This is the third installment of “Unboxed” - posts that demystify summer’s most seasonal produce. See the first two posts on rhubarb and leeks.
Every week, Shabbat ends with a sip of wine, the glow of an intertwined candle and deep breath of “besamim” (spices) during the havdalah ceremony. For years, I thought besamim was synonymous with “cloves,” which seems to be the spice-of-choice found in most havdalah spice boxes. It was not until I attended the Shabbaton at Hazon’s NY Jewish Environmental Bike Ride that I was introduced to the idea that besamim could mean fresh rosemary, lavender, or any other herb picked from the garden or field. What better way to connect back to the week, I thought, than to breathe in the scent of life, ground, and growth?
These days, I’m getting more than my fair share of besamim in the form of the basil, parsley and the other bright green herbs that show up in my CSA share. I love how they add a burst of brightness to just about everything I cook. But unlike lettuce or bok choy, I just can’t seem to use them fast enough! More often than not, I end up throwing out half a bunch of wilted, unused and just very sad herbs.
In hopes of lessening the amount of food waste going on in my kitchen (and I presume many others), The Jew & The Carrot presents tips for storing and using up fresh summer herbs before they end up in the garbage. Check them out below the jump.
Read more »
The 4th of July is coming up tomorrow - the day that commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and America’s independence from Great Britain (and yes, also the time when many Americans like to chomp on burgers and look at sparkle-y things).
In honor of such a revolutionary holiday, The Jew & The Carrot would like to salute the small revolutions that happen every day in our kitchens: the first time we successfully make a matzoh ball like grandma’s, cook kale from our CSA, or teach our kids (or ourselves) how to make jam. And no tribute to kitchen revolutions would be complete without a shout out to every home chef’s trusty sidekick: the humble cookbook.
The Jew & The Carrot contributors compiled a list of our favorite “revolutionary cookbooks,” - the inspired recipe collections that in some way changed the way we cook, eat and even view ourselves. Check them out below the jump, and get inspired for a culinary revolution of your own!
Read more »
Yesterday, I had brunch at my friend’s apartment. It was a steamy Sunday morning - the kind where it could rain any second and your hair (or at least my hair) becomes simultaneously flat, frizzy, and full of weirdly-placed curls. French toast and eggs seemed too heavy for such a morning. But luckily, at some point in the last couple of months, my friend drank the raw foodism Kool Aid - and so had a lovely spread of light, heat-free vegetable dishes including one she called “mock eggs Florentine” (thick-cut tomatoes, sea salt and guacamole), fresh orange juice and a cucumber, lemon, and lime-aid and “strawberries and cream” (soaked cashews whipped in a food processor with agave syrup and vanilla).
During our meal, I felt virtuous and close to the Rambam’s advice: “In summer, one should eat cold foods without excessive amounts of spices…” (Mishna Torah). But as tasty and cooling as our breakfast was, my body is not accustomed to such carb and dairy-less fare. So while my friend felt totally satiated, by about 2pm it was still hot and I had a screaming headache. In an attempt to regain culinary balance after my morning of detoxing, I baked a chocolate buttermilk cake - decadent, sweet, and hot from a steaming oven. As they say, everything in moderation - even vegetables.
Recipe after the jump.
Read more »
Thanks to Tamara Mann for this guest post. Tamara lives in New York City and is a Ph.D candidate in American History.
I think I screamed. I opened the fridge, saw the gelatinous lard on the top shelf and screamed. Welcome to Durham, North Carolina, where five regionally distinct 19-year olds shared a disintegrating house with a large kitchen and a wraparound southern porch. Hailing from New York City, rural Georgia, a litany of military bases, New Jersey by way of India, and the Midwest, our motley crew looked like a trite “We Are Diverse” poster. And the smells emanating from the kitchen reflected the sentiment.
Read more »
Rabbi Rebecca Joseph is a conservative rabbi, a cultural anthropologist, and a Tuv Ha’Aretz member! Her blog, The Parve Baker is filled with delicious recipes and (equally delicious) words of Torah. This is her second installment of “Unboxed” - posts that demystify summer’s most seasonal produce. See her first post on rhubarb.
There is something very special about the first pick-up of the Tuv HaAretz CSA season. Having invested in a farmer’s harvest-to-come in the cold dark of winter and then waited patiently through the spring, the initial sight of tables piled high with the first produce of the season is a delight in the midst of the densely built environment. No wonder our ancestors were enjoined to bring offerings of first fruits to the Temple in gratitude for the blessing of the earth’s bounty!
At Congregation Ansche Chesed in New York City last week, new and returning Tuv HaAretz members gathered shares of vegetables, fruit, flowers, and eggs from Eve and Chris Kaplan-Walbrecht’s Garden of Eve farm. Early summer greens prevailed. Red lettuce, mesclun, and arugula went into bags and boxes of all shapes and sizes along with elegant asparagus spears, bunches of red radishes, and a single stalk of rhubarb each. Then there were the leeks. Sturdy and humble in appearance, these gangly onion and garlic cousins fit awkwardly among the leafy beauties.
Read more »
This Shavuot I baked, with the assistance of my son Max, a siete cieli (“Seven Heavens”) challah. It’s become a regular tradition in our family, along with cutting roizelekh (”roses”) from origami paper, to bake this Mt. Sinai-shaped round challah adorned with various symbols of Torah and revelation - the 2 tablets of the covenant, a ladder, a fish, a bird, and a hamsa.
Max made the fish that you can see in the picture. There’s an excellent, illustrated description of how to construct the “seven heavens” challah in the cookbook by Rabbi Robert Sternberg, The Sephardic Kitchen, though I don’t use his recipe for challah. Rather, I use my favorite whole wheat challah recipe from Marcy Goldman’s Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking. By the way, this is a fantastic cookbook. I have yet to bake a recipe from it that I haven’t liked. The whole wheat challah recipe follows below the break. I have also adapted this Shavuot hallah to celebrate the end of the term with my Wheaton College First Year Seminar “Rituals of Dinner” students, adding other, more contemporary dough symbols, i.e., a mortarboard hat and diploma. Read more »
Every kid remembers a time when their parents urged them to “Eat your vegetables.” But what about “Eat your ice cream or you’re not leaving the table?”
Vegetable ice cream. I know it’s a radical concept, but I proved recently to my dinner guests that this unexpected combination of fresh spring peas and sweet cream actually tastes amazing together. I am a huge fan of green pea soup, puree, anything to do with peas. As a child, I would sneak a handful of frozen peas while my mom was making dinner, and I still love popping them in my mouth whenever I’m cooking with them. If you are lucky enough to have fresh peas, then by all means, use them, but frozen peas will definitely do the job here.
As usual, I turned to my trusty ice cream cookbook, David Liebovitz’s Perfect Scoop
, for inspiration (remember the indulgent rice gelato I tried during Purim?). From there, I let my improvisation run wild. This ice cream screams spring, and with a fresh burst of mint, you will be sure to impress your friends and family. They may even demand second helpings of their veggies!
Read more »
As some of you might remember, I am one of the “blintz experts” competing in next Tuesday’s BLINTZKRIEG: Music and Blintzes. Competition is fierce for the battle of the blintz portion of the evening, let me tell you. (My worthy competitors are the wonderful Sandy Stollar of The Kosher Tomato Personal Chef Service, and the equally wonderful Linda Lantos, also a chef and culinary education instructor with the Children’s Aid Society.) So, I need your help.
I want to make a blintz that really wows the crowd - sweet cheese is fine, but I want something that will take people’s blintz expectations to the next level. So far I’ve concocted two ideas for fillings - one a sweet mascarpone cheese mixed with strawberries and orange zest. The other goes the savory route, mixing garlicky pesto with silken tofu.
The problem is, as of 10:00pm next Tuesday - I’m going to be swirling blintz for a LOT of hungry people - people who will vote whether or not my blintzes taste better than the rest. I just don’t think I can deal with toggling back and forth between two fillings, nor do I want eaters to come away feeling like my blintz palette is muddled by competing flavors.
So, friends - I need you to vote. Tell me, which blintz filling would most excite your taste buds - sweet strawberry, or savory pesto? I’m in your hands.
To help you decide, check out the photos of the two choices below. And if you’re around NYC next Tuesday night, come check out the blintzes and the music at Blintzkrieg.
Read more »
Thanks to Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster for this guest post. Rabbi Kahn-Troster is Director of Education and Outreach for Rabbis for Human Rights North America.
Growing up, Shavuot for me meant lasagna - a delicious, cheesy creation that my mother would make for the one Jewish holiday on which we did not eat meat. (Actually, I was an adult before I realized that non-kosher lasagna was made with meat). I loved the lasagna, and Shavuot wasn’t bad either. Special food, staying up late the first night with my friends- Shavuot was a hit, and I didn’t think about it more than that.
One synagogue I went to hosted a “bikkurim (first fruits) procession:” they had people bring in baskets of produce and leave them on the bimah. I’d never seen a community mark Shavuot through any way but through a Tikkun Leyl Shavuot (staying up all night to study) and by eating blintzes, and I didn’t really know what to make of it. It seemed a little pagan.
Read more »
Jayne Cohen, author of the stunningly gorgeous new cookbook Jewish Holiday Cooking (witness above) is officially a new poster-woman for The Jew & The Carrot. A talented and creative chef and food writer, Cohen loves traditional Jewish dishes as much as she loves improvising with them, and has a weakness for the farmers’ market to boot. Welcome home, Jayne! She spoke with The Jew & The Carrot about her passion for fresh vegetables, the benefits of occasionally going pot-luck, “foodie poets,” and why real Jewish foods deserve real butter.
Below the jump: The full interview, Jayne’s recipe for blintzes, and a chance to win a copy of Jewish Holiday Cooking.
Read more »
Gastronomically speaking, trying to follow Passover is a tough gig. The seder meals are all flashy and filled with symbolic food meaning - how can another holiday compete? But each year, a month and change after the first bite of matzoh ball soup, Shavuot must try.
Here to help, The Jew & The Carrot offers a Healthy Sustainable Shavuot Menu - one that highlights the fresh flavors of the spring season and the dairy-inspired fare traditionally eaten for the holiday. With recipes for English pea risotto, wild salmon in brown butter, and lemony ricotta cheesecake, Shavuot might just have a fighting chance of culinary bragging rights this year.What do you like to make for Shavuot?
Last Friday, Yosh and I attended a sushi-making Shabbat dinner. Wine was blessed and followed by small cups warm sake. Then, after we’d washed and blessed the challah, my friends and I rolled up our sleeves, rolled out the bamboo mats, and rolled up some amazing (if not technically perfect) sushi. Did it feel like a traditional Friday night dinner? Not entirely - but what better way to greet the Sabbath queen than with a plate of freshly made sushi and soy sauce?
Find out how to make your own sushi here. But first, check out the tasty photos (taken by the talented Rik) from our dinner, below the jump!
Read more »
Shavuot is one of my favorite culinary holidays. It’s one of the few holidays where dairy dishes do not get pushed aside by meat (though I certainly have nothing against meat!) and get to be the star of the show. It’s also the celebration of Bikkurim (first fruits), which commemorates the bringing of the Seven Species of Israel (barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates) to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Strawberries are not technically one of the seven species, but they are definitely among the “first fruits” of the spring season here in America. In the recipe below, I’ve paired sweet roasted strawberries with medallions of fried goat cheese and a honey lavender vinaigrette. What could taste more like springtime than that?
Recipe below the jump. Read more »
The Jew & The Carrot “old-timers” might remember a post from this time last year about a blintz making party I went to for Shavuot at my friend Avi’s apartment. Well, Avi is at it again, though instead of making blintzes at his house, he’s putting together an all night blintz and music extravaganza on June 10 in NYC…
BLINTZKRIEG: Music & Blintzes
Find out all the info below the jump. And if you know of (or are planning) any other fun, foodie Shavuot activities, please share! Read more »
