Stuffed Chicken Quarters

This recipe was inspired by Jewish dish called Helzel. The chicken skin is stuffed with fried in schmaltz onion and bread crumbs or matzo meal. This was a laborious dish but well received for Seder. I call it a cholesterol bomb, but I think everything is allowed in moderation, especially if it is only cooked once a year.
I removed skin of the chicken quarters, and extra chunk of fat that are always present on the quarters and set both aside. Then I took the bones out, creating one large rolled out piece of meat. The chicken fat was melted down in the  frying pan and one large chopped onion was fried in the oil. To it then about a cup of coarse matzo meal and matzo crumbs added. Not during Passover bread crumbs and ground corn flakes work really well. Once the crumbs got well coated in oil and mixed well with onion little water can be added to a consistency of cooked oatmeal. Salt, pepper, Mrs Dash or other your favorite spices can be added at this time. Once the stuffing is ready at 1-2 tblsp of it is placed in the inside part of the chicken. Then meat is folded and placed back inside the chicken skin, like in a sock. The seam is then pinned together with one or two toothpicks. Chicken quarters are placed seam down in a baking sheet and placed in the oven uncovered and baked at 350F for about 45 min or longer, that the skin turns golden brown and crispy.
10-12 chicken leg quarters
1 large onion
1-11/2 c coarse matzo meal and matzo crumbs or bread crumbs and ground corn flakes
about 1 c water

Fried Matzo

Jews are limited in what can be eaten during Passover. Matzo is eaten every day instead of bread, it is ground up instead of breadcrumbs and even back to be as fine as flour, except at this point it will never develop gluten and is used more for bulking up a cake recipe. Well, there are several ways to cook a matzo. I remember that when I was growing up, we always had it during Passover, but is was not official and never advertised to our neighbours. Well, I stopped asking why can't I bring it to school after a "girlfriend" of mine was trying to convince me that it is made with the blood of Christian children.... I know it sound absurd, but that was not, and is still, not uncommon believe among the Russian folks. The matzos was smuggled in to us from Moscow, where my uncle lived, and it could be purchased in a synagogue. There were no temples in the city where I grew up and nor churches that I can remember. There was one church in the middle of the city that would look like a cross from the plane and it survived the bombing and WWII but for one wing of the cross, and was converted to an archive, one old Tatar Mosque boarded up could also be found. My uncle would pay a train conductor to bring the package on board with him or her and given to my grandparents, who would take it from conductor upon arrival. Unthinkable these days, I know, but common practice those quieter times. The same way my grandma would send the vegetables, fruits and berries in the summer months to her son and his family in Moscow from the southern part of Soviet Union - Crimean Peninsula.

We cook matzos and prepared it much french toast or thanksgiving stuffing. Many times the matzo is pre-soaked in hot water or broth and combined with egg before cooking.  It is in extra step that I sometimes skip. It does have to absorb some liquid in order to taste good.  It can be made with milk for breakfast like French toast or chicken stock for supper.

3 eggs beaten

2 warm cup of milk  or stock divided

6-8 sheets of matzo broken in small pieces

oil for frying

salt + pepper to taste.

Matzo Babka a.k.a. Matzo Brei

Combine the eggs in a bowl with chosen liquid and add the broken matzos and let it soak for about 10 min. The soaking can be skipped if half of the liquid is reserved. Heat up the oil in the frying pan and pour the matzo in it. As the pan is hot and frying the matzo, pour the rest of the liquid in the pan, that creates hot steam that gets the matzos to exact consistency of soft and crunchy as it fried at the same. If matzo is stirred while it is cooking , it will be separated in individual pieces. If it is left alone without stirring it becomes like a large pancake that is flipped over midway trough the cooking. that way it somewhat resembles a bread and can be cut in wedges and eaten like such.



Frittata with matzo

  I have also made a Frittata with matzo for breakfast for the kids.

1 small chopped onion

1 small chopped pepper

1 tomato cut in cubes

6 eggs

1/4 c milk

oil for frying

1/4 shredded cheese

1 tsp of spices like herbs de Provence or Italian seasonings

Salt and Pepper

Preheat the oven to 375F. Start by sauteing onions and peppers in a frying pan that is safe to be put in the oven. Beat the eggs with milk and pour in the frying pan, then add the crumbles up broken pieces of matzo, pushing it and sinking towards the bottom of the pan. Give it a stir and add the tomatoes and cheese at the top. Place in the oven for about 20 min. I usually make this frittata with croutons but the matzo is a good substitute during Passover.



Fritatta with croutons



for Passover

Past Monday we began celebrating Passover. It is challenging week in the kitchen as well as my chance to brush up on some of my favorite recipes and few dishes I only cook about once or twice a year, or even less frequently. Celebrating Passover is not only a chance for a discussion about history and traditions, and meaning of being Jewish but a look at what we eat every day. We are not a kosher family but we try to follow the traditions and rules that come with being Jewish, like fasting on Yom Kipur or not eating bread on Passover. It is not an easy task for someone who did not grow up with Jewish education. Having said that I do not want to make any excuses for anything. My husband and I were really amazed at the number of restrictions that Jews abide by according to the Torah.  During Passover Jews do not eat Hametz or food made from "five grains": wheat, spelt, barley, oats and rye. Ashkenazi Jews, however go further and expand the prohibitions to other food that called Kitniyot and include rice, all legumes like soy and its derivatives, and corn. So, naturally you eliminate pretty much everything that is sold n the supermarket. That is what got my family in a conversation about what we eat, and what really is in our over processed foods. High fructose corn syrup is in everything... even in ketchup. To reinforce my point: sending lunches for my kids to school is a new task - I had to get creative this week.

For first dinner - Seder, we got together with my parents-in-law and their very good friends Sabina and Arkadiy. We read the Haggadah, drank the wine, asked the questions and ate. Naturally, our guests did not come empty handed. Sabina cooked the most traditional Jewish food - Gefelte Fish. She did it the way it was done in Eastern Europe by Jews long time ago. What many American Jews call Gefelte Fish and is sold in the supermarkets in glass jars as little cutlets of fish is not at all what I ate growing up. My grandma, like Sabina made real gefelte fish. I only hope one day to attempt to cook it but so far did not have the guts to. The way this fish is made is by peeling the skin off the fish, then removing the flesh, to  make the ground fish mixture that is then placed back in the carcass of the fish. Then the whole fish is cooked with onions, carrots and beets with spices. As the fish cooks in small amount of water, the gelatin from the fish bones makes a thick stock, that upon cooling will solidify. That is what we enjoyed with horseradish this Passover, thanks to Sabina.

My absolutely favorite salad from Passover is Haroset. It is simple and easy dish that is a must at the Seder. I get it done in food processor. I first chop walnuts, then switch the blade and shred apples over the walnuts. then mix the rest in a bowl. I mix and match my apples and add more honey if it needs to be sweeter. Sometimes I add raisins.
6 apples shredded
1 c walnuts chopped
2-3 tblsp honey
1/2-3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c of sweet kosher wine or grape juice




Chopped chicken liver - never photographs well.

  The chicken chopped liver is something that I love but only cook about twice a year for Rosh Hashana and Passover. It is really simple and delicious dish I love from childhood. I bake the livers and pulse in food processor with other ingredients.
2 lbs of chicken livers
6 hard boiled eggs
1 onion
Salt and pepper
Bake livers on the  baking sheet lined with foil at 400F for about 25 min. Meanwhile saute finely chopped onion in oil and rendered chicken fat - schmaltz. I actually found that in NY you can buy it in the supermarket, but in CA one would have to make it. It is easy to do. Remove chunks of fat from the chicken and melt it in the frying pan over medium heat until it is liquid. Ideally, the  whole onion is sauteed in it, but about a spoonful will give the dish the necessary flavor without the unwanted cholesterol. When the chicken is cooked you will notice a that the is some liquid that is in the baking sheet. I reserve that liquid, since the livers sometimes turn out to be dry and if the broth that leaked out is added back in, the dish gets better texture. I pulse all ingredients in the food processor. My husband prefers this dish to have a chunky texture with some bits distinguishable. I personally like it smooth and creamy, well blended. This time I made it so that husband will appreciate.



Aspic from chicken with jar of horseradish

This next dish was a debut for me. Although I always enjoyed this dish as a kid and helped my grandma and mom make it, this time I cooked it all by myself. This is definitely very Eastern European dish that is not easy to describe and may be somewhat shocking -  it is meat jelly. I did not know how to translate it but my husband helped, and now I know that it is Aspic. I remember my grandma cooking it in a pressure cooker and that always gives me warm childhood memories of hanging out in her tiny kitchen. Back then to make aspic, the parts of chicken were collected in the freezer over some time to make that dish. These days I can just get the necessary ingredients in one shopping trip. In order for the soup to solidify it needs gelatin, that is naturally occurring in bones and joins of the chicken. I can get the bones and chicken feet and winds at my local oriental store and the dish will be ready the next day. Sometimes I think that I will buy myself a pressure cooker, but always talk myself out of it. This concoction of chicken bones, wings and feet along with onion, carrot and celery rib cooks for a very long time to get the most gelatin to leach out. Literally 18 hours or so on the small fire on the back burner of the stove. My mom taught me that in order for the dish to solidify it has to have small amount of liquid to begin with. The way to measure is to use the same 2-3 dishes where you are planning to make the final presentation and fill it with water . Mom says that no more than that. I, however, take account for the water that will inevitably evaporate during cooking and add one or 2 more dishesfulls of water. It is hard to measure exactly. From what I gather there where 2 lbs of chicken feet and 3 lbs of wings plus few more bones from the leg quarters. when the broth is cooked it has an oily and thick texture if you touch the broth with your fingers. That is in indicator that it is likely to solidify.  There is always a way to make this dish less complicated, and it's by adding plan unflavored gelatin.  The clove of garlic is pressed in the dish with  some salt, then the meat is pulled of the bones and added to the bottom of the dish. the liquid broth is added over the meat and garlic. For extra flavor and decorations sliced hard boiled egg is placed on the top. Not sure how it was possible for my grandma, but when she made the dish the hard boiled eggs floated on the top, unlike my that sunk to the bottom and rested on the meat. The dish then carefully placed in the refrigerator and solidifies over few hours. It is best served with grated horseradish.

I do not think one can survive with all the matzo eating during Passover without a beet salad. I made it out of boiled beets, shredded with roasted pine nuts (or sunflower seed but not for Passover)  and mayonnaise. I also marinated some cooked and sliced beets in a sweet and salty marinade. As a main course a chicken dish was prepared that deserves a separate post and is coming later.

I think we never eat so many eggs as we do during Passover week. It is used by me frequently as I make fried matzos with egg. More on it in my next post.

Borsch



Dalop of sour cream added to hot soup

 This is probably as ethnic as it gets. You think Eastern Europe (Russia or Ukraine) - you gotta think beet soup a.k.a. borsch. I cook it really frequently and my family loves this soup. Borsch is a meal not at all a first course and I have never been able to make a small pot - it is always the largest pot I have. There are a lot of little anecdotes I have about borsch. I even have some disagreements with the wiki article that I liked above. For example, there is no 't" in borsch and it is a soup that is always hot and usually meat based. Cold beet soup that the article mentions is not a borsch but just that - cold beet soup. This was my other cultural shock. When I just came to America I lived in NY and to make ends meet I worked 3 jobs. My boss was kind enough to let me work for her friend who was a chef and had a small cafe and catering service. I did not know how to cook then but I knew that whatever cold purple soup they were selling, was not borsch. The funny thing is that the owner (my new boss) and her main chef went to the same culinary school, but each was convinced that their version of the soup was correct. They were constantly arguing and correcting the soup behind each other's back. This was truly funny to me, but since I was so low on the totem pole and not so confident about my vocabulary, I dare not speak. However, my thoughts were "They have no idea what borch is, and I wish they tried my mom's or grandma's soup".



Here are ingredients



1. Saute onions

Borsch's main ingredient is beet. That is what gives it the amazing color. It is usually made with beef, chicken or pork stock. The soup is full of vegetables and very thick, in fact Russian saying describes that in a good borsch the spoon will not fall but will remain standing  like a fork in a piece of meat.  I do not think a woman is ready for marriage if she can't cook borsch and most every family has their own method of cooking and recipe that slightly varies between regions. One common theme is that the beet usually precooked before being added to the soup. My grandma cooked it in the stock with beef bone and then shredded it in the soup. I saute it prior to adding to liquid. In fact I saute all of the vegetables first. Sometimes I add beans if I make it with vegetable stock, but usually I make it with chicken stock.

2. Add celery

I start by sauteing onions, then add carrots, beets and seasoning. Finally, I add the liquid - stock and tomato juice. I add chopped dill and parsley at the end and turn of the fire. It is very good hot with a spoonful of sour cream and it is even better on the second day.

  Ingredients are

 2-3 tbs oil for sauteing

1 Large diced onion

1 celery rib sliced

2-3 shredded carrots (depending on size of it)
2-3 shredded beets (depending on size of it)

1 pepper diced (sweet, I have yellow pepper here)

2 potatoes cut up in cubes

1/3-1/2 shredded cabbage (depending on size of it)

 about 4 cups of stock (vegetable or beef, chicken)

Tomato juice (2-4 cups) or small can of plain tomato sauce and/or 2 tblsp tomato paste

4-5 sliced garlic cloves

3. Add shredded carrots

1 bay leaf

 1/2 tsp black peppercorns

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes or 1 dry chili pepper

3 cloves

1-2 tsp of all purpose vegetable seasoning

salt and pepper

several sprigs of dill and flat leaf parsley chopped



3-4 green onions sliced added once the soup is done and removed from the stove. As the soup cools but is still very hot the herbs give most of the flavor. A clove of garlic pressed may also be added for an extra punch.





4. Add potatoes and peppers

 





    







5. Add more liquid and cabbage

 







 



6. Lastly add green onions and dill with parsley and one

more sliced garlic clove



Cream of Carrot Soup

If you read my other post, I'm still figuring out how to utilise all the carrots that I got the other day. Last night I made a Cream of Carrot soup. I was not sure what spices will work well so I went with those that are in the same color palette - a little bit of everything

Cream of Carrot served with croutons and dash of additional sumac

about 10 carrots

1 onion chopped

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups milk

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 turmeric

1/2 curry powder

1/2 tsp sumac

1/2 tsp chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

Chop the carrot and boil in small amount of water. Chop the onion and  saute in small amt of oil, then when golden brown reserve. In the pot melt the butter and add flour,  start cooking the rue, then whisk in milk a little at a time.  You will have some balls of flour that did not Incorporated well  but do not worry, the whole thing will be blended at the end. Add carrots (reserving the water) and onions and spices. Here you can play a little and add more or less spices then I did. Once the carrots are tender blend with hand held blender. If you feel the soup is too thick, add in the water in which the carrots cooked and/or more milk.

Couscous Salad

Couscous is always my quick "go to" side dish, because it requires almost no cooking. It is literally done in 5 min. What's not to love? I like turning it into a salad. That usually works out well. Last Purim I was helping with kitchen duties for Purim Carnival at my temple. I have to tell you I was terrified and in charge of Mediterranean lunch box with included Pita, Hummus, Baba Ganush and, my last minute addition - couscous salad. Although, I love to cook, I never cooked for so many people at the same time - 50 lunchboxes. It was complicated because I almost never cook nor bake by recipe. I love reading recipes but then I cook using it more as a guideline. My method is "a little bit of this and a little bit of that". It proved to be challenging when I was making humus from 2 cans of chickpeas, but I'm not talking a about little 1 lb cans - those were "industrial  size" 6lbs 12 oz cans each. Everything had to be multiplied and in the end still checked for taste and consistency. There was lots of help putting humus and salad into small containers, so I did not have to do it but I still had to make it.  Couscous salad is very easy to make, I just never had to make it in a bath tub. No, of course not exactly bath tub,... well,  maybe an infant bathtub - it was a lot. I wish I had taken a picture, I was just so busy to even remember that. People complimented me and asked for recipe. So here it is.
I usually try to make it colorful and pick my veggies accordingly. I use read onion and yellow pepper, to add those colors to the salad that will already have read tomatoes and green cucumbers, however red or orange pepper and regular onion will do, too.

1 c of uncooked couscous cooked according to directions with 1 1/4 c hot water and 1 tblsp oil 

1 celery rib chopped
1 large tomato diced
1 English cucumber diced
1 small or 1/2 of large yellow or orange pepper diced
1 small red onion diced
3-4 green onions thinly sliced
5-8 sprigs each of flat leaf parsley and fresh dill chopped
3-4 tblsp crumbled feta cheese
3 tblsp drained capers
Dressing :
1 large garlic clove pressed
3 tblsp c lemon juice aprox.
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
If you do not have fresh dill salad will be fine without it, too.Cook the couscous. 

...the package directions usually instruct to add 1.5 measures of boiling water or stock and butter to each measure of couscous and to cover tightly for 5 minutes. The couscous swells and within a few minutes it is ready to fluff with a fork and serve.

 While waiting for couscous - chop all the other ingredients and make dressing.
Once couscous is ready mix all ingredients and add dressing and you  are done. Can be done ahead of time and allow all the ingredients to marry.  Perhaps, sitting in the refrigerator overnight played a role, since it was cooked one day before the Carnival.

Carrot salads

When live gives you carrots... you get creative.
I was planning on getting my usual bag of baby carrots but as some other crops they were lost in a freeze episode. So to avoid making a trip to other stores I took what I could - 10 lbs of regular carrots. Now the dilemma: what do I do with all of these carrots. How about a cake? Nope, needless calories. OK, salad it is.

5 med carrots thinly sliced

1 sliced onion

1/2 c vinegar

1tsp honey

1/2 tsp of sumac

3-4 tblsp of oil

I started by marinating some onions. I sliced thinly one red and one sweet onion and salted the slices turning to get them all salted. Then I let them sit so that they release the liquid for about 15-20 minutes. Mean while I cleaned about 5 carrots and continued with vegetable peeler to cut it in thin strips. Looking back I could probably use a mandolin slicer and on a bias make thin  long slices. After the onion realises liquid in a shallow dish I just about covered the onions with apple cider vinegar - about 1/2 cup. Let them sit as you continue with carrots. When carrots are sliced I put them in the steamer and cook for about 5 min so they still are crunch but somewhat wilted, on other words al dente. Mix equal portions on carrots and onions without vinegar. I did not use all the onions that were marinated to this salad. Add about teaspoon of honey and 1/2 tsp of sumac and 3 tblsp of oil. Mix well. You may add some vinegar to the salad if you feel that it needs a punch.

The other one was inspired by haroset which I will be making plenty of, comes Passover this month.

1 large green apple shredded

2-4 carrots shredded

1/3 c chopped walnuts

3 tsp chopped marinated onions

2 tsp honey

I chopped walnuts first, then switched the blade in the same bowl shredded apple and carrots over the walnuts. Chopped up in smaller pieces onions that by then were sitting in vinegar for a day by then. Added all things together and got a crunchy salad. See if it works for you. I liked the texture and flavor.

Meatloaf... Kinda

I was not planning on this post since I already have a couple of them lined up but this was a request. I made a meat dish for potluck at the temple and recipe was requested. The story behind the dish is simple. A staple of Russian cuisine is a ground meat patty much like a hamburger but it is not eaten in the bun nor its it grilled. It is ground meat flavored and shaped like a large flattened meatball fried in the pan with a little oil. The dish is great and loved by kids and adults alike.
I make it frequently and my usual recipe converts great into meatballs. Here meatballs are formed and covered with can of spaghetti sauce then baked initially covered with foil then without.

1 large onion
bunch of each:
fresh dill, Italian parsley, (optional cilantro, basil, fresh oregano)
4-5 clove of garlic
1 egg
1tsp (or more) vegetable seasoning like Mrs Dash or that  from Costco
pinch of red pepper flakes
salt pepper

2-3 slices of white sandwich bread soaked in water

about 3 lbs of ground beef 80% lean

Pure all of ingredients to almost liquid form and mix with ground meat. There really is a bunch of dill and parsley and it gives the mix a greenish look and the meat looks slightly greenish, too. Sometimes I use 1/3 turkey or chicken and 2/3 beef. Soaking bread adds moisture to the meat. On this picture I formed meatballs and arranged them in a baking dish and poured a can of Spaghetti sauce over raw meatballs. I baked it at 350F. Those meatballs were super soft, moist and delicious.

I recently decided to stop making meat patties for couple of reasons. For one, it adds unnecessary amount of extra fat while being fried and forming the patties is a laborious and time consuming process much like meatballs but even more so.  Once the patties or cutlets are shaped they are coated in flour, which allows them to maintain their shape as they cook, and, if this step is omitted the patties loose their shape as they inevitably shrink. I decided that I will make one but really large patty but in the oven and then would cut it up. The difference between it and meatloaf is in shape and size. The way I make it is by lining a baking sheet with foil in a manner that the ends if foil stick up a little and fill entire baking sheet with flavored ground meat. Just like in the picture here. The thickness of the loaf is only about an inch, thus only cooks for about 20 min in the oven in the middle rack but under a broiler setting. This allows for uniform cooking. The large patty shrinks by about 10-15% and looks like it is swimming in the soup. It isn't pretty. I do not remove it from the liquid it's sitting in but let it sit in it and cut up in serving size pieces while still in the juice. All those juices that run out of the meat make it dry but if nothing is done the meat remains moist and soft. Another big plus is that I can make a lot and once it is cool divide and freeze for later. Another thing that can be done is to bake the BBQ bamboo sicks in the meat as it it raw and once the meat is cooked it can be cut up into the serving sizes of meat loaf on the stick.

The following recipe was made up because I did not have fresh herbs in the house I decided to use what I have in the pantry. I cant be exact because I'm translating this recipe - shrinking it down, since I made it for 6 lbs of ground beef for potluck. The spice mix I use here I found in the local Assyrian(Iranian) store Setareh Market I frequent, called sabzighormeh and is made of dry parsley, leek and fenugreek.

1 large onion

1 carrot

1 rib of celery

3-4 cloves of garlic

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tbls all purpose vegetable seasoning

1 1/2 tbls sabzighormeh

1 1/2 c croutons (like those for Thanksgiving stuffing)

1 egg

1/2 - 1 c water

1/2 - 1tsp ground pepper

salt

3 lbs of ground beef

I have to reiterate that the numbers are very much approximate - I did not measure when I was cooking it and I was making a larger amount. In a food processor puree first 8 ingredients before adding the egg but add about 1/2 c of watter. You may not need to use the rest and the consistency of blended vegetables should be that of cream soup. What works well for me is tasting the mix when it has been blended before adding the egg. This is when you want to adjust the seasoning and salt it if it needs to be salted more because the mix should be little saltier the you would like - you will be mixing it with meat. If you are satisfied with the blend of spiced and vegetables, add the egg and mix with meat well. Then place in the baking sheet and broil on the middle shelf. I suppose it could be baked at high temperature, because T is quite high when broil is used.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Today there is another potluck at the Temple and we are also responsible for desert besides the main dish. Well, there is always something at the potluck that is  from Costco or supermarket and I did not want the usual stuff there. I've made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies before and my husband loves those and I will pick it anytime over chocolate chip. This time I decided not to look at somebodies' recipe and make my own. I made a list of what I think should be in the cookie and was writing down the numbers as I was making the batter. There there some corrections on the volumes of ingredient as the cookie dough was coming together and result turned out lovely. Here is what I'm taking to the potluck tonight cookies and Persimmon bread

1 c soft butter
2 eggs
1 c brown sugar
1 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 c rolled oats
1 1/2 c raisins soaked in 3/4-1 c of hot water for 20 min
Beat together first 5 ingredients. Sift together next 5 ingredients then combine it. Once all is mixed add oats and raisins with water is the dough is too stiff. Drop large teaspoonfuls on the silicone mat and bake at 350F for 12 min. Cool on the silpad or wire rack, removing it carefully as the cookies are very soft while hot. The cookie will be soft and chewy once cooled.
Let's see what they will say at the Temple.