Extra Schmaltz!

After almost two months hiatus due to extreme busyness, Extra Schmaltz! returns. This is a tasty, comforting soup that Alex and I had in Jordan. You can use either lamb or kufta , which is a ground, seasoned meat that can be found at Holy Land (or you could season your own). I don't have a photo, but the soup should be fairly brothy and red, with meat chunks and, of course, french fries in it. In Jordan the fries are sort of soggy and lame, but they're really good in this soup. ~1 lb meat: either kufta in 3/4" meatballs or cubed lamb 1 Tbsp. oil (optional: stew bones) red pepper flakes (optional) 1 onion, slivered 3 Tbsp. pepper or tomato paste 4 c. chicken broth 1 c. (1/2 can) tomato sauce 1 tomato, chopped 1 medium spicy pepper, slivered (ie Hungarian wax or Anaheim) 1 tsp. ground coriander 3 handfuls wedge french fries or Jo-jos salt and pepper to taste In a soup pot or pressure cooker, heat the oil on high and brown the meat. When the edges begin

Step 1: Make gnocchi. I had lots of leftover potatoes that were starting to go all mushy. I'm sure we all know how to trot the gnocchi tango, but heres a quick recap: Boil peel and mash potatoes a) Add about a cup of flour and one egg per pound potatoes. And lots of salt. b) Mix it all up until doughy like. c) Make it into whatever shape you damn well please d) Boil em until they float e) Profit! Now I've got about 5 pounds of gnocchi to use. The other night I killed some leftovers birds with one doughy stone (hah!) I like my gnocchi fried in butter/olive oil until nice and crispy on the outside and soft and doughy inside, so that's what I did. Then, I sautéed some thin sliced carrots, diced red onions, and copious scallions. Oops, I guess we're in step 2 now. Added some leftover red sauce and meatballs. Tossed it all together, shaved parmesan on top, and a final garnish with tarragon. Lillian weighs in: Hi there! I love to make gnocchi too and I have a few more tips: y

Hello all, Here is a recipe from my friend and co-worker Kristine (there's a link to her photography on the side-bar). Looks like she measures things the same way we do! This makes a great veggie side-dish or light meal: Try this very simple recipe when you have some bok choi. I've made it twice so far and really like it! I'm calling it red wine bok choi. Coarsely chop a mound of washed bok choi and saute it with about 1/2 cup of walnuts and ~1/2 cup of dried cranberries. I was pleased using safflower oil. Add a couple spills of red wine (I'm guessing that translates to a little less than a 1/4 cup). Add salt to taste. Saute for about 10-15 minutes or until bok choi is still a little crunchy. That's it! Serve over quinoa (rinse this grain well then saute with garlic before cooking) and top with parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

So, this weekend I finally tackled mozzarella. My friends Kevin and Ranae have a cow and are selling awesome raw milk to folks in the department (on the down low, of course). I didn't have great luck with making yogurt, since I had no idea what I was doing, so for some reason I decided to try an advanced cheese--mozzarella. The amazing thing is that it turned out great! I didn't take photos because it basically looked just like the ones on Dr. Fankhauser's Cheese Page . This guy is my new hero, and I urge you to check out his page before starting any dairy projects. So, the take-home message is that: yes, mozzarella can be done! Mom, you should definitely try it out because it's soooo yummy. I even got the Italian seal of approval from Toni, even though I don't have a damn water buffalo in my back yard, as the slow-foodies insist is necessary. Also, I recommend getting an old electric blanket for the incubations, because that helped me a lot and will also fix my yog

Here's the perfect dish for a cold night and several subsequent cold days as tasty planned-overs. I use an 'authentic' (supposedly) version, rather than the Lutheran church cookbook version that has all kinds of crazy things in it, like macaroni and tomato sauce. In this version the only thickening comes from the potatoes as they break down from cooking. I make mine a touch spicy, since that's just how I roll, but that's probably not 'authentic'. The dish will be much yummier if you add some stew-bones or oxtail, so try not to omit those. I threw in some parsnips, which added a lot to the flavor. 2-3 oxtails or stew-bones 2 lbs cubed boneless chuck 2 Tbsp. lard, shortening, bacon drippings, or oil 2 large onions 4-5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks (you can also sub-in parsnips, rutabagas, or turnips for some of the taters) 3 heaping Tbsp. sweet Hungarian paprika (I sub-in 2 tsp. sharp paprika) 1 qt. water S & P In a large, heavy pot, br

So the other day, while playing cards at my friend Rim's house, we got to talking about cooking, and I mentioned that I really don't know how to cook any Syrian food. She offered to show me how to cook some upcoming Friday(her day off). We ended up deciding to make it an iftaar, since we tried to invite our other friend Rasha (that didn't work, since iftaars are usually a family thing, and therefore she ended up eating with her family) and because Kathleen from my program is fasting. In the end, it was a bunch of Christians (and me) having an iftaar, but it was a lot of fun. Due to the chaos of the whole event, I didn't witness the cooking of everything, but I've listed the recipes for most of the stuff below. She also cooked some stuff the day before, and so I don't have the recipes for that stuff. I didn't annotate those dishes in the picture of the spread below: Here're the recipes: Maqluuba("Upside down") with meat Maqluuba is one of the Pa

Tonight we had a lovely gathering at the Byway with a few friends, which we'd coordinated at our volleyball game on Tuesday. We had a couple of soups, buttermilk biscuits, and many desserts. My contribution was a vegetarian squash soup (to go with Manny's meaty vegetable soup). There are as many ways to make squash soup as there are, uh...other numerous things. So these are just guidelines (as usual). If I hadn't been making it for a crowd I probably would have made it roaringly spicy, but as it was it got good reviews: 1 big winter squash (mine was mysterious lumpy green one) 1 large onion, chopped finely 3 carrots, chopped finely 2 red peppers (roasted or not), sliced into thin, 1" strips 1 qt. good vegetable (or otherwise) broth 1/2 c. buttermilk 4 Tbsp. butter olive oil black pepper nutmeg ground chipotle or cayenne salt minced chives to garnish Cook the squash however you like--I cut mine into quarters and seeded it, brushed it with olive oil, and baked it for an

Doing some research for the weed science class I'm TA-ing, I stumbled across a wonderful food blog ( Mahanandi ) of the cuisine of southern India, specifically a recipe that uses amaranth leaves ( right here ). Amaranth is considered a weed in the US, but the grains and greens are used worldwide in cooking. The recipe is for 'chana dal', which are similar to chick-peas, but much smaller and faster-cooking. I found them at the co-op, but I've also seen them at the large grocery store here. Soak them overnight for best results. Also, you could use spinach instead of amaranth, but the amaranth is so good that you should try to find it (I got mine at the Chinese grocery) or collect it from the garden yourself. I think I like it more than spinach, and from now on I will harvest the weedy volunteers in my garden. You should do your best to follow the recipe on the original site--I had to make a bunch of substitutions, but it still turned out really well and even looked just l

On a recent cold rainy fall day, I had something of an epiphany for how to use a whole chicken I had that was about 45 seconds away from starting to turn. I was tired of soup, but I wanted sauce, spice, and flavor. Solution: Stew. I also forgot pictures because I was too cold, hungry, and grumpy. I quartered my chicken and browned the quarters in my heaviest pot in some olive oil. I should have removed the wings because they ended up disintegrating and just adding boney bits. Oh well. Once the chicken had some decent browning going on, I poured on a can of whole peeled tomatoes. These are basically the best thing ever for making sauce from scratch, because they have a minimum of processing and are 95% as tomatoey as fresh tomatoes, at maybe 1/5th the price. The rest of the veggies were carrots, peeled and halved; some small white onions quartered and little pearls kept whole; and lots and lots of garlic (maybe 8-10 cloves). Sinus-clearing action was called for, so I added half a dozen

Tonight we have the first frost advisory of the year here in Ithaca, so it's a good night to stay home and have a comforting meal. Also, I didn't feel like doing my homework, so I basically got food (at the farm and farm-stand) and cooked the whole day. I even took pictures this time! Tonight's meal was truly all-American, all-Yankee, in fact. A navy bean is also known as a Yankee bean, so the soup is self-explanatory. The Parker House rolls originated at a swanky hotel in Boston; I made the cloverleaf version. The concord grape pie may be more hard to believe, but it does exist and is a regional delicacy. Concord grapes are a 'labrusca' variety, which means they're descended from the native North American grape. I'm not sure if you can find concords in MN, but I hope so, since the pie smells delicious (it's still cooling, so I don't know how it tastes). I think that you can use any other black-skinned grape whose skins slip off readily. Yankee Bean

Here is a recipe from Alex: Stuffed Fried Eggplant This is actually something I made up, though I based it on something I ate in Turkey(this is actually much better). It may actually be identical to the dish "Imam Bayaldi," but it looks like there are many variations on that dish anyway. I only made one eggplant, since it was left over from another meal - it didn't take long at all, maybe 30 minutes. Ingredients: Little Mini Eggplants(I had just one - the more, the easier the whole thing is, obviously) - ie, about 4-6" long, not including stem.* Onions (enough to fill the hollowed cavities of the eggplants.) Garlic Hot peppers(to taste) Cumin Optional(but delicious): Pomegranate molasses("dabas rumaan")(Worth having in the house anyway- very good with salads, or drizzled on top of the baba ghanouj from Lillian's recipe. Available at nearest Middle Eastern grocery store, or ethnic food aisle. Different from grenadine, I believe.) Cut onions into thin str

Considering it was the 'day of rest', we at the Byway did anything but. We got up, made a big breakfast (french toast, bacon, and fruit salad), and then set to cleaning the basement. It looks SOOO much better now! The shale foundation still seeps water when it rains (as it is currently doing), but now at least we got rid of most of the clutter, cobwebs, and fixed a dryer ventilation problem. To reward all our triumphant and weary workers I decided to make a nice dinner. I'd been wanting to make a sweet kugel, what with the high holy days rolling around (not that I'm religious--I just like the food), and I thought this would be a good night for it. I wanted to accompany it with a beef roast, but since Melanie can't eat beef we had a pork roast instead. I really have a habit of making one dish from a kosher or halal culture and accompanying it with pork--probably because pork is so versatile and I'm burned out on chicken. This will be lengthy: Roast Peppery Po

Here is a fantastic side-dish that has the added benefit (?) of smelling like every Jewish home I visited as a kid. It also uses buckwheat groats (when cooked, called kasha), which is a nutritional and agricultural powerhouse. Like quinoa, buckwheat is a seed rather than a grain, and contains tons of high-quality protein and many vitamins and minerals (and if you go by the articles about it, cures and prevents nearly every ill). Buckwheat is a great cover-crop for farmers and it grow very quickly. The recipe calls for bow-tie noodles, which--face it--are just plain fun. It goes really well with roasted chicken. This is modified from The Art of Jewish Cooking by Jennie Grossinger: 1/2 box of bow-tie noodles, cooked in salted water 1/3 c. butter or schmaltz 1 large onion, diced or sliced finely 1 tsp. thyme 1 tsp. black pepper salt to taste 1 1/2 c. roasted buckwheat groats, whole or cut 2 1/2 c. boiling water 1 1/2 tsp. salt 1 egg, beaten First, cook your noodles. Heat up a large pot an

This recipe has countless variations, so I present the version that mom taught me. Some people add tahini, but I think that ruins it--I like the zingy flavor this version has. This recipe is best made in late summer, when you have the grill going. 2 or more pounds eggplant, preferably small tender ones 3 bell peppers, green or red 1/2 red onion, diced finely 1 lemon, juiced 1/3 c. good olive oil 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped finely salt and pepper - be generous with both 1/2 tsp. ground coriander pinch of sugar pinch of cayenne Place the eggplants and 2 of the bell peppers on the grill and roast until blackened all over. You can use a gas stove or a broiler, but make sure to pull the batteries out of the smoke detector! Remove from the grill and place in a plastic bag for several minutes until they're cool enough to handle. Remove the roasted skins from the eggplants and peppers, and chop them finely into a bowl. Rinse the onion in cold water to reduce its stinkiness, then add to

I'm posting this picture 5/27/2012 (4 yrs 8 months after the original post)--just to prove that this recipe delivers again and again over the years! This is a hearty, simple meal that will feed you all week long. I make it with a pressure cooker because it is SO much faster that way, but you can simmer it on the stove if you prefer. The recipe is based on one from the cookbook that came with my pressure cooker. I didn't take photos because I find that bean dishes look horrible in them so you'll just have to use your imagination. First soak one pound of red beans overnight. I use "small red beans", but they're kind of hard to find, so you could use pink beans, roman beans, pintos, or even red kidney beans for this. If you didn't soak them overnight, you can put them in a pot of water, bring it to boil for one minute, and then turn off the heat and let them sit for 4 hrs. When you cut a bean in half there should be no pale starchy spot in the middle.

So, the Chowhound message boards describe Upstate NY as a culinary wasteland, and while that's mostly true, there are a few local jems, like Beef on Weck, Salt Potatoes, Buffalo Wings, and other things I'm probably forgetting or haven't tried. One such tasty treat is the "Spiedie". The spiedie is simply any kind of meat that's been cut into chunks and marinated in a highly seasoned vinaigrette, grilled on a skewer and basted with more of the marinade, and then pulled off the skewer with a slice of Italian bread. There are countless recipes for spiedie, handed down in the Italian communities of Endicott and Binghamton, and every year there's a festival and contest for the best version. In the grocery stores around here they sell pre-marinated meat, and at speidie stands you can buy pre-made sauce. I decided to try my hand at the sauce, so here's what I used: 2 lbs. chicken thighs, cut into 1.5" chunks 1 c. oil, 1/2 oilve and 1/2 whatever 3/4 c. r

A delicious and simple dinner idea--and with the benefit of requiring no wheat. I bread and fry the fish and serve it with corn tortillas, cabbage, avocado, and pico de gallo. Fish: Allow about 1/2 to 1/3 lbs. white fish per person. Shark or swordfish will be denser, cod or tilapia will be flakier, and halibut will melt in your mouth. 1/4 c. corn starch 1/4 c. yellow corn meal 1 egg adobo seasoning (I get it from Penzey's--one of my favorite spices!) ground cayenne or chipotle salt and pepper oil that gets good and hot (I use corn or grapeseed oil) Cut fish into 3-4" chunks that can easily be moved around in the pan. Pat the fish dry with a paper towel, then sprinkle with seasonings to taste. Mix the dry ingredients in a pie pan, and beat the egg smoothly in another pie pan. Dredge the fish in the flour mixture and allow to sit for several minutes, while heating the oil good and hot. Dip the fish chunks in the egg right before frying. Fry 3 pieces at a time until brown and cri

I don't have a picture to go with this one, but we all know what tabouleh looks like (though I'm not sure how to spell it--Al, is this right?). It's the perfect recipe for late summer, with the hot weather, ripe tomatoes and cukes, and waning kitchen inspiration. Here's how it goes: Soak 3/4 or 1 c. bulgur in the juice of one lemon and enough water to cover generously for at least 2 hours, or overnight if you remember. If you don't have time, then put it in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and let it soak for 15 min. You can also use any other pre-cooked grain, like quinoa or spelt berries if you're some kind of hippie ;). Drain and squeeze out the bulgur in a fine sieve or cloth. Chop 1 large tomato, 1 small cucumber (optional), 1/2 red onion or a handful of scallions, all into smallish cubes. If you use red onions, soak the pieces in cold water for a minute before adding. Place in a large serving bowl. Mince at least 1/2 bunch parsley

It's been a hot coupla weeks here in Lake Wobegon, my hometown, so when the weather cooled down and the rain started, I was ready to stand over the stove a spell. I have been craving risotto and have so many lovely vegetables to add from my garden that I was inspired. I found a recipe that used green beans. You can follow any risotto recipe, which is basically 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice to 6 cups of broth and 1/2 cup of wine . First you saute whatever you want in some olive oil (I used onions, carrots, shallots and garlic ) briefly, add the rice, stir and saute for about 3 minutes, then start adding broth, 1 cup at a time. Stir pretty continuously. You don't want it to stick to the bottom of the pan (I use a large iron skillet). When most of the broth is absorbed, add the next cup and stir more. Keep it on a medium/low flame . The entire process will take about 45 minutes . When you have added 5 cups and it has been absorbed, add the wine and stir. Once that is absorbed, add

Oh shit, pictures!? En garde, vagabondress! For my inaugural visit to Costco, I decided to avail myself of their farcical pricing in the form of that most irresistible of commodities, flesh. Porcine, in this case, and plenty of it. A ~7 pound raw loin, to be exact, for just under $15! (forgot to take a picture of this part; imagine your arm, but made of pig meat) So, I hacked off about 1/3rd of it to serve 2 with 1-2 servings worth of leftovers. I blended up a dry rub of fresh black pepper, brown mustard seeds, rosemary, oregano, and a pinch of salt, and coated the piggy nice and good like: This goes in the fridge to set up the crust. Meanwhile, contemplate sides. I happened to have a big bag of fresh-from-Mom's-garden green beans (and some red ones?). Into a heavy pot (this one has a nice thick SS-clad aluminum bottom and cost around $10 at Saver's) with loads of butter, a couple halved cloves of garlic, a diced slice of extra thick, extra yummy, uncured bacon, (from Kramarczu

For my final performance of the weekend, I made stuffed green bell peppers. The farm share included the most tender, juicy little peppers, so I knew this would be a good choice (since the grocery store peppers are often oversized and leathery). I combined a few recipes (using the one in almostturkish as the backbone) to arrive at my own, and they turned out adorable and delicious. You will need: 7-8 small peppers, stems carefully removed to make little 'lids' and hollowed out 1 lb. ground beef (or lamb if you can find it) 1.5 plain white or jasmine rice (soak this in water while you core the peppers) 3 medium onions 4 cloves garlic 1/2 bunch parsley 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 2 Tbsp. fresh or dried dill + 1 tsp. for sauce 2 tsp. fresh or dried mint + 1/2 tsp. for sauce 1 tsp. oregano 1 tsp. red pepper flakes 1 tsp. ground black pepper 1 Tbsp. salt 2 c. chicken broth 1 Tbsp. tomato paste 3 Tbsp. butter 1/2 c. heavy cream (optional) Chop the onions and garlic very fine using a

Ok, for those not obsessed by pickling, here's a tasty recipe my housemate, Liliana made with the remaining eggplants. Oh and did I mention that she's Italian and loves cooking? Yes, we are lucky here at the Byway. I don't have a picture, but it's basically pasta with a reddish sauce. You will need: One box of linguine 2-3 small eggplants, diced 2 bell peppers of various colors, diced One large can of plum tomatoes, diced One medium onion, diced 1/2 c. kalamata olives (pits removed), and chopped coarsely 3 cloves garlic, minced An armload of fresh basil, washed and chopped 1/4-1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese + more to taste Set a pot of water to boil for the pasta, and salt well. Saute the onions for 2 minutes, then add the eggplant and peppers. Cook on medium until eggplant is mostly tender, then add the tomatoes and their liquid and the olives. Continue to cook until the eggplant is completely tender. (Meanwhile, cook the pasta al dente). Add the garlic to the eggplant

I cooked up a storm this weekend! I got a nasty cough/cold last week and even though I probably should have been taking it easy, I got bored and decided to mix up watching The Sopranos and hacking my lungs out with cooking. Also, I picked up the farm share on Saturday and had a ton of raw materials to work with. First, I made Lebanese Pickled Eggplant Stuffed with Garlic, from The Joy of Pickling. These little guys were just so cute at the farm that I took home a huge bag of them, knowing I'd find a way to use them. These ones are white with purple streaks and are smaller and more tender and mild than the ones we're used to. Also, the fresh garlic I've been getting from the farm is killer. It's a pretty simple recipe (makes one quart): Fresh and steamed eggplants 1) Wash and trim 1.25 pounds small (4-5") eggplants (about one quart) 2) Crush the cloves of one bulb of garlic into a dish, add 1 tsp. cayenne pepper and one Tbsp. of pickling salt. 3) Steam the eggplants

Here's a recipe that Alex sent me since he's not able to post to the site easily. Alex: we miss you!!! Heya Lily, Here's a recipe for y'all's blog, which you'll have to post for me since blogspot seems to be banned at the moment. It's called "Mujaddara" and I'm not totally clear on the origin. I feel like someone said it's Palestinian, but seeing as everyone makes it that doesn't seem to be a terribly convincing statement. This is how I was taught to make it by an Allepan girl who's friends with my roommate Elizabeth: 1 smallish glass of brown lentils(probably 1/2-3/4 c.) 1.5 smallish glasses of rice. Onions (the more the merrier) Olive Oil Optional: Arabic spice mix (called "baharat" - available at your local Arab grocery, or there are probably recipes online. Should involve allspice, and have a sort of darker brown color.) Cook lentils in water until soft. Add rice, and 1.5x of water(Leaving the water from the lentils in

Another yummy recipe to check out is Maangchi's jobchae video-recipe. I link to her Blogger page on the right-hand panel, and she has a number of great recipes, but I will also insert the video here: I had no idea how easy this delicious recipe is, and it uses yam starch noodles, which are perfect for mom's gluten-free diet. These are the grayish/purplish ones that come in large packages, called "dang myun". (I made it with some other Asian noodles I had, and it still turned out fine) . Jobchae can be made with chicken rather than beef, for Jeff. Since the recipe is relatively inexpensive to make it will hard to pay restaurant prices for this dish in the future. Mmm...now I want to make some more!

This recipe has one of the greatest deliciousness:ease ratios that I know of. I learned it from our Hungarian cousin Kriszti, and I can't remember the Magyar name for the life of me, so I made this one up myself. All you need is: 1.5 lbs pork shoulder roast, cubed or sliced fresh Polish sausage 2 big jars/cans of sauerkraut Optional: 1 bay leaf white pepper nutmeg In the example photos I used the Polish sausage and home-made sauerruben (pickled turnips), because I'm an overachiever. Brown the pork/sausage in oil or fat in a heavy pot. Rinse the kraut in a colander and squeeze out (if you like it milder, rinse less. Knowing our family, you won't rinse at all). Dump the kraut on top but do not stir. Grind some white pepper and nutmeg on top and stick a bay leaf in, if desired. Trust me--even without any seasonings this is delicious. Add some water or broth so that there is moisture in the pot, but I wouldn't add more than a cup. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer

Forget about the dang pancakes already! This is something you have to taste - The recipe is taken, shamelessly and without editing, from the Joy of Gardening Cookbook with frosting from Grandma Gwen's recipe box. It is so incredibly delicious and if I am doing my arithmetic right, it is about 75% zucchini. (Just don't tell anyone that claims they don't like squash in any form). ZUCCHINI CHOCOLATE CAKE 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature 2 cups sugar 3 eggs, beaten 1 TBSP vanilla (yes, TBSP!) 2 cups flour 1/3 cup cocoa 2 tsp. baking soda 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. salt 1/3 cup buttermilk or sour cream 3 cups coarsely grated zucchini (I left out the nuts, but you can certainly add some) Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour two 9" round pans. Melt the chocolate and oil in a small saucepan over very low heat. Cream the butter until light; add the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well. Add the melted chocolate and mix we