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 third installment of “Unboxed” - posts that demystify seasonal produce. See her first post on rhubarb and her second post on leeks.

The economy is surely suffering, but this season’s nuts are in at my local farmers’ market and I couldn’t be happier. Did I really spend twenty minutes poring over just one grower’s almonds today? Absolutely, but we were mostly talking. About almonds, of course.

Along with some of my other favorite culinary nuts like macadamias and cashews, almonds are not true nuts at all, but the edible seeds of stone fruits. They have more in

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You can only eat fried green tomatoes so many times before that best of unripened delicacies starts to wear on the nerves and the stomach lining. Here, courtesy of urban gardener and farmer’s market maven Zoe Plaugher, is a sticky, brown, vinegary, sweet, spicy and tart chutney that will put those last premature tomatoes to excellent use. The result is reminiscent of a more complex tamarind chutney and it goes great with latkes, roast meats or couscous.
Green Tomato Chutney

Approx 3lbs of green tomatoes ~ 5-6 cups, cored and chopped
2/3 c water
2 c sliced shallots
½ c minced ginger
1 c dried cherries (tart or extra tart are best, but use sweet if that’s what you have)
2 c cider vinegar (more if needed)
1 c honey (may be adjusted depending on sweetness of cherries)
1-2 jalepenos, cherry bombs or any other medium-hot pepper.  Adjust up or down to your liking.

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Yom Kippur stirs my strongest Jewish food memory - it’s strange, but true. Since I was in the single digits I can remember walking to Ne’ila services with my mother and father, carrying a bag filled with two essential components of our holiday inside. One was a three-pound sack of apples, the then ubiquitous McIntosh variety. The other was six or so tiny butter sandwiches on my mother’s anise bread.

The bread was a high, oblong loaf shining from egg glaze and redolent of liquorice, which I despised as a child. On our walk, I would watch the plastic sack of break-fast food thumping against my father’s trousered leg, a reminder that holy space of Yom Kippur was about to close over us and leave us to our good intentions and the rest of the year. I couldn’t understand why they liked it so much, that sweet, seeded bread. (Now, of course, I know better.)

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Thanks to Aaron Kagan for this guest post. Aaron maintains the blog Tea and Food.

While a Yom Kippur recipe might seem like an oxymoron, there are many food traditions surrounding the meals immediately preceding and following the 25 hours in which most Jews refrain from food. Jews in Iraq, for example, frequently break the fast with a nourishing yet easily digestible glass of rice milk.

I was surprised to find this beverage in such a traditional context, having until now chiefly associated it with vegans and the lactose intolerant. But it turns out that rice milk is popular in many parts of the world besides those places where you can order a dairy free smoothie for the cost of a meal. Take the Thai kokkoh or Mexican horchata, for instance. Cut the sugar and skip the cinnamon of the latter and you’ve got something that closely resembles both the stuff in the rectangular carton at Whole Foods and the drink made by Iraqi Jews to close the most holy day of the year.

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Tonight I made myself a very simple, and surprisingly wonderful dinner: roasted potatoes with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, chives and parsley in a lemon olive-oil vinaigrette. It was so simple, so fast - and the contrast of the warm, creamy potatoes with the crisp cucumber and acidic tomatoes was perfect for a summer evening. I finished off my meal with a few slices of locally grown (and very tasty) watermelon.

The meal was a reminder to me about the beauty of eating fresh, local produce. And while I know it’s not the most well-balanced meal, I was eating alone while I cleaned out my apartment before moving from Chicago to the East Coast.

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I had one of the worst days of my life today (definitely top ten, possibly top five) but things didn’t get really bad until I was midway through throwing together a ratatouille. I think it’s a testament to my recipe that basically forgetting the dish on a stove on high heat for a good twenty minutes while I panicked to the point of tears and probably aged a decade did not ruin the dish. In fact, though I was still a complete emotional wreck later in the afternoon, I was an emotional wreck with really good ratatouille for lunch. And if you’re going to be a bawling bundle of stress, you might as well be full of yummy CSA veggies.

I started making the ratatouille because I didn’t want any of our veggies to go to waste, but as far as I’m concerned the best thing about the dish is that it’s really filling, and makes an amazing alternative main course for vegetarians when everyone else is eating meat. I used to do the catering at the University of Iowa Hillel, and many a Shabbat there was chicken for meat eaters, ratatouille for the vegetarians, and nary a complaint. For anyone who worries about what to make for a vegetarian Shabbat meal, this recipe is for you.

Recipe after the break!

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I am a little embarrassed to admit that The Jew & The Carrot went the entire summer last year without sharing a recipe for gazpacho. Of course gazpacho - a cold soup which has its roots in Southern Spain - does not obviously belong in the “Jewish food” category. Still, as Tamar rightly pointed out, when summer rolls around, the last thing you want is a pot of cholent steaming up the kitchen. Or at least, as someone who lives sans air conditioning, I don’t want no stinking pot of cholent.

In these moments of mid-summer heat, Gazpacho boldly comes to the rescue, offering a flavor-packed soup without the shvitzing. It also begs you to head to the farmers’ market (or your backyard) and buy the ripest heirloom tomatoes (like the ones I found above) and crispest bell peppers and cucumbers possible.

Shame on us for neglecting to share the wonders of summer gazpacho with you last year - we hope you accept the recipe below along with our deepest and most sincere apologies.

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When I have people over for Shabbat dinner during the winter I always make some kind of kugel as a side dish. But in the summer, nobody wants a warm kugel, so I have to come up with a nice rotation of cold salads that don’t bore me to death.

This one I got from my ex’s mom. She didn’t like that I was dating her son, but she really didn’t like that I had never cooked with black eyed peas, so she taught me this recipe, and it pleases guests long after I split with her little boy.

Recipe after the jump. Read more »

Thanks to Rhea Kennedy for this post. Rhea blogs over at You Are Delicious.

As a kid growing up in New York’s Hudson Valley, I learned a lot about the Iroquois, the group of Native American tribes indigenous to that area. I loved to hear about the stories, beliefs, language, and everyday practices that made up the traditional Iroquois way of life. But what fascinated me the most was, not surprisingly, their food. “They used every part of the animal,” I remember an elementary school teacher explaining to my class. “The meat, the hide or the feathers, the bones—everything!”

Now that I think of it, this was probably my first lesson in sustainable eating. And I was mesmerized. Those traditional Iroquois, as far as I was concerned, were the coolest thing ever.

More and recipes, below the jump…

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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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Approx. 3 1/2 cups of pureed winter squash
3/4 cup apple juice or cider
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Juice of half a lemon
Combine pumpkin, apple juice, spices, and sugar in a large saucepan; stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Stir frequently. Adjust spices to taste. Stir in lemon juice, or more to taste.
Once cool, pumpkin butter can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for months.
To preserve:
Spoon hot pumpkin mixture into hot jars, filling to within 1/4 inch from top. Remove air bubbles; wipe jar rims. Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on bands. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Not only will these methods make your decorations serve dual functions (a help for small budgets in rough times), they’ll also reduce the amount of space in your house dedicated to storing boxes of tinsel. Write in with your own ideas for how to make your Sukkot bounty last all year.

Adapted from AllRecipes

Photo credit: Fat Free Vegan

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Make an infusion of 4 T dried or 8 T chopped fresh sage leaves and one cup of boiling water, simmered together for about ten minutes, uncovered. Strain through a cloth strainer for about ½ cup sage infusion.

Add to this:
3 ½ cups granulated sugar (I sometimes reduce the sugar in her recipes)
1 cup fresh apple cider
¼ cup lemon juice

As it comes to a boil, add:
½ bottle Certo (extra points for anyone who can come up with a non-Kraft product to substitute for liquid pectin)

Stir well again as it comes to a boil and boil for about one minute. Pour immediately into clean jelly glasses (five ounce canning jars), process and serve with roast meats or cheeses.

Recipe from Fine Preserving

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Cantaloupe-Jalapeno Gazpacho
This is an easy soup course or palate-cleanser. The flecks of green against the orange make for a lovely presentation.

1 medium cantaloupe, seeded, rind removed, and cut into chunks
1 cup seltzer
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and finely diced (you may want to wear a plastic bag or latex glove over the hand that will come in contact with the pepper)

In a blender or food processor, combine cantaloupe, seltzer, and lemon juice. Puree, then transfer to serving bowl or individual bowls. Sprinkle with the diced jalapeno.

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Sassy Tomato Sauce
Adapted from Epicurious.  Romas (aka plum tomatoes) work best for sauce, but any kind of tomatoes you come across this fall (or high quality canned tomatoes) will work. Use this sauce to make shakshuka for your Rosh Hashanah guests. The sauce keeps well in the fridge thanks to the peppers’ antimicrobial properties, and of course stays fresh even longer in the freezer. You can make a big batch of this, then freeze in glass jars (leave plenty of headroom!) to use through the winter.

3 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 fresh red cayenne peppers, with or without seeds removed, depending on how spicy you want your sauce, diced (wear a plastic bag or latex glove over the hand that will come in contact with the pepper)
3 tsp. dried herbs (mix and match oregano, basil, rosemary, marjoram or others)
2 lbs plum/Roma tomatoes (about 16 tomatoes), washed and tops cut off or scooped out with a tomato shark. You can also use 2 28-ounce cans canned tomatoes.
1 15-oz can crushed or diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1/2 cup dry red wine (optional)
Salt to taste

Skin the tomatoes by blanching them in boiling water for a minute or so, until the skin bursts. Remove from the water and, when cool enough to handle, remove the skins. Then chop the tomatoes, discarding the seeds and juice that will run off onto your cutting board.

Heat olive oil on medium in a large saucepan with a heavy bottom. Sauté onions until translucent, then add garlic and Serranos and sauté until the garlic is fragrant. Add the remaining ingredients. Simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how much time you have and how thick you want your sauce!