Sunday with Marlena Spieler

The sweet crispness of watermelon combined with salty feta cheese, a dash of cumin, lemon juice, salt and pepper takes this fruit to a whole new level.I was very skeptical about this salad and was in for a pleasant surprise.

This salad really needs no recipe.

• Cut half a watermelon into wedges.
• In a small bowl, whisk  a teaspoon of vinegar, ½ tsp of extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, ½ a tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp of cumin powder . Drizzle over watermelon
• Crumble feta cheese over and if you have some roasted pumpkin seeds, sprinkle a few and serve chilled.

Try this salad and you will definitely want more. Make sure you use good quality olive oil for this salad. I am coming almost to the end of cooking my way through Marlena ‘s cookbook, next Sunday will be the last of the two recipes.

Eileen and Mel have something special for you as well

Sunday with Marlena Spieler

While I love to make most dishes from scratch, there are a few that I just rather buy from the grocery store. Tahini sauce is one of them, so why this post? Marlena, add a bit of a kick to the store bought Tahini sauce.

Tahini Sauce – ½ cup

Water – 2 T

Lemon Juice – ½ tsp

Garlic – 1, finely minced

Cumin powder – ¼ tsp

Olive oil – 1 tsp

Red chillies – ¼ tsp or to taste

Chopped parsley – ¼ tsp, optional

• Whisk the tahini sauce with water until smooth and well incorporated.
• In a small bowl, mix lemon juice, garlic and cumin powder. Pour that over the sauce and fold it well.
• Drizzle olive oil over the sauce and garnish with chillies and chopped parsley. ( we used  chopped jalapenos on oil)

Drizzle this over your salad, falafel or just a dipping sauce for pitas chips. Eileen has used tahini sauce in her recipe today and Mel has some tasty looking chicken and deep dried artichokes. YUM!

Sunday with Marlena Spieler

There are days when I just don’t want to cook, don’t want to go out, but yet eat something fresh and delicious. I am sure you all go through that every once in a while. This weekend was just that.  After my cooking class, I like to browse through the aisles at Sacramento Co-op, they have incredibly fresh produce .  The first that that I eyed was baby artichokes, they looked simply cute.

All I wanted was a snack for lunch and this baby came in handy. Marlena in her recipe uses onions as well, like I said I did not want to do any of that , it is beautiful  outside J.

Baby Artichoke – 1

Water – to cook the artichoke

Lemon juice – 1 T

Extra Virgin olive oil – 1 tsp

Garlic – 1 pod, thinly sliced

White wine – 2 T

Parsley – 1 tsp, chopped

Salt & pepper to taste

• Prepare the artichoke, by snapping off the tough leaves.
• Cut the artichoke in to 4 pieces
• Heat water in a saucepan with lemon juice and salt.
• Cook the artichokes until tender and drain.
• Heat a sauté with olive oil, and when the oil is hot, sauté the garlic for 10 seconds.
• Add white wine and artichokes and cook until the wine is absorbed
• Season with salt and pepper, garnish with parsley and serve
• PS: I drizzled a  little bit of meyer lemon olive  on the top.

Check Eileen and Mel’s blog, they have cooked up some delicious food.

Sunday with Marlena Spieler

Horef in Hebrew roughly translates to hot peppers. The peppers we used were not so hot, bell peppers simmered with green chilli, garlic, tomatoes and a few spices. A very simple condiment to put together and like Marelena says, you can have this dish with chicken, over rice or like we did with bread.

Olive oil – 1 T

Red Bell pepper – 1, thinly sliced

Garlic – 3 cloves, minced

Ginger – ½ tsp, minced

Serrano pepper – 1, thinly sliced

Tomato – 2, roughly chopped

Garam Masala – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

• Heat oil in a sauté pan and when the oil is hot, add the garlic, bell pepper and Serrano chilies.
• Saute on medium high heat for roughly 6-7 minutes
• Add garam masala, tomatoes , ginger and salt.
• Cook until the tomatoes have softened.
• Check for seasonings and adjust to taste.
• Serve at room temperature.

The recipe called for curry powder, but we did not have any at home, so we used garam masala instead. Serve this French bread , they are simply made for each other. This can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

Mel and Eileen have simple recipes to share with you as well, so hop on to their blogs!

Sunday with Marlena Spieler

Cholent is a long simmered dish with beans, grain, meat, vegetables and seasonings. A healthy and yet tasty soup like dish in a bowl. This is a Shabbat dish, a day that no cooking is done in the kitchen. Cholent is put together on Friday and allowed so simmer overnight, such that it is ready for lunch on Saturday after one comes from the synagogue, the house will be filled with the aroma of the dish being simmered. I decided to use a slow cooker for this recipe and also substitute chicken for beef.  On reading the history of cholent, we found that it was traditionally made with garbanzo beans, barley, chicken and vegetables. Here is my version

Oil – 1 T

Onions – 1 cup, chopped

Garlic – 10 cloves, minced

Chicken thighs – 1 lb

Garbanzo beans – 1 cup, dry soaked overnight

Barley – ½ cup

Wild rice – ½ cup

Red Potato – 2 , each chopped in 4

Celery – 3 sticks, cut in large chunks

Carrot – 2, peeled and cut in rounds

Tomato – 14 oz can, chopped tomatoes

Paprika – 1 T

Cayenne- 1 T or to taste

Salt & Pepper to taste

Water- 4- 5 cups

• Heat a skillet with oil and saute the onions until it translucent and add garlic and cook for 30 – 45 seconds
• Rinse the garbanzo beans before adding it to the slow cooker
• Transfer to a slow cooker and add the rest of the ingredients and give it a stir.
• Set the slow cooker on high for an hour and then change the setting to low and let it cook for 6-8 hours.
• Check for seasonings and serve

Please check what Mel & Eileen have for us.

Variations: You can add fresh herbs right in the end.

Add a dash of ground cumin before you serve.

Sunday with Marlena Spieler

We have not had mushroom stroganoff before or at least I don’t recollect having something like this before. We enjoyed this rich and creamy sauce over our whole wheat pasta. We had to have something healthy to make ourselves feel less guilty while indulging in such a luscious sauce.

We can easily make this dish with variety of mushrooms, but we only had the button mushrooms on hand.  We will definitely be making this dish for parties and other special occasions. We both enjoyed it over pasta and the left over’s tasted even better the next day.

Butter – 2 T

Button mushrooms – 2 cups, sliced

Garlic – 1 T, minced

Onion – 1 cup, chopped

Flour – 2 T

Heavy cream – ½ cup

White wine – ¼ cup (I am sure R added more when I was not watching)

Milk – 1 cup approx

Dried basil – ¼ tsp

Nutmeg – a small pinch, freshly grated

Lemon juice – ¼ tsp

Salt & pepper to taste

Parsley for garnish

• Melt butter in a pan; add mushrooms, onions and garlic and sauté until brown.
• Sprinkle flour and sauté on medium low until the raw aroma of the flour goes away and you get a nice aroma
• Gradually add the cream and wine and stir constantly
• The sauce will begin to thicken, add the desired amount of milk to thin down the sauce as much as you like
• Stir in the dried basil, nutmeg, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
• Allow the sauce to simmer for at least 6-8 minutes on medium low
• Check for seasonings and adjust according to taste
• Garnish with parsley and serve over brown rice or pasta.

Mel & Eileen always have tasty treats for us, go check their blogs out.

I submit this dish to Ruth for Presto Pasta nights.

Sunday with Marlena Spieler

I have heard a lot of folks mention that they do not like beetroot and always wonder why? I love beetroot salads, beetroot halwa and beetroot steamed and seasoned with mustard seeds and a tiny bit of coconut. This recipe is a lot different from what I am used to and was surprised at how delicious it tastes with simple ingredients that you will most definitely have at home. We used pomegranate flavored balsamic vinegar for this salad.

Beetroot – 4

Balsamic Vinegar – ½ tsp

Olive oil – ½ tsp

Mint Leaves – 3 T, cut thinly

Salt & pepper to taste

• Cut the beetroot in half and steam for about 20 minutes.
• Peel and cut into small dice.
• In a small bowl, whisk  balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper
• Pour the dressing over the beetroot and mix it well.
• Garnish with mint leaves and serve chilled.

If you want add a kick to this, you can finish with a dash of harissa. Mel has a recipe for harissa. Eileen also  has an awesome salad.

Ashkenazi Charoset for Passover Seder is simple dish that can be eaten as a snack  or as a part of the meal over matzos.This is made apples, nuts, wine, sugar and cinnamon. And why cant I stop reaching for things not mentioned in the recipe? I am not sure, but I did love the addition of raisins.

Apple – 1 cup, grated with the peel

Walnuts – ¼ cup, roughly chopped

Honey – 1 T

Red Wine – 1 T

Ground cinnamon – less than 1/8^th of a tsp

Raisins – 1 T

• Grate apples , chop walnuts and place in a bowl.
• Drizzle honey and red wine over the apples
• Add ground cinnamon and raisins and mix well

The juiciness of the apples with crunch from the walnuts makes this extra tasty. This can had as is, I might even like it in on my oatmeal.

Check out Eileen and Mel’s offerings this Sunday.

Sunday with Marlena Spieler

Honey cake, just the name wants you to want to trying baking it at home. The house smells great, folks at home are happy and when you take the first bite, you are in blissful honey land. With every bite, you get the flavors all coming together~Ginger, honey , orange juice and ground cardamom. Yes, you heard me right, I used cardamom instead of apple spice that the recipe asked for and what I particularly liked was that the cake did not need butter.

Growing up, we did not have an oven like we do here. My mom would place sand in a pressure cooker and bake cookies for us. Then I remember a small movable round oven that would appear  every once in a while from the attic. If I am right, I think amma could only bake a dozen cookies at a time. I am sure she will be surprised when she sees the size of the oven we have.

Coming back to the recipe, honey cake is traditionally baked during Rosh Hashanah- when sweet foods are eaten  to welcome the New Year. I will eat the cake to welcome a new day everyday to come up with an excuse to eat this wonderful cake. It is not time consuming at all.

All Purpose Flour – 1.5 cups

Sugar – 1/3 cup

Ground ginger – ½ tsp

Ground cinnamon – ½ tsp

Ground cardamom – 1 tsp

Baking soda – 1 tsp

Orange blossom honey – 1 cup

Vegetable oil – 4 T

Orange zest – 1 T

Eggs – 2

Orange juice – ¼ cup

Fresh Ginger – 1 tsp, minced

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients.
• Make a small well and pour honey, oil, orange zest, eggs, orange juice and ginger.
• Whisk until smooth
• Grease the baking pan and pour the cake mixture and bake for about 20 minutes or until firm to the touch.
• Cool and if you can resist the temptation, store in foil for 2-3 days at room temperature before serving.
• This allows the flavors to all pop when you bite into the cake.

We baked the cake on Thursday and it tastes even better today than when we first tasted it warm.

Eileen has another honey cake on her blog and Mel has very tempting looking fritters.

Sunday with Marlena Spieler

Pickled/Preserved lemons are a big part of our culture.  It is made in a myriad of ways. Lemons are chopped up and preserved in plain salted water  or we add a few spices to it as well. We have been making Manisha’s lemon pickles for the past few years and we were proud to feature it at the Slow Food Nation two years ago. After which, Lynn gave me a jar of preserved lemons which was fantastic.  We just rinsed and ate them.

This week was extremely busy and we hardly cooked. When Eileen dropped by to see me at my cooking class, she brought some home grown Meyer Lemons, we were inspired to make some preserved lemons. They are so easy to make that it does not call for a recipe. Marlena’s recipe is even simpler than this one, simply salt, lemon juice and some boiling water. What can one do, if the hand has a mind of its own and starts throwing a few spices into the bottle?

Lemons – 6-8

Cardamom – 4

Cloves – one to two studded in each lemon

Cinnamon – 1 small stick

Fenugreek Seeds – ¼ tsp

Whole Black Pepper – 1 tsp

Fennel seeds – ¼ tsp

Lemon juice – 2 T

Sea Salt – roughly ¾ cup

Place a thin layer of salt in the bottom of a clean jar

• Wash and clean the lemons thoroughly
• Cut the ends of the lemons and start cutting a cross into the lemons, but don’t go all the way through
• Pack salt into the lemons and you can pierce a clove or two on the sides of each lemon and place it in the bottle.
• Finish by drizzling lemon juice on top and all the spices.

You can start using the lemon in roughly 20 – 30 days, Store it in a cool dark corner of your pantry, It can be used in salads, flavoring rice, in a lot of Moroccan dishes or like us eat it as is.

Eileen had made some Doro Wat and Mel some awesome looking Chicken. Go take a look!! We just realized we don’t have a pickles category on our website Hmm, we have to make some pickles this year!