1,000 Jewish Recipes (149 page)
Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
6 or 7 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large onions, minced
1 pound small white mushrooms, quartered
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1
1
â
2
teaspoons paprika
1 pound medium egg noodles
4 large eggs, beaten
1.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Heat 4 tablespoons oil in a large, heavy skillet. Add onions and sauté over medium-low heat, stirring often, about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove onions to a plate. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons oil to skillet and heat it. Add mushrooms, salt, and pepper and sauté over high heat about 7 minutes or until tender. Return onions to skillet and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon paprika. Sauté over medium-high heat, stirring often, about 5 minutes or until onions and mushrooms are well browned.
2.
Cook noodles uncovered in a large pot of boiling salted water over high heat about 4 minutes or until nearly tender but firmer than usual. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain well again. Transfer to a large bowl.
3.
Add mushroom-onion mixture to noodles and mix well. Adjust seasoning; mixture should be seasoned generously. Add eggs and mix well. Oil a large baking dish or two medium ones. Add noodle mixture. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon oil, then dust with remaining paprika. Bake uncovered for 1 hour or until set. Serve from baking dish.
My Sephardic neighbors often serve this tasty spinach dish for Shabbat to accompany a main course of chicken or fish.
3 pounds fresh spinach
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon strained fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Cayenne pepper, to taste
Lemon wedges
1.
Rinse spinach thoroughly by submerging it in a large bowl of cold water, then lifting spinach out and putting it in a colander. If sand remains at the bottom of the bowl, rinse spinach again. Repeat as necessary until spinach is completely clean. Remove any thick stems from spinach.
2.
Add spinach to a saucepan of boiling salted water and cook over high heat 2 minutes or until just wilted. Drain spinach; reserve a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid.
3.
Heat oil in the saucepan, add garlic and sauté over low heat 30 seconds. Add spinach and heat through, stirring gently. Add 2 or 3 tablespoons cooking liquid if spinach is dry. Add lemon juice and heat through. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Serve in a bowl, with lemon wedges.
 or
Â
It's amazing that cooked carrots can become so delicious with so little effort. These reheat beautifully too. Serve them with roast chicken for Shabbat, with roast lamb for Passover, or with rice, kasha, or bulgur wheat for a vegetarian dinner.
1
1
â
2
pounds long, thin, straight carrots
Salt, to taste
1 to 2 teaspoons white or brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or butter
1.
Cut carrots into 2-inch lengths. Quarter any wide pieces lengthwise.
2.
Put carrots in a sauté pan and add enough water to cover them. Add salt, sugar, and oil. Bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered over medium heat about 25 minutes or until the thickest carrot pieces are very tender. After the first 5 minutes, avoid stirring; instead, shake the pan gently from time to time to turn the carrots.
3.
If too much liquid remains in pan, continue cooking uncovered over medium-low heat, shaking pan often, 2 or 3 more minutes or until it thickens to your taste.
 or
Â
I love to serve this easy-to-make, comforting dish with a Friday night roast chicken dinner. It complements chicken well and gives bright color to the plate. For the feast preceding the Yom Kippur fast, it's also great, as an accompaniment for
Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic
.
It's different than other sweet potato purees because it includes a trick I learned at a Miami restaurantâit's flavored with vanilla! Either I add a little vanilla extract or, if I have a vanilla bean, I infuse it in a little pareve soy milk and beat the milk into the sweet potatoes. For a meatless meal, you can use dairy milk.
2
1
â
2
pounds medium orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (sometimes labeled yams), unpeeled
1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3
â
4
cup dairy milk or soy milk (if using a vanilla bean)
1 to 2 tablespoons brown or white sugar (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1.
Put sweet potatoes in a large saucepan, add enough water to cover, and a pinch of salt, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat about 30 minutes or until tender.
2.
If using a vanilla bean, split it lengthwise and put it in a small saucepan. (Do not add vanilla extract). Add milk. Bring to a simmer. Cover and let stand off the heat while sweet potatoes are cooking.
3.
Drain sweet potatoes, let cool, and peel them. Put in a large bowl, cut each into a few pieces, and mash.
4.
Return sweet potatoes to dry saucepan. Heat, stirring often, to dry them slightly. Remove vanilla bean from milk. Gradually beat
1
â
2
cup milk into sweet potatoes, stirring. Continue heating until milk is absorbed and puree has thickened to your taste. If you like, beat in remaining milk and heat it until it is absorbed. Beat in sugar, if using. Heat over low heat, stirring, about 1 minute. Season puree with salt and pepper. If using vanilla extract and not vanilla bean, stir it in now.
A trick I learned from my mother to help potatoes roast more quickly and evenly is to first blanch them briefly. We like these simply cooked potatoes with roast chicken for Shabbat.
8 medium potatoes, peeled and halved
3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
About
1
â
2
teaspoon paprika
1.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Put potato halves in saucepan with enough water to cover and bring to a boil. Cover and cook over medium-low heat 10 minutes. Drain gently.
2.
Heat half of oil in a small, heavy roasting pan or heavy baking dish in oven for 5 minutes. Add potatoes and sprinkle them with salt, pepper, paprika, and remaining oil. Bake uncovered in oven, turning two or three times, about 45 minutes or until tender. Serve hot.
Jews from Iran are especially fond of seasoning their rice with saffron. The aromatic long-grained basmati rice from India is their top choice. In recent years this wonderful type of rice has become generally popular in Sephardic cooking both in Israel and in the United States.
1
â
4
teaspoon crushed saffron threads (2 pinches)
1
â
4
cup boiling water
