Cabbage and Meatballs

Every year around Succot I make a giant pot of my mother’s stuffed cabbage recipe (with some small tweaks) and distribute it to my in laws and parents.It disappears off plates faster than I can blink. However the rolling and stuffing make this a one time a year deal. The At Home Gourmet, as well as several other cookbooks, tried to solve this dilemma by creating the same flavorful dish WITHOUT the need to neatly package the meat inside the cabbage.

This cabbage and meatballs recipe was trotted out recently on a WEEKDAY night much to the shock and awe of my family. Not only was it not Succot it wasn’t even Shabbos! That’s how easy this recipe looked – I didn’t wait for a special occasion.

Ingredients: ground beef, matzo meal, egg, salt, pepper, garlic powder, shredded cabbage, ketchup, tomato sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, salt, water

The Process: I mixed the beef, matzoh, egg and spices in a bowl. The rest of the ingredients were dumped into a pot over a low flame. When the sauce and cabbage began to boil I formed the meatballs and dropped them in. Everything cooked for 1.5 hours while I went about my business as usual.

For a cheaper but more work version you can slice your own cabbage instead of buying the pre-shredded bag.

The Results: This too disappeared before I could blink. Bowls of meatballs and cabbage were being fought over by family members. A huge hit and very easy to make. However you cannot scrimp on the cooking time – your cabbage will be raw!

I still like to make the pretty cabbage rolls for Succot (this recipe looks like it is depicted – a stew like mix). If time was short though, this would be a pretty good substitute.

Granola Bars

The At Home Gourmet is full of foods that I would typically purchase and eat, in more wholesome versions. This granola recipe is a prime example. Chockfull of fruit and nuts it really packs in the flavor. I was eager to try it as I currently purchase a ridiculous amount of expensive granola ( Love Crunch Dark Chocolate & Peanut Butter is my favorite but it can get pricey).

Ingredients: Old fashioned oats, almonds, pecans, shredded coconut, butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, pitted dates, dried figs, dried apricots, craisins, raisins

To save on costs, I bought most of this in the bulk food section of my grocery.

 

The Process: First I preheated the oven and prepped a baking sheet with a silicone liner. Then I mixed the oats, almonds, pecans and coconuts together and spread the mixture in an even layer on the baking sheet. This toasted in the oven for ten minutes. 

 

While that was going on, I melted the butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla and salt over a low flame and brought the whole thing to a boil. The oat mixture was then ready to be transferred to a mixing bowl. The boiling honey was poured over it and the dried fruit quickly added in. Everything got pressed onto the prepared pan and made a return trip into the oven for 30 minutes. I then let everything cool before attempting to slice it.

The Results: This oatmeal was crumblier than I anticipated based on the photo of a neat square in the cookbook. I had quite a bit of trouble cutting a neat square, even with appropriate cooling of the granola. The photo below is the only square I managed to cut. The rest was eaten in pieces. However this was very tasty and great for sprinkling into yogurt or munching dry.

I was sadly unable to share the granola with one of my children as she is pecan allergic. Therefore this was an adult only food in my house, but I would bet that older children would enjoy it. Obviously this granola is not for the toddler set as it contains some choking hazards.

White Chocolate Chip & Dried Apricot Cookies

I love cookies but I have never appreciated oatmeal raisin cookies. That’s why I was delighted to see The Silver Platter cookbook agreed with me and placed white chocolate chips and apricots in these oatmeal cookies instead. I made these to bring to work on my birthday, together with the Chocolate Chunk Cranberry Cookies on the next page.

Ingredients: vegetable oil, brown sugar, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, rolled oats, baking soda, salt, dried apricot, white chocolate chips

The Process: I preheated the oven to 350 and lined some baking sheets with silicone baking mats. The recipe suggests parchment paper but I find I get better results with the silicone mats and they are reusable and therefore better for the planet. I then mixed the oil, sugars, egg and vanilla until blended. I then took the dry ingredients and mixed them into the wet ones until combined into a ball. The apricots and chips were folded in.

I used a cookie scoop to place golf sized balls onto the baking trays and pressed each to slightly flatten it. They were then baked for 12-15 minutes.

Results: Delicious! They flew off the plate. I brought some to work and they too flew off the plate. Apricot is definitely a much pairing with oatmeal than raising for me. The only mildly time consuming part was cutting the dried apricots and even that took only 2-3 minutes.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

As I work my way through The Bais Yaakov Cookbook, I decided to make a foray into the meat section. What could be simpler than meatballs? The ingredients for this recipe were also easily on hand so I dove right in!

Ingredients: ground beef, eggs, bread crumbs, ketchup, garlic, onion, tomato sauce, sugar, brown sugar, lemon juice

Substitutions: I have used corn flake crumbs instead of bread crumbs when there were none in the house. I have also used ground turkey instead of ground meat if that was more readily available

The Process:

First I combined the ground meat, ketchup, bread crumbs, eggs and spices into a mixture. Then I threw all the sauce ingredients into a pot and brought it to a boil. I then rolled balls from the meat mixture, dropped them into the simmering sauce, covered it and let is sit for two hours until done.

During the simmering phase the house was filled with a delicious aroma and several hungry people wandered into the kitchen asking when the meatballs would be ready for consumption. If you serve your meatballs over rice or noodles it is a good idea to prepare that during this time as well.

The Results: Delicious! And easy. However the two hour cook time means this is not necessarily fast. The one change I would suggest to the printed instructions is to prepare the sauce first. Having the simmering sauce on hand means that once you make the meat mixture you can drop the balls right in. Otherwise you are cleaning your hands from raw meat and throwing together the sauce while the meat mixture sits waiting.

Using a large pot also helps there be room for all the meatballs to sit in a single layer.

Asian Steak Salad

Steak Salad is one of my favorite foods. When the steak is marinated properly it becomes a juicy and filling addition to your salad.

This Asian steak salad recipe really looked like a flavorful twist on an old favorite. I typically like to use a thick juicy piece of meat, like London Broil, for steak salad but this recipe from Kosher by Design called for a thinner skirt steak which cut down on cooking/prep time.

Ingredients: olive oil, garlic, soy sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, peanut or olive oil, red onion, skirt steak cut in thin strips,

yellow pepper, red pepper, mixed greens, sesame seeds

Substitutions: I have used peanut oil but have also substituted with olive oil when peanut allergies became an issue

The Process: First I browned the ginger and garlic in olive oil. The soy sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, vinegar and mustard where pulsed in the food processor and then mixed with the ginger and garlic to form the dressing.

I then heated the peanut oil and cooked the steak in it for ten minutes. When it was done I removed it from the skillet with a slatted spatula and set it aside. I placed the red onion and bell peppers in the pan to saute. When they were almost done I added 2-3 tablespoons of dressing cooking and removed it from the heat. The dressing is then added to the green and the peppers and steak are placed on top with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

 

The Results: This salad is amazing. It tastes wonderful and is a big hit with company. It is not quite as colorful as the one in the photo unless you under cook the peppers – which tastes the change of the salad and I wouldn’t recommend it.

 

 

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

When looking for rainy day activities baking and decorating sugar cookies is definitely a no brainer. This classic dough from The Complete Cookie looked fun to try, simple and sweet.

Ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla

Substitutions: I didn’t have cookie cutters so we used my daughters shape sorters to cut different shapes. This was great as she had to properly name the shape in order to get a cookie!

The Process: First I combined all the dry ingredients. I then pulsed the butter into the sugar using a food processor. Slowly I added the eggs, lemon zest and vanilla. I then added the flour (I mixed it in by hand instead of pulsing in the food processor). I felt I needed  few extra tablespoons of flour as the dough was way too sticky to be formed into a ball. Then I placed it in the fridge to cool. My children were very impatient to continue so I took a portion of dough out after 1 hour. This definitely was not a good move as the dough was difficult to roll. The dough that sat and chilled for the entire 3 hours, as advised, was much easier to manipulate.

I used my french style rolling pin to roll neat sheets of dough while the kids used mini 

rolling pins to roll out small patches of dough. We cut the cookies easily  and the refrigerated dough did not stick to the cutters. I placed them on silicone baking mats and used a variety of colored sugars to decorate. Everything was placed in a preheated oven at 350 degrees and baked them for 10 minutes. Do not over bake!

 

The Results: I definitely felt the recipe needed 1/3 c to 1/4 c more flour. The rolling process on the chilled dough was excellent. It did not stick to the rolling pin or the cookie cutters. There is no picture to compare to but these did retain their shape beautifully and did not spread on the sheet.

Carrot Souffle

Boiling Carrots

This recipe is not unique to The Bais Yaakov Cookbook. I have seen similar carrot kugels and carrot souffles’ in almost every Kosher cookbook, with small variations. For instance I have crushed everything from Chex to Cheerios while making the crispy topping. Most of these recipes, however, use baby food carrots. This recipe asks the industrious cook to boil and mash their own carrots. Is it worth the effort?

 

Ingredients: carrots, eggs, oil, sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla, cornflake crumbs, brown sugar, margarine, chopped nuts, cinnamon

Carrot Mash    

Substitutions: I use Earth Balance instead of margarine. For chopped nuts I used almonds because that is the only nut nobody in my home is allergic to. I suspect pecans and walnuts may have worked better.

The Process: You start by boiling the carrots so that they can be easily mashed. I found I needed longer than the suggested 15 minutes. I had to boil the carrots for a full 30 minutes before I could easily mash them. While I used a fork you might get a smoother mash with a food processor (this is not suggested in the recipe).

I then preheated the oven and started adding ingredients to the carrot mash. All of this was poured into an oven to table baking dish. The recipe allows for either one large dish or a few small ramekins. While the ramekins might be prettier the one large dish was easier to handle and serve.

I mixed the cornflakes, sugar, Earth Balance and nuts to make a topping. This crumble was spread over the top and the entire thing was baked for 40 minutes.

The Results: It tasted like most other carrot kugels I have tried, except slightly sweeter and slightly more gritty since I hand mashed the carrots. My kids seemed to love it, with one notable exception – they asked me to remove the sugary cereal topping! Is it worth the extra time to mash the carrots? Probably not. It turned a 15 minute process into a 45 minute affair.

                                Carrot Souffle

Quick Teriyaki Chicken Stir-Fry

I grew up on pasta, my husband grew up one rice. Rice and meatballs, rice and beans, rice on Passover. While I definitely enjoy the liberalized Passover diet, I still haven’t quite gotten used to the substitution of rice for pasta. Therefore when I saw this Stir Fry recipe in the Bais Yaakov Cookbook call for rice OR orzo I immediately whipped out a box of orzo and got cooking.

Broccoli also happens to be one green vegetable that my kids will actually eat. Combined with the one pan, stove-top nature of this recipe I practically HAD to try it.

Ingredients: chicken breast, salt, Italian dressing, water, teriyaki sauce, garlic powder, frozen broccoli florets, uncooked rice OR orzo

Substitutions: None

The Process: The Italian dressing is used to sauté the chicken strips. I will admit the smell of heated Italian dressing is mildly revolting. Luckily it dissipates quickly. I then stirred in the water and teriyaki sauce, greatly improving the smell, and the garlic powder. Everything is brought to a boil and the broccoli and orzo are added. I placed the lid on and cooked over low heat for five minutes. That’s it. Done!

The Results: I was skeptical that everything would finish cooking in five minutes, and indeed I found I had to add a little more water water and cook for another few minutes before the orzo was done. However all in all this was a very fast one pot meal with minimal clean up. It also tasted great and was very filling. Containing a starch, protein and vegetable all in one, I found this to be the perfect meal to pack up and take to work. My kids however refused to try it. I think if they had, they would have liked it.

Personally I enjoy the smoother and less dense texture of orzo to rice. I do not know if I would like this dish as much had it been made with rice.

Quick Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry

Ka’ak-Ib-Loz

When I married a Sephardic Jew there were lots of new traditions to get used to – even the engagement party pastries were new and exotic. Instead of the usual heart shaped cookies with our names embossed them I was enchanted to see these sweet little wreaths – Ka’ak-Ib-Loz decorating the tables. Made out of almond and pistachio marzipan they stole the show. For the Love of Cooking was gifted to me a few years later by our grandmother and I decided to try my hand at making them.

As Passover approaches I’m happy to note these cookies are in fact Kosher for Passover. However if you have pistachio allergy in the home like I do – stick to just making the rings with almonds.

Ingredients:

almonds, pistachio nuts, confectioners sugar, orange water, green food coloring

The Process:

The most difficult part of this process is the first part. You have to blanch the nuts (instructions not provided in the cookbook) and then shell them – peeling off all the little brown outside bits from the almonds. This cannot be done if you haven’t blanched the almonds for long enough. Then you grind the nuts in a food processor. At the time I did not have a large food processor, only a small table top one. Then I pulsed in the sugar.

As my pistachios did not have a deep green color after blending I went ahead and mixed the orange water and food coloring in with the nuts. You can skip the food coloring if your pistachios were more vivid than mine. I then tried to shape the mixture into balls and join the ends to make a ring. This was pretty difficult. The mixture was a little crumbly and I felt I needed more liquid of some sort to make it pliable. At this point you can crimp the edges to make them more wreath like before leaving them out to dry. I tried to twist several strands together as well but that didn’t quite pan out given the dry/brittle nature of the dough.

The Results:

The taste was great, but the shapes were not as pretty as I liked. I think if I had a finer grind on the nuts and a little more water I could have done fun things like make different colors and shapes. 

 

Egg-Free Sprinkle Cookie

While eggs are not an allergen we worry about in my house I was still excited to try this Egg-Free Sprinkle Cookie recipe from Kids Cooking Made Easy. I run out of eggs all the time and this seemed like a quick and easy recipe I could make with my kids. It also looked quick which is exactly what I need for shabbat prep in the winter!

Ingredients:

butter or margarine (I use Earth Balance), sugar, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, flour, rainbow sprinkles

The Process:

First you preheat the oven and line baking sheets. The recipe calls for parchment paper but I always use silicone baking mats as they never smoke (parchment paper tends to set off my smoke alarm) and cookies bake more evenly with the mats without sticking. I then creamed the margarine and sugar adding in the vanilla and flour until it formed a nice ball of dough. The kids felt it “looked like play dough”.

We then rolled the balls into circles, dipped them into rainbow sprinkles while flattening them a little bit. Then they were placed on the pre-lined baking sheet and bake.

The Results:

The recipe was easy to follow and the instructions were correct. The cookies did not spread further than the recipe said they would. However I would say the baking time of 15 minutes is more of a max time. If you have an oven that runs hot you will want to them out a bit earlier to keep a moist soft cookie. They disappeared pretty quickly from the kitchen and my company even asked to take some home!

          Egg Free Sprinkle Cookie