eG Foodblog: Marlena - Life is Delicious Wherever I am

[marlena spieler]

so i got the energy and will to take myself swimming. i left the house at 1. pm and am just arrived home, still recovering. its not the swim per se, it was a good-ish swim. i try to swim every day and hadn't for awhile. so it was good to be....back in the swim as they say.

anyhow, its a one hour walk, an hour swim, then a one hour walk back, except on the way back i stopped at waitrose. (do you think that waitrose should pay me for this week-long commercial?) (though i emphasize that you should never ever ever pay regular price. and tonight when i sampled the olives from the olive bar they were vile, they are always vile. in some kind of horrible oily oil. yuk. just put good olives there, foget that bad marinade!

okay. so i was thinking what to make for our last nights dinner, i'm really going to miss you all at my table, its gonna be so lonely! and i wanted to do something really exotic and ambitious, and when i got to the waitrose, i said to myself: no cheese, girl! (husband had been mewing for macaroni and cheese as our last meal chez egullet). but when i got there there were all these fabulous cheeses on offer, on sale, on special discount! how could i say no? and as much as i always say : no mac and cheese as a side dish, there was also a gorgeous sirloin steak, quite small in size but small in price too. i already have a lovely big bowl of banana-shaped shallots, so here is the menu:

macaroni and cheese with chopped shallots, mature cheddar, grana padano, danish blue, mild cheddar, dry mustard, three types of alliums: green onions, shallots and chives. bechamel AND sour cream. a whiff of nutmeg and a sprinkle of paprika. it smells fabulous.

and i'm getting the shallots sweating in the pan to go with the little morsels of steak. and we'll have a salad of baby greens.

full report later. pour that cabernet sauvignon!

x x x marlena

[Chufi]

I love anything with olive oil, cumin, cilantro, hot sauce (am a zchug fanatic, love other peoples,love my own, think i could make eggplant salad every day of the year and it would never be the same except not all of them would be middle eastern.). i really love middle eastern food.

i love making a pumpkin dip from libya (is there still a restaurant in jaffa that specializes in libyan food, dr shakshouka? i got inspired by their pumpkin dip thing). speaking of shakshouka, how much do i love shakshouka!!!!!!

pilaffs and grape leaves, anything with eggplant and /or chickpeas, i love things slathered in lemon juice. love meze and little plates. love big plates of things like couscous. love mint tea. sometimes with a little plate of pinenuts alongside.

love middle eastern coffee with cardomom. love LAMB.  braised with spices, with eggplant, with honey and prunes. i love a good schwarma (but it has to be made very well). love a good felafel (and all the salads that go with it, tel aviv style).

i love brik a l'oeuf. and tunisianne sandwiches and tunisian meatballs with peas. i love middle eastern meatballs and middle eastern koftas. love fish cooked with tahina, and anything simmered with quince. love machshi of stuffed vegetables.

i'm sure i've left stuff out. i really  love middle eastern foods so much. i have a natural middle easterner living right inside me that calls for it whenever i haven't eaten it for awhile.

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I love everything you love!

Thank you so much for this blog Marlena. I really enjoyed reading it, you have such a great, unique writing style, that I too did not miss the pictures at all. From the Greek hills to Waitrose to puddings , I could see it all!

[marlena spieler]

Our Last Dinner with Egullet: Very Paris Bistro

First of all there were no artichokes. and then, i said I wouldn't get cheese for mac and cheese. and then i said i wouldn't serve something boring like a plain piece of meat. if you remember to earlier this afternoon, i was even considering going the cassoulet route. after all, we've all been together a week now, we're family! but since i got so tired from swimming and all the walking, and as i see a cassoulet headed up the turnpike, aiming for this blog space for next week, i ended up making macaroni and cheese, steak, and salad, but in a very paris bistro way. really perfect for such a frigid evening.

we had the macaronis au gratin (macaroni and cheese, baked in an oven until top is crispy)

Rare sirloin steak, seared in the pan, with a sauce of sweated shallots and a deglaze of red wine

Salad of baby greens with a beetroot vinaigrette: thinly sliced shallots, a little garlic, a little mild dijon, white wine vinegar, evoo, s and p, and diced beetroot added to the dressing, then the whole thing tossed with baby greens. the greens were sturdy, the beets earthy, the dressing tangy.

everything has just gone so well together. no culinary handstands but very very good.

dessert is a comparative tasting of two vanilla ice creams: ben and jerry and green and blacks. i wanted to include hill station, as i love those ice creams, but they were gone from my waitrose! i'm going to make a little pineapple gratinee with pinenuts to go with the two vanilla ice creams.

but not just yet.

[marlena spieler]

okay, i was going to make some gratineed pineapple topped with pinenuts to go with our comparative taste testing of vanilla ice creams but hubby was chomping at the bit for ice cream, so we thought we would go ahead without the pineapple. it would give a better result, and anyhow we were all wanting to throw ourselves into ice cream. in addition to the vanilla, we had a back up of chocolate and chunky monkey. as a reward for the work of tasting the vanilla. (they had little tiny one-cup 100ml containers on special offer today, just to avoid the temptation of eating ourselves silly on ice cream.)

this excercise was inspired by a posting on another internet food group i belong to which i thought gratuitously slagged off ben and jerry's and praised green and blacks. i wanted the truth. i mean, knowing the best vanilla ice cream is a blessing when you want something to go with your roasted peaches, your pears poached in wine syrup, your deep dark chocolate cake. Tasting the ice creams next to each other was the only way forward.

Our little controlled experiment went like this: tasters (my husband and I) were blindfolded, and the choice of vanilla ice cream was: Ben and Jerry's, Green and Blacks. We wanted to include Hill Station as it is such an exceptional ice cream, but it wasn't on the shelf at our nearby Waitrose.

Neither of us had any idea of which way the tasting would go.

In any event, the results were unanimous, and surprised us both: Ben and Jerry's won hands-down: it had more clarity of flavour, and intensity of vanilla with more focus of its cool sweetness. The vanilla flavour was very pronounced. The Green and Black, on the other hand, was pronounced "nice enough" but compared together there was no contest. hubby said that the green and black tasted flat, and claggy, with a bit of an artificial edge. he felt that the mouth feel was a result not of artificial flavour but of too much in the way of stabilizers. the b and j's didn't contain the locust bean nor the xanthan gum. both had guar gum. b and j's had carrageenan, a seaweed.

but as we all know, there is no accounting for taste. someone buys the buckets of cheap ice creams that line the supermarket freezer aisles!

by the way, in san fran, i love double rainbow. and when i'm in paris, berthillon, despite the fact that my friend has a bit of a vendetta going on with the berthillon family, all over a snippy interchange about a hot fudge sundae. but we won't go there. (and when i go there, i have to wear a disguise so my friend doesn't feel that i've betrayed her. its worth it for the ice cream though. its yummy!).

x marlena

Edited January 9, 2006 by marlena spieler (log)

[Swisskaese]

I just got back from a very interesting lecture, but it is not food related, so I can't discuss it.

Dr. Shakshouka is still in Jaffo, going strong. It is very good.

Here is the recipe for the stuffed dates:

Dates Stuffed with Lamb

This is a specialty of the Jews of Fez

24 large, pitted dates

3 oz. boneless lamb shoulder, ground very fine

1 egg white

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of pepper

2 Tsp. olive oil

3 Tbsp. pomegranate juice

3 Tbsp. water

Preparation:

Mix the meat with egg white, salt and pepper. Carefully enlarge the cavity in each date with a clean pencil-shaped tool. Fill the dates.

Mix the water and the pomegranate juice

Place the dates in a frying pan and cover them with the pomegranate juice. Simmer on low for about one hour, adding water if needed, then drain off the liquid and fry the dates in olive oil on low, until they swell.

Serves 4-6

[Swisskaese]

Thank Marlena for a wonderful blog. I had a lot of fun.

Your dinner sounds delicious. That macaroni and cheese sounds obscene.

Keep in touch.

[marlena spieler]

As we are still together until tomorrow about midday my time, i took this opportunity as my last foodblog night, to get up in the middle of the night and have a midnight snack!

its still freezing cold, and the bbc world service is playing some warm exotic music that sounds as if its very african-brazilian, music that is kinda sexy, bubbling and warm.

i've decided to make matzo brei!

matzo brei is, like bagels, Jewish a culinary comfort classic. Most people eat it for breakfast or brunch--every sunday when i was growing up my grandmother made a big pan of it-- but i find that it has the right stuff for comforting middle of the nights, and also for making when there is almost nothing else in the house (we usually have matzo and eggs).

matzo brei might be one of the those things that you need to have grown up eating; my husband doesn't really care about it, though if i leave some leftover in the pan he'll chomp it up pretty quickly.

its made from matzo, soaked in water or milk (i like water), the pieces either big or tiny (i like big though when it cooks some of it gets tiny, oh yes, and deliciously crisp!), mixed with egg and then fried.

some like it with a lot of egg, some like it with only a small amount. I like: Rackusin's matzo if i'm in britain (they are so light and crisp), but any of the israeli matzot if i can get them. they are also nice and crisp, and the pieces are bigger!

I use only a small amount of egg--1 egg to every 2 sheets of big matzo or 3 sheets of Rackusins.

after you soak the matzot for a few minutes, you pour off the liquid, then add some beaten egg (i just let the egg beat themselves as i toss them into the soaked matzo mixture). then i heat a heavy nonstick frying pan, add a tablespoon or two of evoo (some people cook matzo brei in butter, vegetable oil, even chicken fat--me? i gotta have evoo!). add more fat as you cook, to keep the edges browning and crisping. you don't want it too greasy, but just greasy enough!

Some people like their matzo brei cooked in a pancake shape, all together, but that is mostly the larger amount of egg camp. when you have only a small amount of egg, it falls to bits.

So i like my matzo brei starting out in big chunks, then tossing and turning it as it fries crisply on the bottom, until it has formed big chunks and also tiny little crispy bits. Its a whole variety of shapes and sizes, all crisp-edged.

so crisp, in fact, that i have to eat it with my fingers so that the fork doesn't break up any of the fritter-like chunks. inside the crispness of the big chunks its tender eggy-matzo.

some people eat matzo brei with sugar, some with jam, some with sour cream. i like mine sprinkled with seasalt.

totally delightful. its so cold in my little room as i tap this out, but my fingers are warm from the hot matzo brei! and greasy, too. i'm licking them like crazy, and worrying that my keyboard is so greasy i should probably lick it, too!

mmmmmm yummmmm.

Marlena

Edited January 10, 2006 by marlena spieler (log)

[Pam R]

some like it with a lot of egg, some like it with only a small amount. I like: Rackusin's matzo if i'm in britain (they are so light and crisp),

some people eat matzo brei with sugar, some with jam, some with sour cream. i like mine sprinkled with seasalt.

. The perfect Jewish recipe. I like mine like this, but so many like it that way.. then he likes it his way and she likes it her way!

I like mine with syrup by the way.

Thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable blog - I've really enjoyed it.

Edited January 10, 2006 by Pam R (log)

[marlena spieler]

Pam R, have you or anyone else out there, made the stuffed fried matzo? some are turkish, some are south american and probably originally turkish, some are more greek, spanish, north african......

the ones that are intriguing me right now are the ones in which you basically soak rectangles of matzo gently in water then squeeze gently to keep their shape. then you basically treat it like filo dough, fill it in with savoury meat or cheese or veggie such as spinach, then fold it over and encase the filling, then brown it in a pan! i've done some in which the soaked matzo was filled (i used broccoli and cheese) then baked, but i think the fried version sounds better.

i almost fiddled around with experimenting with this batch, but its the middle of the night, and i had to have it in my totally comfort mode. but maybe one of these days......or nights!

Marlena

[marlena spieler]

Dr. Shakshouka is still in Jaffo, going strong. It is very good.

Here is the recipe for the stuffed dates:

Dates Stuffed with Lamb

This is a specialty of the Jews of Fez

24 large, pitted dates

3 oz. boneless lamb shoulder, ground very fine

1 egg white

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of pepper

2 Tsp. olive oil

3 Tbsp. pomegranate juice

3 Tbsp. water

Preparation:

Mix the meat with egg white, salt and pepper. Carefully enlarge the cavity in each date with a clean pencil-shaped tool. Fill the dates.

Mix the water and the pomegranate juice

Place the dates in a frying pan and cover them with the pomegranate juice. Simmer on low for about one hour, adding water if needed, then drain off the liquid and fry the dates in olive oil on low, until they swell.

Serves 4-6

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so glad about dr shakshouka! every so often i get the urge to go there, when my daughter ate there she emailed me and said: the food tastes as if Bachi (my grandmother, daughter's great grandmother, very beloved of us, and a wonderful cook!) was cooking in the kitchen! She continued: i don't understand it either, as bachi was ashkenazi and didn't use spices at all!

but it was more like, the heimish quality, the homey cooked with love quality, the long cooked meat and vegetables quality. i don't know. but i loved going there! once i ate couscous and the weather was so hot, and i'm thinking: its too hot to be eating this, but i couldn't stop eating at all!

PS: thank you, Michelle, for the lamb-stuffed dates with pomegranate! they look wonderful! i'm totally going to try it in the not too distant future!

[Pam R]

Pam R, have you or anyone else out there, made the stuffed fried matzo? some are turkish, some are south american and probably originally turkish, some are more greek, spanish, north african......

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I haven't done the stuffing... more of a fried matzo scramble with other ingredients. But I think this could occupy some of my time come April!

[marlena spieler]

Breakfast time, egulleteers!

I'm continuing with the breakfast theme that i've been intermittently devoted to all week: bagels! i only have a few left in my freezer so they are really really treasured breakfast fare. (and i'm going to new york later this week to replenish.)

yesterday at waitrose they had a wedge of my favourite brie de meaux, very very ripe. i like brie riper than most french people who always eat it a bit firmer than my taste. i like the brie so ripe that it is as if it had already melted, so that when i put it on the bed (edit note: wow, freudian slip: i meant to say bagel! ) it just falls into a delicious melty heap. the heat of the toast and the crispness of the toasted bagel is a wonderful contrast to the soft, runny cheese.

once when i was on a long bike ride through le Loir, our French bicycliste guide, Didier, or should i say, the adorable Didier, once described his favourite way to eat brie: not as runny as i, but still pretty ripe, sliced and laid on top of good baguette that already had a nice layer of sweet unsalted very delicious butter. On top of all that, he sprinkled a little coarse salt. but you can only do this with the cheeses you get in france, because i swear that the cheeses in america are salty, or have been salted perhaps for export? or maybe its just that the transatlantic trip renders them not quite right for this little tartine. but the ripe brie on toasted bagel is always right!

with it, i like to drink a cup of dark UNION ROASTERS Coffee! yay, they had it at the market yesterday so i bought a big bag! i hold union roasters personally responsible for getting my daughter through medical school. i mailed her a bag each and every two weeks or so, and she too, if you ask her, will agree. i think she wanted them named as co-graduate on her medical diploma. but then again, she is also a stockholder in peets--when they went public friends and family knew the right gift for her!

okay, i'm thinking that i can squeeze in one more posting before i hand over this blog. i'm testing a recipe, and i think that you and i will have time for just a little shot of it (its a soup) before i head off into the sunset.

x x m

Edited January 10, 2006 by marlena spieler (log)

[Swisskaese]

I forgot to mention that I too used to be a Peet's stockholder. I had a monthly delivery. Obviously, this was when I lived in the States. I loved their coffee.

Let me know how the stuffed dates turn out.

I like matza brie. The first time I ever had it was when I joined a Jewish sorority in University. I had never heard of it before then. Then again, my family didn't know what Gefillte Fish was until they moved to the States.

[hathor]

Michelle, those lamb stuffed dates sound divine. I'm a total sucker for anything with pomegranite juice. (I had so much help in the kitchen over Christmas that I actually got my mother to juice enough pomegranites to hold me over for a few weeks...reduced to syrup. )

I have to say I'm on the "youhavetogrowupthestuff" camp when it comes to matza brei even if you do make it sound so good.

and I just realized why I HAD to have a bagel this morning from the corner deli. Subliminal effects of the blog.

So...what kind of soup is cooking??

[marlena spieler]

.........and I just realized why I HAD to have a bagel this morning from the corner deli. Subliminal effects of the blog.

So...what kind of soup is cooking??

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Hathor, here is the soup. and it is lovely, and fragrant, and very simple to whip up. and the combination of flavours is kinda unexpected.

only thing is that it is an original recipe, inspired by southern indian cookery, but original, and will be included in a book i'm writing. therefore, it is copyrighted. if anyone out there is reading this, please make note that if you'd like to use it, contact me for permission.

South Indian Potato-Coconut Soup

Serves 4

Pale pink from the tomatoes and thick from simmered potato and coconut, this is a subtle and delightfully rich soup. It is simple and it is complex. You must make it with no further delay!

You could also serve this sleek, rich and aromatic soup in small shots as a stylish appetizer-canape. If so, you could serve 12-16.

Creamed coconut is sold in a block, a sort of dehyrated chunk of coconut milk/cream, able to make anything its added to instantly coconutty. If unavailable, use 2 cups coconut milk in place of 2 cups of the broth.

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

Pinch of asafetida

1 lb potatoes, peeled and diced (any type of potato is fine)

2 ripe medium-large tomatoes (including their juices)

Salt and pepper

2 cups water

2 cups vegetable broth

5-6 ounces creamed coconut

In a heavy bottomed saucepan melt the butter and lightly toast the cumin seeds in it, sprinkling in the asafetida as you do. When the seeds begin to pop, add the potatoes and tomatoes and cook together over a medium low heat for several minutes until the tomatoes begin to turn saucey. Sprinkle with salt and pepper as they cook.

Add the water and broth, bring up the heat to high and bring it to the boil.

When it boils, reduce the heat to a low simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

When the potatoes are tender puree either by mashing with a masher, passing it through a sieve, using a hand-held blender, or a food processor. Return it to the pot, and stir in the creamed coconut, heating over a medium low heat, stirring, until the coconut melts. Taste for seasoning, and add a little sprinkling of ground cumin to boost the cuminseed flavor, if needed.

Serve right away.

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and so, to end this madcap eat-a-thon, i hope you all know that i've loved every minute!

and can hardly wait to do this again!

and thank you sobaAddict70 for making this all possible,

meanwhile, you all have my email address. stay in touch, let me know what YOU'RE having for dinner!

Marlena exits stage left. and starts to pack her suitcase for the Big Apple and beyond.

[SobaAddict70]

Thank YOU, Marlena, for making it all possible.

Look for an installment from the lovely Mrs. Spieler sometime later this year.

We'll be closing her thread now. Helen's and Marlena's successor blogger -- John Whiting -- has his installment up and running. Click here to view it.

Soba