Dear Schnitzelim readers, it is time to say our final goodbye.
It has been fantastic two years, with many dinners prepared, dishes recorded, photos taken and dreams imagined.
Schnitzelim will stay online for your archival purposes. Hopefully one day we will revisit it and revive it as something different, yet equally exciting.
Wishing you a wonderful, delicious new year.
We’ve traveled the world
We took a break
It was a long Summer
We had to rethink this format
We were lazy
Without further ado, we are back.
Autumn is here and it feels like the best time to fire up that cranky old oven and dust off those big plates.
And before you melt that butter and peel those carrots, here’s an interesting piece from yesterday’s Times, about how food replaced art as high culture.
We are taking a bit of a break and we’ll be back tastier than ever before.
On Broadway Market on Saturday, outside Off Broadway bar. One American guy and three vegetarian tacos between the two of us.
Beans, lettuce, chopped tomatoes, salsa and lots of lime.
It almost felt like we were in Tijuana.
But not really….
We missed Hansel and Gretel at the Metropolitan Opera in New York but these gorgeously grotesque characters can’t leave our mind.
Not mine, but this amazing young chef’s and his wife, on Brick Lane on Sunday mornings. They bickered all the time, but these Hong Kong-style noodles were served with love and attentive care. If you arrive after 13:00 you can forget about the noodles, the chef runs out of dough.
Sometimes it feels that going to the supermarket is a political act. And I am not talking about the boycotting of products from certain contentious parts of the world.
Take our excursion to the local supermarket the other day.
Simon picked up peanut butter and maple syrup.
I took barley and beetroot.
Conflicting ideas about nutrition and life styles ensued. A negotiation took place. A resolution emerged.
For lunch we had barley and beetroot salad. For dessert – a peanut butter wrap.
Barley Salad with Beetroot (again, Bissim, the new cook book my mother brought from Israel)
1 cup uncooked barley
2 beetroot, uncooked
1/2 an apple, peeled and cut to small cubes
Dressing:
1 shallot, diced
1 tbs balsamic vinaigrette
1 crushed garlic clove
1/4 tbs grated fresh ginger
Lemon juice from 1 lemon (or more to taste)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Soak the barley in cold water for 30 min. drain and cook covered in water for 20 minutes or until crunchy and soft enough to eat. Set aside, mixed with a little olive oil.
Peel the beetroot and cut into small cubes. Saute in a wide pan with olive oil, a bit of salt and some water. If it dries up too quickly add some water. After abut 30 minutes the beetroot should be soft and after all the liquid evaporated, shiny.
Mix all the dressing ingredient apart from the olive oil. Set aside for 10 minutes and then add 2 tbs olive oil slowly.
Mix the barley, beetroot, apple and dressing and add extra olive oil/lemon juice as need.
Peanut butter Wrap
1 wrap
3 gigantic tbs of peanut butter
Pull out a wrap from the package and lay flat on the kitchen counter, regardless if it’s unclean or there are other objects already on the kitchen counter.
Spread the peanut butter as evenly as possible, but not a must, on the wrap.
Roll the wrap and move away from the kitchen as quickly as possible, leaving the package, the peanut butter jar and the knife used to spread it with, on the kitchen counter.
Imagine a tall Norwegian guy sitting in his hot tub on a Saturday morning, sipping a cocktail.
My dear friend Hallstein has a new tumblr where he posts his Saturday morning breakfasts.
Cocktail umbrellas? Check!
Soap bubbles?? Check!
Him naked??? you will have to find that one out for yourselves.
Up until a month ago the hangover was in London. Now in New York. Soon, Oslo.
It is May and we are still eating Matzos.
We already had the obligatory Matza Brie and I even tried to make a version with mozzarella cheese and scallions (it wasn’t bad at all…). This version is by far the best solution to the famous crackers that just won’t go away.
Leek Latkes with crushed matzos (from Bissim)
5 large leeks, trimmed and cleaned
2 tbs olive oil
6 scallion, chopped
2 matzos, crushed as fine as possible
2 eggs
Parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
Sauté the leeks until soft, add the scallions, mix well, and when all the liquid has evaporated take off the and wait until cool.
Mix the fine matzos with the rest of the ingredients and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
Make patties and fry in oil. Best eaten warm (with yogurt sauce on the side) but cold would also work. We never got to that point – they were all gone by the time we finished the meal.
This week we treaded through dirty puddles and boarded trains stuffed to the brim.
Last week we walked on windy cliffs and collected pebbles on the coral beach.
We counted sheep and saw seals and seagulls.
And we had dinner at the Three Chimneys.
We ate aubergine with capsicum and sultana salad with mustard leaves and minted cucumber.
And charred mackerel with arisaig mussel and fennel risotto.
And that was just the start.
For mains we had baked Lanark blue cheesecake with grapes, rocket and pine kernels with wild thyme and shallot dressing.
And River Esk salmon with anna potatoes, mixed cress, carrots, asparagus and moon bay prawn butter.
We walked to the place through the fields and found our way by the shape of the Loch.
The road was taken.
And the train, and the bus, and the taxi and the airplane. Eventually we arrived at the Old Byre on the Isle of Skye for a much needed break. There was neither internet connection nor mobile reception in our little piece of heaven. Who knew life could be so simple.
After the gefilte fish, the chopped liver and the chicken soup with matzo balls.
After the charoset and the quail eggs in salt water.
After the rack of lamb marinated in herbs, the salmon in pistachio and mango salsa, the fiery green beans in tomatoes and harrisa and the roasted parsnips and carrots in cumin and honey.
After the sweet potato gratin, the green salad with figs and roasted cashews and the fennel and pomegranate and feta cheese salad.
After all of that came the dessert – Maayan’s gorgeous flourless chocolate cake and my three-tier pudding made of caramelized matzos, creme patisserie and fresh berries. It will make your heart skip a beat, if it doesn’t break your teeth first.
Caramel Matzos
The matzos were first washed and left for 30 minutes covered with a tea towel.
Cut each matzo into quarter and fry them in sunflower oil.
In a separate pan, melt 1 cup of sugar and wait until criminalized. You may need to add another cup of sugar if you run out of caramel. Be careful not to burn
the caramel – then you’ll have to start all over again.
With two spoons dip each matzo in the caramel and let cool on a non-stick baking sheet.
Easy and lovely Creme Patisserie
2 cups whole milk (4%) milk
1 tsp vanilla paste (or 1 vanilla pod, scrapped)
3 egg yolks
3 tbs sugar
2 tbs cornstarch
Bring the milk and vanilla paste in a small pan to simmering point. If using a vanilla stick – scrape the inside of the stick into the pan and add the stick too. When the milk boils discard the stick after removing all the grains.
Mix in a bowl the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch.
When the milk is ready, remove from the heat and add to the egg mixture, one tablespoon at a time. After each spoon mix well. After about half a cup of hot milk was added to the egg mixture, put the whole thing into the milk and stir well.
Return the pan to the heat and stir constantly, until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Remove from the heat and stir briskly.
Transfer to a clean bowl, cover with cling film and allow the mixture to cool down. If the mixture is not completely smooth, further mixing after cooling will fix it.
After the cream reached room temperature, stir vigorously until you get a smooth texture. Store in the refrigerator.
Putting it all together is up to your own imagination. I layered it gently and hoped it wouldn’t collapse by the time it arrived at the table. A sprinkle of icing sugar helped too.
It is the night before the Big Night and we are getting ready for a marathon cooking tomorrow.
The good news – the meat is already marinating (rack of lamb in a chili/mint/parsley/garlic marinade) and I don’t have to worry about neither the gefilte fish (my mother brought her expertise with her) nor the chicken soup (Eyal’s specialty). Yochai is bringing chopped liver, the first to enter this house.
The bad news – I’ve decided to embark on a challenging dessert – creme patisserie with strawberries and caramel matzos, a tower of goodness and beauty, but alas, the preparation is enormous and the whole thing has yet to be tested.
(In the photo, before the nervous breakdown)
The math:
The event: 1 Passover dinner, the Mother of all dinners!
The date: Friday night – 5 more nights to go.
Attending: 11.
The menu: 4 (entrées) + 2 ( main courses) + 5 (vegetable dishes) + 2 kinds of dessert.
The wine: We ordered a case from a new local wine shop that brings wine from the Loire valley = Trés cool.
Schnitzelim 