jewish and israeli food

cardamom lingonberry hamantaschen

today was hummus day on set for #mollyontherange! i shot hummus, all of its tasty accoutrements, and a few other hummusy things that i am so excited about. for the first time in a while, my constant shoot day snacking hasn't left me feeling like butt afterwards because the last few shoot days were sprinkle cake day, mac and cheese day, and, i can't remember the rest... but today there were vegetables and beans so i feel great! there'd be a lot of tooting tonight if we lived in a world where girls farted.

i am so very glad that the days are getting longer up here. it makes shoot days a lot less stressful because i have more time to get my ducks in a row and tweezer on the parsley and shoot everything i need to without fearing that the sun will go away prematurely. outside, however, all of the snow has melted and it's kind of goopy and gross. macaroni love it though! once again they can go on their little adventures to the back reaches of our lawn, poop everywhere, and take dirt baths in the soon-to-be rhubarb patch. they're so happy. except one, who has just become **broody**. so she's on vacay in the broody buster. tomorrow i'll bring her today's leftover pomegranate seeds and cucumber slices. eggboy says i shouldn't spoil her because then she'll want to be broody all the time. but i'm thinking it's like the price is right and matzoh ball soup, those things are awesome for two days, but then you just want to go outside and poop with your friends. 

hooray for purim being right around the corner! what a fun holiday. we're not totally sure what we'll do to celebrate since grand forks isn't really purim party central, but eggboy still has his noisemaker from like two years ago so maybe i'll just read him the meggilah, let him buzz buzz buzz and then we'll hit the bars. sound good? cool. here are some scandinavian-inspired hamantaschen! ooooooh mash-up. 


cardamom lingonberry hamantaschen

makes about 22 cookies

ingredients

1 c unsalted butter, room temperature

4 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 1/2 c all-purpose flour

powdered sugar, for dusting

about 1 c lingonberry jam

clues

in a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter and cream cheese until combined. beat in the egg yolk and then add the vanilla, cardamom, and salt. beat in the flour to form a dough. divide the dough into two parts, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

preheat the oven to 400ºf. line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.

dust a work surface liberally with powdered sugar and roll out half of the dough until it's 1/4" thick. cut out 3" circles and spoon about 2 teaspoons of jam in the center, fold the edges up to form a triangle shape and pinch the edges firmly. transfer to the baking sheet. repeat with the remaining half of the dough, adding more powdered sugar as needed. bake until lightly browned. begin checking for doneness at 10 minutes. let cool slightly, dust with additional powdered sugar, and enjoy!


-yeh!

spiced beef matzo pie

we've just returned from a fantastic few days spent in florida for my youngest cousin's bat mitzvah, which, like all bat mitzvahs, made me want to go to wayyy more bat mitzvahs (and maybe have my own 90s-themed one someday?). because the parties are just like weddings but with many more mozzarella sticks, less mushy emotions, and tons of glow in the dark shit. and when done correctly, they have added bonuses like a t-shirt airbrushing station or sting-ray petting zoo. i'm not even kidding! this party last weekend was at the tampa aquarium and we were given the opportunity to engage in such things as eating a mini pizza with one hand and reaching into a sting ray tank with the other. then we did the hora and filled our bellies with sour patch kids and charleston chews. it was so great. 

after the bat mitzvah we drove our little red cozy coop rental car down to sarasota to stake out a place for retirement. and also because my friends george and sam were presenting a concert of reich and muhly and all of the music i adore, so we basked in the sweet sounds of that and then stayed in costume to party like college kids, eat fish around a bonfire, and ketchup with old friends (whose birthdays i still need to memorize...). during the day we walked over two bridges, past a baby dolphin, to the bookstore downtown where i bought brooklyn because i've been wanting to see the movie soo badly but it never came to our theater! so lame. so i guess i'm doing things the old fashioned way. although since the new season of house of cards is out i don't know that i'll have any units of free time leftover to read. 

other than that, now that we're back home i've been hurry scurrying quick like a bunny to meet the photo deadline for my book because it is right around the corner. today was soup and cake day, tomorrow is casserole and more cake day, and next week we are staging a holiday a party! good thing the chrismukkah bush is still up... uhh, hehe, oops...

and because soup day and casserole day just weren't enough, we also have pi day on monday! yayyy! *applies stretchy pants* pi day is great because it allows me to reminisce on all of my fun mathlete years back in the day, but it can also be intimidating because i'm quite clumsy with pie dough. i am no michelle or samantha or yossy. and probably have no place living on a farm in this regard. but! i recently learned about mina, which is a passover pie with sephardic roots that uses matzo instead of pie dough. it's often layered, like a lasagna, with lamb or beef or vegetables. but in zahav it's made in a round pie pan and then flipped onto a plate. i loved the look of that so i took that route as well. i also love what mike solomonov says in his headnotes, about how tasty it is when the fatty juices from the meat soak into the matzo. the result kind of makes me think of what a beef fatty ritz cracker would taste like if such a thing existed. 

the filling here is spiced with a bunch of cinnamon and cumin and will make your house smell better than thanksgiving. it's pretty rich so you'll be glad it's wrapped in matzo and not pie dough, and, with passover right around the corner, you officially have two great reasons to make this. so go on, flag down the matzo truck 🚚 🚚 🚚 🚚 🚚!!!! 


spiced beef matzo pie

makes one 8-inch pie

ingredients

2 tablespoons flavorless oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
Kosher salt
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Black pepper

5-6 sheets matzo
egg wash: 1 egg lightly beaten with a splash of water
Fresh parsley or micro greens, for serving

 

 

clues

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat and add the onion, carrots, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, until soft and translucent, 5-7 minutes. Add the beef and sprinkle it with the Aleppo pepper, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, 1 teaspoon salt, and a few turns of black pepper and cook, breaking up the beef with a spoon or spatula, until it is fully cooked and no longer pink. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. 

Grease an 8” cake pan and set it aside. Soak the matzo in warm water for a few minutes until it has softened. Line the bottom and sides of the cake pan with the matzo pieces, breaking it up as needed and packing it down firmly. It will look a little rustic and that’s ok. Use a paper towel to blot away excess moisture once the matzo is in the pan and then pour in the beef mixture and pack it down firmly. Cover the top with soaked matzo, pressing the edges to seal, and then brush it with a healthy coating of egg wash. Bake until browned, about 30 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes and then invert onto a plate. Top with parsley or micro greens and serve. 


-yeh!

pictured: plates, cheese stone, and linens from farmhouse pottery


grape and ricotta latkes

i’ve just returned from about 40 hours in new york and i feel like a blob that just ran a marathon. not that i would know what a marathon hangover feels like, but when you adjust to a stationary life in a driving town and then briefly return to your city lady semi-roots that are heavily influenced by a complete aversion to riding the subway so you spend a ton of your time walking and eating and walking some more, and because shoe shopping is not your favorite you do it all in terrible shoes that lack proper arch support, you feel a little hurty the next day. it’s ok! i got this new matchy katniss everdeen sweat suit that feels like a continuous hug so i think i’m going to be just fine!

most of my time was spent with the deeelightful humans at apartment therapy and the kitchn for their 10 under 40 maker talk! we built gingerbread houses (here’s the glittery one i built with gaby and 1/2 of sir kensington!) which was easily some of the most fun i’ve had collaboratively building an edible dwelling since sunday school when we made pretzel sukkahs. and then at night we had to give speeches in front of an audience and i did not barf on stage even though i was almost positive i would, therefore i consider the event a success. 

the rest of my time in the city was spent eating bagels with jonah hill (rather, splitting lox with donny and siobhan while we stalker stared across the room at the back of jonah’s head while he drank orange juice), hummus with 1/3 of my bridal party, condiments in the facebook cafeteria with talia, popcorn with lior at the beautiful food52 holiday popup, shakshuka focaccia with a side of triumph at breads (because do you know how many times i have been to breads looking for that shakshuka focaccia and they’ve been sold out???), and a kasha knish from yonah

now i am back just in time for the last few nights of hanukkah, so i’m squeezing in one more latke for you! it’s nothing too crazy, just a simple twist on a classic. it’s the same combination of crispy/salty/sweet/creamy elements that you get with the traditional sour cream and apple sauce latke, but i’ve subbed out sour cream for ricotta and apple sauce for grape jam to give you another way to keep the eight nights of latkes exciting.


grape and ricotta latkes

1. make a batch of ex-boyfriend latkes

2. top them with a healthy plop of ricotta and a sprinkle of salt

3. make a divot in the ricotta to hold the jam

4. fill the divot with grape jam (i'm loving this ancho chile grape jam!)

5. enjoy!


-yeh!

thank you so much to grapes from california for sponsoring this post!

furikake latkes

hello! eggboy and i have just survived a very eventful weekend, complete with late-night cheezy pickles, a wild halva-filled chrismukkah party (+ eggboy’s second-ever hangover), and getting up-to-date on the new hallmark christmas movies while lighting our menorah. it was very holiday-centric, and d.j. tanner coming back as a hallmark movie star is my favorite comeback story of the new millennium.

happiest of hanukkahs!!! mmm latkes and donuts and the one time a year when i buy sour cream. have you seen all of the beautiful new latkes that have emerged onto the internet this year?? ramen latkes, sabich latkes, tater tot latkes, harissa sweet potato latkes... i want to try a new one every night. but i also want to save room for donuts. so, um, split one with me?

a little while ago i was hanging in malta with alana and we were discussing our holiday blog plans. i told her i was thinking of making a furikake latke, only i pronounced it like the country bumpkin that i am: "furry cocky latkee."

"no no, say 'foo-ree-kah-kay lat-kay'" she said, using some major pronunciation acrobatics that you just don't see in winterfell that often. it was so cool! i tried it and it was so fun that i sat there saying it over and over, as staccato as possible. 

furikake is a seasoning made up primarily of seaweed and toasted sesame seeds. sometimes bonito flakes and a bit of sugar are sprinkled in, and it's usually sprinkled on rice, but here i'm sprinkling it on crispy latkes! doesn't it kind of look like confetti?? a bit of sesame oil in the frying process heightens the sesame experience here, and a soft cooked egg on top makes it kind of like a ready-to-party version of hash browns and eggs. i'm so excited about these and about hanukkah in general. and presents... where are my presents?


furikake latkes

1. make a batch of ex-boyfriend latkes (add 2 tb sesame oil to the frying oil)

2. top them with a 7-minute egg

3. a sprinkling of furikake 

4. and a drizzle of sriracha!

5. enjoy!


-yeh!


thank you so much to the american egg board for sponsoring this post! check out their site for fun holiday recipes this season, like classic eggnog and these cute mini french toast casseroles. also follow along with #recipeeggchange to stay updated on new holiday recipes as they're posted!