28 Dec 2010 No Comments
How To Combat Christmas Envy
Why take the time to go out for Chinese food on Christmas when you can simply make it at home? Luckily, Christmas Eve and Shabbat happened to coincide this year, so instead of wallowing in Asian-Jewish self-pity, here’s a good menu: Whole wheat challah, adapted from Jewish Cooking in America; Eggplant pomegranate puree; Wilted garlic spinach salad; Caramelized shallots and garlic; Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Green Olives (tagine courtesy Claudia Roden, preserved lemons courtesy his Holiness Mark Bittman); Saffron rice pilaf with dried apricots; Red wine. Recipes: Although I swapped white whoole wheat flour for half all-purpose and half whole wheat within the challah, that was the only change hard money lenders I produced. The challah, which somehow only had one egg per loaf, was a lot more like bread than the eggy, sweet brioche traditional challah ought to be. Not that it wasn’t good- it was clearly much more wholesome, but proved better toasted and slathered with crunchy peanut butter. Mark Bittman’s fast preserved lemons are genius! I only produced them five or six hours in advance, and they had none of the extreme saltiness with the entire pickled lemons in oil from Middle Eastern grocery stores… not to mention that they price practically nothing. The chicken was a feat. In spite of having been cooking for 5 years or so, I had by no means handled raw meat, or microdermabrasion machines at least a entire chicken. But the fact with the matter is I’m not anymore a vegetarian, and I ought to know about this side, or rather, nucleus, of the culinary sphere. Embarassingly enough, I didn’t even know how you can open the chicken bag. I wore rubber gloves. I massacred the bird having a pair of scissors. It was disgusting and there were all sorts of viscous membranes that I avoided considering when I tried the tagline. But you realize what? Although I couldn’t get the image of the naked pink corpse out of my head, the tagine was great. The sauce was sweet using the chicken’s juice and onions, piquant and salty from the green olives metal detector (no require to eliminate the pits), and sour from the preserved lemons. Spooned more than my pilaf and served alongside roasted shallots, we were too full to eat the salad I was originally preparing on serving. The appetizers, on the other hand, which I threw together at the last minute without recipe, ironically turned out to be probably the most successful. The mixture of eggplant and pomegranate by no means fails, especially when spread atop steadicam challah. The same goes for garlicky lemon spinach cooked with a lot of white wine. Recipe for Eggplant pomegranate puree – Ingredients: 2 large eggplants; Olive oil, salt, pepper; Juice of 1 lemon; 1/2 cup chopped parsley; 1/2 tsp cumin; 1/2 tsp sumac;Preheat the oven to 375. Slice the eggplants in two and drizzle them with olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. Roast, pricking and turning once and a while, until the skins are peeling off and the flesh is meltingly tender. Remove from the oven. When cool enough to handle, scoop out the innards and discard the skins. Place the eggplant pulp in a blender/food processor (all hail the Vitamix) and mix until smooth and not quite baby food-like. Transfer to a bowl and add fresh lemon juice and spices. Refrigerate. When chilled, mash in roasted garlic (from recipe below), then add chopped parsley and squeeze in pomegranate juice and seeds. Adjust seasonings to taste, drizzling a little additional olive oil on top. Serve. 1 tsp smoked paprika; couple cloves roasted garlic; Seeds of ~ 1/4 of a pomegranate, salt, pepper, olive tankless water heaters oil to taste; 1/4 cup chopped parsley. For Lemon garlic spinach recipe: 1 bunch spinach; 1 TBSP olive oil; 3 cloves of garlic; White wine; Juice of one lemon; Salt and pepper. Heat oil more than medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add garlic and stir-fry until just a bit burnt. Add spinach, wine, and a little salt. Let the alcohol boil off, then turn down the heat and let it wilt. When wilted, eliminate from the heat, cool, and chop, and not too finely. Transfer to a bowl and add lemon juice, salt and pepper. Refrigerate.