Here’s what I’ve been up to

I still haven’t told you about my recent trip to California. Truth be told, I haven’t even uploaded my photos.

Here’s the sneak peek: I saw friends, we ate. A lot. Far more is advisable for one person. You’ll hear more about it shortly. And, by shortly, I mean another month from now.

In the meantime, I’m in planning mode. I’ve booked two more trips, one to Boston and another to Edinburgh and London. Both motivated by weddings and both homecomings of some sort. To say I’m excited is an understatement. I’ll get to those details soon enough as well.

I’m taking my time here—bear with me as the first time I didn’t: carnage.

When I was planning the menu for my Jewish Deli Brunch, challah seemed a necessity. And, the recipe I had was simple enough, downright easy because I was using a blender to combine the dough. Nothing I hadn’t done before. Except that I wasn’t paying attention and stuck my hand directly into the blender. I’m putting that in bold to stress just how stupid this was.

What followed wasn’t pretty. Because of the location, the cut wouldn’t stop bleeding. And, as if that wasn’t enough, there was blood was everywhere. And, yet, I still thought that the bread may be salvageable. I was filled with good ideas that morning. And, losing time to pull off what was starting to seem like an impossible task, particularly since I had to meet my sister—we were seeing The Lady from Dubuque. If you know anything about this play, then you’ll know that this is exactly the kind of show you want to avoid when you’re weepy from having nearly severed your finger tip because of sheer stupidity.

I arrived at the theater after trekking through several avenues in the rain—why is it on days like that, it’s always raining?—armed with a first aid kit and, still slightly worse for the wear. Except, when I started to tell her what happened and produced my mummified finger and pack of neosporin, it was all somewhat absurd. And, so, she bought me a coffee and that was that. And, then Edward Albee was in the audience. And, well, by the time the play was over, I was ready to make another challah.

Consider yourself warned: I’m going to get a little Pollyanna-ish and tell you that there’s a lesson here. There usually is, and this one’s important. It’s about knowing what’s salvageable and taking note. The first challah wasn’t, but the day was.

There’s another lesson here, too, albeit somewhat more obvious: don’t stick your hand directly into a food processor.

Challah
Recipe adapted from Nick Malgieri

5 cups all purpose flour, plus additional set aside for dusting.
1/3 cup refined sugar
2 tsps kosher salt
1 cup warm water (110 degrees Fahrenheit)
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more set aside
3 large eggs (2 for the challah, plus one set aside for egg wash)
1 egg yolk

Optional: sesame seeds or poppy seeds

Place water, yeast, 1 TBS of water in a small bowl. Whisk and set aside for approximately ten minutes. The mixture should foam slightly. In another bowl, combine 2 eggs, one yolk, and then oil. Set aside.

Place the flour, remainder of the sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix with a dough hook to combine the ingredients. Add in the yeast mixture, and the egg and oil mixture. Mix with a dough hook on a low setting, until the dough forms a loose ball. Let it rest for five to ten minutes. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead lightly to form a ball. Invert it into a well oiled blow, turning it to cover all sides with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for approximately an hour, until the dough has doubled in size.

Turn the rested dough out onto a floured surface, pressing with the palm of your hands to deflate. Divide the dough into 3 separate pieces, rolling each into a cylinder 12-15 inches long. Arrange the stands side by side on a parchment lined baking tray. Begin braiding the strands from the center outward. Pinch each end to seal the stands together, turning the pinched ends under the loaf.

Cover with oiled plastic warp and set aside to rise for at least an hour, until it is doubled in size. When the loaf has almost doubled in side, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, setting the rack at the middle level. Make egg wash, by beating the remaining egg.

Brush the egg wash on the top and sides of the challah. If you are using sesame or poppy seeds, sprinkle them on top of the uncooked challah.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the top of the loaf is golden brown and the internal temperature of the challah is 210 degrees Fahrenheit. Transfer to a rack to cool. Wait at least 30 minutes before cutting.

Makes one loaf

On Movement

Last weekend was one of movement. No, not by me. Quite the contrary.

A dear friend of mine left the city. While another moved into the neighborhood (or, close enough at any rate, being two blocks south and only a few more west). Me? I stayed put owing to some serious jet lag exacerbated by substantial flight delays. There’s a laundry list of things that I should have done. A week later, and it’s no smaller. I was going to write it out—then, thought the better of it, as it would be overwhelming to me and boring to you, and that seemed unfair to us both. That’s the kind of woman I am.

I am, apparently, also one who makes things more difficult for myself—if you know me personally, this is no surprise.
What I’m getting at is that I had a nice ending to this very post planned. I was going to tell you that there’s was pot of stew currently bubbling away on my stove and how although it wasn’t quite the season, I was justified since Spring continues to play hide-and-seek. It’s grey out this morning, and I still feel slightly justified in all of this, and I think would be enough to help me make the transition to getting back to work and getting things done. Only, it’s not true. And, it’s lazy writing.

It all comes back to the shoulds, as in, I should have told you about this soup ages ago—when I first made it, and it was weather appropriate and making a connection to my daily life would not have been forced. Never mind that, oddly, soup is one of my ultimate comfort foods and I think nothing of eating it in the height of summer, with the AC on full blast.

The truth? I made this soup because I had the ingredients on hand for something else that I should have made. Getting to things in a timely matter doesn’t seem to be my strong suit currently. I’ll get there. Until then, here’s a recipe for kale and chorizo soup, which is perfect for a day like this one, when there are so many shoulds that you should be doing that the process of doing any seems insurmountable. I’m thinking about making another batch now.

Kale and Chorizo Soup
Recipe adapted from Emeril Lagasse

2 TBS olive oil
1 pound chorizo, cut into 1/2 slices
1 cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 large white potatoes, peeled and diced
3 quarts of chicken stock
4 cups kale, rinsed, stemmed, and cut into 1-inch strips
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
Pinch of crushed red pepper

In a large stock pot, heat the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the chorizo and onions. Saute the mixture for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and potatoes and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the stock and kale and bring the liquid up to a boil. Stir in the bay leaves, thyme and crushed red pepper. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and skim off any fat.

What’s happening right now…

.is that I am thinking about beginning to think about packing.

I am not making much progress otherwise.

On Thursday morning, I’ll board a plane and head back to San Francisco. I’m going here:

Or some place near as similar at any rate. I haven’t planned much. That’s the whole point.

You won’t hear from me in the mean, but at least this the time the excuse is one marked by exploration, excitement, and any number of effusive other words beginning with the letter e. I won’t be gone long, really. Barely enough time for it to count. By Tuesday morning, I’ll be back in New York. Wednesday: back to a day filled with meetings. Still, it’s something. My hope is that getting away will still be just the thing. And, when I return, I’ll be refreshed, ready to share more recipes with you and tackle those long delayed projects. The very real ones, like cleaning out inboxes and closets and the metaphorical ones. And, my hope is that, maybe, just maybe, I’ll find that still space before leaning forward into the next crazy venture beneath the skies*.

My hope is that you’ll be here when I get back to writing regularly soon enough.

*ten points for you if you know the reference.

And, on the Sixth Day

What I really want to tell you about it bread, in all it’s shapes and sizes. Of leavening agents, the benefits to using Aluminum-Free baking powder (in sort, it just makes things taste better).

I haven’t forgotten about sharing the recipes from my recent Jewish Deli Brunch with you. I’m counting down, until I can tell you about them.

It’s just that talking about challah and knishes during Passover feels somewhat sacrilegious. Also, mouthwatering, in case you were

Typically, during the holiday, I’m fine until around day six. This year, it found me waiting for a table in a local pizza place with a friend. Only, I couldn’t do it. It was too reminiscent of two years ago when I waited for an hour for a table at Lombardi’s only to order salad. It a bit of a long story, and one that’s rather uninteresting, except to say that the smell of yeast was intoxicating, and suddenly, I felt like a petulant child, complaining that the holiday was too long. Not a proud moment. The thing about getting to the sixth day is the end is almost in sight. Almost, but not quite—it’s close enough that you simply have to grin and bear it. And, try to convince yourself that matzoh isn’t at all that bad.

It’s really not, actually, when you have other options. And, for that matter, there’s no reason to wait until Passover to have Matzoh Brei. It may even be more enjoyable.

My version follows below. Expect some recipes for leavening agent laden things shortly. First, I’ll need to gorge myself on bread.

Matzoh Brei

2-3 boards Matzoh
2 eggs
1 small onion
1 tsp olive oil
salt
pepper

Break the boards of Matzoh into several large pieces, place in a bowl and cover with water. Allow to stand 10-12 minutes, until the matzoh is soft. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Once the matzoh has softened, strain out the water and combine the matzoh and eggs.

While the matzoh is softening, dice the onion into small pieces, and begin to saute them in olive oil over a low flame, approximately 10-15 minutes.

Once the onions become translucent, add the matzoh and eggs to your pan. Saute over a medium heat for approximately ten minutes, until the matzoh begins to break up and brown.

Eat immediately.

Serves two

The Apotheosis of Arrogance

I’ll say this: it takes a certain kind of person to see a recipe from a well respected pastry chef and think, I can do that better.

Probably the same sort of person who goes to a bakery to buy ingredients for the sole purpose of recreating their recipe or goes through the trouble of making homemade marshmallows. (Sorry, folks, there will be no recap for that one. Just a statement: it’s an even sticker process that you think.)

There are names for people like me, none of them flattering.

In my defense, by better I meant better suited for a very specific dinner party I was hosting. In this case, I was looking for something that combined the flavors of Mexico and Japan. No small feat, until I was flipping though The Perfect Scoop. Then, inspiration: Sweet Potato Ice Cream.

While I can’t claim that my version of sweet potato ice cream was better than the original, it certainly did a good job of hitting all the right notes. Plus, it went really well with Mexican Chocolate Cake. I’ll share that recipe soon. I promise.

Naturally by soon, I mean sometime within the next year.

Sweet Potato Ice Cream
Adapted, very generously from The Perfect Scoop

The most notable adaptations I made here were roasting the potatoes, first, to help deepen the flavor, and omitting the pecans. I’m sure they would be lovely, and, in fact, that version might make it onto my Thanksgiving table.

1 pound sweet potatoes
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice
pinch sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Piece the sweet potatoes, and roast for 45 minutes, until they are soft. Allow them to cool and then remove the flesh from the skins.

Pour the heavy cream, milk, brown sugar, sweet potatoes, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt into a blender, and puree until the mixture is smooth. Add lemon juice to taste. Press the mixture into a strainer to remove any pulp.

Chill the mixture, then freeze it in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Freeze until ready to serve.

In case you were wondering…

.this is what I look like at my most relaxed.

There’s that moment in cooking process when you’re no longer focused on the mechanics of cooking, you’re just doing.

Sort of.

If I’m being completely honest, about two hours before this photo, I was on the phone with my mother asking for more precise instructions. I had never cooked corned beef before, and I was hours away from hosting a crowd of fifteen. The chicken soup you see off to the side was my Plan B.

I should know better.

After all, this isn’t the first time, I’ve done such a thing. So, rather than cooking as a form of meditation, this was baptism by fire. Wait—that’s a poor choice of words.

Moving on.

I’d say there’s not much to it—and to a certain degree, that’s true. But, I think that has to do with good instruction. With having someone to guide you. Largely the point for me of cooking the nostalgic foods, in fact.

Really, though, there isn’t much to making corned beef well. Just two essential steps: the first boil, designed to get rid of a lot of the impurities, and the final bake, which gives a nice crust. Then, there’s the waiting. It’s worth it, not least if you have a crowd of fifteen waiting hungrily to eat…

Corned Beef

1 beef brisket, fat trimmed (4-6 pounds)
pickling spices (if you buy packaged corning beef, use what’s included. Otherwise, you should use a combination of red pepper flakes, mustard seeds, garlic, and black peppercorns)
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup grainy mustard

Place the beef brisked in a large pot and fill it with water. Bring to a boil. Once the water is at a rolling boil, strain the corned beef from the pot, rinsing it off. Refill the pot with water and corned beef, adding in the picking spices and bay leaves. Boil for 2-3 hours depending on the size of the beef.

In the last half hour of boiling, preheat an oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix the honey and mustard together.

Remove the beef from the pot, pat dry and place in a baking dish, fat side down. Using a pastry brush, cover the corned beef with the honey mustard mixture. Bake 20-25 minutes, until a crust has formed. Allow the meat to rest for ten minutes before slicing.

Serve with rye bread and mustard.

I have no excuses.

It seems sort of ridiculous to be posting another recap when so many others are as of yet unfinished. There was that brunch at the start of the year. Then the East Meets [South] West dinner that I had planned. One of the out-of-towners from the aforementioned dinner has already been back in touch, and I haven’t even begun to share the Sweet Potato Ice Cream Recipe with you. And, there was the dinner party for a friend’s birthday where I neglected to take a single photo.

What can I say? It’s been a whirlwind, at best. And, I’m not good at managing my time.

I’ve managed, however, to do more cooking. You’ll forgive me, I hope, if I share with you a series of photos from the latest—a Jewish Deli Inspired Brunch.

What if I give you a cocktail, too? Maybe two.

Ok, good then, that should assuage some of my guilt.

The menu, then:
Chicken Soup with Matzoh Balls (or, Kanidela, as we call them in my family)
Rye Bread
Challah
Knishes, two ways (Classic and Spinach)
Corned Beef
Black and White Cookies
Rainbow Cookies (adapted from this recipe)

To drink:
Cel-Ray Tonics
Not quite Manischewitz Cocktails
Assorted Dr. Brown’s Sodas

And, as promised: the cocktails. Almost a year ago, I alluded to my plans for the first in this post. It’s a boozy twist on a deli classic: Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray Tonic.

Cel-ray tonic is one of those things, like violet candies or marmite, that you either get or you don’t. Although I’ll never quite understand the appeal of marmite, I’m firmly in the “for” camp when it comes to the voilets and the cel-ray. Of course, I’m also of the school of thought that there is very little that cannot be improved upon with a good splash of booze. So, consider these Cel-Ray tonics my elevation of the classic. Bright green, floral, and surprisingly refreshing, the gin adds some subtle floral notes, you’ll want to use one with a stronger flavor—I like Tanqueray for this one—otherwise the gin flavor will get a bit lost.

Speaking of which—Manischewitz.

If ever there was an alcohol designed to put me off alcohol, this was it. At my temple, when you were Bat Mitzvah-ed, you were given a Kiddush cup and expected to say the Kiddish at the Shabbat Service the night before your Bat Mitzvah service. I lived in fear of this. It wasn’t the Hebrew—that, I had under control. It was the wine. It was cloying and harsh and the smell—I’ll just say this: I didn’t realize for many years that wine could taste good.

And, yet, as I get older, I’m finding myself more nostalgic—I still don’t want to drink Manischewitz, but the scent takes me instantly back to being thirteen in a sanctuary on Long Island, horrified as my cantor told me that I hadn’t poured enough wine into the Kiddish cup and trusting that I could count on my father to drink the balance. Keep reading for a cocktail that captures the scent and that you’ll actually want to drink.

Cel-Ray Tonics
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
2 celery stalks, with leaves still attached
1 cup celery juice
1 cup gin
Seltzer

Bring 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar and 2 celery stalks to a boil to make a simple syrup. Strain the celery and refrigerate the simple syrup.

Once the syrup has cooled, combine it with the celery juice and gin in a large pitcher. Top off with seltzer to taste.

Makes 6-8 drinks

Not quite Manischewitz Cocktails
1 oz Concord Grape Vodka
1 oz simple syrup
6 oz seltzer
splash of lime

Mix the first three ingredients together, serve over ice and finish with a splash of lime.

Makes one drink