What’s a Jew to do on Christmas?

There’s no Christmas tree in this house, no wreaths or mistletoe, nor are there twinkling lights adorning our humble home. There is a menorah in the window.

Every year since my husband and I have been together, we skip or have a light breakfast then drive to one of the only places open on Christmas Day for some lunch: the Kosher Deli.

My husband is a creature of habit. Every year he orders the same sandwich, white meat turkey and chopped liver with Russian dressing on a club roll. That is, until today. He shocked me this morning when he said he was going to have pastrami on club with mustard. Apparently he had met his annual chopped liver quota over Rosh Hashanah, since I made the dish for first the first time in many years.

I on the other hand will flit back and forth between pastrami and corned beef. Sometimes I will even do a combo but I generally prefer one or the other. This year corned beef won.

Throw in a few sour pickles (not pictured), a couple of knishes and Dr. Brown’s cream soda and you’ve got yourself a nice traditional Jewish deli feast.

We take our bounty down to a riverfront area not too far from our home and sit in the car watching the waves rush by and the sea gulls catch the wind. Sometimes we’ll even go for a little walk if it’s not bitterly cold. Most importantly, we enjoy our yummy meal and each other’s company.

It is our Christmas Day tradition.

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Cornbread: Sweet or Savory?

Many a spirited conversation has surrounded this question. Frankly I don’t prefer one over the other, it’s a matter of what I’m making for dinner, which works best with what I’m making for dinner and what my husband is in the mood for with dinner (sometimes he even gets his way LOL!). The sweet vs savory debate is a regional thing, think Mason-Dixon line.

Southerners prefer not to include sugar in their cornbread.

Northerners prefer sugar in their cornbread.

I’ve made many varieties of cornbread over the years, in fact during hurricane Sandy I made it on the stovetop in a cast iron skillet, no oven needed (good thing, since without electricity it was out of commission). But no matter how I make it, sweet or savory, in the oven or on the stove top, my base recipe remains the same. Creature of habit.

So when my mother-in-law asked me to make some mini cornbread muffins for Thanksgiving this year I thought I’d have a little fun and make both a sweet version and a savory version. I’ll be curious to see who likes which. (Mom, if you’re reading this, don’t tell!)

This recipe evolved quite some time ago from a cornmeal package label but at this point it doesn’t really resemble the original recipe much…other than the cornmeal part. It’s incredibly versatile and super easy to make. If you want to keep the mix on hand, simply combine all the dry ingredients minus the ingredient that makes it either sweet or savory – you know, sugar or herb/spice (in this case rosemary) – and store in a container in a cool dry place until ready to use.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy carb for Thanksgiving, this is it.

Ingredients – Base Recipe
1 ¼ cups stone ground cornmeal
1 cup All Purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk, well shaken
½ cup milk
¼ cup neutral oil like canola or grapeseed
1 large egg

For Savory: Add 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary in with the dry ingredients (Thyme would be nice too).
For Sweet: Add ¼ cup sugar in with the dry ingredients.

Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 400°. Grease your 24 well mini-muffin tin (I use cooking spray) and set aside.
2. In a large bowl combine the cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk together to blend well.
3. Now you need to make a decision: sweet or savory? If you are going the sweet route add the ¼ cup sugar. If you are going the savory route, add the 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary.
4. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup (that’s what I did) combine the buttermilk, milk, oil and egg; whisk together to blend well.
5. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir just until combined. Be careful not to overmix!
6. Using a small ice cream scoop or ladle, pour the batter into the muffin tin.
7. Bake for 10-14 minutes or until lightly golden.
8. Allow to sit in the tin for about five minutes then remove to a wire rack.

Both the sweet and savory are nice served warm but room temperature is perfectly fine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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What am I, Chopped Liver?

Did ya ever wonder how a seemingly innocuous or even silly conversation can suddenly spawn an idea? Who knew a twitter chat about movie trailers and nightmares – one filled with words like yum and ick – would lead to a blog post about chopped liver. Go figure.

Five days later I’m writing this post and much to my amazement I could not find chicken livers until just a few days ago, (the original conversation happened a few weeks ago), so here you go.

I actually haven’t made this in years; we’re talking about oh eight, ten maybe? No joke. Well it’s not exactly health food, more like a heart attack in a bowl but oh so tasty. Why is that?

It brought back memories of spending time with my mom during the holidays cooking like crazy. One of the things she would do at this time of year is make chopped liver. We would chop and mix everything by hand. My mom had this beat up old wooden bowl she would use exclusively for making chopped liver and she had this chopper that looks like a single blade mezzaluna. She’d stand there and chop away and when I was old enough she’d let me help, always checking to make sure the consistency was just right.

The bowl eventually cracked which is too bad because if she knew what I now know about caring for wooden kitchen tools I’d bet she’d still have it. Well, she now uses a food processor and so do I and the chopper is now part of my collection of kitchen tools.

In any case I suppose between that conversation and Rosh Hashanah being right around the corner at that time, I was overwhelmed with nostalgia. So I made chopped liver.

I guess once every eight to ten years isn’t too bad, right?

And listen, don’t go trying to make this “healthy, it ain’t gonna work. If your going to make chopped liver, then make it already and don’t make a habit out of it, okay? Good.

Now, it’s not a complicated thing to make. I hard boil some eggs ahead of time and bring them to room temp while I’m working on the rest of the recipe. I recommend 1 to 2 because it really depends on how much volume you have left after cooking the livers. So I start with one, give it a taste then add the second if I think it’s needed. You don’t want the egg to dominate but you do want the richness.

You should really plan on making this the day before you intend to serve. The flavor needs time to develop and most importantly, don’t overdo the salt and pepper the day you make it! It will be more pronounced the next day so err on the side of caution and re-season after it’s sits in the refrigerator overnight.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons schmaltz (chicken fat) or safflower oil
1 pound chicken livers (not cow!)
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1-2 hard boiled large eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Rinse the chicken livers and pat them dry.
2. In a large fry or saute pan, add 1 tablespoon of either schmaltz or oil cook the livers, in batches if necessary. You don’t want to over crowd the pan. They should be cooked through with a little bit of pink left in the center. Set aside to cool in a bowl, leaving the fat in the pan.

3. Add additional fat to pan if needed and saute the onions in all the livery goodness until they are nicely caramelized. Add the onions to the livers and allow to cool a bit.

4. When no longer very hot, add the livers, onions and one egg to the food processor and pulse until chopped but not mushy. Season cautiously with salt and pepper. (Sorry, forgot to take a picture of this step – bad me)
5. Store in an airtight container in the fridge overnight. Taste before serving and re-season if needed.
6. Serve with crackers or matzoh.

FYI:Chopped liver is great on a sandwich with turkey and tomato, oh and the movie that started all this? Possession.

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Such a Tzimmes!

You need to say the title with the appropriate accent. See, now it makes sense.

One of the traditional side dishes my mom always makes for Rosh Hashanah is Tzimmes. It’s also part of an expression she liked using when I was growing up, “what are you making such a tzimmes out of it!” In other words, what are you making such a fuss/project/big deal out of whatever “it” was at the time. I’m sure it was just me being overly dramatic…it’s a girl thing.

Basically tzimmes is a stew made from sweet root vegetables and dried fruit that is cooked down slowly in a sweet liquid until everything is tender and juicy. Traditionally (at least in my family), it is mostly of carrots, with some parsnip, prunes, raisins and dried apricots. The carrots, cut into rounds like coins, are supposed to represent good fortune.

Me, not that I wouldn’t like some good fortune, I minimize the carrots because frankly I don’t care for them cooked. Blasphemy!

Raw yes, cooked, not so much. I’ve tweaked the recipe over the years and will no doubt continue to do so but for the most part I have subbed out most of the carrots with sweet potato, added apples, figs sautéed onions and some spices.

The veggies and fruit cook in a sweet syrup made of brown sugar and honey. What could be bad? And like my honey cake, I use buckwheat honey in my tzimmes. You can use whatever you have on hand but trust me, this honey adds a richness to the flavor that only the dark rich maltiness of buckwheat honey can provide.

One of the best parts of this recipe is it can be made a day or two ahead and reheated. Just make sure you take it our of the refrigerator at least an hour before you plan to reheat it.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil of choice (I use either canola or safflower)
1 large onion cut into thin half rounds
3 not too thick parsnips, cut into rounds
2 large carrots, cut into rounds
1 large sweet potato cut into chunks
1 3/4 cups water, vegetable or chicken broth
1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch of salt
1/4 cup buckwheat honey (or whatever you have on hand)
1 granny smith apple, pealed, cored and cut into chunks
2 1/2 ounces apricots
4 ounces prunes
4 ounces figs

Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray a 2 quart casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. Heat one tablespoon oil in a large skillet, add the onions and sauté until they are translucent but not browned – approximately 5-7 minutes.
3. Add the carrots and parsnips and sauté about 3- 5 minutes.
4. Add the sweet potato and sauté for another 5 minutes.
5. Pour in the water or broth and bring to a boil for 5 minutes.
6. Remove the veggies to the prepared casserole with a slotted spoon.
7. Add the brown sugar, honey, cinnamon, ginger and salt to the skillet and return to a boil.
8. Add the apple, apricots, prunes, figs and simmer until the liquid becomes slightly syrupy about 5 minutes.
9. Pour the fruit and liquid carefully over the veggies. Cover with foil and place in the over for about 1 – 1 1/2 hours or until the the veggies are soft.

NOTE: To Reheat, cover with foil and place in a 350 degree oven. if you would like to brown the top, for the last 10 minutes of cooking uncover it and sprinkle with a little additional brown sugar.

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Whole Wheat Challah for #TwelveBreads

My breaducation continues with Challah! I was so excited to see the July pick would be Shulie’s Honey Challah. I’ve actually made this before – straight up as written but this time I got adventurous and messed with the recipe a bit.

I cannot tell you how incredibly easy and satisfying it is to make this dough. No temperatures or yeast feeding to worry about here. If you’ve never made bread before this is a great place to start. The end result: heavenly.

Don’t be intimidated by the form, if you can braid hair or string you can braid dough. Really.

Since I’ve made this challah before and I knew what to expect, I felt comfortable experimenting with several aspects of the dough. First, I wanted to make a whole wheat challah so I swapped out half of the white flour for my new favorite flour, King Arthur Flour White Whole Wheat.

Just a bit of an aside about this flour, KAF white whole wheat is 100% whole wheat, it’s just milled from white spring wheat rather than red wheat used in traditional whole wheat flour. So what this means is the wheaty flavor is milder – a plus for my husband who doesn’t always like a strong wheat flavor in baked goods. I’ve used is in cookies, muffins and pie dough and all were delicious…and I can now say it is fantastic for bread as well.

Okay, so now back to the challah:

I also felt that because whole wheat flour is a bit heavier than all-purpose, I’d swap the latter for bread flour. Bread flour has a higher protein (gluten) percentage than all purpose, which translates to a higher rise, so I was betting that this modification would help to compensate.

All great so far, but I wanted MORE. I started thinking about what we like to do with leftover challah and one of our favorites is to make french toast…so I got to thinking (dangerous, I know) about the flavors and decided to use maple syrup instead of honey in the recipe. Oh my yum!

Since this recipe makes two loaves, I decided make breakfast rolls out of half the dough so in keeping with the french toast theme I added chopped up apples, apple pie spice and maple sugar to the mix.

The challah loaf I braided with three strands, rolled into a round and topped with sesame seeds. After filling, the rolls were tied into knots.

Trust me, once you make this challah, you will never be able to go back to store bought.

Want to join in? If you are a bread baker or are interested in learning, like me, here are the details which I’ve quoted from #TwelveBreads founder, Lora the Cake Duchess’ blog:

“Whether you bake along with us every month or just once, we want to inspire you to love baking your own bread one loaf at a time. We encourage you to make the recipe your own.  Be creative with your challah and put your own spin on it.  Twelve breads. It’s just a different bread a month. A bread baking revolution!”

“Bake this month’s bread (you could use your own recipe!) and post it on your blog with #TwelveBreads in the title of the post by August 1st:

• Include a link back to the current post
• Link your post to the linky tool below. It must be a challah (any challah!) baked in July 2012 (you are welcome to use your own favorite challah recipe)
• We would love to connect with you on Twitter; Tweet us at @TwelveBreads and tag it #TwelveBreads!”

Whole Wheat Maple Challah
Adapted from Foodwanderings Honey Challah

Ingredients
.5 Kg (1.1 lbs) KAF white whole wheat
.5 Kg (1.1 lbs) KAF bread flour
25 Grams (3 ½ packets) of active dry yeast (each packet is 1/4oz)
½ cup sugar in the raw
1 Tablespoon salt
¼ cup grade B maple syrup
2 eggs
1½-2 cups mineral water
½ cup canola oil

For Challah Loaf
1 egg for egg wash
sesame seeds

For Rolls
1 egg for egg wash
1 pealed and chopped apple tossed with a sprinkling of apple pie spice (or cinnamon)
maple sugar

Directions
1. In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add both flours and dry yeast. Mix until blended. Add the rest of the dough ingredients, sugar through oil, Mix on low speed for 12 minutes until dough is incorporated. Take dough out of mixer bowl, form into a ball and coat with a light film of canola oil. Put back into mixer bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a cool place until doubles in size, about an hour.

2. Take dough out and cut in half. Place half back into bowl and cover with plastic wrap and set aside for the rolls. Take the other half and split into three equal parts. At this point you can flour the surface if you find it necessary, I didn’t need to but if you do, flour just slightly. For the challah loaf, punch the air out of each of the three parts of the dough and roll them into about a 20 inch long log.

3. Pinch three logs together at one end and braid them into a chain. Pinch the other end once you are done braiding and tuck the pinched sides underneath challah at each edge. Roll the braided challah gently like a snail into a round challah shape. Tuck the outside edge under the round challah gently.

4. Transfer to a parchment lined cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap and let double, in a cool place, about an hour.

5. To make the rolls, split into 8 or 9 equal pieces. Place all but one back into the bowl and cover. You will work with one piece at a time, keeping the others covered while you do so.
6. Roll the dough into about a 10 inch log and then flatten. You can use a rolling pin or just press it out with your hands (what I did).
7. Take some of the apple pieces and place them on the dough. Carefully fold over and pinch the dough closed. Give it a gently roll just to help seal up the seam.

8. Tie into a simple knot, repeat with each piece of dough.

9.Transfer to a parchment lined cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap and let double, in a cool place, about an hour.

10. Pre-heat your over to 350F.
11. Beat an egg and brush the risen challah and rolls with the egg wash.
12. Sprinkle the loaf with sesame seeds and the rolls with a little more apple pie spice and the maple sugar.
13.Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes and the loaf for 30-35 minutes, or until golden. You can bake them at the same time, there is no problem opening the oven and taking the rolls out when they are done.

Note: This bread freezes very well. When it is completely cool, just wrap well in aluminum foil and then place in a zip bag in the freezer. To thaw, take the bread out of the freezer and leave it unwrapped on the counter to thaw completely.

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