by rivka
on April 1, 2009
See the notes before each recipe for ways to make recipe non-dairy.
One week from today, Jews will celebrate the holiday of Passover, in which we tell the story of our enslavement in Egypt, our eventual exodus from slavery, and our future wandering in the desert and entering of the land of Israel. As tradition has it, the Jews left Egypt in the wee hours of the morning, and thus did not have a chance to let their daily bread dough rise before baking it. As a result, during the whole holiday of Passover, we are not supposed to eat any leavened product of any kind. Once flour and water come in contact, they must be cooked and ready to eat no more than 18 minutes later. That’s where matzah comes into play: it’s “bread” that is made and baked in record speed, and it’s a staple during the course of the holiday (even if it’s totally flavorless and not so kind on the stomach).
Faced with a prohibition on eating any bread, cake, muffins, and other good carbs, many folks make Passover into a meatfest. Not in this house, though: I grew up in a pescetarian household, and Passover was no exception. As you might imagine, this made good Passover cooking a challenge. If you can’t use any flour in what you cook — including non-wheat flour — what do you make as a main dish?
In the past couple weeks, I’ve gotten more than a few questions from people who are vegetarians or are hosting vegetarians over Passover and are at a loss for what to serve. While I won’t say that I don’t miss flour on Passover — because I do, and I get very, very excited for my annual pizza trip after the holiday ends — I will say that there are a lot of great ideas for Passover-friendly vegetarian mains, things that are truly delicious and will take the edge off Passover prohibition.
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by rivka
on March 28, 2009
The spring season is upon us, and we’ve got the rainfall to prove it! I wanted to go with something clean and fresh-looking for the spring blog design, with bright colors and lots of white space. So clear that cache and check out NDP’s new layout — I hope you like it!
We went to synagogue every week when I was a kid. After services, the congregation would flood into the social hall for “kiddush” — meaning the prayer over the wine, but also the term used to describe the nibble-and-schmoozefest that occurs after prayers. The “kiddush ladies” would have set up long tables lined with silver trays full of herring (for the old men) and sweets (for the rest of us), and people would just go nuts. All the kids (including me) would wriggle our way in between the long lines of adults to score goodies before they were all snatched up, and like good children we’d compare plates to see who had accumulated the largest stash of junk food.
At a certain age, the game got old, as I realized that the goodies served at kiddush were actually really gross. The cookies were soft and crumbly, the chocolate was all non-dairy and really yuck, and the pound cake — don’t even get me started on the pound cake — was truly terrible. Soft and mushy, but somehow still totally dry and bland-tasting, it was an affront to everything a pound cake should be. It’s fair to say that kiddush ruined my appetite for pound cake, and even now, I struggle to get excited about it.
That is, I struggled to get excited about it, until I encountered Alice Medrich. As you might know from past posts, I’ve never made a recipe from Alice Medrich that wasn’t absolutely, positively perfect. Her Pure Dessert is by far my favorite dessert cookbook, and I’m on my way to making every recipe contained therein.
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by rivka
on March 20, 2009
This post by another name? Best Cake Ever. Hazelnut, Brown Butter, Cake. Do you hear me yet? Brown butter, aka liquid gold. Hazelnuts, the best nuts on the planet. Cake. Yea. It’s that good.
I’ve been wanting to make this cake ever since Deb posted it over at Smitten Kitchen, but considering the 2 sticks of butter called for in the recipe, I guess I felt like I needed an excuse, silly me.
Only one year later (one year of waiting, mind you!), I finally got the excuse I wanted. You see, D and I are going to a dinner party tonight being held exclusively to mark, and mourn, the end of Battlestar Galactica, a show that some of my people think is the best on TV, like, ever. I don’t get it, but I’ll happily go to a dinner that celebrates the end of a show with a name like Battlestar Galactica. For those nuts among you who watch the show, you know that cylons, enemies of humans that take the form of Darth Vader-like robots, are sometimes called “toasters.” We’re celebrating (er, mourning) the end of the show tonight by having a dinner with a “toasted” theme. Everything served will be toasted in some way.
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by rivka
on March 16, 2009
For all those anticipating Passover, these meringues are the perfect Passover dessert. They require no flour or leavening, but actually taste good. I simply can’t go the week without them.
I was looking through my archived photos today and discovered something utterly shocking: I’ve had a website for…how long now? a year and a half?…and somehow escaped until today without posting a recipe for one of my most reliable, fool-proof, standby, can’t-live-without desserts. I make them all all all the time, especially when I have leftover egg whites. On top of being nearly effortless to make, they achieve one of the rare feat of being both non-dairy and delicious. Like I said, rare.
Meringues, my friends, meringues. They are a fundamental part of my dessert repertoire, and the basis for many other desserts (including, among others, this crazy buche de noel, and the ultimate meringue-based dessert, Macarons.
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by rivka
on March 14, 2009
Yea, I don’t know what happened this year. Normally, this dough gives me minimal frustration, but for some reason, this go-round I got half a batch of nice-looking little guys and half a batch of…well, sexyugly. Tasty, nonetheless — but not the kind of cookie you want to pass out. Especially not when you have a food blog. Ugh.
clearly these are the good ones
You know what? I’ll own it. This dough may not produce the prettiest guys in the pack, but they’re damn tasty. The dough is crunchy on the outside, nicely flaky, and flavored with tons of lemon zest. Nothing like those crumbly, nasty things they sell at the bakery. I’m just saying.
Any hamentaschen disaster stories? Share in the comments.
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by rivka
on March 11, 2009
Hard to believe it’s already Thursday and another Saturday is nearly upon us. I’m still thinking about last weekend’s 75-degree weather and super-chill Mediterranean style lunch. A trip to NYC will prevent me from repeating that meal this Saturday, but if I could, I would, in half a heartbeat. It’s the obvious way straight to my heart: breads, spreads, salad, and a glass of wine. Easy to please, no?
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by rivka
on March 7, 2009
Today was an absolutely beautiful day in Washington. It was probably 75 degrees outside, and while the sky was cloudy in the morning, it cleared up quite a bit in the afternoon and the streets were packed. I’ve been waiting for a day like this for months, mostly because I so long for those lovely Spring and Summer Saturdays when lunch is lots of little salads, various breads and crackers and other dipping vehicles, a bunch of cheeses and spreads, and something uber-light for dessert. Today, that’s what we had for lunch. A big Greek salad (thanks to Jeremy and his chef de cuisine Jana), homemade chickpea-walnut hummus and labneh (yogurt-based cheese), muhammara (syrian pomegranate-red pepper dip), laffa (Mediterranean flatbread) and challah and pita chips (thanks Dina!), and an open-faced tart with mushrooms, dates and goat cheese. The table had so many elements on it, many of them fresh and most of them cold, and people built their plates out of bits and pieces of everything. Don’t forget a few good glasses of chilled rose to wash everything down (tx, Lilah and Dan). I have to say, it was pretty darned tasty.
After a meal like this, the last thing I want is a big, heavy slice of cake. I’d rather end with something light, fresh, and (preferably) cold. Ice cream was one option, but I went instead with a layered mousse parfait that came out really tasty and served as the perfect finale to our lazy afternoon lunch.
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by rivka
on March 6, 2009
Lunch makes or breaks my day. If it’s good, I cruise through the whole afternoon on the contents of my midday tupperware, don’t get really hungry again til about 4 or 5, and by then, I can pop a couple almonds, some honey wheat pretzels, or a piece of the dark chocolate bar I stash in my first drawer (don’t tell), any of which will easily hold me over until dinner. If it’s bad, I’m hungry at 1:30 and every minute thereafter, until my next real meal. I’m fidgety and tired, fussy and hungry. The upshot? If lunch is bad, the day is, like, the total opposite of awesome.
It’s with this in mind that I’ve launched my impromptu Good Things for Lunch campaign. You know, the one that brought you zucchini tart, and edamame cabbage salad, and yam and chickpea salad too. What’s next, you ask? Good things.
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