I actually succeed in turning quite a few people on to my honey cake. Mine is moist and spicy and easy to love; I trust it will make you forget all the indignities of past dried-out and brittle honey cakes. I make it several ways, all scrumptious, but this is one of my favorite. The secret ingredient, orange marmalade, was shared by my dear friend Leah.

Ingredients:

1 cup oil
2/3 cup brown sugar or sucanat
1 cup honey
1 cup orange marmalade, try your best for all-fruit
4 eggs
3/4 cup strong coffee at room temperature
3 tablespoons rum or brandy

3 cups flour: all purpose, whole wheat pastry or spelt (spelt my favorite)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon each cinnamon, allspice and ginger
1/2 cup sliced almonds (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Whisk the first set of ingredients in a bowl.
Mix the second set of ingredients in a second bowl.
Combine both mixtures thoroughly, mixing only until just combined. Pour the batter into a greased tube pan, and bake 1 hour, or a little longer, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Filed under: Cake Recipes, Dessert Recipes, Kosher Recipes, Kosher food, Kosher ingredients, Pareve Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes, honey cake, orange marmalade, pareve cake recipes | 2 Comments »

Our answer to Gefilte Fish, easy, fragrant and delicious. No problem making this recipe substituting ground beef, bison or lamb, and proceeding exactly as instructed below.

Ingredients:

Cooking liquid:

2 tablespoons oil

Good pinch saffron threads

1 teaspoon turmeric

3 cups water

Fish mixture:

1 small onion, quartered

1 small bunch parsley

1 egg

2 tablespoons oil

1 small bread roll (gluten-free OK)

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

Salt and pepper to taste

Pinch nutmeg

1 1/ pounds tilapia, salmon or other fish fillet, boneless and skinless

Lemon Sauce ingredients:

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons Dijon-style-style mustard

1 egg yolk (skip if you are restricted)

1/4 cup minced parsley

Instructions:

Bring all cooking liquid ingredients to boil in a wide heavy pot. Meanwhile, in a food processor, grind all fish mixture ingredient to a smooth paste. Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Form oval patties, and throw them gently in the pot as you go. Reduce the flame to medium and cook covered 30 minutes. Take out the patties carefully with a slotted spoon, and transfer onto a platter. Reduce the cooking liquid to about 1 cup. Remove from the fire; add the sauce ingredients and stir vigorously with a whisk, just a few seconds.  Pour the sauce over the patties. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Filed under: Bread Recipes, Fish Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Kosher Fish Recipes, Kosher food, Moroccan Recipes, Pareve Recipes, Saffron | No Comments »

In this fabulous dinner, you will be hard-pressed to pick your favorite dish: each one is a star! If you have a special occasion in mind, I can’t think of a better place to bring your guests along.

I will be demonstrating:

• Roasted tomato soup
• Chilled salmon roulade with tehina sauce
  
• Beef stew with wild mushrooms, fingerling potatoes and artichokes
• Mixed greens with raspberry vinaigrette
• Praline “cheesecake” with coffee crunch topping

Click here to pre-register and view other upcoming classes

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Summer rolls are those delightful paper-thin rice disks that you dip in warm water to soften (no cooking!), fill with virtually anything you like, roll and dip in the sauce of your choice: I love the suggested Thai dipping sauce, but you could use Teryaki sauce, or even a mixture of toasted sesame oil and soy sauce and nothing more. Seeing the filling through the translucent skins makes it even more fun. It would be alright to make them earlier in the day and bring them to room temperature at serving time, maybe even a day before, just as long as you don’t let the rolls touch, or they might get stuck.

Use your imagination and personal preference and use any filling you like, always keeping the selection short and to the point: rice noodles (soak in hot water, drain and cut smaller with scissors), diced cooked or smoked chicken, grated carrots, julienned snow peas, thinly sliced nappa cabbage, finely shredded kale, seaweed pre-soaked in hot water, chopped peanuts, etc….

Don’t let the fragile looking disks daunt you: You might ruin and have to discard a couple before you get the hang of it, but you will have fun learning and rolling, right on the job!

Ingredients:

1 romaine heart or small nappa cabbage, shredded thin, about 2 cups packed

2 cups shitaki mushrooms, caps only, sliced thin, packed

1 pound mock crab, finely flaked (use your hands)

2 ribs celery, peeled and sliced very thin

4 scallions, sliced very thin

20 rice paper leaves

Instructions:

Keep a pot of water barely simmering on a low flame.

Mix all but last ingredient in a bowl.

Dip one rice paper leaf in the warm water just a few seconds, turning it on all sides, until it is pliable, not a second longer. Place the leaf on a cutting board. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of the mixture in the center. Roll the leaf tightly, bringing the sides into the center and rolling all the way up. Place on a platter. Repeat with the remaining leaves and mixture. Be sure the rolls are not touching (Spray the finished rolls with vegetable spray as an extra precaution) Serve at room temperature with the Thai dipping sauce (recipe follows). About 2-3 rolls per guest.

Thai Sauce:

Lapsang Souchong is a funky smoky Chinese tea you will love or hate to drink on its own, but will always love combined with other ingredients to produce smoky sauces and marinades.

Peanut butter is intensely flavored, a little goes a long way and combines beautifully with the other stars: Lemongrass, coconut milk, cilantro. Wonderful as a dipping sauce, or as the sauce for cold sesame noodles.

Ingredients:

1 cup strong Lapsang Souchong tea (1 tea bag steeped in 1/2 cup boiling water) settle for Earl Grey tea

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup toasted sesame oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup rice vinegar

2-inch piece ginger

1 stalk lemongrass, 2-3 outer leaves removed, or 2 tablespoons powder

2-3 tablespoons bottled hot sauce

4 scallions, sliced

6 sprigs cilantro, stems discarded

Instructions:

Cream the first set of ingredients in a food processor. Pulse in the scallions and cilantro. Transfer to a glass jar and store in the refrigerator.

Filed under: Asian Recipes, Fish Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Kosher Recipes, Kosher food, Pareve Recipes | No Comments »

No need to be Chinese to master the art of handling nori, summer or spring roll leaves, wonton skins. Steaming, rolling, frying, crimping, dipping? No problem: All in a day’s work!

I’ll be demonstrating:

• Vegetable sushi
• Mock crab summer rolls
• Cabbage mushroom spring rolls
• Chicken dumplings with dipping sauce
• Cold sesame noodles in martini cups
• Tofu Satay

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

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This treat might cure you of all misguided urges you might have to open a can and find a dozen insipid ready-to-eat grape leave rolls: Instead, spend a few minutes on the preparation of these fabulous gems, and enjoy them with family and friends!
You can stuff the leaves with anything, meat, fish or vegetarian, but today this filling is the star!

Ingredients:

Filling

1/4 cup olive oil

4 large cloves garlic

1 large onion, quartered

1 small bunch flat parsley

¼ cup mint leaves, packed

1 pound ground lamb

1 large tomato, halved, seeded, and diced small

1/2 cup golden or black raisins

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted (325 degree oven, 10-12 minutes)

Good pinch saffron

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Pepper to taste

1 15 ounce jar grape leaves, separated and rinsed

1 cup pomegranate or cranberry juice

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Heat the oil in a skillet. In a food processor, finely grind the garlic. Add the onion, parsley and and mint, and grind coarsely. Add the ground mixture to the skillet, and saute until translucent. Add the lamb and tomato, and cook 2-3 more minutes. Add all remaining filling ingredients and mix thoroughly. Place a tablespoon stuffing at the bottom center of a leaf (smaller leaves: Make them overlap to get a larger more workable surface) . Roll once, fold the sides towards to center, and roll all the way up. Place seam side down in a pan just large enough to fit the leaves snugly in one layer. Repeat with  the remaining leaves and stuffing. whisk the juice, tomato paste and oil in a little bowl, and pour evenly over the leaves. Bake about 40 minutes, until the juices are reduced and the leaves look nicely browned on top. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Filed under: Gluten Free Recipes, Kosher Recipes, Kosher food, Kosher for Passover Recipes, Kosher ingredients, Lamb recipes, Meat Recipes, Moroccan Recipes | No Comments »

Do grape leaves, fillo dough and puff pastry dough intimidate you? There’s nothing to it! We Sephardis grew up using them almost daily! Perfect for parties. After this demo you are sure to be the hostess with the mostess who doesn’t stress! We are making a feast, complete with dessert!

I will be demonstrating:

• Lamb, pine nut and raisin grape leaves

• Spicy chicken cigars
• Mushroom borekas
• Fishballs in lemon sauce
• Spicy marinated olives
• Vegetarian stuffed zucchini and eggplant
• Nut truffles

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

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This improbable ingredient combination results in an incredibly moist and fragrant cake. It is important to use a shallow mold here, like a pie plate, no higher than 2 inches high, so the syrup that is poured at the end of baking reaches all the way to the bottom. Those of you who use Matza cake meal for Passover can substitute it for the cornmeal, and use potato starch instead of the flour.

Ingredients:

4 eggs whites

¼ teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

3/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon baking powder

Zest of 1 lemon

1 ½ cups finely ground almonds (use a food processor)

1 cup fine semolina flour (Gluten-free: Use fine cornmeal)

1/3 cup flour, any flour

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 325 °F

With an electric mixer, whip the egg whites and salt at high speed until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually and whip until stiff. Switch to low speed, and allowing only enough time to combine the ingredients, beating in one ingredient at a time, just a few seconds each time, the yolks, then the oil, etc… until all ingredients are incorporated.

Pour the batter into a greased 10 inch round baking pan. Bake 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Immediately poke the cake all over with a toothpick or skewer, and pour the syrup (recipe follows) all over the cake

Syrup:

3/4 cup light agave syrup

Juice and zest of 2 lemons

Heat the ingredients over a low flame until just warm (or microwave 30 seconds to 1 minute)

Filed under: Cake Recipes, Dessert Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Kosher Recipes, Moroccan Recipes, Pareve Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes | No Comments »

I admit it: I was in a mad scientist mood when I dreamed this up: The ingredients are as weird as it gets. Still, a star was born! Just listen to what my son Yakov wrote me: “ma, your unlikely bean-coconut concoction pudding (i think that’s what you should call it) was delicioso! The kids gobbled it up, and i stole a few bites. Yummy!” He looked too horrified to taste it after I rattled off the ingredients, even though I offered him a dollar bribe, just for old times’ sake, but then he reconsidered….. He must have felt guilty that his sixteen-month old twins wiped it out and he, the devoted father, wouldn’t get near it. Well I guess I will give him that buck after all. So here comes!!!!

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato, boiled or baked, cut in large hunks

1 5-ounce bag vacuum-packed chestnuts

1 15-ounce can all-natural red kidney beans, liquid and all

1 15-ounce can coconut milk

1/2 to 2/3 cup maple syrup

1 tablespoons cinnamon

Instructions:

Process all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. That’s all! Store refrigerated in a glass jar. Serve at room temperature.

Filed under: Dessert Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Kosher Recipes, Kosher food, Pareve Recipes, Pudding Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes | No Comments »

My first and most enduring culinary love. I am going heavy on our kitchen rock stars: Lemons and olives: simple and healthy seductions for pennies! Gluten-free to boot!

I’ll be demonstrating:

• Eggplant pepper salad with preserved lemons
  
• Lemon olive chicken
• Roast salmon and vegetables
• Fava bean soup
• Cornmeal almond cake with lemon syrup

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Filed under: Kosher Cooking Class, Kosher Cooking Demo, Kosher Cooking demos in New York City | No Comments »