Sweet Potato Pie

This is totally yummy – I had never had sweet potato pie until the KoD asked me to make it for him almost 2 years ago, and my sister-in-law very graciously provided me with her recipe, that she got from a friend….

You will need:

2 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp. of salt
1/8 tsp. of nutmeg
1 tsp. of cinnamon
1 cup of milk (or pareve substitute – I use Rice Dream)
2 Tablespoons of margarine, melted
1 1/2 Cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes (I usually nuke them in the microwave until soft, and then peel them)
1 8” pie shell (Or just pie pan, no pie shell necessary)
White marshmallows.

Preheat Oven to 450. Beat eggs slightly.  Add sugar, salt, spices and milk.  Add margarine to sweet potatoes, or stir in while hot.  Blend with milk and egg mixture.  Pour into pie shell.  You may use no pie shell at all, or even double and put in a 2-qt. Pyrex.  Bake in oven at 450 for 10 minutes.  Reduce to 350 for 30-40 minutes until filling is firm.  May put marshmallows on top and brown in 450 oven for a few minutes until light brown.  Do not overload the marshmallows.

Please Note – I once used multi-coloured marshmallows and let’s just say while the pie tasted wonderful it looked “interesting”.

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HSM’s BananaBerry Bread

Every time I make Banana bread I tweak the recipe a little. The last time I made banana bread I had some blueberries in the fridge that needed to be used up so I threw them in, making the bread extra delicious.

I tripled the recipe on Friday and made 5 loaves, so this will make one very nice sized loaf, or two smaller ones.

When I notice the bananas are getting too ripe I pop them in a freezer baggie (having been peeled) and into the freezer until I am ready to bake the banana bread. They can stay in the freezer for a good two weeks. However, there will be extra liquid when defrosted so bear that in mind.

You will need:

3 overripe bananas
½ cup oil or ½ lb. margarine / butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup of blueberries (you can use strawberries, choc chips, walnuts etc)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease your loaf pan(s) with Pam.
Mash the bananas well – you don’t want it lumpy.
Add the oil/margarine, sugar, flour, baking soda, vanilla, salt, and eggs.
Mix with wooden spoon until dry ingredients are moistened and batter is not lumpy. Add berries, stirring ever so gently as you don’t want the berries to get smushed.
Pour batter into pans.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned.

This picture was taken on Friday. Soon after, one of the loaves was completely demolished. There is nothing quite like fresh hot bananaberry bread.

 

Total BananaBerry Deliciousness

 

Awesome sweet potatoes

We had this the first time at my friend Esty K’s place – they were mouth wateringly yummy. I just made them for the last days of Sukkot and there were just as delicious. Esty tells me she got the recipe from Susie Fishbein’s cookbook “Kosher by Design”.

You are going to need:

About 5 Sweet Potatoes
1/2 stick Margarine
1 cup of brown Sugar
1 tbs. of Vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. of Salt
1/4 cup of whiskey or bourbon (don’t overdo it, as much as you might be tempted – and use the cheap stuff!!)

What to do:

Preheat oven to 375.
Slice sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch slices.
Steam them a bit so they bake faster.
(I threw the sweet potatoes in the microwave for 8 minutes to help them bake faster)
Meanwhile melt the margarine over low heat, add the brown sugar, vanilla and salt. Stir well till dissolved.  Add whiskey / bourbon and cook till thickened.
Spray pan with Pam and place sliced potatoes in layers. Drizzle the sauce over the top and bake uncovered 1 hour. Baste them regularly to keep from drying.
Serve hot and enjoy!!

Red Beans and Rice

Going to try to make this for dinner tonight. I highly doubt my boys will eat it, but you never know. I know the KoD will enjoy it, and I hope I will too.

INGREDIENTS

•           2 tablespoons of olive oil
•           1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
•           1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
•           2 celery stalks, diced
•           2 cloves garlic, chopped fine (or garlic powder)
•           2 cans red kidney beans, drained
•           1 cup chicken or vegetable stock – I used Manischewitz Vegetable Stock
•           1 bay leaf
•           Pinch of dried thyme
•           1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (or to taste)
•           salt and black pepper to taste
•           Tabasco sauce to taste
•           2 spicy sausages (or veggie links) browned and sliced into coins (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1.         In a medium sized heavy pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic. Cook the vegetables until soft, stirring occasionally (about 10 minutes).

2.         Add the beans, stock, herbs and spices and simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper sauce and adjust seasonings. With a potato masher, smash the beans so you have a thicker mixture with some whole beans remaining.

3.         Serve over plain white rice topped with sausage.

ETA – the boys totally loved it!!

Sweet Potato Pie

I got this recipe from my sister-in-law who is the most amazing cook ever. I made this for the past Shabbat to rave reviews. Apparently it is good cold, too.

You will need:

2 eggs
1 Cup of sugar  (May substitute Splenda)
1 tsp. salt
1/8  tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 Cup milk (or pareve substitute)
2 Tbs. margarine
1 1/2 Cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1 8” pie shell (For Gluten-free leave off pie shell)

How to:

Beat eggs slightly.
Add sugar, salt, spices and milk (or pareve substitute).
Add butter or margarine (melted) to sweet potatoes, or stir in while hot.
Blend with milk and egg mixture.
Pour into pie shell or straight into round baking pan.
Bake in oven at 450 for 10 minutes.
Reduce to 350 for 30-40 minutes until filling is firm.
May put marshmallows on top and brown in 450 oven for a few minutes until light brown.  Do not overload the marshmallows.

Chicken Italiano

The basis for this recipe comes from Norene Gilletz’s Second Helpings. Thanks to my SIL for sending me the original recipe yesterday as I don’t have my cookbook here with me. (I miss it, been a trusty companion for over 16 years….soon, soon). I added rice, as this is easy to make as a one pot meal. As I type this it is cooking in the oven. Smells divine.

So this is my adaptation:

2 cups of white rice (although I am sure you can use brown)
2 onions, sliced
1 medium green pepper, sliced
1 medium red pepper, sliced
6 -8 chicken cutlets
1 clove garlic, minced (can also use garlic powder)
¼ tsp oregano
1 can tomato sauce, 1 can water
2 bay leaves

Spray deep 9 x 13 baking pan with Pam. Cover the bottom evenly with rice. Place vegetables over the rice. Rub chicken with garlic and oregano, and add to pan. Pour tomato sauce and water over chicken, and add bay leaves. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1½  hours. 6-8 servings.

Piros Krumpli (Potatoes with Paprika)

Ingredients

1 large onion diced
2 tablespoons of oil (recipe calls for olive oil but it isn’t necessary)
2-3 tablespoons of Hungarian sweet or smoked paprika
6-8 potatoes cubed
Salt

How to:

Boil potatoes in salt water till soft – about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile sauté diced onions till transparent in oil. If I am cooking these for Shabbat, I fry my schnitzel first and use the oil to sauté the onions. Adds incredible extra flavour.

Take off heat and add paprika. Mix well.

Drain potatoes and mix with onion mixture.

If it’s dry add a little more oil.

Enjoy!!

*I got this recipe a couple of years ago from the sister of a friend.

Passover, a Kosher Collection (Book Review)

Passover, a Kosher Collection, by Pam Reiss.

Ever since this book arrived in my mailbox I have looked forward to having the time to just sit down and devour it without disruption. I love cookbooks. I love the pictures, I love the recipes, I love the stories behind the recipes. I love feeding my family in new and clever ways. I finally found the time to indulge and was in food nirvana.

Pam Reiss’s new cookbook, specially aimed at Passover (Pesach), is a delicious romp through culinary heaven. The decadent chocolate tart on the front cover is a real taste of things to come.

I am a traditionalist at heart, especially when it comes to holidays. I used to have  this mind set that Pesach cooking has to be difficult and complicated, so why bother doing anything out of the ordinary. The kids fill up on matzah, and potatoes and eggs, I will make a huge chicken soup and that’s it. No longer.

Reading my way, nay, savouring my way through Pam’s book I was struck by how simple the recipes are. Ok, some do call for a lot of ingredients, but that’s just how recipes are on Pesach. The majority of the ingredients are those a good cook would have on hand and there aren’t many complicated procedures to go through.

Pam mixes the traditional with the new. There are recipes for gefilte fish and chicken soup alongside Greek Stuffed Mushroom Caps and Kabocha Pear Soup. She has included recipes for 13 salads – one must have variety through all those holiday meals. There are side dishes galore – and they aren’t all potato related! Plenty of kugels for the traditionalists from potato, to apple raisin farfel kugel to cauliflower, leek and zucchini kugel.

Pam’s main courses are mouth watering. Unlike all the other Pesach cookbooks in my library, Pam includes dairy dishes as well as meat and poultry, fish and vegetarian too. She has included the traditional briskets and roast chickens. However I cannot wait to try the shakshuka, and eggplant parmesan, and was thrilled to see directions on how to make my own ricotta. Didn’t know one could do that so easily!! One recipe I look forward to trying this Passover is her Chicken Pot Pie with Mashed Potato Crust. My family loves my chametzdik CPP – I am sure I can wow them with her Pesachdik one. I always use the chicken left over from making chicken soup for my pie, and that is exactly what Pam suggests.

There are so many main dishes to choose from – we could eat a different meal every night of Passover and still have plenty recipes left to try. I love that there is an Osso Bucco recipe – who would have thought to make that on Pesach, but there is absolutely no reason why not. Change it up a little bit!

One thing I have never done for Pesach, is baked desserts. The amounts of eggs that go into everything coupled with no flour or magic baking powder, it was always much easier to buy the desserts. Reading Pam’s yummy dessert recipes and seeing photos of her confections has helped changed my mind. I will be attempting to replicate at least some of her delectable desserts. There are biscotti and mandlebroit, pancakes and matzah rolls, meringues and cookies, cakes and macaroons, cheesecakes and birthday cakes, several different types of tortes, crème brulee, brownies and pavlova. No one even needs to know that they are eating Passover desserts. There is no way that they could tell the difference.

Pam guides you through her recipes step by step. You do not need a degree from culinary school in order to whip up these delicious meals. You just need patience and time to spend creating wonderful meals for your family. Your family will look at Pesach in a whole new light after you cook for them from this book. You will be creating even more awesome family memories.

This book makes an awesome gift for any chef who is planning to be cooking for the upcoming holiday, or a must buy for anyone that truly wants to feed their family better food on Pesach from now on. Personally, I cannot wait to have my kitchen all Pesachified and full of the Kosher for Pesach food, so that I can start cooking up a storm. For me, Passover, a Kosher Collection, will be front and center, a major part of my pre-Pesach preparations and Pesach celebrations, not just this year, but every year.

To order your copy online, please go to www.pamreiss.com.

Kosher Jambalaya in the Crockpot

Ingredients

2 lb. diced, boneless chicken breasts (you could also used cooked chicken from a chicken soup)

3 polish beef sausages/kielbasa, sliced

1 large onion, chopped

1 red/green bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped / or garlic powder – 2 tsps

Small can tomato paste

Large can diced tomatoes (I leave these out as someone has an aversion to tomatoes. I just use a large can of tomato sauce)

3-4 cups chicken stock / beef stock

1 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. kosher salt

2 bay leaves

A scootch of Tabasco sauce

2 cups rice

Preparation

Throw everything except the rice together in the crock pot. Cook for seven hours on low. About 2 hours before you plan to serve it add the cooked rice.

Simple winter soup

Ingredients

8 cups chicken broth (or if you have leftovers of my chicken soup you can use that)

2 cups pureed pumpkin (have to cook it first. See below)

2 large onions, chopped

3 large carrots

1 tbs chopped fresh sage

3 cloves of garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Directions

Add all ingredients to an enamel pot. Simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Slow simmer for an hour until soup has thickened.

You can also add 2 or 3 peeled, cored and chopped apples for an interesting variation.

For a great presentation idea, use a hollowed out pumpkin as the soup tureen, or individual small pumpkin bowls.

How to cook a pumpkin:

Slice pumpkin down the middle and scoop out the seeds. Place pumpkin halves face down on a baking dish. Add ½ inch of water to the pan. Bake at 450 until you can pierce the skin with a fork. Remove from over, peel away the skin. Put flesh into the food processor, whizz it up a bit, there you have pureed pumpkin. Yum.