Category Archives: Dinners

Superb Butternut Squash Soup

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I remember watching Jamie Oliver on the Food Network, back when he was the Naked Chef. Well, he wasn’t actually naked, which is why I wasn’t surprised when they changed the name of his show (or did they just start a new one) called Oliver’s Twist. Anyway, he would “strip down” recipes so that they were really just the essentials of cooking. No fancy gadgets or ingredients, just great homemade food. Now he’s never on the Food Network anymore, and I don’t get the Cooking Channel, so I never see him on TV. I can’t even watch the reruns of his show Jamie at Home. But I can still get most of the recipes on the Food Network website, which makes me happy. His recipes are simple and tasty, and he doesn’t use any gross ingredients; it’s mostly natural, earthy food. His recipes really bring out the essential flavors of the main ingredients.

And this is why I was so excited to make this soup recipe. I love Jamie Oliver and I love butternut squash! It’s definitely my favorite winter squash, even though it’s a pain to peel and chop. Everything else about it is just perfect, an my favorite way to eat it is in soup form. Something about butternut squash soup just makes me smile.

Sage is a classic combination with butternut squash, and infusing the oil with that flavor imparts a wonderful undertone to the soup. The sage on top adds a great crispiness. I ate a lot of those sage chips before serving the soup. Oops. Hence the lack of crispy sage on top of the soup in the picture. It’s delicious with a teaspoon of sour cream mixed in, too. Just so you know.

Superb squash soup, adapted from Jamie Oliver (serves 8):

Ingredients:

  • 16 fresh sage leaves
  • 2 red onions, peeled and chopped
  • 2 sticks of celery, chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
  • 1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeds taken out and chopped
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 2 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 2 quarts vegetable stock
  • Extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Heat large saucepan over medium heat and pour in some olive oil, enough to cover the bottom.

2. When it’s hot, throw in the sage leaves and fry for about 30 seconds, until crispy. Remove with a slitted spoon and drain on paper-towel lined plate.

3. Add your celery, onion, and carrot, garlic, and jalapeno to the pot. Add salt and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft.

4. Add the squash and stock. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

5. When the squash is soft, blend the soup using an immersion blender until you have a smooth puree (or as chunky as you like it).

6. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle the sage leaves on top.

7. Serve with croutons if you want (that’s how Jamie Oliver did it).

Potato Gratin

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Before we share a recipe with you, please join us in wishing our sister Rayna a very happy birthday!

And a happy Hanukkah to everyone!

Now, back to food:

When we were in Ireland, we had the most delicious potato gratin at a little cafe on Inishmore, the largest of a group of islands called the Aran Islands. We had to take a ferry there from where we were staying in the amazing town Doolin, and the water was rough, but this recipe was worth getting seasick on the trip back. We spent the day exploring a place much more remote than the island we live on, seeing beautiful old sites and gorgeous green views! This gratin was one of the only vegetarian things on the menu at the cafe, and one of the few things that didn’t include sausage, which is why we ordered it. After the first bite I asked them how the prepared it; I had to recreate it at home!

The beautiful prehistoric ring fort, Dún Aengus:

Continue reading …

Chicken and Spaghetti

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Chicken and spaghetti was always a Friday night staple in our home. Though Poopa Dweck’s book states that it’s a Syrian custom to not eat this dish for Shabbat dinner because it’s a sign of bad luck, my family’s been eating it for years, and I don’t think we’re any less lucky than other people out there. So If you’re superstitious, make it on a weeknight. It’s a good meal with just a small side salad or vegetable. If you’re not superstitious, or just want to make a main course that consists of a carb and a protein (does the tomato sauce count as a vegetable?), then make this for Shabbat dinner. Your guests and family will fight over the crispy burnt edges.

When my mother makes this, she always leaves the chicken pieces whole. This way, it’s easier to eat just the spaghetti, which I often like to do (especially when there’s chili on the table – chicken and spaghetti chopped with some chili is awesome). I sometimes shred the chicken into the spaghetti, so that every bite has a little bit of chicken and a little bit of spaghetti. I find that the chicken also stays more moist this way and soaks up the flavor of the sauce more. Try it both ways and let me know which you prefer. Remember if you’re shredding to be careful to remove all the bones and stuff. No one wants a mouthful of spaghetti and chicken bones!

And Spaghetti!

  • 1 pound spaghetti
  • 1 chicken, cut into eighths (bone in, skin on)
  • 1 6-ounce can tomato paste
  • 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • Kosher salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Place chicken on baking sheet and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 35 – 45 minutes, until cooked. Then let cool and shred, cut, or leave whole. Save the chickeny oil and juice!

3. While chicken is roasting, boil spaghetti in very salty water for one minute less than stated on the package.

4. Drain the spaghetti.

5. Place spaghetti in roasting pan and add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, spices, salt, and some pepper. Mix well.

— Now you have what we like to call “And Spaghetti” which is the BEST Friday afternoon snack ever.

6. Add the chicken (pieces, shreds, whatever you decided) and the chicken juice and mix well.

7. Cover and roast in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour, until the edges are crusty and the middle is soft.

Duck Confit

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Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers!

And so my duck experiments continue! Duck confit is a daunting dish, but not when you do it this way. The day of curing and hours of cooking make it succulent, rich, and really crispy! This is definitely my favorite way to prepare duck for a few reasons. First, I got to use my mortar and pestle. Second, it’s crispy but not disgustingly greasy. And third, you get to save the duck fat for future uses! From sauteeing stew vegetables to cooking potatoes, the duck fat possibilities are endless.

What, were you expecting a turkey recipe for Thanksgiving? Turns out, we’re pretty sure they served duck at the first Thanksgiving (along with wild turkey, not the same as the ones we usually see at the Thanksgiving buffet nowadays). I decided to follow tradition.  No, not really our tradition, because my ancestors were probably in Syria at the time, but the tradition of our country.

Remember, if you make this dish for thanksgiving, you need to change the song:

Happy Thanksgiving, hooray hooray hooray!

Aren’t you glad you’re not a duck on this Thanksgiving Day.

[Why doesn't my picture look anything like the one in the Times photo?]

Easy Duck Confit, adapted from the New York Times:

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 bay leaf, crumbled
  • 8 moulard duck legs (about 4 pounds total), rinsed and patted dry

Directions,

1. In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper, thyme, and bay leaf. I crushed them together with my mortar and pestle, but you don’t really have to.

2. Sprinkle duck with mixture and place in pan in one layer. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

3. The next day: preheat oven to 325 degrees.

4. Place duck legs, fat side down, in a large ovenproof skillet, with legs fitting in one layer (or do it in batches – you don’t want to steam them!)

5. Heat over medium-high heat until fat starts to render.

6. When there is 1/4 inch of fat on the bottom of the pan, after about 20 minutes, flip the duck legs, cover the pan with foil, and place in the oven. (If you used two skillets or did this in batches, place in baking dish together and cover).

7. Roast for two hours, then remove foil and roast for another hour, until the skin is golden brown and crispy.

8. Remove duck fat and reserve for other uses.

9. Serve with bitter salad greens, potatoes, or wide egg noodles.

Steak Tacos

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Wednesday is always Mexican night at our house. Well, not officially, but it seems that on Wednesdays we happen to eat tacos. It can be fish tacos, chopped meat or bean tacos, but this time it was steak tacos! And it was delicious.

Tacos don’t photograph that well, but I tried my best to show you what my dinner looked like above.

I marinated two sandwich steaks all day, and when I got home from work I “grilled” them in my cast iron pan before slicing them up and loading them into a tortilla with some complementing flavors.

These steak tacos were fun, and felt a little bit fancier than the chopped meat kinds we usually have on meat taco night, especially since I marinated the beef all day. Sure, it took some extra time before leaving for work, but I’d say it was worth it. It didn’t take that long!

Steak Tacos

Ingredients:

For the steak:

  • 2 sandwich steaks
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 small yellow onion
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 tablespoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • a few cracks of black pepper

For the salad:

  • 1 bunch of arugula, cleaned, dried, and chopped
  • a handful of cilantro, cleaned, dried, and chopped
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • juice of one lime
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper

For assembling the tacos:

  • 8″ corn tortillas, toasted over the open flame of your stove – careful not to light them on fire!
  • your favorite salsa, taco sauce or homemade guacamole (I made some of that! I’ll share that recipe with you, too.)
  • sauteed onions and peppers, or whatever else you want to put on top of your taco…

Directions:

For the steak:

  1. Put all of the spices in a mini food processor (you can use a mortar and pestle) and pulse until it turns into a paste.
  2. Place steak in a glass dish and cover both sides with the marinade. Cover and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours or all day.
  3. Heat a cast iron skillet over high heat. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and cook the steak, only about 4 minutes on each side. Put on a plate and let sit for 10 minutes.
  4. Cut the steaks in thin strips against the grain.

For the salad:

  1. Add lime juice, salt and pepper to a small bowl. Whisk in some olive oil to make the dressing.
  2. Combine arugula, cilantro and peppers in a bigger bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat.

Assemble your tacos:

  1. After heating the tortillas, place them on a place. Smear some salsa or guac and place a few strips of steak on top. Finish with some salad on top, fold and eat! Don’t forget extra napkins!

So, what’s your favorite kind of taco? Do you prefer the meat kind, or do you miss melty cheese and sour cream too much, and prefer bean tacos?

Meatless Mondays: Ades (Red Lentil) Soup

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You already know we like to transform boring lentils into yummy meals. Here’s one of our favorite recipes, delicious and filling for a Meatless Monday!

Ades soup is a classic Syrian dish. These red lentils turn yellow when boiled, and often confuses people who’ve never seen the soup before (“Wait, I thought you said RED lentil soup. This is yellow!”). It’s an easy and comforting dish you can make on a chilly winter evening and that you can enjoy for lunch the next day. The first time I made this dish was in college, and my roommates were not to keen on tasting it (I don’t know why!). Lucky me! I ate a lot of soup that week.

It’s flavored with coriander and cilantro, one of my favorite flavors. If you don’t like cilantro, just use parsley instead. Or leave it out, this soup has enough flavor on its own. To add some extra flavor, use vegetable or chicken stock in place of the water.

Ades Soup, or Syrian Red Lentil Soup, adapted from here and some family traditions:

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon ground coriander
  • 1 red onion
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 cup split red lentils, rinsed
  • 6 cups water
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • Kosher salt, to taste
  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium heat and add oil.

2. When the oil is hot, add the coriander and let cook for about one minute.

3. Then, add onions and garlic. Add some kosher salt. Stir and cook for about 10 minutes, until onions soften.

4. Add the lentils to the pot. Mix and coat them with oil.

5. Add 5 cups of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, mix flour with the remaining cup of water to make a paste. Add to the lentils.

7. Stir in the lemon juice and some more salt. Continue stirring over high heat until the mixture boils. Then, cover and cook another 15 minutes.

8. Add the cumin and cayenne. Mix well. Taste for salt and add more if needed.

9. Then add the cilantro. Serve with some lemon wedges and more chopped cilantro on top, if desired.

Keftes, or Syrian Meatballs

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These little Syrian meatballs are totally different from the ones we eat on top of spaghetti. Keftes tend to be smaller and are cooked in a sweet and sour tomato-based sauce and are eaten over rice. They’re one of my favorite Syrian dishes, and though they’re usually served as part of a whole spread of meats, salads and vegetables (sometimes they’re not even the only serve-over-rice dish), I like to make them the main event on a weeknight!

Keftes, or Syrian Meatballs

Ingredients:

For the keftes:

  • 1 lb chopped meat
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons matzah meal
  • salt and pepper

For the sauce:

  • 2 (14 oz.) cans tomato sauce
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tablespoons tamarind paste
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 teaspoons sugar
  • salt to taste

Directions:

  1. Mix all of the ingredients for the keftes together and form into balls, about 2 tablespoons in size.
  2. Brown the meatballs in a little bit of olive oil in a pot.
  3. Add all of the sauce ingredients, mix well and bring to a boil.
  4. Lower the fire, cover and let simmer for 40 minutes to an hour, making sure the keftes are cooked through.
  5. Serve over rice.

Oh, and happy birthday Rebekah!

Winter Squash Penne: Check Our Our Guest Post on Kosher in the Kitch!

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Now that it’s November, we’ve been getting a lot of winter squash from the CSA. You may remember my zucchini overload this summer, which I turned into a pasta dish, but winter squash is a totally different vegetable (and butternut is our favorite), so we created a pasta and squash dish just for these chilly months.

Head on over to Kosher in the Kitch for our Winter Squash Penne recipe!

(You may remember them from when we shared our Kosher Pad Thai there.)

Beef and Veggie Stew

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As you can tell, we like making stews in our Dutch ovens. It’s not something we do much during the summer, but now that the temperature is dropping, we’re back to braising and browning and serving over rice!

I used mostly vegetables from my csa with a few other groceries that were hanging around in my fridge. Served with a simple green salad, this made for a delicious dinner for two with enough leftover for a lunch the next day. Which is the perfect kind of dinner.

Beef and Vegetable Stew

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound beef stew meat (I don’t know what that means, I bought it at Trader Joe’s)
  • 4 carrots, chopped
  • 3 medium potatoes, chopped
  • 3 tiny red onions, chopped
  • 1 celery stalk, chopped
  • 5 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2-3 cups of stock or water
  • olive oil, salt and pepper

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Brown the beef over medium-high heat in a little bit of olive oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven.
  3. Remove beef from pot and stir in chopped onions. Let cook for 5 minutes and add garlic. Mix and add the rest of the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.
  4. Add half of the stock (I used vegetable stock), mixing well. Put the beef back into the pot and mix. Add more stock if it seems too dry.
  5. Bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat, cover, and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
  6. Put the pot in the oven and bake for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  7. Serve over rice.

Duck and Mushroom Pizza

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Duck pizza?! Yeah, that’s right. I had to make something with the prosciutto besides eating it with fruit. And who says pizza has to be dairy, anyway?

To tell you the truth, I didn’t love the prosciutto plain. It was too, well, duck-y for me. But rendering the fat and cooking mushrooms in it, then toasting all that on some homemade pizza dough? Now that’s a super easy gourmet dinner. If you don’t have duck, make this pizza with chicken. It will still be a great dinner and a nice change from that sauce-and-cheese pizza you usually have. (Or, if you don’t have pizza as much as I do, it’s still enjoyable.) Continue reading …