ask the teenagers to help

This recipe is the appetizer version of the Sephardic Spanech (spinach) ou b’ Jiben(cheese) in which the spinach mixture is poured into a big pie shell or pyrex and baked.

I love to add these spinach and cheese delicacies to my Shavuot holiday menu every year because I know that adults and kids will gobble them up as they are waiting for the holiday lunch or dinner to be served.

Make sure the butter is softened at room temperature  before making the dough, and use your Cuisinart to whip up the dough in a flash.

p.s.You will always want to have  a batch of these spinach tarts bagged in the freezer for an unexpected guest. Serve with coffee and your brunch menu.

Adapted from the “White Deal Delights Cookbook.”

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 13 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup semolina (smead) flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 3/4 cup warm water

Spinach Cheese Topping:

• 1 onion finely chopped
• 3 tbsp. safflower oil
• 3 1/2  boxes frozen chopped spinach or 1 1/2 bags frozen chopped spinach
• kosher salt to taste
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups low fat mozzarella cheese (or muenster cheese if you really want it extra cheesy).
• dash of white pepper
• sesame seeds, chopped pimiento (optional topping)

Directions:

1. Combine flour, smead(semolina flour), and salt in Cuisinart
2. Using Cuisinart, gradually add butter, then warm water slowly
3. Squeeze excess water from spinach.
4. Saute onion tilll soft, add  spinach and salt
5. Add eggs,  cheese and pepper
6. Mix well, adjust seasonings to taste
7. Line baking sheets with wax paper if you are preparing to freeze.
8. Line with parchment paper if you are ready to bake
9. Roll dough into evenly shaped balls
10. Dip in sesame seeds (optional)
11. Flatten balls, and flute edges
12. Place a tsp. of spinach mixture inside each flattened circle
13. Flute edges.
14. (you can flute edges and then add mixture- whatever works for you!)
15. Freeze and then bag or bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes

ready for the freezer

Italian prune plums are in season this month, and are a juicy “new” fruit for the Rosh Hashanah new year. They look like an extra large purple olive. In the 80′s, The New York Times printed this Italian plum recipe, and its been in my mother in law’s Rosh Hashanah recipe archive ever since. Its a moist cake recipe that can be made two weeks in advance and frozen with plastic wrap. When you pull it out of the freezer and warm it up, it will taste oven fresh.

This dessert is easy to make and gorgeous on your breakfast or Rosh Hashanah dessert table.

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup margarine (we use Earth Balance these days)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 12 Italian prune plums
• Sugar & lemon juice – for topping
• Teaspoon of cinnamon

Oven – 350 degrees

1. Cream the sugar & margarine in bowl
2. Add flour , baking powder, salt & eggs
3. Beat well
4. Spoon the batter into 8-10 inch spring form
5. Split and pit the plums and place the halves on top of batter – skin side up
6. Sprinkle lightly with sugar and lemon juice and cinammon.
7. Bake about 1 hour
8. Remove and cool
9. Refrigerate or freeze if desired.
10. Serve plain or with whipped cream, dust with confectioner’s sugar.

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Summer entertaining means pulling out pre-made gourmet extras from the freezer, and pesto is usually one of them. Pesto- (meaning paste) is  a no-brainer for pasta, or is great drizzled on sliced  mozarella cheese.  This recipe for asparagus pesto is a fresh twist on pasta-in-tupperware on the beach,  served on veggies as a side dish for barbeque (omit the cheese if serving meat), and as Mark Bittman suggests, you can even spread it on fish.

This recipe is quick in preparation.

Make and freeze in ice cube trays or flatten in baggies in the freezer.

watch the video Here

adapted from the New York Times

RECIPE

Asparagus Pesto

Published: May 7, 2010

Time: 20 minutes

• Salt
• 1 pound asparagus, peeled, trimmed, and cut into 2-inch segments
• 1 clove garlic, or more to taste
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 cup olive oil, or more as desired
• 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Add the asparagus and cook until fully tender but not mushy, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain well, reserving some of the cooking liquid, and let the asparagus cool slightly.

2. Transfer the asparagus to a food processor and add the garlic, pine nuts, 2 tablespoons of the oil, Parmesan, a pinch of salt and a couple of tablespoons of the cooking liquid. Process the mixture, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container if necessary, and gradually add the remaining oil and a bit more of the reserved cooking liquid to moisten if necessary. Add the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste, pulse one last time, and serve over pasta, fish or chicken (or cover and refrigerate for up to a day).

Yield: 4 to 6 servings (about 1 1/2 cups).

Try this “healthier” version of french fries. The fresh basil is a nice surprise on the crispy sweet potatoes. This is a delicious side dish for a dairy or meat meal, but don’t expect any leftovers. I would make these fresh out of the oven on Sukkot with cruchy salads salads and some sreaming barbeque or fish as a main dish!

• • 5 sweet potatoes, cut into about 1 by 5-inch “fries”
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt or sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Place the sweet potato “fries” on a foil-lined baking sheet and toss with the olive oil. Bake until crisp, about 45 minutes.
3. Meanwhile combine the basil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
4. When the sweet potato fries come out of the oven, sprinkle with the “basil salt.”

Recipe courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis

This  recipe was a proven winner from our archives!

Ingredients:

1 (6-7 lbs) rib roast

4 large garlic cloves, chopped

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup fresh rosemary, chopped

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 Tablespoons dijon mustard

3 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Place roast bone side down in roaster.

Mash garlic and salt together, and then stir in all other ingredients.

Smear the mixture over the meaty part of the roast (not the bones).

Place in oven and roast for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes (10 minutes more for medium).

Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes. Carve with meaty side down. Expect two sliced from each rib- one with bone and one without.

Recipe courtesy of Prime Cut Butcher,431 Avenue U, Brooklyn, NY 11223;

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adapted from Ruth Coustineau

LAMB CHOPS WITH SUN-DRIED TOMATO PASTE

SERVES 4

ACTIVE TIME:15 MIN START TO FINISH:25 MIN

You will  find yourself craving this sun-dried tomato paste. Not just spreading it on lamb chops or even hamburgers, but also tossing it with pasta and smearing it onto slices of toast. All Jewish moms will agree that this meal will be a winner with most of the gang on a moonlit summer night!

• 1 garlic clove
• 1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
• olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 8 rib lamb chops (3/4 inch thick; 2 lb)

GARNISH: lemon wedges

Mince and mash garlic to a paste with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Transfer paste to a food processor and pulse with sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, coriander, cayenne, parsley, and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper until finely chopped. Blend in olive oil and lemon juice, then season with salt.

Preheat broiler. Lightly oil rack of a broiler pan.

Pat lamb chops dry and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (total), then grill on barbeque

4 to 5 inches from heat, turning once, 6 to 7 minutes total for medium-rare. Spread tomato paste over chops.

Now that I’ve had some time to recover from Passover cooking, I’m ready for some new kosher recipe ideas and new flavors for my kitchen.

This video will make you crave this salmon, prepared on a cedar plank embedded on a layer of scallions. The  cooked maple-ginger sauce glazes the salmon perfectly. The Mustard mashed potatoes are mouthwatering.  Great for a weeknight dinner and for entertaining a small crowd. Print and save this recipe for a Mother’s Day Lunch or a Shavuot Dinner!

Ingredients

Directions for this Kosher Recipe

Buy untreated cedar planks at  Target.  Treated cedar planks may have flavorings that are unkosher, so unless you find them with a hashgachah stick with the ones from Target. You can also buy them from a hardware store.

In a 5-quart kettle cover potatoes with cold salted water by 2 inches and simmer until tender, 35 to 45 minutes. While potatoes are simmering, in a small saucepan heat milk with butter over moderate heat until butter is melted. Remove pan from heat and keep milk mixture warm, covered.

My friend Jamie is one of the best friends that a girl can have. She also is a gourmet cook and has tons of great tried and true kosher recipes at the tip of her tongue. She is also one of those girls that would never leave out an ingredient so I know all of her recipes are perfected. If I could just find about two hours to  write them all down, I would have enough great kosher dishes to keep this blog going for at least another six months!

Keep checking in to The Jewish Hostess to get more of Jamie’s favorites! Marlene

“We are all looking for easy Passover recipes, especially great Passover recipes for kids tastes.

This is really the best Passover recipe for  pizza dough . You can use with  any dairy pizza topping or with a meat topping such as lahamagine.

I form balls out of the dough, flatten them with a (Passover) tortilla press and shape with a (Passover) cookie cutter.” Enjoy! -Jamie

Ingredients for this Kosher Passover Pizza Dough Recipe

• 2 cups of matzo meal
• 1/2 cup cake meal
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup  of warm water
• 2 tbsp oil

Directions

1. -Mix dry Passover pizza ingredients by hand
2. - add egg, add oil
3. -then add water slowly to form a dough ball
4. - form into balls and flatten by hand.
5. -pizza tastes better if flattened by tortilla press or rolling pin as stated above.
6. - top with your favorite kosher for Passover pizza toppings!
7. or shape and freeze for instant use.

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