Turkish Haroset for Passover

Last week I pulled out my tattered, splattered Jewish cookbooks to plan our Passover Seder. I really love this time of year. For years I’ve been cooking from these books religiously. Literally. I converted to Judaism 23 years ago and immersing myself in cooking enhanced my new Jewish identity. Even today, all these years later, I’m still evolving yet holding onto traditions and rituals that are dear to me. And with Passover beginning this week I’m all in, but it’s not as easy as when we lived in Seattle.

In Seattle, our local grocery store dedicated a large area to Passover. The shelves were stocked with kosher-for-Passover products,

and while shopping I’d run into friends and swap Seder menu ideas and ask questions like, “Want to share a box of matzah cake meal?” In Seattle, being a Jewish mom was a significant part of my identity. I’m still Jewish and still a mom but my children and my Jewish community are not here now, which gets me thinking about who I am and where I am now. I’ve happily chosen to be here in the Methow Valley, much as I happily chose to become Jewish, so what does it mean now, for where I am in life and where I’m finding meaning? Yes, asking questions is an important part of Passover.

There’s no place I’d rather be, both physically and in life. I’m drawn to the quieter pace and nature, and I’m growing in completely new ways. I’ve become a pilot.

Yes! Well, I’m not yet licensed but Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth. Since I was a little girl I’ve wanted to be a pilot and now I’m doing it. Since moving here I’d been looking up at the sky longingly, and when a friend out here got her pilot’s license six months ago that was the final inspiration I needed to go for it. I absolutely love flying. I have soloed now, which means I can fly alone, and I still have a LOT to learn and practice before I get my license. But I’m so happy in the air. It’s magical. This valley is the best, most beautiful place to learn to fly.

The poem High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr says it better than I can. I’ve put out my hand, and touched the face of G-d.

I’m now a pilot and I’ve still got my tattered cookbooks and it’s Passover and it’s time for haroset.

Passover is filled with symbolic foods on the Seder plate. We gather around the table and talk about each of them as we tell the story of Passover (haggadah means “telling”) leading up to the meal.

Haroset represents the mortar used with the bricks when the Jews built the pyramids in ancient Egypt. Traditional haroset is a mix of chopped apples, walnuts, cinnamon and sweet wine.  We eat it on matzah during the Seder and the eight days of Passover. There are harosets from all over the world and we often have haroset tastings from Surinam, Yemen, Italy or Persia at our Seders. About seven years ago, a Turkish exchange student lived with us so, of course, we needed Turkish haroset on our table.

For this delicious one, apples, dates, raisins and pistachios are chopped up together and flavored with orange zest and juice. The flavors are sweet, simple and refreshing. The original recipe calls for cooking the haroset until the apples soften, but I prefer to keep it raw for the crunchy freshness.

During the Seder we look back and remember the story of Passover and then look forward to what’s ahead (the Seder ends by saying “Next year in Jerusalem”).  I’ve moved to a place where I’m finding meaning in the quiet and physical beauty and diving into new opportunities. Moving forward and back, layering the new on old and feeling gratitude.

Haroset from Turkey
Adapted from The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden

2 sweet apples, peeled and chopped into small pieces
½ pound dates, pitted and roughly chopped
1 cup raisins (I use golden)
Juice and grated zest of 1 orange
2 ounces pistachios (or walnuts)

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it forms a rough mixture. You can process until it becomes a paste, too, if you prefer. Serve in a bowl with matzah or chill in the fridge until ready to eat.

Tomatoes and a New Year

This month we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and it gave me a chance to pause and think.

We have a simple custom on Rosh Hashanah called tashlich where we cast pieces of bread, symbolizing our sins of the past year, into a moving body of water. I love it. Tossing the bread into the river and watching it lazily float away clears my mind in such a tangible way. The past year drifts away and I’m left feeling calm and ready to just be in the moment and appreciate something simple. Like a tomato.

It’s mid-October already, but we still have tomatoes at the market alongside apples and squash. We’re in that glorious time of overlapping seasons. Our neighbors had an abundance of tomatoes from their garden and generously shared them.  I love neighbors.

While standing over the sink with a salt shaker in one hand and a juicy red tomato dripping in the other, I thought about what elaborate soup or sauce I could make with them. But then I tasted their sweetness. Rosh Hashanah is about sweetness, whether in food, family, friendships or new beginnings. Tomatoes are not your classic food for Rosh Hashanah (we traditionally dip apples in honey) but they are certainly sweet and become even more so when slow roasted.

Really, when roasted they’re like candy and I gobble them up. And they couldn’t be simpler to make. Slice the tomatoes, lay them on a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, pop them in a low oven and wait for the magic.

The long, slow heat coaxes a rich, caramelized taste from the tomatoes and intensifies their tomato-ey flavor, filling your house with a heavenly scent. You can pull them from the oven when they’re still a little juicy and plump, or let them keep on roasting until quite dry and crinkly. You really can’t go wrong.

If you don’t eat them all off the baking pan (believe me, easy to do), these little gems freeze well for nibbling in January or keep in olive oil in the fridge. So if you’re lucky enough to still have some tomatoes left I recommend turning your oven on.

So simple it is. I guess I’m ready to say I’ve let go of summer and am well into fall, with its stunning blue sky, vibrant explosions of yellow and gold leaves and frosty nights (and snow in the mountains!). No great insights. Just a tomato. But the beginning of the year 5777 has been lovely, filled with sweetness and promise and I can truly say I’m content.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

3 1/2 pounds Roma tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise (or enough halves to fit on a rimmed baking sheet)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt to taste

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Place the tomato halves in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, cut side up. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Roast the tomatoes for about 6 hours and up to 8, depending upon how juicy or dry you prefer them. They will shrink and start to crinkle around the edges. I like both the juicy and drier ones and will often remove some of the tomatoes after 6 hours and continue roasting the rest for another couple. The tomato flavor concentrates and sweetens and is just delicious.

Cool tomatoes and begin eating! Roasted tomatoes will keep well in olive oil in the fridge or can be frozen.

Tiger Butter

Hooray, spring is here! Today I sat in the sun and felt hot. As in summer time hot. Come July I may not be as excited about sizzling outside, but right now I’m gleeful. The flip flops are on and they’re not coming off. The snow is disappearing rapidly and as it melts I’m discovering rhubarb and irises and can’t wait to see what else emerges from the ground. Now I’m eager to figure out what kinds of flowers I can plant that won’t be gobbled up by the deer. Suggestions?

Bob and I finished yet another house project and built wooden floor-to-ceiling bookcases. I must say that unpacking all our boxes of books was incredibly fun and, more than anything, filling the new shelves with them has made our house really feel like home.

Also making me very happy…Sam and Isaac were just home on spring break and it was a super relaxing time - lots of cooking (General Tso’s Chicken! rhubarb shortcake!), Scrabble, movies, talking, and since it was Purim there was hamentaschen baking and hamentaschen eating. As much as I miss the boys, it is pure pleasure to see them flourishing and enjoying life in school. I also learned that the hours (and hours) of my blasting ABBA while they were growing up seeped into Isaac’s subconscious and now he listens while studying. Good taste, I say.

After Sam and Isaac returned to school I began thinking about treats I can send and Tiger Butter came to mind. I first learned about Tiger Butter back in my college days when Bob and I worked at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. We made all sorts of confections in the shop such as divinity, caramel apples, truffles, raspberry chocolate puddles and nut clusters. A vat of warm chocolate was always swirling, ready for dipping strawberries, pretzels or graham crackers. Pretty heavenly, especially as a hungry college student. It’s embarrassing how much I ate on the job. And, ahem, gave out to my friends.

So about this Tiger Butter. It’s a simple, fudge-like sweet with only three ingredients. Creamy peanut butter is stirred into melted white chocolate and then dark chocolate is drizzled and swirled on top to make the tiger stripes. After it firms up, you slice and indulge. Rich and addictive, I guarantee it will disappear quickly. Just like the melting snow!

Tiger Butter
8x8 pan

16 ounces white chocolate, roughly chopped
1 cup creamy peanut butter
6 ounces dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Line an 8x8 pan with foil and set aside. In a medium sized saucepan, warm the white chocolate over low heat and stir until it melts and is smooth. Gently stir in the peanut butter until well mixed. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth it. In a small saucepan, melt the dark chocolate over low heat and then drizzle it in stripes over the peanut butter. Using a butter knife, lightly swirl the chocolate to create additional stripes. Pop the pan in the fridge and let it chill for about an hour. Remove the tiger butter from the pan by lifting out the foil lining. Cut into small pieces and serve. The tiger butter will keep for a week in a sealed container.

Chinese Long Beans and Tofu with Fragrant Coconut Sauce

Happy 2016! It’s been a long time. I know, I disappeared from this blog and have been pondering why. I looked back at my last post months ago and it was a such different time…since that time Isaac graduated high school, we moved to a new house and then evacuated a few weeks later due to wildfires, we brought a new puppy into our lives and said goodbye to our 18 year old dog, Sam and Isaac left for college, Aspen Grove has been busier than ever and I am in the process of finding a new balance and rhythm to life.

Process. Evolving, changing and embracing new.  The biggest change by far has been sending both boys off to college. I knew it would be hard, but it was harder than I expected. So there’s been a lot of process. I thought I had prepared well, and I did in many ways, but when I’m totally honest with myself I’m just not ready to be at this stage of parenting and life yet. It arrived too quickly. Admitting this is a bit of a relief, since I was pushing myself to be in a place I’m not. That’s ok. I know I’ll get there and in the meantime I need to be kind to myself and be realistic.

As I think about a new year I think it’s time to think about the blog and where I am now.  When I started it almost five years ago, I was writing as a mom with kids at home, about what I cooked for my family and friends in Seattle and the ways we celebrated Jewish holidays. When we moved to the Methow Valley, the plan was stay a year and then return to Seattle. But we started to take root.  I didn’t write as much here since I often felt like I didn’t know which end was up.  I mean, here we were living in a tiny cabin high above the valley, a dramatic change from life in the city. At times I had to ask, “What the hell am I doing?” Talk about leaping before you look. Life here is raw and inconvenient but richer and more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. And the roots grew deeper. I am a different person now. I’m more willing to take risks, to be bold and to say yes.  I’m excited for this new year. I have new ideas for the store, new things I want to learn (skate skiing and hunting for starters) and new opportunities for community involvement. And, of course, new things to cook.

Asian food has been topping my list lately. I really miss going out for sushi, hot and sour soup and pad Thai noodles. Whenever I’m back in Seattle, I stop at the local Asian market to pick up something to cook at home.  There’s a lot of home cooking here in the valley. We don’t have any Asian restaurants and no home delivery. If you want it, you have to make it. I’m good with that.

On one of these visits back to Seattle, Japanese sweet potatoes and Chinese long beans were my finds. Japanese sweet potatoes have a drier, firmer flesh and nuttier flavor than the more familiar orange sweet potatoes. Chinese long beans are indeed very long and stay nicely crisp when sautéed on high heat. I decided a simple dish combining these veggies with a flavorful sauce would be an ideal cozy dish for our snowy nights.

I created this spicy coconut sauce several years ago. The recipe slipped to the back of my ever growing folder of scribbles, but in a recent burst of purging I discovered it and pulled it out. Some of my favorite flavors are in this one…ginger, fennel, garlic and shallots with some brown sugar and cinnamon to add warmth.

The sauce needs to simmer for about half an hour, which gives you time to steam the potatoes and prep the beans. I tossed in some tofu but you could also add chicken or beef. Once the sauce is ready, you need only saute the beans quickly, add the potatoes and tofu and then pour the sauce over. As I’m writing this I’m thinking a handful of roasted peanuts would be a nice touch, too.

Over winter break, with Sam and Isaac home (hooray!), I’m happy to say I made some other Asian dinners - Bulgogi beef and pad Thai noodles. And, since there’s no Chinese food or movie theaters here for the usual Jewish outing on Christmas day, we made Kung Pao chicken and streamed a movie at home.

The past year has been emotional and wild and wonderful. I feel deeply rooted now in this valley with incredible people and breathtaking beauty everywhere I turn. My boys are launched and happy and now it’s about Bob and me, in our house on the river, with our dogs, entering a new year and new chapter together. I don’t know what’s next but I’m alive and grateful to be here.

Chinese Long Beans and Tofu with Fragrant Coconut Sauce
Serves 4

Grape seed or other neutral oil
1 big bunch (about 1 pound) Chinese long beans, cut in 1 inch slices
2 medium Japanese or orange fleshed sweet potatoes (1 ½ pounds total), steamed until soft but not mushy and cut into 1 inch cubes (I leave them unpeeled)
1 pound firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
Fragrant Coconut Sauce (recipe follows)

In a wok or large skillet, warm a drizzle of oil over medium high heat. Add the beans and stir until they are lightly cooked but still firm, about 7 minutes. Add the cubed sweet potatoes and tofu and gently stir to combine. Pour the coconut sauce over and heat everything together until warm. Spoon into bowls and serve.

Fragrant Coconut Sauce

1 can full fat coconut milk
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons chopped ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
½ lemon, squeezed for juice
2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce or sriracha
½ cup sliced shallots
1 clove garlic, chopped

Combine all of the ingredients in a large sauce pan and bring to simmer. Stir and let simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the solids in a fine meshed sieve over a bowl. Discard the solids and set the sauce aside to use.

Winter Salad with Cumin Vinaigrette

And just like that, it is February. Winter is slipping by and when I’m not in the store I’m enjoying every snowy moment I can outside. I do think it may be my favorite season in the Methow Valley. But then I’ve said the same about spring, summer and fall.

With the snow and skiing comes some richly satisfying meals of long simmered stews and roasts. At the same time, I do start craving fresh, lighter flavors around about now, which fortunately coincides nicely with the abundance of citrus that pops up in the markets.

We are kicking off a new year in our Tasting Jerusalem group and cooking with cumin (Beth shares some terrific background on the history of cumin here). I tend to use cumin with meat, but with all the Cara Cara and blood oranges, limes and Meyer lemons piling up on my kitchen counter I couldn’t help but wonder how cumin pairs with citrus. I was optimistic as cumin is so versatile.

Not much to it here: I started mixing up a simple vinaigrette and, rather than my usual lemon, I squeezed a lime. I added a generous scoop of cumin along with olive oil and salt and gave the jar a good shake.

I then set about combining all the flavors and textures I am craving: crunchy romaine, soft avocado, sharp red onion, sweet oranges and puckery Meyer lemons. A drizzle of the cumin vinaigrette and voila! We started eating our wintery salad.

My optimism paid off. Cumin’s distinctive, warm, earthy flavor really came through and balanced the bright, citrusy flavors of the salad beautifully. It was a deeply satisfying salad that seemed to bridge the gap between the snowy winter outside and the piles of citrus inside. What a special time of year.

Winter Salad with Cumin Vinaigrette

These are the ingredients I used to create a salad with some punchy flavors and textures – feel free to use any citrus or other produce that is in season. I think some pomegranate arils would be delicious, too.

Romaine or other crunchy lettuce, roughly chopped
Baby greens such as spinach or kale
Red onion, finely chopped
Avocado, diced
Meyer lemon, finely chopped (including peel)
Cara Cara oranges, peeled and thinly sliced
Blood oranges, peeled and thinly sliced
Cumin Vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Assemble your greens and remaining ingredients on a platter or individual plates. Drizzle with cumin vinaigrette and serve.

Cumin Vinaigrette
Makes ½ cup

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (roughly 2 large limes)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Combine all ingredients in a small jar with a cover and shake until well mixed. The dressing can be kept in the refrigerator for a week.

This recipe has been shared on the 28 Days of Salad Project which you can check out here.

Mushroom and Cherry Beef Stew

With the arrival of a new year, I have been reflecting a lot. I am coming up on the first anniversary of owning the store, soon it will be two years since we moved to the Valley and 2015 has always hovered in the distant future as the year my youngest, Isaac, graduates from high school. And now it’s 2015. Whew! These past couple of years have been a journey and we are still in the midst of it. I’m excited to see what discoveries this year will bring.

For now, though, I want to share a winter stew with you. This is one I’ve been making for years and I can’t believe I haven’t shared it yet. While it’s fun to try new recipes, having a repertoire of tried and true staples is important. It’s comforting to create a familiar dish, to slip into the quiet rhythm of cooking and relax. This gives me time to ponder the recurring theme of “how did I get to this stage of parenting so quickly?” while I cube beef and slice onions.

This beef stew is a little different than more traditional stews with potatoes and carrots. Chunks of beef are simmered in red wine and beef broth along with earthy mushrooms, tart dried cherries, cinnamon and allspice. As the stew cooks, the cozy scent of warm, fragrant spices fills the kitchen.

Recently I learned about making beef bone broth and what a revelation! Instead of cooking the bones for an hour or two as I had done in the past, the bones are first roasted and then simmered for twelve to eighteen hours, yielding the richest, most nutrient-dense broth possible. After chilling the broth, I skim the fat and save it for cooking and then freeze the broth in jars. If you have access to homemade bone broth, please use it in this stew.

After cooking for a few hours, the beef is meltingly tender and it’s hard to stop taking little tastes. Like most stews, the flavor improves as it sits and is even better if you prepare it a day ahead (making it a terrific dish for guests). I find that cooking and eating a familiar dish like this one grounds me and is a constant during this time of transition. I’m happy to settle in with a savory bowl and just be.

Mushroom and Cherry Beef Stew
Serves 6-8
Adapted from Simply Classic by Kay Baxter and Lucy Bauer Footlik

3 pounds boneless beef chuck, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 tablespoons rice flour (can also use all-purpose flour)
1 ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon allspice
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons vegetable oil or beef fat
2 medium onions, cut in half and thinly sliced
4 ounces dried tart cherries
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup good quality beef broth
1 pound mushrooms, quartered

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, salt, allspice, cinnamon and pepper in a large bowl and stir to combine. Add the beef cubes and gently toss to coat them. Add a tablespoon of fat or oil to a Dutch oven and heat it over medium-high heat. Add a 1/3 of the beef and brown it on all sides (about 5 minutes). Remove it to a large bowl and repeat with the remaining meat in two batches, adding a tablespoon of oil each time.

Reduce the heat, add the remaining oil, onions and cherries. Cook until the onions are soft and beginning to brown. Stir often and mix in the sugar, vinegar, wine, broth and mushrooms. Return the beef to the Dutch oven and mix everything together. Cover the Dutch oven and bake for 2 ½ hours, until the beef is very tender. Remove the lid and bake for 15 minutes to thicken the stew a little. If it seems a bit dry you can add a bit of broth or red wine, but I haven’t had this happen. Using a wooden spoon, gently mash some of the beef chunks against the side of the pan and stir in. Taste for salt and set aside to cool. If serving that day, you can reheat the stew covered in the oven or over low heat on the stove top. Or, cover and refrigerate it until ready to serve. Reheat it (covered) in a low oven or on low heat on the stove top.

Dukkah-Spiced Carrot Latkes

A cozy season has arrived and we are blanketed in snow. Winter came roaring into the Valley unexpectedly a couple of days before Thanksgiving. Instead of the predicted rain, two feet of snow fell – heavy, wet and fast – and we had some adventures, including hiking in the dark up to our cabin when the car got stuck, a power outage and a tree falling over our road and blocking us in.  I woke the morning after to this view out our kitchen window.

I discovered that losing electricity in the winter is a little easier than the summer since we can melt snow for water and use a snowbank as a refrigerator if we don’t feel like pulling the generator out. I didn’t bake the pies I planned for Thanksgiving, but Sam made it home (hiking the last portion of the journey!) and we were all together, for which I was very thankful. Living here, I am continually learning to adapt and adjust my plans and expectations as I never know what will happen. So now in addition to snow tires and sandbags, we have headlamps and snowshoes in our cars and a chainsaw for fallen trees.  And we’ll keep shoveling!

The snow signaled the start of a festive season and December has quickly become a happy blur of busy days in the store, school concerts, gathering with friends and making holiday treats.  We are well into celebrating the eight days of Hanukkah and before the holiday ends I wanted to share some new latkes I made.

Latkes are small vegetable pancakes that are fried in oil and eaten during Hanukkah. Potatoes are the traditional vegetable to make them with but really, if you can grate it you can make a latke out of it, so zucchini, sweet potatoes, parsnips and even apples appear in latke form, too. With eight days of latke eating, it’s fun to try different varieties!

This year I made some with carrots and seasoned them with dukkah, the ingredient we are cooking with this month in our Tasting Jerusalem group. Dukkah is an Egyptian spice blend that is popular in the Middle East. The mixes may contain nuts, dried chickpeas, seeds and spices, and they all involve freshly roasting and pounding the ingredients. There are many variations and I’ve shared my own recipe here on Eating Rules, which includes almonds, sesame seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and salt.

After grating the carrots, I mixed in eggs, green onions, rice flour and a generous scoop of dukkah.  I heated oil (the main ingredient in Hanukkah cooking!) and fried small patties until they were golden and smelled fragrant.

I served with them with thick, plain yogurt and a pinch of dukkah and we devoured them. The latkes were crispy outside and soft inside, and the warm, earthy flavor of the dukkah blended nicely with the carrots and creamy yogurt.  A true Hanukkah treat!

Wishing you a very happy holiday season!

Dukkah-Spiced Carrot Latkes
Makes 8 latkes

1 pound carrots, scrubbed and grated (no need to peel them)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup green onions, finely diced
2 tablespoons rice flour (can substitute all-purpose flour)
2 tablespoons dukkah (recipe here)
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying
Plain yogurt for serving

In a large bowl, combine the carrots, eggs, onions, flour and dukkah and gently stir. Add some salt and pepper and taste. If you use salt in your dukkah mix you may not need anymore.

Line a plate with paper towels to transfer your latkes to when they are fried.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and pour enough oil to cover the bottom. When the oil is hot, add ¼ cup scoops of the latke mixture to the pan (I fried 4 at a time) and lightly press each to form small pancakes. Fry for a few minutes and when golden on the bottom and gently flip to fry the other side for a few minutes.

Remove the latkes from the pan and drain them on the paper towel lined plate (there won’t be a lot of oil, but you want to remove any excess so they don’t get soggy). Fry the remaining latkes and drain them.

Serve hot with dollops of thick yogurt.