Category Archives: recipes

appetizers, recipes

My Mama’s Haroset

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Haroset, or charoset, is a traditional fruit and nut spread served at the Passover seder. My mom has been making it for decades and doesn’t use a recipe. This year I watched her make it and wrote down a recipe.

It’s super adaptable. For instance, she only had pistachios this week instead of pine nuts, and prunes instead of dates. Basically, if you’re throwing together chopped up apples, dried fruit, nuts, wine and honey, you’ll get some kind of haroset. It’s delicious on crackers or sometimes I just eat spoonfuls of it.

Mama’s Charoset

Serves 6

Ingredients:

  • 3 apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 cup prunes or dates, roughly chopped
  • 1/3 cup golden raisins
  • 2 tablespoons dark raisins
  • 2 tablespoons shelled pistachios (or pine nuts), roughly chopped
  • 1/4 cup red wine of your choice
  • 2 tablespoons honey

Directions:

Place apples in a food processor and pulse till they are medium chunks. Add apricots and prunes to the food processor and pulse until the apples are fine chunks and the apricots and prunes are medium chunks. Empty into a mixing bowl and add the raisins, pistachios, red wine and honey. Mix until well combined.

Take a taste test; add more honey and wine to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to four days.

Cooking, recipes, side dishes

Creamed Carrots

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I recently came across an Instagram reel from Corre Larkin for Julia Child-inspired creamed carrots. I’m always at a loss for how to serve cooked carrots and this recipe is a game changer. It is so flavorful and satisfying. The carrots are coated in silky, tangy gravy. Gravy is liquid of the gods!

Since her video doesn’t list the exact measurements, I tried finding the original recipe in my copy of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” and it’s quite different from how Corre Larkin made them. Julia Child’s Carrotes à la Crème recipe has fewer ingredients and a lot more cream.

So I came up with my own version of these recipes. This side dish is perfect for a Costco rotisserie chicken night. Whatever jus has gathered in the bag I add with the chicken stock. I put the chicken in a 200F oven while I make the carrots so the bird stays warm.

Creamed Carrots à la Corre Larkin à la Julia Child

Serves 4
Total Prep and Cook Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 onion, halved and sliced into half-moons
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 pounds carrots, peeled
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 2 tablespoons sake or white wine
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 1-inch sprig of fresh rosemary (optional)
  • 2-3 cups chicken stock
  • 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons cream
  • pinch of nutmeg

Directions:

In a large sauté pan, melt the butter over medium high heat. Add the onion slices, salt and pepper to taste and the bay leaves. Stir till everything is coated in the butter. Turn heat to medium low, cover and cook for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft.

In the meantime, trim the ends off the carrots and cut them oblique style.

When the onions are soft, add the carrots and stir till they are coated. Cover and cook another 10 minutes.

Add the flour and stir so it’s coating the ingredients. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the sake or white wine to deglaze the pan, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pan.

Add the thyme, rosemary and enough stock to just cover the carrots. You don’t want them swimming in stock. Stir until the flour has been incorporated into the stock. Turn up the heat to bring to a simmer, then turn back down, cover and cook for another 10 minutes or until the carrots are tender.

Remove the cover, add the vinegar, cream, and nutmeg, and let simmer for 5 minutes to thicken slightly.

Remove the bay leaves, thyme and rosemary and serve immediately.

Cooking, Pasta, recipes

Homemade Russian Pelmeni – Updated

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Back in 2011 I posted a recipe for one of my favorite dumpling recipes – pelmeni. This was back before I had all the recipe-writing knowledge I have today, so I wanted to update this recipe for anyone wanting to make these delicious dumplings at home.

It’s super helpful to have a pelmeni mold, but you can always make them using a small glass as a dough cutter and folding them into half moon shapes.

Russian Pelmeni

Makes about 60 dumplings

Ingredients for the dough:
1/2 cup warm water
2 eggs
About 260-270 grams AP or 00 flour, plus more for dusting

Ingredients for the meat filling:
1/2 medium onion, chopped very finely (I recommend using a small food processor)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper, to taste

For the topping:
Butter
Rice vinegar
Curry powder
Sriracha
Fresh cilantro
Sour cream

Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and water. Incorporate flour till you have a soft, stretchy dough that isn’t sticky to the touch. Knead on a floured surface for five minutes, incorporating flour if it’s still too sticky. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a pan with the oil over medium-high. Add the onions and sauté until onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Turn the heat to medium, add the curry powder and garlic, and cook for 1 more minute. Let this cool off the stove while you combine the beef, pork, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Once onions are mostly cooled, add to the meat and combine well. Cook a small sample in your frying pan to sample, if you like, then adjust for salt. Once the meat mixture is seasoned to your liking, place it in a gallon sized zip top bag and cut a small hole in one of the bottom corners.

If you have a pelmeni mold, use 1/4 of the dough and roll out a large, thin, round sheet of dough, incorporating flour if needed so it doesn’t stick. Sprinkle flour over the mold and drape the dough on top. If you don’t have a mold, use a biscuit cutter or the edge of a glass and cut circles out of the dough.

Using your makeshift piping bag, add about a teaspoon of filling to each divot in the pelmeni mold. If the dough seems too dry, you may want to lightly spritz the whole sheet with a water sprayer because you want the other sheet of dough to stick. Roll out another 1/4 of the dough into a large, round sheet and place it on top of the filled mold. Using your rolling pin, gently roll back and forth along the dough side of the mold until the mold starts to pierce through the edges of each pelmeni. Lightly dust a counter with flour and turn the mold upside down to shake/poke the pelmeni out of the mold.

Repeat with the remaining dough to make one more set of pelmeni with the mold.

If not using a mold, add about 1 teaspoon of filling to each cut circle. Crimp closed with your fingers. The dough should be sticky enough to stay closed on its own without additional moisture.

Set each finished pelmeni on a flour-lined baking sheet.

From here you could either boil the dumplings right away or place them in the freezer for later. If you freeze them, make sure to freeze them on the baking sheet before putting them in a zip top bag or container, otherwise they will stick together.

To prepare, bring a big pot of salted water to a boil. Add the dumplings and return to a boil. Cook until dumplings float — about 5 minutes (7 minutes if frozen).

Use a slotted spoon to remove dumplings and place them in bowls. Top with butter, vinegar, curry powder, Sriracha, cilantro and sour cream.

Cooking, recipes

Legit Falafel Mix

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I’m usually not one to write more than a few sentences before a recipe, but this one warrants a little explanation.

I am not too familiar with making my own falafel patties. I’ve used a box mix before but that wasn’t worth writing about. The other day my sister told me she had the most delicious falafel at work and asked her coworker for the recipe. My sis came over last week with the recipe and ingredients, but we realized parts of the recipe were unclear so we had to make some guesses.

One thing was clear: you have to make falafel from dried chickpeas and not canned chickpeas. I didn’t know this having not grown up eating falafel. But soaking the chickpeas for 12-18 hours is the base ingredient for crispy, flavorful falafel that hold together perfectly. You don’t cook the chickpeas first. Frying the falafel cooks the chickpeas. If you use canned they will not hold together well and will be mushy.

Note: we soaked enough chickpeas for two batches of falafel. You can freeze the remaining soaked chickpeas for another time – it still comes out great!

Ok, four paragraphs wasn’t so bad! Here’s how we made the falafel. I included a recipe for a tomato cucumber salad as well.

Delicious Falafel Mix

1 batch makes about 25 falafel patties

Ingredients for the chickpeas (enough for 2 batches of falafel):

  • 2 quarts water
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 pound dry chickpeas

Ingredients for the falafel:

  • ¼ of a leek, roughly chopped
  • 1 pound of soaked chickpeas (NOT CANNED OR COOKED), fully drained
  • ¼ cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
  • ¼ cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
  • 1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
  • ¼ cup chopped onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
  • Squeeze of fresh lemon
  • 1.5-2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
  • ½ teaspoon ground pepper
  • 2 tablespoons ground coriander
  • 1 tablespoon cumin
  • A pinch of ground allspice
  • 2-3 tablespoons chickpea flour
  • ⅛ teaspoon baking powder
  • ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
  • Cooking oil, for frying

Directions:

The day before you want to make falafel, you’ll need to start soaking the chickpeas. Fill a pot with the water and add the baking soda. Add the chickpeas, cover, and soak them 12-18 hours. Drain and store in the fridge or freezer until ready to make your falafel.

On falafel day:

Soak the leek pieces in water to remove any grit. Put the leeks and chickpeas in a salad spinner and spin to remove as much water as possible.

Place the leeks, chickpeas, cilantro, parsley, celery, onion and garlic in a food processor and pulse it until it is paste-like, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula often.

Place mixture in a bowl and add the lemon juice, salt, pepper, coriander, cumin, allspice, chickpea flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix well and form into falafel patties. If mixture is too moist, add a little more chickpea flour. If too dry, add a little more lemon juice. The falafel should be sort of wet but should hold together without bits falling off. 

Heat a half inch of oil in a cast iron skillet till about 350F. Fry 6-8 falafel at a time so as not to bring down the heat of the oil. Fry till crispy and dark brown, about 2-3 minutes on each side. Place on a paper towel-lined sheet pan. Serve with all the falafel fixins.

Tomato and cucumber salad

Ingredients:

  • 2 roma tomatoes or 15 cherry tomatoes, diced
  • Half an English cucumber, diced
  • ¼ cups minced red onion
  • 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
  • 1 tablespoon garlic infused olive oil (or plain olive oil)
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients and place in fridge until ready to serve.

appetizers, asian, Cooking, recipes

Marinated Ramen Eggs

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I am high-key obsessed with the jammy eggs that come in ramen. So much so, that I started making them on the regular and not even putting them in ramen. I’m just snacking on them. The simple marinade penetrates the white of the egg and infuses the whole egg with umami flavor.

Thanks to Uncle Roger for the tip on how to keep the floating egg parts submerged! You know when your eggs are properly marinated when they are brown all over and when you cut them open you can see the marinade has gotten inside the eggs.

I’m a bit like a kitchen witch when it comes to marinated eggs. Below is an approximate recipe I use, but it’s really “a little bit of this and a little bit of that” kind of a process. If you don’t have all of the ingredients below, that’s ok! Some soy sauce, water, vinegar and sugar would probably also do the trick.

Marinated Jammy Eggs for ramen or for snacking

Makes 4-6 eggs

Ingredients:

  • 4-6 eggs
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup chicken stock
  • 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon sambal oelek (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon sake
  • 1 tablespoon mirin
  • 1/2 teaspoon MSG
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 green onion, chopped
  • 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, minced
  • 2 teaspoons miso paste

Directions:

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Gently lower in the eggs so they don’t crack and turn down the heat slightly so it’s not an aggressive boil. Boil for 6 minutes 30 seconds. This is my magic number to achieve not too runny and not too cooked eggs. If you like yours cooked more, boil them longer.

Drain and place eggs in an ice bath till cool. In the meantime, combine all the marinade ingredients in a mason jar and whisk well so the miso paste breaks up.

Peel the eggs and gently place them in the jar. Take a paper towel and place it on top of the eggs so it becomes saturated with the marinade. This will ensure that any parts of the egg that are floating will get marinated.

Place in the fridge overnight. Enjoy your eggs the next day or the day after. The longer they marinate, the more flavorful they get. I don’t usually let them sit longer than three or four days (but they also don’t last that long).

breakfast, Cooking, recipes

Broccoli and Cheese Bread Pudding

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This Thanksgiving we were left with way too many dinner rolls. I wanted to make something savory with them so I put together a bread pudding that was perfect for dinner and even tastier the next morning for breakfast!

Broccoli and Cheese Bread Pudding
A great use of leftover dinner rolls

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

  • 5-7 leftover dinner rolls, cut into cubes
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 onion, chopped finely
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 small head of broccoli, stems and crown chopped into small bits
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 2/3 cup whole milk
  • 2 eggs
  • salt and lots of pepper
  • pinch of ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup shredded parmesan
  • 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F. Coat a small casserole dish liberally with butter and place bread cubes in it. There should be enough bread cubes to cover the bottom of the dish. Set aside. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Turn down heat, add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Meanwhile, boil a small pot of salted water and add the broccoli; cook for 3 minutes and drain well. Add the broccoli to the onion mixture and combine well. Spread this mixture evenly on the bread cubes.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the cream, milk, eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Evenly pour this mixture over the broccoli and bread cubes.

Sprinkle on the cheeses, then lightly press down on the mixture to help the bread absorb some of the liquid.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and serve. Save leftovers overnight and eat for breakfast the next day for an even tastier dish!

Cooking, Italian, recipes, soup

White Bean + Tomato Stew

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I pretty much want pasta all the time. It’s my Achilles heel, so to speak. But my body probably shouldn’t have pasta all the time. So here’s a recipe I tossed together that gives off perfect pasta vibes but uses canned white beans instead. It’s not a stew, exactly, but I didn’t know what else to call it.

White Bean + Tomato Stew: a quick meal to satisfy that pasta craving

Serves 4
Cook time: 20 minutes or so

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 6 ounces crimini mushrooms, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 3 tablespoons white wine or sake
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • pinch of dried red pepper flakes
  • 1 cup marinara sauce
  • 1/4 cup cream
  • 1 can white beans, drained
  • 2 handfuls fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1/4 cup chopped pistachios

Directions:

Melt butter in a medium sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions and mushrooms. Cook until onions are soft and mushrooms have released their liquid, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Deglaze the pan with the white wine and let it bubble for 1 minute. Add the dried basil, dried oregano and dried red pepper flakes. Pour in the marinara and cream, bring to a simmer and turn heat to low.

Add the beans and baby spinach; cook until spinach is wilted, just a few minutes. If stew is too thick, add in a little more cream. Stir in the parmesan cheese and add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle on the parsley and pistachios; serve immediately with a drizzle of good olive oil.

recipes, salad

Salad with Pistachios, Craisins and Creamy Honey Vinaigrette

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Salad isn’t my favorite. I’ll eat salad and occasionally enjoy salad, but it’s not a dish I love to make for myself. A few weeks ago I found a cookbook in a free box at a garage sale called “The Riversong Lodge Cookbook” by the renowned Alaska chef, Kirsten Dixon. In this beautiful book she has a recipe for a creamy herb vinaigrette in which she includes heavy cream. It never occurred to me to add cream to a salad dressing, but it sounded like a great idea.

So I whipped together a vinaigrette and used rice vinegar instead of my typical lemon juice to tame the acidity a little. I had some pistachios, craisins and chèvre so I tossed those in with some salad greens. It’s now my favorite salad of all time.

Use whatever types and quantities of salad fixings you prefer, but I recommend including something sweet because it pairs nicely with the honey in the dressing.

Salad Creamy Honey Vinaigrette

Makes about 4 side salads

Ingredients for the vinaigrette:

  • 1/4 cup high quality olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (or white wine vinegar would work too)
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 2 teaspoons cream
  • Pinch of dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

For the salad:

  • Salad greens of your choice
  • 1/3 cup shelled pistachios, roughly chopped
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped
  • Chèvre or freshly grated Parmesan, as much as you prefer

Add all the vinaigrette ingredients to a liquid measuring cup and use an immersion blender to blend until it’s emulsified. Assemble your salad in a large bowl and toss well with the vinaigrette. Serve immediately. Save any extra dressing in the fridge for up to five days or so.

baking, Cooking, recipes

Banana Blueberry Muffins

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I’m not really into banana bread. Enough said. So when I had a few overripe bananas on the counter the other day I decided to make up a recipe as I went and ended up with a delicious batch of banana blueberry muffins. They aren’t too sweet, aren’t too dense, aren’t too oily. I guess they are just right!

Banana Blueberry Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

  • 3 ripe bananas
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 375F. In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas with a potato masher till they are a pulp. Add the eggs, sugars and vanilla and combine with an electric mixer. Mix in the coconut oil.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add this all to the banana mixture and mix till just combined. Fold in the blueberries.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Spoon in equal amounts of batter into each cupcake liner. Bake for 22-25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway, until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Carefully transfer muffins to a cooling rack and let sit till room temperature or until you can’t stand it anymore and have to eat a piping hot one and burn your tongue on a molten blueberry.

Cooking, mexican, recipes

Authentic Enchiladas Verdes

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When we visit my parents’ place in Mexico the best part of our trip is always the food Moña, their housekeeper, prepares. She used to run a restaurant out of her house and she makes some classic Mexican dishes such as chilaquiles and chilies rellenos. Last time we visited she prepared enchiladas verdes. The tomatillo-based sauce was delicate and the cheese-filled enchiladas were absolutely delicious. I’ve been daydreaming of this dish ever since.

My folks are down there now so I asked my dad if he could get Moña to tell him the recipe. Instead, he made a video of her preparing them.

Moña doesn’t measure anything and we don’t have all the exact same ingredients here. It was a fun challenge to translate/transpose her method. I’ll definitely be making these again.

Green Enchiladas

Serves 4

Sauce:

  • 1/2 of an onion, divided
  • 1/2 of a fresh jalapeño, seeded
  • 3 garlic cloves, divided
  • 1 1/2 pounds tomatillos (about 15-20), husks removed
  • 1 packed cup fresh cilantro
  • 1 cup Mexican-style cream, divided
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/4 cup reserved tomatillo liquid (see recipe instructions)
  • 2-4 teaspoons granulated chicken bouillon

Filling:

  • 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 7 ounces crumbled queso fresco (about 1 1/2 cups), 8 ounces grated Manchego or Monterey jack (about 2 cups, divided)

Enchiladas:

  • 12 corn tortillas
  • Vegetable oil, for frying

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Place 1/4 of an onion, 1 garlic clove, jalapeño and tomatillos in a saucepan and add enough water to submerge everything. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, add the onion, garlic, jalapeño and tomatillos to a blender. Strain the tomatillo water through a mesh sieve into a liquid measuring cup. Place any pulp from the sieve into the blender and pulse blender until smooth. Add cilantro and blend. Add 3/4 cup cream and blend.

Finely chop the 2 remaining cloves of garlic and 1/4 of an onion. Wipe dry the saucepan and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Heat oil and sauté garlic and onion till soft, about 2 minutes. Add the contents of the blender to the saucepan. Place 1/4 cup of tomatillo water in the blender and swish it around to loosen up any leftover sauce; add to the saucepan. Add 2 teaspoons of chicken bouillon and taste for saltiness. If it needs more salt, add more bouillon. Turn heat down and gently simmer for 10 minutes so sauce thickens, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and add remaining 1/4 cup of cream; set sauce aside while you prepare the filling.

Sauté the 1/3 cup chopped onion in olive oil until soft, about 2 minutes. Let cool slightly and combine with the queso fresco and 1 cup of the Manchego or Monterey jack. Set aside the filling while you prepare the tortillas.

In a frying pan, add enough vegetable oil to liberally coat the pan, about 1/3 cup. Heat oil over high. Add the edge of a tortilla to see if the oil is ready. The tortilla should bubble a little in the oil. When oil is hot enough, add one tortilla and fry just a few seconds on each side, flipping three or four times. You don’t want the tortillas to become crispy, but the oil makes them more pliable. Lift tortilla out of pan and let the excess oil drip off the tortilla. Transfer tortilla to a platter or tray and repeat with remaining tortillas, adding more oil if needed.

Here’s the technique Moña taught me for how to flip the tortillas in the hot oil.

To assemble the enchiladas, spoon about 1 cup of the sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish. Pat a tortilla with a paper towel to absorb any excess oil, then dip the tortilla into the pot of sauce, letting any excess drip back into the pot. Place tortilla on a prep tray, add a small handful of filling, and roll up the tortilla, placing it seam-side down in the casserole dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling. You could also add shredded cooked chicken in this step, if you like.

When the dish is packed with enchiladas cover them with a layer of sauce, using a spoon to spread the sauce into every nook and cranny. Top with remaining Manchego or Monterey jack. Cover with foil and bake for 15-25 minutes, until cheese on top is fully melted.