A Confession with Recipes

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confessions1I have to tell you something about myself…I am not a good cook. By that I mean that I’m not an instinctive cook. When I first started cooking for my husband and then for my kids, I always used written recipes.

Some fifty plus years later, I can get a regular meal on the table unaided. But I still refer to my large collection of cookbooks, cooking websites, or pages torn from magazines when I want something more elaborate or more exciting than the everyday baked fish or roasted poultry.

So whenever one of the new experimental kiddush dishes is praised, I sometimes feel like a fraud. I also only look for relatively easy-to-prepare items that are not too labor or time intensive.

However, I realize that using resources is just part of my love of inquiry. I really enjoy looking up recipes; searching through the cookbooks, combining recipes at times, and finding out the history of the dish I am making.

I guess that’s a librarian’s soul in the kitchen. And the lesson learned is that anyone can cook. You just need to be able to read and then you practice.

So here are three of my latest discoveries from widely different sources.

Shavuot is usually associated with dairy foods. There are several reasons that I won’t go into now. Most often cheesecake appears on the menu. But I thought with the tikkun the night before, many of our congregants might be cheesecake out.

The following recipe-using many of the ingredients in cheesecake- appears in Joan Nathan’s latest book Solomon’s Table: a culinary exploration of Jewish cooking from around the world. Her cookbooks provide both good recipes and good reading, for she includes background information, historical context and personal anecdotes for almost every recipe.

confessionsmalaiMalai: Romanian cornmeal ricotta breakfast pudding

Malai means cornmeal in Romanian. The recipe’s origins go back to Cato the Elder, a second century Roman author, who made a similar pudding using flour. When corn came to Europe form the Americas, it replaced flour or other grains in many dishes. Malai is sweet but not cloying and has a slight crunch from the cornmeal. Enjoy it hot, warm or even cold with fruit on top. Here’s a link to a video showing Joan Nathan preparing malai. 

Ingredients

8 tablespoons (1stick) unsalted butter, divided

3 large eggs, divided

2/3 cup sugar, divided

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Dash of salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 lbs. whole milk ricotta or farmer’s cheese

Fresh berries or cherries, to serve

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8 inch round gratin bowl or similar baking pan with some of the butter.
  2. Melt remaining butter and cook slightly. Put butter, 1 egg, 1/3 cup sugar, and milk into a medium bowl and mix well.
  3. Gradually fold in cornmeal, flour, salt and baking powder. Mix well.
  4. Mix together cheese with two remaining eggs and 1/3 cup sugar in another bowl.
  5. Spoon half cornmeal mixture on bottom of pan; then pour on all the cheese mixture. Finish by spooning and spreading the rest of cornmeal mixture on the top.
  6. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until golden and set. Serve warm with fresh berries or cherries.

Notes: Yields a generous 6-8 servings or more if part of a meal. I used a 9 inch round foil cake pan because that’s what was available. It worked. Fresh fruit is delicious, but canned sour or sweet cherries make a nice fruit accompaniment.

 

confessionsstrataBagel, Lox & Egg Strata aka overnight lox and bagels casserole

Everyone loves lox and bagels, but I’ve heard some comments-what lox again at kiddush. And do we need all that salty fish? So I was looking for a way to celebrate Shavuot’s dairy tradition, stretch some frozen bagels and lox (we are thrifty at Shomrei), and experiment a little.

 

This recipe contains all the ingredients of a tradition lox ’n’ bagel breakfast but in more modest amounts and can be prepared the day before and cooked just before serving. That’s a harried cook’s delight.

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

8 generous cups bagels cut into bite-sized pieces (4-6 bagels)

3-8 ounces thinly sliced smoked salmon, cut into small pieces, (depending on how much you like lox)

8 ounces Swiss or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (2 cups)

1/4 cup snipped fresh chives

8 eggs, beaten

2 cups milk

1 cup cottage cheese

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

  1. Cover the bottom of a 13x9x2 baking dish or 3 quart rectangular casserole with melted butter.
  2. Spread bagel piece evenly in dish.
  3. Sprinkle lox, shredded cheese and chives evenly over bagel pieces.
  4. In a large bowl combine eggs, milk, cottage cheese and pepper. Pour over layers in dish.
  5. Press down gently with the back of a wooden spoon to moisten all of the ingredients. If the bagels seem to be absorbing the liquid too quickly, add another 1/2-3/4 cup of milk and two eggs.
  6. Cover and chill in fridge for 4 to 24 hours.
  7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake uncovered about 45 minutes or until set and edges are puffed and golden. The casserole shouldn’t jiggle.
  8. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
  9. Serves 12.

Notes: The casserole will deflate as it cools but it will still taste good. To perk up the flavor especially if you use plain bagels, mix in some of Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel Seasoning. Or add some sautéed onions, capers and dill. If you can’t find shredded Swiss or Monterey Jack, either shred it yourself or use shredded cheddar jack.

 

confessionsmacIsraeli Couscous Mac and Cheese

Who doesn’t like macaroni and cheese? My husband… but he’s an exception to the general rule. How to make mac’n’cheese fit a recent Israeli themed kiddush? Try this twist on the traditional recipe.

 

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups uncooked Israeli couscous

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup whole milk or half and half

8 ounces 4% cottage cheese (about 1 cup)

1 1/2 cups shredded mild cheddar cheese

4 ounces crumbled feta cheese

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Topping

1/3 cup unseasoned bread crumbs or panko

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

1/4 teaspoon paprika

pinch of salt

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease an 8×8 or 9×9 square pan.
  2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil.
  3. Cook couscous for 5 minutes. Drain in a large sieve.
  4. While couscous is cooking, combine 4 tablespoons butter, all the cheeses, milk, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
  5. Add couscous to bowl with cheeses and mix well. Turn mixture into the greased pan.
  6. In a small bowl, combine bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon melted butter, paprika and pinch of salt.
  7. Sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over top of couscous.
  8. Bake for about 25 minutes or until set and topping is slightly brown.
  9. Allow to cool slightly before cutting and serving.

Notes: This recipe can be made in a 9×13 by doubling the ingredients. The mixture will reach to the top of the pan and will take longer to bake. Allow at least an extra 15 minutes and perhaps more for the mixture to set in a larger pan. An interesting addition might be some oil cured olives mixed in with the cheese and couscous.

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