Miriam Kresh

I like gefulte fish if it's not too sweet, but matzah is just a trial to get through every Passover. Save for matzah brei, that I enjoy. However, I think you have to be a native of Venezuela to eat mondongo - otherwise known in other Latin countries as menudo. Greasy, bright yellow, stinky mondongo! Yech! People eat it for breakfast, after a night's heavy drinking, oy vey. After seeing people drink all night and breakfast off mondongo, then go to sleep, and wake up again sometime next day, I am a firm believer in the resurrection of the dead. Miriam

Pam and Michelle, Yes, it's bleedin' hot here in Petach Tikvah. We survive going from air-conditioned space to air-conditioned space. If I can get the family up to Tsfat for a couple of days...the Klezmer festival will be on in about a month and it promises to be a lot of fun this year. The turkey shwarma was a large, entire piece of meat with the skin on it and a big bone. It was the first time I had seen shwarma cut like that. It looks like the slabs of turkey that the shwarma places stack up on the rotisserie spit, one on top of the other, although of course their meat has been deboned. The turkey had marinated in garlic, shallots, merlot, basil and a little olive oil overnight before being roasted, so it was very flavorful. I sliced it thinly like a roast of beef, and we wound up making hot sandwiches out of it at the table. It was quite good with salad lettuce made tangy with vinaigrette, a little mild mustard and sliced tomatoes. This week's challah experiment had produced bread with a firmer crumb than the usual soft, sweet challah, so it held up well for sandwiches. I grew a little nostalgic for the hot sandwhiches I used to buy in Rio de Janeiro in the pre-kosher Bad Old Days - hot barbequed meat topped with a slice of rich, fresh pineapple. I don't miss the treif, but the combination of hot meat and the pineapple, well, it was good. Hey - the hot turkey and tomato was good too... Miriam

Shabbat night dinner was a stuffed, roast chicken - stuffing was diced sweet potatoes, dried cherry tomatoes, onions, sage, thyme, S&P, cooked briefly in chicken broth and then well mixed with sourdough bread cubes (I'm still finding ways to use up bread leftovers). Turkey wing soup, several small meze-type salads. Shabbat lunch was an entire turkey shwarma with the bone, marinated in herbs and merlot, which gave it the ghastly purple color of coq au vin but was tasty all the same, and baked rice/zucchini. Lettuce and tomaotes in vinaigrette. Pretty simple all around, but it took it out of me to produce. The July heat, probably. Miriam

I also have the "overcook"...affliction. For my part, I think it has to do with being in denial over the fact that my house has less people in and out than there used to be. My big kids are grown and on their own, some of the elders have passed away, most of our friends live in other towns. The company around the table is reduced, but not my cooking. When I cook, like Janet I go on auto pilot, and find myself ruefully facing way too much food in the end. But I'm pretty good about portioning out the excess and freezing it. And NOT cooking lots of fresh stuff till at least some of the frozens have been consumed. For me the solution to over-buying at the farmer's market is to make wine. Just about anything ferments; it's just a question of what you're willing to experiment with. Herbs make good cooking wines; sweet vegetables make amazingly fruity, subtle sipping wines. Can't warm up to the idea of beet wine, though. I make a wine I call Summer's Lease, with 4 kg. of the odds-bods of frozen fruit I've accumulated over June, July and August (bananas, peaches, cherries, apricots, berries, apples, all kinds of dead-ripe fruit I slice and freeze so as not to let it go to waste). It turns out pretty good. I would make more than one batch, except that it embarrasses me to admit how much of fruit I've overbought. Miriam

I love artichoke leaves dipped into plain melted butter with a little salt and pepper in it. Then swirl the heart around in the butter. The taste of the vegetable all by itself is delicious, and then with that drop of butter...divine. Miriam

The worst meals I've eaten have been served at restaurants and eateries. That is to say, we're all pretty serious eaters and cooks, and I don't recall anything really disastrous at my family's tables. But I have served some real failures - soggy, pasty gnocchi comes to mind, as does a potato/mushroom casserole based on a buttermilk sauce - the worst part was how kind everyone was about it. On a somber note, my cooking totally awry over the month following my Dad's death. A person's cooking often reflects his state of mind, doesn't it? Miriam

Janet, Yes, I'd like to see the recipe for pickled lemons. My building has one tree, it produces abundantly every fall. No one else harvests the fruit much, so I do. It would be nice to have something else to do with those lemons besides squeezing & freezing the juice. And you're right, dried lemons wouldn't work in a really humid climate. Even along the more humid coast, the weather here allows us to fool around with home drying. Miriam

I sometimes make quinoa pilaff for a change. Millet, I could never like; it tastes cheesy to me somehow, and not in a good way. Then I read that people with under-active thyroids shouldn't eat millet - that's me, and maybe that's why it doesn't taste good to me. There is a lot of wild amaranth growing around here, and I keep saying I'm going to pick the grains and dry them out to cook...but I don't. Maybe I'll try some supermarket amaranth (oh shameful). Not too worked up about it. I consider our diet adequate in protein, and make everyone take supplements of minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants because Some of Us won't eat their vegetables. Miriam

Janet, The friend who taught me to make verdurette says its a Provencal seasoning. I must say, I had never heard of it either, although I can't claim to have done the kind of research you do. Those tomato figs sound wonderful, as do Pat's preserves. Alas, I'm the only one who will eat preserves and pickles in the family - well, once in a while someone might try a little chutney, as a favor. I make small quantities just for myself and guests, and for gifts. I've sometimes allowed lemons to just dry out by themselves over a couple of summer's weeks. They shrink and go hard, but don't spoil. Later on, you can just rinse one and pop it into a stew (old-fashioned, heavy stews like cholent are the better for the lemon, I think), or break it up and add half to a pot of tea. Persian dried lemons and limes are available in the shouk, but they are very expensive, and these home-dried ones are just as good. Miriam

It sometimes happens that you find yourself looking at a big load of vegetables and wondering how to use them before they go to waste. For me this happens in the springtime when I unpack more leafy greens out of my CSA box than my family can eat in one week. The solution is verdurette, a blend of vegetables preserved in salt. It's a versatile instant flavor boost, and stays good in the fridge for 1 year. And it really uses up garden abundance. The way I learned to make it is like this: 1 part alliums - onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, spring onions, chives. I love garlic, so a lot of my allium part is garlic, with smaller amounts of onions and the rest. 1 part root vegetables: celeriac, carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, parsley root, etc. Not recommended: beets. 1 part aromatics: parsley, cilantro, celery, a tsp. or so of fresh or dried sage, thyme, etc. 1 part leaves: lettuce, wild greens, beet greens, kale, chard, whichever leafy greens you have on hand. Not recommended: cabbage. Unless you love sourkraut. 1 part table salt. The salt preserves the vegetables. Use the food processor to chop the vegetables finely. Pulse to get a blend as close to a puree as possible. Put the salt into a bowl and mix the vegetables into it. Pack the verdurette into a clean, dry jar, cover tightly, and store in the fridge. It will keep up to one year. Notes: 1. What constitutes "a part"? I use one cup as my part measurement. That makes about a kilo and a half of verdurette. But you could decide to use only 1/4 cup as your basic measure, or even a tablespoon. Just keep the proportions even. 2. You may vary the recipe according to taste or necessity: if it suits you to use only one variety for each part (only onions, carrots, parsley, radish greens) - 'tis up to you. Except to weigh the allium part heavily towards garlic and onion, I just grind up whatever else is on hand at the time. The root part of my present mix has a large proportion of sweet potatoes in it; I had an excess of those at the time I made it. Or you may want to preserve just one vegetable in salt, if for example you find yourself with a ton of carrots (and are sure you will use carrot verdurette). How about a baby food jar of chive flower verdurette? Just keep the proportion of 4 parts veg to 1 part salt. 3. Use verdurette sparingly till you get used to judging the saltiness it adds to your cooking. For me, 1 tsp. is enough for 1 cup of raw rice; 1 Tblsp for a liter of water. 4. It might seem that frequent use of verdurette would make all your food taste the same; well, if it became your exclusive seasoning, it would. I use it to add a bass note to cooking, something to enrich and deepen the flavors of dishes rather than as an all-purpose seasoning. 5. How to use verdurette? Saute a very little in butter and pour eggs to scramble on top. Simmer some in water as instant vegetable stock. Mix it with olive oil and lemon juice and marinate chicken or fish in it. Substitute it for regular salt in a savory bread. Add a teaspoon or two to your regular tomato sauce. Add a tablespoon to stew. Just keep tasting for saltiness. I'm planning on baking sole in a light cheese sauce for lunch: to add interest, I'll put a little verdurette in the roux. Verdurette fits in almost any cooked dish. 6. Brassicas are not suitable for verdurette - unless you love the idea of a small quantity of broccoli verdurette always on hand to feed your broccoli habit. Although I use verdurette only in one dish of any given meal (to avoid monotony), I find that my jar empties out quickly and that I have to make fresh every two or three months. Depends on the season and the number of people going through the house at mealtimes. Miriam

To answer about hard lemonade: it's an alcoholic lemonade, about 5-8% abv. Not for children! Very light and refreshing, and if you just keep casually pouring out glassfuls of it on a hot afternoon, by dinnertime you may find yourself singing bawdy songs, leering at your guests, and having to be hustled off to bed by your exasperated spouse. It's made with frozen lemon concentrate, water, more sugar, and wine yeast, a good strong one like Premier Cuvee or Champagne. I had a couple of gallons of frozen lemon juice taking up room in the freezer, so I'm attempting a hard lemonade from fresh juice now. It's tricky stuff; the highly acidic environment is not encouraging to yeast and fermentation. But my current batch is foaming along; if it's not strong or sweet enough, I'll go ahead and add some frozen concentrate. Now why am I rambling along about this? In the States, you can buy hard lemonade all ready. Here in Israel, nobody's ever heard of it. I bottle mine in plastic half-gallon jugs and it goes very quickly. Miriam

Here are my two cherry liqueurs, one, Vishniak based on vodka, and one, based on bourbon, called Cherry Bounce. Vishniak 1 750-ml. bottle of cheap vodka. Don't use the good stuff; its flavor would interfere with the cherry-ness of this drink. 4 cups - 1 quart or 1 liter - pitted, sour cherries. Sour cherries only, please - the sweet work too, but the flavor of Vishniak is much brighter and fresher if sour are used. 2 cups sugar Method (veery esoteric): mix everything in up in a Mason jar or similar; close up but stir to dissolve the sugar several times a day till the sugar is dissolved; once that's accomplished, store the closed jar away in a dark place for four months. Strain the cherries out; serve. Best left alone for a year, if you can resist it. I haven't been able to wait a year yet. You may vary the flavor by adding small amounts of cinnamon stick, a vanilla bean, or using part honey instead of the sugar. I take out a cup or so of the finished liqueur and infuse my aromatic in a separate jar, just to experiment. So far, I've liked it unadorned, just the cherries, the sugar, and the hooch. Cherry Bounce adapted from a recipe given on the GotMeadsite Fill a glass jar with whole sweet cherries (rinsed but unpitted). Pour in enough bourbon to fill the jar. Stir it with a wooden spoon or chopstick to break up air bubbles; pour in more bourbon, enough to cover all the cherries. Close up the jar and allow the cherries to macerate for 4 months. Strain the cherries out into bottles or another clean jar, to allow the sediment to settle. Once the liquor is clear, syphon or pour it off the sediment and bottle. Let it age 1 year. Notes: You may bottle into gift bottles, or allow the liquor to age in bulk. Either way, don't leave more than a finger of headspace between the surface of the fluid and the bottle closure. If you think you will prefer a sweeter liqueur, use sour cherries and add sugar, using the same method as the Vishniak liqueur above. Start with 1 cup and continue sweetening to taste. Many prefer their Cherry Bounce sugarless. So you see, the Vishniak is ready sooner. To me, though, the Cherry Bounce is even more divine. Miriam

For me, it's at Purim time that the baskets go out. Fitting the contents to the recipient's taste, I choose one bottle and at least two home-made prepared foods, one from each category: Bottles: limoncello; cherry liqueur (in vodka for most folks, in Jim Beam for very close friends); hard lemonade Jars: chutney, usually apple/walnut but could be mango or apricot; pesto; pickled peppers (went over really well last year); tomato jam Home-baked and frozen ahead of time if I'm organized, otherwise baked in the early hours of the day: potato kugel; noodle kugel; challah sourdough walnut bread (for the particularly deserving ) Dried: oven-dried tomatoes (I like to dry all the colors and varieties the summer crops offer, to mix in jars or present separately, as the fancy takes me); a spice mix of sage, thyme a small proportion of rosemary and even less of summer savory; a mixture of dried wild springtime greens for soup: nettles, mallows, dandelions. You have to know your client: some of my friends would say "Eeeuw" to tomato jam, and some wouldn't know what to do with the dried greens. Some I know would appreciate the fine liqueur, and on some it would be wasted (they get the hard lemonade). I guess everyone makes similar calculations when putting gift baskets together. I tend to include less of the sweet foods. At Purim time everyone is flooded with candies and cake. Miriam

I also feel that to obtain the best flavor, tea should come loose and be infused in a teapot. However...the Rooibos I like best comes from a South African grocery-store chain called Pick N' Pay, in teabags. Love that stuff. A South African friend brings over a supply when he comes to visit about once a year. Miriam

I don't know this word, please to elucidate. Maybe servants needed to remove food piping hot from the kitchen because while carrying it up stairs and through drafty rooms, it would have had time to get cold. I'm one of those who like my soup too hot to eat; I'd rather stir it and tentatively sip than receive it just warm enough. Miriam

The mulberry wine on Jack Keller's site is delicious - made some 2 years ago and it's going to be officially mature come October. If I had access to 3 kg. of mulberries every year, I'd make that wine every year. But the friends who owned the tree moved awy... Mulberry sorbet is very good (you do need to strain out the seeds after pureeing). And as mukki noted, black are best; richer and more winelike than the others. Miriam

I feel that elegant simplicity is the measure of talent. An overly-artistic presentation also makes me wary; delicate, varicolored dabs or swirls of sauce, half a cherry tomato poised on the tail of a single aragula leaf, too little to contribute flavor but looking upscale, make me feel like the chef is working on maintaining his/her image, rather than concentrating on the taste of the food. Am I a total Philistine? I hope not. When sitting in front of the dish, I don't want to be impressed by the chef. I want to be stimulated by the food. If the food (complex or simple) lives up to sensuous anticipation, then I can appreciate the chef's talent. "An omelette and a glass of wine", well made and simply presented, tell me as much about the chef as I need to know. Miriam

Melissa, Thank you for pointing out this article. The quick-pickled tomatoes and sweet corn are particularly intriguing; think I'll try them next week. I pickle peppers of different colors together. They make a nice sharp accent in just about any sandwich, and a small quantity, chopped, does the same for a leafy tossed salad. I also like to put them on the table next to dishes of fat green and black olives and a salad of sliced, lightly salted tomatoes generously sprinkled with finely-cut chives and olive oil. Usually I serve this with roast chicken and a simple rice, but it goes very well with a cheese omelette and fresh bread. My recipe is much less sophisticated than the one in the Washington Post article. Also, it's quick only preparation: the peppers need 1 month to mature. Here it is (passed along from a friend, edited by me): Pickled Sweet Peppers Choose several colors of peppers for an attractive display (not purple peppers, they turn green in cooking). White wine or apple cider vinegar Salt Sugar Remove stems and seeds from peppers. Cut lengthwise into strips about 1 centimeter wide. Pack the pepper strips into canning jars. Add 1 Tblsp. sugar and 1/2 tsp. salt to each jar. Make a brine of equal parts water and vinegar. Bring this to a boil. Pour the brine over the peppers. Cover and store the fridge, or process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Allow the peppers 1 month to develop flavor before opening. Miriam

Tim, Your generosity and consideration are admirable. Thank you for sharing, I think everyone reading has gotten a little emotionally engaged! I wish you the very best of luck in all your changes - may they be for the very best. Miriam

Here in Israel, it's still 15% (as far as I know). I tend to tip 20% in general, unless service was awful. One thing I have noticed: the stingiest tippers are often the richest. The one really wealthy person I associate with doesn't believe in tipping at all; says servers earn salaries, so why should she? She gives really big amounts to various charities, and figures that covers her obligations. So I avoid eating out with her, because it embarrasses and riles me, especially after a fulsome report on latest jewelry-shopping spree in Hong Kong. Funny; I wouldn't mind giving the entire tip if my companion were simply out of cash (and have done so). Miriam

Onion soup, onion confit, stuffed baked onions, onion rings fried in batter, pickled onions, onion quiche. I have never tasted pineapple sage. Is it sweet, or savory? Either way, you could always hang bunches up to dry. My CSA problem recently has been red cabbage - I can't get one more stirfried, stuffed, coleslawed, cooked-with-apple particle of it into the family anymore. I am considering pickling it. Just today I decided that if I didn't clear out the freezer, I would lose my sanity...so I thawed out the 5 liters of lemon juice (we have a tree in the building's garden, and I'm the only resident to pick the fruit), strawberries, pomelo sections and raspberries. Out of this fruit I put up hard lemonade, wines, and raspberry cordial. I was so glad to see all that nice empty space in the fridge. Hopefully the booze will make everyone else happy as well. I also found a frozen bag of grated carrot; when the CSA offerings had me drowing in carrots, I did that and baked bread, muffins and cake with carrots in them (and made carrot wine, what else). Still so much food stored away. But this thread is inspiring me to "go shopping in the fridge" - and pantry for the next few days. Miriam

Just a straightforward question, no idea of starting a debate. The word was floating around in my head yesterday as I was cooking the dish...which I hadn't made in a very long time, and was inspired to make again by your excellent class on Lebanese cooking, Elie. Thanks! Miriam

My late father, who suffered from heart disease, used to swear by "marak regel" - cow's or calve's foot soup. I think it was all the spices, especially turmeric, that make the circulation move and make a person feel warm. I looked everywhere for a recipe, but couldn't find one - so Dad would just go out to lunch at a small Yemenite eatery downtown. I wish I could have cooked that for Dad... but I'd still be interested in that recipe, if anyone has it. Miriam

I brought this up on the "Food Pronounciation Guide" in the General Cooking forum, but think I'll find the answer here. Is it majAHderah, or majaDERah? Majaderah or muhjaderah? Or does pronounciation vary according to where you're from? I like to know how to say the name of the dish I'm cooking. TIA, Miriam

For me, it was hearts of freshly-cooked artichokes, stuffed with mashed potatoes that had been steamed with garlic, then beaten with salt, pepper, and lots of olive oil. The taste of that simple dish is haunting me. Miriam