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English: "Holyland" brand matzah, ma...

“Holyland” brand matzah, machine-made in Jerusalem and purchased at Trader Joes in the United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tonight which as you know is unlike any other night or if you don’t, you can check out a previous blog of mine https://pbenjay.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/why-is-this-night-different-from-all-other-nights/.  Anyway tonight we are going to my sister-in-law’s home for a Seder dinner.  It will of course be a feast, and being the balabusta  she is, she is cooking a very traditional meal as well as adding vegetarian dishes for the one or two non-meat eaters in the group.  And by group I mean she is seating and serving 11 people tonight!

I asked what I could bring and was assigned an asparagus dish.  I’m going to make a room temperature asparagus platter with an egg sauce on top.  If I haven’t already posted this recipe previously, I will tomorrow.  It was a traditional Easter Sunday dinner side in my family for years.

And then if I can organize myself, I plan to make some Matzo Crack!  This is a surprise addition to the meal.  Naturally Stacey, our hostess, who is size 2 is planning on serving strawberries and cream for dessert, something light and moderately healthy.  I, on the other hand, am hoping for the taste of chocolate and in keeping with the holiday tradition of no leavened bread, I’m going to make chocolate toffee matzoh! 

So simple to do (they say) and since I’m posting this prior to actually making it, I can’t attest to that but I do believe this is not going to be difficult at all.

4-5 pieces of matzo

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 cup ( 2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 cup bittersweet chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate bits

Toppings as desired

Preheat oven to 375º

Line baking sheet with aluminum foil and/or parchment paper.  Place matzo in one layer on baking sheet, breaking it when necessary to fill pan complexly.

In large sauce pan, melt the butter and brown sugar together over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Once mixture reaches a boil, continue to cook for additional 3 minutes, still stirring, until thickened and just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Remove from heat and pour over matzo, spreading evenly with a heat proof spatula.

Put the pan in the oven, then immediately turn the heat down to 350 degrees.  Bake for 15 minutes, watching to make sure it doesn’t burn.  If it looks like it is starting to burn, turn heat down to 325 degrees.

After 15 minutes, the toffee should have  bubbled up and turned a rich golden brown.  Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle the chocolate over the pan.  Let sit for 5 minutes and then spread the now-melted chocolate evenly with a spatula.

You can leave as it is or add a topping such as sea salt or toasted nuts.  Let cool completely, then break into smaller pieces and store in airtight container.

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This Tasty Tidbits Tuesday is really the simplest of meals and no recipe needed.  I was looking for a really quick and economical supper for this night.  In the Spring and Fall, many of the avenues in New York City are closed to traffic and hundreds of booths line the streets selling everything from socks to sheets, hats to hot dogs, fresh squeezed lemonade to ladies’ dresses, shawls, scarves and sweaters, jewelry to junk and best of all Sausage and Pepper Subs. I don’t call them subs as in submarine sandwiches because I come from Connecticut and we know these sandwiches are grinders!  Well whatever you call them, they’re delicious and we always feel decadent eating them and why not since they are loaded with fat.  

Tonight I made a healthier version and clearly it was an economical meal.  We had Sausage with Peppers and Onions on a roll and steamed asparagus.  I used hot poultry sausage.  I don’t normally calculate the cost of the meals I make or the recipes I post, however, this meal was really, well, cheap!

English: Red bell peppers. Suomi: Punaisia pap...

 Red bell peppers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The sausage (6) cost  – $5.36  

Mixed sweet bell peppers (6) – $5.99  I only used 5 

2 fresh-baked rolls – $1.40

1 lg Spanish onion – $0.74

Asparagus – $4.79 – purchased at COSTCO (2 lb) This is the second side dish, and still have a third.

Total cost: $17.54

There is pepper and onion mix and 1 1/2 sausages left over for a lunch. 

The key to making this meal delicious is sautéing the peppers and onion really slowly.  The onion caramelizes and sweetens the mixture.  I only use red, yellow and orange peppers – that’s why there is one left over; It’s green! 

English: onion

 Onion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

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Braising Pan by Schulte-Ufer

Braising Pan by
Schulte-Ufer

As I said in an earlier post, there’s a whole lot of cooking is going on this weekend.  It doesn’t hurt that it’s been raining for most of the time.

I had had some chicken thighs in the freezer for a while and thought I should  use them so I looked through my recipes to see what I could make.  Two caught my eye and ultimately I opted for the quick and simpler version. You will note that in this recipe and many others, that I use a braising pan.  I never owned one until a couple of years ago and now I can’t imagine cooking without one.  I use it all the time and if you want to cook or like to cook, I suggest you invest in one.  Actually the one I have in my cottage is more the perfect size  (11 1/2 “) than the larger one in NYC.  I always forget to mention that I use the braising pan as the serving dish/bowl for my meal.  That could be because although the cottage is filled with kitchenware and dish ware, I don’t have that medium size shallow bowl in which to serve my dish.  Maybe, BUT it sure makes cleaning up easier and keeps the food hot right from the stove to the table.

Balsamic Orange Chicken

Balsamic Orange Chicken – courtesy Martha Stewart

Ingredients

4 bone- in, skin-on chicken thighs

1 TBS olive oil

2 TBS Balsamic vinegar

1 orange cut into 8 wedges

1 TS unsalted butter

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 450 °

Heat oil on med-high in oven proof skillet ( I used a braising pan) and brown chicken skin side down till golden crispy, about 7 minutes.  Remove from pan to plate and pour off fat from skillet.  Return chicken to pan skin side up and put in oven for 10 minutes (I checked the temperature of the meat with my thermometer). Return chicken to plate.

Heat skillet over medium  and add vinegar and orange wedges to pan.  Scrape up any bits stuck to bottom of pan.  Cook till oranges get soft, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter.

To serve, return chicken to pan and toss pieces around in the sauce.  Squeeze the oranges over the chicken and serve with crusty bread to soak up the sauce.

Recipe from Martha Stewart’s Every Day Food – November 2010

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gorgonzola

Gorgonzola (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Back at the shore where I have a decent-sized kitchen albeit a minute stove (20″) and able to shop at my favorite grocery store, Wegman’s, I’ve been cooking up a storm these past couple of days. By the way did you hear on the news that Consumer Reports rated Wegman’s the best supermarket chain in the US AGAIN this year!  I couldn’t be happier because as my readers know, I LOVE Wegman’s.

Last night I made a dish that had my husband doubtful when he heard what it was…Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Gorgonzola Cheese.  His first reaction, “Cheese! You’re making a pasta sauce with cheese?” I assured him he wouldn’t die from it and I silently thanked him for not mentioning that the fact that the spaghetti was whole wheat (his concession to me).  Actually I’m not even sure he heard me when I said whole wheat because he was in shock over the Gorgonzola cheese – this from a man who slathers Blue Cheese dressing on his salads and sour cream on his baked potaoes.  Uh huh, you know the type!

Needless to say it was amazingly good and I hope to serve it sometime for guests because it was delicious.

Ingredients

8oz whole wheat spaghetti ( I used about 12 oz)

3 TBS butter ( I used 5 in the end)

1 medium onion thinly sliced

2 cloves of garlic minced

2 small or 1 large head of escarole chopped crosswise ( I used a cello bag of chopped escarole)

4 oz crumbled Gorgonzola cheese.

The directions that follow are for 8 oz of spaghetti and since I had increased that amount I increased the butter and escarole.

Heat 2 TBS butter in braising pan.  Add onions and garlic and cook till soft and lightly brown.  Season with salt and pepper.  Meantime cook pasta.  

Once onions are soft and pasta is almost done, add escarole and cook it till it wilts.  Add 1 TBS butter to pan. 

Drain spaghetti (reserve a cup of water) and add to braising pan with escarole mixture.  Mix well and then top with sprinkled Gorgonzola cheese.  I was afraid my sauce might be too dry so I added some of the pasta water to  keep the dish moist.

All I can say is that there were NO LEFTOVERS!

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"Cover Coughs, Cover Sneezes" - NARA...

“Cover Coughs, Cover Sneezes” – NARA – 514081 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s almost April and where is that lamb that’s supposed to escort March and the cold weather out of here?  I’m surrounded by people who are sneezing, coughing, dripping and chilled.  Today I had to ask a co-worker to please not lean over my desk and breathe on me – she looked awful and had been home for two days sick and with a fever.  GREAT – just what I need.  I have never gotten over the cold/sinus infection I caught from one of my Mah Jongg players who coughed and sneezed all over the tiles and that was in February!  I walked to work today and by the time I got there, the wind had caused my eyes and nose to run, quite the sight walking in.  So what’s a person to do?  Two words – COMFORT FOOD.  This Tasty Tidbits Tuesday recipe comes from PureWow Recipes.

ULTIMATE CHICKEN SOUP

Makes 6 servings

Start to Finish 1 1/2 hours

Ingredients

1 TBS olive oil

1 sweet onion finely chopped

2 large carrots, peeled and finely chopped

3 celery stalks finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 TBS tomato paste

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

8 cups chicken broth

1 bay leaf

2 thyme sprigs

1 serrano chile, seeded and minced

2 cups chopped cooked chicken meat

1 cup egg noodles

6 eggs, poached or fried, for garnish

Roughly chopped parsley, for garnish

Directions

1. In a large pot, warm the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion, carrot and celery, and sauté until tender, 7-8 minutes.  Add the garlic and serrano; continue to cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute more.

2. Stir in the tomato paste and cook, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pot, 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then add the chicken broth, bay leaf and thyme. Bring the soup to a simmer.  Simmer until a good flavor has developed, 15-20 minutes.

3. Stir in chicken and noodles.  Continue to simmer until chicken is heated through and the noodles are tender 6-8 minutes.

4. To serve, ladle soup into bowls and top with egg. Season the egg with salt and pepper, and garnish the soup generously with parsley.  Leftover soup will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days.

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The Big Cheese

The Big Cheese

At first I thought it was just this forever-long, forever-cold winter that is drawing me to all kinds of dishes that could fall into the comfort food category.  Possibly, and the fact that biologically we are inclined to eat more calories in order to burn them for fuel and body heat.  And then I looked again at this recipe and imagined sitting on my front porch in Ocean Grove with a couple of friends on a midsummer’s eve sipping wine and munching on this savory bread appetizer.

Monkey bread, also called monkey puzzle bread, sticky bread, African coffee cake, golden crown, pinch-me cake, pluck-it cake, bubbleloaf and monkey brains is a sweet, sticky, gooey pastry served in the United States for breakfast. It consists of pieces of soft bread with cinnamon sprinkled on it. It is served at fairs and other parks as a treat. But now it’s Lent and I’m off sweets for the next few weeks.  I discovered a savory version and I think you’ll like it.

THE BIG CHEESE

It’s Time To Rethink Monkey Bread

1 loaf unsliced bread

1 cup pesto

12 oz mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Kosher salt

Ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350° – Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

Prepare the bread: Score the bread lengthwise.  To do this, slice the bread as you would for toast, but don’t cut all the way down to the base of the loaf.  The idea is to keep the bread in a loaf shape and fully intact.  Repeat this scoring across the width of the loaf.  You will end up with what looks like squares of bread.

Use a spatula or butter knife to spread pesto in the crevices of the bread.  No need to be precise-just get a good slathering in there.

Next, place mozzarella slices inside the crevices, wedging them  in so that they don’t stick out too far at the top (you want all that gooeyness inside the bread and off your pan).

Transfer the loaf to the prepared baking sheet and bake till pesto bubbles and cheese melts – 15-17 minutes. 

Serve warm.

Recipe from PureWow.com

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English: Irish dinner

Irish dinner (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ha, ha, ha, I bet you thought I meant I was going to recycle more, use rags instead of paper towels, refuse to buy strawberries in March because in order to arrive here, they left a HUGE carbon footprint.  Sorry to disappoint my readers and dash their expectations that I might be looking at the world with a more global view to saving the earth for the next generation – oh no that’s not what I meant at all!!

This sunny but cold Sunday, the day before St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I would attempt, yes attempt to make my first Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner.  My husband is not sure why I’m thinking of doing this and now 3 days later, after I’ve bought the corned beef, the cabbage and the potatoes and carrots, I’m thinking the same thing!  If we were in NYC we might go out for our annual Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner as we have for the past umpteen years but we are not in NYC.  Actually we will be back in time to catch some of the world’s best and longest St. Patrick’s Day parade. However Monday holds a sacred place in my heart.  Everyone who knows me, knows that Monday night is Mah Jongg night and since there isn’t a Colleen in the group, no one other than me seemed to think St. Patrick’s Day deserved any special consideration.  Well that settled that.  No Irish supper for Peter and I on Monday!

I did consider taking advantage of the considerable Irish-American population at the Jersey Shore and thought we might dine tonight at Clancy’s Tavern,  The thought of enjoying a meal served and cleaned-up by someone else as well as the camaraderie of fellow diners and congenial drinkers certainly held its allure. BUT then I remembered how crazy Clancy’s can be; noisy, boisterous, and so loud, it’s hard to talk to your dinner partner!  It’s really more bar than restaurant, Irish to its core so I started thinking that probably a good portion of the population might take advantage of an extended St. Patrick’s Day celebration by starting early in the weekend, only to continue right through to Monday night!  AND then I remembered that on Sunday night a couple of my favorite TV shows are on, not to mention one of those rare occasions when I am in total control of the remote.  How could I think of missing The Amazing Race, 60 Minutes and especially The Good Wife.  I could DVR the shows but then I wouldn’t have the time to watch them because they would be on the TV in NJ and I’ll be heading back to NYC.  

So now that I’ve settled that in my mind, I took my crockpot out and am hoping the corned beef will cook to its fall-apart texture this afternoon while I’m out and about.  The packaging said to bring it to a boil and then cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours and add the vegetable an hour before meat is done. That flies in the face of most of the recipes I’ve read so I’m thinking 4 hours in the crockpot with the potatoes, carrots and onion on the bottom, topped with the corned beef will do the trick. I do hope it gets to bubbling point and then about an hour before I’ll toss in the cabbage.  carrots.  I happened to be on the phone with my cousin, Marian this morning, and she too was attempting a first time Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner.  However, she called her niece who writes a cooking blog and was told to put it in the slow cooker for 8 hours AND she put the cabbage, carrots and potatoes in with the meat right from the get go!  I advised her to at least remove the cabbage otherwise I think she would end up with cellulose and mashed potatoes.  We’ll compare notes later this evening, probably during the commercials!

Uh oh, I just took a good look at the photo I put in this post and see that the little red potatoes should have been left whole; I halved and even quartered some – I guess I will be the one with mashed potatoes!  Oh well, ERIN GO BRAUGH

 

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Mushrooms near the composte

Mushrooms

Whenever we’re at the Shore I seem to cook much more than I do in NYC.  Perhaps it’s because I love to grocery shop here at my favorite market – Wegman’s!  Or maybe it’s because I have a real kitchen in my cottage and not the typical Manhattan work space.  Or maybe it’s not so easy to grocery shop in New York because I have to carry all my groceries home and/or have Peter tag along to carry a few bags or take my little red grocery cart and pile my bags in that.  But above all, one cannot deny how easy it is to eat out or order in any night of the week in The City.  BUT tonight we feasted on a savory Mushroom Lasagna and sautéed broccoli with garlic – A delicious vegetarian version of Italian food staple.

2 # mixed mushrooms – sliced uniformly (I used Shitake, Portobello, white, and Baby Bello)

1 onion medium dice

2 garlic cloves minced

2 TBS butter

1 TBS olive oil

1 heaping TBS of chopped rosemary

1 1/2 cups of whipping cream

2 cups of radicchio, cored and sliced

1 3/4 cups grated cheese

6 sheets of lasagna sheets (fresh lasagna noodles come in wide sheets)

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven 375 degrees

Melt butter and add olive oil and chopped onions. Saute over med-low heat till onions are soft and translucent but not brown.  Add in minced garlic and rosemary and cook stirring a minute or two till garlic is fragrant.  

Add mushrooms and 3/4 tsp salt and some pepper.  Increase heat to medium and cook mushrooms till soft 10-15 minutes.  Add cream and bring to a simmer 2-3 minutes.  Adjust seasonings.  Don’t make sauce too thick or there won’t be enough liquid to cook noodles.  

In a 9 x 13 baking dish, put 1/2 cup of the mushroom mix on the bottom.  Top with 2 lasagna sheets, then 1 cup of mushroom mix, 1 cup of radicchio and 1/2 cup of grated cheese.  Repeat.  

Top 3rd layer of noodles with all remaining mixture and 3/4 cup cheese.  Bake uncovered 35-45 minutes – Cool 5 minutes.

 

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Bread

Bread (Photo credit: CeresB)

BREAD, the staff of life, gimme the dough/money!  Bread has always played a major role in our lives and diet.  When I was growing up, we lived in area where the milkman delivered milk to your door and the bread man delivered bread.  They were both white;  by that I mean we were getting pasteurized white milk and ultrarefined industrial white bread, so prevalent in the 50’s.  My dad bought Wonder bread for us, my friend, Susan’s mom bought Sunbeam.  Once in a while my father would bake delicious Italian bread with tiny bits of pork rind in it.  Warm from the oven and slathered with butter…no wonder I take a statin every day now!  Then along came Dr. Atkins and bread became the enemy.  The war against carbs still rages on, however, real bread in its naturally leavened, long-fermented hearth-baked form has enjoyed a comeback, especially in New York City where there are several well-known and much-touted bread bakers.  We have Eli Zabar, Tom Cat’s Noel Labat-Comess, Bread Alone’s Dan Leader to name a few. Bakeries such as Amy’s Bread, Sullivan St. Bakery and Balthazar Bakery produce such delicious bread, you really can make a meal out of it! 

Here are New York’s top 5 new-wave breads:  Try not to drool on your keyboard.

1.Roberta’s – CITY WHITE LOAF – Why would Melissa Weller leave the kitchen Per Se to toil in a converted shipping container? Three words: Wood. Fired. Oven.  Her bread has a dark and crackling crust, with a moist crumb.  It’s beyond “Rustic” in looks, more like a throwback to some communal oven in 19th century Paris.  

2. Nordic Breads – FINNISH RUIS – If you’re a New Yorker, you know rye bread.  However, there is a Nordic newcomer among us and this bread is dark, dense, flat as a Frisbee and has a tang that intensifies as you chew.  High fiber content, organic and made with a sour-dough starter smuggled in from Finland. Produced by Nordic Breads.

3. Hot Bread Kitchen – M’SMEN – Their repertoire ranges from corn totillas to Sephardic challah.  Their mission is to train immigrant women to parlay their native expertise into management positions in the industry.  Headquartered in East Harlem, the most extotic and delicious of their offerings is m’s men, a rough-textured, butter-and-oil enriched North African flatbread that’s rolled, slicked, and folded into a delicious envelope of dough. Rich and flaky like a croissant with the tender-crisp chew of paratha, the m’s men is girdled golden-brown and traditionally eaten at breakfast in Marrackech.

4. Runner and Stone – BUCKWHEAT AND PEAR – Peter Endriss, formerly of Per Se and Bouchon Bakery is creating such wonders as a Cheddar-and-hard-cider loaf, a sourdough whole-wheat walnut with dried sausage and red wine and a pain au chocolate encasing port-infused figs. Local grains, natural leavening, and long fermentation all conspire to make his squarish buckwheat pear loaf a thing of crusty, nutty beauty, its speckled crumb a triple-grained canvas (rye and spelt too) for nuggets of sweet poached fruit.

5. Roman’s – SPROUTED SPELT – Baker Austin Hall appropriates a corner of Roman’s kitchen after hours to bake breads for service and for retail sale on weekends.  He makes a naturally-leavened sprouted spelt, a sturdy burnt-umber sourdough loaf with a crackly, darkly caramelized crust and crumb riddled with New York State spelt berries. It’ a health bread for hedonists.

I will continue this list with more mouth-watering breads next week.

 

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A cooked rasher. Raw bacon rashers are an esse...

Bring On The Bacon

It’s FAT TUESDAY and I for one am planning on indulging…for tomorrow brings on a more than a month of deprivation.      For years I had the habit of NOT giving up any food that I particularly loved but rather DOING something(s) good for others.  Now I’m back to giving up sweets because, well for my own health and well-being and vanity the mirror and my jeans are yelling at me to say no to chocolate, ice cream, cookies and maybe almost everything white.  OK, so for selfish reasons I will deprive myself with an eye to a slimmer me by Easter Sunday.

BUT today is a very different story…tonight I’ve been invited to be a guest at the Annual Tasting Event sponsored  by    C-CAP-Careers through Culinary Arts Program.  WOW!! New York’s Top Chefs will be gathered at Pier 60 tonight offering up tasty tidbits so tonight I feast and tomorrow I fast!

Here’s a tasty tidbit you can make yourself and feel like a million bucks.

BILLIONAIRE’S BACON

1 lb thick cut bacon

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup brown sugar

coarse ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and top with a roasting rack.  Spray the rack with a non-stick spray.  Place the bacon in strips on the rack.  Brush the bacon with the maple syrup.  Sprinkle brown sugar over bacon and then grind some black pepper.

Bake in oven till sugar begins to melt, about 15-17 minutes.  Let cool 5 minutes.

 

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