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Shavuot


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Thanks Melissa. Now I want to make kreplach. If I have time I just might make a batch.

My problem is that long before the holidays come I've almost od'd on the foods. Your link gave me lots of new ideas for things i haven't done yet this year.

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I guess since the holiday starts 2 weeks from tonight it's time to start thinking about menus. We've already been invited out for one meal and I will entertain for one. But to add to the craziness, we have my uncle's unveiling to attend on sunday (and no one is telling me what time it's called for). Plus, I'm loathe to make fish since I'll have to buy it on Friday and that's too many days of storage for comfort.

I did mention to Blovie that I wonder if I can order kosher fish from Fresh Direct and get it delivered to me on monday proper. The thing is, I won't know how old or fresh the fish is.

All I know for sure is I'm making my mother's dairy noodle kugle and a cheesecake - I already have the graham cracker crumbs waiting.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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  • 2 weeks later...

We are having 7 for dinner Sunday night:

Salmon with pistachio crust

Marion's Noodle Pudding

Green beans with leeks

Challah with dried fruits and nuts

Cheesecake, probably lemon swirl or Florentine

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At risk of shamelessly mentioning that I was quoted in yesterdays Jerusalem post (in Faye Levy's column), I have always leaned towards goats milk for Shavot as I'm sure there were more goats than cows in biblical days and places.

i like delicate goats cheese omelets, sprinkled with a little thinly sliced fresh mint (not a strong one) for Shavuot, or a salad of thinly sliced cucumber layered with goat cheese, dressed in olive oil and sprinkled with chives, or a slice of goats cheese on top of young dandelions, garnished with walnuts and walnut oil and sprinkled with chives....or slabs of goats cheese, broiled/grilled until melty, served with halved cherry tomatoes, sauteed and sprinkled with basil. actually, that would make a good blintzey dish too: just stuff the cheese into blintz pancakes.......

and also, a nice fruity noodles cottage cheesey kugel. (though thats cow cheese).

chag sameach all, i don't know about you but when a holiday comes up and i get all excited planning meals for it, i wish it would last forever, or at least until i got tired of celebrating (and i seldom get tired of celebrating).

marlena

Marlena the spieler

www.marlenaspieler.com

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At risk of shamelessly mentioning that I was quoted in yesterdays Jerusalem post (in Faye Levy's column), I have always leaned towards goats milk for Shavot as I'm sure there were more goats than cows in biblical days and places.

i like delicate goats cheese omelets, sprinkled with a little thinly sliced fresh mint (not a strong one) for Shavuot,  or a salad of thinly sliced cucumber layered with goat cheese, dressed in olive oil and sprinkled with chives, or a slice of goats cheese on top of young dandelions, garnished with walnuts and walnut oil and sprinkled with chives....or slabs of goats cheese, broiled/grilled until melty, served with halved cherry tomatoes, sauteed and sprinkled with basil. actually, that would make a good blintzey dish too: just stuff the cheese into blintz pancakes.......

and also, a nice fruity noodles cottage cheesey kugel. (though thats cow cheese).

chag sameach all, i don't know about you but when a holiday  comes up and i get all excited planning meals for it, i wish it would last forever, or at least until i got tired of celebrating (and i seldom get tired of celebrating).

marlena

Here is a link to Faye Levy's column (registration is free but needed).

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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Originally we were out every meal but monday night. But monday lunch got cancelled yesterday so now I'm going to host. I need to design a menu quick since I'm out of the house on sunday. (saturday night will be devoted to making cheesecake).

I'm thinking of making a tart of tomatoes and goat cheese or mozzarella in a thyme crust.

I need to sit down and contemplate this.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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I'm making several batches of frozen yogurt and gelati - so that's going to be the dessert.

I may make a pesto vegetable kugle with parmesan and ricotta... depends on timing.

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The cheesecake is done and the noodle kugel is baking. I've got to make my tart dough and figure out the rest of my menu. Tomorrow is going to be crazy. In addition to the already mentioned unveiling and cooking, I really want to hit the Broadway Panhandler Yard Sale. Why do I think that's not going to happen?

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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Bloviatrix,

That tart crust with thyme sounds good. Can you share it?

jayne

I ended up making a piperade mozzarella tart with thyme-garlic chive crust.

Crust recipe is as follows:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

1 tablespoon garlic chives, minced

4 ounces butter, chilled (cut into a minimum of 8 pieces)

4 -5 tablespoons ice water

Combine flour, salt and herbs in food processor and whir a bit to combine. Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles pea sized crumbs (about 10 pulses). Add 4 tablespoons of water and pulse until dough starts to form a ball. If not happening, add additional water (highly unlikely). Chill in refrigerator. Enough for a 10 inch tart pan.

BTW, I'm guessing on the quantities of herbs. I just chopped some up and threw it in.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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In the end, here's the menu I settled on -- lunch for 6

Mascarpone, Chive and Pine Nuts on baguette slices

White Gazpacho

Piperade-mozzarella tart with thyme/garlic chive dough

Green beans, vidalias, and red peppers with red wine vinagrette

Almond-Lime Cheesecake

Spicy Brownies

Baron Herzong Chenin Blanc Clarksburg 2003

Strawberry-basil lemonade, minted ice tea, seltzer.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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We had 27 (almost half were kids, aged 4-11) for Shavuot. This might be the largest group I've ever had for a full meal. I've got a good-sized kitchen but it wasn't designed for doing actual cooking. (The single 24"-convection oven makes almost everything into a logistical challenge.)

The house is almost back to normal. I'd hoped to be outside but folks were wilting so we stuck with the air conditioning.

grape juice/wine/challah

humus and eggplant dips (Sabra from Costco)

veggies (cukes, carrots, peppers), chips, and crackers for dipping/munching

marinated chickpea salad

taboulli

marinated mozzarella/sundried tomato/basil salad (bought)

cranberry relish (brought by my friend)

bourekas (2 kinds brought by a friend), I barely got to taste them but they were really good!

vegetable tiella (Michael Chiarello recipe) layers of potato, zucchini, spinach, with garlic, olive oil, tomato sauce, parmesan, and breadcumbs

sourdough bread (even though most people wanted the challah)

the kids mostly stuck with plain pasta, bagels/cream cheese, veggies, chips, and apple juice and kept asking whether it was time for dessert.

Desserts were: Carvel ice-cream cake for a birthday, marble cheesecake, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, pecan pie (brought by a friend), fresh fruit salad, ice pops.

I should have made tons more lemonade because that and water was what people wanted. There's something to the Cook's Illustrated method of briefly mashing the lemons with the sugar before squeezing them. Really good stuff..... (sodas, iced tea, seltzer, OJ, grapefruit juice were available too but everybody wanted lemonade!)

Not too much interest in drinking wine yesterday but people were enjoying the single-malt.

jayne

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  • 11 months later...

By way of explanation:

Shavuot is the second of the three major festivals (Passover being the first and Sukkot the third) and comes exactly fifty days after Passover. The Torah was given by G-d to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai over 3,300 years ago. Every year on this day we renew our acceptance of G-d's gift.

The word Shavuot means "weeks": It marks the completion of the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot (the 'Omer' period) during which the Jewish people prepared themselves for the giving of the Torah. During this time they cleansed themselves of the scars of slavery and became a holy nation ready to enter into an eternal covenant with G-d with the giving of the Torah.

from Chabad

The holiday of Shavuot is upon us ... is anybody making something new and interesting? There are a number of great dairy dishes mentioned earlier in this thread ..Recipe Gullet cheese recipes (some 46 of them!)

exceptionally fine article on the holiday here

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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I was just thinking about this thread!

I've been working on filling the showcases at work with dairy items - but need something new for myself at home. I hope somebody has some good ideas out there :wink:

Actually.. those recipeGullet recipes have some interesting ideas... hmmm...

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those recipeGullet recipes have some interesting ideas... hmmm...

and, because they are presented in our very own Recipe Gullet, they are always reliably correct and tested by our members! :wink:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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Well, I've mentioned it before (probably elsewhere in this thread) but the sweet cheese latkes from Joan Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America are to die for (yea, Okay, they're not great for cholesterol count but oh, yum.). If you are a fan of cheesecake or cheese blintzes you will love these.

So long and thanks for all the fish.
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We're home for three of the four meals. And I'm actually NOT entertaining. The blintz souffle is done. The spinach noodle pudding will be out of the oven shortly. And the black bean chili which is a component of the enchiladas is simmering away. Not bad considering I walked into the kitchen less than 2 hours ago.

Since it's just two of us, I will not be making a cheesecake. Rather I'm thinking of doing a tart with a layer of sweetened cream cheese/mascarpone and layer of strawberry-rhubarb compote. And some sort of ice cream.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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We just discovered that my husband is lactose-intolerant! Oy. I revised my whole Shavuot menu. The daytime meal was pareve: Nile Perch fillets in a Brazilian sort of tomato/onion & garlic/bell pepper/cilantro sauce. I did wish I had some dende oil (red palm oil, I think it's called in English) for that fish. Oh well. Sliced, steamed red potatoes, drizzled with rosemary olive oil and sprinkled with salt and black pepper. Beefsteak tomatoes, thickly sliced, spread with basil mayonnaise and topped with bread crumbs, then baked till bubbly and fragrant. Note to myself: try this with eggplant next time.

Salads were a bowl of finely shredded white and red cabbage with sunflower sprouts, dressed with olive oil, salt, a bissel sugar and apple cider vinegar; and the family favorite: tossed lettuce, aragula, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers in a garlicky vinaigrette dressing. Kind of heavy on the oil, there, I guess to compensate for the cheeseless menu. To compound the fracture, dishes of fat green olives, and za'atar for dipping the challah into.

Dessert was an orange-ginger sorbet and a cheesecake for the rest of us. I also made a milk-and-honey ice cream, not a total success because the honey has a distinctive taste that was a little too strong. It is thistle-flower honey which I bought for making mead (thought I was being so forebearing to sacrifice some to the ice cream :rolleyes: ).

In spite of all the olive oil, the meal was light enough to allow for renewed hunger by the time Shabbat dinner-time arrived.

Miriam

Miriam Kresh

blog:[blog=www.israelikitchen.com][/blog]

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  • 1 year later...

Shavuot (=weeks) is a holiday that occurs 7 weeks after Passover, and is the day the 10 commandments were given to Moses on Mount Sinai. It is also the time the wheat and barley harvests occurs and the first fruits that appeared on the trees were marked with a ribbon (grapes, figs, olives, and pommegranates) were picked and given to the temple in Jerusalem where they were eaten. People from far would bring dried fruits as they could not keep them fresh on their way to Jerusalem. Hence on this holiday it is customary to give baskets of fruit and the kids wear garlands of flowers on their heads. Houses or dinner tables are often decorated with wheat sheaths and dried fruits. The custom here is to eat a dairy meal. So here are some recipes of what I plan to serve.

Quinoa Salad

based on a Morracan cous cous salad. Can be made a day ahead. Either yse garbanzo (humous) beans that have soaked in water for a full day, or for the lazy (!) canned ones.

6-8 servings

350 g quinoa

1 cup humous beans

1 cup raisins

2 Tbl of coriander seeds

1/4 cup coriander/cilantro leaves

1 gratedpeel of a lemon

250 g of Bulgarian cheese. If you don't find this cheese, it is a firm white one so then perhaps feta is okay. It should be hard enough to grate or cut in cubes but softer and wetter than yellow hard cheese

Dressing:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

2 Tsp cumin

salt and ground black pepper

1. Cook humous beans until soft but not mushy, drain and cool. This is about 400 g

2. Make the quinoa but make sure it is not overcooked and mushy. Cool and fluff up with a fork

3. Add the humous beans, raisins and coriander seeds, cilantro and lemon peel

4. Mix up the dressing and pour over salad. Toss & Taste and adjust the seasonings if needed. Last moment add the grated or cubed cheese

Soup

Grilled pepper and cream soup

3 big red peppers

2 Tbl olive oil

1 leek chopped not finely- discard outer hard skins

1 Tbl sugar

salt and ground black pepper

Topping

Creme Fraiche

chives

Heat oven to 200C

1. Cut each pepper andremove seeds and white rind. Place on a baking tray covered with silver foil cut side face down. Grill for about 45-50 minutes. Take out and place in a bowl and cover with nylon wrap for 20 minutes or so. Remove the skins but not under water!

2. In a soup pot on a medium -low flame put olive oil and leeks Stir around for about 10 minutes. Add about 400ml water raise the flame ,add peppers and sugar and bring to the boil. Lower the flame and cover and cook for about 15 mins.

3. Use a hand blender to blend the soup until it is smooth. Add seasonong to taste.

4. Ladle into cups. Add a tsp or so of creme fraiche and chives and serve! Hot or cold. I will serve cold as it is hot outside!

Roquefort and pear patties

3 peeled medium sized pears (grated roughly, not fine and juice squeezed out)

130 gr grated Roquefort cheese

1 beaten egg

2 Tbl flour or other type of flour-I make gluten free!

2 Tbl chives

Black ground pepper

canola oil for frying

Mix altogether with pepper but don't add salt!

Heat a frying pan on medium flame with about 1/2-3/4 cm layer of oil. Shape patties and fry on both sides and then place on a napkin to soak oil. You may try using a cardboard egg container upside down wih a nakin in top to soak up the oil!!

More to come later as I am tired of typing!!

Edited by Lior (log)
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Since I said I'll finish...

Quiche With Sweet Potatoes, Goat cheese and pine-nuts

for a 28 cm diameter pie pan

Base:

280 gr (2 cups) flour

200gr buttercut into cubes and cold

1 Egg

1 flat tsp salt

2-3 Tbl cold water

Filling:

50gr butter

1 medium sweet potato or battata peeled and cut into cubes of about 1 1/2 cm

200g white goat cheese or feta goat cheese

250 ml cream lowfat if there is- maybe like half and half- about 10% fat?

1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

2 Tbl chives chopped

3 beaten eggs

salt and ground black pepper to season according to your taste

In food processor process flour, butter, egg and salt with a plastic blade till it is crumbly consistency. Add 2 Tbl water and process till it forms a ball. If it isstill crumbly add 1 more Tbl water

Roll out on a floured surface till it is a circle of 30cm

Put on the round pan and edges of the pan up to the surface. poke holes with a fork and put in freezer for one hour.

Turn oven on to 180C

Bake for about 20 mins until light golden. Cool

The filling:

Melt butter in a pan and add the sweetpotato cubes and stir fry on medium flame for about 7 mins. Place in a bowl.

Add the rest of the ingredients mix and ladle onto baked base.

Bake 30 to 35 mins until golden and firm. Can be served hot or room temp.

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Lior, I have one question about the Roquefort and pear patties. The pear is grated, I presume?

This all sounds delicious, by the way. :smile:

"I know it's the bugs, that's what cheese is. Gone off milk with bugs and mould - that's why it tastes so good. Cows and bugs together have a good deal going down."

- Gareth Blackstock (Lenny Henry), Chef!

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