From Dear Abby to Ask Umbra, advice columns are a time-honored method publications use to engage readers on a personal level, while sharing expertise and etiquette from a trusted expert. But what happens when the “expert” (and I use that term loosely here) is stumped with a question of her own? Today, I thought I’d switch things up and turn to you with a CSA-related quandary that has been gnawing at me for the last few weeks. Miss Manners might tsk tsk my table-turning, but this is the blogosphere, after all, and I’m desperate for a little good advice…
Dear Gentle Eaters,
After nearly being shut out of my CSA this year, I was fortunate enough to secure a share. My two roommates said they wanted in, so we split full vegetable and fruit shares three-ways, which cut down on the cost, and - I thought - meant we’d split the eating duties. But several weeks in, I seem to be the only one using the vegetables! Over the last three weeks, one roommate made a chocolate beet cake, and the other made a turnip mash (both delicious), but the responsibility of using the drawer full of broccoli, lettuce, kale, cukes, blueberries, and just about everything else, has fallen on my shoulders.
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I used to not really get quinoa. I’m sure there are some of you nodding your head in agreement. It’s hard to get excited about something that has so little taste.
But that’s because I had only had it mainly by itself. Quinoa is so ubiquitous here in the Bay Area, that once my friend Dorit showed up at a potluck announcing “I brought the requisite Berkeley quinoa,” and we all knew exactly what she meant. A Berkeley Jewish potluck isn’t a potluck without someone making quinoa.
But I digress.
I have since come around on the neutral little seed. First of all, it has protein. Second, it takes on whatever flavor you put with it. It mixes well with other ingredients and doesn’t dominate. And, it cooks in only 15 minutes.
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I’m sure many of my fellow foodies and followers of R. Cookie Monster (aka the “Om-nom-nom Rebbe”) eagerly devoured David Leite’s recent article in the NYTimes about his quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie.
According to the insider tips he got from such experts as fellow M.O.T. Maury Rubin (owner of City Bakery, where you can get the best hot chocolate this side of Babette’s Feast), the key to really great chocolate chip cookies isn’t the chocolate (although that’s crucial, of course), or the dough, but allowing the dough to rest for at least 24 hours. That’s right, the key to great chocolate chip cookies is right there in Genesis 2:2!
So why not make yourself a glorious batch of Havdalah House Cookies(tm) this weekend? Make the dough on Friday afternoon, and then bake them Saturday night!! Earn extra eco-kosher points by using chocolate from the handy Jcarrot sustainable kosher chocolate list.
And now, according to another recent article, you can enjoy those cookies with a tall glass of giraffe’s milk, which Israeli rabbis have now declared kosher.
I’m feeling sluggish today. It’s rain-ish (not exactly raining, but close) this morning, which doesn’t help - and Yosh and I spent the last week on an engagement party tour - Tuesday and Wednesday in Silver Spring with his family, and Friday-Sunday in Chicago with mine. There’s really nothing to complain about (both celebrations were great), but I am feeling a little bit “Berenstain Bears and Too Much Birthday” today.
While I pull myself together, I thought I’d share a picture of the amazing cake that Yosh’s sister made - complete with fondant icing carrots (for The Jew & The Carrot, of course) and a treble clef for Yosh. It was hard to cut into such a masterpiece, but the carrot cake inside was worth it. Check out another view below the jump.
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As a chef, summer is my favorite time of the year. I do not enjoy the weather so much (read: I hate the heat), but I love the gorgeous, unusual fruits and vegetables in the market. This week I couldn’t wait to schlep home my bounty that included one of my summer favorites - the gooseberry.
Gooseberries are similar to currants in their tartness and texture. They come in a variety of colors ranging from bright green to dark crimson. Generally too tart to be eaten from hand, they are delicious combined with sweeter fruits and are an amazing addition to lighter wine sauces.
My recipe for Duck Confit with Gooseberry Sauce (see below the jump) is a dish I will be featuring this week at a wine degustation dinner at Puck’s at Spertus Institute. The sauce is similar to an aigredoux - sweet and sour - but with attitude. It also features one of my favorite shmaltz atlernatives: Duck Fat! Plan ahead if you are going to try this recipe, as kosher ducks are always frozen. You can also serve this sauce with chicken or fish if you use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.
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In 1979, Deborah Madison helped to found Greens, the now-iconic vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco. Almost 30 years later, Madison remains at the forefront of the sustainable food movement and is the author of several watershed cookbooks including Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (one of my food bibles!) The Greens Cookbook, and the farmers’ market inspired, Local Flavors. She also writes regularly for Culinate, which is my favorite food website - aside from The Jew & The Carrot of course!
Last week, I spoke with Deborah about the changing nature of farmers’ markets, why she decided to include meat recipes in her most recent cookbook, and her favorite place to get a sustainable meal in Santa Fe.
Below the jump: Win a copy of Deborah Madison’s cookbook, Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets, which was recently released in paperback.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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