Happy Hannukah!

I've been enjoying these first few nights of hannukah, and I decided to make some hannukah cookies in honor of the holiday! Wohoo! My roommate gave me some cute cookie cuters shaped like menorahs, dreidels and stars of david so I've been wanting to use them. I looked around for some good cookie recipes, but then I thought, why not make corjiki!! (aka, my grandmother's russian sugar cookies). Now when I was growing up my mother never baked anything like chocolate chip cookies (or chocochip cookies as my mom likes to call them). Instead what we got a lot of were these crispy sugar cookies, which we call corjiki, which come from a recipe my grandmother used to make in Ukraine. Now these are nothing like those anemic pale sugar cookies you find in american stores. These are baked untl they are golden, have a nice crunch to them, and a slight tang from the sour cream used.

I generally avoid asking my mom for recipes. She's a great cook but she doesn't really write down any of her recipes so when she tells me them she generally gives me approximations or tells me to do things by sight (add half a handful of flour, or as much as it looks like you'll need ?!?!)

Anyways here is the basic recipe as she tried to give it to me:


3 egg yolks


3 tablespoons sour cream

1 cup sugar

3 sticks margarine (softened)

½ tsp baking soda & vinegar

2 cups flour (or more)



Mix the yolks & sour cream. In a bowl add the sugar and the flour. Make a small well in the flour and add the baking soda and vinegar. Add yolk/cream mix to flour and mix. Add sthe softened margarine. Add flour to reach dough that is of a soft consistency.

I followed the recipe as she gave it to me but found that my dough was wayyy too soft. I ended up adding a lot more flour, probably 3/4 of a cup.

And of course she didn't give me an exact temperature to bake these at (between 300-350?!) or how long they should be baked (until they look ready). So I decided to go for 350 degrees for about 20 min. Here are my cookies before going into the oven. Look pretty good, huh?

Well here are the cookies after being in the oven for 5 min:

Um, yeah so they just sort of melted and lost their shape. I ended up baking them for 20 min and took them out. They were really soft, so I let them cool and set for a bit. I don't really know why they didn't keep their shape, but my mom never used cookie cutter shapes, she just made them into circles using a glass. They tasted just like I remembered though! And I took the left overs to work where everyone ate them up, and didn't even know any better.

Snow Day

It snowed for the first time this winter this weekend! I decided it was a good weekend to stay in, especially since I have to work on my finals...meh. I got some studying done, and a lot of cooking/ baking! I made the chicken bruschetta from Kosher by design. I'm becoming really obsessed with this book... I also made the apricot squares from my Passion for Baking book, which were really yummy.

Chicken Bruschetta:

Apricot Squares:

I was really on a roll so I also made some egg rolls to take to work with me for lunch since I have no lunch stuff at home. They're really easy to make and pretty tasty! I used a min food processor that I use for grinding meat for this recipe, but you can also just shred some cooked chicken. You can also substitute tofu for the chicken. I bought my egg roll wrappers at WholeFoods, and I baked my egg rolls instead of frying for a healthier alternative.


Chinese Egg Rolls:
1 chicken bread, ground
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove minced
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
2 tbs cooking oil
1/2 bag packaged coleslaw (I used 1/2 of a 14 ounce bag)
1 bag bean sprouts (about 6 ounces)
4 tbs teriyaki sauce
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
12-15 egg roll wrappers

-Saute the chicken, garlic, scallions, and ginger in the oil until chicken is cooked through
-Add the coleslaw and bean sprouts and saute for 2 minutes
-Add the teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Saute for 5 more minutes
-Remove the chicken and cabbage mixture from heat. Wrap about 3-4 tbs of the chicken mixture in egg roll wrappers
-Spray the rolls lightly on both sides with nonstick cooking spray. Place on baking sheet and bake at 350 for ~10-15 min, turning halfway through.

Winter Blues

I've been sick for the past week and feeling pretty miserable. My throat is pretty sore so I've basically been eating soup everyday. I haven't really been in the mood to do anything, let alone cook, but I managed to throw together this 'three sisters' soup with stuff I had around the house. It was pretty easy to make and soothing for my throat.

I just chopped up a red onion and two celery stalks and then sauted them in oil for 5 min. Then I threw in 2 cups of diced butternut squash that I already had, added a can of corn, can of diced tomatoes, and some frozen edamame. For seasoning I used 1/2 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1 tsp garlic powder, and my secret ingredient: 2 tsps of Tabasco (adds a nice kick)! Add 3 cups of chicken broth, simmer for ~20 min, and voila!

Three sisters soup (based on recipe from kosher by design) with homemade wheat bread:

Thanksgivings past

I was going through some old pictures and I found some from Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. I was back home for the first time in 4 months after being in grad school full time, and I went all out with the baking! I made some sort of fruit pastry tart (probably requested by my mom) and a chocolate hazelnut torte.


Chocolate Hazelnut Torte:

Fruit Pastry Tart:

Turkey anyone??

I'm spending Thanksgiving with my parents in VA. My mom made a turkey stuffed with apples and walnuts as well as an assortment of russian salads.

Our thanksgiving spread:

I also made some yummy broccoli almond bisque from the Kosher by Design cookbook.

For dessert we had Apple Rougemont Cake, the recipe for which can be found in Passion for Baking. It was very european tasting, which the parents liked of course. I thought it was good, but not my favorite, since I'm a firm believer that any dessert can't be that great unless it  has chocolate in it.

I also made my famous chocolate rum pecan pie for some college friends who were back in town. The recipe is based on one I found on the foodnetwork website a long time ago and tweaked.  Unfortunately I didn't have enough corn syrup so it came out a bit dry, but still good.

Pie Pastry:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or margarine cold and cut into small chunks
• 2 tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed

Filling:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter or margarine
  
• 4-6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup dark corn syrup
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons rum or coffee flavored liquor (I usually go with the coffee liquor)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 11/2 cups pecan halves

To make the pastry: combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and mix with a pastry blender or your hands until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Pour in the ice water and work it in to bind the dough until it holds together without being too wet or sticky. Squeeze a small amount together, if it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Roll out the dough and put in 9-inch pie pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the filling:  Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl in the microwave. Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl until frothy and then blend in the sugar. Stir in the syrup, vanilla, rum or liquor, salt, and the melted butter mixture until well blended.

Arrange the pecans on the bottom of the pie crust and carefully pour the egg mixture over them. Bake until the filling is set and slightly puffed, about 45 minutes.

For the love of kosher...

My family is from the former soviet union so I wasn't raised observant and have only recently begun to keep kosher at home. For those you of you don't know know what keeping kosher entails you can read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_foods
To briefly summarize:
-I don't eat meat and dairy together
-No shellfish, unkosher meat/fish
-all food much contain a hechsher (kosher certification)


I didn't have that hard of a time starting to keep kosher since I've been keeping ingredient kosher for a long time and never ate any shellfish/pork or meat and dairy together to begin with. I think the hardest part has been not being able to eat out like I used to since finding kosher places to eat at around here isn't as easy as in some places, like NYC. It definitely makes you actually have to prepare your own meals more.

Anyways I got a new book because I was in a food rut and wanted some new recipes to add some variety. One of my friends recommend the kosher by design cookbooks so I ended up getting Kosher by Design Lightens Up. I was expecting some trimmed down versions of the usual stuff like kugels and brisket, but this book is so much more than that!! Susie Fishbein is awesome... and her book totally rocks. I went out and got one of her other books too.

I love Indian food! Of course I haven't actually eaten any in a long time since there aren't any kosher Indian places where I live. I made the chicken tikka masala from Fishbein's book, and it was so delicious!  I didn't use the spices she listed, I just used a garam masala mix that's hechshered that I found at my local Korean grocery store (I love hmart!!). The sauce for this obviously doesn't have yogurt like traditional Indian dishes, but instead uses that tofutti soy sour cream. Now normally I don't go near that soy stuff because I think it all tastes weird, but for some reason it works in this dish. The dish came out tasting authentic, and just as good as from any Indian fast food place.

Of course I had all that tofutti left in the fridge so I had to try another recipe using it later in the week. I

made the chicken piccata, also from Fishbein's book. Delicious of course!

 I also made come carrot cake to take to my parents based on one of the recipes from Fisbein's book. I'm normally not a huge fan of carrot cake, but this was really good, moist and with perfect texture. I decreased the amount of sugar by a lot since, my parents being from Eastern Europe, they tend  to like less sugar in desserts than most Americans are used to.

 Carrot Cake:
6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup olive oil
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 egg white
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 10 inch bundt pan. Grate the carrots by hand or put then in a food processor and finely grate. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl beat oil and sugar until smooth and then add applesauce and vanilla. Add the eggs and beat.

Using two spoons add alternating drops of the grated carrots and dry ingredients until both are completely added. Beat in walnuts and chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan and bake 55-60 minutes.

You can check out the Kosher by Design books here:
http://kosherbydesign.com/

Sukkot baking disasters

I've taken a bit of a hiatus from posting owing to all the catching up I've had to do for my school work (can't wait to be done with this master's) and all the craziness at work. I've been bumming around the house for my whole thanksgiving vacation since I'm sick so I figured it was time to catch up. I got invited to a friend's house over Sukkot to check out the sukkah she built in her backyard for the first time. It was good times and I decided to bake some stuff for us to enjoy out in the sukkah.

I made some ginger spice cake, the recipe for which I got from Marcy Goldman's Traditional Jewish Holiday Baking book. It's an awesome book and I would recommend it to anyone, but for some reason this wasn't my favorite. I guess I'm not a huge spice cake fan. Plus our oven sucks so the top got burned and I was trying to use a new silicone bund pan I got. The cake got stuck  in the stupid bundt so when I tried to take it out it all broke apart so I tried to piece it back together and just put it back in the  budt. Mehh.

I also tried to make some banana bread. Ughhh so this didn't exactly turn out either. I used a new recipe I hadn't tried before (also from the same book) and I was really stupid because I tried to pour all the mix into one bread pan, which was obviously too much. Anyways the whole disaster just boiled over in the pan so I had cake mix coming out and I literally had to put out a fire in my oven when the all the goop coming burst into flames after coming in contact with the heating coils in the oven. It did still taste good though...and I promise I'm usually not so disastrous in the kitchen...