Pam R

Meat Kreplach Like the knish, a kreple (singular of kreplach) is a product of a peasant people trying to stretch ingredients they had on hand. Older chickens (mature/soup/stewing) provide more flavour to chicken soup but once boiled are drier and tougher than young chickens. So after the chicken has been used to flavour the broth, it made sense to find another use for the meat. My grandmother would have never considered throwing out the meat. To make this dry, taste-reduced meat into something that was tasty and filling, the solution was to mix in some flavour and moisture, wrap it in a dough and add it to the broth. Adding boiled potato to the ground up chicken works as a stretcher - but also adds some moistness and binding properties. As is often the case with peasant foods, kreplach were first made to save money and use what was on hand and available. Now they are made for those reasons and because they are so well-loved. There is no question that it takes some time to prepare these - but they are worth it. The dough recipe creates an almost silky mouth-feel in the end-product. Cut into a kreple and you expose an oniony, meaty filling. The finished product far out-weighs the time it takes to make these - and they freeze beautifully, so you can make a large batch and enjoy it over a couple of months. You should make two dough recipes for one batch of filling. Dough This is a simple dough. You'll need: 3 C. flour 2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. baking powder 1/3 C. canola/vegetable oil 1 1/4 C. warm water Place the flour, salt and baking powder into a stand mixer or a food processor: Place the lid on and turn the machine on, combining all of the dry ingredients. With the machine running, slowly add the oil: And then the water: At this point the dough was a little too wet and sticky, so I added about 3 Tbsp. of flour (which is sprinkled on top of the dough in this photo): After adding the flour, I let the machine work until the dough formed a ball. The final dough should be moist, but not wet or sticky. I also made a batch in my stand-mixer with a dough hook: Both doughs - place each one on a piece of parchment and cover with plastic wrap. The dough should relax for at least an hour. These doughs rested for about 2 hours on the counter before I used them. There was no discernible difference between the two doughs: Filling Ingredients: 1 lb. boiled chicken - mixture of white and dark 2 small or 1 large red potato, peeled and cut into chunks 1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped 3 Tbsp. schmaltz 1 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. black pepper 3/4 to 1 C. chicken stock First thing to do is cook the onions. The best thing to cook the onions in is the schmaltz that I reserved from making the chicken soup (though you can use a mild vegetable or canola oil). Melt the schmaltz in a frying pan: Add the onions and sweat over medium-high heat: This process can take a little while (25-30 minutes). If you find that they're browning too quickly, lower the heat. They should cook long and slow. In a couple of minutes these onions will be done: The ingredients are ready to be put through the grinder. The potatoes were placed in a pot, covered with cold water and placed over high heat. They simmered until they were fork-tender then drained and set aside. Use a grinder (with coarse blade) to grind the chicken, potato and fried onions. You can do this in the food processor, but I prefer the texture achieved by the grinder. Ground up and ready for some moisture and seasoning: Add the salt, pepper and chicken stock and mix together. At this point I generally abandon the spatula and knead the filling with my hands. It should stick together and be moist, but not wet. Taste and check for seasoning. When the filling is ready, I use a small ice-cream scoop to form equal size balls of filling. The scoop is approximately 1 Tbsp. Assembly: Dough A very relaxed dough, ready to be rolled on a floured table with a floured rolling pin: Rolled out to approximately 1/8 to 1/4 -inch. Cut with a 2" round cutter: The scraps can be used again. Gather the scraps together, wrap them in plastic wrap and let them rest a minimum of a 1/2 hour before using. Place one ball of filling on each circle of dough: Pick up one piece of dough with the filling and fold it in half: Pinch the dough all the way around the edge. If the dough doesn't stick together you can try one of two things. Either flour your fingers before you pinch, or brush the inside of the dough with some water (or both). Once pinched it should look like this: Then bring the two ends together, forming a circle and pinch them together: Continue with the rest of the dough and filling until all have been assembled. Place them on a well-floured baking sheet as you go: Cooking: Bring plenty of water to boil with some salt and a splash of oil: Before you start cooking the kreplach, get a bowl, colander/strainer and a slotted spoon ready: Once you've added them, the kreplach will float to the top of the pot almost immediately. After they have all floated to the top, simmer another (1) minute: Use a slotted spoon to pull the kreplach out of the water, and place them in the colander. If you are eating them right away, add to chicken soup and serve. Because the batch makes so many, you'll probably want to freeze at least some of the kreplach. Rinse them in cold water and toss with a little oil. Place them in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment and freeze. Once frozen you can transfer them to freezer bags. If you've frozen the kreplach, when you ready to eat them, thaw and then rinse to remove the oil. They can then be warmed up either in a pot of boiling water or right in the chicken soup. A bowl of chicken soup with meat kreplach:

Chicken Soup ...or Jewish penicillin. There is nothing in this world that evokes memories of my childhood more than the aroma of chicken soup wafting through the house as it simmers slowly on the stove top. If you grew up with a Jewish mother (or grandmother), it’s likely that you’ve experienced this yourself. If you didn't, now is the time to try it yourself. My grandmothers have long passed away, but their soup-making technique has passed down through my parents to me. I continue to prepare soup in the same ways that they did so that I can recreate their perfect broth and my childhood memories. Making stock, broth or soup from poultry is not a new concept. There are many recipes and techniques, including this great lesson in the eGCI. What I've included below is my family's method. Important points for perfecting your chicken soup: You can’t abandon the pot as it cooks. You must be vigilant in the shaming (skimming). All impurities must be removed from the pot as they bubble and foam to the top. The flavour is in the bones. It’s best to use chicken pieces that have a high ratio of bones to meat, such as necks and wings. If you will not be using the meat from the chickens, don’t bother using whole birds. We will be using the meat, so a mix of whole chicken and extra bones works best. If you are using whole chickens (and not just bones), use old chickens. For soup, chicken is usually sold as ‘mature chicken’, ‘fowl’, ‘stewing fowl’ or simply ‘soup chicken’. These chickens are old and tough - but they have more flavour. Don’t rush the process. It takes some time to extract all the potential flavour the chicken is offering up. Don’t waste it. To start your own batch of broth, you’ll need: Equipment: 1 stock pot (16 qt.) with lid 1 stock pot (10 qt. or larger) 1 ladle 1 slotted spoon 1 knife 1 cutting board 1 vegetable peeler 1 strainer Ingredients: 1 mature chicken, cut in half (4 lb.) 2 packages chicken wings (2 lb.) [if available, replace half of the wings with chicken necks] 2 chicken backs (the carcass leftover from deboning chicken breasts) (1 lb.) 8 qt. cold water 1 large or 2 small yellow onion 4 celery stalks 4 medium carrots 2 medium parsnips 1 bunch fresh dill salt to taste Prep the chicken: Wash the chicken. Kosher chicken is notorious for having a lot of pin feathers left in the skin - remove what you can, but don’t become overly stressed about it. In the end the skin will be removed and the soup with be strained so any extra pin feathers won’t harm the final product. If you buy a whole chicken, remove any organs and ‘extras’ and use for something else. Place the chicken pieces into the 16 qt. stock pot. Add the cold water: Set over high heat and bring to a simmer. Give the pot a stir every few minutes - before it achieves a simmer the chicken will start to release some of it’s impurities. The skimming process will take a while. Don’t abandon it or the soup will become murky. Moving along... the water is just coming up to a simmer. Use the ladle and/or slotted spoon to carefully skim the foam and froth from the top of the pot. Continue skimming until most of the scum is gone. I don't have to get every last bit of scum at this point, because when I add the vegetables they will release more impurities. Keep skimming until the soup looks something like this (it may take 40-50 minutes to get to this point): You can see some of the fat has been released by the chicken, and most of the foam has been removed. While the pot is simmering and in between skimming the soup, prep the vegetables. Here they are unprepped: And now peeled, washed, prepped and ready for the soup (including the celery leaves): Add the vegetables (everything but the dill) to the pot: Allow the soup to come back to a boil, skimming off all the impurities until the pot looks something like this: Place a lid on the pot, leaving it open just a crack. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 1 hour. Add the dill and simmer another 1 1/2 hours. After cooking the meat for about 3 1/2 hours and the vegetables for 2 1/2, they have given up as much flavour as they're going to. It's time to strain the solids out of the liquid. Place a strainer (chinois-style is best) so that it sits at the top of another stock-pot. I like to grab any large pieces of chicken or vegetable with a pair of tongs before pouring the soup through the strainer. It also helps to use a ladle to start transferring the soup to the strainer. Continue to pour or ladle everything into the strainer until the original pot is empty. At this point I like to taste the soup. Realizing that I haven't added any salt yet, now is the time to see whether the soup has enough flavour. For this batch I decided that it wasn't quite there yet, so I returned it to the stove and simmered, without a lid, for 30-45 minutes, until it had reduced and the flavour increased. So I am left with one pot of hot stock which has yet to have the fat removed: A container with the whole chicken pieces (2 legs, 2 breasts), some carrots I've reserved to serve with the soup and a cook's treat - 2 necks sprinkled with kosher salt. After reducing the soup, taste it again and check for seasoning. Up to this point, I haven't added any salt. I won't give you quantities for salt because: If you're using kosher chickens, they've been salted in the kashering process, so will need less salt than non-kosher chicken. Depending on how much you've reduced the soup, the amount of salt you'll need will be different. You will need to add less salt to more reduced soup. Everybody likes different levels of salt. Just don't forget that salt helps to enhance the other flavours. The best thing to do is taste it and season it to suit your taste. Once it's reduced enough and seasoned the way you like it, get it into the refrigerator to chill. As the soup cools down, the fat will rise to he top and solidify: Use a spoon to carefully remove the fat from the soup. I prefer to use a metal spoon with a 'sharp' edge. Try not to leave any of the fat on the soup. After I removed the fat/schmaltz (and reserved it), I ladled the soup into 1-qt. containers for storage. I ended up with just over 6 quarts. The picture doesn't capture the soup's consistency. It doesn't set up like Jello, but the cold soup has some body to it and isn't completely fluid. The soup can be refrigerated or frozen in these containers. Another option is to fill plastic freezer-bags and freeze flat. Heated and served with reserved carrots: The soup can be served as is, but is good with the additions of rice, egg noodles, freshly cooked vegetables, matzo balls, soup mandlen (croutons) or meat kreplach. Click here for my Meat Kreplach Demo

We carry beef neck bones and sell them for stock making. People are doing it - even if they're not writing about it.

That's such a sad story I'm pretty sure I'm on record up-thread about using shortening and non-dairy marg. instead of butter. I'm using Earth Balance Sticks for almost all my cookies (when butter is called for) and they are fantastic.

I forgot that I have a recipe in RecipeGullet for Blueberry Soup. Another thing I love with blueberries is pear. A simple blueberry/pear crisp is always good. Blueberry blintzes... or buns.

I'm not fond of places like the Forks on holidays like Canada Day. And the city itself doesn't have a beach, but in a province with 100,000 lakes, they aren't far away! I would go to Winnipeg Beach which is located about an hour north of the city on the shores of Lake Winnipeg (it is the 11th largest freshwater lake in the world - larger than Ontario and Erie and home to a big fishing industry). But you could go to any number of lakes within a couple of hours of the city. But I suppose for those wanting to stay closer to town, they could go to Birds Hill Park and have a picnic on that beach for Canada Day.

Add 2 for me please! (one on picnic foods and one on Mediterranean cooking)

Same question, different year. We're less than a week away. I'm thinking of one of three things - a day trip up to Winnipeg Beach for some fried pickerel; another grilled hot dog, hamburger, chicken or steak meal; or something completely different. Pulling out the butane burner and having hot pot on the deck (I'd be just a little concerned that a Canada Goose would land in it ) Can't decide. Any interesting plans this year?

pineapple is good with chocolate. very good.

I too suffer from the Safeway by 7 get one free Starbucks ice tea addiction (Passion though). *sigh* They make it much too convenient. Dinner looked great! I'm thinking I should go for Vietnamese tonight...

I'm sorry, but you can never have too many blueberries!! Pancakes, coffee cakes, pies, sauces, soups, throw them in salads, blueberry shortcakes and best of all, just eat them by the handful! I differ from Susan in one thing - when we used to pick blueberries, we always picked through them and washed them. Lay them out on paper towel to dry before freezing in a single layer - then pull them out throughout the year to make more pies, cakes, sauces, etc.

I have not received any surveys ..

I second the tomato juice for thinning. I make some very nontraditional Gazpachos that really have no right to be called Gazpacho, but I do anyway. Favorite one uses melon (honeydew and cantaloupe) onion, red pepper, cucumber, fresh lemon and lime juice and lots of herbs. Very refreshing.

And I spent a summer drinking my well documented watermelon juice You must eat a fresh hot potato bureka somewhere. Or cheese. Ah hell, have one of each.

About 15 years ago I got very sick while travelling - sick enough that it left me with various issues that I will always have to live with. If I'm travelling to a location where I have any concerns, I'll stick to bottled water only - even for brushing my teeth. I won't eat vegetables or fruit that don't have a hard peel unless they're cooked and I'm very cautious about what I eat altogether. I'd rather be more carefree about the issues, and not be a nervous nelly, but with the experience I've had, I just won't risk it. And don't forget that Immodium is a traveller's friend.

I really don't think that one needs a holiday to give a food gift to a lucky recipient. In fact, isn't it much nicer to receive an unexpected homemade gift in .. say... July or August? Miriam, I'd love to know about the cherry liqueur too.

It's been many years, but I have fond memories of felafel from a stand on Dizengof in Tel Aviv. It's not just a sandwich, it's an all-you-can-eat buffet!

Let me second Lori's comment. Lovely. Do you think my Canadian Geese would care for some home-baked sourdough?

Umm.. I think I may stick with my method!

It's called a kettle . thanks for the explanations. I keep a 2 L pitcher of iced tea going in the fridge - but I use the electric kettle to boil the water, pour it over 4 tea bags (usually tazo passion) and leave it for a couple of hours. I need to get a jar and wait for a sunny day to compare the two!

I saw the show when they aired it on FoodTv Canada. Definitely worth catching if you get the chance.

Can you tell me more about sun tea? I've never had tea made in the sun and am wondering if there's a notable difference between that and the iced tea that I make using a kettle at home. Is there any difference at all? PS: Unless you make it just for an excuse to take a picture of that glorious view. Then of course, it makes all the difference in the world!

Hang on ... the premise is that having Rocco involved will ease the tension involved in a stressful situation? did the producers watch The Restaurant?

Marlene, sorry about your loss. Your menu sounds great. We do a lot of shiva meals - and the most appreciated things are generally desserts and snacky things (fruit, muffins, etc. are great because they can be eaten in between guest calls and after napping, etc.). It sounds as though you've consulted with others - and that's important. And you've gone to the trouble to take into consideration all the likes/dislikes. You have very lucky friends, who I know will appreciate anything you bring them.

Dinner tonight was Cheese Blintzes (Jewish Crepes?). Started making the rounds. Batter is very thin - eggs, water, salt and just a little potato starch. Using a small, nonstick pan - lightly brushed with oil every other time. They're only cooked on one side at this point, then turned onto a baking sheet, cooked side-up, between layers of wax paper. Unlike other crepes, these will stick together and tear easily. Filling is mixed with a paddle - ricotta, dry cottage cheese, an egg, salt and a little sugar: Roll up some filling in each round (fold the ends in, or you'll have cheese everywhere). The outsides of the rolled blintzes are the uncooked side - so now they must be browned (also allowing the filling to heat through). In a mix of butter and canola oil: And served with sour cream and strawberries in syrup (as they must be):