1,000 Jewish Recipes (133 page)
Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 ounce dried cepes, porcini, or shiitake mushrooms
Cayenne pepper, to taste
8 ounces button mushrooms, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons potato starch, arrowroot, or cornstarch
5 tablespoons water
5 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 pound medium egg noodles
1.
Heat oil in a Dutch oven or heavy stew pan over medium heat. Add sliced onion and sauté 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Add celery and garlic and sauté 1 minute. Add turkey, carrots, and stock. Bring to boil, cover and cook 5 minutes. Stick cloves in whole onion and add to casserole. Add wine, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat, turning turkey over from time to time, for 1
1
â
2
hours.
2.
Soak dried mushrooms in enough hot water to cover them for 30 minutes. Remove mushrooms and rinse them. If using shiitake mushrooms, discard stems. Cut mushrooms into bite-size pieces.
3.
Add soaked dried mushrooms (but not fresh mushrooms) to pan and cook about 30 more minutes or until turkey is very tender when pierced in thickest part with a sharp knife. Uncover and cool about 15 minutes.
4.
Remove turkey from liquid. Remove skin with aid of a paring knife. Discard bones, cartilage, and visible fat from turkey. Pull or cut meat into wide strips and set aside. Skim fat from liquid. Discard whole onion, thyme sprigs, and bay leaf. Season liquid to taste with salt, pepper, and cayenne.
5.
Add fresh mushrooms to pan and cook 10 minutes or until tender. Remove vegetables to a plate with slotted spoon.
6.
Mix potato starch with the water in small bowl until blended. Bring turkey cooking liquid to a simmer. Gradually whisk in potato starch mixture and simmer 1 minute or until thickened. Adjust seasoning. Return turkey and vegetables to sauce and heat gently. Stir in 4 tablespoons parsley.
7.
Cook egg noodles in a large pot of boiling water about 5 minutes or until just tender. Drain well. Serve noodles topped with turkey and sauce, and sprinkled with remaining parsley.
Two heads of garlic might seem like an enormous amount, but slowly poaching whole garlic cloves to mellow them is a trick that has long been known to Jewish cooks from North Africa. The garlic becomes delicious and imparts a terrific flavor to the sauce of the lean turkey breasts. For a Purim feast, serve them with couscous or basmati rice and with
Quick-Braised Butternut Squash with Ginger and Onion
.
2 medium heads of garlic
2 pounds boneless turkey breast fillets
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1
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â
2
cups turkey or chicken stock
1 small dried chile, such as chile arbol
1
â
2
teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons cold water
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon cornstarch or potato starch
1
â
4
cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
Several drops strained fresh lemon juice (optional)
1.
Separate garlic heads into cloves. Place each clove under the flat side of a wide knife (blade facing away from you) and hit knife with the heel of your hand. Remove loosened peel.
2.
Pat turkey dry and sprinkle with pepper. Heat oil in a heavy stew pan or Dutch oven. Add turkey and brown lightly over medium heat on all sides. Remove to a plate. Add onion to stew pan and sauté, stirring often, until golden brown.
3.
Add stock, chile, thyme, and bay leaf to pan. Bring to a boil. Add turkey and garlic and return to a simmer. Cover and simmer over low heat about 30 minutes or until turkey is tender when pierced with a sharp knife. Remove turkey to a board and keep it warm. Discard bay leaf.
4.
Whisk water into tomato paste in a small bowl. Add cornstarch and whisk to a smooth paste. Gradually whisk mixture into simmering sauce. Return to a boil, stirring. On the cutting board, slice turkey. If necessary, reheat very gently in sauce. Add parsley to sauce. Taste sauce and add lemon juice, if using; adjust seasoning. Serve turkey with garlic sauce spooned over it.
Turkey is the most popular meat for the Purim feast in Israeli homes. Combine it with pecans, a favorite nut in Israel, for a tasty entree.
3
1
â
4
cups
Turkey Stock
, chicken stock, or broth
One 10- to 12-pound fresh or thawed frozen turkey
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
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4
cup dry white wine
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4
cup all-purpose flour
1.
Prepare stuffing and prepare turkey stock, if using. Remove top rack and preheat oven to 425°F. Sprinkle turkey inside and out with salt and pepper. Spoon some stuffing into neck cavity. Fold neck skin under body and fasten with a skewer. Pack body cavity loosely with stuffing and cover opening with a crumpled piece of foil. Truss turkey if desired. Spoon remaining stuffing into an oiled 4- to-6-cup baking dish and refrigerate.
2.
Put turkey breast-side-up on a rack in a large roasting pan. Spoon oil slowly over turkey breast. Roast turkey 30 minutes, basting twice.
3.
Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Roast turkey 1
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2
hours, basting with pan juices every 15 minutes. If pan becomes dry, add
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4
cup of stock.
4.
Put dish of extra stuffing in oven and baste with turkey juices. Cover with foil; bake 45 minutes. Meanwhile, continue roasting turkey, basting every 15 minutes, until juices run clear when thigh is pricked, or thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 180°F, 20 to 45 minutes; cover turkey with foil if it browns too fast.
5.
Transfer turkey to platter or large board. Discard strings and skewers. Baste once with pan juices, and cover turkey.
6.
Pour roasting juices into measuring cup. Pour off fat and reserve it. Return juices to pan. Add wine and
3
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4
cup stock and bring to a boil, stirring and scraping to dissolve any brown bits in pan. Strain into a bowl.
7.
Heat
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4
cup reserved fat in a saucepan over low heat. Add flour and cook, over low heat, whisking, about 4 minutes or until bubbling. Add remaining 2
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4
cups stock and liquid used to deglaze roasting pan. Bring to a boil, whisking. Simmer, whisking occasionally, about 5 minutes or until thick enough to coat a spoon. Adjust seasoning.
8.
Carve turkey and arrange on platter. Spoon stuffing onto platter or into a serving dish. Reheat sauce briefly. Pour into a sauceboat and serve alongside turkey.
Fresh and dried pears and raisins combine with the pecans to give this stuffing a wonderful flavor. Bake the stuffing inside a turkey for Purim or Thanksgiving, or use it to stuff chickens. It also makes a tasty side-dish casserole baked on its own.
You can make the stuffing ahead and refrigerate it up to 1 day in a covered container, but to prevent harmful bacteria from developing, do not stuff a bird until just before roasting it.
1 cup pecans
1 cup finely diced (
1
â
4
-inch dice) dried pears
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4
cup raisins
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2
cup dry white wine
8 to 10 ounces day-old or stale white bread or challah, cut into
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2
-inch cubes
3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 cup chopped celery
2
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2
cups peeled and finely chopped pears
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
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â
8
teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme or
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4
teaspoon dried, crumbled
1 teaspoon minced fresh sage or
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4
teaspoon dried, crumbled
4 to 6 tablespoons turkey or chicken stock or broth
1.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Toast nuts until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Let nuts cool, then coarsely chop them.
2.
Combine dried pears, raisins, and wine in a small saucepan and mix well. Bring to a simmer. Cover, remove from heat and let stand 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3.
Reduce oven temperature to 275°F. Put bread cubes on a large baking sheet. Bake until crisp and dry, stirring frequently, about 20 minutes. Cool and transfer to a large bowl.
4.
Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, celery, pears, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft but not brown, about 10 minutes. Add cloves, thyme, and sage and stir until blended. Remove from heat.
5.
Add onion mixture, nuts, and dried fruit mixture with its liquid to bread and toss lightly until blended. Gradually add 2 tablespoons stock, tossing lightly. Mixture may appear dry, but will become much moister from juices in bird. Adjust seasoning. (Stuffing can be refrigerated up to 1 day in covered container.)
6.
To stuff turkey, spoon stuffing lightly into neck and body cavities; for chickens, spoon stuffing lightly into body cavity. Do not pack stuffing in tightly. Fold skin over stuffing; truss or skewer closed. Roast as desired.
Notes:
⢠If there is extra stuffing, add a little more stock, if necessary, so most of bread is very lightly moistened. Grease casserole dish of same or slightly larger volume than amount of extra mixture and spoon stuffing into it. Dot with margarine. Cover and refrigerate until about 1 hour before roast is done. If roasting poultry or meat at 375°F or lower, bake stuffing during last hour of roasting, basting stuffing with 2 to 3 tablespoons stock every 15 or 20 minutes. If baking less than 4 cups stuffing, bake only 45 minutes. If roasting poultry at higher temperature, bake extra stuffing separately at 325°F.
⢠To bake all of stuffing separately, preheat oven to 325°F. Grease a 2
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2
-quart casserole dish and spoon stuffing into it. Dot stuffing with margarine and cover casserole dish. Bake 20 minutes. Baste stuffing by pouring
1
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4
cup stock evenly over top. Bake 20 more minutes and repeat with another
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4
cup stock. Bake 20 more minutes; uncover for last 10 minutes for crisper top. Serve hot.
