"Pita" chips

The Mr. and I were having friends over so I popped over to the local supermarket to pick up pita chips to go with my homemade olive tapanade (recipe to eventually post, pinky promise) and much to my surprise, it was $4 a bag. I don't know why this shocked but it did and I refused to buy them and make them myself instead! Innovation and cheapness go hand in hand, no?

I went to the local kosher market that makes their own Persian sangak bread. It's a heavenly, lightweight, airy and addictive bread. Since it doesn't store well and turns stale quickly I had to work fast.  

 Inside shot of the deliciousness

 The bread comes in this oblong shape, so I decided to quarter it the best I could and eat the sides that were funny shaped... alright, I just wanted to eat the ends.

 Then I started cutting the sections into triangular and rectangular shapes or whatever shape you want really. I just got into the zone while chopping them into triangles. 

Place them on a baking sheet - no need to spray or oil the pan

I made my own mixture of minced garlic and olive oil, I let it sit for a bit to really get infused. Though now a days, I make my own garlic infused olive oil but throwing some cloves into an olive oil bottle. 

With a pastry brush, brush down the pieces, I made sure to leave pieces of garlic on it for that extra bite to it. 

 Preheat the oven to 350 and place inside. (don't mind that stain, I was cooking all day and spilled something-it's clean now I promise)

Bake until it's at a desired crispiness. We like ours super crisp so we let them get nice and toasty. 

 And then proceed to stuff your face.  

This is a great trick and can be used with pita, challah and pretty much any other bread you've got laying around and you don't want to go bad. 

Bok Choy in Garlic Sauce (Baby got bok)

So we've been getting (a lot) of veggies from the farm share... and most times when the Mr. sends over the list I just sigh heavily because for weeks on end, we were getting baby bok choy. So I decided to dive in and made the only thing I could think of.... something with loads of garlic.

1/3 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil

1/4 cup thinly sliced garlic (about 8 cloves)

2 pounds baby or Shanghai bok choy, halved lengthwise

2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil

Recipe taken from Epicurious


First off, wash your bok choy because those little suckers can be dirty. Stir together broth, soy sauce, cornstarch, and 1/2 teaspoon salt until cornstarch has dissolved

 The recipe called for a 'well seasoned wok' ... I got this at the bridal shower and never used it before so let's totally pretend it's well seasoned and not just taken out of the box.

Heat wok over high heat until a drop of water evaporates instantly. Pour peanut oil (I used canola oil with no issue) down side of wok, then swirl oil, tilting wok to coat side.

Add garlic and stir-fry until pale golden, 5 to 10 seconds

Add half of bok choy and stir-fry until leaves wilt, about 2 minutes, then add remaining bok choy and stir-fry until all leaves are bright green and limp, 2 to 3 minutes total

Stir broth mixture, then pour into wok and stir-fry 15 seconds. Cover with lid and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender, 2 to 4 minutes

Stir in sesame oil, then transfer to a serving dish

If you are cooking this ahead of time, be careful to reheat on a very low temperature so not to dry out the sauce. 

Sage Lemon Chicken

Patience is a virtue but it sucks if you forget to marinate from the night before. This recipe called for overnight or 6+ hour marinating, I apparently skipped that part when reading the recipe due to my 'gung ho-ness' on wanting to create this dish.

Ingredients:

8 whole garlic cloves
1/2 cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1-1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
Grated zest of 2 lemons (use a microplane)
Juice of 2 lemons (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup chopped fresh sage leaves
6 (8-ounce) bone-in chicken breasts, skin on




Place garlic in a food processor and process to a puree. Add olive oil, honey, kosher salt, and pepper, processing to combine. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, and sage. Pulse a few times until sage is rough-cut.




Pour the marinade into a freezer zip-top bag. Add chicken breasts, seal, and toss to coat the pieces. Open the bag, squeeze out all the air so the chicken is covered, then seal again. Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before grilling or baking. Discard the used marinade. *Since I didn't 6 hours, I opted for 1 hour with constant turning of the bag.





To Bake: Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, and insert a baking rack. If you're keeping a kosher kitchen and only have dairy baking racks or just don't want to clean a grill after baking chicken on it... you may want to skip this part.







So I opted to pop the chicken on to a sprayed pan and I prayed for the best.


Bake chicken breasts for 40 to 45 minutes or until meat thermometer reaches 170 in thickest part of the meat not touching bone. Crisp skin under broiler for a few minutes, if needed. Do not overcook or the chicken will be dry.




Recipe source-

http://homecooking.about.com/od/condimentrecipes/r/blcon116.htm?p=1


(Eventually, I'll get the hang of photographing my dishes!)

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

It's Memorial day weekend and it's freezing out! So this Shabbat I made 
roasted tomato basil soup, thanks to the amazing site allthecooks.com, it's light, it's vegetarian and it's full of basil, which my husband loves. 

First time I made this recipe we had two vegetarians coming over and I needed a quick fix for my staple chicken soup so I searched high and low (if you can do that on the internet) for a non-dairy tomato soup. Luckily allthecooks came to the rescue, although there's a mention for adding two tablespoons butter but I skip it instead of using parve margarine. And I should mention the first time I made this recipe, it took me hours because I didn't own a food mill and I used a blender and strainer, I went out and bought a food mill days later. My advice use a food mill.


INGREDIENTS:
3 pound Ripe plum tomatoes, cut in half
¼ cup Plus 2 TB. Good olive oil
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoon Freshly ground pepper
2 cup Chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
6 clove Minced garlic
2 tablespoon Unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon Crushed red pepper flakes
1 can Tomatoes with juice (28 oz.)
4 cup Fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon Fresh thyme leaves
1 quart Chicken stock or water

First step is to preheat oven to 400°F and slice in half 3 pounds of plum tomatoes, make sure that they are nice and ripe. I try to avoid the hard tomatoes as they won't cook up so well. 

Once they are sliced, throw in 1/4 cup of oil olive, 1 tablespoon of salt (recipe calls for kosher salt, I used seat salt) and 1.5 teaspoons of pepper- mix well and place in a single layer on a baking sheet and cook for 45 minutes. I pour in any extra of the oil mixture. Don't use your favorite baking sheet as the tomatoes sometimes overcook and leave a sticky crust that takes a while to clean off the sheet.

While the tomatoes are cooking in the oven, throw 2 cups of chopped onions (two medium sized onions) into an 8 qt stock pot. Add 2 tablespoons of oil, butter(which I skip and it tastes the same), 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes and 6 cloves of minced garlic (have only pre minced? Use this conversion)- cook for 10 minutes on a medium-high fire or until onions start to brown. 

 Once the onions, garlic, and pepper are all cooked up and smelling incredible. Add the canned whole plum tomatoes (28 oz), 4 cups of fresh basil (packed tightly-the more basil the better, unless that's not your thing), 1 teaspoon thyme (I used dried, didn't have enough 'time' to get fresh) and 1 quart chicken stock (I mixed water with 1 tablespoon parve Osem chicken stock). 

 By now your tomatoes should be all done in the oven. You'll be adding them to the stock pot, they should have a nice wrinkled skin. 

  Add the oven roasted tomatoes, including the liquid on the baking sheet. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes, get your food mill out or blender/strainer system. Place it on top of a another stock pot, can be smaller than the 8 quart. 

Blend to your hearts delight, I used the finest blade as I don't like chunky soup. You'll be left with a lot of pulp, which you can always turn into a tomato sauce or compost or toss in the trash.... this week since I running low on time, I opted for the trash. 


The finished product is a slightly zesty, tomato and basil infused thick broth... which I can't locate the picture of but trust me it's good. I cook the end result for about 20-30 more minutes on simmer to thicken it up a bit and it always tastes incredible the next day. Since I make my own garlic croutons with leftover challah bread, I throw in a few pieces for the ultimate soup. Best part, it can be served hot or cold. 

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Black Beans aka Veg Feijoada

Ok, I'm late on this... in belated honor of mother's day I'm going to post my mother's vegetarian version of Brazilian black bean recipe which I love and have been dying to copy. It took a while but I broke my mother down and finally got her to reveal the recipe ... she may kill me for blogging this so if you don't hear from me.... 

My mother gave me a ton of things for the wedding, one of which happened to be a pressure cooker or "presto" as my mother loves to call it in her native tongue of Brazilian Portuguese. Typically, Feijoada is made with pork products so this is why I adore my mom's innovative ways in the kitchen by creating a veg version.

One thing I've realized is opening and closing this pressure cooker is the worst experience ever, since the lid has to be slid into the pot which is accomplished after a lot of cursing and force... I may not be doing this correctly. 

First take a cup of black beans and soak overnight.... they've turn a lovely shape of purple- toss anything that doesn't absorb water and looks like a rock as it may be a rock. 

 Sorry for the flash... I'm new to this whole 'taking pictures as you cook' thing

Then take your pressure cooker, hopefully you don't have to battle with the lid and drop the beans inside with water filled up to about 3'' from the top. Place one bay leaf (dried or fresh), whole garlic clove, pinch of salt and a drop of oil. 

 

That white stuff in the pot is coconut oil, which congeals when cold and we try to use instead of oil for a healthier option.

Make sure the pressure cooker rubber seal is properly in place and lock the lid. Place on to high fire for about twenty minutes. Gently shake the pot to ensure that the water hasn't dried out otherwise your black beans will be blackened beans and those taste terrible since I did burn them the first time I made them.  

To open, place the pressure cooker directly from the fire into the sink and run cold water over the lid. Touch the toggle piece at the top to see if it's safe to open, if there's still smoke coming from the toggle, don't open. If no smoke or heat, then slowly open it up as there will be a lot of steam. 

Transfer the beans to another pot and remove the now cooked onion and bay leaf and garlic if you can find it, it usually melts. Add 3 tablespoons tomato puree, salt to taste, 1 tablespoon Osem parve (vegetarian) chicken powder, and a drop of vinegar. Boil without lid until it becomes creamy. 

Once cooked up to the texture of your desire (some people prefer it heavier and some more watered) serve over rice or with a salad... we chose rice that night. 

Shopping list:

Black beans

Whole onion 

Bay leaf

Garlic clove

Vinegar 

Tomato puree

Oil

Salt

Osem chicken powder

French Toast....

I haven't made or attempted to made French toast in who knows how many years... Me and the hubs have this thing where I don't cook Sunday ams since I cook everyday plus work full time. But I was feeling particularly inspired last sunday and we had a ton of leftover challah from shabbat (why do I buy two big ones every week? I'll never know) So I went to my old friend, my Epicurus app and looked up the easiest French toast I could find... I found this one. Simple right?

3 eggs, slightly beaten (I used organic eggs)

1/2 tablespoon salt (I used only half a teaspoon)

2 tablespoons sugar (Used Rapunzel raw organic sugar less sweet and way healthier) 

1 cup milk (Used unsweetned almond milk)

6 slices bread (challah)

I put in a drop of vanilla so it wouldn't taste too 'eggy' and threw a drop of butter in the pan with medium-high heat... we stopped using Pam spray from all the chemicals.

I also took out the dark chocolate chips, natural peanut butter, banana and organic honey on the side.

Dip the 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick challah into the mixed batter containing eggs, salt, sugar and milk (in my case, added vanilla). Let it soak on each side for a bit, on heavier pieces I let it sit for half a minute or so. Then plopped in the pan, each piece varied timing wise so I waited till it was golden brown. 

While the pieces were still hot, I added peanut butter, chocolate chips and thick banana slices and popped a piece of toast on top so it can melt. Since the pieces take time to cook, the timing worked out well to let the PB, chocolate melt in the sandwich. Drizzle honey on top, cut them into halves and served with a side of eggs. End result, was a well fed and happy hubby. (And I got to finish all the leftover challah bread.)

Here we go

I've spent my life watching my mother cook tirelessly for my father and family. No recipe or party size was ever too big or small, she'd find a way to make sure everyone was fed, had seconds or thirds and we still had leftovers the next day. My favorite memories growing up was waking up to the smell of garlic especially on Friday mornings. Garlic was and still is a staple ingredient to any of my mother's dishes. I was raised in a Jewish observant home with an Egyptian sephardic (Mideastern descent) father z''l and a Brazilian askanaz (Eastern European descent) mother and despite their culture differences, the recipes always worked in the kitchen.  

My mother always told me, 'you catch a man through his stomach...' Then she'd tell me how she spent time learning and perfecting my father's favorite dishes from Egypt. 

So, when I got married to my American husband, whose parents hail from Lybia, I decided to take on that role of wanting to cook for everyone and everything... I even reached out to my mother in law to learn his favorite Lybian dish. 

Though I quickly realized that the trouble with trying to copy my mother's recipes, that my husband loves, is she always did the cooking, we just did the eating.... and she never went by recipe. So here's my voyage as a newlywed trying to cook up a storm in a very small kitchen while keeping it kosher.