Baked, Stuffed Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Spinach

Baked potatoes are wondrous things. Tasty, filling, healthy. For me, the answer to the question: “if you could only eat one food ….”

But because I am so very much a potato lover, the potato has to be the right kind: a Russet. Sometimes called an Idaho. Or simply, a baking potato. Oval, with dark brown skin. The organic ones taste even better than the regular — the flesh is more intense, with more mineral tang. 

It’s important to bake a potato right too: preheat the oven to 400 degrees, scrub the skin and pop the potato in.

Don’t rub the skin with vegetable oil. Don’t wrap the potatoes in aluminum foil. The vegetable oil adds nothing but unnecessary calories. The foil prevents the skin from crusting properly.

After about 15 minutes baking, pierce the potato with the tip of a sharp knife (so it doesn’t explode in the oven, which it can do, I can tell you from experience). In another 45 minutes or so it’s done.

You don’t need to do anything else. The skin is crusty, the flesh steamy. Sprinkle in some salt and pepper. Add lemon juice if you want some moisture. Butter isn’t necessary, even if it is rich and luscious when mixed in.

Although I never tire of a plain baked potatoes, I do make stuffed potatoes for company or special occasions. Like during Sukkot, when stuffed foods are traditional. One of the good things about baked stuffed potatoes is that you can make them a day or so ahead (even freeze many) and then reheat at 375 degrees.

Stuffed potatoes begin with a good baked potato. After that there are all sorts of possibilities, like this one:

Baked, Stuffed Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Spinach

4 Russet type potatoes, scrubbed

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups chopped chard

8 ounces crumbled goat cheese

2 teaspoons thyme leaves, optional 

4-5 tablespoons milk

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the potatoes in the hot oven and bake for 15 minutes. Prick the potatoes with the tip of a sharp knife. Bake for another 45 minutes or until the knife can easily pierce through the potato. When the potatoes are cooked and cool enough to handle, slice them in half lengthwise and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Add the butter and mash into the potatoes. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the chard and cook for 5-6 minutes until it has softened. Press to discard as much liquid as possible and add to the potatoes. Add the goat cheese and thyme, if used, and mix ingredients gently. Mix in enough of the milk to achieve a moist and tender consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture back in equal amounts inside the potato skins. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the filled potato skins on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes or until hot, with the skins crispy. Makes 4-8 servings

Plum Torte

Food connects people. When we eat dinner together as a family or we invite guests over to share a meal. When we eat food from cultures that are different from our own or when we make food available to those who are hungry.

For me it is also a way to connect to cancer patients and their caregivers. Every second week our local Hadassah group holds a formal afternoon tea at Stamford Hospital. I’ve written about it before. Although I’ve never actually been to one of these teas nor met any of the people who eat what I’ve donated, I do know that those who are ill and undergoing treatment — as well as the friends and family who are there with them — appreciate our efforts.

A patient undergoing chemotherapy once mentioned that the banana bread I sent one day was the first thing that tasted good to him in weeks. I’ve thought about him a lot, hope he’s well, enjoying food again. It felt good that the banana bread seemed special to him.

This baking has become a way for me to reach out and offer what I could. There is no other way I can think of to help.

The season of Jewish Holidays — Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur finished, Sukkot upon us — is a time of reflection and introspection, a time to think about our place in the world and the meaning in our lives. It underscores for me the need to continue baking, to continue connecting with the patients and caregivers.

This is what I am sending this week.

Plum Torte

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 large eggs

• 15 prune plums, pit removed, quartered

• one tablespoon sugar mixed with 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for 3-4 minutes or until creamy and well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, lemon peel and salt and mix briefly to blend ingredients slightly. Add the eggs and beat at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Spoon the batter into the prepared springform pan. Arrange the plum quarters on top, pressing them slightly into the batter. Sprinkle the cake with the cinnamon sugar. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until browned, set and crispy. Let cool.

Makes 8 servings

Kaniwa Salad with Roasted Tomatoes

If you’ll be fasting for Yom Kippur (or any other holiday or before a medical procedure or diet or for any other reason), it’s good to fill up first on foods like complex carbs and beans, which help you maintain your energy levels and make you feel fuller, longer (because they take longer to digest).

Also, don’t eat salty foods (they make you too thirsty).

This salad is worth a try. It’s made with kaniwa, which is similar to quinoa only the seeds are even tinier, about the size of poppy seeds. Kaniwa is easier to use than quinoa because the seeds don’t need rinsing (quinoa is coated with natural, but bitter-tasting saponins that must be rinsed off before you cook the seeds). 

But kaniwa, like quinoa, is extremely versatile. You can bulk up this salad with all sorts of ingredients: avocado, celery, scallion, corn, peas, chopped bell pepper. And so on.

Kaniwa Salad with Roasted Tomatoes

1 cup kaniwa

1-1/2 cups halved cherry or grape tomatoes

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup cut up green string beans

1 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained

1 stalk celery, chopped, optional

1/3 cup pitted cured black or green olives, halved

1 medium avocado, chopped, optional

2 chopped scallions, optional

3-4 tablespoons lemon or lime juice

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the kaniwa in a saucepan, cover with 1-3/4 cups water and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat, cover the pan and cook for about 15 minutes until all the water has been absorbed. Place the kaniwa in a bowl and let cool. While the kaniwa is cooling, place the tomatoes in a baking dish and pour about a half tablespoon of olive oil over them. Roll the tomatoes around the dish to coat them, then roast the tomatoes for about 10 minutes or until wilter. Set aside. Cook the green beans in lightly salted water for 6-8 minutes or until crunchy-tender. Drain and add to the kaniwa. Add the roasted tomatoes and any accumulated juices. Add the beans, olives and celery, avocado and scallions, if used, and toss ingredients to distribute them evenly. Pour in the remaining olive oil and toss. Add 3 tablespoons of the lemon or lime juice, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Add more juice if needed. Let rest for 10-15 minutes before serving. Serve at room temperature.

Makes 4-6 servings

Turte

If you follow this blog you know I am not a traditional cook. Most of the time I like to experiment and make new recipes and new versions of old recipes.

But every once in a while when I am feeling nostalgic or I’m too busy or tired.

Or it’s food for a holiday. On holidays I might make some new dishes, but always include the traditional tried-and-true also.

I guess that’s part of the nostalgia thing. But it’s more too. Cooking treasured family recipes is a way of carrying on, of bringing my heritage and memories into the present and, hopefully, into the future.

So, for our annual Yom Kippur Break-the-Fast I am making Turte, a Romanian specialty from my grandma. This dessert is similar to Baklava but made with almonds instead of walnuts and sugar syrup instead of honey.

I never actually did any research about this dessert until recently, when I discovered that it is a specialty particular to the eastern part of Romania called Moldavia (the part where my grandparents were born). And apparently it is a Christmas and Easter dish.

For us, a Yom Kippur Break-the-Fast dish!

There are many versions. You can make it with thin pancakes or thin, homemade pitas. My grandmother made her own strudel dough.

I use packaged phyllo pastry. Much easier.

This is such a rich and wonderful treat, sweet and sticky and crumbly and tender all at once. My family recipe included cinnamon. I added some grated orange peel, which was a refreshing addition.

Turte

1/2 pound phyllo dough

1/2 pound melted butter

cookie or cake crumbs or ground nuts

1-1/2 cups finely chopped almonds

2 tablespoons sugar

2-3 teaspoons freshly grated orange peel

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

syrup:

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

1 teaspoon orange flower water or 2 tablespoons orange-flavored brandy or 1/2 teaspoon orange extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Layer half the phyllo dough in an 8” or 9” square baking pan, brushing melted butter and scattering crumbs between layers. In a bowl, combine the chopped almonds, 2 tablespoons sugar, orange peel, cinnamon and nutmeg. Place the nut mixture over the layers of dough. Cover the nut mixture with the remaining phyllo leaves, separating them as above. Brush the top layer with melted butter. Score the dough with the tip of a sharp knife, into squares or rectangles. Bake for 20 minutes. Raise the heat to 400 degrees and bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Make the syrup by combining the 3/4 cup sugar and the water in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring only until sugar dissolves.  Cook at a boil for a few minutes until the liquid has thickened to the consistency of cream. Do not let it become too thick or caramel colored. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the orange flavoring. Pour the syrup over the warm cake. Let the cake cool and cut it into pieces where you have scored the top.  Makes 8-12 servings

Cream Cheese-Sour Cream Rugelach

Shhhh, don’t tell anyone that I already made these and they are hidden in baggies in my freezer downstairs.

Because if my family knows that there are some of these already baked they will take one — just a nibble, just ONE, and then another and then another — straight out of the freezer. Or thawed. Or rewarmed. Any way at all.

Is there anyone who doesn’t love Rugelach?

Well, not in my family.

Which is why they are hidden, because nobody eats just one. It is impossible. And I need them for my annual Yom Kippur Break-the-Fast.   

Cream Cheese-Sour Cream Rugelach

1/2 pound butter

1/2 pound cream cheese

4 cups flour, sifted

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup dairy sour cream

filling

Beat the butter and cream cheese together in a mixer at medium speed until smooth and uniform. Add the flour and salt, blend them in slightly, but not completely. Add the sour cream and mix until a soft, smooth uniform dough has formed. Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. Wrap each piece and refrigerate for 6 hours or until thoroughly firm and cold. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll each piece of dough on a lightly floured surface about 1/4-inch thick. Spread equal amounts of filling on top. Cut each circle into 8-10 wedges. Roll the wedges from the wide end to the pointy end. Curve slightly to form a crescent. Tuck in the pointy end so it is on the bottom. Place the crescents on an ungreased cookie sheet. Refrigerate them for 30 minutes before baking. Bake for about 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 48-60

NOTE: you may roll each circle jelly-roll style and cut the rolls into Rugelach cylinders.

Chocolate-Raspberry Filling:

6 tablespoons melted butter

1 cup raspberry jam

8 ounces finely chopped chocolate

1/2 chopped finely chopped nuts, optional

Brush each dough circle with some of the melted butter; spread the raspberry jam on top, scatter the chocolate over the jam, scatter the nuts over the chocolate.

Cinnamon-Raisin-Nut Filling:

6 tablespoons melted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup finely chopped nuts

Brush each circle with some of the melted butter. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle each circle with equal amounts of the cinnamon sugar. Scatter with raisins and nuts. 

News Times

I read your article today in the news times…wonderful! I wanted to add that I make rugalach all the time and for myself I put splenda instead of sugar on the rolled out dough! For the base I use  a fruit spread or jam sweetened with fruit juice or jam with no sugar, then nuts and raisins. People can not tell the difference, and for our diabetic friends , they LOVE it!

take care,’

Barbara

Hi Barbara

Thanks for this message. I’ve never baked rugelach with Splenda but it’s good to know how delicious it is. So important for people who can’t eat sugar. 

Ronnie

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