Caesar Dressing
I like to say that I’m a Caesar salad purist, and by that I mean that I subscribe to Julia Child’s account of Caesar Cardini’s famous 1924 innovation of tossing romaine lettuce leaves with little more than olive oil, coddled eggs, garlicky croutons, and grated Parmesan cheese. I strongly encourage all Caesar fans to read From Julia Child’s Kitchen (pages 431-434) to get the true story of the salad’s origins and the authentic recipe.
So, I like to say that I’m a purist. In practice, I hold true to the salad’s ingredients — olive oil, lemon, eggs, imported Parmesan, freshly cracked pepper, and worcestershire sauce — but prepare the dressing separately.
What is unfortunately beyond the pale for even a reformer like me is the Three Cheese Caesar Dressing from Beyond Classics (OK-Dairy certification).
The three cheeses are encouraging — Parmesan, Romano, and Caciotta — but ultimately the dressing is a flop. For a whopping $4.79, you get what amounts to 12-ounces of grainy lemon sauce. The original’s dash of worcestershire is misinterpreted in this dressing as — gasp! — “anchovies” and instead of eggs and olive oil they use sour cream and canola oil.
Thankfully, making the dressing from scratch is a cinch.
MILD CAESAR DRESSING
Pareve
• 1 egg, coddled*
• 1/2 cup pure olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
• 5 grinds black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
Crack coddled egg into a large bowl, and beat briefly with a whisk. Combine the olive oils. Then, while whisking expeditiously, slowly drizzle the oil into the egg. The mixture will get creamy and thick. (If you like washing small appliances, feel free to drizzle in your oil while the eggs are whizzing away in a food processor.)
Whisk in lemon juice, worcestershire, pepper, and salt. Makes approximately 1 cup dressing.
If serving in a dairy setting, toss torn romaine lettuce leaves with enough dressing to coat, then toss with garlic croutons and ample freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Alternatively, combine lettuce, croutons, dressing, and slices of grilled chicken breast for a great fleishig salad.
*To coddle an egg, bring a pan of water to a gentle boil and simmer your egg (in-shell) for exactly one minute. This brings up the temperature of the egg enough to theoretically kill harmful pathogens.
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Heart Problems
I received Nancy Baggett’s All-American Cookie Book
as a bridal shower gift, and it quickly became a favorite. The book is full of tempting recipes, entertaining cookie lore, and mouth-watering full-color photos. The first chapter, “How to Make Great Cookies Every Single Time,” has proven invaluable, and the first recipe I tried (called “Best-Ever Snickerdoodles”) made what are quite possibly the most delicious cookies I’ve ever tasted.
Continue reading Heart Problems »
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Cream of White Winter Vegetable Soup
Our record-breaking snowfall is already melting, but the weather is still cold enough for soup. Here’s a favorite in our family – Levana Kirschenbaum’s Cream of White Winter Vegetable Soup. Dried chestnuts make an interesting flavor addition. If you can’t find them, leave them out. This recipe is a starter recipe – once you get the hang of it you can mix and match vegetables. Last time I made it, I used rutabaga. Squash or Broccoli are naturals for a creamed soup, but you’ll have to change the name of the recipe :) . You can use chicken broth if you want, or make it dairy & use real cream or milk at the end. It’s a very hearty soup – enjoy!
1/4 cup olive oil
3 leeks, white parts only, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, diced
2 baking potatoes, peeled & cubed
3 small turnips, peeled & cubed
3 parsnips, peeled & sliced into 2″ chunks
1 cup dried chestnuts
1 whole celery root, peeled & cubed
2 cups soy milk
pinch of nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste
chives to granish
Heat the oil in a heavy pot and saute the onions & leeks until translucent. Try not to brown them. Add all of the vegetables and 2 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, and cook covered for 1 hour. Carefully blend the soup with a hand blender. Add the soymilk and seasonings and heat through. Do not allow the soup to boil after the addition of the soymilk. Garnish with chopped chives.
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Not all pareve white chips are made equal
Just a quick something I learned when making several batches of dried-cranberry cookies in the past month: not all pareve white baking chips are made equal. Specifically, the Lieber’s “Decorating Chips” available at many kosher shops should be avoided entirely. They have no flavor to speak of, and actually detract from the quality of the cookie.
We did manage to find an alternative with decent vanilla flavor — Oppenheimer-brand Shoko-Chips Lavan from Israel.
Perhaps in other parts of the kosher world there are more pareve chip varieties?
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Toldot Red Lentil Soup
In honor of this week’s parsha, here is a recipe for curried red lentil soup. We made it last year, and it was quite tasty (although I admit that we didn’t use these precise proportions for the seasoning). The recipe appeared in the Food section of the Boston Globe on February 2, 2004.
Curried red-lentil soup
(Serves 4)
1 1/2 cups red lentils
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Spanish onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1-inch piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon red chili powder
2 tablespoons cold water
1 can (14 ounces) diced tomatoes, drained
4 cups water
Salt, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley
2 scallions, finely chopped
1. Remove any stones from the lentils.
2. In a large casserole, heat the oil and cook the onion over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring often, or until it softens. Add the garlic and ginger, and stir for one more minute.
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the cumin, coriander, curry powder, turmeric, and red chili powder. Gradually stir in the 2 tablespoons of water and mix well. Add the spice mixture to the onion and cook, stirring, 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, lentils, and 4 cups of water. Bring the soup to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until it becomes a chunky puree.
5. Add salt and ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle with cilantro or parsley and scallions. Serve.
Variation: Reduce water by half and serve over rice.
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Indian Rice Pudding
According to Gil Marks, this coconut-cardamom rice pudding is a traditional Rosh HaShanah dessert among Indian Jews. As always, I can’t vouch for Marks’ accuracy, but I can vouch for deliciousness of this rich, sweet pudding.
You can substitute soy milk for up to half the coconut milk.
Kheer (Indian Rice Pudding)
2 cups water
1 cup white rice
5 cups coconut milk
1 1/4 cups sugar
6 cardamom pods or 1/2-1 tsp. ground cardamom
pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Bring the water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the rice, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, about 18 minutes.
Add the coconut milk, sugar, cardamom, and salt. Simmer, uncovered and stirring frequently, over medium heat until thickened, about 20 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Serve warm or chilled.
Yields 6-8 servings.
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Foolproof Matzo Balls
There are a number of ways to make matzo balls light and fluffy. This recipe uses beaten egg whites:
3 eggs, separated
3/4 cup matzo meal
1/2 tsp salt
Beat egg whites until stiff. Slowly beat in yolks. Fold in matzo meal and salt. Form into balls with a spoon and drop into boiling water or soup stock. Cover and simmer for 1.5 hours. Remove with slotted spoon so that all liquid drains off.
Yields 10-12 balls.
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Jewish Food Day in the Papers
The Wednesday before Rosh HaShanah has special significance: it is the day when the New York Times Dining & Wine section and the Boston Globe Food section go Jewish. Today’s Times features an article on kugel and an exceprt from Marcie Cohen Ferris’ Matzo Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales From the Jewish South, along with a recipe for “Rosh Hashana Jam Cake.” The Globe features an article on the expanding role of hekhshers in American life as well as a brief column on Rosh HaShanah with accompanying recipes. There is also, curiously, an article on a kosher restauarant in Madrid.
As expected, the articles are not particularly interesting or informative, but it is sometimes worth having a look at how Judaism in general, and Kashrut in particular, are reperesented in the mainstream media. Joe Yonan’s article on hekhshers seems generally fair and accurate, although the phenomenon on which it focuses — the deliberate selection of kosher products by consumers who don’t keep kosher — continues to strike me as absurd. The article opens with the story of an Episcopalian with a dairy allergy who seeks out “kosher parve” labels, and goes on to mention others who buy hekhshered products in the belief that they are safer, healthier, or more “pure.” Somehow it continues to escape people that hekhshers are not indications of health or safety, only kashrut. Those with dairy allergies would do best to read the allergy information now available on most packaged foods, which account not only for dairy ingredients and equipment, but also for the potential presence of airborne particles. (Lactose intolerate individuals, on the other hand, are best off looking for “lactose free” labels, which may appear on some products that are halakhically dairy.) Consumers concerned about pesticides, antibiotics, or the humane treatment of livestock should look for organic produce or free-range poultry, respectively. People who are worried about their health should read nutritional information. Only those concerned about the kashrut of their food should be looking for hekhshers.
Joan Nathan’s New York Times article bears the tantalizing title “Kugel Unraveled,” but fails to address the underlying philosophical question: what makes a kugel a kugel? Nathan mentions that the word “kugel” comes from the German word for “ball,” but her statement that kugel is traditionally round doesn’t really explain its etymology — a circle is not a ball. (In his World of Jewish Cooking, Gil Marks presents a somewhat more compelling explanation, though I can’t vouch for its accuracy. Originally, he claims, a “kugel” was a round dumpling made from flour or stale bread and cooked inside a pot of cholent. Eventually, the term came to refer to any baked dish prepared without water and held together by eggs and fat.) The article does, however, address such topics as the mystical qualities of kugel, and the accompanying recipes for “killer kugel” (milchig), Jerusalem kugel (parve), and broccoli-potato kugel (parve) are probably fabulous, considering that they come to us by way of the eminent Joan Nathan.
None of this year’s Rosh HaShanah recipes are actually treyf, but a number of the side-dishes and desserts (including the Globe’s apple cake and noodle kugel and the Times’ “Rosh Hashana jam cake“) are dairy, and therefore incompatible with fleishig holiday meals. The Globe’s recipe for carrot tzimmis can be made parve, however, and its “braised brisket with wine and tomatoes” doesn’t look half bad.
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Sweet Potato-Apple Tsimmis
This delicious is a major feature of Rosh Ha-Shanah dinners in my parent’s home, as it now is in mine. My mother originally found the recipe in the New York Times, which attributed it to Chabad, so it may be from Spice and Spirit. If you recognize it, please let me know.
This dish is best made at least a day ahead. Also good for Passover.
6 sweet potatoes
3 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into rounds or wedges
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup orange juice
grated zest of one orange
Peel and boil sweet potatoes 20-25 minutes or until tender when pricked with fork. Drain and let sit until cool enough to handle. Slice into rounds.
Combine with remaining ingredients in a 9×13 inch baking pan. Mix well.
Bake covered at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until apples are soft.
UPDATE: I checked Spice and Spirit, and the recipe isn’t there.
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Kahan Family Apple Pie
With Rosh Hashana not a month away, it’s time to break out the apple recipes. This one will be featured in an upcoming issue of the Jewish Advocate. It’s nothing terribly complex, just our tried-and-true formulation for apple pie. (Apple pie plays such a prominent role in my in-laws’ family celebrations that we served a giant apple pie at our wedding rather than cake.)
A few notes: we used to make apple pie with vegetable shortening, but this crust recipe which calls for margarine is easier to work with. Fleischmann’s pareve unsalted margarine works well, but use Earth Balance sticks to avoid hydrogenated nastiness. If you measure correctly and work quickly, the dough should come together perfectly in the food processor every time. As for apples, we always use a sweet apple that holds its shape, like a Cortland — you won’t find Granny Smiths in our pies.
KAHAN FAMILY APPLE PIE (pareve)
Dough:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
10 Tbsp. cold, unsalted margarine, cut into 1/2″ pieces
1/4 cup ice water
Filling:
8 apples, peeled and sliced
3/4 cup sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon (or more to taste)
1 egg, separated
Add dry ingredients to food processor and mix a moment to combine. Add the cold margarine pieces and pulse several times until the mixture has a texture of coarse meal.
With the machine running, gradually add the ice water through the feed tube just until the dough gathers together into a ball. Remove dough from processor, divide ball in half, flatten each half into a thick disk, and wrap each disk in plastic wrap. Chill for one hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Remove one dough disk from the refrigerator and unwrap it. Working quickly, roll it out on a floured work surface or between two sheets of wax paper. Dough sheet should be 1/8″ thick and a couple inches wider than your 8″ or 9″ pie plate. Lightly fold dough in half, then in quarters; transfer into your pie plate and unwrap. Trim the dough to allow a one-inch overhang.
Roll out the other dough disk as the first and set aside.
Combine sliced apples, sugar, and cinnamon. Brush bottom dough with egg white and pour in apple mixture to form mound. Place dough sheet over apple mound and seal (rustically) with fingers. Cut a few vents on the top of the crust, then brush lightly with egg yolk.
Bake for 35-45 minutes, until crust is golden and juices are visible at edges. Cool, serve, and enjoy.
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