Jerusalem on Passover

We took a little trip to Jerusalem on Monday of Passover week. Folks who have visited the Israel Museum will recognize this horseman. Most of the Museum is closed off for renovations, but the Shrine of the Book, the replica of Solomon’s Temple and the Youth Wing, as well as part of the gardens, are available for visiting.

I don’t know who young Josh is, but he sure has style.

We went on to lunch at Tmol Shilshom, a charming restaurant set in a 130-year-old stone building. You take a walk down Nahalat Shiva in downtown Jerusalem…slip through a stone archway and emerge in a sunny courtyard that has an old well in the center. Veer to the left and climb up an outdoor staircase. You’ll arrive at the restaurant a little out of breath, but it’ll be worth the effort. The food is always delicious there, the service fine, and the atmosphere unique to Jerusalem.

Since its opening in 1994, the restaurant is celebrated for its literary gatherings and bookish atmosphere. I love browsing the bookshelves set into stone wall niches, and have ocasionally found a jewel, like a worn Haitian cookbook.

But the truth is, I like the menu and the cooking best. We had gnocchi with pesto

and codfish balls in a spicy tomato sauce, with mashed potatoes.

It looks like the writing on the rim of the plates is quotes from books – but I’m not familiar with them.

The food was just right, with portions not overwhelmingly large but enough to satisfy. And there was room for dessert – a luscious, light cheesecake

And three scoops of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Funny thing I noticed – maybe it was the atmosphere, but even the ice cream seemed special. We had eaten hand-made gelato that wasn’t as rich or flavorful, at a cafe in Yaffo.

I really appreciated was how good the food was, even on Passover. Not a simple thing to accomplish; most eateries aren’t all that good on Passover week. But at Tmol Shilshom, the standard stays high.

Descending the stairs again, I noticed a tiny, old-fashioned synagogue in the courtyard. I’d never noticed it before; maybe it was closed each time I’ve been in the area. The custodian let me wander around and take photos.

A view from the squished-in ladie’s section upstairs:

It must be lovely to sit in one of those window seats and take time for meditation and prayer.

We wound up the day at Kibbutz Tsora. I was hoping their excellent winery would be open so I could take a bottle or two home. I posted an entry mentioning the winery when I went on the Wine Trail. But it wasn’t to be. The winery, alas, was closed.

There was a Jewish Rock concert instead, set on grounds with an extensive view of the Judean Hills.  I’m not a great fan of Jewish rock, but I must say that this time, it rocked. Everybody was on their feet, jumping and pumping to the Moshav Band as the sun went down and all the lights in the Judean Hills popped up behind the stage. I thought I’d be everybody’s grandmother there, but no, there were other middle-aged folk there, some of them boogying right along with the young ‘uns. Did I, also, boogy? Well….at one particularly raucous number I just had to loosen up and let a little steam off.

But don’t tell anybody.

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Passover Cooking: Herbed Cheese Matza Brie

I confess: I woke up this morning thinking that if I have to cook with matza or matza meal once more today, I’ll scream. Turning to my old edition of Jewish Cookery for inspiration, I find pages of Passover recipes. Page after of page of recipes based on matza!

Never mind, I won’t scream. I’ll cook matza brie. And you know what?… I’ll enjoy it.

The traditional proportions are shown in the recipe below. My variation on this old-fashioned recipe was to add sage and cheese.

Herbed Cheese Matza Brie

serves 2-4 as main or side dish

Ingredients:

4 matzas

4 eggs

1 cup water

1 tsp. salt

pepper to taste

1/2 cup cheese of choice, shredded or sliced thinly into strips. I used the Israeli idea of Cheddar.

herb of choice – I used a small amount of sage leaves, but an entire, long sprig of scallions, a handful of parsley or cilantro, a scattering of dried thyme, or some chopped basil would be just as good.

Method:

1. Chop the onion and sauté it in a little olive oil, over low heat. Do not let it brown. You want it succulent. If using dried herbs or sage, add them now.

2. While the onions are cooking, break up the matzas. The smaller the pieces, the more they will absorb liquid and the final product will be chewy rather than crunchy.

3. Beat the eggs and add the water to them. Add the salt and pepper. Mix the egg mixture into the broken matzas.

4. Allow the matzas to soak for 10 minutes.

5. When the onions are golden but still whole and juicy, scrape them into the softened matza mixture.

6. If using fresh chopped herbs, mix them in now.

7. In the same frying pan, put enough oil to cover the bottom. Pour the matzah mixture into the hot oil.

8.  Cover the pan. Covering the pan is essential; the brie won’t cook through if left uncovered. Keep the flame at medium low.

9. Leave the brie alone for 10 minutes. Then, with a flexible spatula, loosen up the corners of it. Insinuate the spatula under the brie to loosen it up at the bottom. Unless you’ve used quite a lot of oil, some of it will stick anyway, but that’s just the way it is.

10. Strew the cheese over the top of the brie. Poke it into the mass.

Cover the brie again and leave it for another 5 minutes.

11. Loosen the brie again with the spatula. Turn it over onto a flat plate or pot lid. Briefly fry the reversed top side – add a drop more oil to the pan if it looks dried out.

12. Reverse the brie again onto a plate. Serve hot at the table, or cold at a picnic.

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Passover Cooking: Kugel Crust for Mushroom/Leek Tart

I invented the tart on Rosh HaShannah. The family likes it, so I repeat it every so often, but for Passover of course I needed a flourless crust. Becky T. sent me this recipe, which is basically a potato kugel thinned out and pre-baked to hold its shape.

The tart made a filling side dish, having potatoes and vegetables in one.  The crust texture is heavier than that of a conventional pastry crust; moist and chewy. It makes an interesting change from the usual quiche.

Here’s the original mushroom/leek recipe. The kugel crust was made as follows:

Kugel Tart Crust

Ingredients:

1 medium onion

1 tsp. salt

1/4 cup matza meal

750 grams potatoes – 4 medium-sized ones

Method:

1. Grate the onion. Set it to drain for 10 minutes. Press any liquid out.

2. Combine the grated onion with salt and matza meal.

3. Grate the potatoes and rinse them in a colander. Drain them very thoroughly.

4. Mix the potatoes into the onion mixture.

5. Press the dough onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased pan.

6. Turn the oven on to 105°C – 220°F. Bake the crust for 25 minutes.

7. Remove the crust from the oven, brush it with oil, and bake it another 10-15 minutes, or until the edges are slightly brown.

8. Fill with mushoom/leek mixture and bake about 1/2 hour. As in the Rosh HaShannah recipe, if the vegetables look to be browning too much, cover the surface with tin foil.

The tart looks almost the same as it did on Rosh HaShannah.

For vegetarians, I think that a dairy variation would be tasty. Make a  custard of 3 eggs and 1 cup of milk or sour cream and pour the mix over the well-seasoned vegetables. Or simply substitute vegetable stock for the chicken soup.

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Passover Cooking: Broccoli Kugel Without Matzah Meal

Many thanks for this tasty recipe to Mrs. S. who posted it to her own blog, Our Shiputzim, and suggested it to me privately.  It met with my family’s approval and I’ll be making it again over Pesach. It’s a real easy pleaser; a reliable vegetable dish that takes almost no trouble to make.

The recipe calls for an entire 32-oz. bag of frozen broccoli. I knew that would be too much for us, so I halved it. But multiply it at will. I also had to fool around with it a little… something I do with most recipes.

Simple Broccoli Kugel (no gebrochts)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tblsp. potato starch

1 lb. – 450 grams frozen broccoli – about 1/2 bag

1 tsp. salt

pepper to taste

2 garlic cloves

a pinch of thyme

3 eggs, beaten

Method:

1. Sauté the chopped onion in the olive oil.

2. When the onions are golden, add the potato starch. Mix.

3. Add the broccoli and heat through.

4. Remove from the fire. Mix remaining ingredients in.

5. Grease a pan, or line it with baking paper, and bake at 350°F – 180°C for 45 minutes. Test for tenderness: if the broccoli is still underdone, bake a further 15 minutes.

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Passover Cooking: Meat-Stuffed Potato Patties

I served these delicate, flavorful, crisp-skinned patties as appetizers on Shabbat. They were a hit. The few remaining ones also reheated well. Thanks to Becky T. for the idea.

Stuffed Potato Patties

about 10 patties

Ingredients:

250 grams ground beef or turkey

2  eggs

2 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup cilantro or parsley, leaves only

1 stalk of scallions

1 tsp. salt

pepper

1/2 tsp. cumin

2 Tblsp. red wine or stock or soup

3 medium potatoes – about 600 grams raw

1/2 tsp. paprika

1 cup matzah meal

olive oil for frying

Method:

1. Blend together the garlic, cilantro, scallions, salt, pepper, cumin and red wine. I did this with my stick blender.

2. Mix this seasoning into the meat.

3. Break one egg and put it over the meat: mix it in well.

4. Put the meat aside in the fridge for half an hour.

5. Meantime, peel and slice the potatoes. Cook them in boiling water till they are soft.

6. Mash them. Add the second egg to them, and a little soup or some of the cooking water – a few tablespoons – if they look dry. Add the paprika.

7. Take the meat out of the fridge and start heating up the oil in a skillet.

8. Sauté  the meat till it’s entirely cooked through. Remove it to a clean bowl.

9. Wipe the skillet clean and put more oil in it. Start heating the oil gently.

10. Take about a tablespoon of the mashed potato and put it into the cup of your hand. Spread it out slightly.

11. Now take about 2 tsp. of the meat, more or less, and pat it down into the mashed potato.

12. Take another Tblsp. of the potato and put it on top. Fashion a ball of potatoes and meat. Don’t worry if it isn’t uniform: just keep it together in a ball.

13. Roll the balls in matzah meal. Flatten them slightly. Let them sit and dry some for 10 minutes, if you have the time: they’ll fry easier that way.

14. This is the only tricky part. You must fry the patties in hot oil, but only turn them over once because they do tend to fall apart. This is also why they mustn’t be very big: the soft mass of potato won’t keep its shape if you make large balls. You can see that mistake in the next photo.

To tell if a patty is ready to be turned over, slide a wooden or Teflon spatula under it and move it a little. If it feels heavy and slides around easily, it’s probably brown and crisp enough on the bottom to turn over.

Serve the patties either as appetizers or as a side dish. I don’t recommend them as a main dish because there isn’t enough meat in them to justify it. But everyone asked me to make them again.

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Passover Cooking: Garlic Chicken (or Turkey) Bites

Thanks to Mirj, of RecipeZaar fame, for this recipe.

Because I can’t leave a recipe alone, I changed a few things. Mirj’s recipe calls for chicken breasts – I used turkey fillets

because I had six frozen ones that needed to get used up. I also added seasonings. Finally, I ran out of plain matzah meal in the middle of the prep (using up last year’s supply still in the freezer) and finished the last half using matzah cake meal and potato starch. I think the matzah meal bites came out crunchier, and the cake meal/starch bites juicier.

This dish makes a good hot appetizer for a dinner party, or a light main course at a family dinner. I suggest using one chicken breast or turkey fillet per person, and 1 garlic clove for each piece of meat.

Get your butcher to cut the meat into chunks; I did it at home rather than buy specially.

Garlic Chicken/Turkey Bites

serves 6 as a main course; 12 as an appetizer

Ingredients:

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or 6 turkey breast fillets (shnitzels), cut into bite-sized chunks

1/2 cup olive oil

6 cloves of garlic, minced finely

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. paprika

1/2 cup matzah meal or 1/4 cup matzah cake meal and 1/4 cup potato starch

Method:

1. Place the chunks in a bowl. Mix into the bowl the olive oil, garlic, and spices.

2. Cover; marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 475° F, 250°C.

4. Put the matzah meal or cake meal/starch mixture into a platter. Roll the poultry chunks around in it to coat them.

5. Arrange the chunks in a single layer on a baking sheet.

6. Drizzle them with a thread of olive oil.

7. Bake 10-15 minutes (turkey takes the longer length of time), till golden.

In the first photo see the part which had been coated in plain matzah meal, on the left. The  the cake meal/starch-coated chunks are lighter.

I also added that last drizzle of olive oil to the original recipe, because the meat was looking rather dry. That little bit of oil brings the moisture up. The top photo shows a few little chunks that didn’t get doused in oil (bottom left)  and they do look dry.

The family liked these very well. The recipe’s a keeper.

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Passover Cooking: Spinach Soup with Roasted Garlic

Can you guys take another recipe starring garlic?

Er…it won’t be the last garlic recipe… One more, and then I’ll stop.

*

Many thanks to Amy P. for contributing this dish. I took some liberties with the original recipe, which calls for vegetable stock and more garlic. I had some beef stock on hand and so used that. But the soup would be good no matter which stock it’s based on. Garlicky, though, garlicky…

Spinach Soup with Roasted Garlic

serves 4

Ingredients:

1 head of roasted garlic.

Suggestion: Roast the garlic next to baked potatoes or roasted chicken or when you’re making the delicious slow-roasted tomatoes.

Digression: The original recipe called for two heads of garlic, but as much as we love the stuff, 2 heads seemed excessive. Unless – and this is a thought – the soup is made with vegetable stock and about 1/4 cup of cream is stirred into it at the very last.

5 cups of well-seasoned stock. Here is my turkey neck stock. The post discusses chicken and other meat variations. You can easily make a vegetable base out of the same basic ingredients: just leave out the meat and simmer for 1 hour only.

4 cups of fresh, cleaned, and trimmed spinach

Method:

1. Squeeze the garlic flesh out of the papery skins.

2. Mash them.

3. Ladle your stock in. Simmer for 15 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.

4. Add the spinach.

Stir well and cover. Allow the spinach to steam about 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning and serve.

This soup isn’t filling, but works very well in advance of heavier dishes. We all liked it, and felt oddly stronger (like Popeye) after eating it.

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Passover Cooking: Almond-Lemon Macaroons

Big thanks again to Abbi, who directed me to this recipe from NY Times Online. At her suggestion, I dipped the cooled cookies in chocolate, and skipped a long refrigeration stage included in the original instructions. They were so easy to make – I just sort of zipped it all together in between other cooking tasks, and hardly noticed the work. Except that dipping cookies in chocolate is fun. I’ll be baking these cookies for the holiday. They are wonderful.

Almond-Lemon Macaroons

Ingredients:

2 cups whole blanched almonds; or sliced blanched almonds or almond meal (ground almonds)

30 whole blanched almonds for decoration (if using)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

Zest of 1 lemon – if not using a food processor, grate the zest finely.

Method:

If you are using almond meal, you don’t need to use the food processor. But I recommend using whole or halved almonds and grinding them yourself, because in the process the lemon peel will also be ground finely.

1. Put the almonds in the food processor, fitted with the metal knife. Add the lemon zest.

2. Grind in 10-second spurts, checking frequently in order to stop the process before you wind up with almond butter.

3. Add 3/4 cup sugar and the egg. Turn the FP on again and work it till the ingredients roll up around the blade like dough.

- Here the instructions from the NY Times say to transfer the dough to a medium bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 12 hours. I didn’t, but  appreciate that the cookies may come out better if allowed to rest.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 °F, 180° C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl.

5. Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a walnut. Roll them into balls. Then roll the dough balls in the sugar, covering all sides.

- Here we’re supposed to press and almond point into the top of each cookie, so that half the almond shows. I preferred to dip in chocolate.

6. Arrange cookies 1″ apart on the baking sheet.

7. Now this is important – bake no longer than 10 minutes, or until the cookies are just barely colored. They should be soft when removed from the oven. For me, 9 minutes worked best.

Cool completely. If you want to dip them in chocolate, melt yourself a couple of bars and dip away, replacing them on the baking sheet till the chocolate has cooled down and re-hardened.

Once they’re done, store in an airtight container.

This recipe yields about 30 cookies. Abbi has made it with hazelnuts, too, and I’m going to try that.

Cosmetic note: You can make a very good facial scrub by removing a teaspoon of the ground almonds and lemon – before adding the sugar and egg – and gently massaging into your skin. For a softening hand scrub, whizz the sugar in before adding the egg, remove a teaspoon of the dough, and do the same for your hands. Then add the egg to the cookie dough for baking – don’t forget that! In either case, rinse with warm water and pat dry.

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Passover Cooking: Potato Starch Noodles

So how are everyone’s Pesach preparations going? I’ve been printing out some recipes contributed by readers and have started the cooking for the Pre-Passover Event.

To start, let me introduce these old-fashioned soup noodles. Children especially love them, but many times I’ll find grownups hovering over the plate and fishing a few out, too. If I don’t slap hands away, the noodles will be gone.

It’s an uncomplicated, quickly-made recipe, and much more economical than bought Passover soup nuts.

Potato Starch Egg Noodles

Enough for 4 bowls of soup. The recipe may be multiplied at will.

Ingredients:

1 egg

1 1/2 Tblsp. potato starch

a pinch of salt

oil or shmaltz

Method:

1. Beat the egg and the potato starch together. Don’t worry about potato starch lumps, just beat it all up together. If the lumps still worry you, put the mixture through a blender. But I never do.

2. Lightly cover the bottom of a skillet with oil (or shmaltz).

3. Pour the egg mixture in, tilting the skillet so that the egg spreads and makes a crepe. Don’t worry about making it perfectly round or if a few spaces aren’t covered. It won’t make a difference in the end.

4. Let the crepe fry until you can manipulate it off the surface of the skillet with a spatula. Flip it over and fry it some more, till it’s crisp and covered with brown spots.

5. Set the first crepe aside while you repeat the process till you’ve used up all the egg mixture.

6. Roll each crepe up.

You can slice it thinly or thickly with a knife to make the noodles, but I prefer cutting thin strips with my kitchen scissors. The noodles come out neater.

Make lots, everyone likes them.

Another good thing about these noodles is that they can be made ahead of time and stored, covered tightly, in the fridge till you’re ready to drop them into soup. They’ll stay good for 3 days.

The crepes are useful as blintz wraps for hot or cold leftover chicken, creamed mushrooms, or your favorite cheese filling.

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