Hamantaschen

Purim is a strange holiday.  Sure, it's your classic "the Jews were going to die, and then they didn't" story.  But somehow we end up celebrating it by dressing up, getting drunk, and eating cookies shaped like the ears/hat of the villain.  Delicious cookies.

Hamantaschen are triangular pastries filled with whatever you can imagine.  Haman is the villain of the Purim story, the guy who was planning to massacre the Jews.  Apparently, he had triangular ears, because hamantaschen translates to "ears of Haman".  There are also theories that the triangular shape represents the pyramidal shape of the dice cast by Haman to determine the day of destruction for the Jews, or that he wore a silly three-cornered hat.  It's also quite possible that it's just a version of the Yiddish word montashn or the German word mohntaschen, both of which are poppy seed filled pouches.

Regardless of the etymology, hamantaschen bring back wonderful memories for me.  I have no idea how many cookies my mother baked every Purim, but every surface in our kitchen and dining room was filled with cooling hamantaschen of every flavor, like a colorful mosaic of pastry.  She was kind enough to provide me with her recipe, which creates the most delicious, delicate hamantaschen you will ever taste.  I have to lie whenever I eat someone else's hamantaschen - they are just not as good.  I never have and never will use another recipe.

I completely forget the name of the book, but growing up, I had a book of Jewish stories about a boy who was three inches tall [edited to add: my mother has informed me that the boy's name is K'Tonton].  There was a story for every holiday, and in the Purim story, the boy falls into a bowl of honey.  I remember this story because his mother was making poppy seed filling for hamantaschen, something that I dreamed of when I was a kid.  As good as my mother's hamantaschen are, she always brought home canned fillings from the store.  I now live in an area where I cannot find those cans, so I decided to live my childhood fantasy and make some poppy seed filling from scratch.  I do not regret this decision.  It's less sweet than my childhood memory, a real treat for my (more or less) grown up tastes.

You can fill hamantaschen with just about anything.  I went through a phase when I put chocolate chips in everything, and so, chocolate chip hamantaschen were born.  I've tried cream cheese and blueberry pie filling, and I have to tell you, the classics are classic for a reason.  You want your fillings to be firm - a watery filling will make the hamantaschen fall over while baking.  Jams work best, as well as the ever popular poppy seed.  I've also become quite fond of Nutella in the past few years, as it's more stable than chocolate chips.

A Purim tradition is to gift friends and family with treats, which is why our house was full of them.  They went out the door to neighbors, coworkers, classmates, friends.  This year, I baked up a batch, and out they went again, as fast as anyone could snatch them up.  I challenge you to make a few dozen and not see them gone by the close of Purim.

Hamantaschen Dough
Makes about 3 dozen

1/2 c vegetable shortening
1 c sugar
2 eggs
3 t baking powder
3 c flour
1 t vanilla
1/4 c orange juice
fillings

Cream shortening and sugar.  Add eggs.  Shift baking powder and flour together, and mix vanilla and juice.  Add alternatively to the shortening mixture.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Flour a surface, and roll dough out in batches.  Cut out circles, about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.  Fill each circle with a teaspoon of filling.  Fold edges up, and press together to make triangles.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Move to cooling rack to cool.

Poppy Seed Filling
Makes about a cup

1/4 c milk
2 T sugar
3/4 c poppy seeds
3 T honey

Heat milk and sugar in a small saucepan until boiling.  Add poppy seeds.  Simmer for a few minutes, and then remove from the heat.  Stir in honey.  Let cool before using.

Braised Short Ribs

Oh, hi.  It's been a while.  You see, my wife is a PhD student, and one of the perks of the job (apparently) is dinners out.  For three weeks, we had dinner dates on her department.  I guess it was work related.  Anyway, it was delicious.  Indian, Thai, Chinese.  It made me want to go into an Asian food cooking frenzy.  We'll get to that later.  Right now, it's short ribs.

What better way to come back from a three week hiatus than with this recipe?  This is a monster of a recipe.  It's not the kind of thing you can pull together after work, not even the kind of thing you can decide you want mid-afternoon.  This is a planned dinner.  The kind that sits in the oven for three hours, lovingly filling your home with smells reminiscent of a lazy afternoon in southern France.  Because if I lived in southern France, I would probably sit around in lavender fields while short ribs braised in my oven.  All day, every day.

The truth is that this is The Dish That Nearly Killed Me.  Maybe.  I had already made the braising liquid and was pouring it into a glass dish to set in the oven with the short ribs, when boom!  It actually sounded like an explosion, but really it was the glass dish breaking into a million pieces, sending glass and hot liquid throughout the kitchen.  If we go back to middle school science, we will recall that glass expands when heated and is a terrible conductor of heat.  Therefore, boom.  Thankfully no Calebs were harmed in the making of these short ribs.  We may have had to sacrifice the first batch of braising liquid and a few pastries that were sitting out (lest someone get a sharp surprise at breakfast), but all and all, these were a great success.

Now the proud owner of a cast iron Dutch oven (thanks Sesle), I can make these short ribs without fear of death.  Cast iron is great for braising, as is porcelain.  Just try to use something with a lid, and steer clear of glass.

Braised Short Ribs
Serves 4

4 beef short ribs
1 T dried thyme
1 T black pepper
salt
olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
2 T balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 c port
2 1/2 c red wine
6 c beef stock

Cover short ribs on all sides with thyme and black pepper.  Let sit while you heat your pan.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Heat a Dutch oven (to use few dishes) or a skillet over high heat.  Add enough olive oil to generously coat the bottom.  Heat until oil is smoking.  Generously salt short ribs on all sides.  Sear meat in pan until nice and brown on all meaty sides.  Don't rush.  This should take 15 to 20 minutes.  Transfer short ribs to a plate to rest while making the liquid.

Turn down heat to medium, and add the onion, carrot, and celery.  (If you used a skillet for the meat, you will now want to use your braising pot.  Cover the bottom with oil before adding the vegetables.)  Cook 6 to 8 minutes.  Add balsamic vinegar, port, and red wine.  Turn the heat to high and cook down until reduced by half.

Add stock and bring to a boil.  Arrange short ribs in your liquid, bones sticking up.  Cover the pot with aluminum foil first, then the lid.  If your pot does not have a lid, get the foil as tight as possible.  Place in the oven and braise for three hours.

After three hours, remove the pot from the oven, and carefully remove the lid and foil.  The bones should have fallen off the meat, and the meat will be soft as butter. 

Serve ribs over mashed potatoes, ladling some of the liquid over everything.

Chocolate Stuffed Brownies

My favorite holidays, predictably, are the ones that revolve around food.  The bigger the feast, the better the holiday.  Thanksgiving, obvious choice.  Passover.  Although I did not grow up with them, Christmas and Easter have grown on me, as they seem to require an adequate amount of food.

Valentine's Day is not a favorite.  My childhood memories of the day involve awkward parties where grown-ups pretend that children have romantic tendencies.  Maybe some do, but I wasn't scouting out my future wife in the second grade.  In sixth grade, a boy told me he wanted to give me a kiss and proceeded to present me with one of those giant Hershey's kisses.  Awkward.  Besides, I don't need a holiday to tell me to be romantic.  I'm romantic everyday.  I pack my wife's lunch in the morning.  I do her taxes.  I listen to her vent about graduate school.  I indulge her natural hair products projects, even when I find boiled oats in my shower.

Don't get me wrong.  I don't oppose the idea of a day dedicated to love.  I like love.  I love my wife, and I love my family, and I love my cat.  I don't love the pressure to spend money on useless things or eat really bad chocolate.  My wife would rather put the money in a retirement account, and I would rather make these brownies.

I thought about making a cliche Valentine's dessert.  It would involve pink things and hearts.  Red velvet seems to be a popular choice, and I have nothing against red velvet.  But when we're taking about romance, we really mean chocolate, don't we?  Not giant Hershey's kisses, not surprise chocolates with unknown fillings, but really good chocolate.  I don't see much of a point in eating anything else.

So where could you go wrong by stuffing chocolate into more chocolate?  You couldn't.  So I'm going to spread the love around and bring these into my office on Valentine's Day.  And my wife can bring some to her college students.  Because what's more romantic than sharing?

Besides saving for retirement, clearly.

Chocolate Stuffed Brownies
Makes 12-16

1 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 c butter
1/4 c chocolate chips
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
really good chocolate squares (like Ghirardelli, flavors of your choice)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 8x8 baking pan.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.  Melt butter and chocolate chips together, either in the microwave or on the stove top.  Stir until completely combined.  Add brown sugar to the chocolate mixture, and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Whisk eggs and vanilla together.  Add the chocolate mixture, continuing to whisk until combined.  Add the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir until just combined.

Pour half the batter into the prepared pan.  Place chocolate squares on top of the batter, leaving a little space in between.  Make sure to scatter them if you are using different flavors so that each bite has different chocolates.

Cover the chocolates with the rest of the batter.  Spread with a spatula.

Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the brownies have set.  Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Potato Leek Soup

I told you I was a little obsessed with German food.  This soup, in particular, has haunted me for over a year.  Let me tell you a story about this soup.

The trip to the little island in the North Sea takes about two days from the West Coast of the United States.  First you fly overnight to the East Coast.  You pick up your wife's grandparents, and then you fly overnight again, this time to Hamburg.  When you get there, you collect your luggage and make trouble for the poor young man at the car rental booth.  You pack your luggage in the car, shift around the seats, spend ten minutes figuring out how a manual car works, and drive in circles around the Hamburg airport for another twenty.  You then drive a few hours on the most terrifying road known to man the A23, playing chicken with passing cars going 100 miles per hour, never stopping to use the restroom.  When you finally arrive in Dagebull, you wait for the ferry in the car, drive onto the ferry, and stay in the car for the hour ferry ride to the island.  That is, that's what the experience would be like if you are my wife's grandfather.  If you are me (or my wife, or her grandmother), you would get out of the car on the ferry and order some soup while watching the beautiful scene out the window.

It could be that this was the first food I ate since getting on a plane in Newark, but I'm pretty sure this is the best darn potato soup in existence.  Imagine my surprise when it arrived with a dollop of whipped cream on top.  Whipped cream!  On soup!  My world expanded.  I had to recreate this soup.

This is my best approximation.  It is still not as excellent as that first spoonful on the ferry, but like I said, I may have been delirious at that point.  I'm assuming it was cooked with a ham bone, given that we were in Germany, but, being a good Jew, I figured bacon was good enough.  And that dollop of whipped cream.  Heaven.

Potato Leek Soup
Serves 3

1/2 onion, chopped
4 T butter
1/2 c leeks, rinsed and chopped
2 large potatoes, chopped
3 c water
1/2 t dried thyme
1 c heavy cream
salt and pepper
cooked bacon, crumbled
whipped cream

In large pot, melt the butter and saute the onions until translucent.  Add the leeks, potatoes, water, and thyme.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about half an hour.

Puree soup in a blender and return to pot.  Stir in the cream and season with salt and pepper.  Top each bowl with some bacon and a dollop of whipped cream.

Carrot Chocolate Chip Cookies

You know how I told you about cabbage in a CSA box being difficult to use up?  It's true.  What's even harder?  Carrots.  I never know what to do with them.  Sure, I use them in a lot of recipes, but that's only one here and there, and I can never seem to use an entire bunch before the next box comes.  There are only so many salads and stews to which I can add carrots.  And so I made a bold decision.  I put them in cookies.

Now, it may be unfair to call these cookies.  They're not exactly the best pairing to a tall glass of milk.  You don't daydream all day about getting home to a plate full of carrot cookies.  They're almost too healthy.  I mean, they have oats in them.  Coconut oil.  Applesauce.  They're, dare I say it, vegan.  They mock you with their health.  "You don't deserve to eat us," they sneer.  They can tell you ate ice cream standing at the freezer last night.  Nice try.

But they are a nice mid-morning snack, a good way to get you from breakfast to lunch.  They're cookies you can feel alright about grabbing by the handful.  Sometimes you need to take a break from the decadent and embrace the healthy.  And sometimes  you just have to use up that darn bunch of carrots.

Carrot Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about two dozen

1 c rolled oats
1 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 c coconut oil
1/4 c applesauce
1/2 c maple syrup
zest of 1 lemon
1 c grated carrots
1/2 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and grease a baking sheet.  Combine oats, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.  Combine oil, applesauce, and maple syrup in another (you will have to melt the oil to liquefy it).

Toss lemon zest, carrots, and chocolate chips with the dry ingredients, and slowly incorporate the wet ingredients.  Place rounded tablespoons of dough on the baking sheet, and flatten them slightly.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, and let cool for a few minutes before transferring to a rack.

German Cabbage and Kartoffelkroketten

So I might be a little obsessed with German food.  I know, I know.  Before I met my wife, I thought German food was all meat and potatoes and mushy vegetables.  And guess what?  I was right!  But who knew how delicious meat, potatoes, and mushy vegetables can be?

My wife's family comes from a small island in the North Sea.  I mean, they're practically from Denmark, but who knows the difference?  I had the pleasure of visiting this island a few years ago, and I ate very well.  It was springtime, and the lamb was absolutely the most tender and delicious thing you could hope to eat.  But every piece of lamb has to come with potatoes.  And while I was partial to Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes with bacon and onion - what could go wrong?), I was especially intrigued by these deep fried potato puffs.  Intrigued because they seemed to be a fancied up version of what we Americans like to call tater tots.  But imagine the best tater tots possible, and you won't even come close to these little guys.

The second side dish I would like to discuss is cabbage.  I have never been a cabbage fan, so simmering it for hours with vinegar didn't seem like the greatest idea.  Wrong!  The right spices transform red cabbage into a sweet and sour comfort food, one that pairs extremely well with meat and potatoes.  Imagine that!  Red cabbage is one of those annoying vegetables you always end up with in your CSA box, and it inevitably sits in the crisper drawer for weeks, getting more and more soggy.  (Carrots also fall in this category.  More on them later.)  This is now my go-to cabbage recipe, and I look forward to seeing it in my box.  It's a great excuse to fry up some sausage and potatoes!

Kartoffelkroketten (Potato Croquettes)
Serves 4

1 1/2 lbs potatoes
4 T flour
1 egg, seperated
1 c breadcrumbs
2 T butter
1 t salt
oil

Chop up the potatoes into small pieces and boil in salty water until tender.  Drain the water, and press the potatoes through a ricer (or just mash up with a fork).  Add flour, egg yolk, butter, salt, and mash again until smooth.  Whisk the egg white in one bowl, and set up the breadcrumbs in another.

Heat about an inch of oil in a pan (about 350 degrees, or when breadcrumbs make it sizzle).  Make small balls of potato dough, and then shape into little cylinders.  One at a time, coat them with egg white and cover in breadcrumbs.  Fry croquettes until golden brown and drain on a paper towel.

German Cabbage
Serves 4

1 head red cabbage, cored and sliced
2 tart apples (I use Granny Smiths), cored and sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 1/2 c water
1 c apple cider vinegar
1/2 c sugar
1 T butter
1 t salt
pinch pepper
pinch allspice
pinch cloves

In a large pot, toss cabbage, apples, and onion.  Add water, vinegar, sugar, and butter.  Bring to a boil.  Add the spices, and simmer for about an hour, or until the cabbage is soft.  Make sure to check in the cabbage every once and a while, and add water if it is getting too low.  Adjust spices as needed to serve.

Banana Muffins

So maybe it's been a while since a post.  Maybe you'll forgive me if I tell you that I opened a cafe.  Yes, a real cafe.  We serve coffee and everything.  I'm very humbled by the experience and astounded at the hard work my co-owners have put into this project.  Maybe it's only a micro-cafe right now, but it will blossom into something bigger, something amazing.  And so, when Alchemy Collective opened, I just had to be there with the best muffins in town.

I've always been a fan of banana bread.  But, admittedly, I always go and muddle it up with other flavors.  I just have to throw chocolate chips in there.  All kinds of spices.  But these muffins, they let the bananas really sing.  Sure, you can mix it up with chocolate or nuts (I added one perfect nut per muffin), but they don't need it.  These muffins are unadulterated banana flavor, which comes from the extra step of reducing the banana juice.  These aren't muffins you can just throw in a bowl and call it a day.  They take effort.  But they pay off.  Big time.

So bake up a batch, pour yourself some coffee, and toast to Alchemy.  Dreams coming true, one muffin at a time.

Banana Muffins
Makes about 16

1/2 c butter, softened
4 ripe bananas (do not use fresh ones!)
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/d t cardamom
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t cinnamon
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c sour cream
pecans or chocolate chips, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin cups with liners or grease with butter.

Peel the bananas and place in a shallow bowl or dish.  Microwave until they release their juices, about five or six minutes.  Place a strainer on top of a saucepan, and pour the bananas through.  The juice will end up in the pan, and the fruit will remain in the strainer.  Remove the strainer (place the fruit in another bowl), and reduce the juice by half over medium heat.  Add this reduction back to the fruit and mash together.

Whisk the flour, salt, and spices together in a small bowl.  Beat the sugar and butter together in another bowl until fluffy.  Add the vanilla and eggs and beat for another few minutes.

Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat.  While continuing to beat, add half the sour cream.  Then add half the banana mixture.  Repeat until all the ingredients are in one bowl and well combined

Pour batter into prepared cups (add toppings at this point) and bake for 30 minutes.