Apple cake for Rosh Hashana – been there, done that. Here’s a new combo that includes the seasonal and traditionally significant tastiness of the ever-so-overdone Rosh dessert. Thank you smitten kitchen, al di la restaurant, and my cia spy (aka my brother) for your inspirations…

ingredients:
cake | 1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, at room-temperature
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 apples and 1 pear chopped into small-ish bits (i used granny smith and a bartlett but feel free to use whatever you have / your favorite for baking!)
3/4 cup chocolate chunks (i used a pack of these mexican style stone-ground dark chocolate – again, use what you have or to your taste!)
sauce | 1 cup water
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
zest of 1/2 a lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 pinch of salt

method:

1. pre-heat oven to 350.
2. butter/flour your favorite cake baking vessel - a 9-inch spring form pan is ideal.
3. sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl and set aside.
4. whip up the eggs until they are stiff, pale, and thick – you can do this with an electric mixer (about 5-8 min) or by hand with a whisk (10-15 min).
5. brown the butter.
6. combine eggs, dried mixture and butter slowly, being careful not to over stir. mix/fold only until everything is just incorporated and pour it into the pan.
7. sprinkle apple and chocolate chunks on top (the cake will bake up around it!).
8. keep it in the oven for ~45-60 min. you’ll know it’s done with a clean test and a light brown crisp on the top and around the edges.
9. combine the ingredients for the sauce (minus the lemon juice) in a small pot. heat to a gentle boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. let it cook until it reduces to a syrup-y consistency – when you dip a spoon in, it will drip slowly off.

the goodies

If grad school has taught me anything, it’s that the less ingredients and the simpler the recipe, the better: for the sake of time efficiency and really tasting those yummy fresh veggies! Since Rosh Hashana is on a Monday this year, try out this carrot salad recipe this year to save some time and enjoy some seasonal produce. You can make it an hour before you serve it or a couple days in advance! The longer the carrots marinate in the dressing, the better.

Sweet and Spicy New Year Carrot Salad
adapted from ‘Moroccan Carrot Salad’ in Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters (1996)

ingredients: fresh carrots, olive oil, lemon juice, fresh parsley, cumin, paprika, salt, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, raisins, 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic

method: peel the carrots and slice them length-wise into desirable-sized pieces. boil them until tender with salt and garlic. drain and cool to room temperature . mix with remaining ingredients to your taste and let sit for at least one hour before serving.

Hola from Argentina! Despite the large Jewish population here, I’m a bit isolated in the north on a rural farm, without the pleasures of Jewish bakeries so the following recipe was inspired by the ingredients I could get my hands on. As a substitute for the traditional honey, I used dulce de leche, an Argentine sweet gooey delight. Try using it as well as a filling for the cookie!

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 2 tablespoons Dulce de Leche
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

Beat the eggs and sugar well, then add the Dulce de Leche. Once incorporated, add the oil slowly, then the salt, vanilla, baking soda and flour. Mix together until the dough is workable – you may need a cup or two more of flour to make it dough-y and not sticky. Roll out the dough to be about 1/4″ thick on a floured board and cut circles using a cookie cutter or the edge of a glass. Place fillings in the center and fold up sides into triangle shape. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Tehina//Tehini//Tahini//Tahina

The amount of ways to spell this wonder speaks to how versatile this can be in the kitchen. One of the things that I missed most about Israel when I was in Brazil was tehina. Now, getting ready to leave here again, I’ve already started to miss it.  Not that you can’t get tehina elsewhere. I’ve even found it in most supermarkets in Brazil, at a less than fair price. But truth be told, I was never a tehina believer until I moved to Tel Aviv,  and sadly the tehina I’ve tasted everywhere else just doesn’t compare to what I’ve grown to love so much.

You always hear in Israel, “I make the best tehina” or “No, seriously you haven’t tried tehina until you’ve tried (insert brand name here)”. For some reason all the most reputable brand names are called by various animals that appear on the label- Eagle, Giraffe, Pigeon. Why these animals are associated with sesame paste I don’t know but who really cares when what they contain is so sublimey delicious. While living in Tel Aviv I made it a point to test all the most popular brands and do a comparison to figure out which is really “the best tehina ever”. The clear winner: Tehina Yona (Pigeon.). Tehina comes in variety of colors based on the original color of seeds, golden or white, and the treatment they receive while being processed, toasted or untoasted. The yona is 100% ground white sesames and is pure deliciousness.

When I realized that there was no post on tehina sauce I figured it was necessary as it is a staple for every Israeli household, and is becoming widely popular in the states because of it’s nutritional value and versatility. It is fairly straight forward and completely depends on your personal tastes, do you like it creamy or more liquidy, pure and simple or amped up with various add-ins — garlic, parsley, olive oil, paprika….. tehina is one of those base sauces that can stand up to almost any other flavor and still be delicious (in fact, on a recent edition of Israeli version of Masterchef someone made a savory tehina sauce with vanilla- the judges seemed to like it… and that’s right I somehow still got caught into the trap of Masterchef all the way in Brazil). My personal favorite is to have it with a roasted eggplant and salad.

Anyways enough of my shenanigans- here’s to the good stuff. Two versions: One classy and one dressed up in flavors you wouldn’t expect, but oh so delicious. So this is my tribute to you my creamy white gem of an accompaniment.

Keep it Simple Tehina
about a 1/2 cup raw Tehini Paste (can be bought now in most stores and if not definitely at all health food stores)
up to 1 cup Pure Water
Juice from half to a whole lemon

Start by mixing the tehina and the water with a fork. Don’t freak out, the mixture will get thicker and oddly chunky before it thins out. Once it becomes smooth start by adding the juice from one half of the lemon, stir until once again smooth.  Taste and adjust depending on your palate. More lemon juice for more zest, more water to thin out, or more tehina to thicken. Add salt if you please.

Eggplant is one of the million delicious things that can accompany tehina

Dressed Up Tehina

Same thing as above, but with the lemon juice add in:

a few sprigs Mint, chopped
1 large glove garlic, chopped

Stir until consistency seems right.

Tehina with a twist AND a good kick.

I know I am a bit late with this, and Hanukkah is half over, but I got sidelined with a killer cold for the past week. I was back on my feet just in time for Latke Ball on Thursday and Chinese food with friends tonight. A couple of weekends ago, some friends and I decided to kick off Hanukkah early and deep fried a turkey. Combined with niner’s football, latkes and beer, it made for a pretty awesome Sunday. While the tradition of deep frying turkey got started in the American South, and most people associate it with Thanksgiving, this culinary trend was ripe for a Hebraic takeover. Hanukkah is generally a minor Jewish holiday there are three universal practices around the holiday: Lighting the menorah, playing dreidel, and eating fried foods. Why settle for simple potatoes when you can fry an entire bird? Now when this idea was first proposed there was a lot of speculation that this was a spectacularly dangerous thing to be doing on a small San Francisco balcony. There are a lot of  people who have done incredibly stupid things combining a turkey and a fryer and have started some crazy fires. You can in fact entertain yourself for hours on YouTube watching people do this very thing. I have been lucky enough to have watched the process a few time at my family’s Thanksgiving and got some great pointers from Derek B.  Plus a few simple rules can greatly reduce the risk.

1. This is not a one person job. You need at least two people or a mechanical pulley system (thanks Alton) to do this safely. Luckily, men really enjoy doing this and I had Ben, Shaun and Sivan on hand to assemble the fryer and do the heavy lifting.
2. Have a fire extinguisher handy. (and as Ben helpful pointed out, have it accessible in a place that would not require you to go through any potential fires to retrieve it)
3. Totally defrost your turkey. A still frozen turkey = massively splattering oil.
4. Don’t over flow the oil. Most of the fires start when the oil overflows the pot and catches the flame which subsequently ignites the rest of the pot of oil. You can do a displacement test with water and your turkey before you unwrap it to determine the amount of oil you need. When you lower the turkey in after you have heated the oil - turn off the flame.
5. Last but not least – Get drunk AFTER the turkey comes out.

With the appropriate safety precautions, you will have a fantastic bird and may never roast a turkey again. My crowd of about 15 people cleaned an 18lb turkey down to the bone. The only drawback to this is a lack of leftovers.

You do need to plan a bit in advance and get your turkey several days before hand so you have time to defrost, brine and dry your turkey before you fry. Some people like to inject seasoning and flavor but I went for a brine. Butcher shops and store like Whole Foods will defrost the turkey for you if you give them advance notice. I went all out and got a Diestel Farms Organic heritage bird, and it was fantastic, but I know Trader Joes and Costco had kosher birds before Thanksgiving in which case you can skip the brining. I used the Cooks illustrated basic brine recipe (this is a downloadable pdf, get it – it is  essential for any meat eater) , I used brown sugar instead of white sugar and then threw in a handful of black peppercorns and 2 C of bourbon for a little extra flavor.

After brining – place your turkey on a rack in your fridge and air dry for 8-12 hours. This will ensure your turkey is dry and minimize oil splatter and will make for extra crisp skin.

Ingredients

• 1  turkey, with giblets removed
• Approximately 4 to 4 1/2 gallons peanut oil (peanut oil has a high smoke point and a neutral flavor)

Directions

1. Allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes prior to cooking.
2. Place the oil into a 28 to 30-quart pot and set over high heat on an outside propane burner with a sturdy structure.
3. Bring the temperature of the oil to 250 degrees F.
4. Once the temperature has reached 250, shut of the flame and very slowly lower the bird into the oil. Once immersed, turn the flame back on and bring the temperature to 350 degrees F.
5. Once it has reached 350, lower the heat in order to maintain 350 degrees F.
6. Fry the turkey for about 3 minutes per pound and then check the temperature of the turkey using a probe thermometer. Once the breast reaches 151 degrees F, gently remove from the oil and allow to rest for 15-30 minutes prior to carving.
7.  Carve as desired.

Lenils with Walnuts and Pomegranate

I know Sukkot ends on Wednesday so I am sort sneaking this one in under the wire, but as typically happens I start to get a little Jew’ed out by the time Simcha Torah rolls around. I already managed to get in some delicious trayfe-on-trayfe antidote in the form of mussels with pork belly at the latest hot SF pop-up, Mission Chinese yesterday. It was delicious and was accompanied by some blogger dick-wagging with my friend Eric, over who has more hits from the more obscure reference. His is the Stout Scarab, which is the essentially the original mini-van and what he claims is a highly efficient use of vehicular space. I have my doubts.  Mine are pashtida and schug (thanks Daf) . I am only mentioning this because it allows me to link to his high traffic post multiple times in an attempt to claim to be a source of his traffic and ultimately get the last word. (Insert evil laugh here)

Sukkot is one of those odd Jewish holidays that I still manage to learn something new about every year. This year I learned while meals should be eaten in the Sukkah, there are actually only six things that may not be eaten outside of the Sukkah. Weirdly, they are the five grains that constitute chametz (or the forbidden grains) for Passover, wheat, barley, spelt, rye and oats, along with grape products. This is further solidifying my believe that while Sukkot celebrates the harvest, Passover only exist because we ran out of the harvest from the fall.

At any rate I was looking for something with grains or legume and pomegranate for Sukkot. I had a bag of dry lentils left over from side dishes for lamb and luckily Cooks Illustrated provided inspiration yet again.

The original recipe call for cilantro, but I loath cilantro so I adjusted the recipe a bit for my taste. Also, if you start with a whole pomegranate, I find the underwater method of seeding to be the easiest and least messy. As long as you are at it you may as well get two and make some Pomegranate infused vodka for some Simcha Torah indulgence.

Lentil Salad with Walnuts and Pomegranate

adapted from Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients

• 1cup lentils , picked over and rinsed
• Salt and pepper
• 2cups water
• 2cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 5 garlic cloves , lightly crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 shallot , minced
• 1/3 cup walnuts , toasted and chopped coarse
• Seeds from 1 pomegranate

Instructions

1. Place lentils and 1 teaspoon salt in bowl. Cover with 4 cups warm water and soak for 1 hour. Drain well.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place drained lentils, chicken broth, garlic, and ½ teaspoon salt in medium saucepan. Cover and bake in oven until lentils are tender but remain intact, 40 to 60 minutes. While lentils are in oven, whisk oil and lemon juice together in large bowl.
3. Drain lentils well; remove and discard garlic and bay leaf. Add drained lentils, shallot,  half of walnuts, and half of pomegranate seeds to dressing and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to serving dish, sprinkle with remaining walnuts and pomegranate seeds, and serve.

Chicken with Apples and Fennel

Question: How long does it take five young professionals in San Francisco to come to consensus on high holiday plans via email and text? I’ll never know the answer. My friends and I started discussing it at the end of August and went in circles for weeks. It was like the set-up to a bad joke – liberal Jews, raised reform, reconstuctionist, conservative, one a convert, all of us with a slight twinge of traditionalism mixed with egalitarianism, and none of us are currently members of a particular synagogue.  We even specifically started “shul shopping” by going to some shabbat services looking for a place with the right mix for all of us. The only thing I learned is that the perfect shul does not exist, but in line with the old joke, the one that each person won’t set foot in, does. Luckily, through an impromptu shabbat dinner, we all ended up at the same table and settled on plans within ten minutes. It was a High Holiday miracle!

The dinner came together because I was looking for a Rosh Hashana recipe and serendipitously one appeared in my inbox. I subscribe to a few recipe list and one for salmon with apples and fennel appeared and I knew I was on the right path. Salmon is a pain to make for a crowd because it can easily get dried out, plus it is expensive, not to mention that my good friend, Sarah, now won’t eat fish because she believes it is all unsustainable and toxic. Chicken is almost always the answer for a meal for a crowd of Jews and what I turned to. Since I was sort inventing this recipe I decided a test run was necessary before my larger Rosh Hashana shabbat dinner and invited my friends to serve as guinea pigs.

After working all day and grocery shopping the thought of doing the photography was feeling a bit overwhelming so I called in an old debt and enlisted my good friend Ryan Simon to serve as the official photographer. He has been nagging me to upgrade to an SLR, so this seemed like a good opportunity to let him show me the goods and if it might be worth the investment. All the photos on this post are his, and I threw in a couple of extra because they were particularly good, so I urge you to click and enlarge them.

I also suggest you to look back at some past Rosh hashana recipes as we have a really nice collection going. I personally will be reviewing the how to braid a spiral challah post so I can impress my guest next week. L’Shana Tova!

This recipe is a great combination of the symbols of Rosh Hashana, apples and honey, with the extra bonus of the fennel.  Throw in a starch side and a salad and you have a full meal. It really couldn’t be easier. When baking chicken pieces I prefer to use thighs as they stay more moist and flavorful.  Whole legs with the drumstick and thighs still in tact are a great option, providing the perfect serving size for most adults and a nice looking plate.

Roast Chicken with Apples, Honey and Fennel

Ingredients

• 4 whole chicken legs (with thighs)
•  2 fennel bulbs, fronds removed, bulbs cut into wedges
• 1 shallots, sliced
•  3 Tbsp honey
•  1/4 C olive oil
•  2 Tbsp cider vinegar
• 2 apples, cored and sliced into wedges
• Salt and ground pepper to taste

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 450°F
2. In a large roasting pan, arrange chicken, shallot, and fennel.
3. Whisk together oil,vinegar and honey.
4. Drizzle oil mixture over chicken and vegetables. Toss to coast and season with salt and pepper.
5. Roast 30 minutes.
6. Add apples to pan and roast until fennel is browned and chicken is cooked through, about 15 to 20 minutes more.

I realize my recent recipes have been feta heavy. I promise this is the last one I will post for a while, but I just couldn’t resist the watermelons stacked up at the store last week

Like many people, watermelon evokes lots of memories for me. The obvious one being summer but the more interesting is my dear old friend Kelly V. I pretty much can’t see a watermelon without thinking of her. Kelly spent a summer several years ago on a mission trip to Israel and when she returned she was obsessed with a favorite Tel Aviv snack,  watermelon and feta. I was a bit unconvinced that this was as delightful as she claimed when she first brought it up, but her enthusiasm and insistence of the wonders of this two tastes together convinced me to try it. Low and behold it is a fantastic combination of sweet and salty, crunchy and creamy and an amazing hot weather snack or side dish.  Kelly became so well known for touting this dish a friend bought her an adorable t-shirt with watermelon slices on it, which solidified the connection in my mind even more. When she left Berkeley for Chicago,  I sent along to her a old Zionist Congress poster that had once been on display at my old workplace. It was an illustration of a watermelon encouraging people to  “Buy Hebrew watermelon”. To my knowledge, the poster graced the wall of the Avodah bayit and now is happily ensconced in the dining room of Moishe House Chicago. I am sure that the visitors to her home know that the sweet friendly feelings that come along with the watermelon on the wall, are the same ones that she expresses to all the people she meets.

A couple of  brief asides – I will be at the Hazon Food Conference at UC Davis later this week and will be on the Food Writers Panel with Joan Nathan and Jeffery Yoskowitz. If any of my readers are there, come introduce yourself and be sure check out the panel!

Also, since I know there is one person out there who always reads my posts, a big happy birthday to my Dad today! Thanks for being such a faithful reader and always trying to think of a way for me to make money off the blog.

recipe after the break

In Israel, it is often served plainly with simple slices of watermelon and chunks of feta or a Bulgarian brine cheese similar to feta. I was lucky enough to stumble upon some of the Bulgarian cheese at Diablo Foods when I stopped in to do my quarterly stock up of my favorite peanut sauce. There are a variety of recipes out there, some call for more savory seasonings and accompaniments like basil or arugula but I went with a basic and sweeter route with mint and lime juice.

Watermelon and Feta

• watermelon, cut into bite size cubes
• feta or other salty cheese, crumbled
• fresh squeezed lime juice
• mint, chopped

1. To make cubing the watermelon easier, cut of both end so you have a flat surface to balance it on and then cut off the rind.
2. Put the watermelon in a bowl and sprinkle with mint, squeeze on the juice from a lime and stir to combine.
3. Add crumbled feta and stir lightly. Serve cold

fattoush

Supposedly it is the height of summer, but the only way you would realize this in San Francisco would be by the availability of great summer produce.   I had a pile of zucchini that was dumped on graciously given to me by a friend. Even with plans of zucchini bread I needed some other uses. I decided to continue on with my Israeli theme of late and make some fattoush with a little twist.

Fattoush has it origins in the Levant and the word itself comes from the root fatoot, which translates as anything crumbled.  There are a bunch of recipes in the family but fattoush or pita salad is probably the most common and a great way to use up stale pita. It is a middle eastern version of panzella and is pretty much a dressed-up Israeli salad with toasted or fried bit of pita stirred in. There are a ton of versions but all include cucumber, tomatoes, and a lemon-olive oil dressing.  I decided to add some bell pepper and a big pile of zucchini  roasted with red onion.  I fancied up my pita with some sumac and topped it with a generous spinkling of feta, because I never pass up the opportunity to include more cheese in my diet.

recipe after the break

This is another one of those get creative recipes and use up the veggies you have in your fridge, but this is pretty much what I made

Fattoush

For the salad

• one cucumber, peeled and chopped
• 2 large or 4 small tomatoes, chopped
• one bell pepper, chopped
• 1 large or 2 small zucchini, chopped
• half red onion, chopped
• 2 full size or 4 mini pita
• sumac to taste

for the dressing

• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350°F.
2. Brush the pita on both sides with olive oil on both sides and sprinkle with sumac. Cut the pita into bite size pieces and bake in a single layer on a baking sheet for 15 min or until crispy.
3. Spread your chopped zucchini and onion on a baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes until soft. Allow to cool.
4. While the zucchini is cooling mix together your dressing by whisking the olive oil lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper.
5. Toss everything together and serve topped with feta.
6. Toss all of the chopped vegetable together.

Labneh

This blog seems to be turning into the story of what I’ve been doing in the increasingly long periods between posts. This time I have a great excuse. I was moving. Between looking for a new place, packing, the actual move and unpacking, two months have gone by. Not only have I not made anything for the blog but I have barely cooked anything at all in that time. I even let one of my favorite Jewish food holiday, Shavuot, pass without a dairy delight emerging from my kitchen. So for my inaugural post from my new kitchen I decided to start the cheese making I have been threatening for at least a year. I actually purchased the book  Home Cheese Making at least six months ago, but it took me lending it to my friend Megan to be prodded into finally making some. We made mozzarella and lemon cheese but I had yet to unpack my camera, so I’m starting you off easy with the simplest cheese imaginable, labneh.

Labneh is a traditional middle eastern cheese made by straining yogurt.  Israeli’s have embraced it and it has become a staple at breakfast. It is typically sprinkled with herbs, or rolled into balls and then in herbs, drizzled with  olive oil and  served with bread or pita. It also makes a great condiment spread for sandwiches, or base for a dip and is much healthier than mayo.

All you need to make this is cheesecloth or muslin,  a fine mesh strainer and a bowl. You can simply let it drip through the strainer or you can go the more traditional route of hanging it after and initial drain. I hung mine for a few hours using a wire hanger and a rubber band. Yes, I am the MacGyver of cheese making.

I choose to roll some of mine in spices, one with some typical Israeli spices, za’atar with sumac mixed in and another in chopped chives. They were really different but both delicious.  I end up eating more with just some additional salt and olive oil on a pita.

Labneh

• 1 quart of high quality yogurt

• 1 tsp salt

1. Layer your cheesecloth over the strainer and place over a bowl
2. Mix salt into the yogurt
3. Pour the yogurt into the cheesecloth
4. Place in the fridge for a few hours.
5. Pour off the whey (you will probably have lost a bit of yogurt as well) and tie up the cheesecloth like a sack.
6. It you want to hang the labneh at this stage you can but be conscious of temperature and the possibility of spoilage. If you are concerned keep it in the fridge.
7. Continue straining for a total of 24-36 hours

I let mine go for 36 but wasn’t seeing much whey being released beyond that.

PS – please bear with the slightly dark photos while I figure out the lighting in my new kitchen and I promise there will be more frequent posts to come.