recipe lover

side dishes and starters

2005-03-23T10:24:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while - things have been a bit crazy over here - we bought a house, I got two jobs and am starting on Sunday/Monday. But a friend of mine e-mailed asking for side dish and starter recipes. So here are three:

Side dishes:

Honey Mustard Potatoes
About 15-20 small red potatoes, cut in half or quartered depending on how big they are
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 small onion - chopped fine
salt and pepper to taste

Cut potatoes and place in a greased baking dish. Chop onion and place in a small bowl - add mustard, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix together and pour over potatoes. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes until potatoes are done - stirring potatoes every 10-15 minutes to distribute sauce.

Crispy Onion Potatoes

As many potatoes as you want - cut into quarters, or eights - depending on the size of your potatoes
Olive oil
Onion soup mix powder

Place potatoes in a greased baking dish, drizzle with olive oil (about 2-3 Tbsp.), and sprinkle with a lot of onion soup mix - between 1/4 and 1/2 a cup. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes - stirring every 10-15 minutes. The onion soup mix bits get all crunchy and coat the potatoes - its really yummy - the type of recipe that you scrape at the bottom of the pan for every last bit of onion stuff.

Starters:

Moroccan Tuna

4-6 tuna steaks
salt and lemon juice
2 chopped tomatoes
1 red pepper, sliced
2 mild green long hot peppers (with seeds removed), sliced
3 cloves crushed garlic
large bunch fresh coriander (cusbara)
1/2 Tbsp. cumin, curry, salt
1 Tbsp. paprika, onion soup mix
1/2 cup water
olive oil

Wash fish and pat dry, place on a plate and sprinkle with salt and lemon juice. Let stand 10 minutes. Wash fish again and sear in a large frying pan with a tiny bit of olive oil until all sides are just white. Take tuna out of pan. Place tomatoes, peppers, hot peppers and 1/2 bunch coriander on bottom of pan. Place tuna steaks on top. In a small bowl, mix together all spices and then sprinkle this mixture on top of fish. Drizzle with olive oil and 1/2 cup water, place remaining coriander on top. Cover, bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.

Hot Chocolate Pudding Cake

2005-03-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

Hot Chocolate Pudding Cake

The name says it all!!! This is very similar to those fancy cupcake/souffle type things they serve at fancy restaurants and weddings - where the inside is all gooey and hot and chocolatey. It's great served with whipped cream or ice cream, or with raspberry sauce...mmm...mmm....mmmm...

Batter:
3/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk (or pareve creamer or soy milk)
1/4 cup melted butter (or margerine)
1 tsp. vanilla

Pudding:
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups boiling water

Combine ingredients for batter, spread into a greased 8 inch square pan or a pie plate. Combine pudding ingredients (this will be very liquidy) and pour over batter - DO NOT STIR. Bake 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees or until top is dry. Let stand 15-30 minutes before serving.
This is a very strange recipe but it works. Basically the batter and the liquid switch places - the liquid turns into pudding and the batter forms a crust. It's actually kinda cool.

Whole Wheat Challah Recipe

2005-02-23T09:56:00.000-08:00

We are going away for the weekend so I will post one recipe before we go - then you will all have to wait until Sunday for more...I have been making this recipe almost every Shabbat - what I like about it is that it only makes one challah - but I only have to use one bowl and can do it by hand - no mixer - no fuss - no mess - so at least we get one homemade challah every week if I have no time to do more than that. What else do I love about this recipe: No eggs, only 1 Tbsp. oil - and it's olive oil, it uses honey instead of sugar and soy milk works wonderfully in it too!!!

Whole Wheat Challah

1 tsp. sugar
2 1/4 tsp. yeast (or one package)
1/2 cup warm water
3/4 cup soy milk, milk, or water
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat germ (optional)
1 1/2 Tbsp. honey (or sugar)
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. olive oil

Mix together warm water, yeast and sugar - let sit ten minutes until frothy. Mix together with soy milk, wheat germ, honey, salt and olive oil. Then add flour until dough is just a little sticky but manageable. Spray bowl with Pam and let rise for about 1.5 hours. Punch down, braid into challah shape, let rise about another 1/2 hour to an hour. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Shabbat Shalom!!!! We're going skiing on the Hermon!!!!

great hamantashen recipe!

2005-02-22T12:28:00.000-08:00

I just made these tonight because it is Purim kattan (Purim is exactly one month away!!!)

Hamantashen

1/2 cup margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup apple juice
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsps. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups flour (I used half whole wheat)

Cream together margarine and sugar, add egg, then apple juice, then vanilla. Mix together baking soda, salt and flour, add to other ingredients. Mix until a soft dough forms. Rather than roll the dough out and cut circles with a cup - I found it easier to take off small chunks of dough, roll the chunk into a ball and then flatten with my palm into a circle. Fill with a teaspoon of filling (poppyseed, chocolate, halva, jam, etc....) and shape into a triangle. Place on cookie sheets lined with aluminum foil and sprayed with Pam. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Purim Kattan Sameach!!!

one more

2005-02-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

I've been very into loaf-pan cakes lately. I like to make them for the weekend - it's Saturday/Sunday morning with your coffee type of food....I made this one this weekend. I love cinnamon sooo much!

Cinnamon Cake

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar (brown or white)
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup milk or soy milk

Mix all ingredients together with a hand-held mixer. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

margarine question

2005-02-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

There are all these new margarines on the market that say they don't contain trans-fatty acids and that they are healthy for you - is this true? Does anyone know? I keep hearing from my friends that margarine is really bad for you and that they try to avoid it. We like margarine because of it's non-dairy qualities. In my recipes there is always the option to use butter or margarine - but I usually use margarine. Just a thought - if anyone reads this and knows, maybe they can comment and help me out.

here goes...

2005-02-19T10:29:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Velvet Pie (I owe this recipe to my friend Robyn)

1 container Rich's non-dairy whipping cream (or real dairy whipping cream - my husband is lactose intolerant so non-dairy works for us)
1 bag chocolate chips
1 graham cracker pie shell (or make your own - recipe to follow)
a few drops peppermint extract (optional), peanut butter (optional)

Pour whipping cream into a saucepan, add chocolate chips. Heat over a low flame stirring constantly until choclate chips have melted and mixture is a thick, uniform in color and irresistable looking. Pour into the pie shell and refrigerate until set and firm (need not be overnight - could be as little as 2 hours - depends on your fridge).
Adding a few drops (to taste) of peppermint extract makes it refreshing.
To make a giant reese's peanut butter cup pour half the chocolate in, then some creamy peanut butter, then the rest of the chocolate on top...voila!

Easy graham cracker crust (from Mileanium)

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (or petit-buerre crackers work well too)
3 Tbsp. melted margarine
2 Tbsp. orange juice
2 Tbsp. brown sugar (white ok too)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Spray a 9" pie plate with Pam. Mix all ingredients together, press into pan. Bake @ 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes.

This recipe is sooo easy and sooo decadent - it is irresistable!!!!

this is so exciting!

2005-02-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

I've always wanted a place to share my recipes with others. So rather than give my recipes out over the phone over and over again, I can now just refer my friends to my blog, and share my recipes with the world! I love to cook because it makes me happy and it makes other people happy, plain and simple. I will post my first recipes soon.