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North African Fish Stew

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

While I love a good, simply roasted salmon, I’ve often wondered what else is out there in the realm of fish dishes and in particular, fancy fish dishes.  I came across this in one of my go-to cookbooks and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was easy to make and tasted very light.

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I’ve never really been one for eating fish steeped in any sauce.  After all, as Matt has frequently told me, “if it’s good fish it doesn’t need anything else!”  However, just poached or searing or baking fish gets kind of old after a while and it’s nice to mix it up with some variety.  Also, this dish somehow managed to keep the fish flavor very intact (where the fish that was chosen – halibut – actually mattered) while melding nicely with all the sauce that it was cooked in.  (It’s kind of hard to see the fish in the photo, probably because we kept the original sauce recipe the same, but with half the fish – we like more sauce!)

In general slow cooking anything with red peppers and tomatoes with a dash of coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper seems to add a nice kick.

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil
10 garlic cloves
2 red bell peppers, sliced (or just buy a jar of roasted peppers and slice)
2 fresh red chili peppers, seeded
red chili pepper flakes (1 tsp or to taste depending on your spice appetite)
1 cup fresh cilantro, coarsley chopped
1 cup fresh parsley, also coarsely chopped
2 tbsp sweet paprika
salt to taste
2 cups water
3 6-oz pieces of grouper, halibut or other white-fleshed saltwater fish
1 lemon, cut in wedges

Directions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large, wide pan.  Add the garlic, bell peppers and fresh chiles and sauté for 2 minutes.  Add the chili pepper flakes, cilantro, parsley, paprika, and salt and sauté for another couple minutes, stirring occasionally.  Pour in the water and bring to a simmer.
  2. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.  Remove the lid and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the sauce thickens.  Taste and adjust the seasoning (once you ad the fish it will be hard to stir the sauce and play with the flavors.)
  3. Carefully add the fish chunks (in one layer), cover, and simmer gently for about 15 minutes.  Turn the fish and cook for 5 more minutes.  Turn off the heat and let stand, covered, for 20 minutes before serving.  Serve with lemon wedges over couscous.

Variation – that I use:

  • If using boneless fillets (which is what I do) cook the sauce without the fish.  When the sauce is ready, add the fillets and cook in the sauce for about 10 minutes.

From Janna Gur, Jewish Soul Food

NOTE FROM LISA: I saw this post and REALLY, REALLY wanted to make this. Unfortunately, unlike Frances, we don’t live on a coast – unless you count the coast of Lake Michigan. Halibut and Sea Bass are currently $30/pound! at my local stores and I simply cannot justify that cost. So while I was disappointed, I was undeterred. For $10 I bought almost 2 pounds of boneless, skinless organic chicken thighs. If I were really cheap, I could have skipped the organic and gotten the chicken thighs for about $3 on sale. I cooked them according to the original recipe and the only addition I made was to add 5 Persian dried limes that I pierced along with the chicken thighs. The result may not be strictly authentic, but it was delicious. I served it over couscous and I have no regrets!

Spanakopita

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

It was a rainy Sunday a few weeks ago, and Matt and I decided to try to relive our trip to Greece last year with a Greek food party.  One of our favorite things to order had been this – also one of my favorite things to whisk from breakfast trays, roll up in a napkin, and pull out right when sightseeing and the sun were getting too much and we just needed a little energy pop.

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These were surprisingly easy to make, and in the future, I could see it being even easier if I were to just use sheets of fillo in a baking dish instead of laboriously folding each into a little triangle.  But either way, it was a delicious addition to our Greek party.

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Ingredients

  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1 lb baby spinach
  • 1/2 lb feta, crumbled (scant 2 cups)
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 10 (17- by 12-inch) phyllo sheets, thawed if frozen

Directions

    1. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, then cook spinach, stirring, until wilted and tender, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and cool, about 10 minutes. Squeeze handfuls of spinach to remove as much liquid as possible, then coarsely chop. Transfer to a bowl and stir in feta, nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
    2. Preheat oven to 375°F.
    3. Melt remaining 1 stick butter in a small saucepan, then cool.
    4. Cover phyllo stack with 2 overlapping sheets of plastic wrap and then a dampened kitchen towel.
    5. Take 1 phyllo sheet from stack and arrange on a work surface with a long side nearest you (keeping remaining sheets covered) and brush with some butter. Top with another phyllo sheet and brush with more butter. Cut buttered phyllo stack crosswise into 6 (roughly 12- by 2 3/4-inch) strips.
    6. Put a heaping teaspoon of filling near 1 corner of a strip on end nearest you, then fold corner of phyllo over to enclose filling and form a triangle. Continue folding strip (like a flag), maintaining triangle shape. Put triangle, seam side down, on a large baking sheet and brush top with butter. Make more triangles in same manner, using all of phyllo.
    7. Bake triangles in middle of oven until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool slightly.
 From Epicurious Spanakopita

Dolmades

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

One of my favorite things to order in Greece were dolmades, even if I could never quite pronounce them correctly and once ended up with a tomato salad instead.  What’s not clear is that the Greek name sounds more like “nnnnn-dolm-aaaa-des” and so oftentimes I think folks taking our order thought I just wanted tomatoes.

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In any event, we discovered grape leaves sold in our grocery store recently and so decided to add this to our Greek party adventure.

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They were just as laborious as I would have expected, but also just as delicious.  I also used two pans, one 10″ and one 12″ to fit all of them to cook.

Ingredients

1/4 cup plus 1 cup olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup pine nuts
1 cup long-grain rice
1 teaspoon salt
2 lemons, juiced
1 (8-ounce) jar grape leaves, or 36 medium-sized fresh leaves

Directions

In a large saute pan over medium high heat, heat 1/4-cup olive oil. Add the onions and saute until translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and pine nuts and saute for 2 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and allow to cool slightly. Add the rice, salt, and juice of 1 lemon to the bowl with the onion mixture and mix well. Set aside.

Bring a medium pot of water to a simmer. Remove the grape leaves from the jar and drop them in batches of 4 or 5 into the hot water. Quickly remove them from the water and spread flat on a towel-lined work surface. Cut the stem from each grape leaf, as needed. (NOTE: Fresh grape leaves also need to be blanched for 1/2 minute.)

To assemble the dolmades, place 1 grape leaf on the work surface, dull side (or underside) of the leaf up. Place 1 to 2 teaspoons of rice filling near the stem end of the leaf. Fold the stem (bottom) end up over the filling, fold the sides toward the filling in the center, then roll up the leaf into a small cylindrical package, being careful not to fold too tightly, as the rice will expand during cooking.

Place the dolmades in a large Dutch oven or wide saute pan, seam side down. Combine the remaining cup of olive oil and juice of 1 lemon, and pour over the dolmades. (I actually thought this might have been too much oil, but as Lisa points out, the oil is necessary to make sure that the leaves do not dry out.

Cover with a pan lid and add water to cover to the level of the plate. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for 1 hour, or until rice is tender.

From Food Network Emeril Lagasse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baklava

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

For our dessert for our Greek party we made this very straightforward recipe for baklava.  Not having any walnuts or almonds as the original recipe suggested, we just used the pound of pecans hanging out in our cupboard and it turned out scrumptious anyways.  Once a pounds of pecans are doused in the honey and sugar, how could they not taste anything but amazing?

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In other news, I now think of this Aladdin song whenever I hear “baklava” after going to a Disney trivia night where the challenge was to finish the line from a Disney song.  This song specifically ends with “How about a little more ____?” The answer was “baklava,” and someone very funny (or truly hearing impaired) wrote in “broccoli rabe.”  Say it out loud a few times and it kind of makes sense… sort of.

Anyways while I can’t say this is as healthy as broccoli rabe, it’s a perfect end to a Mediterranean meal, or just a long Tuesday.

Ingredients

Syrup:

3 cups sugar, or 2 cups sugar and 1 cup honey
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 to 6 whole cloves, or 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)

Filling:

1 pound blanched almonds, pistachios, walnuts, or any combination, finely chopped or coarsely ground — I used pecans (about 4 cups)
1/4 cup sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves or cardamom (optional)
1 pound (about 24 sheets) phyllo dough
About 1 cup (2 sticks) melted butter or vegetable oil

Directions

1. To make the syrup: Stir the sugar, water, lemon juice, and if using, the corn syrup, cinnamon sticks, and/or cloves over low heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Stop stirring, increase the heat to medium, and cook until the mixture is slightly syrupy, about 5 minutes (it will register 225 degrees on a candy thermometer). Discard the cinnamon sticks and whole cloves. Let cool.

2. To make the filling: Combine all the filling ingredients.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12-by-9-inch or 13-by-9-inch baking pan or 15-by-10-inch jelly roll pan.

4. Place a sheet of phyllo in the prepared pan and lightly brush with butter. Repeat with 7 more sheets. Spread with half of the filling. Top with 8 more sheets, brushing each with butter. Use any torn sheets in the middle layer. Spread with the remaining nut mixture and end with a top layer of 8 sheets, continuing to brush each with butter. Trim any overhanging edges.

5. Using a sharp knife, cut 6 equal lengthwise strips (about 1 3/4 inches wide) through the top layer of pastry. Make 1 1/2-inch-wide diagonal cuts across the strips to form diamond shapes.

6. Just before baking, lightly sprinkle the top of the pastry with cold water. This inhibits the pastry from curling. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 300 degrees and bake until golden brown, about 15 additional minutes.

7. Cut through the scored lines. Drizzle the cooled syrup slowly over the hot baklava and let cool for at least 4 hours. Cover and store at room temperature for up to 1 week. If the baklava dries out while being stored, drizzle with a little additional hot syrup.

From Epicurious

Easy Bolognese

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

As Lisa mentioned, sometimes you just want a hearty pasta on a weeknight that isn’t fussy and is the perfect comfort food.  On one such Monday I made this Ina Garten bolognese recipe that was rich in flavor as if it had been cooked for hours, but in reality was made very quickly.

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Ingredients

2 tablespoons good olive oil, plus extra to cook the pasta
1 pound lean ground sirloin
4 teaspoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/4 cups dry red wine, divided
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, preferably San Marzano
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3/4 pound dried pasta, I like using linguine for everything but small shells or penne is probably “technically” better to use
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

Directions

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large (12-inch) skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground sirloin and cook, crumbling the meat with a wooden spoon, for 5 to 7 minutes, until the meat has lost its pink color and has started to brown.

Stir in the garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 more minute. Pour 1 cup of the wine into the skillet and stir to scrape up any browned bits. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper, stirring until combined. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a tablespoon of salt, a splash of oil, and the pasta, and cook according to the directions on the box.

While the pasta cooks, finish the sauce. Add the nutmeg, basil, cream, and the remaining 1/4 cup wine to the sauce and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened. When the pasta is cooked, drain and pour into a large serving bowl.

Add the sauce and 1/2 cup Parmesan and toss well. Serve hot with Parmesan on the side.

2010, Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That?, All Rights Reserved

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/weeknight-bolognese-recipe.html?oc=linkback

 
From Ina Garten, Weeknight Bolognese

Refrigerator Oatmeal My Way

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

IMG_1733I really like oatmeal, but when the temperature is in the 8os, hot cereal just doesn’t quite have any appeal for me. I’m always trying to find a healthy breakfast that will keep me going during the day. After reading several recipes for refrigerator oatmeal, I decided to make my own. This can easily be doubled or tripled and eaten during the week. The longer the oatmeal sits, the thicker it gets, but it is ready within 24 hours, so yes, this is something you need to prepare ahead if you want it. Once you get the hang of making it, you can vary it to suit your tastes. This is my basic recipe and when I actually am ready to eat it, I will often add fresh berries or a diced peach or apricot. It’s quite filling without weighing you down and on days when I eat it, I’m always surprised when it’s one o’clock and I’m just starting to think about lunch – especially since I usually eat breakfast before 7:00 am!

Refrigerator Oatmeal

Yield: One portion

Ingredients

1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1.5 teaspoons chia seeds (I get mine from www.nuts.com)

a good pinch of salt

2 Tablespoons dried cranberries, blueberries or raisins or a combination

1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon

1.5 Tablespoons finely chopped walnuts, flavored with a few drops of rose water OR  sliced almonds

2 Tablespoons plain Greek or Icelandic-style yogurt

3/4 cup skim milk

fresh berries or banana or peaches, optional

Directions

  1. In a glass container large enough to hold everything except for the fresh fruit, add all of the ingredients and mix well. (I like to stir it through with a chopstick)
  2. Cover the container and place in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours or up to a week.

It won’t look like much, especially at first, but give it a try and then feel free to play with the seasonings. Sometimes I add nutmeg or cardamom, along with the cinnamon. I find the dried fruit gives me all of the sweetness I require, but if you wish to add a little honey or silan (date syrup) be my guest.

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Mini Berry Tarts

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

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I love berry tarts, and generally I’ve always made the large(ish) 10-12″ ones.  But whenever my sister used to visit, I would always go to a local French bakery and buy one of these super small but adorable, bite-sized fruit tarts since I knew she loved them.  Recently, my friend and I decided to try recreating them ourselves, with Matthew providing “quality control” and we all couldn’t get over how delicious they were!  (As an aside, as part of our baking adventure we also made this rhubarb snacking cake and it was also fantastic.)

I had researched a bunch of fruit tart recipes and was generally underwhelmed or maybe overwhelmed with the ones I was reading when it occurred to me that I had one awesome pie crust recipe (from Lisa, of course) and one great filling recipe from a tart I had made years ago (that I had nearly forgotten about), and together they were a perfect pairing. (As my friend pointed out, these little tarts also were very reminiscent of Olaf… just saying, not saying.)  I also splurged and bought this mini muffin tray, mainly because I figured it would be much easier than trying to bake and clean 20 some-odd mini tart molds, and since I figured I could reuse it for a muffin party.

Crust

2 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour
1⁄4 tsp. Kosher salt
2 T granulated sugar
8 T margarine (unsalted) from the freezer cut up into approx. 16 pieces
4 T unsalted, sweet butter from the refrigerator, cut up into approx. 8 pieces
2 large egg yolks
3 T ice water
1⁄4 tsp. pure almond extract

Directions for Crust

1. Place the flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor with the steel blade. Pulse twice to mix.

2. Add the shortening and the yolks and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs

3. Add the ice water and almond extract, preferably while the machine is running. Let the machine run until the pastry begins to ball-up at the end of the blade.

4. Gather the pastry carefully and handling as little as possible, form a ball over a piece of waxed paper. Flatten with your hand to form a disk.  (For best results, stick this into the fridge covered with plastic wrap for about an hour or more if possible, but I was in a rush and didn’t do this and given how small the tart shells were, it worked out okay.)

5. Turn the dough as you roll it out and use even pressure going from the center out to the edge. If a crack appears, take a bit of dough from an edge and cover the crack, sprinkle with flour and roll over it.

6. Have your muffin tray ready, and cut out about 3″ diameter circles (I used a small Ball jar lid for this) and press into the mini muffin tray slots.

7. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until browned.

Filling

1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
12 oz mascarpone cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions for Filling

1. Combine lemon juice, mascarpone cheese, vanilla extract and confectioner’s sugar.  Mix thoroughly until silky smooth.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Putting it all Together!

1. After the tart shells have come out of the oven and cooled off, use a teaspoon to dollop filling into each of the tart shells.

2. Dice about 1 pint of strawberries into quarters (or whatever shape you would like) and rinse some blueberries and place them on the mini filled tarts.

3. Refrigerate until ready to serve, or serve immediately and enjoy!

 

 

Tehina Shortbread Cookies

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ 2 Comments

Tehina (also sometimes spelled tahini) is a paste made from sesame seeds.

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It’s got great flavor to pair with meats or salads, but also, apparently, works well as an ingredient in dessert. These cookies remind me a bit of peanut butter cookies, although they’re lighter and, obviously, don’t pose the same risks to people with peanut allergies. More importantly, they’re delicious!

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Ingredients:

  • 1.75 sticks (7 ounces) of unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1 cup tehina (the best brand is Soom)
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

Start by combining the room-temperature butter with the sugar in a stand mixer on medium speed, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, for about 2 minutes.

Add the tehina and keep mixing until you get a uniform consistency.

Preheat the oven to 350 Farenheit.

In another mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and a pinch of kosher salt. Whisk them together and then add to the tehina mixture. Beat the everything together until they’re just barely incorporated.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or even better, overnight.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a tablespoon, put the batter onto the parchment paper in small uniform heaps.

Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes on the sheets, then move to wire racks.

The cookies should last for at least 1 week at room temperature if stored in a sealed container. The dough can surive in the freezer for months.

Enjoy!

From Michael Solomonov’s Zahav

Moroccan-Style Braised Lamb Shanks with Mint Yogurt

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ 1 Comment

IMG_1471There are so many reasons to be happy and grateful when Matthew and Frances come to visit, and one of my joys is that I get to cook anything I want and I know it will be eaten with gusto. They have no food quirks, allergies or limitations and because they both work out every day I don’t have to worry about them gaining weight.

We love lamb, in all of its forms, and lamb shanks are a particular delight. I make it many different ways, but when I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it. Just the smell wafting from my kitchen was worth the effort and the actual taste was incomparable. It has a lot of ingredients, but it is not really difficult to make and requires no special skills. Since I do so much Middle Eastern and Indian cooking, I have most of the spices on hand already. If you want to wow your family or guests, this is a great dish to make. There is enough sauce to actually increase the lamb shanks to 6 or possibly even eight. The only challenge would be having a heavy pan with a lid that is large enough to accommodate them. If you keep Kosher or are lactose intolerant, you can omit the Yogurt Mint sauce, but it does add a wonderful flavor and texture.

Moroccan-Style Braised Lamb Shanks with Mint Yogurt adapted from D’Artagnan Recipes

Yield: 4 generous servings with additional sauce

Ingredients

4 Tablespoons EVOO

1 large onion, peeled, sliced in half and then in thin 1/2 moon slices

1 Tablespoon  peeled and minced fresh ginger

1 Tablespoon, peeled and minced fresh garlic

1 red chile, finely chopped or 1 teaspoon Harissa or Gochujang

2 stalks of celery, diced

1 large carrot, diced (I actually used julienned carrot, which I had bought and wanted to use up)

2 generous teaspoons ground cumin

2 generous teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon or more to taste of Aleppo pepper (or cracked black)

2 3-inch long cinnamon sticks

3 whole star anise

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 generous teaspoon oregano

4 Lamb shanks

1 24 0r 28 ounce can of peeled tomatoes, broken up

3 cups of chicken stock, preferably unsalted

20 high quality black or green olives WITH pits (I used canned green Mediterranean olives)

8 dried apricots, sliced

For the Mint Yogurt Sauce

6 ounces of plain Greek-style yogurt

1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves, torn

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons EVOO

Kosher Salt and Aleppo (or cracked black) pepper to taste

Drizzle of EVOO, preferably Meyer lemon infused

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a large heavy Dutch Oven that can fit the lamb shanks in one layer, place the EVOO, onion, ginger,garlic and chile over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes until they are frgrant and the onion begins to soften.
  3. Add the celery, carrot, cumin, coriander, star anise, cinnamon, turmeric and oregano and cook for 3-4 more minutes, stirring constantly.
  4. Add the tomatoes, chicken stock, olives and apricots and increase the heat to bring to a boil.
  5. Make a couple of slits, into the meat of the lamb shanks and add the thems to the sauce. Cover the pan and place in the oven. Cook for about 2 to 2.5 hours, turning once until the meat is practically falling off of the bone.
  6. Mix the ingredients for the yogurt mint sauce, topping with the drizzle of EVOO.
  7. To serve, cook up some rice or couscous and serve one shank per person with plenty of sauce. Top with a dollop of the yogurt mint sauce. IMG_1469

NOTE: I served this with Shmura matza that was drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with za’atar.

Where’s Lisa?

~ lisaandfrancescook ~ Leave a comment

I was in Arizona last week for a few days thanks to the generosity of my big sister. We had a lovely time and there was avocado EVERYWHERE! Well, that and turquoise. So while I wasn’t cooking, I was enjoying some good food – Southwest style. One of the dishes I had that I really enjoyed was a Quinoa Veg Chipotle Bowl with Grilled Chicken. I tried replicating it when I returned and had planned on posting it here, but the sauce/seasoning is still a work in progress. But to give you an idea so you can look forward to the post sometime in the next month, there was roasted corn and sweet potato, black beans, sweet peppers and kale over a bed of quinoa, with marinated, grilled chicken breast and a chipotle sauce. I had it twice in four days, so that should give you an idea of how good it was.

But now my thoughts are all turned to next week and the coming holiday of Pesach – my favorite – both for the story of slavery to freedom and for the food. It’s essentially a story of hope and the chance of renewal and who doesn’t need that? And even when the weather doesn’t cooperate, it means Springtime.

I look forward to this holiday every year and I give a lot of thought to the Seder and of course to the food throughout the week. I just ordered my fish to make Egyptian fish balls in a savory tomato sauce and my meat will be delivered next week. I only need to prepare for the first Seder this year since my niece and nephew are making the second Seder. But Matthew and Frances will be here so I want to make sure that I will be cooking everyone’s favorite meals for the rest of the holiday.  I have purchased my 10 Plague finger puppets and I have frogs galore. And no Seder could be complete until the Afikomen prizes are handed out. I don’t have a crystal ball but I’m pretty certain that my godchildren will win those prizes!

This coming weekend, I will begin to bake my cookies and you will have posts for my delicious Almond Florentine cookies (Frances’ favorite) that are from a recipe by Mandy Patinkin’s mother and good enough to eat all year. I will also make an orange spice cookie, chocolate “meringue” kisses, almond macaroons (the BEST!) and possibly an Iraqi Cardamom cookie. For my son, I will make his favorite flourless chocolate hazelnut torte. No one suffers at my house.

As wonderful as the desserts are, though, we still need an actual meal. The Egyptian fish balls are the starter followed by my brisket cooked in a delicious sauce with my matza salad on the side. The salad is basically a form of Fatoush but made with Shmura (it means guarded) matza. My version has cucumber, Kalamatos olives, capers, sweet peppers and chives that are quickly tossed in EVOO over heat for a few minutes. If I’m not serving a meat dish, I also add some crumbled feta cheese. My mouth is watering just thinking about this.(My favorite) If there are any leftovers, you will find me nibbling it for breakfast the next day if I didn’t have midnight munchies.

The rest of the meal consists of side salads or salatim. Kohlrabi is a wonderful – and in my opinion – under-used vegetable. I make a simple but lovely salad of thinly sliced, peeled kohlrabi seasoned with lemon or lime, cumin, salt, pepper, lots of cilantro and EVOO. It has to marinate for a few hours and it produces a crunchy, refreshing salad. When looking for Kohlrabi, try not to choose bulbs that are too enormous as they tend to be tougher. I’ll also have a recipe for beet caviar. Okay, so it’s nothing like caviar, but someone had to give it an inviting name and this is what they came up with. The ingredients are surprising and the result is a wonderful spread that is great any time of the year – especially with Vodka!

So stay tuned – I haven’t disappeared and will return with lots of great recipes to share.