How to make great Chicken Soup

When my friend, Tammy, was sick last month, I whipped up some Matzoh Ball Soup for her and her family. I received the following response:
"My dearest,I want to tell you,that your chicken soup was one of the best I ever tasted in all my life! The chicken was sooo....succulent...and juicy! I don't know how you did it,but it was THE BEST!!!!"

Chicken soup is one of those things that can seem intimidating, but once you do it a few times, it's at least as easy as making pasta salad.

Cook time: 20 minutes in a pressure cooker or 1 hour simmering in a regular pot

Basic ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken
• 2-4 carrots - peeled, whole
• 2 stalks of celery, washed, cut into a few pieces
• 1-2 onions, washed or peeled, quartered
• 1-2 bay leaves
• water
• salt to taste - maybe 1 tsp for kosher chicken, more for a non-kosher bird (kosher chickens are salted to remove the blood.) 

Extra ingredients or alternatives:
NOTE: don't overdo leafy things or you will have a soup that looks and tastes more green than meaty.

• whole peppercorns
• fresh or dry parsley
• celery seed (I only tried it because I didn't have parsley last time, but It was GREAT!)

Focaccia Hamentashen

I've been wanting to make these for Purim for the past couple years, but something always comes up. Today I finally tested my concept, and I intend to put a couple in each Purim basket for mishloach manot/shalach manos I give my friends and neighbors. In Hebrew - פוקצ'ה אוזני המן

Start with your favorite pizza or focaccia dough recipe. I used my dad's pizza dough recipe. I think this one from Anne Burrell also looks good. The following proportions will make 8 hamentashen (enough for a test batch or family appetizer):

Dough:

• 3/4 tsp yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water (NOT hot)
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 1 egg (optional)
• 2 cups flour (I used whole wheat for this test, but I plan to use all-purpose for the mishloah manot.)
• 1 tsp salt

''Fresh'' Sriracha - homemade hot sauce

I recently made "fresh" (unfermented) sriracha after hearing about the popular "Rooster Sauce" or "Hipster Ketchup" on a couple of my favorite podcasts. I based my sauce on the technique from Food52, with some changes for my palette.

0. Before you begin handling the chilis, put on gloves and do not remove them until you have washed the cutting board and knife after step 2.

1. Coarsely chop:

• 3/4 lb (1/3 kg) red chili peppers
• 4 cloves of garlic

2. Soak overnight in:

• 1 cup apple cider vinegar (or enough to just barely cover the chilis after you squeeze them down)
• 1 tsp sea salt

3. The next day add:

• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp tamari or good soy sauce (optional)
• a few drops of mushroom sauce or fish sauce (optional)

4. Simmer for 5-15 minutes. Blend well. (I used a hand-held stick blender.)

5. Pour the sauce through a mesh strainer. Use a spatula to squeeze out every last drop. Scrape the bottom of the strainer.

Reusable Sandwich and Snack Bags Tutorial

To cut back on our use of plastic, I 'upcycled' these bags from ripped jeans. I began collecting post-wearable jeans for the aprons I was making. This is a great way to use smaller pieces of material.

Why these are better than the alternatives:

• Put food in while hot - it won't get soggy or melt the bag
• No worries about BPA's and the like leaking into your food
• Sanitary - machine washable in HOT water, unlike plastic-lined alternatives
• Cute and stylish
• Easy to make
• No 'Velcro' means they last much longer, however you wash them.

You will need:
Denim - You can usually make at least 8 bags from one pair of old jeans. (Note - stretch denim is more difficult to sew on a machine.)
Strong thread - a contrasting color is nice.

Food Rescue in Israel

This Saturday is Tu B'Shvat, the birthday of the trees. On Tu B'Shvat we eat fruits and nuts, plant trees, discuss mitzvot (Jewish laws or good deeds) related to trees, and other environmental issues.

A Mitzva Primer:
There are several Jewish laws prohibiting food waste, for instance you can not simply throw food away because something got in it that you think would make it un-kosher. A rabbi must be consulted, and in most cases, the food is permitted. (This applies after the fact; it does not make it permissible to purposely add something not kosher.) 

It is generally prohibited to throw away or ruin good food. This can include rendering food inedible by doing craft projects from food (bread, pasta, seeds) that would otherwise be edible.

There are also agricultural laws that relate to helping the needy. Farmers in Israel must leave the corners of their fields unharvested, and any produce that drops or is missed in the process of harvesting must be left for the needy. 

There is a wonderful organization that takes care of these important mitzvot while protecting the dignity of the needy. Leket Israel, Israel's National Food Bank, is an exceptional organization. Unlike other food banks and charities, it provides nutritional food like fresh produce (not canned and packaged foods) and it helps other businesses fulfill the mitzvah of avoiding food waste. Win-win! Leket Israel also has some new projects that use their organizational scale to help other non-profits improve efficiency.

Stained Glass Craft Tutorial

This week I took over a craft class for elementary school girls in our neighborhood. The craft is supposed to relate to the Torah portion of the week. This week's portion is "Shemot" the first portion in the book of Exodus, where Moses encounters G-d in the form of a burning bush.  

I've been itching to join the fun of "Craft Schooling Sunday" over at Creative Jewish Mom, and I already wrote the instructions out for my mom, I though I might as well share with all of you! This project was inspired by a project my mom used to do with acetate  as well as numerous other projects around the blogosphere. It was designed to be done in one hour with supplies I already had in the house.


I showed the girls (and a couple moms) pictures of other burning bush inspired stained glass. Then I asked them to draw what they thought the burning bush looked like. 

A Kosher Cafe with Atmosphere

My husband and I shared a uniquely pleasant lunch today, the third anniversary of our immigration to the Holy Land. My husband chose the location - Cafe Hagiva (just a few bus stops past my daughter's school, where we had a meeting this morning). The outside looks like an old warehouse, but the inside is spacious, with post-modern art, and a large bar. An eclectic mix of heavy wood chairs and tables fills the dining hall and trails through the sparse grove out back.

The weather was perfect, so we took our chances and sat outdoors. (I can't stand cigarette smoke!) We had the most pleasant meal I can ever recall.

Tofu Pad Thai

There is something about the end of December that puts Jews in the mood for Chinese food, or at least Asian food as it has evolved in the diaspora. If you find yourself with a block of tofu or some leftover chicken, you can whip this meal up from things you probably already have in your pantry and freezer. (You could also add scrambled eggs for protein.) NOTE: Instead of me writing "optional" on all the ingredients, just assume all the ingredients are merely suggestions.

For tofu, start by slicing or cubing the whole block. Put it in between paper towels or tea towels. Lay a cutting board on top and put some cans or other heavy things on top to squeeze out the water. This works best if all the slices/cubes are the same thickness, thus squeezed equally. You may need to switch the paper towels if they are soaked.

While the tofu is draining, mix the marinade. Use your own taste and what you have in the house, but something like

• terriyaki sauce
• soy sauce
• ginger - fresh grated or powder
• garlic - fresh grated or powder
• silan (date syrup), molasses, or sugar

Sufganiot Gallery and Ode to a Great Mocha

My family took our first ever family vacation last week. We rented an apartment in Jerusalem for five days and four nights. ( I would highly recommend At Home in Israel for apartment rentals.) After the restaurant we had planned to go to turned into a sushi bar, we wandered into Shosh Cafe.

The restaurant and menu looks like your average Israeli dairy restaurant/cafe. However, the ingredients, flavor, and presentation had that extra something you don't get from a chain. All the food was delicious, but what really stood out was the REAL mocha. I think cafe mocha should be a cross between good cappuccino/cafe latte and good hot chocolate, but it is usually only one or neither. It should be based on good espresso and good chocolate. I've had many good "cappuccinos" and many great "shoko-ham"s (hot chocolate), but never the two shall meet... until today. Now I've only been to Shosh Cafe once, so I can't promise it wasn't a fluke. Maybe the barista was just in a good mood and tossed some extra chocolate in my drink, but this was good espresso with steamed milk and real chocolate. The milk was hot enough to melt the chocolate and the proportions were perfect. Maybe Jerusalem just has higher standard for their hot drinks.

The first day of Hanuka I took my kids and a friend to the "big mall" and the "big park." I was overwhelmed with the variety of sufganiot, filled donuts, on sale. All the pictures are from English Cake, a bakery chain with a store in the mall.

Easy Peasy "Pashtida" - Dairy free

You can call this a quiche, pie, casserole, or pashtida. I call it yummy.

Ingredients:

• Something sweet and starchy (butternut squash), cooked to soft
• Something green (frozen peas and corn)
• bread crumbs (preferably Panko Japanese bread crumbs)
• About 5 eggs
• About 1 cup of soy milk
• salt
• garlic powder (optional)
• nutritional yeast (optional)

1. It starts with something you need to use up. I had two butternut squash that I peeled and steamed/boiled in my pressure cooker. Mash well.
2. Then look in the freezer and add something green. I mixed about two cups of peas and corn into the hot squash. Baby peas, broccoli, and spinach would all be good choices.