What We're Cooking for Shabbos: 2004 - 2006

[Swisskaese]

Aval, slicha - ma zeh 'butter flavoured margarine'? *nitpick*   

←

You're right, what's the difference, but it is still better than Rich's ice cream, Rich's cream cakes, Rich's mousse, Rich's Cheesecake........ look what you made me do; I broke my promise of keeping my mouth shut!

Edited February 18, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

You're right, what's the difference, but it is still better than Rich's ice cream, Rich's cream cakes, Rich's mousse, Rich's Cheesecake........ look what you made me do; I broke my promise of keeping my mouth shut! 

←

Vinomar omain ...

Substitutes can make you totally crazy ...

[bloviatrix]

We are going to a dairy potluck at the synagogue tonight.

We are bringing the following:

Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon, Capers and Olives

Fresh Apple Cake

←

So when a run on cauliflower starts in the Israeli markets because the nation has become roasted cauliflower mad we know to blame you -- right?

[Swisskaese]

So when a run on cauliflower starts in the Israeli markets because the nation has become roasted cauliflower mad we know to blame you -- right? 

←

The truth is that roasted cauliflower is a Middle Eastern dish. It is meze at most grill restaurants here. It is also a component of some Maklooba/Makloubeh dishes. The cauliflower is fried instead of roasted, but it tastes and looks exactly like roasted cauliflower.

[Pam R]

I have a lamb shoulder that's been in the oven for a couple of hours at 250 degrees. Keeping it simple, olive oil, s&p and some garlic. No medium for this sucker - she shall cook til she falls apart. baaaa.

Normally roasted potatoes would go with this meal, but I have a huge hankering for kasha - so we'll have that. But I will roast some sweet potato and butternut squash chunks.

I need some other vegetable... because roast squash doesn't seem like a real veg - (I don't know why) - I usually do a salad, but I have no lettuce... or salady stuff... so I'll have to find something.

Dessert is assorted cookies - I made extra for a lunch we catered yesterday... and I'm not making anything else :) (cookies are cinnamon twists, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cookies rolled in course sugar before baking.

C'est tout!

Shabbat Shalom!

[bloviatrix]

I made Bourdain's Mushroom Soup from the Les Halles Cookbook. Granted, I used evoo instead of butter and mushroom stock because I'm running low on chicken, but it was fabulous!! Blovie said it was just as good as the mushroom veloute at Solo (one of the fancy kosher restaurants).

We also had veal schnitzel and potato kugel (I know, how traditional). The soup acted as the vegetable Israeli clementines for dessert.

[silverbrow]

No to be nitpicky, but doesn't Bollito Misto generally rely on pork products for flavour?  Do you substitute anything for the pork sausage? 

←

There are so many variations of Bollito Misto that you can add virtually anything but the staples tend to be:

Tongue

Brisket

Chicken

And then you can add in other things. One well-known addition is cottechino which is pigs trotters, and you can add other treifer than treif things. When I've made it previously I've left it with the three ingredients above. This time around though I'll be adding Vita Salami. I recently boiled some up and it comes out amazingly soft and full of spicy flavour. I then serve with Salsa Rosso and Salsa Verde.

[bloviatrix]

asilverfish -- how did the birthday dinner work out? What did you serve for dessert?

[silverbrow]

dinner isn't for a few weeks yet - I was trying to be very organised and thinking what I will serve.

I think I've decided that for dessert I'll make a chocolate torte with a grapefruit (and vodka?) sorbet. With coffee I want to serve dark chocolate truffles and having read about it on another thread, am quite keen to try out a pb&j truffle. Whether I can do that without butter is another matter.

[Comfort Me]

I usually make my plans much earlier in the week, but this week I haven't had the energy or the inspiration to pull anything together until now. Since it is so late in the week, I'll have to keep it simple:

Chicken soup with escarole and tiny chicken meatballs

Roasted Chicken

Mustard Mashed Potatoes

Steamed Carrots with Dill

Pineapple Casserole (from Miss Mary Bobo's Boardinghouse Cookbook -- served as a side dish -- REALLY delicious!)

Chocolate sorbet

The pineapple casserole was one of those wonderful surprises -- my boss brought in this cookbook she had purchased in Lynchburg, TN, home of Jack Daniel's distillery. It is like a pineapple bread pudding. Now it is one of my favorites.

[Swisskaese]

We made the following:

Focaccia (the other Challah) with fresh sage and rosemary

whole artichokes with aioli

Chicken with soya, ginger, spring onion, galangal, lemon grass, pomegranate syrup and lemon

rice

roasted cauliflower ('cause we just can't get enough of it.)

Gato Negro Merlot

Shabbat Shalom everyone!!!

Edited February 25, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[bloviatrix]

We've decided to celebrate Open That Bottle Night* a day early. We invited one other couple over, who enjoy and appreciate good wine and my whole meal has been designed to celebrate the wine.

Mushroom Soup (blovie liked last week's batch so much, he requested it again)

Baby Greens dressed with Balsamic Vinaigrette and shredded duck confit

Rack of Lamb with a rosemary/thyme/shallot crust

Roasted Green beans

Wild Rice salad

Ginger Cake

Chocolate Cake

Strawberries

We're opening a 1995 Chateau Giscours (Bordeaux). Plus, we might get into a couple of other bottles -- maybe a '96 Sauternes with dessert.

*OTBN was created by the wine writers at the Wall Street Journal. The idea being we all have special wines that we keep saving for the right time but never find that time so why not make the wine the event. Kind of like Maya's comment in Sideways "Any time you open a '61 Cheval Blanc, that's a special occasion."

[Comfort Me]

So how did OTBN go?

Can you tell us about your ginger cake? I love anything with ginger. I will admit to always -- always -- having Krusease Gingerbread mix in the pantry. If someone drops by unexpectedly, I simply empty a box into the stand mixer, add 2 tablespoons more ginger and 1 teaspoon ground black pepper and follow the directions on the box. It's foolproof, easy -- I can put it together, wash and dry the stand mixer bowl and return to my guests having only been gone five minutes. But I always feel like I'm cheating. I would love a good recipe for planned company.

[bloviatrix]

OTBN was amazing!! I really feel I made a meal that was worrthy the bottles of wine we drank. But because we did the meal on Friday night it was kaddosh, holy by making shabbos that much more special.

The food was fabulous -- if I must say so myself -- and the wines turned out to be delicious. Plus, the company was superb. I received a great compliment last night -- our friends who joined us went to Solo the other night and one of them ordered the lamb. Turns out, mine was better.

In the end, I made a mustard vinaigrette for the greens. And then I made duck gribenes from the skin and I put a piece on the top of each plate for a bit of crunch.

And, if you haven't tried them yet, the roasted green beans were delicious. I could've eaten all of them by myself. (I actually, I tucked into the few remaining ones the next day )

The Chateau Giscours turned out to be lovely. The tannins had soften nicely. Initial nose was the mushrooms, truffles, earthy bordeaux smell that I adore and find oddly comforting. Then the fruit started to reveal itself. It really went perfectly with the lamb. The other wine we had was a Jonathan Tishbi Special Reserve 1999 Cab. Sauv. Sde Boker Vineyard. We drank this with the duck. This was also fabulous. Very fruity with a bit of oak in the background. As it sat in the glass it seemed to get a bit sweeter. We toyed with opening something for dessert, but it was getting late and we all wanted to make it to shul the next morning.

As for the ginger cake -- it was a disaster. You can read about all my problems starting with this post and continuing with several others further down the thread. I'm glad I made the Chocolate Deception in addition.

[bloviatrix]

We're going out for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow's lunch will be:

Venison sausage on baby spinach dressed with mustard vinaigrette

Oven-baked barbecued brisket

Creamy cole slaw

[akur23]

Dairy dinner tonight, for a change.

Pasta shells in olive oil, garlic, anchovies & broccoli sauce. Garlic Bread.

[Pam R]

blah. I'm so tired of testing passover recipes that I don't want to make anything for dinner tonight. i'm hoping somebody else in the faimly is making something.

[bloviatrix]

We're going out for dinner tonight. 

Tomorrow's lunch will be:

Venison sausage on baby spinach dressed with mustard vinaigrette

Oven-baked barbecued brisket

Creamy cole slaw

←

A couple of menu revisions.

Turns of the sausage are Spicy southwestern venison sausage (I just browned them off and they smell very good)

And I made a cranberry-tangernine salsa.

It's highly unusual we eat this well at lunch unless I'm entertaining.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Vegetable beef soup

Pear, tangerine, and walnut salad, raspberry vinaigrette

smoked mackerel (husband found this in a cryovac container and had to buy it ...)

Turkey breast with a bourbon-brown sugar glaze

potato kugel

fresh asparagus

challah & wine

nectarine-plum openface tart

Shabbat shalom, everyone!!

[Swisskaese]

My menu has become a bit boring, but with 5 weeks til the wedding, I don't have the time or energy.

Artichokes

Chicken with lemon, garlic, fresh rosemary and thyme

Roasted Cauliflower

Roasted potatoes

Argentinian Malbec 2002

Shabbat Shalom everyone!

Edited March 4, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Comfort Me]

THis week is so very busy...I can't wait for SHabbas!

Since my firm is on a trial and I'm working late several nights ths week, I'm going for ease and comfort:

Salmon poached in olive oil (Paula Wolfert's method)

Homemade pita

tzatziki (made with thick, tangy Greek yogurt -- my new addiction!)

roasted red peppers in basil oil

Dilled rice

And, since it has already been a shitty week, I'm self medicating in a major way: Chocoate Repeat (also call Chocolate Upchuck by one of my friends) for dessert: Warm chocolate brownie topped with rich chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream with hot fudge and chocolate whipped cream. With a chocolate wafer... and nuts, of course. When I come out of that sugar coma it'll be a brand new week.

[bloviatrix]

We're going out for dinner tonight. I made a pot of beef stew for tomorrow's lunch.

Edited March 11, 2005 by bloviatrix (log)

[Swisskaese]

I had a very busy Shabbat.

I had to make two cakes for a friend that celebrated the 40th anniversary of his Bar Mitzvah.

I made the following:

Carrot Cake with Marscapone, Fromage Frais and Cinnamon

Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake

Both of them were delicious. They only changes I made were that I used white flour instead of wholewheat and did not add the coconut to the carrot cake.

I only used one cup of sugar for the Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake.

We had a very simple Shabbat dinner.

[bloviatrix]

I spent the better parts of Wed and Thursday cleaning my stove in prep for my forthcoming week of Purim baking so by the time Friday rolled around, I was burnt out. Thank god for the freezer and take-out!

Dinner friday night was curried coconut-butternut squash soup, veal schitzel (with the crispiest crust I've ever managed!!), green beans, kasha varnishkes (courtesy Blovie), cranberry-tangerine relish and grapefruit for dessert.

Lunch today was chopped liver, skinless southern fried chicken, cole slaw and more kasha varniskes.

And, the oven still needs more cleaning. I know remember why I rarely make potato kugel -- it's a pain in the ass to remove baked-on fat.

[bloviatrix]

I don't know about any of you guys, but we were so stuffed from our Purim seudah that we were in no mood to eat dinner last night. I had made a black bean soup that turned out to be like sludge - it was pretty awful, and then we had salad with some sausage.