jaynesb

Here is a recipe for Harris Ranch Pecan Drops. Good for Passover with no substitutions necessary. The hardest thing might be finding pure vanilla extract but even that is getting easier each year. They taste like pecan pie cookies. (brown sugar, egg whites, salt, pecans, vanilla.) Pam, everybody loved the mandel recipe you submitted last year. People raved about it. I also made and quickly ran out of the chocolate sparkle cookies. jayne

Alice Medrich has a bittersweet brownie-like filling. Haven't ever tried it though. It's in the "Year in Chocolate" book. jayne

I had a Heiwi cake lifter (from amazon site) made of plastic that I loved until it cracked. Until I figured out where to buy another, I used the edge of a cookie sheet. The cookie sheet edge was thinner and a little better at loosening some things. jayne

We've got some yummy ones here in the Indian food forum by Suvir Saran as well as others. A note of warning: dal is spelled in different ways. Suvir Saran's 5-lentil dal in the Daal/dahl/dal/dhal thread There are other ones to be found in the forum but if I remember correctly, it is hard to run the search on words with a small number of letters which is why I chose to search for the word "lentil". jayne p.s. I also recommend Suvir's cookbook.

This is a wonderful lentil dish. I think I learned about it here on eGullet. Here's the recipe for Musa's Eggplant and Lentil Stew with Pomegranate Molasses I think when I made it last, I doubled everything except the eggplant because some people in this household aren't as crazy about eggplant. A dish that can be served at any temperature is also very nice to know about. It's been too long since I last made it. Thanks for reminding me! jayne

I've been using the 5 quart Lodge oven (about $30-$40 at the Corningware outlet!) and the only thing that I would recommend is to make sure the lid is on properly. One time, the lid got slightly caught on the metal handle and it kept the lid from being seated properly. I don't think that loaf was as good as the others. jayne

Hello everyone, I know it's been a while since I last posted. I haven't been watching the forums as closely as I did before the summer because my life got a lot more complicated with Sisterhood responsibilities. Don't want to get into it because it's not really cooking related but it is keeping me from focusing on more interesting cooking. But I have enjoyed seeing what you all have been making and serving (as well as news of the get-togethers.) Anyway, just wanted to pop in and say hi and thank you to all of you for continuing to share some of your wonderful Shabbat meals. Kind of like a virtual invitation to a worldwide Shabbat dinner. jayne

There are many Indian recipes that might work if this is something your friend likes and depending on what spices and seasonings are ok. For example, a dosa is a type of crepe made from a mixture of rice and urad dal (a kind of bean). These get soaked in water and ground up then left to sit for a while so they ferment. The resulting crepe does not taste bean-y or in any way sour. There are a couple of topics and recipes in the Indian Cooking forum that discuss them. Another idea might be to look through some of those books for the raw food types. Not that everything would be good because they do tend to use a lot of nuts but you might get some ideas. jayne

When we moved into our house, we also had no option for a gas cooktop. There are no gas lines in our neighborhood. (Some neighbors resolved the problem by having propane tanks mounted outside their kitchens.) I think I burned everything I cooked for the first month we lived here. I have a better idea of what heat setting I need to use for certain things. (Even for my pancakes on the double griddle where I have a 2 different size zones and 2 different heat settings!) I think that the only thing that really didn't suffer is rice. (My method: bring it to a boil then cover it and lower the heat setting almost to nothing. The slow decrease in the residual heat works ok.) So I wish you luck and hope that you'll get used to the electric even if you never end up really liking it. I'm considering induction or part induction cooktop when I renovate my kitchen. I've been playing around with a countertop unit and it's been a wonderful help. I have a Sunpentown unit that was recommended by andiesenji in another thread. The only catch is that you need to have pans with magnetic bottoms and steam/smoke can be a problem if you don't have enough air circulation near your countertop. good luck jayne

This recipe for Gertel's Chocolate Babka appears in "America's Great Delis: Recipes and Traditions Coast to Coast" by Sheryll Bellman The quantities make about 10 loaves and I'm curious about the amount of yeast being used. I kind of adapted it by scaling it back to make only 2 loaves and found that I needed to add more flour but I thought that it was pretty good for a start.... better than lots of other recipes I've tried and I will definitely try making this again. Maybe make a half recipe instead of the quarter recipe I tried...... jayne

Here's a topic that might be helpful. There are a couple of suggestions in addition to my recommendation of the Lindsey Shere's almond tart (which is amazingly wonderful). Portable Dessert topic A more complete version of the recipe appeared recently in the San Francisco Chronicle. I should mention that my copy of the book suggests saving extra raw dough to patch any cracks that occur when the crust is blind-baked. Lindsey Shere's Almond Tart (in San Francisco Chronicle) jayne

Sort of like the frozen cheesecake, we use it on frozen-solid ice cream sheet "cake". Any nearby children are carefully moved out of the way first... This way, we ignore all that business about taking the cake from the freezer x number of minutes before serving and then watching it melt because we're not ready for the cake yet. I guess we're the only ones around here who do this because there's usually a collective gasp when we start cutting. We also use it for cutting pizza (on a wooden cutting board.) We just never got around to buying one of those pizza slicers. jayne

you're welcome Jayne! I'm happy you like the recipe. I'm also happy you didn't find the Jerusalem Post version which somehow missed the pecan in the ingredient list! It's now here. ← A post-seder thank you again. I'm still enjoying the biscotti, or what's left of them. They went over really well. They went on my cookie plate along with homemade candied orange peel, chocolate sparkle cookies (made with ucky-nasty margarine), some flourless cocoa, pecan cookies from a Payard recipe, and some pecan pie cookies (Harris Ranch Pecan Drops). I loved that people kept saying "I can't believe these are Passover desserts!" I used walnut/cranberry mostly because I already had pecan in other cookies and also because I couldn't find it preground and didn't feel like grinding it myself. (I'm wondering about that chocolate variation though. Would it work if I use cocoa or should I be adding ground up chocolate?) jayne

I had wonderful success substituting matzoh meal for whole wheat pastry flour in this James Ormsby's Whole-Wheat carrot cake . The recipe calls for some nuts but I think you could easily leave them out. I haven't played around very much with a zucchini version but everybody at our seder really liked this one. (Works fine as a single recipe in a standard cake pan but if you try to double it, I'd recommend a tube or bundt pan so it cooks through.) I do use Passover baking powder and baking soda for this recipe. Jayne edited to add remark about baking powder/soda ← Jayne, thank you SO much for this recommendation! I made the carrot cake for our 2nd Seder (held last night--go figure) and it was a HUGE hit. It weighs a ton, though--is that from all of the ingredients, or is it because there is matzo meal in it? Either way, we all loved it, and I wanted to thank you. Curlz ← I'm glad they went over well but I think I goofed on the ingredient substitution. Many apologies!!! I should have said matzoh *cake* meal. In any case, the cake is really very heavy whichever way you do it. I made two of them this year and they were really popular. (I made them in a ring-shaped paper pan, probably a pannetone pan but it saved on the cleanup.) I think I made them one year as mini-muffins for a pot-luck. (I'm only now recovering from seders and hosting my 102-year old grandmother for the past 6 days... not to mention taking care of my daughter who did a job on her chin right before the second seder and I'm just hoping that I shouldn't have gone for stitches!) jayne

I had wonderful success substituting matzoh meal for whole wheat pastry flour in this James Ormsby's Whole-Wheat carrot cake . The recipe calls for some nuts but I think you could easily leave them out. I haven't played around very much with a zucchini version but everybody at our seder really liked this one. (Works fine as a single recipe in a standard cake pan but if you try to double it, I'd recommend a tube or bundt pan so it cooks through.) I do use Passover baking powder and baking soda for this recipe. Jayne edited to add remark about baking powder/soda

try google with the following search criteria: chicken apricots currants "silver palate" +"bitter orange" A bunch of stuff comes back. (The only thing is that you can't always tell if someone has paraphrased something.) jayne edited to remove extra quotation mark

I've got a slim paperback by Betty Jung called "The Kopan Cookbook". She spent some time in the kitchen of the Kopan Monastery as part of the background for her book. I think it's out of print but you still might be able to find it. I think I've only used it once though....a long time ago but have always meant to use it more. (When I just tried google with "Betty Jung", some of her recipes as well as other Tibetan recipes came up.) You might find some recipes in books by Alford and Duguid as they've done a lot of traveling in that region. Hope this helps jayne

Might be time to raid the closet..... Otherwise it looks like you're in for 2 days of soup!! (Although the soups you've described on eGullet do sound absolutely yummy.) I have been acquiring things since we moved from an apartment to a house but much of what I have is the inexpensive IKEA stuff or TJ Maxx stuff. Those are the things I chose to buy. On the other hand, my mother has started bringing me all kinds of things now that I've started hosting seders. I still haven't figured out what to do with it all. (I'm still hoping she'll bring over my great-grandmother's glass measuring cup. It's round at the base and then gradually reaches a triangular shape at the lip and you can pour from the corners.) When I was single, I think I managed with 1 frying pan, a cutting board, 2 couple of bowls, and a Swiss Army knife. I still get teased about the Swiss Army knife but it worked for me, sort of. Then again, I mostly ate salads, matzoh brei, cheese/matzoh sandwiches, and yogurt in those days and rarely prepared a meal for anyone else. jayne

yeah, I've got a new and exciting recipe. It's one of Pam's and she didn't share it with us last year. (Shame on you, Pam but we forgive you. Doing that blog while getting all those catering orders out was pretty impressive.) Pam's recipes in the Jewish Journal I'm trying out some dessert recipes now (in my chametz kitchen) as a kind of dry run. I made the biscotti. and used walnut meal instead of the pecan because that's what I had on hand. My husband tried one, not knowing it was a Pesach-type dessert and commented that he likes my break-your-teeth-hard-as-a-rock biscotti better because these were more like a mandel to him. He was pretty surprised to hear that they were part of my practice runs and added that we should definitely have them this year. I'll try to locate Pesach cranberries or make some other substitution. Thanks Pam! (If you are permitted to add them to recipe gullet, I'm sure others would be happy.) jayne

Blovie, glad your wrist is better and hope it stays in good shape. OK everyone, don't laugh now but I just made chicken soup for the first time in my life. As a reminder, I've been a vegetarian since 1979 so it's never been really high on my radar screen . However, my husband isn't a vegetarian and my children aren't either (although they are a bit picky and do eat mostly vegetarian because that's what I mostly cook.) My husband is pretty good about it but I know he appreciates the meat meals when I make them. It's a bit tricky for me since I really have no idea what they taste like. He finds it very funny... the way I look at him while he's eating to see if I've made something edible. (We have had some spectacular failures for meat and non-meat meals.) So I made what most people consider a regular Shabbos meal but in my case, this was a really big thing...... chicken soup with matzoh balls pan roasted chicken breasts with an herb and roasted lemon pan sauce roasted veggies with thyme and garlic (my dinner) boston lettuce salad (lately, we've been using reduced balsamic on it's own as a salad dressing.) What a mess!!! The strainer I'd bought ages ago but never used had a wide, flat bottom and would have been great for rinsing veggies. It was not so great at straining out chicken soup. It all worked in the end though and was all very appreciated. The chicken even reheated well so I may consider serving it at the seder along with a type of brisket that I made on my first brisket attempt.

Jayne, if you feel you need a break from the tart, just change the herb used in the crust. Basil is nice and it turns the dough green. But chives would work or oregano, etc. ← We've got a bit of a variation this week. Included some cornmeal as well as some oregano as well as a garlic clove that started to sprout. (I've decided that it counts as a garlic chive.) Topping is going to be kale, zucchini, and cheese. Shabbat Shalom everyone. jayne

I've been trying out some not-so-well received stuff lately. This week was homemade challah (our newest favorite. The Kosher Palette's delicious challah recipe but with 1 cup whole wheat flour substituted for 1 cup of the white.) veggie matzoh-ball soup (well-received) butternut squash lasagna (not-so-well-received and leftovers tossed immediately) lightly cooked broccoli (and there are still constant requests for "the tart" which is pretty much anything on top of the thyme crust.) jayne

Must be some kind of weird coincidence but I've got a batch of gingerbread biscotti in the oven right now while I catch up on about a week's worth of postings. Anyway, I add some chopped crystallized ginger (bought from Trader Joe's) as well as some chopped almonds. I usually toast them first but didn't this time. The only reason I chop them is that I find it easier to slice the logs later and I don't like getting a whole almond in a slice. I tried a bunch of other recipes first but this is the one I'm sticking with and I've made it about 3 or 4 times so far. Gingerbread biscotti jayne p.s. Whatever you bake in your oven next may end up gingerbread-scented

I've made these greek potatoes (roasted with garlic, lemon, and oregano) . Not sure if this is the kind of thing you are looking for but they are really good. Whenever I make them, they seem to need more cooking time than is specified. Also, I've had good results with red skinned potatoes as well as yukon gold. I preferred these to using the baking potatoes specified in the recipe. jayne

I've had a bunch of experiences where the cashier casually glances at similarly packaged items and punches in a quantity and scans one of the items. The most recent was for jumbo size cans of Planters brand nuts at one of the food warehouses. One can was peanuts the other was mixed nuts (and once opened, turned out to be mostly peanuts anyway). Both cans are blue metal with a yellow plastic lid. The price difference was $5.00 and the can that got scanned was for the more expensive mixed nuts. I don't think the cashier even tried to understand what I was saying but he pointed me off to customer service where the problem was immediately resolved. (Had there been a long line at customer service, I would have been a lot more annoyed than I already was.) jayne