Dinner Last Night: November 2008

And Rosh Hashanah

RH East-coast style. Robin's brownie cupcakes and chocolate-cream cheese cupcakes. Eli's Aliza Cohen's apple tart. Apple cake. Challot, apples & honey, black-eyed peas, Moroccan carrot salad, green herb omelet with yogurt, muhammara & pita chips, kugel. Not pictured: Yakov's savory pies in two flavors, and his beet salad, all from instinctual Russian recipes.

Dessert

Shabana's first apple pie, perfectly not sweet, with Nick's favorite vanilla ice cream (appropriately named "Turkey Hill"). And, Shabana's light, rich invention, pumpkin mousse tart. Caramel and candied pecans above and below the mousse. Thank you to all the chefs!

Bounty

All the veggies, including SO GOOD candied yams.

TG Veggies!

Fava beans (yum!), asparagus with sesame seeds (yum!), baby spinach with grape tomatoes and hearts of palm (I made the dressing, so as not to be a total slouch), rolls, olives, awesome millet with butternut squash, cranberries, and hazelnuts.

Turkey, cranberries, stuffing

Thanksgiving Day Curry Powder

This year I was thankful for not having to cook anything for Thanksgiving! Still, it felt a little funny, so I got started on some curry powder. Toasting spices pictured. I am still thankful for the curry leaves.

Jori came over and we had pad thai 26 Nov

My first successful pad thai! I modified the recipe from Real Vegetarian Thai. Delicious after samba class.

North African Stew 24 Nov

A delicious throwback from Fields of Greens. A little sweet and mild--good thing Eli had salty hot sauce on hand. Shared with Eli & Jess. Over quinoa and kasha.

A charoset recipe

Just dug up Fulyah's recipe for the amazing charoset log she made for Pesach 2007. Wish I had a picture. Charoset as I'd never seen it before, and tasty, too. Fulyah, we miss you!

"So here's the recipe for charoset from Estelle's blog, with a slight modification from me... "

Ingredients

1 cup m dates, chopped
1 cup dried apricots, chopped
1 apple, very thinly sliced
1 cup raisins
1 btl. of red wine
1 tbs sugar
1 pck. of Neufchatel cheese
1 cup almonds
1 cup walnuts
Cinnamon
Brown sugar, to sprinkle

Recipe

1. Place dates, almonds, apples and raisins in a pot. Pour over the red wine just enough to cover it on top and bring heat to a boil.

2. As the fruity mix gets softer, add cinnamon and sugar. Stir well and keep the heat on until the mixture has a jam-like density.

3. Take it off the heat when wine has evaporated and let it cool down for a while. Add almonds and walnuts. Mix well. With the help of a fork, smash them well. (You can use a blender, but I did not)

4. Place the cheese in between stretch film. With the help of a rolling pin, make it flatter into a rectangle.

5. Place the filling right in the middle of the flattened cheese and cover it up on the sides, making it into a cylinder-like roll. Sprinkle brown sugar on top and let it rest in the fridge for 1.5 hrs. Then slice and serve

Bon apetit!

Zephyr chard sautees, 23 Nov

Beautiful rainbow chard sautees with garlic, then finished product with raisins, pinenuts, and a side of chickpeas with ancho powder and tomatoes.

Baked 10 Nov

Pumpkin-chocolate chip bread from the Tartine cookbook.

Lemon slices leftover from sangria then stewed in a spiced syrup glaze a lightly lemony tea cake from a Russian recipe.

A Meal, 8 Nov

The last of the Mt Tam on the last of the pumpernickel; green lentils with roasted beets and preserved lemon, our standby; a really, really good potato salad that I later dropped on the floor but before that had roasted yellow fingerling & purple potatoes, red onion, baby celery, fresh chives, with a little mustard, mayo, oil & vinegar.