World's Best Honey Cake

It is a little late for a Rosh Hashana honey cake recipe, but the cake pictured above is great for all occasions. In fact, it's the honey cake for honey-cake haters. I do not usually like honey cake but this one is surprisingly light and moist and not at all too honey-ish and the allspice and cloves add some great flavor.

I found the recipe on Zabar's website and it was so well received on Rosh Hashana that I baked another batch before Yom Kippur, so we'd have something to crave.

Almond Biscotti

Caponata for Rosh HaShana

Caponata Siciliana is a side dish of sauteed/stewed vegetables in a sweet and sour red wine vinegar reduction. The beauty of caponata is that it will keep on the fridge for a week or so you can make it a few days in advance, as I chose to do today in preparation for Rosh Hashana.

This recipe is a little time consuming but well worth it (the page linked might take a minute or two to load so open it in a separate tab while you read on).
The reason I find this to be appropriate for Rosh Hashana is that the combination of sweet- for a sweet new year - and sour, for people like me who prefer savory to sweet- makes a perfect dish to please most palates. I may have started a new tradition!


Peeling the eggplants. I only peel half because some might not like the texture of the peel.


After letting the eggplant chunks sit in salt, they are sauteed and then set on paper towel to drain.

The onions and celery jump into the pan

Followed by the rest of the crowd. Check out those wonderful colors.

Minestrone

The chilly September morning prompted me to put up a big pot of minestrone, a hearty vegetable soup that is easy to make and easy to freeze if you need to plan ahead.

There are of course plenty of recipes available but I like to improvise and use the ingredients I already have and most importantly, get rid of the leftover chicken soup.

1 Large onion
2 Cloves garlic
1 Potato
1/2 - 1 C cannelini beans
3 Carrots
1 Bell pepper
Mushrooms
Broccoli
1 Tomato or small can diced tomatoes
Broth or water
2 Tbsp olive oil
Parsley, etc
Small pasta

Sautee onion, mushrooms and carrots. There is no need for any fancy slicing because minestrone goes into the blender. Add the rest of the vegetables and cover with liquid. Bring to a boil, lower flame and add salt, pepper, fresh parsley and any other spices you prefer. Let cook for an hour or so, then blend to form a thick soup (pour out some of the water before blending if you think it might be too much).
Cook some small shaped pasta separately or directly in the soup. Serve hot and sop up with some good bread.

Enjoy!

PS: minestrone made with a parve broth is delicious with some cheese added at serving time.

More On Olive Oil & ShopRite

My De Cecco Olive Oil ran out way too quickly and as I resolved to use less Extra virgin in my kitchen I went back to the supermarket to check out any deals they might have.
I found ShopRite brand olive oil that claims to be from Italy, "Made from the first cold pressing of Italian grown selected olives" and marked as Product of Italy, with an OU.

A 33.8 fl oz bottle cost less than $5 with the shoprite card. That is an exceptional price if the label is to be believed. I tried the oil in salads and stir fry and it's much better than others I've used. It's a little more subtle and less fruity than Bertolli but all and all it is surprisingly good.

I never thought I'd use and like a store-brand extra virgin olive oil, but there you have it.

Yankee Style Corn Muffins

For no apparent reason, I baked a batch of all-American corn muffins this afternoon. I bought a big bag of white corn meal a few months ago because I had been wondering what it was all about. I made cornbread, was unimpressed and stored the rest of the corn meal in the freezer.
Earlier today I suddenly decided it was time for some corn muffins. This very untypical task was accomplished with the help of an untypical cookbook, the 1955 edition of the Good Housekeeping Cookbook which somehow made its way into our home a couple of years ago.

Good Housekeeping Yankee Style Golden Corn Bread

1 1/4 C flour
3/4 C corn meal
2 to 4 tbsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg
2/3 milk
1/3 c margarine, butter or oil

I made the following changes: I snuck in some extra sugar (which I later regretted) and substitute rice milk for milk.
In muffin pans, the batter bakes for 20-25 minutes at 425F.

Fennel & Tomato Linguine

Fennel does not make its way into our home very often. It is pretty expensive around here and my husband doesn't usually like it, so I only get it once in a while for my lunch salad.

While cruising through ShopRite this morning I spotted some fennel, two for $3. They were small, but I decided to go for it. The original plan was to keep them for myself as usual, but when suppertime rolled along I opened the fridge and there it was, that trusty fennel.
The following recipe was concocted on the spot and any resemblance to recorded and printed recipes is purely accidental. All rights reserved.

Frugal Kosher's Fennel & Tomato Linguine

1 Fennel bulb (2 if small)
1 Onion
1 or 2 Tomato
1 Large clove garlic
1 Pack Linguine

Slice the fennel in half lengthwise. If it's large, quarter it. Thinly slice each piece. Slice the onion, heat up some olive oil in a pan and add the onion and fennel, sauteing on medium heat.
After about 7 minutes get your pasta water going, don't forget to add plenty of salt to the pot.

At this point, the fennel is going from raw to cooked and is enduring a dramatic transformation in taste, losing some of that strong fennel flavor that some people dislike (case in point: my husband).

Chop your tomato and garlic and add to the pan along with some salt and pepper and a touch of savory if you have it. Lower the flame and let the vegetables cook slowly until the pasta is ready. Make sure you have enough oil in the pan to coat the pasta.

Once the linguine are done add them to the pan, stir, plate and garnish with some fresh parsley.

Enjoy! My husband did.

Chicken & Chinese Noodles Stir Fry

On my weekly ShopRite visit I picked up some Chinese noodles (incidentally, the Jewish supermarkets carry the same brand of Asian noodles for $2 more). I would have preferred Japanese Udon noodles which are thicker and not as sticky but they were not in stock. I also picked up a small head of cabbage, one green pepper, a baby eggplant and some carrots.

I heated some sesame oil in a large pan and added a large onion, sliced, and the rest of the vegetables. In went some Asian spiced sea salt, black pepper, worcestershire sauce (Heinz worcestershire sauce has an OU) and a touch of soy sauce.
I let the veggies cook while making the noodles and added the leftover chicken burgers from last night's dinner, crumbling them into the pan. Once the noodles were done everything was reunited in the pan and there was much rejoyicing.

The dish was surprisingly light and delicious!

Chicken Burgers

I know what you're thinking: this dinner looks like a children's meal. Well, I would not serve chicken cutlets at a fancy dinner table but working with ground chicken is an affordable way to diversify and still end up with something tasty, nutritious and filling.
For last night's dinner I mixed 1.10 lbs of ground chicken with chopped onion, fresh parsley, salt, black pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and a touch of ground sage (when it comes to sage, always paired with chicken, a little goes a long way). I added two eggs which seemed like too much but ultimately the burgers came together and were nice and moist, there's nothing worse than dry chicken or meat burgers.

The chicken was served with roasted sweet potato 'fries', so good that before you know it you've already eaten the equivalent of three whole yams.
Slice the sweet potatoes and add olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake at 425 F for 25-30 minutes.

We had some leftovers and I plan on using them in a chinese noodle stir fry with peppers, eggplant and cabbage.

Eye Candy

Ricotta Omelette

I cannot remember where I found the recipe for this light omelette, its copy-pasted into my files without any attribution but I will try to look through my cookbooks and favorite websites so I can properly credit the original cook or chef.

16 oz ricotta
4 eggs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 c milk
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp flour or cornstarch
Minced basil and mint to taste (or use dried)
Thinly sliced tomato for top

Break up eggs and mix in the rest of the ingredients. Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes .

Chilled Corn Soup

This is a light and gentle soup that is served cold, perfect for a summer evening. I do not remember where I got the recipe so I'm going to improvise:

Boil some ears of corn for 5-10 minutes. Let cool and remove kernels from cob with a knife. Puree the kernels in a blender with a few cups of water or broth. Strain the mixture and discard the kernels. Add salt, pepper and dried basil to the soup and chill. Serve cold.