Black-Eyed Bean Salad
I wanted to have all the simanim (food symbols) on the table for the first night of Rosh Hashana. I got really close. I just forgot the dates. Oooops. Only my husband missed them, as he’s the only one who likes dates.
In the past, I would say to my husband a few days before Rosh Hashana, now, what are the special foods we need to get? And he would mention maybe carrots and beets, and we would say a yehi ratzon on the carrots in the soup. When I was growing up, I don’t remember doing the yehi ratzon prayers at all. In fact, my father, who joined us for most of our Rosh Hashana meals, thought we should save the pomegranate for the new fruit, which one does on the second night of Rosh Hashana. My husband pointed out that we had eaten pomegranates within the last year, and one is really supposed to say the shehiyanu, the prayer for something new, on a fruit that one has not eaten in the past year.
So this year, because I did all this research on the simanim (thank you, readers, for your encouragement along the way as I posted various foods), I was the expert.
Back to the first night…so we have all these simanim on the table. With the help of Mimi’s Israeli Kitchen, I made the black-eyed beans (peas?) into a bean salad. She used: “seasoning it with a little chopped onion and a handful of mixed, chopped, cilantro, parsley, and celery tops. Lots of fresh lemon juice, to balance the earthy taste of the peas (which are really beans, but never mind) – salt and white pepper.”
Here’s my bean salad ingredients:
Black-eyed beans, soaked overnight and cooked in a crockpot
Chopped red onion
Chopped fresh parsley
Fresh lemon juice
Some olive oil
Salt and pepper
I was considering making a beet salad (Mimi made one: “some thinly sliced onion, salt, pepper, a little cumin, olive oil, a little sugar, and vinegar”), but as time didn’t allow (I was chaffeuring kids to play dates and art class in between cooking and doing a little of my web work), I just made steamed beets and cut them up.
What to do with leeks? Mimi posted a delicious leek tart (same post); I decided to incorporate the leeks with my chicken soup and with my roasted chicken with apples and mushrooms (I stuck one leek inside the chicken). I had more leeks than I needed, as I bought two sets; the first set of leeks didn’t look so good, and I had to go back to the supermarket on Monday morning anyway, so I bought a fresher set of leeks. The not-so-nice leeks are now resting in my compost pile which will hopefully be decomposed by next spring and will provide a new spot for growing tomatoes.
I made stuffed squash for the k’ra, the siman that can be a gourd, squash or pumpkin. I used Mimi’s stuffed artichoke post for inspiration on the stuffing. Hers had more ingredients; I had chopped meat, onion and spices in mine. I added chopped fresh ginger, too.
For the carrots, I went for simple. I liked the idea of cutting the carrots like coin-shapes.
Do you think I put a fish or lamb’s head on the table? I did the same thing I did last year, which was cut a piece of gefilte fish into the shape of a fish head and use a bit of cooked carrot for the eye.
Finally, I did one “joke” of a siman, which was to steam a “head” of broccoli.
The problem was, it was late, we were all tired, and my eldest son only liked the pomegranate. So after doing the apple dipped in honey (my daughter had us doing this one at every meal), we ate the pomegranate. It wasn’t nearly as juicy as ones I have eaten in the past. I bet the ones in ALN’s backyard taste better.
Next we ate the gefilte fish. Or five out of seven of us ate it. It turns out there is a special yehi ratzon for fish, separate from the “head and not the tail” one — “she’nif’reh v’nir’beh ki’dagim” (that we be fruitful and multiply like fish).
At this point, we just started eating the rest of the meal. Did we say any more of the yehi ratzons? I don’t know, but everything got eaten, at any rate. I enjoyed the meal, and it didn’t last nearly as long as a Pesach seder.
My Friday night guests (and my regular family attendees=husband, father, sons, daughter) all seem to love my chicken soup. I own a large 8 quart pot, and I purposely try to make leftovers. Soup freezes well. Key to flavor is to use enough chicken; don’t do what I did when first learning and just use necks.
Ingredients:
3 chicken backs (with some chicken meat still on it) or 1 small chicken or 3 parts of chicken
celery (2-3 stalks, cut in half)
1 onion, chopped in quarters
carrots: handful of already peeled baby carrots (easiest) or 2-3 carrots, peeled and sliced
fresh dill or fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
optional: parsnip, turnip, leftover kale, collards or cabbage
optional: pieces of flanken (I tried using chopped steak one week, but it wasn’t nearly as tasty as flanken)
optional: matzo balls (follow matzo meal box directions; this could be a whole post itself, how to make a good, light, tasty matzo ball)
Put your chicken or chicken parts in a large pot. Cover the chicken with water (or more than cover). Cook for about one half hour. Your house will already begin to have aroma of chicken soup. Add carrots, onions and any other root vegetables. Parsnip will add a sweet, yummy taste to your soup. If you are making matzo balls, now is a good time to prepare the matzo ball mixture and refrigerate. Add celery. Add salt, pepper. Cook for at least another hour. With a fork, remove the already cooked chicken. At this point I often give the soup chicken as a snack to my kids. Add matzo balls to the hot soup. Add pieces of flanken if you have. Add any bits of cabbage, collards or kale. If you like, sprinkle a bit more salt and/or pepper. Put in parsley and/or dill towards the end.
Friday night/Shabbat trick: you are allowed to unwrap food on Shabbat, but not to wrap food (called “hatmana“). I wrap my soup in two blankets on Friday afternoon right before Shabbat to keep it warm. This way I don’t have to keep the stove going in the summer. I then unwrap the soup right before serving.
Skim the fat: if you store the soup in the refrigerator for a day, you can then skim the fat off the top.
Soup is delicious, nutritious and a nice option for a whole meal (with challah and grape juice) if one is planning ahead for the many holiday meals in a row we will soon celebrate. Learn to make matzo balls, too. And then enjoy more soup recipes.
An elegant way to serve a tomato that I learned from my mother, z”l:
Slice the tomato. Put sweet or red onion in between each slice. Dribble with olive oil. Sprinkle with fresh basil or dried oregano (or any other favorite herb). Add salt and pepper to taste.
My easy kettle method for a simple sauce: Cut slits in the skins of the tomatoes. Place in a bowl. Pour boiling water, enough to cover. Wait 15 seconds. Peel tomatoes and place in a 2nd bowl. Drink up the remaining water; I’m sure it has some nutrients in it. Chop tomatoes; add fresh basil and/or sweet onions, maybe garlic or olive oil or scallions or parsley. You can serve this on pasta, rice or fish. I ate mine with some feta cheese.
As the last Kosher Cooking Carnival came out at the beginning of the Three Weeks, I think it appropriate that I dedicate this one to Tu B’Av and women dressed in white who would go into the fields to dance. In days of old, women were said to dress up in white clothes and dance in the fields:
The Mishnah Taanit (4:8) relates that Tu be-Av was a day for making shiduchim (matches), albeit without the intermediary services of the shadchen (matchmaker):
Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel used to say that there there were no days more joyous than Tu be-Av and Yom Kippur.
[On these days] the maidens of Jerusalem would go out bedecked in borrowed white clothing (in order not to embarrass those who did not own any) . . . And the maidens of Jerusalem went out and danced in the vineyards. And what did they say? “Young man, check us out and decide whom you like.” [*]
Let’s pretend your sister or third cousin once removed has just finished dancing in the field; now it’s time to eat.
Too lazy to cook? Try some restaurants in Monsey. Too bad some of Frum Satire's commentators don't think so highly of his recommendations.
On the other hand if you really want to live it up and make this meal extra-special, check out the wine selections at http://www.kosherwinereview.com/. Personally, I like Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon. Anything by the Galil Mountain Winery is going to be delicious; we tasted their wine our recent trip to Israel.
Finally, if you want to organize your recipes, Frumhouse has some nice suggestions. Here’s the cover of her Pesach recipes binder:
Thank you to Batya for founding and managing the Kosher Cooking Carnivals. Thank you to Ilana-Davita for reading the top of this post and giving feedback (or should that be foodback?). Thanks to Lion of Zion for his great Tu Be'Ab Primer. Thanks to Whistler for being a great painter. Thanks to Juggling Frogs for submitting suggestions.
Just came back from my weekly trip to the Farmer’s Market (is it Farmers’ Market? or perhaps Farmers Market?). Above is a beautiful soup I made from some of my purchases last week.
Ingredients:
2 onions
2 tsp. olive oil
1 bunch of kale
3 yellow-orange squash
4 leaves of fresh basil
2 peeled cloves of garlic, chopped or pressed
3 small tomatoes, chopped
1 Tbsp. tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste
Saute the onions in olive oil until translucent. Add squash and water. Cook for ten minutes. Add remaining ingredients. Cook until squash is tender. Enjoy. If you like, sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
Update: you might want to add some lemon. I can’t remember if I did or didn’t. I definitely didn’t buy lemon at the Farmer’s Market. New Jersey isn’t that warm (yet).
I make salmon a fair amount throughout the year. My basic recipe is quite simple: I use an oval ceramic dish, and I poach the salmon in the oven with some water and lemon juice.
Ingredients:
Salmon, uncooked, fresh
Lemon juice (about one half lemon)
Dill or celery or parsley or sage or basil
Optional: onion, sliced tomato, sliced potato
Preheat oven to 350°. Place fish in ceramic baking dish with water and lemon juice, enough to cover the fish. Place something green and flavorful along side the fish, such as dill or celery. Optionally, you can put sliced tomato and onion under the fish, or sliced potato and onion. Bake for 30-45 minutes. Use a fork to test the middle to see if the fish is thoroughly cooked.
Pink sauce for fish:
Take some red beet horseradish and mix it with either plain yogurt or sour cream. Serve on top or beside the fish.
During the nine days before Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, observant Jews do not eat meat (except on Shabbat). Fish is a possible option that one can serve during the Nine Days.
I used to make noodle kugel with a stick of margarine. A WHOLE STICK. After I learned about the evils of margarine, for a long time I did not make noodle kugel. At some point recently, after craving a good noodle kugel, I put together this easy recipe. At the end I include options that might make the kugel more interesting, tasty or healthy. However, the “plain” version is the one my kids eat. And it tastes good to me, too.
Ingredients:
8 oz. thin egg noodles
4 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Enough canola oil to grease the bottom of the pan
Boil water and prepare the noodles. Preheat oven to 350°. Strain the noodles, and mix with the eggs. Add salt and pepper to taste. Grease the bottom of the pan with oil (I use pyrex; sometimes I make two pans of kugels, one for Friday night and one for Shabbat lunch). Preheat the pan(s) so the kugel will be a little crispier. Add the kugel mixture, and bake for about 30 minutes or until the kugel starts to get crispy.
Options: chopped spinach (frozen is easiest), chopped onion, bits of hamburger meat (I’ve never made it this way, just tasted others, but it’s delicious)
Do you like garlic? mustard? Here’s an easy, no cooking necessary salad for those of us that like strong flavors.
Ingredients:
1 savoy cabbage or napa cabbage
olive oil to coat
brown mustard to coat
2 or 3 crushed garlic cloves
salt, pepper to taste
juice of 1/2 fresh orange or lemon
for color: bits of shredded purple cabbage and/or carrot (optional)
Chop the cabbage into bite size pieces (that’s the most complicated part of this recipe). Add the shredded carrots and/or purple cabbage. Put in a large bowl. Coat the cabbage with olive oil. Then coat it with mustard. Crush in your garlic cloves, and mix. Sprinkle with salt and/or pepper to taste. Squeeze on lemon or orange juice, and mix well.
Tip on shredded carrots: you can use your food processor, or you can peel off little piece of carrot with your carrot peeler.
If I knew you were coming, I would have baked a cake.
My mother used to say that little expression. I think she would have enjoyed this cake. I took Batya’s basic cake recipe and converted it into an orange cake.
Before I share the recipe, we had an amusing afternoon with this cake. I made the cake at about 5 pm. My daughter (who is five years old) did the stirring, so she felt like she made the cake. It came out of the oven at about 5:45 pm. I put it on that pretty cake platter in the photo, dropped three home-grown strawberries in the center and took a few photos. Then daughter and I headed out for about half an hour to the library. The cake was left as displayed in the kitchen to cool.
Upon our return, it looked like a mouse had visited our cake! Or perhaps a little hand. There was one medium-sized gouge toward the top of the cake, and two little gouges in other spots. Sure enough, I had left my two boys at home at our usual supper time, so one hungry eleven-year-old had helped himself to a bit of cake. I requested that next time he use a knife and cut a piece. My daughter and I helped ourselves each to a slice of cake. I then went upstairs to take care of a few things. Upon my return downstairs, when I was planning to make supper, I was a bit shocked to discover the cake was now half its original size. Sure enough, Eldest son had helped himself to a few slices.
The moral of the story: don’t be surprised if half your cake disappears if you leave it alone with two hungry, growing boys in the house.
Finally, the recipe:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 orange
1/3 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup water
A pinch of salt
Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add eggs and oil. Add grated orange peel. Add water. Squeeze in the juice of the orange. Add vanilla. Mix well. Pour into a greased baking pan (I used a shaped bundt pan). Bake for about 45 minutes at 350°. Use a toothpick to see if it’s ready. Let cool before serving.
I am notorious for taking a recipe and changing a few of the ingredients. My mother used to do this, too; she taught me to read cookbooks for ideas, not necessarily following every detail of the recipe.
Peel, slice, steam about 4-5 carrots
Due to being in a rush, I did less than the original, which said:
500 gr/1.1 lb peeled, sliced and steamed carrots
2 or 3 cloves garlic
I didn’t change this. I used 2 small cloves. Since I was using fewer carrots, my salad came out garlicky. Not a problem for the adults I was serving. The kids didn’t touch this salad.
1 tsp ground cumin
This stayed in the recipe.
1 tsp coriander
The original recipe called for paprika. I don’t care much for paprika.
1 tbsp olive oil
A little less olive oil due to fewer carrots
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper
Peel, steam, slice the carrots into little circles. Crush the garlic and mix it in a saucepan with the ground cumin, coriander, oil, salt and pepper. Warm the saucepan, add the carrots and one tsp of the water the carrots cooked in. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the lemon juice and cook an additional 5 minutes. Chill at least one hour. I garnished it with fresh parsley (Ilana-Davita suggested cilantro, but I prefer parsley, which I grow in my garden).
