and drain.

Put the olive oil in a large skillet. Mix wine, mustard and cumin. When oil is hot (but not smoking), add the mixture of vegetables to the oil.

Add the root vegetables and the sliced shallots and garlic. Stir-fry until golden at the edges. Combine wine with the mustard and cumin and add to the pan. Add salt and pepper.

Transfer to a roasting pan and roast for 45 minutes. Turn over every 10-15 minutes.

They should be golden and crispy.

Serves 6-8

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS

Indian Hamentashen?

Chef Vijay Jagtiani,  from Shalom Bombay (344 Lexington Avenue – between 39th and 40th – New York, NY 10016 – Tel: 212.922.0224 – Fax: 212.922.0124), shares a delicious Indian recipe:

Vegetable Samosas (the “new” hamentashen)

Yield: 16 Samosas

Filling

Ingredients

• 6 potatoes with skin
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1tsp cumin seeds
• 2 inches peeled fresh ginger
• 2 chopped green chillis
• ½ chopped onion
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
• ½ tbsp turmeric powder
• ¼ tbsp coriander powder
• ½ tbsp salt
• ¼ tbsp chile powder

Directions

1. Boil potatoes, Remove Skin and Mash and put aside.
2. In a non-stick pan heat oil, add cumin seeds, ginger, green chillies and onion and brown. Addpeas. Cook 2-3 minutes and add mashed potatoes.
3. Mix cilantro, turmeric, coriander and chile powder together. Mix into the potato mixture and letcool for 15 minutes in fridge

Dough

Ingredients

• ¼ Cup of White Flour
• ¼ Cup of Vegetable Oil
• ½ Tablespoon of Salt

Directions

1. Mix all of the ingredients together until they form a hard dough. Make lemon size balls of
2. dough.
3. Place the balls on a flat surface and press with a rolling pin to get an average thickness. Cut it to make a half circle.
4. Take one of the half circles. Dip your forefinger in water and line the edges of half circle with the wet finger. Then give it a shape of cone.
5. Stuff it with about 1 tbsp ofprepared filling and seal it firmly.
6. Deep Fry, Serve with Sweet Chutney.

Sweet Chutney

Ingredients

• 2 Cups of White Vinegar
• 2 Cups of Tomato Ketchup
• 1 peeled Pear
• 1 lb Red Seedless Grapes
• 2 Bananas
• salt
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• ½ tbsp chile powder
• Pinch of orange/red food color powder

Directions

1. Grind vinegar, ketchup, pear, grapes and bananas together in food processor.
2. Add salt to taste, cumin, chile and food color. Mix and enjoy.

Enjoy, gentle reader, whether on Purim or at any other time.

CS

The Week’s Events

Monday, March 14

Photo by: ArtScroll

11:30 am

Location:

Pomegranate Supermarket (1507 Coney island Avenue – Corner of Avenue L – Tel: 718.951.7112)

Who:

Susie Fishbein

Subject:

Cooking Demonstration: Fish (last part of series)

• Poached Salmon with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
• Tuna Teriyaki with Radish Salad
• Green Tea Poached Cod

Free!

———-)xnOnx(———-

7:00 pm

Location:

210 West 101st Street, Apartment 9L (in Manhattan, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway)

Who:

Lévana Kirschenbaum

Subject:

Lévana’s Dinner and a Show

THE VEGETARIAN INDIAN FEAST GLUTEN-FREE – Lévana will demonstrate the following dishes:

• Corn hot and sour soup
• Aloo gobi
• Vegetable pancakes in ghee
• Jasmine rice
• Apricot chutney
• Yogurt raita
• Mango lassi
• Carrot nut pudding

The Demo runs from 7:00 to 9:00 followed by dinner, classes cost $45.00 for one session, $120.00 for 3 sessions or $200.00 for 5 sessions and a signed cookbook. Make your reservations at: http://www.levanacooks.com/kosher-cooking-classes/weekly-classes/

CS

Matbukha and Shakshuka

[When it comes to Moroccan dishes, there is hardly anyone who can come up to the level of Lévana Kirschenbaum. If you get the impression that The Kosher Scene looks up to her, well… having attended so many of her Monday night cooking demos, we truly do! Last Friday we posted 3 recipes for Shakshouka, frankly, that series could not possibly be complete without Lévana’s take on the subject. CS]

Photo by: http://www.theglobaljewishkitchen.com/2010/07/21/sephardic-turkish-salad/

Cooked tomato salad: Matbukha

Gluten Free, Pareve

This is one of our Moroccan favorite dishes, a sort of comfort food for ex-pats and honorary Sephardis alike: See how they mop that sauce with their bread! Shakshuka is nothing more than Matbukha with eggs scrambled into it and served as a main course, and gets its funny name from the Arabic word for “scramble.” Sometimes tomatoes get too expensive; in this case, it would be OK to use canned diced tomatoes.

Ingredients

• 1 whole head garlic
• 2 red bell peppers, washed, cored, and seeded
• 2–3 jalapeño peppers
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 large beefsteak tomatoes, or 8 plum tomatoes, diced small (settle for 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, liquid and all)
• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. Slice about ¼ inch off the pointed end of the head of garlic, leaving the cloves exposed.
3. Drizzle the olive oil onto the garlic and the peppers, place them on a cookie sheet, and roast for 30 minutes, or until the garlic is soft and the peppers are charred (the peppers might be ready a few minutes before the garlic).
4. Press the cloves out of their skins while still warm and mash with a fork.
5. Peel the peppers and cut them into thin strips.
6. In a heavy wide-bottom pot, bring the tomatoes, oil, and paprika to a boil.
7. Reduce the heat to medium, add the roasted garlic and peppers, and cook covered for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently. All of the water should evaporate, and the oil will resurface (if you neglect this step, you will not get the desired look and texture but a glorified tomato sauce).
8. Add the freshly minced garlic and the salt and pepper to taste.
9. Let cool and store in a glass jar in the refrigerator. Use a slotted spoon to serve so the oil stays behind. This will keep for up to two weeks.

Variation: Shakshuka

Gluten Free, Pareve

Stir 8 eggs into the Matbukha, mixing thoroughly with a wooden spoon, and cook just a few more minutes until the eggs are barely set. If you would rather end up with a more pristine look, leave the eggs whole, break them one by one, and set them over the mixture, close but not touching, and cook covered on a low flame until they look barely set.

Serve hot, alone, or with a good whole-grain bread, or on a bed of cooked (canned OK) white beans (except on Passover!).

Makes 8 servings.

CS

Shakshuka

When I lived in Israel, I discovered the Sephardic cuisine. Growing up in Uruguay, I had occasional eaten over by some of my Sefaradi friends but never encountered most of the delicacies I found in the Holy Land. One of this discoveries was Shakshouka, therefore I felt compelled to scour the web in search of easy recipes for it.

What is Shakshouka, you ask? Wikipedia describes it as:

Photo from: Wikipedia

Shakshouka (Arabic: شكشوكة‎; Hebrew: שקשוקה‎) (also shakshuka, shaqshuqa) is a dish from Maghreb consisting of eggs cooked in a sauce of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spices (often including cumin, turmeric, and chillies), and usually served with white bread.

[..] Shakshouka is now a staple of Tunisian, Algerian, Egyptian, Moroccan, Somali, and Yemeni cuisines, and is also popular in Israel, where it was introduced by Tunisian Jews.

And here is the Wikibooks recipe for Shakshouka:

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons of frying olive oil
• One tablespoon of sweet paprika
• 6 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• One large sweet red pepper diced
• One Chili pepper (red or green) diced
• 6 ripe tomatoes diced
• Ground fresh black pepper
• Salt to taste
• 6 eggs

Procedure

1. On a high flame, heat the oil for about half a minute.
2. Add the paprika and blend well.
3. Add the garlic and peppers, and turn to low flame. Cook for about ten minutes – until the peppers have slightly softened.
4. Add the tomatoes and spice it with salt and pepper and then blend it.
5. Bring it to a boil, taste it and if necessary – add spices to get the taste refined.
6. Makes six dents in the mixture. Into each dent put an egg yolk, and spread the egg whites around.
7. Continue to cook on low until the egg whites have coagulated.
8. Serve the Shakshouka with black bread and fresh parsley.

From the Spanish language blog: Absolut Marruecos, we bring you this authentic Morrocan recipe:

Photo by: Absolut Marruecos

shakshuka con huevos

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 1 grated onion
  
• 7 ounces water
• 36 ounces tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tablespoons rice
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon green pepper, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 5 eggs

Directions

1. Sauté onion in very hot oil until just golden.
2. In a pot add the water, tomatoes, let it boil for 5 minutes.
3. In a separate pot cook the rice.
4. Add the parsley, salt, pepper and green pepper.
5. Carefully break the eggs one at a time and drop on the tomato pot.
6. Cook for about 40 minutes on medium flame.

When Mia Cooks, adds an interesting variation:

Photo by: http://when-mia-cooks.blogspot.com/

Ingredients

• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped bell pepper
• 4 to 5 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 cup veg broth
• 1/4 cup peas
• 1/4 cup corn
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• salt to taste
• coriander/cilantro leaves
• Vegetable oil

Actually, it’d be better if you boil the tomatoes and then peel and chop them. But I forgot….heck, ok, I was too lazy.

1. In a pan, heat a tbsp of vegetable oil.
2. Add the chopped onions and bell pepper and saute for a few minutes.
3. Add the tomato paste, chopped tomatoes and veg broth.
4. Add the peas and corn as well. Season with salt and chilli powder.
5. Simmer and allow to cook till the corn and peas are cooked and there’s some liquid left.
6. Break the eggs into the base.
7. Break the yolks with a spoon, cover and simmer. If you like your eggs runny, remove it well under a minute. I don’t, so i let it cook for 2 minutes till it firmed up. Add chopped cilantro and serve with bread.

Enjoy gentle reader, enjoy!

CS