I’d like to introduce to you my new obsession: braised leeks!

We already know that I love leeks. Like in this lamb and leek hotpot, or this leek-fried rice. But those have other ingredients, in this recipe, the leek really is the star of the show!

And it’s so simple to make, too. I’d say the hardest part is washing the leeks. You don’t want to crunch on any sand!

While the leeks are braising, you toast up a yummy topping to serve with them, which gives a nice crunchy contrast to the soft, sweet leeks.

Buttery Braised Leeks from Food52

Ingredients:

• 2 leeks, trimmed, cleaned and halved lengthwise
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped, leaves only
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
• 1 pinch salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Melt the butter and olive oil over a medium-high flame in a large sauté pan. Once the oil and butter are hot, place the leeks cut side down into the pan. Let the leeks brown in the pan for 4-5 minutes.
2. Carefully flip the leeks over and turn the heat on low. Cover and let the leeks braise for about 25-30 minutes or until the leeks are soft all the way through.
3. Meanwhile, combine panko with parsley, Parmesan, and salt and pepper in a small dish.
4. In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the panko mixture until golden brown.
5. Take the leeks off the heat and squirt the lemon juice over the braised leeks and add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Sprinkle the leeks with the panko topping and serve.

Spring is here! And spring means asparagus is in season. No more boring roasted or grilled asparagus, we’re going gourmet here. Now, gourmet doesn’t mean hard. Actually, while there are a few steps in this recipe (you should read it over once before actually attempting it – you’ll need to do a bit of juggling), it’s quite easy! and impressive looking. Feel free to use store-bought pie crust or even puff pastry, as in the original recipe. 

There’s just something about vegetables served as pie, or in a pie crust, that are amazing. Anyone would eat this green custard pie! And I promise you it wasn’t hard to make. Leftovers were amazing as a cold lunch the next day with a simple arugula salad.

Here’s what I did to make my life a little easier: the day before I made the tart, I prepped the asparagus and made my pie crust. That’s right, I did all that boiling and cut the asparagus and left it in the fridge. The pie crust was in a disc in my fridge. So, while worrying about baking the pie crust and making the custard, all I had to do was open up my containers of asparagus, instead of boiling and shocking. Made this MUCH easier!

A little note: my asparagus tips floated to the bottom, which made me sad. I organized them so nicely on top of the custard, but alas, I guess they were too heavy to stay on top. You might want to bake it for 15 minutes before adding the decorative tips.

What’s your favorite way to serve (or eat) asparagus?

Asparagus Custard Tart, adapted from Martha Stewart:

Ingredients:

• 1 pie crust
• 1 bunch asparagus, cut into 2-inch pieces, stalks and stems separated
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup shredded muenster cheese

Directions:

1. Roll out pie crust and transfer to your 9-inch pie plate.

2. Prick all over with a fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes, until cold.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

4. Line pie shell with pie weights or dried beans and bake about 30 minutes, until the edges begin to brown and it begins to puff up.

5. Remove weights and bake another 5-10 minutes, until the bottom dries out.

6. Remove from oven and let cool.

7. Prep an ice bath: place ice and water in a large bowl and set aside.

8. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add 2 tablespoons of salt. Add the asparagus stalks and cook for 2 minutes. Shock in ice bath. Drain when cool and transfer to food processor.

9. Add the asparagus tips and boil for 30 seconds. Transfer to ice bath. Remove and drain when cool. Toss with the olive oil.

10. Add the eggs, cream, flour, and 1 teaspoon salt to the food processor with the asparagus stalks and puree until very smooth.

11. Pour custard into crust.

12. Sprinkle with the cheese and top with the asparagus tips.

13. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the custard sets and the pie crust is browned.

14. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

I copied this recipe so long ago out of I-cant-remember-which cookbook, and have been meaning to make it ever since (ed note: we always do that! Do you?). So simple, so delicious.

Unshelled pistachios can be found at your local specialty market, usually sold by the pound. I couldn’t find them, so I bought unsalted roasted pistachios and didn’t toast them before adding them into the rice. After baby went to bed the night before, I caught up on the latest Game of Thrones and shelled them. It was kind of relaxing, actually.

Polow: Persian Basmati Rice with Dill and Pistachios

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups basmati rice
• 2 tbsp safflower oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
• 3 cups simmering chicken broth (I used half broth, half water) (you can use vegetable broth or all water to pareve-ify)
• 3/4 cup finely chopped dill
• 1 cup whole, unsalted, raw pistachios, toasted
• 2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Rince the rice in cold water. Drain.
2. In a saute pan, heat the oil and add the onions. Saute until translucent.
3. Add rice, chicken broth, dill and salt. Simmer and continue cooking for 15 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Meanwhile, toast the pistachios on a baking tray at 350 for 5 minutes (optional, because I skipped this step and it turned out fine).
5. Stir pistachios into the rice.

Thank you, Adele for filling in for us this week! We’ll be back next week with some more recipes from the original Kosher Foodies.

I thought I was making mechshi cusa (stuffed zucchini), but when I went to get it from my freezer, I realized that I had only had dairy meschi, not meat.  I decided to braise baby carrots in the mechshi sauce I already made. They turned out so good!

Ourt (Tamarind)-Braised Carrots

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. carrots, peeled and trimmed, or baby carrots
• 2 tablespoons ourt
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 teaspoons of apricot butter
• water
• salt

(or use your favorite mechshi sauce recipe)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut carrots into 1-inch pieces
3. Mix together the ourt, lemon juice and apricot butter.
4. Put the carrots in a pan, pour the sauce over the carrots and add water to almost cover the carrots.
5. Let cook for 30 minutes, until the carrots are tender, mixing a few times to get the carrots nice and coated.

It’s like a kibbe flavored pie. You put the shell on the top and bottom and fill it with delicious tadbileh. Oh, and make extra tadbileh. Because your kids will love to eat that plain. That’s right, they just love it. At least mine does.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound tadbileh** (spiced ground beef filling)
• 1/2 cup pine nuts (you can omit this if you want to. Or put sliced almonds, instead. they’re expensive!)
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 2 cups fine bulgur (cracked wheat), rinsed in cold water and drained
• 1/2 cup grated onion
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Make the filling: combine the tadbileh and pine nuts.

3. Make the crust: combine the ground beef and bulgur in a medium mixing bowl.

4. Pass the mixture through a meat grinder – or – process in a food processor for one minute.

5. Return to the bowl and add the grated onion, tomato paste, allspice, cumin, Aleppo pepper, and salt. Mix well.

6. Grease a 12-inch round baking dish – or – a 13×9 inch dish with the oil.

7. Cover the bottom of the dish with half the crust mixture (about 1/4 inch depth) and press to form a smooth surface.

8. Spread the filling evenly over the bottom crust.

9. Top with the remaining crust.

10. If using a round pan, cut into wedges by dipping your knife in cold water. If using a rectangular pan, make a diamond pattern. Use a sharp knife to get clean lines.

11. Pour the vegetable oil over the crust (this is important! It’s what keeps it moist) and bake for one hour.

12. Serve hot or at room temperature with lemon wedges, tahine, and Israeli salad to go with it.

**Tadbileh:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

1. In a skillet, saute the onion in the oil over medium-high heat until soft, about 3 minutes.

2. Add the meat and continue sauteing, constantly stirring and breaking up the meat with a fork, for about 9 minutes, until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the meat is fully browned.

3. Let cool.

4. Add the allspice, pine nuts, and salt.

5. Yields 1 pound (8 cups) of filling.

Sephardi charoset isn’t much like its Ashkenazi relative. We use dates, rather than apples as the base. I guess the rest of the ingredients are the same, though. Walnuts, wine, cinnamon. This one is more of a paste, so I think it would be better for layering bricks, but that’s just me. I also think it’s tastier; mmm, I look forward to korech the whole seder.

Last year, Adele and I decided to try and make our own charoset. Sure, we bought some, but isn’t homemade always better? A blind taste test confirmed our suspicions, but it was a major pain in the butt to make. Maybe if you have pre-peeled dates it’s better, but I don’t want to ever have to remove the skin from a date again!

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This is about the only thing concord grape wine is good for, because it’s certainly not good for drinking, especially four whole cups, ick! People, there are way better kosher wine options out there, you don’t have to suffer through the seder with barely-potable wine.

Charoset, Syrian-style

Ingredients:

• 1 lb dates
• 1/2 cup concord grape wine
• 1/2 cup coarsely-chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Soften dates in hot water and peel off the skin. This is really hard and not fun and takes a long time and chips your new holiday manicure. Drain.
2. Put dates in a pan and just cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer until dates are soft.
3. Mash the dates and water into a paste with a fork, or, if you’re lucky enough to have a KforP food processor, use that.
4. Add wine, walnut and cinnamon and walnuts. Mix. Serve.

Caesar salad is one of my husband’s favorite dishes to order in restaurants. It’s pretty simple, and seems like kind of a waste to pay $11 for romaine lettuce and croutons (usually they don’t offer anchovies on top. Even if they did, he wouldn’t want them). So, I searched through cookbooks, asked some friends, and finally found a recipe for the dressing that was simple, but had good layers of flavors, and included anchovies in it.

Why anchovies?

Because even though there are lots of different ideas of what the “authentic” dressing consists of, I’m pretty sure anchovies is always one of those ingredients.

Also, though the recipe called for parmesan cheese, I left that out. Why? So I could make a caesar salad with chicken if I wanted to! If we’re having dairy, I’ll just shred some cheese on top.

I just love using my immersion blender to make dressings…maybe it’s because I don’t have a regular one? But it’s just so great to measure in this cup, and so neat, too! Cleaning blenders is pretty hard, the blade always gets in the way!

Caesar Dressing:

Ingredients:

• ½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ½ cup red wine vinegar
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 can anchovies
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• ½ teaspoon worstershire sauce
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Slice the garlic thinly and add to food processor or blender.

2. Add anchovies, pulse.

3. Add everything except for the cheese, pulse.

4. If using cheese, whisk in by hand.

5. To serve, wash and dry cut up romaine lettuce and add croutons (I use homemade ones made from leftover challah). Dress lightly and enjoy!

A few weeks ago, I just got into my head that I should make pierogis. Not the Mrs. T’s kind, either. Real from scratch ones with sour cream in the dough and shallots in the potato stuffing. Now, I’ve never made pierogis before. I had no idea what I was doing. All I knew was that I wanted some. And all I can say is that, if I can do these, you can, too! I pretty much made them on a whim and they turned out awesome. 

So I went to the store and bought 12 yukon gold potatoes. And I peeled them, chopped them, and cooked them in boiling water. Then what?  I ran to my computer and found Martha Stewart’s recipe for dough, which seemed easy enough. Luckily I had all the ingredients in my pantry/fridge and didn’t have to run out in the freezing cold for only two tablespoons of sour cream.

For some reason I made the dough in a glass bowl with a whisk. I mean, I have two stand mixers and I used my own arms to mix and knead? There must be something wrong with me.

So I did this a little backwards. You should definitely make the dough first, since it has to rest for an hour. The original recipe said rise, but there’s nothing to make it rise, so I think it just needs a rest so it’s easier to work with and the dough doesn’t keep stretching back when you roll it out. While the dough rests, make the feeling. Use a food mill or a ricer. Or at least a potato masher! I didn’t have any of those, so my potatoes aren’t as smooth as they could be. I mean, I used a fork. But, now that I think of it, I could have grated the potatoes in my food processor. Silly me. Oh well, maybe next time!

Basic Pierogi Recipe, adapted from Martha Stewart:

For the Dough:

• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup water
• 5 cups all purpose flour

For the potatoes:

• 3 pounds yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed (I used 9, the recipe said about 12)
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• About 2 tablespoons salt, divided
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• (Corn meal, so they don’t stick together)

Directions:

1. Make the dough: In a bowl, whisk the egg, sour cream, milk, and water.

2. Mix in the flour, a cup at a time, until it comes together.

3. Mix the dough until it is smooth and not so sticky.

4. Make the dough into the ball and place it on the counter. Cover with the bowl and let rest.

5. Make the mashed potatoes: Place the potatoes in a pot and cover with cold water. Cover and bring to a boil. Add one tablespoon of salt. Once boiling, boil for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are soft.

6. Meanwhile, in a saute pan, saute the shallots and garlic in the butter. Add the other tablespoon of salt.

7. Drain the potatoes.

8. Add the potatoes to the shallot mixture and mix together.

9. Mash the potatoes wither with a food mill, a ricer, or a potato masher, or grating blade of your food processor.

10. Add the heavy cream to the potato mixture and mix well.

11. Assemble: Cut the dough into quarters and cover three of them with a towel, so they don’t dry out.

12. Roll out the one piece so it’s 1/8 inch thick. Make sure to flour the counter so the dough doesn’t stick!

13. Cut out 3 inch circles with a glass, cookie cutter, or whatever you have lying around.

14. Place about 1 1/2 tablespoons of mixture in the middle of the circle.

15. Fold the circle in half and pinch the edges, making sure they’re sealed all around. The dough is stretchy, so you will be able to stretch it over the big mound of filling. Make sure not to pull too tight so it doesn’t rip! Repeat until you finish all the dough.

16. Place on a wax paper lined baking sheet covered with corn meal.

17. Freeze in a single layer.

18. To cook: bring a pot of water to a boil and add the pierogis. Once they float, boil for another 5-9 minutes. Drain.

19. Add 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon butter to a pan and place over high heat. Fry the pierogis until browned, then flip over and fry the other side. Serve warm and ENJOY your hard work!

I love chummus (some people call it hummus)! In my neighborhood, there’s no lacking of delicious chummus. But if shabbat is in only a few minutes and you can’t leave the house because there’s food in the oven, homemade chummus is something that’s almost as easy as walking across the street and buying some. All you need is a few ingredients and a food processor.

It’s a great dish to bring to a party with some cut up veggies, so that’s why we decided to contribute it to Ali and Matan’s virtual sheva berachot. Mabrook to the newlyweds! 

What’s so great about chummus? You ask. Well, for one, it’s so versatile! You can serve it with raw veggies, mazza, pita chips, challah, pretzels, and my favorite: chummus and cucumber sandwiches. So many options!

This recipe is easy to multiply, too. So you can feed a crowd with a few cans or just a few people with only one. I usually make two at a time because I like to have some leftovers in the fridge.

Oh, and if you really plan ahead, used dried chick peas instead of canned ones. That would be a big money saver! You just have to remember to soak the beans overnight so that they’re usable.

Here’s a great tip, for those who are really not lazy. PEEL the chickpeas! I know, I know, you’re thinking what a waste of time this would be. Since, you know, you’re processing them all anyway. But it really makes a differenc ein texture. Not that not peeling is bad, just that it’s silkier and smoother if you do peel them. And it only takes about 10 minutes. Or make one of your kids/friends do it.

Homemade Chummus

Ingredients:

•  1 can chickpeas (peeled if you can. drain, but reserve juice)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon tahini paste

Directions:

1. Place chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, and tahini in food processor. Pulse until smooth.

2. With the food processor running, add chickpea juice until desired consistency is reached.

Richie loves rice. So I try to make him rice in lots of healthy ways. I like adding veggies, cooking it in vegetable broth, adding an egg at the end for some protein. And of course I use brown rice. Rice is such an easy side dish, so I started trying to make it more often. It’s pretty cheap, can be brightened up in quite a few ways, and again, Richie really really likes to eat it. Eating it with a fried on top just means it’s a full meal for one of those really lazy weeknights. You have all your food groups right there! Vegetables, carbs, and protein. Plus the added deliciousness of the runny egg yolk mixed in makes it exciting enough to call dinner. 

This is one of those easy dishes I like to make on a Sunday and serve it one night during the week. Or give it to Richie a few times just because he loves it. The vegetable stock and fresh oregano add a lot of flavor to the rice, which can ordinarily be quite boring. If you don’t have fresh oregano, add a teaspoon of the dried stuff to the veggies when sauteeing them. It’ll still add a good amount of flavor. I happen to love using fresh oregano, so when I have it in my house I like to use it up. The lemon adds a great freshness to it, and it’s just a splash, so the flavor isn’t too strong.

Mushroom and Spinach Rice, adapted from Chef at Home:

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 sprig of fresh oregano, leaves removed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 ounces of mushrooms
• 10 ounces baby spinach
• 1 1/2 cups brown rice
• 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth (I use homemade)
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, combine the rice, broth, and oregano. Bring to a boil, stir, and reduce heat to low.

2. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes, until the rice is tender.

3. Meanwhile, in your dutch oven (or a large skillet), heat the olive oil and saute the onion, mushrooms, and garlic until tender.

4. Add the spinach, cooking until just wilted.

5. Add the lemon juice and mix.

6. Toss the cooked rice with the spinach mixture.

7. Optional: fry an egg in some butter and serve atop a giant spoonful of rice.