Well, it's been freaking forever, but since I've been home for three weeks I figured I might as well say something about keeping kosher just when you think it is impossible. I think I promised to do this when I created this Blog.
Here are some ideas:
TACO NIGHT. There are a ton of kosher taco shells out there. Chop up lettuce into as small of strips as you can, chop up tomatoes, smoosh an avacado, grate some cheese if you have it, buy some Mexicorn, and get the fake-meat veggie Mexican-spiced bean and beef stuff (try and heat that if you can). And then host a taco bar!
Buy some fresh salmon. Seriously. It's the best thing you can do. Make sure the skin is still on and cut off any part that may have been cut with an unkosher knife. Grill it and put it in a salad. Mmmmm.
Do not go to the "kosher" section of your regular supermarket. You will cry. If you do, get sparkling grape juice, it is divine.
There are a lot of pareve pudding mixes! Caution: They do not set with rice milk.
Popcorn kernals!! You can pop them in a regular pot if you shake it constantly. Fleishman's margarine is pareve if you plan on having a heart attack by thirty, you can melt it over the popcorn, with some fresh garlic...
I don't have any recipes for you now, I was really lazy this vacation (the most ambitious thing I did was buy a LOT of parsley to put it in everything). I'm in Colorado and the altitude makes me very sickly and lethargic. I might be back here on the blago-blag when I get back to New York, though, and my red blood cells are raring to go and I'm all ambitious with side projects, as I tend to be in the summer! Stay tuned my dears!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Friday, August 29, 2008
Be Very Jealous
Just thought I'd quickly check in and let everyone know of the Friday night meal I'm making with friends. It's not pareve. I just wanted to make everyone jealous:
-Cream of Mushroom soup (thyme...bay leaves....4 kinds of mushrooms...mmmm...)
-Freshly-baked challah
-Guacamole
-Greek Salad
-Salmon with Tzatziki Sauce (a Greek strained yogurt/cucumber/dill sauce)
-Spinach souffle
-Sushi my roommate got for free because she got to Milk and Honey right before it closed
-Chocolate chip cookies
Have a good one!
-Ilana
-Cream of Mushroom soup (thyme...bay leaves....4 kinds of mushrooms...mmmm...)
-Freshly-baked challah
-Guacamole
-Greek Salad
-Salmon with Tzatziki Sauce (a Greek strained yogurt/cucumber/dill sauce)
-Spinach souffle
-Sushi my roommate got for free because she got to Milk and Honey right before it closed
-Chocolate chip cookies
Have a good one!
-Ilana
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Apartment 10 Salad
Whew! It's been a busy week - starting a new semester and a new job. I haven't had a lot of time to either cook or write about cooking. I pick up this free magazine here in New York, and they had a section this week on classes people who are out of college can take. One of them was a class on how to write about food, and the appeal of it was "Everybody eats, and nearly everybody can write." I would like to counter that with - not everyone is inventive. That's why you need Ilanica's food blog. That very inventiveness served me well while in seminary. The school food was awful, and Israeli meat made me super sick (that's when I stopped eating meat - though there were other reasons involved. If you've ever eaten a meal with Gil Locks in the Old City of Jerusalem you probably know half of them.) Luckily, vegetables were edenic and pretty cheap. So for dinner every night I would go to Yoram's Fruit and Vegetable store, pick up some delicious fresh produce shipped in locally from the kibbutzim of Northern Israel and the Galilee, and return to my apartment to see what I could muster. Of course, it was different every time, but usually, it retained a distinct flavor, based on my own preferences, and my hungry friends would flock to my apartment to share the spoils. I have other creations (thanks to Yoram) that are unique to my time in Israel and in my apartment (dorm) there, but my salad was the particular thing that people seemed to talk about.
Even now, when they visit me and I make some lunch and it's a salad, they taste it and wistfully say, "Oh, this reminds me of Israel! It's apartment ten salad!" (If you were in Israel with me, imagine that said in Esther Faigy's idiosyncratic admiring voice).
Fruits and vegetables are actually a tricky thing in Israel. In biblical times, all your produce needed to be tithed for the scholars and priests. We don't do that anymore, obviously, but within the boarders of the biblical land of Israel, very specific percentages are separated and not used, in rememberence of very specific things. The Cohanim tithe, the Levi'im tithe, the tithe the Levi'im gave to the Cohanim...the tithe our biblical ancestors set aside to be eaten only in Jerusalem, and of course, the tithe for the poor. Fruits and vegetables are considered unkosher in Israel if they haven't been through this process before they're sold or used in restaurants. So ironically, it can be harder to keep kosher in Israel, but also in some ways it can be more meaningful. Thankfully, I wasn't there in a Sabbatical year, where no produce from Israel is allowed to be used at ALL, to give the hardworking soil a rest every seven years. I would have starved.
So! Anyway. While it's hard to make a salad into a recipe, especially because my measurments are usually pretty imprecise, I'm going to try and list here some of my favorite salad toppings and attempt to quantify my methods:
-Firstly, the lettuce. People are generally divided into two distinct and loyal parties - tearing vs. chopping. I would like to take this opportunity to vehemently declare my allegiance to the chopping camp. For some reason, it tastes so much better - maybe because the crispness is more evenly distributed, or because it gives it this uniform aesthetic that is the constant amid the chaos of the randomly interspersed vegetables. So, chop that Romaine lettuce. Sometimes I'm in the mood for larger pieces, but generally, a smaller strip works great. Too small and it's shredded, though, and that's only good for tacos. Mixed greens are also GREAT. Sometimes I mix them with the shredded Romaine, especially if they cost a lot. I love the textures, colors, and consistencies of the standard spring mix (which makes me ideally qualified to be impressed by Barak Obama...if any of you remember his argula comments a few months ago, I thought that was quite funny).
-I always put in tomatoes and cucumbers, the standards. I generally cut them quite small, Israeli-style. My favorite is Roma tomatoes - they generally ripen all at once so you have more of the tomato that's perfect and red and juicy. I also leave the peels on the cucumbers, because I'm lazy.
-ALFALFA SPROUTS. Not the icky chinese-food style sprouts they like in Israel. I hate those.
-Avacados. Always and forever.
-Sometimes I put in peppers, of any color, cut into little cubes.
-Okay, you may not go for this, but I always put fresh garlic in my salads. I cut it verrrrry small (one of my apartment-mates told me that this means I will make a good wife, presumably because I'm patient. Hear that gentlemen? If you marry me, your garlic will always be properly minced!) and toss it in with the rest of the salad. I read in a fancy cookbook that you're supposed to cut a garlic clove in half and rub it in the bowl before putting the salad ingredients in it. I thought it was a good idea, but I actually never do it for some reason.
-Red onions baby. If you keep them in the fridge it won't hurt your eyes to cut them.
-Sometimes I put mushrooms in the salad - sometimes portabella, if Yoram had them that day.
-I almost always put some sort of nut in my salad. I prefer walnuts - chop them so they're not huge and mix them on in. Slivered almonds (unslivered work too) are great. Sunflower seeds are a great addition. So are pine nuts.
-I really hate sweet stuff in salad. Strawberries do not belong in a savory salad, nor do craisins. I know that a lot of people seem to think it makes the salad gourmet, and I guess what works works, but please don't let the regular-old savory vegetable salad die, it's too wonderful!
For dressing I like the standard fresh lemon juice, olive oil, balsalmic vinegar thang. With as many fresh herbs as it makes sense to buy - but parsley is my absolute favorite for salads. As is cilantro. I actually don't think I ever learned a lot of the names for a lot of herbs in Hebrew, so I think I may have used some things that I do not know the name for in English but were pretty good.
So that's my apartment ten salad. I hope that name sticks. I hope you all save the mangos for dessert, at least once or twice, and not stick them in a perfectly good lettuce salad.
Also - one Miriam from California purpotedly tried my Physics Fry-Fest, and according to one Rivka, one Miriam's sister, it rocked. I'm still waiting for testimonials...
Even now, when they visit me and I make some lunch and it's a salad, they taste it and wistfully say, "Oh, this reminds me of Israel! It's apartment ten salad!" (If you were in Israel with me, imagine that said in Esther Faigy's idiosyncratic admiring voice).
Fruits and vegetables are actually a tricky thing in Israel. In biblical times, all your produce needed to be tithed for the scholars and priests. We don't do that anymore, obviously, but within the boarders of the biblical land of Israel, very specific percentages are separated and not used, in rememberence of very specific things. The Cohanim tithe, the Levi'im tithe, the tithe the Levi'im gave to the Cohanim...the tithe our biblical ancestors set aside to be eaten only in Jerusalem, and of course, the tithe for the poor. Fruits and vegetables are considered unkosher in Israel if they haven't been through this process before they're sold or used in restaurants. So ironically, it can be harder to keep kosher in Israel, but also in some ways it can be more meaningful. Thankfully, I wasn't there in a Sabbatical year, where no produce from Israel is allowed to be used at ALL, to give the hardworking soil a rest every seven years. I would have starved.
So! Anyway. While it's hard to make a salad into a recipe, especially because my measurments are usually pretty imprecise, I'm going to try and list here some of my favorite salad toppings and attempt to quantify my methods:
-Firstly, the lettuce. People are generally divided into two distinct and loyal parties - tearing vs. chopping. I would like to take this opportunity to vehemently declare my allegiance to the chopping camp. For some reason, it tastes so much better - maybe because the crispness is more evenly distributed, or because it gives it this uniform aesthetic that is the constant amid the chaos of the randomly interspersed vegetables. So, chop that Romaine lettuce. Sometimes I'm in the mood for larger pieces, but generally, a smaller strip works great. Too small and it's shredded, though, and that's only good for tacos. Mixed greens are also GREAT. Sometimes I mix them with the shredded Romaine, especially if they cost a lot. I love the textures, colors, and consistencies of the standard spring mix (which makes me ideally qualified to be impressed by Barak Obama...if any of you remember his argula comments a few months ago, I thought that was quite funny).
-I always put in tomatoes and cucumbers, the standards. I generally cut them quite small, Israeli-style. My favorite is Roma tomatoes - they generally ripen all at once so you have more of the tomato that's perfect and red and juicy. I also leave the peels on the cucumbers, because I'm lazy.
-ALFALFA SPROUTS. Not the icky chinese-food style sprouts they like in Israel. I hate those.
-Avacados. Always and forever.
-Sometimes I put in peppers, of any color, cut into little cubes.
-Okay, you may not go for this, but I always put fresh garlic in my salads. I cut it verrrrry small (one of my apartment-mates told me that this means I will make a good wife, presumably because I'm patient. Hear that gentlemen? If you marry me, your garlic will always be properly minced!) and toss it in with the rest of the salad. I read in a fancy cookbook that you're supposed to cut a garlic clove in half and rub it in the bowl before putting the salad ingredients in it. I thought it was a good idea, but I actually never do it for some reason.
-Red onions baby. If you keep them in the fridge it won't hurt your eyes to cut them.
-Sometimes I put mushrooms in the salad - sometimes portabella, if Yoram had them that day.
-I almost always put some sort of nut in my salad. I prefer walnuts - chop them so they're not huge and mix them on in. Slivered almonds (unslivered work too) are great. Sunflower seeds are a great addition. So are pine nuts.
-I really hate sweet stuff in salad. Strawberries do not belong in a savory salad, nor do craisins. I know that a lot of people seem to think it makes the salad gourmet, and I guess what works works, but please don't let the regular-old savory vegetable salad die, it's too wonderful!
For dressing I like the standard fresh lemon juice, olive oil, balsalmic vinegar thang. With as many fresh herbs as it makes sense to buy - but parsley is my absolute favorite for salads. As is cilantro. I actually don't think I ever learned a lot of the names for a lot of herbs in Hebrew, so I think I may have used some things that I do not know the name for in English but were pretty good.
So that's my apartment ten salad. I hope that name sticks. I hope you all save the mangos for dessert, at least once or twice, and not stick them in a perfectly good lettuce salad.
Also - one Miriam from California purpotedly tried my Physics Fry-Fest, and according to one Rivka, one Miriam's sister, it rocked. I'm still waiting for testimonials...
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Food, The Sabbath, And The Jewish-Wonderbread: Union Challah
On the simplest level, I look forward to the weekends because it means no more school, no more work, and plenty of free food as I go enjoy Shabbat meals with friends. I could leave it at that, but I think that there is more to it. There's something deeply edifying about sharing a spiritually inspired meal with other people, something Pavlovian about slurping hot soup on a Friday night while listening to words of Torah.
I love bread. Making it, eating it, giving it to others - the experience of Challah is the closest food preparation comes to Jewish spirituality. Jews have the custom of separating part of the dough and dedicating it to G-d, in remembrance of the food tithes given to the priests in the time of the temple. Ritual hand-washing for the bread is also a tribute to the priest's spiritual purity and the sanctity of the tithes. In keeping with all this holiness, I like to keep my bread as heavenly as possible. Seeing as bread, to me, also bespeaks such a social experience, my recipe is a conglomeration of little secret ingredients that many of my dear friends and women throughout my experiences in different Jewish communities have confided makes their challah incredible.
Union Challah: The Jewish Wonderbread
This is called Union challah because while the recipe for this has been cooking in my brain over the years, it was mostly executed in my teeny little kitchen on Union Street in Brooklyn. I don't know if a little kid has ever tried it, but if they did, they would probably deem it "too healthy". It definitely has a very wholesome texture, but is also very sweet and satisfying.
Don't ask me why, I'm not sure, but you actually don't have to knead the dough. That means this challah has everything: incredible taste, is quick to prepare, is healthy, integrates mind, body, soul... that's a lot for a little piece of bread.
Here's what you're going to have to have:
3.5 cups of warm water
2.5 Tablespoons of dry yeast
3 Tablespoons of honey
1 Tablespoon of salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup of olive oil
2.2 pounds of whole wheat or spelt flour (I usually combine the two depending on what I have)
1/2 cup of wheat germ
1/2 cup of oatmeal
1/2 cup of honey
A sprinkling of orange rinds (optional)
What to do:
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and honey. Add half the flour with one one of the eggs, the salt, and the oil - stir well and let sit for a half an hour.
Add the rest of the flour, along with the wheat germ, oatmeal, honey, and orange rinds. Feel free to go crazy with the honey, even if it changes the texture entirely - I've noticed the more I put in, the absolutely tastier it is. Also, if you don't put enough honey in, then this bread can get very dry and it's no fun anymore. So use your judgment. (Have you noticed yet I'm obsessed with honey?)
Let the dough rise in an oiled bowl for about an hour or so.
Separate a fistfull of dough, proclaiming "This is challah - Harei Zeh Challah!"
Then say the blessing: "l-hafrish challah" (http://www.chabad.org/library/howto/wizard_cdo/aid/363331/jewish/6.-Separating-Challah.htm)
Then burn that little bugger in tin foil. The women of the Bat Ayin community in Israel have a tradition of surrounding this ritual with lots of singing, dancing, and joy. In deference to them, I usually hum under my breath and grin. Do what you please.
Shape into rolls (the texture is usually too weird for me to braid it, alas) and coat it with a mixture of egg yellows and honey, then top with oatmeal for decoration.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.
Separating Challah is actually the only part of cooking (besides for following all the precautions to make sure the food doesn't have any unkosher ingredients or was in contact with an unkosher surface or equipment) that involves a Mitzvah - spirituality, religious rite...and hey! Gender issues! Our favorite topic. The idea of mitzvot being gender-specific is a sort of touchy one - and though I suppose it overlaps in some sort of way with a blog about food and religion, I think the connection is far enough that I shouldn't be expected to explain it. Suffice it to say that women are associated with this particular mitzvah (along with family purity and lighting Shabbat candles). There a lot of explanations about this, and if you peruse chabad.org, you'll definitely find them. They read something along the lines of: women are special, women are nurturing, women are holy. I don't disagree with that, but I would like to decline trying to either differentiate or superimpose my individual feelings toward the mitzvah and what one may assume may be the general female population's feeling toward the mitzvah. Suffice it to say, in Jewish tradition, cooking and baking traditional Jewish foods is usually done by women, and is the woman's way of passing Jewish tradition throughout the generations. Women are far more involved in recieving the scholarly aspect of Judaism today, but men generally have less interest in integrating themselves into the world of traditional Jewish foods. I would like to encourage them to join us in the kitchen by all means. Remembering ancient temples and spiritual purity while kneading bread can be just as an important a task in perpetuating and celebrating Judaism as cracking a Talmud. If the gender lines be blurred, let them be blurred!
Hope everyone has a peaceful Shabbat!
-Ilana
I love bread. Making it, eating it, giving it to others - the experience of Challah is the closest food preparation comes to Jewish spirituality. Jews have the custom of separating part of the dough and dedicating it to G-d, in remembrance of the food tithes given to the priests in the time of the temple. Ritual hand-washing for the bread is also a tribute to the priest's spiritual purity and the sanctity of the tithes. In keeping with all this holiness, I like to keep my bread as heavenly as possible. Seeing as bread, to me, also bespeaks such a social experience, my recipe is a conglomeration of little secret ingredients that many of my dear friends and women throughout my experiences in different Jewish communities have confided makes their challah incredible.
Union Challah: The Jewish Wonderbread
This is called Union challah because while the recipe for this has been cooking in my brain over the years, it was mostly executed in my teeny little kitchen on Union Street in Brooklyn. I don't know if a little kid has ever tried it, but if they did, they would probably deem it "too healthy". It definitely has a very wholesome texture, but is also very sweet and satisfying.
Don't ask me why, I'm not sure, but you actually don't have to knead the dough. That means this challah has everything: incredible taste, is quick to prepare, is healthy, integrates mind, body, soul... that's a lot for a little piece of bread.
Here's what you're going to have to have:
3.5 cups of warm water
2.5 Tablespoons of dry yeast
3 Tablespoons of honey
1 Tablespoon of salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup of olive oil
2.2 pounds of whole wheat or spelt flour (I usually combine the two depending on what I have)
1/2 cup of wheat germ
1/2 cup of oatmeal
1/2 cup of honey
A sprinkling of orange rinds (optional)
What to do:
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and honey. Add half the flour with one one of the eggs, the salt, and the oil - stir well and let sit for a half an hour.
Add the rest of the flour, along with the wheat germ, oatmeal, honey, and orange rinds. Feel free to go crazy with the honey, even if it changes the texture entirely - I've noticed the more I put in, the absolutely tastier it is. Also, if you don't put enough honey in, then this bread can get very dry and it's no fun anymore. So use your judgment. (Have you noticed yet I'm obsessed with honey?)
Let the dough rise in an oiled bowl for about an hour or so.
Separate a fistfull of dough, proclaiming "This is challah - Harei Zeh Challah!"
Then say the blessing: "l-hafrish challah" (http://www.chabad.org/library/howto/wizard_cdo/aid/363331/jewish/6.-Separating-Challah.htm)
Then burn that little bugger in tin foil. The women of the Bat Ayin community in Israel have a tradition of surrounding this ritual with lots of singing, dancing, and joy. In deference to them, I usually hum under my breath and grin. Do what you please.
Shape into rolls (the texture is usually too weird for me to braid it, alas) and coat it with a mixture of egg yellows and honey, then top with oatmeal for decoration.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.
Separating Challah is actually the only part of cooking (besides for following all the precautions to make sure the food doesn't have any unkosher ingredients or was in contact with an unkosher surface or equipment) that involves a Mitzvah - spirituality, religious rite...and hey! Gender issues! Our favorite topic. The idea of mitzvot being gender-specific is a sort of touchy one - and though I suppose it overlaps in some sort of way with a blog about food and religion, I think the connection is far enough that I shouldn't be expected to explain it. Suffice it to say that women are associated with this particular mitzvah (along with family purity and lighting Shabbat candles). There a lot of explanations about this, and if you peruse chabad.org, you'll definitely find them. They read something along the lines of: women are special, women are nurturing, women are holy. I don't disagree with that, but I would like to decline trying to either differentiate or superimpose my individual feelings toward the mitzvah and what one may assume may be the general female population's feeling toward the mitzvah. Suffice it to say, in Jewish tradition, cooking and baking traditional Jewish foods is usually done by women, and is the woman's way of passing Jewish tradition throughout the generations. Women are far more involved in recieving the scholarly aspect of Judaism today, but men generally have less interest in integrating themselves into the world of traditional Jewish foods. I would like to encourage them to join us in the kitchen by all means. Remembering ancient temples and spiritual purity while kneading bread can be just as an important a task in perpetuating and celebrating Judaism as cracking a Talmud. If the gender lines be blurred, let them be blurred!
Hope everyone has a peaceful Shabbat!
-Ilana
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The Birth of Delightfully Pareve: Physics-Fry-Fest
I was exchanging food websites with a friend today and realized: I should start a food blog! I used to want to start a blog and make it about my opinion concerning politics. I realized this was a bad idea when I went to blogspot to try and figure it out and got so angry planning out my first post I couldn't see the screen clearly enough to navigate my way through it. Now that I got the idea to make a food blog, I have gotten this far, so that must be a good thing.
A few things about me and my blog:
My name is Ilana.
I observe the laws of Kashrut in pretty much their strictest possible interpretation - pretty badass, no?
I live in Brooklyn.
I hail from Texas.
I love to cook, especially from scratch and especially healthy stuff.
The pareve-er the food, the better (the reasons for which I hope to espouse in later posts) (pareve means no dairy, meat, or poultry in kosher-speak)
On this blog I would love to talk about:
-How awesome it is to keep kosher.
-How Judaism and Chassidut address issues of health and well being.
-How awesome pareve food can be.
-How living in New York is really great, particularly food-wise.
-How to keep kosher creatively when you're in places like rural Germany, a hotel room in Tel Aviv, on a plane to San Francisco, or in a family member's house who does not observe the laws of Kashrut. (all of which, actually, I have experience with)
-How cooking can be a calming experience. A creative experience. A bonding experience. In some cases, a holy experience.
-Issues of money when trying to keep kosher and eat healthfully.
-How sweet potatoes are probably the best thing, like, ever.
-Anything else I feel like talking about. If I talk about politics, feel free to laugh me out of town.
So without further ado, I'll start with my first recipe!
Physics Fry-Fest
The idea for this recipe came to me when I was taking a physics course this summer. A six-week long, hellishly fast-paced and cerebral physics class. My hippocampus had had about enough of its boot camp and demanded I abandon it in search of something creative, tactile, and dinner-like. I had salmon that was not fully thawed, some veggies, and a pantry with my usuals. The result was the Physics Fry-Fest (unnamed until this moment). It didn't take terribly long to make and it gives you a whole lotta energy and nutritious stuff.
What you'll need:
Stir fry-stuff:
-Fresh garlic, chopped super small
-Fresh onions, diced
-Red peppers, diced
-Shittake mushrooms, clumsily chopped because you're thinking about simple harmonic oscillations)
-Salmon - I love fresh salmon, but any will do - at least mostly thawed. Cut it up into small, bite-sized pieces: it will cook!
-If you want - zucchini is good in this. Cut up into cute little pieces.
Stir fry sauce:
-Olive oil (enough to cover bottom of pan, and then in addition, I use about a fourth of a cup or so, depending on how many veggies there are)
-Honey (about half as much honey as olive oil)
-Soy sauce
-A teaspoon each of cumin and ginger (if you have fresh ginger, I'm sure that would make it even tastier)
-Pepper to taste (the soy sause should have enough salt)
And fry it!
My mother always has a specific order to her stir-fries, putting the things that will take longer to cook in first. I don't do this, and it usually serves me just fine. My advice would be to do what your mother tells you.
You don't have to mix the sauce before you add it to the stir-fry - as long as you're continually stirring as you add the ingredients of the sauce it should end up fabulous.
I serve this over organic mixed greens with chunks of fresh tomato and some fresh lemon or lime juice. Rice would also be a great thing to heap this beautiful creation atop.
The brocha you say on this can be tricky - if you are eating it mainly for the salmon, say a "shehakol" (http://www.chabad.org/library/howto/wizard_cdo/aid/699748/jewish/Shehakol-Blessing-audio.htm). If you're eating it for the veggies and the salmon just happened to be in there, say a "ha-adama" on the veggies (http://www.chabad.org/library/howto/wizard_cdo/aid/699747/jewish/Vegetables-Blessing-audio.htm). If you really like both equally, like me, say the veggie brocha first and then shehakol on the salmon.
ENJOY!!! Spread the word about this glorious blog, and come back tomorrow for a new recipe and post!
Betayavon -
Ilana
A few things about me and my blog:
My name is Ilana.
I observe the laws of Kashrut in pretty much their strictest possible interpretation - pretty badass, no?
I live in Brooklyn.
I hail from Texas.
I love to cook, especially from scratch and especially healthy stuff.
The pareve-er the food, the better (the reasons for which I hope to espouse in later posts) (pareve means no dairy, meat, or poultry in kosher-speak)
On this blog I would love to talk about:
-How awesome it is to keep kosher.
-How Judaism and Chassidut address issues of health and well being.
-How awesome pareve food can be.
-How living in New York is really great, particularly food-wise.
-How to keep kosher creatively when you're in places like rural Germany, a hotel room in Tel Aviv, on a plane to San Francisco, or in a family member's house who does not observe the laws of Kashrut. (all of which, actually, I have experience with)
-How cooking can be a calming experience. A creative experience. A bonding experience. In some cases, a holy experience.
-Issues of money when trying to keep kosher and eat healthfully.
-How sweet potatoes are probably the best thing, like, ever.
-Anything else I feel like talking about. If I talk about politics, feel free to laugh me out of town.
So without further ado, I'll start with my first recipe!
Physics Fry-Fest
The idea for this recipe came to me when I was taking a physics course this summer. A six-week long, hellishly fast-paced and cerebral physics class. My hippocampus had had about enough of its boot camp and demanded I abandon it in search of something creative, tactile, and dinner-like. I had salmon that was not fully thawed, some veggies, and a pantry with my usuals. The result was the Physics Fry-Fest (unnamed until this moment). It didn't take terribly long to make and it gives you a whole lotta energy and nutritious stuff.
What you'll need:
Stir fry-stuff:
-Fresh garlic, chopped super small
-Fresh onions, diced
-Red peppers, diced
-Shittake mushrooms, clumsily chopped because you're thinking about simple harmonic oscillations)
-Salmon - I love fresh salmon, but any will do - at least mostly thawed. Cut it up into small, bite-sized pieces: it will cook!
-If you want - zucchini is good in this. Cut up into cute little pieces.
Stir fry sauce:
-Olive oil (enough to cover bottom of pan, and then in addition, I use about a fourth of a cup or so, depending on how many veggies there are)
-Honey (about half as much honey as olive oil)
-Soy sauce
-A teaspoon each of cumin and ginger (if you have fresh ginger, I'm sure that would make it even tastier)
-Pepper to taste (the soy sause should have enough salt)
And fry it!
My mother always has a specific order to her stir-fries, putting the things that will take longer to cook in first. I don't do this, and it usually serves me just fine. My advice would be to do what your mother tells you.
You don't have to mix the sauce before you add it to the stir-fry - as long as you're continually stirring as you add the ingredients of the sauce it should end up fabulous.
I serve this over organic mixed greens with chunks of fresh tomato and some fresh lemon or lime juice. Rice would also be a great thing to heap this beautiful creation atop.
The brocha you say on this can be tricky - if you are eating it mainly for the salmon, say a "shehakol" (http://www.chabad.org/library/howto/wizard_cdo/aid/699748/jewish/Shehakol-Blessing-audio.htm). If you're eating it for the veggies and the salmon just happened to be in there, say a "ha-adama" on the veggies (http://www.chabad.org/library/howto/wizard_cdo/aid/699747/jewish/Vegetables-Blessing-audio.htm). If you really like both equally, like me, say the veggie brocha first and then shehakol on the salmon.
ENJOY!!! Spread the word about this glorious blog, and come back tomorrow for a new recipe and post!
Betayavon -
Ilana
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