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sprinklefingers:

the night before last i was in bed trying to get sleepy enough to fall asleep. with a few minutes to spare before my self-imposed curfew (of 11pm,) i was using my trusty telephone to google phrases that might result in something i’ve never seen before.

and guess what? i found something i’ve…

if you learn how to roast a chicken you can make a delicious and different dinner every night of the week. I’ve never seen this item in the stores but I can imagine how weird it must be to open a can and see a whole chicken stuffed inside of it. I think canned, frozen and packaged foods have some real value and even the greatest cooks and cookbook authors use items like frozen peas, canned beans and the like. But a whole chicken? A whole chicken? Someone out there who has actually tried this — I would love to hear from you!

Sprinklefingers and the Monstrous Sandwich

sprinklefingers:

wcfoodies:

deleteyourself:

Burger King now has a quad-stacked hamburger. With a large coke and fries that comes out to a whopping 1840 calories. Don’t forget to add some “Funnel Cake Sticks” for dessert.

Every time you eat, you’re voting for a food system. The less shit like this we consume, the less likely we are to see unnecessary, unhealthy abominations like this on the international menu. This is disrespectful all the way up the chain, from the animals slaughtered for this base gluttony to the farmers out there who put care into their meats and produce to the consumer, both those of us who’d never touch this sandwich to those who would. It doesn’t matter if you wouldn’t eat this; other Americans will, and we’ll both pay the price, they with their health and we with our tax dollars to support rising medical costs for a nation poisoning itself.

How do you stop it? Don’t eat this sandwich. Don’t eat from fast food restaurants, period. Vote with your dollars by shopping at the farmer’s market. Vote with your stomach by eating real food, grown on real farms. Don’t give in to convenience and excess just because you can.

Amen to that, sister.

I’d like to sneak a peak to see who actually orders this monstrosity. It is positively suicidal. Or is it homicidal? Do these guys have some secret plan with the drug companies who manufacture diabetes medication?

Carrot and Parsnip Fries

Man and woman does not live by french fries alone, although sometimes that’s all I think I want for dinner.

But french fries aren’t the healthiest thing and besides they can be messy to make if you cook them from scratch.

Long ago I tried to find an alternative because I realized I would never be able to eat as many french fries as I’d like to. Nothing really comes close. I’ve tried the baked fries, but really, they’re awful unless you put a whole lot of olive oil on them and then, what’s the point?

On the other hand, if you don’t use potatoes your expectations aren’t the same. When you make carrot “fries” or green bean “fries” you don’t expect them to taste like regular french fries so you don’t make the comparison in the first place. You can even bake them rather than fry them and it’s okay because your mind is not thinking the usual.

I make carrot and parsnip fries at least once a week. They’re roasted. It’s one of the vegetables that I DOUBLE at dinner because everyone, I mean, everyone who eats dinner at my house, loves these things.

They’re not french fries. But they’re really really good.

Try some. This is from my book, Hip Kosher.

Carrot and Parsnip Fries

• 1 pound carrots
• 1 pound parsnips
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• salt to taste
• 3 tablespoons chopped mixed fresh herbs, optional

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Peel the carrots and parsnips and cut them into strips about 4-inches long, 1/2-inch wide and place them on a baking sheet. Pour the olive oil over the vegetables and toss them to coat each piece. Sprinkle with salt and the optional herbs. Roast for about 20 minutes, turning them once or twice, or until the vegetables are tender and lightly crispy.

Makes 4 servings

Potato Pancakes with Smoked Salmon, Sour Cream and Chives

Potato pancakes for breakfast? 

Yes indeed. It’s one of our New Year’s Day favorites. My cousins come to stay with us for a few days and we usually eat a couple of days of smoked fish (salmon, sturgeon, whitefish and herring) with bagels. But New Year’s Day should be a little more special so a couple of times I’ve made very large potato pancakes (like 6-inches) and served them with smoked salmon on top, capped with a blob of sour cream garnished with chopped fresh chives and sometimes with red salmon caviar.

Quite luxurious to eat. Beautiful and festive looking too. And it’s easy. You can make the pancakes ahead and reheat them to hot and crispy in a 425 degree oven, then serve them with the cold smoked salmon and sour cream on top.

I’ve given a potato pancake recipe before, but I change it slightly for New Year’s breakfast. When I couple it with something cold, like smoked fish, I prefer a shreddy texture — it makes crispier pancakes (so I don’t grate or chop the potatoes. I use the shredding blade on a food processor). I also don’t use baking powder because I like the pancake flatter and unpuffed — a better texture with the moist, cool fish.

Potato Pancakes with Smoked Salmon, Sour Cream and Chives

• 4 large Russet-type baking potatoes, peeled

• 1 large yellow onion

• 3 tablespoons bread crumbs 

• 2 large eggs

• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

• freshly ground black pepper to taste

• vegetable oil for frying

• 12 large slices smoked salmon

• dairy sour cream (about 1 cup)

• chopped chives or salmon caviar

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Shred the potatoes and onion using the shredding disk of a food processor. Using a handful or two at a time, place the shreds into a kitchen towel and squeeze as much liquid out as possible, then place the shreds in a bowl. Repeat with the remaining potato-onion mixture. Add the bread crumbs and toss the ingredients. Add the eggs, salt and pepper and mix to distribute the ingredients thoroughly. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Heat about 1/4-inch vegetable oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot enough to make a bread crumb sizzle, fry each portion, one at a time, for 2-3 minutes per side or until browned and crispy. Keep each pancake warm in the preheated oven until you finish frying all the batter. Place the pancakes on 6 plates. Top each with two slices of salmon. Top with a blob of sour cream in the center. Garnish the top of the sour cream with some chopped chives or a dollop of salmon caviar.

Makes 6 servings 

Baked Marinated Pineapple

London broil is definitely not filet mignon and olives aren’t truffles.

And yet, many years ago, I confess, I made an elaborate New Year’s Eve dinner for friends with those very substitutions. Filet was too expensive. Truffles? Forgetaboutit. No way. So, I made Beef Bordelaise — even made the stock from scratch — using London Broil. To garnish, I sliced black olives to replace the truffles.

They didn’t even look like a good imitation of truffles.

But dinner was great, festive too. The meat was tough but no one cared. There was plenty of wine and that made everything taste better. Besides, I had asked our 6 friends to come formally attired and they all substituted jeans or corduroys, so I guess we were even.

I didn’t keep accurate records in those days but the meal started with some hors d’oeuvre and champagne. Dinner was a soup followed by the beef. I know I made asparagus — steamed, not roasted (which I usually do today) and with no Balsamic vinegar droplets because no one knew about that in those days. I think there was also a mushroom ragout and roasted potatoes.

I do remember dessert, fabulous looking (and tasting) meringue-topped pineapple halves filled with fruit that had been macerated with Grand Marnier and Meyer’s rum. I remember because my husband Ed and I had recently been to London and eaten in a restaurant called Parkes, where we ordered this dessert at the suggestion of a friend who had been there before us. I worked out the recipe, long ago, and have been making this dessert, for which everyone is grateful, ever since.

Here’s the recipe:

Baked Marinated Pineapple

1 large pineapple

6 tablespoons confectioners sugar

3 tablespoons orange flavor brandy

3 tablespoons dark rum

4 large egg whites

3/4 cup sugar

Cut the pineapple in half lengthwise, keeping the leaves intact. Carve the flesh from the shell, remove and discard the fibrous core and cut the flesh into chunks. Place the chunks in a bowl and add the confectioners sugar, brandy and rum. Toss ingredients and refrigerate for 1-5 hours. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Beat the egg whites with the whisk attachment of a standing mixer (or use a hand beater) until they are foamy. Gradually add the sugar and gradually increase the speed to high; beat until the whites stand in stiff, glossy peaks. Place the macerated fruit and its juices back into the two pineapple half shells. Spread the meringue over the fruit. making sure to spread the meringue to the edges, sealing in the fruit. Place the filled pineapple halves on a cookie sheet. Wrap the leaves in foil to protect them form burning. Bake the pineapple for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove the foil and serve. Makes 6 servings 

Blueberry Muffins

When you’re used to plain yogurt and dried apricots for breakfast every day, the rare, occasional blueberry muffin becomes a luxurious treat. It’s not as if I can’t buy a fresh blueberry muffin at any bakery or coffee shop, any time. Or even make my own. They only take a few minutes to make and a few minutes to bake.

But I think of blueberry muffins as dreadfully fattening, especially the post-modern 21st century variety that looks three times bigger than I remember blueberry muffins from my youth.

When I first started working I was young and slim and everyone in the office brought in breakfast, so I did too. My choice was a yogurt (a rarity then) plus a blueberry muffin. Within 6 months I had gained 10 pounds.

I always attributed the gain to the blueberry muffins, so I stopped buying them.

I have to say, when you don’t eat something that you consider delicious for a long time, you really appreciate it when you do eat it.

I am going to make some blueberry muffins sometime between now and New Year’s Day when my cousins are at my house for a long-weekend sleepover. We’ll get a little bored with the smoked fish we usually eat, even the luxurious version I’ll serve on New Year’s Day (with smoked salmon on top of potato pancake). So blueberry muffins it will be. A simple breakfast goodie. A couple of scrambled eggs and hot coffee and we’ll be satisfied.

By the way, if you don’t have buttermilk you can use plain kefir or yogurt or make this: 1 tablespoons lemon juice plus enough milk to equal one cup; let stand for 5 minutes. 

Blueberry Muffins

• 4 tablespoons butter

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 cup buttermilk

• 1 large egg

• 1 tablespoon grated fresh orange peel

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin. Melt the butter and set it aside. In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In a second bowl, mix the buttermilk, egg, orange peel and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and stir only to blend ingredients (do not mix vigorously). Fold in the berries. Drop the batter in equal amounts into the prepared muffin tin cups (the number will depend on the size of the muffins) to about 2/3 filled. Bake for 22-26 minutes, depending on size, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 9-12

sprinklefingers: birds of a feather

sprinklefingers:

i’m in love with sprinklefingers’ readers. especially ronnie fein. we’ve found a connection through food - talking about it, thinking about it, cooking it - and we have a place to discuss it all (the magical internets.) and it’s a good thing we have the web because ms. fein lives all the way on…

I’m not so good at this Tumblr stuff either, so I’m reblogging here with a very big thank you for your very very generous words. Feels really good. With all that you said about eloquence, I find myself speechless. So, just thank you!

That said, the beloved “internets” is certainly a grand way to make friends and have relationships with people you may never meet in the “real world.” We have read each other’s blog and feel a kinship, “birds of a feather,” as you say. How lucky that modern technology gives us a way to connect with more people in our lives.

So, because I find what you choose to write about so well done and also love the way you write it, I encourage everyone reading this to check your blog http://www.sprinklefingers.com/ because it is informative, funny, interesting and just a great read.

Hope your Christmas dinner was as good and satisfying as you had hoped.

Just to let you know that you blogged about Jeni’s ice cream and I ordered some. Can’t wait to taste the Sweet Potato with Torched Marshmallow.

Lily Vail’s Nut Roll

Once, on New Year’s Eve, it snowed so much that we had 28 people for a sleepover at our house. My parents had invited my mother’s family to come celebrate — so long ago that I can’t remember what year — and no one could go home.

Okay, forget the Ben Franklin quote about how guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. And forget what my father might have been thinking about the various characters on my mother’s side. There was no way anyone could shovel out and get home, so they stayed.

That meant food.

Fortunately my mother was the kind of person who always had enough food stored away, just in case — you name the disaster, she was prepared for it, ingredients anyway, if not actual cooked food put up and frozen.

Those were days when — for us at least — freezers were a new thing and my parents ordered a “freezer plan” that included a quarter of a cow and dozens of boxes of frozen vegetables. 

I honestly don’t remember what my mom and her sisters cooked but I am quite certain they served nut roll, my mother’s most famous and beloved confection. She’d make 6 of those at a time and whenever someone came to the house she would take one out of the freezer for dessert.

I’ve made the nut roll a few times and never could get it quite as good as hers. Maybe that has something to do with memory. Maybe I never wanted mine to be as good as hers.

But no one else has that particular emotional pull so here’s the recipe. Delicious in any weather, spring or winter, snow or no, from the freezer, thawed and warmed up or straight from the oven:

Lily Vail’s Nut Roll

• 7 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 pound butter, cut into chunks

• 1 cup dairy sour cream

• 4 large egg yolks

• 1/4 cup milk

• sugar (about 1-1/2 cups)

• cinnamon

• 1-1/2 pounds shelled, finely chopped walnuts

• 2 egg whites, slightly beaten

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl (or electric mixer bowl). Blend the ingredients thoroughly. Add the butter and work it into the dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the sour cream, egg yolks and milk and blend thoroughly. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and beat the ingredients until a smooth, uniform dough has formed. Cut the dough into 6 pieces and wrap each piece separately. Refrigerate over night of for at least 8 hours. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll each piece, one at a time into a thin circle. Sprinkle each circle with some sugar (about 1/4 cup for each of the 6 circles). Sprinkle with cinnamon to taste. Sprinkle with equal amounts of the nuts. Roll the circles tightly, jellyroll style and place them seam side down on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Brush the outside of each roll with some of the beaten egg whites. Bake for about 40 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool and cut into slices. Makes 6 rolls

Almond Chicken Nuggets

We’re snowed in and that’s fine with me because I love a quiet day at home. I can read and also catch up on Rubicon, which I realize has been over for quite some time now but not in my house. We’re only through episode #5.

Mostly I am going to cook because my cousins are coming for the New Year’s weekend. I need lots of food and wine. But, to tell the truth, less food and wine than last year and that was less than the year before and certainly much less than, say 15 years ago.

You eat and drink less as you get older. At least that’s what we are finding out.

Our new year’s weekend get together started years and years ago, when we were young and had little kids and we had learned about the usually awful service at restaurants on New Year’s Eve and we were too tired to party at some friend’s house into the wee small hours and besides a babysitter would have cost double that night. So we decided on sleepovers.

After a few years my brother and sister-in-law, once skiers, decided that dinner at my house with the cousins was less of a schlep, so the tradition grew to include their family. We’d feed the kids and send them down to the basement playroom or to bed and we’d have dinner late, they way you can when you’re young.

I used to have a different menu every New Year’s Eve and over the years there were wonderful dinners, but also some disasters. Like the Beef Stroganoff, grayish and awful looking, so many years ago that no one teases about it anymore because it’s such an old thing.

After years and years we finally settled on a couple of entrees we’d stick to: rib roast or rack of lamb. And even that passed. Now we always have rib roast with Rosemary Sauteed Potatoes and some vegetable or other. Desserts are Apple Pie and some kind of (usually plum) cobbler that I made in October or November when the fruit was available, and stored away in the freezer.

And because we’re older now and we can’t eat (or drink) the same quantities that we used to and find it stressful to fill up at one meal, we begin our celebration at mid day with hors d’oeuvre. Those change every year, although I always make Chicken-Almond Nuggets because they are irresistible. They’re also easy to make and I can freeze them ahead.

I’ll make some today in fact. It’s a good day for it. And in case you’re snowbound or just feel like cooking something really wonderful, here’s the recipe.

Almond Chicken Nuggets

• 2 whole boneless and skinless chicken breasts

• 1 large egg white

• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon Chinese cooking sherry (or use white wine or sherry)

• 1-1/2 cups ground almonds

• vegetable oil for frying

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and put them in a large bowl. Add the egg white,  cornstarch, salt and sherry and mix until the chicken pieces are uniformly coated with the mixture. Dredge the chicken pieces in the almonds, pressing to coat the entire piece. Set aside, preferably on a cake rack, for 20-30 minutes to air dry slightly. Heat 1/4-inch vegetable oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot enough to make an almond crumb sizzle, fry the chicken pieces a few at a time for 2-3 minutes per side or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Do not crowd the pan when frying the chicken. Makes about 36 pieces. Serve hot. 

These may be reheated in a hot oven (425 degrees) for 2-3 minutes per side (more if the nuggets have ben frozen or refrigerated and cold). 

Applesauce

My goose is cooked. Or should I say, prepared and ready to cook. I usually roast one during Hanukkah but the holiday was early this year and the days flew by and I never got to it. But — the stores had so many plump, good looking geese for Christmas it reminded me that I don’t need it to be Hanukkah to make one. My children and grandchildren are coming for the weekend because everyone is on the Christmas/New Year break.

So, it’ll be goose for dinner. I ordered a lovely 10-12 pounder from my butcher. Can’t wait for the meat and skin and fat.

Don’t throw out that goose fat. So silky white, smooth, luxurious and nearly tasteless. I strain it and keep it frozen. You just need a little to make a big difference in cooking.

I’ll make my own applesauce with the goose:

Applesauce: peel, core and cut up 6 apples and put it in a saucepan. I add 2-3 peeled, cored and cut up pears and about 12 dried California apricots. No water or sugar. Cover the pot and cook on low, low, low for about 35-40 minutes. That’s it. The extra apricot tang is delish, especially with meat as rich as goose.

I’ll also make some crispy potato pancakes and some sauteed Swiss chard.

Dessert: my famous Grand Finale cookies from my book, Hip Kosher.

Have a good holiday everyone!