April 11th, part 2: food is better than the book

April 11th, part two. The food is better than the book.

Review of Gordon Dahlquist’s Glass books of the dream eaters. Not a bad book, but not particularly good either. If you were stuck on a desert island with nothing to do, it would be a good, long, book to have.

The Passover cooking is going strong, read on for recipes for a spicy north African Beef Stew, deliciously light Chocolate Walnut cookies, and Zuchini & Tomato gratin.

Moroccan Beef Stew (adapted from Faye Levy’s 1000 Jewish Recipes)

2 lbs cubed stewing beef
2-3 tbsp oil
1 large onion, chopped
Up to 3 cups water
4 tbsp minced garlic
Good pinch hot pepper flakes (or more, to taste)
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
Salt & pepper
2 lbs red potatoes
1 large (or two small) sweet pepper peppers, chopped
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in large dutch oven over medium high heat, and brown beef on all sides. Remove beef, and add the onions to the pan. Cook onion till softened, 5-7 minutes. Add beef back to pan, stir in garlic, hot pepper, cumin, paprika and salt & pepper. Add enough water to barely cover the beef, stir, and bring to a boil. Simmer over low-medium heat for 90 minutes, adding more water if needed. Cube potatoes, and add to stew, pushing them down into the liquid. Simmer another 30 minuets, then stir in sweet peppers, cooking into they soften, 5-10 minutes. Garnish with cilantro.

Chocolate Walnut Cookies off the interwebs, somewhere.

2 1/2 cups walnuts
3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup unsweeted baking cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg whites
1 tbsp vanilla extract

preheat oven to 350, and line baking sheets with parchment paper. finely chop the walnuts. if you are using a food processor, be careful because you don't want them pulverized, just chopped. toast the walnuts in the oven for about 7-8 minutes, and let cool. in a large bowl mix sugar, cocoa and salt. stir in walnuts. fold in vanilla and egg whites, stiring until the mixture has moistened, and darkened. do not beat or overmix, you just want it blended. Drop batter by teaspoonful onto baking sheets, and bake for 12-15 minutes, until tops are glossy and begins to crackle. let cool on baking sheets, then remove to racks. makes about 3 dozen cookies.

i was afraid these cookies would be overly rich and heavy. Nope. light, airy, and a nice balance of bitter chocolate to sweetness.

Zucchini & Tomato Gratin

I think I made this last year. it's from my French Provincial cookbook.

2lbs zuchini
salt
3-4 tbsp butter or oil
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 tbsp basil
1 cup matzah meal or breadcrums
4-5 tbsp grated Greyere, Danish Fontina, Swiss, or other swiss-like firm white oily cheese

Slice zucchini thinly, and layer in a colander with generous sprinkles of salt between each layer. don't be chinsy with the salt, it's important because it leeches the moisture out of the zucchini, and you'll be washing the salt off later anyways. Let zucchini sit for 1 hour, then rinse with cool water, and dry the slices on paper towels. Taste a peice. see? not as salty as you'd expect, and crispier and crunchier than unsalted zucchini.

Preheat oven to 400, heat the butter/oil in a skillet over medium heat. in batches, sautee the zuchini until browned. remove the zucchini from the skillet. add the tomatoes, garlic, basil and salt and pepper, and bring mixture to a boil. simmer for 5-10 minutes, until it has thickened a bit. Stir the zuchhini back into the skillet, and mix everything together. Pour into a baking dish. in a small bowl blend the matzah meal and the cheese, and sprinkle it over the zuchhini. dot with butter, and bake for 25 minutes.

you know, I'm not as Passover Crazy as I could be.

You know those crazy Christmas ladies, who have a themed Christmas tree in every room of their house? And when they go on vacation, they go shopping for the sole purpose of buying a commemorative christmas ornament? I'm working on being that obsessed about Passover. I buy cookbooks if they have good passover friendly recipes, the more non traditional, the better. I start planning Seder and other Passover meals a month ahead of time. I'm always surprised how many Passover friendly (or one ingredient away from Passover friendly) recipes I find in my favorite French Cookbooks, The Book of French Provincial Cooking, by Hilaire Walden. Best cookbook purchase ever.

Sure, I don't observe Passover as much as I could (non-Passover friendly food gets shoved to the back of the pantry or fridge, or tossed in the freezer), but i'm happily food obessed. We shared cooking responsibilities with another family this year. They hosted the Seder, we brought the side dishes and one of three desserts. I got to cook on a flat top range for the first time.

With recipes below, or links to the recipes:

Marinated Mushrooms (Adapted from The Book of French Provincial Cooking)
Zucchini Gratin (Same Source as above)
Sweet Potatoes and Apples
Garlic Roasted Potatoes

and Forgotten Cookies for Dessert.

Marinated Mushrooms

1 onion, sliced very thin
l clove of garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp coriander
1 cup red wine
1 lb button mushrooms, sliced if bigger than bite sized
2 large tomatoes, diced
salt & pepper
chopped parsley
bay leaf

Saute onion & garlic in oil for about 5 minutes. Stir in mushrooms, coriander, and tomatoes, salt and pepper and bay leaf. Pour wine over. Bring to a boil, then simmer 10 minutes. If you want the sauce thicker, removed mushrooms and onions with a slotted spoon, and simmer until it's at a thickness you want, then add mushrooms and onions back in. garnish with parsley. Can be served hot or at room temperature.

Zucchini Gratin

2 lbs zucchini, sliced
olive oil
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp chopped basil or parsley
salt & pepper
½ cup matzah meal
¼ - ½ cup shredded greyere cheese
1 tbsp butter

put sliced zucchini in a colander with plenty of salt (it draws the moisture out). Leave for one hour, then rise zucchini well (rinse it again, there is a lot of salt there!) and dry with paper towels.

Preheat oven to 400. Heat oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat, and saute zuchini until they begin to brown. You want them browned, not mushy. Remove zucchini with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add tomatoes, garlic, basil or parsley, and salt & pepper to skillet. Bring to a boil, then simmer till it thickens a bit. Stir the zucchini back in, then pour it all into a baking dish. Mix the matzah meal and cheese in a bowl, and sprinkle that on top. Cut the butter up, and dot the top of the gratin with it. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

Stay tuned for more Passover goodness, including Matzah ball soup (I made the best soup of my life the other night. I need to figure out what the heck I did!), Turkey and Leek Fritters, more Rattatoullie, Sweet potatoes with pears, and some other stuff. It's all good.

. . .sadly not much on the book front. I got Michael Moorcock's The Dreamcatchers Daughter from the library, and I've been staring at it for a week, unable to pick it up. If you've been following this blog, you know of my growing obsession with Michael Moorcock, so why can't I pick this thing up? The dust jacket summary mentions something about historical World War II characters (maybe one of them is an Eternal Hero?). . And you know what? I'm just not ready for my Elric fantasy world to be tainted by the contemporary. I want Elric to stay in the beautiful, surreal, idealistic fantasy world he belongs in. Sigh.

Hal Duncan's Vellum also made it into the library bag. I tried reading this book last summer, and I couldn't get into it. Too weird, even for me. So i'll give it another try. And i'm sure next year, i'll pick up The Dreamcatcher's Daughter, and just go nuts for it.

Finished Steven Brust's Book of Jhereg. Excellent book. Now I just need to find time to write a review.