Mandelbrot

See these slices of Mandelbrot? I offered one to a friend of mine who is Italian-American and he said “I love biscotti. Thanks!”

And of course he was right. Mandelbrot is the Jewish version of biscotti: cookies (or biscuits) that have been baked twice. First you bake the sweet dough in the form of a low cake and when it is finished baking and cools, you slice the loaf and toast the slices until they’re dry and crispy.

In my family we prefer the slices soft, so I serve Mandelbrot after only one baking, which means they actually aren’t exactly bi-scotti. But they are really good. At your house you can do it either way of course.

Mandelbrot (like biscotti) can be plain or be swirled with chocolate or contain chopped nuts and/or fruit. This is our favorite family version. 

It freezes well in case you want to make some in advance.

Mandelbrot

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine

• 1 cup sugar

• 3 large eggs

• 2-1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 tablespoon brandy or apple juice

• 1 teaspoon almond extract

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup chopped nuts

• 1/3 cup cut up candied cherries

• 1/3 cup chocolate chips

• 1/3 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a mixer set at medium speed for about 2 minutes or until creamy and well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add 2-1/2 cups of the flour, baking powder, brandy, almond extract and salt and beat at medium speed until the ingredients are thoroughly blended. Blend in the remaining flour if the pastry is very sticky. Fold in the nuts, cherries, chocolate chips and raisins. On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into thirds and shape each piece into an oval loaf about 1-1/2 to 2 inches thick. Place the loaves on the cookie sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool. Serve sliced, as is, or toast the slices for extra crispness.

Makes 3 loaves. 

NOTE: sometimes I cut the dough in half, rather than thirds, to make larger loaves/slices. These need a few more minutes of baking time.

Tomatoes Stuffed with Bulgur Wheat, Raisins and Pine Nuts

Although it’s a nice reminder, it doesn’t have to be Meatless Monday for me to want a vegetarian dinner. Sometimes I am just sick of meat.

I grew up in the kind of house where dinner was the traditional: meat, starch, vegetable. We sometimes had vegetarian meals although my mother never called them that. When dinner included no meat or fish it was called a “dairy” meal. Once in a while my mother made a veggie burger, but that was rare indeed.

There was never anything like you see in the photo here: a tomato stuffed with bulgur wheat, toasted pignolis, raisins and fresh spinach. 

Styles have changed. I still prepare the kind of dinners my mother made, although usually it’s meat and two vegetables and only sometimes a starch. This is the way I am used to eating.

But, as I said, sometimes I need a change, meaning a good vegetarian dinner, like this stuffed tomato. By itself it may not be enough for dinner, so add a soup or other vegetarian item to make a meal of it. Or serve two per person. It also goes nicely with grilled fish.

Tomatoes Stuffed with Bulgur Wheat, Raisins and Pine Nuts

• 6 large tomatoes
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large clove garlic, chopped
• 1 bunch spinach, washed thoroughly, dried and chopped
• 1/2 cup bulgur wheat
• 1 cup water or vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Slice off top part of the tomatoes and scoop the insides (save the pulp for other recipes). Sprinkle the insides of the tomatoes with salt and pepper. Place the tomatoes upside down on a rack. Heat one tablespoon olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the pine nuts and cook for 2-3 minutes or until lightly toasted. Remove the nuts and set aside. Add the remaining olive oil to the pan. Add the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes or until just beginning to soften. Add the garlic and spinach and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the spinach has wilted. Add the bulgur wheat and mix ingredients. Add the water, bring the liquid to a boil, then remove the pan from the heat. Cover the pan and let rest for 25-30 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Add the raisins, parsley, dill, mint and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss ingredients and spoon into the hollowed tomatoes.

Makes 6 servings.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

Fresh Tomato Sauce

Some people are lucky enough to grow tomatoes and by this time in August the vines in their gardens are hanging low with red, ripe, wonderful stuff waiting to be picked.

Some of those lucky people have so many tomatoes they don’t even know what to do with them.

I am not one of those people. As I have written, I got two measly little tomatoes from the plants I tried to grow in my backyard. 

But a friend took pity on me as she does every year. Because this happens every year. She nods her head at my pathetic little tomato patch and brings me a whole harvest from hers. I am so lucky to have her in my life (for many reasons).

I know what to do with those tomatoes too. After having my fill on sandwiches, eating them with avocados and stuffing and baking them as a side dish, I make red sauce for spaghetti.

Red sauce made with fresh tomatoes is an entirely different thing than the kind made with canned. I am not saying either is better. Just different.

See for yourself. This recipe is really easy:

Fresh Tomato Sauce

•  16-18 plum tomatoes or 8 large tomatoes

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 1 large clove garlic, chopped

• 3-4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat a large pot of water. When it comes to a boil, add the tomatoes. Cook for 20 seconds. Drain the tomatoes under cold water. Pierce the tomato near the stem end with the tip of a sharp knife and pull back to remove the skin. Cut the tomatoes in half crosswise and squeeze out the seeds. Chop the tomatoes into small pieces and set aside. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes or until softened. Add the garlic and cook briefly. Add the tomatoes, basil and salt and pepper to taste. Cook over low-medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 15-30 minutes, or until it has reached the desired consistency.

Makes enough for one pound of pasta (about 3 cups)

Applesauce Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I love when apple season starts. Mostly because I think the apples for sale in the market are tasteless and boring and the new varieties are way too sweet. I prefer the old fashioned apples I can get, but only once a year, at the local orchard.

Winesap, Gravenstein, Stayman. These taste like I remember apples tasting when I was a kid. The way apples are supposed to taste. Crisp, tart and sweet at the same time. Fresh. With real floral-fruit flavor that makes it seem as if it was just picked, not stored in a bin for a few months.

I don’t think of myself as a food snob who only buys at specialty stores and sneers at supermarkets. I shop at supermarkets all the time.

But apples are another story. So I eat them and cook with them mostly in the autumn when I can get the good ones. Rhode Island Greenings for pie. Winesaps and Northern Spys for cake. Jonathans and Romes for baked apples.

This week I’m thinking about Apple Cake because Rosh Hashanah is just a few weeks away and apple cake of one kind or another is always on my menu for the new year holiday. 

Applesauce Sour Cream Coffee Cake

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup butter

• 1/2 cup applesauce

• 1/3 cup sour cream

• 1 large egg, beaten

• 1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon peel

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

• 1/3 cup milk

streusel topping:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 3 tablespoons cold butter

• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/3 cup chopped nuts

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease an 8” square cake pan. Beat the sugar and butter together with a hand mixer or electric mixer set at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the applesauce, sour cream, egg and lemon peel and beat the ingredients for 1-2 minutes or until smooth. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl. Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat until well blended. Add half the milk and beat until well blended. Repeat until all the flour and milk have been used up. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Combine the streusel topping ingredients and mix them with your fingers, a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture is mealy. Sprinkle over the batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan 10 minutes then carefully invert the cake twice onto a cake rack to cool completely. Turn the cake right side up to cool completely.

Makes 8-10 servings

Bluefish Cakes with Sun Dried Tomatoes

I only know one other person besides me who likes bluefish. And he only likes it because he goes fishing for them and he likes the fishing so he tolerates the eating part.

My husband Ed, who rarely complains about anything I cook and will eat almost everything I cook, complains about bluefish and won’t eat it. So I make some for myself sometimes when he is out at dinnertime.

Then, if there are any leftovers I make those into something for myself too because Ed won’t eat any of the leftovers either.

Obviously people do eat bluefish because it’s always for sale at the fish store at this time of year. Granted  this fish is relatively cheap but you don’t eat food just because it’s cheap. Not bluefish anyway; there are other, more popular choices in the inexpensive category.

For all of you out there, unknown to me, I know you’re there, loving bluefish as much as I do — here’s what I did recently with some of the leftovers: I made them into fishcakes with sun dried tomatoes and potatoes.

They were spectacular. Soft inside, with crispy crusts, and that tangy taste from the tomatoes. I used bluefish of course but any leftover fish would do.

Bluefish Cakes with Sun Dried Tomatoes

2 medium Yukon gold potatoes

2 cups crumbled cooked bluefish (or any leftover fish)

1 large egg

1 thick scallion, finely chopped

1/4 cup chopped black imported olives

1/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

all-purpose flour for dredging, about 1/4 cup

2 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoon olive oil

lemon quarters

Cut the potatoes into large chunks and cook them in lightly salted water for 12-15 minutes or until tender. Drain under cold water and peel. Mash the potatoes and place them in a bowl. Add the fish, egg, scallion, olives, tomatoes, parsley, mustard and salt and pepper to taste. Mix the ingredients to distribute them evenly. Shape portions of the mixture into 4 patties about 1/2-thick. Dredge the patties in the flour and shake off excess. Heat the butter and olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, add the patties and cook for about 3 minutes per side or until hot, crispy and golden brown. Serve garnished with lemon quarters. Makes 4 servings

I’m good at indoor plants. Phalaenopsis love me. My Christmas Cactus flowers every year on schedule. The Ivy is thriving. I even grew new Croton from branch roots.

Outdoors? Not so much. 

Whatever I’m doing is not the right thing to do. Every year I plant tomato plants. I get one or two tomatoes at the end of the season.

Like the one in the photo (of two in my garden). 

It’s probably because I plant them too late. I buy them early but I really hate gardening so the plants sit on my kitchen counter for a couple of weeks and they are already in a sad state by the time I get them outdoors.

In any event, two green tomatoes aren’t enough for pie or chutney. And I have enough red tomatoes from someone else’s garden. So I decided to make fried green tomatoes as a side dish. Only I didn’t want to fry, so I baked them instead.

Quite yummy.

Baked Green Tomatoes

2 medium to large green tomatoes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder to taste

1 large egg, beaten

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Sriracha

1-1/2 cups Panko or corn meal

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Slice the tomatoes about 1/8-inch thick. Place the flour in a shallow dish. Add the salt, pepper and garlic powder and mix to distribute the ingredients thoroughly. Coat the tomato slices with the flour mixture. Shake off the excess. Beat the egg and Sriracha in a dish. Dip the coated slices in the beaten egg mixture, covering the slices completely. Coat the slices with the Panko or corn meal. Place the tomato slices on the cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn the tomatoes over and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Makes 4 servings

Chick Pea and Carrot Salad

Chick Pea and Carrot Salad

I’ve learned that if you serve salads that are colorful, that don’t have the same-old, same-old greens but do contain some interesting ingredients, even people who say they hate salads will eat them. Or at least try them.

A few days ago I posted a recipe for a cauliflower salad that I served at a party recently and was a big hit. So was this one. Lots of people remarked about how bright the orange was and how they liked the bumpy look of carrots and chick peas.

It was intriguing so they tried it. And liked it.

Chick Pea and Carrot Salad

• 1 15-ounce can chickpeas

• 4 medium carrots, sliced thin

• 1/2 chopped red onion

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 3 tablespoons lemon juice

• salt to taste

Rinse the chickpeas under cold running water; let drain and place in a bowl. Add the carrots, onion, parsley, mint, cumin and cayenne pepper and toss to distribute the ingredients evenly. Pour in the olive oil and lemon juice. Toss to coat the ingredients evenly. Taste for seasoning and add salt to taste.

Makes 6 servings

Cauliflower Salad with Olives, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Peas

I like the old favorites: cole slaw, potato salad and so on. But after a couple of months of summer, the same old grilled food accompaniments get a bit boring, so I begin to make more vegetable salads instead.

Ages ago I discovered that cauliflower is one of the good vegetable choices for salad. I love cauliflower hot, any way at all: plain old steamed or roasted with herbs or sprinkled with cheese. But the cauliflowers have been so especially good this year that I’ve experimented using them in whole grain salads and even as the main salad item itself. 

I served this cauliflower salad at a party recently and it went over very well.

Cauliflower Salad with Olives, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Peas

1 head cauliflower

1/2 cup chopped imported olives

1/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes

1/2 cup thawed frozen peas

3 scallions, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

toasted pignoli nuts, optional

Trim the cauliflower and cut the florets into bite size pieces. Wash and place in a saucepan, covered with water. Bring to a boil, cover the pan, lower the heat and cook for about 6 minutes or until tender but still crispy. Drain and place the pieces in a bowl. Add the olives, sun dried tomatoes, peas and scallions. Pour the olive oil over the vegetables and toss. Pour in the lemon juice and sprinkle in the oregano. Toss ingredients to distribute them evenly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Mix in pignoli nuts if desired. Let rest for at least 15 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings

Grilled Sardines

Kids grow up believing all sorts of stuff. Like my niece, who thought french fried potatoes came from a box in the freezer.

Okay, she was only 6 years old. She stayed over at my house and I made french fries for dinner. From potatoes. And when her Mom and Dad came to pick her up one of the first things she told them was that “Aunt Ronnie makes french fries from a potato.”

It was an understandable mistake and I made a similar one when I was a kid.

I thought sardines came from a can. My mother, who loved sardines, ate them once or twice a week. I remember she made a big deal about opening the can, which had a thin metal top that you had to use a key to roll open. 

I didn’t realize then that there were real sardines, in the fish store, that you could cook and eat. But after I did, and grilled a few, I understood that they were a completely different item than canned sardines.

I like canned sardines.

But I love fresh sardines. 

Grilling sardines couldn’t be easier. We eat them as an appetizer, but you could certainly make more and have them for dinner.

By the way, fresh fish is monumentally expensive these days. But not sardines.

Grilled Sardines

8 fresh whole sardines

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

one lemon, cut in half

Preheat an outdoor grill or oven broiler to medium. Coat the fish with the olive oil. Sprinkle with oregano, salt and pepper. Grill the fish for 2-3 minutes per side or until crispy and cooked through. Squeeze the fish with fresh lemon juice and serve. Makes 4 appetizer servings

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Blueberry Crumb Cake

The blueberries are so fat and gorgeous now that last week I baked a Blueberry Crumble Pie and this weekend I had to bake this Blueberry Crumb Cake.

My Dad once planted a blueberry bush in our backyard and we were all thrilled the first summer we saw those little fruit things thriving, somehow escaping that rabbit, the one who nibbled all my parents’ strawberries. Those blueberries had that grayish-sheen skin and kiwi green inside that tells of great fruit. They were plump and sweet but also tart.

Perfect for cake. Which my mother made. Like this one, only she used a traditional streusel top and I changed that to get a more crumbly crust-type top.

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Crumb Layer:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1/3 cup quick oats

• 1/2 cup finely chopped nuts

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Place the flour, brown sugar, oats, nuts, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl and mix until well blended. Pour in the butter and blend it in. Let cool for 4-5 minutes, then crumble the mixture using your fingers. Set aside.

Cake:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

• 2 cups flour

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 large eggs

• 1 cup milk

• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 cups blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-1/2-inch springform pan. Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk, vanilla extract and melted butter. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and stir only to combine: do not overbeat. Turn the batter into the prepared pan. Top with the berries and press them down into the batter gently. Cover with the crumb layer. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes one cake serving 8-10