It's that time of year. Jewish life becomes very intense, the meals planned and eaten numerous. The risk is that you can cook and cook and overwhelm people with way too much food they do not really want.
Planning this coming week was not was not easy but it all feels so much more do-able now I know what I am doing. So with no further ado...
Rosh Hashannah First Night
Vegetable Soup-Chop and boil and make enough for 2 nights-simples.
Spelt Challah-for the delicate stomachs in my family
Eggplant casserole-An old favourite that my daughter thinks tastes great but looks like vomit.
Red cabbage coleslaw-The cranberries make this
Mixed roast vegetables
Courgettes and tomatoes
Rosh Hashannah Second Night
Vegetable Soup
Spelt Challah
Spinach Risotto Pie
Grilled Baby Vegetables
Avocado with pesto and mixed leaves
Shabbat
Challah-back to wheat flour!
Tomato and roast pepper soup
Spinach Lasagne
Feta with sundried tomatoes and rocket
Sweet potato roasted with sage and rosemary-I cannot stress enough how glad I am that I have grown herbs
Lemon Meringue Pie-easy easy NZ recipe
The rest of the week
Quorn sausage pie-with baked beans. Slob comfort food
Baked mixed vegetable casserole
Risotto wit peas and basil.
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Monday, 19 September 2011
We do Vegan!
My daughter and I are very cynical about food intolerances and even more so food allergies. Only now she has found that her health is so much better when she does not eat dairy or wheat. My husband does not do meat and in this Jewish home this means we have a minimal and hardly used meaty set of dishes. I guess meat cooking does not come into our conciousness.
This means the vegan menu.
1. Sushi- ironically the easiest and nicest recipe comes from a 1980's Alison Holst cookbook. Who is Alison Holst you ask? Only the Goddess of NZ cooking She uses basic ingredients and the recipes are easy. Check her out on Amazon.
2. Risotto with courgettes and suundried tomato
3. Aubergine and tahini served with roasted veges and salad
4. Mushroom, green bean and chilli stir fry.
Shabbat
Challah
Spelt Bread
Lemon Couscous cake
Tomato Pepper soup
Potato Tortino
Mushrooms stuffed with spinach
Sweet and sour cabbage with kidney beans
Roast carrots with cabbage and sage
Hint of the week: Buy a new cookbook every now and again.
We all need a boost in our kitchen especially when our dietary needs (or those of the people we live with) change and a well written cook book can really help.
Vegan Italiano has really helped me to do the vegan thing. Though I must admit it was not bought but borrowed from a friend. Your friend has a battered grubby cookbook? Study it carefully there is probably a good reason it is used so much. My friend Rose described her Grandmother's battered old Good Housekeeping Cookbook that when dropped automatically opened up on the chocolate cake page.
This means the vegan menu.
1. Sushi- ironically the easiest and nicest recipe comes from a 1980's Alison Holst cookbook. Who is Alison Holst you ask? Only the Goddess of NZ cooking She uses basic ingredients and the recipes are easy. Check her out on Amazon.
2. Risotto with courgettes and suundried tomato
3. Aubergine and tahini served with roasted veges and salad
4. Mushroom, green bean and chilli stir fry.
Shabbat
Challah
Spelt Bread
Lemon Couscous cake
Tomato Pepper soup
Potato Tortino
Mushrooms stuffed with spinach
Sweet and sour cabbage with kidney beans
Roast carrots with cabbage and sage
Hint of the week: Buy a new cookbook every now and again.
We all need a boost in our kitchen especially when our dietary needs (or those of the people we live with) change and a well written cook book can really help.
Vegan Italiano has really helped me to do the vegan thing. Though I must admit it was not bought but borrowed from a friend. Your friend has a battered grubby cookbook? Study it carefully there is probably a good reason it is used so much. My friend Rose described her Grandmother's battered old Good Housekeeping Cookbook that when dropped automatically opened up on the chocolate cake page.
Monday, 12 September 2011
Welcome to my new food blog.
As a nation we love to watch cooking shows but so many people (O.K lets be honest here women) I know find cooking stressful, a chore and a bore.
I love to cook for people. I love the dishes of food on the table and everyone tucking in. I love it when the conversation flows and people who normally would not eat together enjoy each other's company, the surreptitious third servings people help themselves too and the sense of having done a good thing when they all go home.
But I am no kitchen martyr. I do have other things in my life and after 22 years of marriage I feel I have got this cooking thing sorted.
I plan my meals. 4 weekday meals and a Shabbat meal. You can all count what happens the other 2 you ask. Motzei Shabbat is left overs or whatever. Wednesday I clean my house and then go to my knitting group-whoever is at home fend for themselves.
I want to make you understand what a good idea meal planning is.
You save a lot of money as you buy what you need.
You go to cook and yes you do have a lime and a fresh red chilli.
So each week I will post my menus and a little about why and my handy hint of the week.
So ...
Sue's Handy Hint of the Week
This is an incredibly useful kitchen tool. I had piles of recipes in a cupboard that never got used as it was all too much of a faff to go through them all. I spent a obsessive Sunday putting them all in this index card box and to this day I am glad I did so.These recipes come from everywhere from New Zealand supermarkets to Lubavitch Lunch and Learn sessions. Old cookbooks that I only kept for one or two useful recipes have been ditched and replaced with cards in the file. I consider this an important part of my children's legacy
This week's cooking.
Linguine with eggplant and peppers This is from a vegan Italian cookbook. The book is American-I really cannot imagine any Italian I have met being a vegan. But it is quick and easy and my daughter who bases her diet on pasta is at home.
Quorn balls with cheese sauce People the £3.00 I spent on the Quorn cookbook was worth every penny the recipes are easy and quick. It required bar codes from special Quorn packets and Tesco in their wisdom failed to deliver the right packets. I ended up in Waitrose taking down the appropriate bar code numbers. The staff politely ignored me.
Stir fry-Frozen stir fry veges, a quick omlete with soya sauce, rice cooked in the microwave and some cashews and a little fresh garden herbs. What's not to like.
Creole Jambalaya This is from of all things a Slimming World book. Again easy recipes and healthy as well
Shabbat
Challah I make Challah. I use a breadmaker. Even if the only thing I ever made was Challah at £1.25 a loaf it is worth buying a breadmaker for and home made bread really does make Friday night even more special
Lemon Cake This is fat free made with sweetener and couscous. It means we have something filling and sweet to munch on without the guilt
Orange and Carrot Soup This week this comes from the freezer. I made double of this when I had loads of carrots. I do feel the freezer is often an under utilised time management tool.
Salmon Nicose This week for the first time in ages Friday night will be me and my husband and we both love this somewhat luxurious salad which is an all in one meal. Somehow I only ever make this when it just we two (my kids fish intake is limited to tinned tuna) and it makes it all the more special
Mustard carrots Pop mustard seeds in some oil add sliced carrot and lemon peel. Don't rudh let them cook on a medium heat for a while easy and really nice.
Oriental Mushrooms I have no idea where this came from but I really love this one
Cook 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp ginger and a finely chopped carrot in 2 thsp oil for a minute. Add 450gm sliced chestnut mushrooms and cook for a further 4 minutes. Add 2 spring onions diagonally sliced and a finely sliced green pepper add 1 tbsp sesame oil and a tbsp soya sauce.
People use your oven timer and make sure that 4 minutes is four minutes.
Back next week
Sue
I love to cook for people. I love the dishes of food on the table and everyone tucking in. I love it when the conversation flows and people who normally would not eat together enjoy each other's company, the surreptitious third servings people help themselves too and the sense of having done a good thing when they all go home.
But I am no kitchen martyr. I do have other things in my life and after 22 years of marriage I feel I have got this cooking thing sorted.
I plan my meals. 4 weekday meals and a Shabbat meal. You can all count what happens the other 2 you ask. Motzei Shabbat is left overs or whatever. Wednesday I clean my house and then go to my knitting group-whoever is at home fend for themselves.
I want to make you understand what a good idea meal planning is.
You save a lot of money as you buy what you need.
You go to cook and yes you do have a lime and a fresh red chilli.
So each week I will post my menus and a little about why and my handy hint of the week.
So ...
Sue's Handy Hint of the Week
This week's cooking.
Linguine with eggplant and peppers This is from a vegan Italian cookbook. The book is American-I really cannot imagine any Italian I have met being a vegan. But it is quick and easy and my daughter who bases her diet on pasta is at home.
Quorn balls with cheese sauce People the £3.00 I spent on the Quorn cookbook was worth every penny the recipes are easy and quick. It required bar codes from special Quorn packets and Tesco in their wisdom failed to deliver the right packets. I ended up in Waitrose taking down the appropriate bar code numbers. The staff politely ignored me.
Stir fry-Frozen stir fry veges, a quick omlete with soya sauce, rice cooked in the microwave and some cashews and a little fresh garden herbs. What's not to like.
Creole Jambalaya This is from of all things a Slimming World book. Again easy recipes and healthy as well
Shabbat
Challah I make Challah. I use a breadmaker. Even if the only thing I ever made was Challah at £1.25 a loaf it is worth buying a breadmaker for and home made bread really does make Friday night even more special
Lemon Cake This is fat free made with sweetener and couscous. It means we have something filling and sweet to munch on without the guilt
Orange and Carrot Soup This week this comes from the freezer. I made double of this when I had loads of carrots. I do feel the freezer is often an under utilised time management tool.
Salmon Nicose This week for the first time in ages Friday night will be me and my husband and we both love this somewhat luxurious salad which is an all in one meal. Somehow I only ever make this when it just we two (my kids fish intake is limited to tinned tuna) and it makes it all the more special
Mustard carrots Pop mustard seeds in some oil add sliced carrot and lemon peel. Don't rudh let them cook on a medium heat for a while easy and really nice.
Oriental Mushrooms I have no idea where this came from but I really love this one
Cook 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp ginger and a finely chopped carrot in 2 thsp oil for a minute. Add 450gm sliced chestnut mushrooms and cook for a further 4 minutes. Add 2 spring onions diagonally sliced and a finely sliced green pepper add 1 tbsp sesame oil and a tbsp soya sauce.
People use your oven timer and make sure that 4 minutes is four minutes.
Back next week
Sue
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