Extra Schmaltz!

As you can tell, I'm on a cooking roll. Lately I've been into crisp, thin cookies (thanks mom for the King Arthur Flour Baking Cookbook!). These cookies are the state cookie of New Mexico and traditionally served at Christmas. I made biscochitos a couple of weeks ago using shortening, but this time I tried it with more authentic lard. The shelf-stable stuff you find at the grocery store is hydrogenated and tastes funky, so I made a special trip to the Midtown Global Market and found the real deal (hopefully I can find good lard up on Central too). Here's yet another photo I haven't managed to fit the subject into: This recipe makes a ton of cookies (~ 3-4 dozen), but if you want even more you can double it. 1/2 lb. lard or shortening 3/4 + 2 Tbsp. sugar 2 tsp. cracked anise seed (can be found at Penzey's) 1 egg, beaten 1 tsp. orange zest (optional) 3 1/4 c. flour 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 c. brandy or sherry 1/4 c. sugar 2 tsp. Ceylon cinnamon

Tonight was Mexican food night here, and it turned out delicioso! Amazingly, tri-tip beef is available at Coborn's Grocery in Ramsey, so that's what I used, but I think that a "sirloin tip roast" is a similar cut, and easier to find. Meat: Put your meat in the freezer for an hour or two, so that it gets firm but not frozen through. Slice as thin as possible, against the grain, with a sharp knife. Marinate with: Some chopped onion or shallot 2-3 crushed garlic cloves 2 tsp. salt 1/2 c. Coca-Cola (preferably Mexican style, with sugar instead of corn syrup) 1 tsp. cayenne 1/2 tsp. ground cumin Mix the meat around from time to time when it's marinating. I keep it at room temp so it absorbs more flavor and cooks faster. When you cook it, heat a large frying pan up as hot as you can get it and add a generous dollop of lard or shortening, and cook as briefly as possible. Serve immediately on hot corn tortillas. The most traditional way to serve the tacos is with diced on

I made this a while ago and just now found the pictures. I guess I was in the mood for spending an entire day cooking, so I made blintzes and they were really yummy. This is another recipe from The Art of Jewish Cooking--it just has such great recipes for cold weather, and hooo boy is it cold outside! The coleslaw is my own concoction. Blintz wrappers: 3 eggs 1 c. milk or water 1/2 tsp. salt 2 Tbsp. salad oil 3/4 c. sifted flour butter or oil for frying Beat the eggs, milk, salt, and salad oil together. Stir in the flour until the lumps are gone. Heat a little oil or butter in a 6-inch skillet. Pour 2-3 Tbsp. batter in, tilting pan to coat the bottom--just use enough to make a very thin crepe. Let the bottom brown and turn out into a paper towel, brown side up. This should make about 20 pancakes. Filling: 1 lb. ground meat, cooked 1/2 onion, grated finely 1 egg 1 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp black pepper 2 Tbsp. minced parsley Mix all ingredients together and season to taste. I think I added a t

Here's a tasty winter side dish that adds some magenta to the plate. It's not quick-cooking but it's worth the wait. This is my interpretation of the version in The Art of Jewish Cooking. Preheat the oven to 350. 1 small-ish red cabbage, chopped finely 4 Tbsp. butter 1 red onion, slivered 2 tart apples, chopped finely 3/4 c. broth or water 1/4 c. red wine vinegar 1/4 c. red wine mixed with 1 Tbsp. flour until smooth 1 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar 2 t. salt 1 Tbsp. yellow mustard seeds (optional but fun to eat) In an oven-safe, heavy pot with a lid (not cast iron, unless it's enameled), melt the butter and sweat the onions until they're translucent. Mix in the cabbage and apples and simmer 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and heat until boiling. Put the lid on and place in the oven for 45-60 minutes (or longer if you're distracted, like me), stirring occasionally. Adjust seasonings with salt and vinegar at the end. It's great to see everyone posting with t

Made a tasty green bean dish based on the harissa (tunisian chile sauce) I found in the supermarket. I'll try those ingredient lists Lillian seems so insistent upon. Some garlic Some sausage Green beans Onions Harissa Couscous In this particular case I would estimate I used 400 g of green beans, 2 smallish merguez sausages (sorta a maghrebin chorizo; in fact I bet chorizo would be great for this dish) amounting to about 100 g, 4-5 cloves of lightly crushed garlic, 1 small onion, and a good spoonful of harissa. So I sweated/lightly fried the sausage garlic, and onions (julienned) until the sausage was cooked, the onions becoming clear, and the garlic soft. The green beans, halved and with the stringy bit at the end cut off followed. I gave the whole a dash of red wine and balsamic vinegar (add those to ingredient list), set phasers to 3 (out of 10, so medium lowish?), and let it all cook with periodic tossing. Green beans are done when you bite them and they don't taste like gra

So, this is the second in my multipart "What my friend Reem taught me to cook" series of Syrian recipes. This entry is "melukhiyya", known in English as "Jew's Mallow" for who knows what reason. There are two versions of this recipe apparently - the Egyptian(and Jordanian style) consists of a more soup like consistency with very finely cut leaves that tends to be much more "mucusy" (incidentally the equivalent word is used in Arabic to describe it) i.e. viscous as a result of the nature of the leaves. It's basically the same kind of stuff that's in okra. The Jordanian version, as I've had it, is generally served in small portions as a soup eaten straight from a bowl. In viscosity and serving size, it's much like egg drop soup (though not at all in flavor). The Syrian and Lebanese styles are quite different - there is generally much less liquid involved, there is generally some form of meat included (chicken here, though somet

At least one thing is cheap in (this part of) France: Shellfish! At 2E40 a kilo, mussels are a downright bargain. I actually went to the big fish farm at Sete where they are grown about an hour away from Montpellier so I can attest to their freshness. So last Saturday I threw a little party chez moi, where I fed 9 people with nothing but mussels (6 kg) and bread (and pasta for anybody who wanted it). Total bill for food: about 20E, making it approximately the cheapest meal any of us have eaten since we arrived. So, mussels are pretty damned easy, and I didn't actually get many pictures (since I was cooking batches as the party was in swing) making this a somewhat useless post. I do get to gloat, however. So here are all my ingredients for the mussel portion of the night's entertainment: Those are leeks, some kind of green onion thing ( I didn't even catch the name in french) lemons, and so many mussels my kitchen did not come equipped with a large enough container for them

Here's a great and cheap weeknight recipe. You can make it with any cut of bone-in chicken, but I use the extra-cheap chicken drumstick family packs. Preheat the oven to 400 and throw some rice on to cook. 1 large package chicken drumsticks 2 -3 oranges, juiced (or 3/4 c. OJ) zest of one orange 1/4 c. vinegar, any kind 3 Tbsp. brown sugar 1 Tbsp. molasses 1 tsp. soy sauce 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. white pepper 1/2 tsp. ground ginger 1/4 tsp. cayenne 1 pinch allspice or cloves Combine the above to make 1 1/2 c. liquid. Add more vinegar or some broth if it's not enough. Simmer on the stove until the liquid reduces by 1/2. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings as necessary. Turn flame to lowest setting and whisk in: 3 Tbsp. sherry (or cold water) combined with 1 heaping Tbsp. cornstarch Once the sauce thickens, pour it into a large bowl. Pat the chicken dry and place it in the bowl. Add: 1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped 1 medium red pepper, finely chopped (optional) 3 cloves garl

Here's a hearty, comforting soup made with just a few ingredients, originally from Portugal. Base your potato:broth ratio on on how thick you want the finished product. I recommend getting the sausage at Kramarczuk's, but really any sausage would do. I can't find the cable for my camera, so here's an image I yanked from the internet, and it looks a lot like what I made: Recipe: 3/4-1 lb sausage cut into slices or cubes, preferably linguica or chorizo 1 onion, sliced thin 4-6 white potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes 6-8 c. broth 1 large bunch kale or collards, washed and cut into 1/8-1/4" strips 3 cloves garlic, minced S & P Olive oil or butter to garnish Heat some oil (I used bacon grease) and slowly sweat the onions until they start to caramelize. Crank up the heat and add the sausage, stirring until it begins to brown. Add most of the garlic and all of the broth and bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and boil 45 min or pressure cook 10 min until they st