Vegan Kishke

This kishke recipe was inspired by a facebook post by my friend Devra. I don't remember her recipe anymore, but she posted about making some vegetarian kishke for her cholent. I decided it needed to be healthified, and needed some garlic too, and after a few different attempts, my family decided this one worked well!

So here's my recipe for Vegan Kishke (not only vegan, but also nut-free and can be made wheat free - that's how I do it) - you'll stop buying store bought kishke once you see how easy it is!



1 onion
10 garlic cloves
6 carrots 
1/2 cup corn meal
1/2 cup oat bran or wheat bran
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
small amount of water, if needed 

Place onion, garlic, and carrots in food processor (fitted with the bottom blade) and pulse till chopped.
Add the rest of the ingredients and process for a few minutes until well combined, adding water if needed to get a smooth consistency.

Spoon 1/3 of the mixture onto a piece of aluminum foil and wrap tightly. Repeat until you've wrapped 3 kishke  packages, using up all the mixture. 

Place in freezer, and keep frozen until you're ready to use it.

To cook, add the frozen (do not defrost) kishke to your cholent pot right before Shabbat starts (I made a vegan cholent - find the recipe here). It will cook and be perfect by the time you serve your cholent for kiddush or lunch! I use one per week, unless we have a lot of guests. If you eat a lot of kishke, you'll want more than one, I assume.

Enjoy! Let me know if you try it out!

Healthifying my Pasta nights

Pasta has been my go-to solution to the constant "what should we have for supper" that comes up when there's hardly any time to think or prepare food.

Way back when, we bought the cheapest white pasta we could find (think Stop & Shop pasta on sale for the now unheard of 5 boxes for $1!! I still remember lugging that pasta home from the supermarket every time that sale came up, a young wife and mother and full time student just trying to stay afloat and keep everyone fed...) Now, we live in Israel, where even cheap white pasta is not so cheap, and we've long since moved on to whole wheat pastas. We've taste tested a lot of whole wheat pastas, focusing on finding the best one among the affordable options. In America, I tended to buy the Whole Foods brand pastas (stocked up when they were on sale) and one or two shapes from Target, but WF was far better. Now, we've tried lots of kinds here in Israel, the cheapest being the Taaman brand, but it's not so good. So now, I buy mine from Nizat HaDuvdevan for about 6.50 shekels for a 500g bag (roughly 1 lb), which is not bad for a relatively high quality pasta (and it's organic even though I didn't need it be).

In the past, I'd opted to make my own sauce using tomato paste or crushed tomatoes and spices over buying prepared sauce (although in America, I'd buy good sauces on sale and with coupons. I still miss that convenience). Lately I've decided to kick the sauce up a notch. It can be made in advance and stored in the fridge to be heated as necessary. Mine never sits in the fridge more than a few days, so I can't say how long it lasts, but I'd freeze it if I wasn't using in the next 3 days.

Homemade chunky tomato sauce

olive oil
cut vegetables - whatever you have that you have or what you think will work: onions, celery, peppers, eggplant, summer squash (kishuim), tomatoes, mushrooms, etc
tomato paste or crushed tomatoes (packaged or homemade)
water
fresh or dried basil (fresh is best!)
chopped garlic (fresh is best!)
seasonings to taste - salt, black pepper, and any others you want to add like oregano or rosemary or thyme...

Heat olive oil is a large sauce pot. Add vegetables and stir till they are soft and fragrant. Add garlic and continue stirring for a few minutes. Add tomato paste/crushed tomatoes, water, fresh basil and seasonings, and stir well. Continue to stir occasionally while you bring it all to a boil, then lower the flame and simmer for a while. Serve over pasta and garnish with your favorite cheese if you like.

I will admit that this has not come without objections from my family. They prefer when I don't do anything "funny" to their food, but I figured they'd get used to it and eventually come to appreciate it.

This was the first week that only one child objected to all the vegetables in the pasta, so that is major progress, in my opinion!

I serve this supper with a make-your own salad, as well. 

What's your go-to quick, sort of healthy supper?

Sweet and Salty Popcorn Snack!

I was in the mood for a sweet and salty snack, so I decided to experiment with popcorn, since I somehow have a lot of popcorn in the house right now!

So here's how to make this addictive snack:

1. Pop a whole lot of popcorn and spread it out on the largest baking pan you have. I recommend lining your pan with baking paper or foil, or whatever you like to line your pans with, because otherwise you will end up with an impossible mess to clean up, like I have. Seriously regretting not lining the pan!

2. Prepare a pot. Add 1/4 c. coconut oil (you can use butter instead), 1 cup sugar, 1/4 -1/3 c. molasses, 1/2 - 3/4 cup water, and a few pinches of salt to the pot. Heat the pot on the stove, stirring frequently. eventually it will be more or less liquified and combined. Remove from stove. Add 1/4 tsp vanilla and a pinch of baking soda. Mix well.
Allow mixture to cool somewhat. Pour this mixture over the popcorn and stir it carefully to coat.

3. Bake at a low temperature (I set my oven to 100C) for about 30-45 min, stirring occasionally.

Cool and serve.

Now I am just trying to wrestle it away from my kids! I want some too! (And I want to put some away for my husband to try when he gets home from work.)

This is my new go-to snack!

Will you be trying it out? Let me know what you think!

p.s. my husband says this tastes like Cracker Jack...

Crackers

Just a quick reminder about snack foods!

If you really want to stretch your shekels, don't buy snack foods.

I know, you still need to feed the kids snacks, and fruits and veggies are not the only thing they want to eat.
And you don't want to serve cookies or muffins every day. Too much sugar.

So what do you do?

Go ahead! Make your own crackers! It sounds hard, it seems intimidating, but really it is simple.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
Click here for the recipe 

 

Guest Post - Lachuch Recipe

 Laurie Rappeport has lived in Safed for over 25 years and worked at the Tourist Information Center in the Old Jewish Quarter for 13 years. She continues to be involved in a wide range of projects which are aimed at bringing visitors to Safed to enjoy the religious, historical, cultural and artistic sites and experiences that the city has to offer.

Safed has never been known for its fine cuisine but things may be changing.

The small northern town is recognized as the area where the study of Kabbalah flourished in the Middle Ages, earning Safed the title of the "City of Kabbalah" by which it is still identified today. It is a growing tourist center where people wander the lanes and alleyways of the Old Jewish Quarter and the Artists Quarter, visiting the ancient synagogues, cemetery and mikveh as well as the dozens of art galleries which display Judaica and other types of Israeli art.

But until recently, the eateries in the city were relatively mundane. There are several nice coffee houses in the
center of town, a bagel shop with REAL American bagels and toppings, a vegetarian health food eatery and some meat restaurants which generally serve a typical Israeli meal of salads, meats and chips.

Several years ago a new resident, Ronen, decided to open a restaurant that would offer the kind of Yemenite
food that he loved to eat in his own home growing up. Ronen's "Lachuch" can now be found in the center of the Old Jewish Quarter, along Alkabetz Street directly across from the Tzfat Tourist Information Center.

Ronen started out by serving a number of different dishes at his restaurant. He experimented with jachnun and sahlab and even served gat -- the Yemenite chewing plant -- but in the end, his lachuchs were so popular that he built his eatery around the hot, savory pancake-like dish.

Ronen's lachuchs are a work of art which he creates while standing in the restaurant's open window as he allows customers to watch while he makes each lachuch individually, according to the customer's order. Lachuchs can be rolled up and eaten on-the-go or can be served on a dish with an accompaniment of vegetables and olives.

It may not be possible to duplicate the exact texture of Ronen's lachuchs which he cooks in a cast-iron frying
pan at a very high heat but lachuchs are a healthy, low fat option for breakfast, lunch or dinner and can be easily prepared at home.



Lachuch Recipe:

Yeast mixture
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
Warm water
Proof the yeast by mixing the yeast and sugar in a cup of warm water. When it starts to
bubble, it's ready to use.

Batter

1 cup whole wheat flour (or half whole wheat and half white)
1 tbsp salt
2 cups of warm water
Mix these ingredients together. You want to end up with a runny mixture that's roughly the
consistency of eshel -- runny yogurt -- so if you need to add more warm water, do so.

Pancake

1 tbsp olive oil
Batter
Grated cheese or egg
Slices of tomato, purple onion, mushrooms and chopped parsley
Zaatar spice (hyssop) and Hawaj spice (Yemenite spice)

Heat the pan and add olive oil. The pan should be hot but not so hot that the pancake will
immediately cook when it's poured into the pan. Once the batter has been poured you're going to
need a minute to "set it up." Pour approximately ¼ cup of the batter into the pan and spread it around the pan.

Lay slices of tomato, onion and mushroom around the batter as it cooks. Use any or all of these
vegetables as you wish. Sprinkle the chopped parsley on top.
Sprinkle the zaytar and hawaj over the vegetables. If you don't have either of these spices, it's fine,
but they do add a nice taste to the lachuch.

Sprinkle grated cheese (Ronen uses grated goat cheese in his lachuch for a nice salty taste) over
the cooking pancake or spill in a scrambled egg and spread it over the pancake so that it will cook
on top of the pancake and the vegetables/spices. You can also leave it to cook without any cheese
or egg.

Cover the pan with a lid to allow it to cook evenly.

When the pancake is firm, turn it over. (Ronen flips it...go ahead and try it if you have a good stick-
free pan)

Drizzle a little more olive oil over the top (optional)

Cook the second side for a minute or two.

Lay it on a plate and eat it rolled, in a napkin, or with a fork and knife.